The Automatic Earth

Jan van Eyck Saint Barbara 1437

Nap Macgregor

The behavior of Zelensky is atrocious.

He's sent 10's of thousands of his Countrymen to their deaths.

Every few minutes he opens his mouth and wants another billion dollars from The United States and we have no way of tracing where the money is going.

It all a scandal. pic.twitter.com/ToHgyjX6C9

— Douglas Macgregor (@DougAMacgregor) October 4, 2023

I was asked for 60 second answers for social media. I was horrified, my style is more discursive. I did my best but thought the result would be bad. But I love this.

"It is horrible to see the people behind the invasion of Iraq walking around treated as respected political elders…"

Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, on the legacy of Bush and Blair. pic.twitter.com/6Oq0VzNbxb

— MintPress News (@MintPressNews) September 21, 2023

Tucker Moritz

Ep. 28  Trans, Inc: genital mutilation is not just a fad. It’s a full-blown industry. How did something this demented happen so quickly? Chris Moritz has been following the money. pic.twitter.com/N2em2hbTE8

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) October 4, 2023

Something’s afoot…

RFK

In 2016 Donald Trump asked Robert Kennedy Jr to serve on a Vaccine Safety Commission…

RFK Jr asked Anthony Fauci which of the 72 vaccines had been subject to a safety test…

Anthony Fauci refused to show evidence, so RFK sued him…

After a year of stonewalling, Fauci finally… pic.twitter.com/Yq4Xr9kcB2

— Pelham (@Resist_05) October 4, 2023

“What is happening to President Donald Trump has never been done in the history of the United States. Liberals, put your anger aside for one moment and read this: The AG couldn’t find a crime, so she’s charging a criminal case covered as a Civil matter. The Judge is working in conjunction with her and they decided Trump is guilty, and the AG has submitted a motion for Summary Judgement.

He doesn’t get to defend himself in court. The gag order doesn’t allow him to defend himself publicly. The Judge decided before the case that he was guilty, and is now attempting to strip his businesses and properties. None of this has been done before. This is one of the biggest abuses of power we’ve ever witnessed as American Citizens. They’ve taken the leading candidate for President of the United States and refuse to give him a fair trial.

Disbarring the Judge and AG isn’t enough. The punishment should be the most severe allowed by the Justice System. If you’re on the left or on the fence or even a conservative and you’re supporting this, you’ve lost your moral compass. Your blind anger is causing you to sit back and watch as this country crumbles. ”

“It also conveniently provides Democrats with a scapegoat if the government shuts down and legislation gets stuck, causing further economic harm.”

• Is McCarthy Saga A Bipartisan Strategy To Quietly End Aid To Ukraine? (Reade)

For the first time in US history, the speaker of the US House of Representatives has been ousted. Rep. Kevin McCarthy had only graced the speaker seat for nine months before a bold move by Representative Matt Gaetz, a fellow Republican, pushed him out. A few days before the vote to end McCarthy’s leadership, Gaetz had been making rounds on social and legacy media discussing his push to end McCarthy’s short tenure. He accused McCarthy of striking a secret deal with Democrats to allow for aid to Ukraine to be included in the government funding bill to avoid a government shutdown. Gaetz spoke about the debt crisis, McCarthy lying to his own party and lack of desire to investigate US President Joe Biden for corruption as some of the reasons he was leading the call for McCarthy’s removal. When asked what would happen if the Democrats saved McCarthy, Gaetz brashly replied, “…they can have him.”

The Democrats did not save McCarthy. In fact, 208 Democrats and eight Republicans voted to unseat him (only five Republican votes were needed). All this signals that whatever deal McCarthy may have brokered, the chaos is more politically advantageous to the elites and provides much-needed cover for what is actually happening to the country economically. On the surface, this looks like another chapter in the chaotic Congressional saga about the divide between RINOs (Republicans in Name Only) and the America First group in the Republican party. It also conveniently provides Democrats with a scapegoat if the government shuts down and legislation gets stuck, causing further economic harm. However, this may also be the uniparty exit strategy for ending the flow of billions of dollars to Ukraine.

A recent Politico article cited a leak of information that the White House is concerned about the corruption in Ukraine and sustainability of continued funding. Most likely, this was a purposeful leak by intelligence to prepare an off-ramp away from more spending into the bottomless pit that is Kiev. The growing dissent regarding more billions to Ukraine, a country most Americans cannot find on a map, is getting louder. This all happening as the US heads for an election year is another significant factor. However, the actors keep playing their roles in this political theater, welcoming Zelensky’s begging and propping up his propaganda. Biden made a stern, if slightly slurred, statement demanding Congress “stop playing games” and authorize the additional $24 billion he had requested, bringing the total spent on aid to Ukraine to over $137 billion. All this as Biden and other Democrats’ polling numbers are lower than ever, hovering at 30% or worse.

The interim speaker’s first action was to tell Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat and herself a former speaker, to vacate her office in the Capitol building within a week. Allowing a former speaker to keep using their office in the building is a tradition, one that McCarthy apparently hadn’t bucked. Rumors are floating around as to who will be the new speaker. According to the Constitution, it doesn’t technically have to be a sitting member of the House, and there is even talk about nominating Donald Trump for the seat. While the wild days ahead will reveal the new leadership in Congress, perhaps they will also bring about an end to the blank checks for Ukraine.

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“McCarthy has denied the backroom dealing, but if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck… ”

• Apparently, Kevin McCarthy’s Ouster Is Putin’s Fault (Marsden)

In a vote of 216-210, Republicans voted with 208 Democrats in the US House of Representatives to regime-change one of their own — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). McCarthy had tried appeasing the establishment over Ukraine funding while also paying lip-service to the populists to whom he owed his job as House speaker – and has just been rewarded with the honor of being the first dethroned speaker in US history. It’s a victory for the average American — unless you’re an establishment hack, in which case it’s all about Russia. “The Chinese are happy, the Russians are happy, the Iranians are happy. Americans should be mad as hell that these eight people did this to our country,” said Rep. Dan Bacon (R-NE). How dare anyone derail the establishment policies when they’ve made everything so great for the average American.

McCarthy’s supporters accuse opponents within his own party of fundraising off his ouster. If Americans are willing to reward the ouster by donating to those responsible, then it would seem that they aren’t actually “mad as hell” and it’s establishment Republicans who are offside.How fitting is it that the last straw in McCarthy’s case seems to be allegations, evoked by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) that he had gone behind the GOP’s back to the Biden administration to work something out on the continued stream of aid to Ukraine, which had been shamelessly tacked on to the budget legislation that would keep the federal government running for at least another 45 days. The Ukraine funding provision had been the sticking point that had been preventing Republicans from approving the bill until McCarthy stripped it out. But then Gaetz accused McCarthy of making a deal with Biden to revive a vote on yet another round of aid for Ukraine in a separate House vote.

If Biden wanted to take the risk of tacking support for Ukraine on to the bill that he figured that lawmakers would be forced to pass lest the alternative be a shutdown of the whole government, then he should have had to assume the full consequences of that gamble. Let the government shut down because the American president figured that its funding is as important as Ukraine’s – and that paying American bureaucrats would be directly tied to lawmakers’ willingness to keep paying Kiev’s. Then when those who feel that they best represent the growing constituency of American voters who are increasingly against more cash for Kiev as they feel the pinch of their own worsening economic situation brought about by misguided establishment policies reject the two-headed legislative abomination – then let them place the blame squarely in Biden’s lap for even taking the risk of conjuring it up in the first place.

McCarthy has denied the backroom dealing, but if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck… McCarthy arguably wouldn’t have even been in the job had it not been for promising the populist faction of the GOP – the Freedom Caucus – that he wouldn’t give Ukraine a “blank check.” But he seemed influenced by the criticism of establishment GOP fixtures like Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY). “The idea that the party is now no longer going to support the Ukrainian people. For somebody who has the picture of Ronald Reagan on his wall in his office in the Capitol, the notion that now Kevin McCarthy is going to make himself the leader of the pro-Putin wing of my party is just a stunning thing,” Cheney said in an interview last year.

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“Now that she and other Democrats have caused there to be an immediately preceding speaker, she has removed herself from that office.”

• Office Purge Follows Ouster Of US House Speaker (RT)

Two former top Democrats in the US Congress lost their “hideaway offices” on Wednesday, as the acting speaker of the House reassigned them to Kevin McCarthy, the California Republican who lost his leadership position on Tuesday in a historic vote. Congressman Patrick McHenry, a North Carolina Republican, sent an email within 90 minutes of becoming speaker pro tempore on Tuesday, ordering Representatives Nancy Pelosi to “vacate the space tomorrow,” Axios has revealed. “The office that Pelosi currently occupies is the office of the preceding speaker,” Congressman Garret Graves, a Louisiana Republican, told the outlet. “Now that she and other Democrats have caused there to be an immediately preceding speaker, she has removed herself from that office.”

Graves was referring to the fact that every Democrat present at Tuesday’s session voted with eight of the Republicans to vacate the speakership, making McCarthy the first-ever speaker to be voted out in the 234-year history of the House of Representatives. There are approximately 100 secret offices in the US Capitol complex, mainly used by senators as private spaces for confidential business or personal matters. They are called “hideaways” because they are unlisted in official directories and are marked only with a room number. Pelosi did not actually vote against McCarthy, because she was back in California for the funeral of the late Senator Dianne Feinstein. She released a statement on Wednesday denouncing McHenry’s decision as “a sharp departure from tradition.”

“As Speaker, I gave former Speaker [Dennis] Hastert a significantly larger suite of offices for as long as he wished,” Pelosi said, further lamenting that she was “unable to retrieve my belongings” due to being out of town. Axios reported that staffers for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, helped evacuate Pelosi’s hideaway office, as well as that of Jeffries’ predecessor, Maryland Democrat Steny Hoyer, also ordered out by McHenry. Pelosi and Hoyer stepped down from leadership posts – but remained members of Congress – after Republicans retook the House in the 2022 midterm elections.

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“All member states will have to pay more to and receive less from the EU budget; many member states who are currently net receivers will become net contributors..”

• Ukraine Could Reap $200 Billion EU Bonanza – FT (RT)

Ukraine could receive billions of euros in subsidies from the EU upon the country’s accession to the bloc, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing an internal study by the secretariat of the EU Council. According to the report, Kiev would be entitled to €96.5 billion ($101 billion) in payments from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy. Ukraine would also be eligible for €61 billion ($64 billion) in subsidies from the EU’s cohesion funds, dedicated to improving infrastructure in poorer member states. In total, the bloc may have to allocate roughly €186 billion ($195 billion) for Ukraine in the seven years following its entry. The paper notes that this would greatly affect the EU’s agricultural subsidy regime. According to calculations, Ukraine has 41.1 million hectares of utilized agricultural area, and would become the bloc’s largest recipient of subsidies.

This would force a cut in payments for existing recipients by some 20.3% per 1 hectare of farmland. Experts say the changes may be too high a price to admit Ukraine as a member, unless adjustments are made to the EU budget. “These numbers aren’t going to work for anyone. They make clear that root and branch reform of the EU budget and its major policies will be needed if Ukraine is to ever join, or that the entire Ukraine question will have to be dealt with innovatively and outside of existing EU budget structures,” Mujtaba Rahman, managing director for Europe at the Eurasia Group, told the news outlet. The EU Council based its study on the bloc simultaneously accepting nine additional members: Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, and six western Balkan states.

According to the analysis, the cost of adding them all to the EU’s existing budget would amount to roughly €256.8 billion ($269 billion). The study warned that the entry of new members would cause a drastic redistribution of funds within the union. For instance, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Cyprus, and Malta would no longer be eligible for cohesion funding. All member states will have to pay more to and receive less from the EU budget; many member states who are currently net receivers will become net contributors, the document stated. It added that whilst for several policies, opportunities may outweigh the costs/risks, the enlargement would bring very significant challenges for the EU budget, which would need to be addressed as soon as possible. According to reports, the EU is ready to start membership negotiations with Ukraine, which could be announced by the end of the year. The head of the European Council, Charles Michel, earlier stated that Ukraine could become a member of the bloc by 2030.

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These people belong in mental institutions. If you call 400,000 deaths “very cheap”, you are retarted.

• Ukraine ‘Very Cheap Way’ To Fight Russia – Dutch Defense Minister (RT)

Arming Kiev is a cost-effective way of preventing Moscow from threatening NATO, Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren argued on Wednesday at the Warsaw Security Forum. Ollongren was asked whether the US and its allies can continue supporting Ukraine “for as long as it takes,” given the political in-fighting in Washington. “We cannot pretend that we’ll just wait and see how the American elections are going,” she said. “Because they have the same interest, in a way. Of course, supporting Ukraine is a very cheap way to make sure that Russia with this regime is not a threat to the NATO alliance. And it’s vital to continue that support.” “It is very much in our interest to support Ukraine, because they are fighting this war, we are not fighting it,” Ollongren noted, while admitting that NATO had “skin in the game.”

Ollongren explained that she had recently visited the US and that political developments there are cause for concern, but that Western Europeans need to talk with their American colleagues and persuade them to stay the course. “I think that we are capable of a lot, and we have proven that in the past year and a half, and the only thing we have to do is keep it up,” the minister said, adding that the scale of military assistance to Kiev has surprised Ukraine, Russia and even NATO itself. The US and its allies have channeled a large amount of money, weapons, ammunition and supplies to Ukraine since the conflict with Russia escalated in February 2022. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell revealed earlier this week that the bloc has sent Ukraine €85 billion ($89.8 billion) so far, of which more than €25 billion ($26.4 billion) was military aid.

The most recent estimates of US spending were from the end of July, and amounted to $46.6 billion in military aid, $3.9 billion in humanitarian aid, and about $26.4 billion in loans and cash payments to keep the government in Kiev going. Moscow has repeatedly warned that the deliveries of heavy weapons and other aid are tantamount to direct involvement in the hostilities. Washington and Brussels, however, insist they were not actually a party to the conflict. Russia said foreign arms would not change the course of the fighting and would not deter Moscow from achieving its goals in Ukraine. Russian officials also repeatedly cited NATO’s expansion eastward as one of the root causes of its current conflict with Ukraine and the standoff with the West.

Political scientist Vladimir Kornilov: I specifically found the original of this speech by the Minister of Defense of the Netherlands, Kaisi Ollongren. I'm posting it here on purpose. It needs to be played and shown to all Ukrainians. So that they can see that smile. So that… pic.twitter.com/hEqZQLuiCi

— Victor vicktop55 (@vicktop55) October 4, 2023

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“..without additional funding, the US will be forced to delay or slash supply of air defense weapons, ammunition, drones, and demolition equipment.”

• US Funding for Ukraine Gov’t Reportedly to ‘Run Dry by November’ (Sp.)

Without another abundant infusion of cash from Congress, US funding for Ukraine’s government expenditures will run dry by November, a report citing officials in Washington and Kiev says. Congress passed a temporary funding bill to keep the federal government running until November 17 and dodge a shutdown by leaving out $6 billion for Ukraine. The sum was part of the $24 billion in emergency aid for Kiev requested by President Joe Biden, on top of the over $100 billion in assistance already provided to the regime. While Ukraine’s Finance Ministry has resources to cover the budget needs for October, “beyond November the government could face decisions about what services or salaries to cut, or whether to attempt to borrow,” a Ukrainian official was cited as saying.

The source voiced concerns that ending payments to Ukraine’s government could trigger discontent in the country and “potentially put political pressure on President Volodymyr Zelensky, who would face louder criticism from rival factions.” Meanwhile, one Washington official revealed that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) will process an October funds transfer of $1.15 billion through the World Bank program, “assuming Ukraine shows that it has appropriately spent the previous transfer.” Future disbursements are unclear, it was added in the report. After October, the government in Kiev could dip into other funds “earlier than planned,” which would tide them over through November and December, but “without fresh funding the picture turns darker in 2024,” the US report cited a Ukrainian source as saying.

The World Bank’s Public Expenditures for Administrative Capacity Endurance (“PEACE”) program has sent Ukraine $23.4 billion, all told, with $20.2 billion funded by the US and $2 billion from the UK. Since the Ukraine conflict escalated, overall US aid to Ukraine totals $72.8 billion, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, the report noted. The debate over economic aid to Ukraine has divided Congress. Republicans who oppose funding for Ukraine have argued the need to put domestic priorities first, instead of sinking cash into NATO’s proxy war with Russia. Ukraine’s botched counteroffensive has added to doubts, along with soaring prices and borrowing costs, economic slowdown, and inflation. An August survey found that 55 percent of Americans thought lawmakers should not authorize additional funding to support Ukraine.

Furthermore, the Pentagon recently issued a warning to Congress, saying it is rapidly running out of funds to replace its weapons stockpile, including artillery, rockets, and missiles, due to the rush to fulfill shipments to Ukraine. In a letter viewed by US media, Pentagon Comptroller Michael McCord earlier informed House and Senate leadership that out of the $25.9 billion allocated by Congress to replenish US military stocks provided to Ukraine, only $1.6 billion remains. Long-term funding through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative for Kiev has been entirely depleted, McCord warned, saying that without additional funding, the US will be forced to delay or slash supply of air defense weapons, ammunition, drones, and demolition equipment.

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“All that largesse that is billed to U.S. and European taxpayers has resulted in a slaughter in Europe not seen since the Second World War – and a failed Ukrainian state.”

• Ukraine Fatigue Is Worrying NATO Elites (Cunningham)

On both sides of the Atlantic, there is now discernible fatigue and anger among citizens over the bottomless money pit that is NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine against Russia. The only wonder is that it has taken so long for the Western public to get wise to the scam. The disgraceful adulation of a Nazi war criminal by the whole Canadian parliament in a perverse show of solidarity with Ukraine against Russia has helped focus public attention on the obscenity of the NATO proxy war. All told, since the NATO-induced conflict blew up in February last year, the American and European establishments have thrown up to €200 billion into Ukraine to prop up an odious Nazi-infested regime. All that largesse that is billed to U.S. and European taxpayers has resulted in a slaughter in Europe not seen since the Second World War – and a failed Ukrainian state.

And of course huge profits for the NATO military-industrial complex that bankrolls the elite politicians. Times are changing though. In the United States, the financially conservative Republicans have had enough of the blank checks to the Kiev regime. The U.S. Congress finally showed a modicum of sanity to prevent a government financial shutdown – by dropping military aid to Ukraine. That shows how twisted Washington’s priorities have become when national self-interest has to wrestle with funding for a Nazi regime. And then following the Congressional vote to temporarily end funding for Ukraine, the Kiev regime’s foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba dared to reprimand American lawmakers: “We are now working with both sides of Congress to make sure that it does not (get) repeated under any circumstances.”

Meanwhile in Europe, Slovakian citizens have voted for a new government to end the military fueling of war in Ukraine. The Smer-SD party led by Robert Fico won the parliamentary elections primarily on the vow to shut off any further weapons supply to the Kiev regime. This week also saw massive protests in Germany against Olaf Scholz’s coalition government over the latter’s abject pro-war policies in Ukraine. German Unity Day on October 3 prompted a mass rally in Berlin denouncing the NATO proxy war in Ukraine and calling for peace negotiations to end the conflict. There were also unprecedented protests across Poland in Warsaw, Lodz and other cities against the PiS government’s slavish implementation of the U.S.-led NATO proxy war in Ukraine.

Faced with millions of Ukrainian refugees and neglect of social needs for Poles, the PiS ruling party has recently threatened to end weapons supply to Kiev – a move less about principle and more about trying to buy votes in the forthcoming election on October 15. Nevertheless, the belated move by the Polish government illustrates the concern among European leaders about growing public disdain over the seemingly endless financial aid allocated to Ukraine. Josep Borrell, the European Union’s top diplomat, says it is a “worrying” sign that Washington for the first time closed the coffers for Ukraine.

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Rutte and Von Der Leyen flew to Tunisia to make a deal to stop refugee flows to Lampedusa, and turned their backs on it as soon as they got back home.

• Tunisia Rejects EU Financial Aid (RT)

Tunisian President Kais Saied has rejected financial aid from the European Union intended to support the country’s budget and address a migration crisis, claiming that the bloc violated agreements signed earlier this year. “Tunisia rejects what the EU announced, not because of the small amount… but because this proposal contradicts the memorandum of understanding signed in July,” Saied said on Monday, according to a statement published by national broadcaster TAP. The EU signed a partnership agreement with Saied in July, pledging more than 1 billion euros ($1.12 billion) to the North African country to help its battered economy and curb irregular migration from the Tunisian coast to Europe.

However, the European Commission announced last month that it would disburse 127 million euros ($133 million) in aid to the country, with the majority of the funds earmarked for addressing migration issues, including facilitating the deportation of migrants to their home countries. In response to the EU announcement, Tunisia’s president said on Monday that he would not accept the “small amount” because it “lacks respect.” “Tunisia, which accepts cooperation, does not accept anything that resembles charity or handouts,” Saied was quoted as saying by TAP during a meeting with Nabil Ammar, the country’s minister of foreign affairs and migration. In an interview with RT on Tuesday, international relations researcher Bechir Jouini said Tunisia’s rejection of the EU offer centered on the bloc’s handling of the agreement, which appears to prioritize financial aspects over other considerations.

If the EU wants to address the immigration crisis, Jouini believes it should prioritize genuine investments in African economies over exploiting the continent’s resources. “We are not just demanding money,” he said, arguing that “if there’s no stability, if there’s no growth in Africa, there’s no stability in all of Europe.” Migration has remained a source of disagreement within the EU since 2015, with an influx of migrants fleeing poverty and conflicts in Africa and the Middle East. Member states, including Hungary and Poland, have strongly opposed Brussels’ attempts to compel them to accept and settle migrants. Last month, Italian authorities reported the arrival of thousands of African migrants from Tunisia on the island of Lampedusa, prompting a state of emergency.

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“But I can tell you that such things are done by self-confident adults, uncles and aunts, who, apparently, are not very clever..”

• Creation of Multipolar World Inevitable, Necessary – Putin (Sp.)

The creation of a multipolar world, more honest and fair for the majority of people, is inevitable and historically necessary, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated, addressing the Third International Olympiad on Financial Security in the Sirius federal territory near Sochi on Wednesday, October 4. “The process of building a multipolar world order – more democratic, more honest, fair for the majority of mankind – is simply inevitable and historically necessary. This fully applies to the creation of strong economic foundations of such a world order,” Putin stressed. In addition, the Russian president emphasized that those who seize other people’s assets are apparently not exceptionally intelligent. During his speech, Putin spoke about a joint project between a number of central banks in Asia and the Middle East that allows them to issue and exchange digital currencies.

“That is, no third party has any possibility for abuse and for interfering with payments. Including blocking, for example, a transaction, arresting accounts, appropriating someone else’s money or assets. And this, unfortunately, happens in the modern world. These are very young people sitting here. But I can tell you that such things are done by self-confident adults, uncles and aunts, who, apparently, are not very clever, if they commit such erroneous actions that ultimately harm themselves,” the president stressed. Moreover, the world is gradually getting rid of the dictatorship of an economic model where entire regions of the world are driven into bondage and loans, Putin said. “The world is gradually getting rid of the dictatorship of such a financial and economic model, the purpose of which is only to drive into debt, into bondage, turn into economic colonies, deprive entire regions of the world of resources for development,” the president highlighted, adding that “few people will like such a future.”

In addition, Putin emphasized that mutual trust and respect for each other’s interests are extremely important in terms of international economic cooperation. “You are well aware that the financial sphere is now undergoing rapid development of advanced solutions, advanced technologies. This is digital currency, digital financial assets, new payment services and financial settlement models. This includes the use of blockchain technologies, the so-called distributed ledger. I would like to say once again that in this area, especially when it comes to international economic cooperation, mutual trust and respect for the interests of partners and each other’s interests are extremely important,” the president said.

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Unstoppable.

• Quoting RT Plays Into Putin’s Hands – Hillary Clinton (RT)

Former US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin is “thrilled” by the growing political divide in Washington over aid to Ukraine. She also alleged that the Russian leader “scores points”whenever Americans reference views shared by outlets such as RT. In an interview with PBS’s Geoff Bennett released on Tuesday, the former secretary of state and principal architect of the Russiagate conspiracy theory was asked how she thinks Russia perceives the growing opposition among US lawmakers to funding for Kiev. Clinton suggested that Putin was not only pleased with the rift among American politicians, but was also “fomenting” it in order to “undermine democracy” and “suborn political leaders.” “When I see people parroting Russian talking points that first showed up on Russia Today [RT] or first showed up in a speech from a Russian official, that’s a big point scored for Putin,” Clinton said.

She went on to suggest that despite the “ideological” and “partisan” political divide, the US Congress must work through its issues and ultimately pass legislation that would ensure continued aid for Ukraine. “This fight is our fight,” Clinton claimed, adding that she fails to understand how any Americans can “side” with Putin. “But we have seen it, and we have heard it, and we have to fight against it,”she declared. The former secretary of state’s comments come after the US Congress approved a last-minute 45-day stopgap government funding bill on Saturday that omitted any financial support for Kiev. The vote followed demands from Republican senators for military aid for Ukraine to be dropped from the spending bill, threatening to initiate a government shutdown.

Last week, Clinton also claimed during a speech at the State Department that Putin was personally to blame for NATO’s continued eastward expansion, which she insisted was a consequence of Russian policies. “Too bad, Vladimir. You brought it on yourself,” she said. Moscow responded by arguing that Clinton was well known “for her attempts to turn everything upside down and change concepts.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Western countries have repeatedly refused to discuss any of Russia’s proposals regarding security guarantees. At the same time, NATO has continued to launch “numerous waves” of expansion and has moved its military infrastructure right up to Russia’s borders. “It is absolutely clear what the underlying reasons were for Russia’s special military operation,” Peskov said.

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“According to a wide-ranging new book by Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow [..] the Biden family has a second, virtually unknown institute..”

• Biden’s “Secret Money Machine” (ZH)

On December 11, 2018, the University of Delaware announced that it was naming its public policy school after Vice President Biden. Emails show that this move was orchestrated by members of UD’s Biden Institute. It was on the day of the announcement that Hunter Biden received a text message from his aunt and former Joe Biden campaign manager, Valerie Owens (who chairs the Biden Institute), crediting him for the deepening partnership with between the Biden family and the university: “Bravo Hunter—UD was your baby and you made sure I was part of it.” The University of Delaware Biden Institute was Hunter’s “baby.” And this was the type of baby the family most certainly was not going to ignore. -Breitbart

What’s more, the UD Biden Institute became home to at least 12 future Biden administration appointees, including soon-to-be senior Biden advisor Mike Donilon and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, while UD President Dennis Assanis would be named to Biden’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. But perhaps most intriguing is that soon after forging its partnership with the Bidens, the University of Delaware (UD) disclosed receiving funds from China. Assanis notably “has deep and long-standing ties to China,” according to Marlow, who reports that in addition to serving as the founding director of the US-China Clean Energy Research Center and Clean Vehicle Consortium (CERC-CVC) since 2003, Assanis has served as both a guest professor and an advisory professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) – which has a partnership with the Chinese military, and which has been identified as the source of cyberattacks on American companies.

And then the Chinese funds start flowing… As Marlow reports; The University of Delaware had never disclosed receiving funds from China until April 2018, when it accepted over $3.2 million for a contract with an unnamed Chinese entity. This came two months after the Penn Biden Center opened its DC office. Then, in December 2018, UD received $1.9 million from an unnamed Chinese entity. In 2019, UD received another $625,000 from China. In 2020, UD initiated three contracts with the Chinese entities and received over $1 million in funds. In sum, UD has received over $6.7 million from unnamed Chinese sources, including a substantial amount from the Chinese government. All these funds started flowing to UD after the Biden Institute was announced and increased immediately after the launch of the Penn Biden Center.

In addition to the obvious pay-for-play implications, the influx of Chinese money is even more alarming in light of UD’s thirty-seven international partnerships with Chinese universities – including several which are involved in the development of Chinese military technology. Concern over UD’s relationship with Chinese entities is such a concern that on Feb. 8, 2022, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) wrote Assanis to ask him to terminate the institution’s academic and research partnership with Xiamen University, an active component of the CCP military-industrial complex, and which allegedly conspired with Huawei to perform corporate espionage against a US semiconductor start-up. According to the report, UD has worked with at least four other universities linked to CCP defense laboratories.

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“..they want him silenced. They fear his use of the 1st Amendment to defend himself. And that…is EXACTLY why we have a 1st Amendment.”

• Gagging Trump – Shows Fear (AMAC)

Think hard: Why, after allowing two state and two federal indictments of Donald Trump, each transparently political, would a federal prosecutor seek the rare step of “gagging” a former president, who also happens to be the leading GOP candidate? Only one reason: fear. The reason for this highly unusual step seems deeper than analysts are looking. On one hand, protecting a national security secret might justify a gag order, but there is none here. Jury pools are continuously exposed to public information, thus methodically sifted in “voir dire,” a process that assures jurors selected will be “fair and impartial.” Gagging a defendant is never done for that reason, no matter how well-known the defendant is. See if you can find a case recently, even historically, to silence a defendant protesting his innocence.

Nor is a gag order sought, let alone granted, because a prosecutor fears the defendant will speak publicly about his innocence and try to defend himself or herself to the public. Far from it, defendants are typically told by their own counsel NOT to speak openly since anything said could be used against them by the prosecutor, no matter the allegations. Notably, the federal prosecutor here, Mr. Jack Smith, was previously censured by the US Supreme Court (9-0) for misapplying federal law, specifically for political overreach. Yet, by all indications, here we are again. We have questionable, seemingly political indictments. One is arguably based on evidence pulled in a violation of 4th Amendment guarantees – a “general warrant,” with armed agents swarming the former president’s home. The other appears to mock the 1st Amendment, criminalizing political speech – as never before alleged.

We see in these indictments, paired with two state indictments, the play of politics. Incredibly, briefing schedules sought by prosecutors mirror the presidential primary calendar, making the process – by all appearances and definition – deliberate “election interference.” Ironically, against this backdrop and rather unexpectedly for the White House, Justice, and Democrat prosecutors, Mr. Trump – their target – has rocketed to the top of polls. He has climbed so high that, combining Republican, Independent, and Democrat voters, he would decisively beat Mr. Biden – if the race were today. All this should give Americans pause. It is also embarrassing for Mr. Smith, Mr. Garland, and Mr. Biden, not to mention state political prosecutors. They all have egg on their face, a mess.

So, the answer? Apparently, their latest flash of brilliance is to officially “gag” put a legal towel in the mouth of Mr. Trump. They want to stop him from speaking at all, as his words might “disparage the process” of being prosecuted or persecuted. Like something out of Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland or the former Soviet Union’s definition of due process, the prosecutor’s request is to prevent Mr. Trump from speaking. The irony is too rich and has not escaped Americans on both sides of the aisle. If not for such moments, what perchance is the 1st Amendment for? This order is wild overreach, panic. Traditionally, the reason federal prosecutors do not seek “gag orders” against defendants, whether Al Capone, John Mitchell, or others, is that the credibility of the prosecutor, the credibility of the Justice Department, is presumed to be higher than that of any defendant.

Put differently: This federal prosecutor and Justice Department are afraid. They fear their constitutionally questionable, highly offensive actions will not hold up in public discourse. Pointedly: They think Mr. Trump’s credibility supersedes – is higher than – theirs. Thus, they want him silenced. They fear his use of the 1st Amendment to defend himself. And that…is EXACTLY why we have a 1st Amendment.

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“The assets are much more valuable as opposed to less valuable than earlier statements.”

• Trump Says Will Testify ‘At The Appropriate Time’ In NY Civil Fraud Trial (RT)

Former US President Donald Trump said Tuesday he will testify as part of an ongoing civil fraud trial that could see his business operations come to a halt in New York, according to Anadolu Agency. Asked if he would take the stand in the non-jury trial, Trump said: “Yes, I will. At the appropriate time I will be. “I think it’s going very well,” Trump said at the New York courthouse where proceedings are taking place. “The assets are much more valuable as opposed to less valuable than earlier statements.” “There was absolutely no fraud,” he added. New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking $250 million in damages as part of a lawsuit tied to Trump and his organization’s business practices, alleging that they systemically overvalued their assets to enrich themselves.

Trump, who is voluntarily attending the trial, has alleged that the case is politically motivated and is part of efforts to hamper his 2024 election prospects, and he has sought to discredit the presiding judge as being a “rogue” who is biased against him, and calling James a “racist.” New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who is overseeing the case, ruled in late September that Trump and his company committed repeated acts of fraud for years. Engoron found that Trump and his company deceived banks by submitting “fraudulent valuations” for assets that were then used by himself, his sons and his business to secure better loan and insurance terms. The judge immediately canceled all of Trump and his co-defendants’ business certificates in New York and ordered that they must recommend no more than three potential independent receivers to manage the dissolution of the canceled limited liability companies within 10 days.

Trump’s legal team said they plan to appeal. “For years, Donald Trump falsely inflated his net worth to enrich himself and cheat the system. We won the foundation of our case last week and proved that his purported net worth has long been rooted in incredible fraud,” James said in a statement Monday. “In this country, there are consequences for this type of persistent fraud, and we look forward to demonstrating the full extent of his fraud and illegality during trial,” she added. Engoron will now rule on six other claims brought by James’ office in the lawsuit. It also seeks a ban on Trump doing business in the state where he made his brand as a high-profile real estate developer.

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“..it would seem that the Golden State deserved a solid senator that understands its issues. Or at least, compared to the twilight years of Feinstein’s career, just knows where they are at any given moment.”

• Dianne Feinstein’s Replacement Cranks Her Problems Up To 11 (Blankenship)

US Senator Dianne Feinstein, the longest-serving female senator in American history, passed away on September 29 after a long, trailblazing career in politics. With her death, California Governor Gavin Newsom was entitled to make yet another political appointment, this time promising to fill the role with a black woman. Indeed, the governor delivered – and big time. He appointed a gay black woman named Laphonza Butler. But read the fine print because Newsom never said he would appoint a Californian, as Butler actually resides in Maryland. And what are her credentials? Well, she’s apparently a “veteran organizer” who, after years of union work, was co-opted by Uber to help manage the company’s labor relations at a time when its partners sought full-employment status. She basically helped screw over a bunch of gig workers.

Since 2021, Butler has also served as the president of Emily’s List, a major Democratic Party donor network that helps raise money for women candidates who support abortion rights. The new California senator is a union-buster: check. She can raise money: check. She’s a black lesbian: check, check. (But she’s not from California, as if that matters.) In the Southern United States, we have an endearing term for a politician who settles in a place that they’re not originally from to seek office – “carpetbagger.” While this is a regional term that doesn’t apply with its historical usage, the way people use it today applies. Elected representatives are supposed to have a connection to the locality or state from which they are elected and vote on behalf of that region’s citizens. Having no connection to a place, or never having lived there, necessarily means one has no familiarity with important local issues.

Where I grew up, in Kentucky, we’ve had this happen a few times. Former Republican Governor Matt Bevin was elected in 2015 in a shocking vote that saw Democrats lose the Governor’s Mansion for the first time in nearly a generation. While Bevin’s victory was mainly a repudiation of the national Democratic Party and foreshadowed former President Donald Trump’s victory in 2016, he was a businessman from New England who essentially made a vanity run in a backwater state he thought he could win in. In addition to his myriad corruption scandals and his horrible policies for the commonwealth, the fact that he was a “carpetbagger” was a major factor in his defeat to Andy Beshear, the son of Governor Steve Beshear, in 2019. I also worked on congressional hopeful Amy McGrath’s campaign for a spell in 2018, and while she was a Kentucky native, she was a newcomer to the district she sought to win, which was a massive point of contention from locals and a factor in her defeat to Congressman Andy Barr. (I heard people call her a “carpetbagger”all the time when I was knocking on doors.)

So, needless to say, there are certainly a lot of Americans who view obvious political careerism with contempt. Add the fact that Butler is a longtime labor friend-turned-pro-employer stooge, and her token identity as an LGBTQ black woman, and you have a situation where pretty much anyone would agree that her appointment is nothing more than paper-thin corporate identitarianism. Having just endured over 31 years of representation from Feinstein, who was certainly not loved by organized labor or the working class of California (or the US) in general but was heralded as a trailblazer for the act of being a woman, it would seem that the Golden State deserved a solid senator that understands its issues. Or at least, compared to the twilight years of Feinstein’s career, just knows where they are at any given moment.

Alas, it was not to be. While Feinstein represented all of the things wrong with the Democratic Party – vanity, careerism, greed, and a general lack of authenticity – Butler cranks this up to 11. Perhaps, if she can survive a special election in five months and then win re-election six times in a row, she too can be a multi-millionaire through insider training like her predecessor – hell, maybe she can be the first gay black billionaire in Congress. Wouldn’t that be something? Jokes aside, there is far more to so-called public service than just supporting the national party on major issues. A lot of mundane things happen in the halls of Congress, much of which involves supporting one’s district or state on fairly trivial issues that locals appreciate. Given Butler’s lack of familiarity with Californian politics, anything she does will have to be communicated to her from somewhere else, which is just about the last thing people want from their leaders. Politics, in any case, shouldn’t be about such blatant opportunism.

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“there is a very real hazard” of the dsDNA integrating into a person’s genome and becoming a “permanent fixture of the cell” that can result in autoimmune problems and cancers,,”

• Alarming Covid Jab Contamination Shocks Scientists (Mercola)

In early April 2023, microbiologist Kevin McKernan — a former researcher and team leader for the MIT Human Genome project1 — posted a preprint paper2 detailing massive DNA contamination in Pfizer’s and Moderna’s bivalent COVID booster shots. As explained in the abstract: “Several methods were deployed to assess the nucleic acid composition of four expired vials of the Moderna and Pfizer bivalent mRNA vaccines. Two vials from each vendor were evaluated … Multiple assays support DNA contamination that exceeds the European Medicines Agency (EMA) 330ng/mg requirement and the FDAs 10ng/dose requirements …” The highest level of DNA contamination found was 30%, meaning nearly one-third of the content of certain vials was plasmid DNA, the presence of which dramatically increases the likelihood of genomic integration and cancer.

What this means, in plain English, is that the shots could potentially alter your DNA, which is something vaccine makers, health authorities and fact checkers have vehemently denied and written off as “impossible.” Yet here we are, with inconvenient facts staring us in the face yet again. In a May 20, 2023, Substack article,8 McKernan pointed out that regulatory agencies were clearly aware of this problem early on, as Pfizer submitted documents to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) showing sampled lots had a broad range of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) in them. The EMA’s limit for dsDNA is 330 nanograms per milligram (ng/mg), and Pfizer’s data show sampled lots had anywhere from 1 ng/mg to 815 ng/mg of DNA. And, according to McKernan, the EMA’s limit may be too high to begin with, as “lower limits should be applied if the DNA is packaged in transfection ready lipid nanoparticles,” as they are in the shots.

In a sane regulatory environment, this kind of contamination would have resulted in a massive recall, considering the known and suspected dangers of dsDNA contaminants. Yet nothing was done about it. Since McKernan’s paper was posted, others have confirmed the presence of dsDNA contaminants in the COVID shots. To be clear, DNA should not be present in a commercial product that has been made under good manufacturing practices. Obviously, Pfizer and Moderna have not perfected their commercial process, or have taken shortcuts they shouldn’t have. As a result, countless millions have been injected with unnecessarily risky COVID shots. University of South Carolina professor Phillip Buckhaults has since confirmed the presence of dsDNA in the COVID shots. September 13, 2023, he testified10 to this before the South Carolina Senate Medical Affairs Ad-Hoc Committee on the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC).

Buckhaults is a molecular biologist and cancer geneticist with extensive experience in DNA sequencing, and initially set out to debunk McKernan’s claims. To his shock, he replicated McKernan’s findings instead. In his testimony, he explained how these DNA contaminants can integrate into your genome and disrupt the function of other genes, either long term or permanently, and may be passed on to offspring for generations. He told the senators he was “alarmed about this DNA being in the vaccine,” as “there is a very real hazard” of the dsDNA integrating into a person’s genome and becoming a “permanent fixture of the cell” that can result in autoimmune problems and cancers.11 Buckhaults suspects high levels of DNA contaminants may also be causing some of the more serious side effects of the jabs, such as lethal cardiac arrest.12 Of the two lots he analyzed, he found between 5 nanograms and 20 ng of plasmid DNA — ranging from one to 200 base pairs long — per 300 microliter dose, and he points out that having a multitude of tiny fragments is far riskier than having one big piece of DNA.

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Dog tunes
https://twitter.com/i/status/1709528796955574629

Hyperion

For hundreds of years, a tree known as Hyperion has stood quietly among its fellow giants deep within Redwoods National and State Park in Northern California. pic.twitter.com/qAoLh3Cfyp

— Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) October 4, 2023

Octopus
https://twitter.com/i/status/1709451435845276152

Cat

How beautiful is this cat? 1-10? pic.twitter.com/ZtR6zwNzPj

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) October 4, 2023

Elephant

The largest elephant in the world, weighing 8000 kg, is Tanzania. pic.twitter.com/RxOavqkvv0

— Figen (@TheFigen_) October 4, 2023

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