Nov 112024
 
 November 11, 2024  Posted by at 9:54 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  84 Responses »


Pablo Picasso Massacre in Korea 1951

 

CNN Says Trump Victory Was So Massive He “Broke History” (ZH)
Was the 2024 Election Too Big to Rig? (AmG)
Trump’s Day One: A Look At His Opening Moves In The White House (Whedon)
RFK Jr. Could Pose Big Threat to Big Pharma If He Joins Trump’s Cabinet (Sp.)
Trump Says Haley, Pompeo Will Not Join White House (RT)
Zakharova Gives Credit to Trump for Admitting Sickness of US Society (Sp.)
Trump Calls Putin – WaPo (RT)
Trump-Putin Call Focuses On The Quick ‘Resolution Of Ukraine War’ (ZH)
Trump To Announce Ukraine Peace Terms Soon – Polish PM (RT)
Former NATO Commander Predicts How Ukraine Conflict Will End (RT)
Trump Jr. Trolls Zelensky (RT)
What to Expect From ‘Lame Duck’ Biden After Trump’s Win (Sp.)
Biden Racing To Pour Weaponry Into Ukraine – WSJ (RT)
Trump Could Impact the Supreme Court for Decades to Come (ET)
Can There Be an American-Russian Reset? (Paul Craig Roberts)

 

 

 

 

Day1
https://twitter.com/i/status/1855740314952339928

Rogan

They forced him
https://twitter.com/i/status/1855336384988627450

Call her daddy

Bannon

Legend

Vivek

 

 

 

 

“The party of joy failed to instil anyone with any. The political landscape has completely changed forever.”

CNN Says Trump Victory Was So Massive He “Broke History” (ZH)

President-elect Donald Trump has won Arizona, completing a sweep of all seven battleground in the 2024 election. The Associated Press called the race at 9:21 p.m. ET on Nov. 9. With this win, Trump’s total electoral college count moves to 312 to Vice President Kamala Harris’s 226. Trump was projected to win the election on the morning of Nov. 6. Harris conceded the race later the same day. As The Epoch Times’ John Haughey reports, Trump’s Arizona victory follows candidate Joe Biden’s upset win in the state in 2020, a 0.3-percent squeaker that marked the first time since Bill Clinton’s 1996 win that The Grand Canyon State had voted for a Democratic presidential candidate. In 2016, Trump won Arizona by 3.5 percentage points. Polls presaged the former president’s Arizona win. The FiveThirtyEight poll aggregate had Trump leading by 2.2 percentage points on Nov. 4.

Maricopa County, where 62 percent of the state’s 7.4 million residents, and more than half its 4.367 million voters, live, proved pivotal. Trump won the Phoenix-area vote CC to CC percent, according to the Maricopa County Elections Department. Trump fared better in the key county than in 2016 when he won it with less than 48 percent and in 2020 when he lost it with 47.65 percent, becoming the first GOP presidential candidate to lose Maricopa County in 72 years. As in Nevada, winning the Latino vote drives Arizona campaigns, especially in Maricopa County where one-third of voters are Hispanic, compared to less than 19 percent nationally. While many media declared Trump the winner of Arizona’s 11 Electoral College votes in the preceding days, the AP withheld doing so until all mail-in ballots had been counted. Reported results had not changed much for more than a day by late-afternoon Nov. 8.

On Nov. 7, the Arizona Secretary of State’s office added tens of thousands of votes to the tally, but said there were hundreds of thousands of ballots left to count, including nearly 500,000 in Maricopa County. Therefore, the presidential race and the U.S. Senate contest between Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) and Kari Lake remained too close to call by late afternoon Nov. 8. At 5 p.m. EST—2 p.m. PST—on Nov. 8, those numbers, largely frozen for more than a day, had Trump with 1.4 million votes, 52.5 percent of the total tally, to Harris’s 1.2 million votes, or 46.5 percent. Despite the president-elect’s 161,000 vote lead, a significant 6 percentage point advantage, since most Arizona voters cast ballots by mail, and counting typically takes days. the AP withheld the call until it was mathematically impossible for Harris to overcome Trump’s lead. Trump also dominated Harris in the popular vote with the vice president receiving around 10 million less votes than Biden did in 2020…

Additionally, as Modernity.news’ Steve Watson reports, CNN’s data analyst Harry Enten did a deep dive into the gains president Trump made with specific demographics in the election, highlighting how crushing they were for Democrats. The numbers are truly astounding, and incredibly bad for the party of ‘joy.’ Enten pointed out that Trump made the greatest improvements over a previous presidential election performance from the same party since 1992. “When was the last time a party gained in so many different places?” Enten asked, explaining that “You have to go all the way to back to 1992 when Bill Clinton improved on Michael Dukakis’ performance in 49 states, plus the District of Columbia.”

“Donald Trump’s performance on Tuesday was the best for a Republican presidential candidate in exit poll history,” Enten further urged, adding “He literally goes all the way back through history and breaks history.” Enten pointed to how Trump improved his party’s election performance in 49 states and Washington, D.C. over the 2020 election, with Washington state the single one where he didn’t do better. “You know, I think the breadth of the improvement that Donald Trump had – Holy Toledo!” Enten declared. Trump has the biggest mandate imaginable. The party of joy failed to instil anyone with any. The political landscape has completely changed forever.

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“Google still controls 90 percent of the search engine market in the United States. In 2024, Google employee political donations favored Democrats by a ratio of more than 6 to 1. Draw your own conclusions.”

Was the 2024 Election Too Big to Rig? (AmG)

David Muir earned particular enmity among people who just wanted fair news coverage during the debate between Trump and Harris, when, for example, Muir insisted on “fact-checking” Trump but left Harris alone. For example, Muir contradicted Trump’s assertion that crime rates had risen, and Muir was wrong. The data, as Trump attempted to explain, was missing statistics from California’s major cities. Once that data was added, Trump’s claim was proven accurate.

Just in the last few days we’ve had the big four broadcast news anchors telling us that Trump wanted to put Liz Cheney in front of a firing squad, wants reporters covering his rallies to get shot, “groped” a woman back in the 1990s, expressed “deeply troubling” admiration for Adolf Hitler, held a “Nazi rally,” and intended to use the military against “the enemy within,” along with endless distorted repetition of everything bad they’ve ever said about him. All of this “news” was either truth twisted beyond recognition or outright lies. Meanwhile, their coverage of Harris has been indistinguishable from a paid Harris campaign ad.

There’s no end to the legacy television news media’s war on Trump. It’s not subtle, and despite their dinosaur status, they still exercise decisive influence over millions of voters. For the 2024 season-to-date, ABC Nightly News has averaged 7.7 million viewers, NBC averaged 6.4 million, and CBS averaged 4.7 million. PBS is now a big player as well, with a regular viewership of more than 5 million. That’s nearly 25 million regular viewers, with an average age of 65, nearly all of them high-propensity voters, and very few of them likely to be perusing alternative media. Cable news, for all the visibility and big audiences for the hosted talk shows on their networks, doesn’t compare. Recent estimates for primetime viewers of Fox News have averaged 359,000, versus 175,000 for CNN and 160,000 for MSNBC. Cable news audiences are dwarfed by the audiences for broadcast news content, which is overwhelmingly anti-Trump and pro-Harris. Tens of millions of Americans have been thoroughly brainwashed by these networks. But what about social media and online searches?

Back in 2015, Robert Epstein, a research psychologist with the American Institute for Behavioral Research and Technology, published “The search engine manipulation effect (SEME) and its possible impact on the outcomes of elections.” Continuing his research, in testimony before the U.S. Congress in 2019, Epstein claimed that biased search results on Google “impacted undecided voters in a way that gave at least 2.6 million votes to Hillary Clinton.” Epstein’s studies are compelling reading, and very little has changed. Google still controls 90 percent of the search engine market in the United States. In 2024, Google employee political donations favored Democrats by a ratio of more than 6 to 1. Draw your own conclusions.

As for social media, much is made of Twitter’s transformation into X, with no more censorship. Twitter, or X, has 95 million users in America. That’s a lot. But in the United States, Facebook has 194 million users, Instagram has 166 million users, TikTok reaches 170 million people, LinkedIn connects 200 million, and YouTube’s regular US viewers number 246 million. As a neutral platform, X’s audience reach is exceeded by more than 10 to 1 by the other major online platforms. With the lone exception of X, every one of these platforms employs biased algorithms designed to suppress conservative content. As for print media, intervention by the owners of the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post to abstain from a presidential endorsement is too little, too late. Every newspaper and magazine with national reach, with the half-hearted exception perhaps of the Wall Street Journal, have been so anti-Trump and pro-Harris it is almost comical.

Social media, search engines, and legacy news media. In every facet of information gathering, the vast majority of Americans have been continuously exposed to anti-Trump, pro-Harris messages. None of this has been happening by accident. Michael Shellenberger, formerly a progressive liberal who was once honored as a Time Magazine “Environmental Hero,” has evolved into an investigative journalist of extraordinary integrity and courage. In recent years, his work has focused on what he has dubbed “the censorship industrial complex.” In a recent substack post, commenting on America’s news media from newspapers to television to online platforms, he had this to say, “It’s not a mirror of reality. It’s not just biased. And it’s not just deferential to the state or the party. It’s a propaganda arm dishonestly representing powerful political, ideological, and financial interests.”

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“..except for day one.” “We’re closing the border and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. Other than that I’m not gonna be a dictator,”

Trump’s Day One: A Look At His Opening Moves In The White House (Whedon)

President-elect Donald Trump made a multitude of “day one” promises throughout the campaign to begin work on an array of issues, setting himself up for an extremely busy first day back in office. Many of his promises involve reinstating past Executive Orders that the Biden administration rescinded, and some entail advancing initiatives such as energy production. Others involve planning for a year-long anniversary celebration for the nation’s 250th anniversary. Trump made headlines late last year during a Fox News forum with moderator Sean Hannity during which he promised that he would not abuse power or act as a dictator “except for day one.” “We’re closing the border and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. Other than that I’m not gonna be a dictator,” he quipped. His opponents took his quip literally, but in either event Trump’s day one promises extend beyond those two key issues. Here’s a look at what his first day in office may look like.

‘Salute to America 250’
One of Trump’s first planned moves is a relatively lighthearted and apolitical effort to celebrate a key milestone in American history. “On day one, I will convene a White House task force called ‘Salute to America 250,'” Trump declared this week. The task force will be responsible for organizing a year-long celebration to mark the 250th anniversary of American independence.” The celebration will run from Memorial Day 2025 to July 4, 2026 and include what he called the “Great American State Fair,” which will feature pavilions from each state in the Union. Trump also vowed to issue an Executive Order to build his planned garden of noteworthy Americans, which President Joe Biden canceled.

Mass deportations
A signature issue for Trump, the removal of illegal immigrants from the U.S. is expected to take priority. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has reported more than 10 million immigrant encounters under the Biden administration. Media outlets regularly cited an 11 million illegal immigrant figure prior to Trump’s first term and that the current number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. may exceed 20 million. “On day one, I will launch the largest deportation program of criminals in American history,” Trump declared during a recent rally in Reading, Pa. “We’re going to get them out.” He further cited Operation Wetback, a mass deportation effort during the Presidency of Dwight Eisenhower that removed millions of undocumented workers during the 1950s. That effort had the cooperation of the Mexican government, though it remains unclear whether Trump will be able to secure that nation’s help this time.

Mexican tariffs
To that end, he has planned a trade-based approach. During a recent rally, Trump promised he would demand that the President of Mexico work to shut down illegal border crossings or face a 25% tariff on all goods exported to the United States. “I’m going to inform her one day, one or sooner that if they don’t stop this onslaught of criminals and drugs coming into our country, I’m going to immediately impose a 25% tariff on everything they send in to the United States of America,” he said at a rally in North Carolina earlier this month. Throughout his campaign, Trump has often repeated his conversations with former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador during which he secured Mexico’s deployment of troops to secure the border through a similar trade-related threat.

Birthright citizenship
In May of last year, Trump promised to issue an Executive Order directing federal agencies to interpret federal law in a manner that would not grant birthright citizenship to the children of illegal aliens. “As part of my plan to secure the border on day one… I will sign an Executive Order making clear to federal agencies that under the correct interpretation of the law, going forward the future children of illegal aliens will not receive automatic U.S. citizenship,” he vowed. So-called “anchor babies” have been a longstanding issue in U.S. immigration policy and have complicated efforts to remove illegal immigrants whose children are considered U.S. citizens.

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“RFK is going to blow up. He’s marching around saying what he wants the administration to do before Trump’s had a chance to take a breath. Eventually Trump will sour on him..”

RFK Jr. Could Pose Big Threat to Big Pharma If He Joins Trump’s Cabinet (Sp.)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is primed for a possible senior job in Trump’s White House, promising to “Make America Healthy Again” by reining in big pharma’s enormous influence on US health policy, and by improving food standards. Here’s why the pharmaceutical lobby is going to have a hard time accepting that. “He’s going to have a big role in health care, a very big role. He knows it better than anybody,” Donald Trump said last week when asked about RFK Jr.’s possible future in his administration. “He’s got some views that I happen to agree with very strongly and I have for a long time.” Sources told media Saturday that Kennedy has already been asked to make recommendations to the Trump team on appointments to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration.

Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies have already prepared for the worst, with some execs reportedly hoping Trump and and RFK Jr. have a falling out before Kennedy can do any damage to their respective bottom lines. “We need to have somebody who is going to be grounded by science and evidence and not somebody who rejects it,” John Maraganore, former CEO of Boston-based biotech firm Alnylam, told FT in a story published Friday, commenting on Kennedy’s prospects. Kennedy involvement in Trump’s health policy “would be awful on a lot of levels,” a senior unnamed health exec said. “RFK is going to blow up. He’s marching around saying what he wants the administration to do before Trump’s had a chance to take a breath. Eventually Trump will sour on him,” another suggested.

Kennedy’s poor reputation with pharmaceutical companies is understandable, given the attention he’s gotten on the campaign trail during his 2024 presidential run, and before that – for his work as an environmental lawyer, Children’s Health Defense chairman and author of the 2021 book The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health, which spent twenty weeks on NYT’s bestseller list. Kennedy used the national attention he got over the past three years to promote his favorite causes – vaccine safety and public health. His stinging remarks on these issues, and ability to now have the president-elect’s ear, explain why big pharma finds him so dangerous.

Anti-Vaxxer? Smeared, throttled and censored by legacy media as an “anti-vaxxer” in virtually every article that mentions him, Kennedy has said repeatedly that he’s “never been anti-vaccine.” “I fought against mercury in fish for 40 years. Nobody called me anti-fish. I like the idea that we have seatbelts in cars. Nobody calls me anti-automobile. I want vaccines that are safe just like every other medication and that are adequately tested. It doesn’t mean I’m anti-vaccine. It just means that I’m sensible and have common sense,” Kennedy said in a tense PBS interview in 2023. “The pharmaceutical industry is – I don’t want to say because this is going to seem extreme – a criminal enterprise, but if you look at the history, that is an applicable characterization. For example, the four biggest vaccine makers, Sanofi, Merck, Pfizer and Glaxo make all of the 72 vaccines that are now effectively mandated for American children.

Collectively, those companies have paid $35 billion in criminal penalties and damages in the last decade,” he told Lex Fridman in 2023. “And the problem is that they’re serial felons,” Kennedy said, citing the example of Merck’s non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug Vioxx. “They killed people by falsifying science. And they did it. They lied to the public. They said, ‘this is a headache medication and an arthritis painkiller’. But they didn’t tell people that it also gave you heart attacks…We found when we sued them the memos from their bean counters saying ‘we’re going to kill this many people, but we’re still going to make money,” Kennedy said. “The way that the system is set up, the way that it’s sold to doctors, the way that nobody ever goes to jail so there’s really no penalty [and] it all becomes part of the cost of doing business,” Kennedy said.

RFK

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“..[Pompeo’s] bid faced fierce opposition from close allies of the president-elect, including his son Donald Trump Jr. and conservative journalist Tucker Carlson..”

Trump Says Haley, Pompeo Will Not Join White House (RT)

US President-elect Donald Trump has said he will not ask former Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley or former secretary of state Mike Pompeo to join his administration. The two prominent figures have criticized Trump in the past, but endorsed him in his 2024 election campaign. In a social media post on Saturday, Trump wrote that he would not be inviting Haley or Pompeo “to join the Trump Administration which is currently in formation,” adding: “I very much enjoyed and appreciated working with them previously, and would like to thank them for their service to our Country.” Trump won a landslide victory in the US presidential election on November 5, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris. He is now considering candidates for his administration, ahead of his inauguration on January 20.

Haley, a former South Carolina governor who previously served as US ambassador to the United Nations under the Trump administration, ran against Trump in the Republican primary this year before finally endorsing him. Pompeo, who served as Trump’s CIA director, had been named as a possible defense secretary by some media. But as Politico reported earlier this week, citing two people familiar with the matter, his bid faced fierce opposition from close allies of the president-elect, including his son Donald Trump Jr. and conservative journalist Tucker Carlson. Both Pompeo and Haley have been vocal proponents of providing more US military aid to Ukraine, as a means of “preventing” a broader “war”.

In July, Pompeo laid out an escalatory plan for Ukraine that involved more weapon transfers, contradicting Trump’s campaign statements. The president-elect has repeatedly claimed he could end it in his first 24 hours in office, without specifying how he might achieve this. Trump has also said Ukraine is unlikely to emerge victorious against Russia in the conflict, and suggested that he might stop funding Kiev, describing Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky as “the greatest salesman in history.” In addition, Haley endorsed Ukraine’s application to join NATO as a means of conveying a clear “signal” to Russia. Moscow has pointed to Ukraine’s goal of joining NATO as one of the key reasons for the current conflict, and repeatedly slammed weapons shipments to Kiev, warning that all they do is prolong the hostilities without changing the outcome.

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“Please do not forget that the outgoing administration still has a couple of months in their pocket. During this time, and we know them, a lot can be done to make a mess..”

Zakharova Gives Credit to Trump for Admitting Sickness of US Society (Sp.)

Donald Trump, who won the US presidential election, must be given credit for a more realistic assessment of the United States as a sick society, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told Sputnik. Donald Trump, who served as US President from 2017 to 2021, won the presidential election that took place on November 5. “We must give credit to Trump, he certainly said it as it is. American society is sick, that’s what he said. If before the election the slogan was ‘let’s make America great again,’ now it’s ‘let’s make America healthy again,'” Zakharova said. “This is a more realistic assessment. In these circumstances, we will need to interact with this country in some way.” She added that there were wonderful moments of cooperation in the history of relations between Russia and the United States that are worth striving for.

But today it is noticeable how Russophobia is encouraged in the United States, which “is becoming a sector of the general American philosophy,” she added. Trump became the first US politician since the 19th century to return to the White House after a four-year hiatus. Trump’s victory was announced by all leading media outlets counting votes: the Associated Press, Fox News, CNN, NBC, ABC, and CBS.Democratic candidate Kamala Harris addressed supporters and announced that she would concede, while incumbent US President Joe Biden spoke with Trump and congratulated him. The Electoral College from the states must vote for candidates in accordance with the will of the voters on December 17, and the new Congress will approve the voting results on January 6.

The inauguration will take place on January 20. The outgoing administration of US President Joe Biden may create problems for Russia for another couple of months while still in power, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman added. “Regarding bilateral relations, we need to understand and be realistic. The US presidential election has taken place. It has been recognized as such within the United States. The losers acknowledged the winner, but he [US President-elect Donald Trump] still needs to take office. Please do not forget that the outgoing administration still has a couple of months in their pocket. During this time, and we know them, a lot can be done to make a mess, I think their Russophobia has not gone away,” Zakharova said. The current administration has failed in implementing much of its Russophobic policy, Zakharova added. “The concept of creating an anti-Russia on the territory of Ukraine has failed. The idea of isolating Russia has failed. After all, this is not just a myth. This was an attempt to bring it to life. And much was done for this,” Zakharova said.

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“..On Thursday, the president-elect told NBC News he had already spoken with “probably” 70 world leaders since his election victory..”

Trump Calls Putin – WaPo (RT)

US President-elect Donald Trump has called Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the Ukraine conflict and its potential settlement, the Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing several people familiar with the matter. The phone call took place on Thursday, shortly after Trump secured his election victory. The US president-elect reportedly urged Putin not to “escalate” the conflict, reminding him of the significant US military presence in Europe, one of the sources told the daily. Apart from that, Trump and Putin spoke about “the goal of peace on the European continent,” with the president-elect expressing interest in follow-up conversations to talk about “the resolution of Ukraine’s war soon,” several other unnamed individuals told the WaPo. The report gave no insights into what reaction, if any, Trump’s remarks invoked.

The Washington Post also claimed that Kiev was “informed” ahead of the call and allegedly “did not object” – but the Ukrainian foreign ministry denied this part of the report. “Reports that the Ukrainian side was informed in advance of the alleged call are false. Subsequently, Ukraine could not have endorsed or opposed the call,” Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson Georgiy Tikhiy told Reuters. Thus far, Moscow has made no official comments on the reported phone call between Trump and Putin. On Thursday, the president-elect told NBC News he had already spoken with “probably” 70 world leaders since his election victory, but Putin was not among them. “I think we’ll speak,” Trump said at the time.

Trump has already spoken with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, who described the conversation as “positive” and said Trump’s outreach shortly after his victory was encouraging. Zelensky noted that he “cannot yet know” what Trump’s actions will ultimately be and that, should a resolution of the conflict be “just fast,” it would likely mean “losses for Ukraine.” Throughout his election campaign, Trump has repeatedly pledged to swiftly end the conflict between Moscow and Kiev, potentially even before officially assuming office. However, he has not provided any concrete details on how he plans to achieve this.

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“Trump and his aides are distrustful of career government officials following the leaked transcripts of presidential calls during his first term. “They are just calling [Trump] directly..”

Trump-Putin Call Focuses On The Quick ‘Resolution Of Ukraine War’ (ZH)

President-elect Donald Trump is already moving quite fast on his goal to quickly bring to an end the Ukraine war. It has been revealed Sunday he held a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin previously on Thursday, the first such communication between the two since Trump won the election. Trump urged immediate de-escalation in the call with Putin. The Washington Post describes that “During the call, which Trump took from his resort in Florida, he advised the Russian president not to escalate the war in Ukraine and reminded him of Washington’s sizable military presence in Europe, said a person familiar with the call, who, like others interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.” Multiple sources said the call focused on the “goal of peace on the European continent” and ended on a positive note with plans to hold future conversations on “the resolution of Ukraine’s war soon”.

WaPo has further said that Ukraine was informed that the call was going to take place and did not object. However, the Zelensky government has subsequent this the report rejected this claim. “Reports that the Ukrainian side was informed in advance of the alleged call are false. Subsequently, Ukraine could not have endorsed or opposed the call,” Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi told Reuters. WaPo has also underscored that the Trump transition team is fearful of leaks at this point: “Trump’s initial calls with world leaders are not being conducted with the support of the State Department and U.S. government interpreters. The Trump transition team has yet to sign an agreement with the General Services Administration, a standard procedure for presidential transitions. Trump and his aides are distrustful of career government officials following the leaked transcripts of presidential calls during his first term. “They are just calling [Trump] directly,” one of the people familiar with the calls said.”

Currently, the Zelensky government and some of the more hawkish leaders within NATO are deeply worried that the future Trump White House will force a ‘bad deal’ – or one that pressures Kiev to give up some 20% of his territory. They are against anything which the Kremlin could view as ‘victory’ for Russia. One proposed plan, said to be getting the most attention from Trump’s team, would see an indefinite ‘freeze’ on the front lines in the east, paving the way for immediate ceasefire, and enforced by European peacekeepers along an 800-mile demilitarized zone. Peace would also be ensured by Ukraine agreeing to suspend its aspirations to join NATO for twenty years. This buffer zone would not involve any US troops, according to initial reports based on the description of Trump officials. Included a brief discussion on territory…

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“..forcing Ukraine to temporarily suspend its quest to join” NATO, with the matter potentially put on hold “for at least 20 years.”

Trump To Announce Ukraine Peace Terms Soon – Polish PM (RT)

US President-elect Donald Trump could present his vision of peace in Ukraine in the coming days, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has claimed. The head of government has predicted that the Republican would offer a timeframe for a potential truce as well as security guarantees for Kiev. While on the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly vowed to end the Ukraine conflict within “24 hours,” without specifying any details. The president-elect told the US media that he was going to tell Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky “No more. You got to make a deal.” He also implied that he would leverage further assistance to Kiev in a bid to coerce Moscow into negotiating. On Saturday, Polish Radio quoted Tusk as saying that Trump’s team was still working on their roadmap for Ukraine. Nevertheless, the Polish prime minister added that he expected the US president-elect to make public certain key elements in the near future, such as a timeline for a potential ceasefire, the line along which it would take effect, as well as security guarantees for Ukraine.

According to the broadcaster, Tusk claimed that “these will definitely be solutions that will involve less US interference in Ukrainian affairs.” That same day, the prime minister announced plans to hold meetings with French President Emmanuel Macron, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer as well as the leaders of the Nordic and Baltic states. Tusk cited the emergence of a “new political landscape” following the election of Donald Trump as the 47th US president. He explained that Europe was faced with a “serious challenge… in the context of a possible end to the Russian-Ukrainian war,” as quoted by Politico. “Nobody wants the conflict to escalate,” Tusk stressed, adding that “at the same time, nobody wants Ukraine to weaken or even capitulate.”

The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources, reported on Wednesday that Trump’s team was considering several proposals. Most of them, according to the media outlet, envisage “freezing the war in place… and forcing Ukraine to temporarily suspend its quest to join” NATO, with the matter potentially put on hold “for at least 20 years.” The WSJ claimed that among the proposals allegedly being discussed was the creation of a demilitarized zone along the current front line. The article quoted an unnamed Trump adviser as noting that it would not be American troops or US-funded international organizations such as the UN, but instead European nations, who would be tasked with maintaining peace there.

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“..Ukraine might also join the EU. “Putin will hate that part of it, just like the Ukrainians will hate the part of Putin holding onto 20 percent of their country. But it’s a negotiation..”

Former NATO Commander Predicts How Ukraine Conflict Will End (RT)

The Ukraine conflict will end with Russia taking approximately a fifth of the country’s pre-2014 territory, ex-NATO commander James Stavridis has predicted. Stavridis, a retired admiral who often appears on TV to share his insight on international affairs, told CNN’s Michael Smerconish on Saturday that Ukraine might also join the EU. “Putin will hate that part of it, just like the Ukrainians will hate the part of Putin holding onto 20 percent of their country. But it’s a negotiation,” Stavridis told Smerconish. Stavridis has also said that if President-elect Donald Trump can end the Ukraine conflict in 24 hours, he will “be the first one voting for his Nobel Peace Prize.” Trump has previously claimed he could end the conflict in the first 24 hours of his presidency, without elaborating how exactly.

“What I hope he does, and I think he will, is put pressure on both sides to get to the negotiating table,” Stavridis said. He added that Ukraine will also get a “path to NATO, probably three to five years.” He also said that the deal would probably include “some kind of demilitarized zone” between the two parties, likely patrolled “with NATO soldiers, for example, not US, Europeans.” “A negotiated settlement is not something the US can impose, but for the Ukrainians and Russians to agree upon,” Stavridis told Newsweek later on Saturday, adding that eventual settlement of the conflict, which escalated in 2022, will take months. In October, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky presented his ‘victory plan’, which demanded immediate NATO membership. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Kiev’s desire to join the bloc – which Moscow has described as an existential threat – was one of the key reasons for the current conflict.

Zelensky has also insisted that Ukraine will keep fighting until it restores its 1991 borders, a task that would involve the recapture of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, Kherson Region, Zaporozhye Region, and Crimea from Russia. Russia maintains that it is open to any talks starting with an acknowledgement of “territorial reality” – that the above-mentioned regions will never return to Ukrainian control. Earlier, US Vice President-elect J.D. Vance suggested that the conflict could be frozen along the current front line, with Kiev forced to abandon its claims to territories held by Russia, as well as its aspiration to join NATO.

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“POV: You’re 38 Days from losing your allowance.”

Trump Jr. Trolls Zelensky (RT)

Donald Trump Jr., the eldest son of the US president-elect, has suggested that Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky could soon lose access to American aid. While on the campaign trail, the Republican candidate repeatedly described Zelensky as the “greatest salesman in history” for his ability to milk President Joe Biden’s administration of tens of billions of dollars. Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, Washington has emerged as Kiev’s biggest donor, with the US Congress earmarking more than $174 billion in military and other aid. Moscow has denounced this assistance, insisting that it only serves to unnecessarily prolong the bloodshed and is unable to change the course of the conflict. Taking to Instagram on Saturday, Trump Jr. posted a short video that features a photo of Zelensky standing beside the president-elect, with the camera gradually zooming in on the Ukrainian leader.

The picture then turns black and white with dollar banknotes raining down upon the official. The caption reads: “POV: You’re 38 Days from losing your allowance.” In recent months, Trump has repeatedly vowed to end the Ukraine conflict within “24 hours,” without divulging the specifics of his plan. Speaking to the US media, he said he intended to tell Zelensky “No more. You got to make a deal.” The president-elect implied that he would leverage further aid to Ukraine in a bid to coerce Russia into negotiating. He has also criticized the Biden administration’s generosity toward Kiev on multiple occasions. The Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources, reported on Wednesday that Trump’s team was considering several roadmaps, which allegedly envisage Ukraine relinquishing its NATO membership aspirations “for at least 20 years” and freezing hostilities along the current front line.

Washington, however, would provide Kiev with more weaponry to keep Moscow at bay, the media outlet claimed. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he strongly favors a comprehensive solution over a simple freezing of the conflict, noting, however, that Moscow is ready to negotiate in principle. Zelensky has publicly ruled out making any territorial concessions to Russia. On Friday, Bloomberg claimed that European Union leaders had been discussing “whether the bloc will be ready to foot the bill for the war,” amid concerns that “Trump will seek to shift the financial burden on Europe.” Earlier this week, the Financial Times, citing unnamed Ukrainian defense officials, reported that fear was growing in Ukraine that the US president-elect would suspend military aid to the country.

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“..they are in a rush to Trump-proof their alleged accomplishments..”

What to Expect From ‘Lame Duck’ Biden After Trump’s Win (Sp.)

The White House press pool reported on Sunday that Biden had refused to say what he plans to talk about with Trump at their meeting scheduled for November 13. With Donald Trump set to be sworn in as the 47th president on January 20, the question is how incumbent Joe Biden will grapple with the “difficult diplomacy” related to Ukraine, the Middle East and beyond in the meantime. Biden administration officials recognize that they already have much less sway with other nations and just a limited ability to make policy decisions that can endure beyond inauguration day, as they are in a rush to Trump-proof their alleged accomplishments, according to the Washington Post. On Ukraine, the WP argues that the Biden administration may focus on shipping as much military supplies as they can to the Kiev regime amid their fears that Trump may pull the plug.

Biden could decide on taking “a maximalist approach toward helping Ukraine over the next couple of months,” even though some White House officials “oppose the idea.” Reports that Biden plans to send 500 Patriot and NASAMS missiles to Kiev are “not implausible but even if he goes through with it, everyone knows that this is a final gesture and that US largess is at an end,” Dan Lazare, US constitutional historian and political commentator, tells Sputnik. As for the Middle East, there are three separate conflicts in which Israel is now involved — Gaza, Lebanon and Iran — and “none is likely to be resolved before Trump takes office,” per the WP. The Foreign Policy claimed that Biden may opt not to veto a resolution stipulating sanctions on Israel if it doesn’t agree to accept a Gaza ceasefire deal.

In this vein, Lazare stresses that “while Biden may engage in a few holding actions, the game is up” because Trump’s “margin of victory was so decisive that he’ll effectively be calling the shots from here on out.” In the Asia Pacific, Biden is due to attend the upcoming APEC summit in Peru as his administration braces for disruption of regional alliances, per Al Jazeera. The outgoing US president “may put in an appearance” at the upcoming G20 and APEC summits, “but it’s doubtful that he’ll even get a round of applause” there, Lazare says.

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“..Washington sought to deliver the weaponry by April, but Donald Trump’s win has apparently prompted the outgoing administration to accelerate the process.”

Biden Racing To Pour Weaponry Into Ukraine – WSJ (RT)

The outgoing Biden administration is seeking to fully use funds allocated for Ukraine to deliver additional weapons to the country, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing unnamed White House officials. The plan, however, is reportedly facing logistics hurdles as the US further depletes its already thinned out stockpiles. Washington has more than $7 billion left in drawdown authority, enabling the Pentagon to transfer weapons and ammunition to Kiev, as well as another $2 billion to fund long-term equipment contracts for Ukraine, the WSJ noted. The pending delivery involves some 500 anti-aircraft missiles for various systems, including Patriots and NASAMS, a senior Biden administration official has said. The cache of missiles is expected to get delivered to Ukraine in the next few weeks, where it will meet the country’s air defense needs for the rest of the year.

The plan, however, has already raised concerns that it would further deplete already-exhausted US weapons stockpiles, officials told the newspaper. Apart from that, funneling a large amount of weaponry within mere weeks is bound to lead to logistics problems and put a further strain on US capabilities, the officials warned. The rush to get as many weapons to Ukraine as possible before US President Joe Biden’s term ends is intended to give Kiev an advantage and reinforce its “negotiating position,” according to the WSJ. Before the presidential election, Washington sought to deliver the weaponry by April, but Donald Trump’s win has apparently prompted the outgoing administration to accelerate the process.

The president-elect has long been critical of the largesse afforded Kiev and has repeatedly pledged to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine overnight, potentially even before assuming office officially. Trump, however, has provided little to no detail on how exactly he would do that. The delivery is unlikely to meet Kiev’s ever-growing weaponry wish list. Separately, the WSJ reported that Washington has refused to give Ukraine additional ATACMS ballistic missiles. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has informed Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky that the call to violate long-standing US arms contracts and prioritize Ukraine over its customers awaiting the missiles of the type was “too much to ask.” The Pentagon has been reluctant to send additional ATACMS missiles to Ukraine, arguing that the munitions of the type were not actually needed since Russia had already moved all the valuable assets from their reach.

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“If he picks from that short list he himself has created, then I think we’re going to have an awesome continuation of the originalist approach to the Constitution..”

Trump Could Impact the Supreme Court for Decades to Come (ET)

President-elect Donald Trump’s second term could help make him one of the most consequential presidents for the U.S. Supreme Court by solidifying a long-lasting originalist majority. Although Democrats have criticized the justices in recent months, the 2024 elections may have stripped them of the power they would need to block Trump’s nominees and implement reforms to stunt conservatives’ influence on the court. Republicans are projected to take the U.S. Senate, offering a two-year window for Trump to appoint new conservative jurists to the highest court should any of the sitting justices announce retirement. Neither of the two most senior justices, Clarence Thomas, who is 76 and joined the court in 1991, and Samuel Alito, who is 74 and joined in 2006, have announced a retirement plan.

“No one other than Justices Thomas and Alito knows when or if they will retire, and talking about them like meat that has reached its expiration date is unwise, uninformed, and, frankly, just crass,” Federalist Society chairman Leonard Leo said. If Trump is later tasked with appointing two justices, he could be the first president since President Dwight D. Eisenhower to have five of his nominees sit on the nation’s highest court. In terms of pace, Trump has already appointed more justices in one term than his predecessors did during their tenures. Continuing at that pace would likely lead to long-term shifts for the institution and its jurisprudence, especially if his successors follow other presidents in nominating fewer justices. The court, led by Chief Justice John Roberts, has been described as incrementalist, but some of its recent decisions have raised questions about the stability of longstanding precedents.

Trump’s nominees—Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett—have already contributed to major shifts in American law, starting with their vote to overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022. Just before Trump’s reelection, they also redefined the scope of presidential immunity and overruled a decades-old administrative law doctrine—known as Chevron deference—that was supported by the late Justice Antonin Scalia. Conservatives have touted this decision and Dobbs as following an originalist approach, or one that seeks to follow the Constitution’s original meaning. Such an approach might continue if Trump selects justices from the long list of judges appointed to federal courts during his first term in office.

Judicial Crisis Network President Carrie Severino told The Epoch Times that if Trump wanted to appoint more originalists to the Supreme Court, he wouldn’t have to “look any farther than the appellate judges” he appointed during his first term. “If he picks from that short list he himself has created, then I think we’re going to have an awesome continuation of the originalist approach to the Constitution,” said Severino, a former Thomas clerk. In October, a three-judge appellate panel, which included a former Thomas clerk and former Alito clerk, backed Republicans’ position that election officials couldn’t count ballots that arrived after voting day. They said doing so violated the Constitution and a law passed in 1844 on the timing of elections.

Thomas has said on more than one occasion that he has no intention of retiring. Meanwhile, conservative attorney and commentator Ed Whelan has speculated in National Review that Alito will retire next spring with Thomas following him in 2026. The Supreme Court’s recent decisions have been viewed by both sides of the ideological spectrum as utilizing originalism and textualism, or trying to adhere to the plain language of American laws, after decades of different approaches. “After most of the 20th Century spent with a very liberal court, we actually have a majority of originalists in the court,” Severino said during a press call this summer. Overturning Roe raised questions about a whole body of law, known as “substantive due process,” which stems from the 14th Amendment’s due process clause.

That body of law informed the court’s decision in a series of other cases like Griswold v. Connecticut, Lawrence v. Texas, and Obergefell v. Hodges, which struck down state laws on birth control, sodomy, and marriage respectively. Following Dobbs, left-leaning voices worried that the more conservative Supreme Court would eventually overturn those cases. Alito’s majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, which overturned Roe, indicated that the idea of a constitutional right to abortion exceeded the bounds of substantive due process. However, he attempted to distinguish it from the issues in Lawrence and other cases while maintaining that his opinion wouldn’t threaten those other precedents.

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“Did he learn his lesson as he claims, and can he find strong men who will put their reputation in the line of fire?”

Can There Be an American-Russian Reset? (Paul Craig Roberts)

The New York Post reports that Russians are floating the idea of a “reset” with the US made possible by Trump’s election as President. Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund said that Trump’s “convincing victory shows that ordinary Americans are tired of the unprecedented lies, incompetence, and malice of the Biden administration. This opens up new opportunities for resetting relations between Russia and the United States.” Trump and Putin are in favor of this, and so is the Russian media which is asking these kind of questions: “What does the Trump administration mean for the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine? Do you think he will be able to broker a peace, or at least a ceasefire, in at least one of those conflicts?

“Do you expect the US to scale back its defense commitments in Europe under Trump? If so, will this create an opportunity for European countries to move ahead with some sort of of vision of collective security that does not rely on the US? Perhaps something in line with Macron’s proposals? “Do you expect any changes in the US-NATO relations? Will the alliance’s new secretary general, Mark Rutte, be able to effectively deal with the Trump White House?” My response is that these are relevant questions. Trump has these intentions. Does he have the means? Trump has confidence, but he also has ego and blusters, two traits unsuitable to dealing with Putin, Xi, and the Iranian Supreme Ruler.

Also, Trump is a strong personality. Some strong men are comfortable with strong subordinates, but others prefer yes-men. Trump’s first term was littered with people of weak character and low integrity and they were traitorous. Did he learn his lesson as he claims, and can he find strong men who will put their reputation in the line of fire? If so, will he fight for their confirmation by the Senate, or will his advisors convince him that he risks bad publicity and defeats at the beginning of his administration?

There is some indication of that already in a report that a businessman on Trump’s transition team said that Bobby Kennedy is not to have a position except as an advisor who collects information on harmful food and vaccines. Little doubt, nominating Bobby as FDA chief or Health and Human Services Secretary would have Big Pharma in every Senator’s office threatening the cut-off of all campaign contributions and their redirection to challengers. Maneuvering Trump into non-confrontation erodes his image as a fighter for America and will disappoint his supporters. It is unlikely that Trump’s advisors realize that the Senate’s refusal to confirm Bobby in office would enhance Trump’s power. He could present the people with the names of the Senators who are actively blocking the restoration of Americans’ health and ask why voters elected obstacles to making America great again. Trump has the people. He could bring the power of the people to bear on the Big Pharma stooges.

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Pelican
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Snake
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Sad dog

Fox

Again
https://twitter.com/i/status/1855364849586626861

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