Peter Thiel Archives - The Automatic Earth

Negotiating Lesson: Scott Adams mocks Canadian PM Carney for admitting Canada has the “best trade deal in the world” with the US@ScottAdamsSays “Why would we give you anything else if you just told us you had the best deal that anybody had in the whole world?” pic.twitter.com/dGmCd3XXLW

— jay plemons (@jayplemons) August 23, 2025

vdh

VD Hanson: "They raided Mar-a-Lago. They had 93 criminal indictments… They impeached him twice his first term… Two assassination attempts. And he's a Nietzschean character. It just made him stronger the more they tried to destroy him."pic.twitter.com/Uz33CIeX3v

— Thomas Sowell Quotes (@ThomasSowell) August 23, 2025

VD Hanson: "Somebody came along and beat them at their own game. And that was Trump, a master of the media… and a master of popular culture. That creates a lot of frustration on their part."pic.twitter.com/DeQqY0a5gg

— Thomas Sowell Quotes (@ThomasSowell) August 23, 2025

VD Hanson: "By and large, Trump understood that he picks issues… where he knows there's a 40-60 majority on his side. He's very clever about that… I think he is very underrated as a politician."pic.twitter.com/nHSBNkRdsX

— Thomas Sowell Quotes (@ThomasSowell) August 23, 2025

larry

The Ukraine – Russian War Was Provoked!

Larry C. Johnson veteran of the CIA and the State Department’s Office of Counter Terrorism:
30 Years of Provocation by the West, 30 Years of Western Efforts to Bring Ukraine INTO NATO, 30 Years of Using, Making, Ukraine a de FACTO Member… pic.twitter.com/4qckipvM1U

— Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil (@ivan_8848) August 24, 2025

Lawyer Sundance at the Conservative Tree House (CTH), aka The Last Refuge, had a very busy weekend. This is reflected in today’s Debt Rattle.

First, he returns to the ‘making’ of JD Vance. Did you know he had 3 other names before that one?

“Both Barry Sotero (Obama) and James Bowman (Vance) are mirror images of each other; the playbooks used to create both are identical.”

“Without Peter Thiel there is no Senator J.D. Vance.”

• “Pray For a Good Winter, but Plant Lots of Cabbages” (CTH)

Abandoned by his father to a troubled single mother; eventually raised by grandparents. He is then recruited from an Ivy league law school by shadow figures, a specific billionaire and a network of interests. He changes his name, writes a book about his life story, and with the support of the aforementioned – who eventually pays for a strategic campaign, becomes a Senator for 2 years before being quickly elevated into position in the White House. Many people reading that paragraph are familiar with the life story of Barack Hussien Obama. However, that paragraph is not describing Obama, that paragraph describes James Donald Bowman, aka J.D. Vance. On one side, we have an emotionally constructed political figure for the left. On the other side, we see an emotionally constructed political figure for the right. Each person, each emotional narrative, carrying the specific nuances to appeal to their audience; both follow the same playbook.

J.D. Vance was born James Donald Bowman in Middletown, Ohio (August 2, 1984). He then changed his name to James David Bowman. He then changed his name to James David Hamel. Eventually, in 2014, notably after Yale Law School (class of 2013, and after marrying his wife Usha, now age 30, he changed his name to write a book. It was 2014, that’s when J.D. Vance was born. Vance’s book, Hillbilly Elegy was published by Rupert Murdoch’s publishing house, Harper Collins in 2016. The book was made into a Netflix movie, [Reed Hastings] created by Imagine Entertainment and directed by Ron Howard (2020). However, the interesting background on J.D. Vance goes back to Yale, and the Obamaesque tap on the shoulder that comes from a billionaire most are familiar with, Peter Thiel (PayPal and Palantir).

Thiel first recruited Vance into his circle while Vance was still a student at Yale Law School. Shortly thereafter, Vance joined Thiel’s investment firm Mithril Capital, where he worked for two years before joining Revolution Ventures. Vance played a major role in Revolution’s “Rise of the Rest” seed fund whose major investors included Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. J.D. Vance then launched his own venture capital firm Narya Capital in 2020, using startup money from both Peter Thiel and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. From this timeline, we can see how J.D. Vance went from no money (student loans) in 2013, to big money in 2020. Everything came via Peter Thiel and Eric Schmidt, but mostly Thiel. To understand J.D. Vance as an Ohio Senator, we visit the inflection points in 2013 and the subsequent relationship with billionaire Peter Thiel (Palantir Technologies). The timeline from 2013 to now becomes important.

Billionaires Eric Schmidt and Peter Thiel are key members of the steering committee of the controversial, closed-door, and overtly globalist Bilderberg conference. Newsweek once called Schmidt and Thiel the two most influential figures at Bilderberg. Peter Thiel’s company, Palantir Tech, is the driving force of a global surveillance system using artificial intelligence (AI). Palantir has massive contract interests in U.S. military and intelligence communities. Keep in mind, Palantir is the current company creating the tech mechanisms for the U.S. government to conduct foreign and domestic surveillance. The actual technology needed by the Deep State, to advance their interests, is provided by Peter Thiel. According to the popular narrative, J.D. Vance opposes the Intelligence Community deep surveillance state, while simultaneously being the political front for the interests of Peter Thiel and Palantir Technology. This doesn’t reconcile.

Peter Thiel was the money and network behind the 2022 Ohio Senate race between J.D. Vance and Tim Ryan. It was Peter Thiel who took J.D. Vance to meet President Trump in Mar-a-Lago to get the needed endorsement to launch Vance into the U.S. Senate. Without Peter Thiel there is no Senator J.D. Vance. It is also important to remember that prior to 2018, prior to Peter Thiel becoming aligned with the FBI as a confidential human source, and prior to Vance needing the Trump endorsement, J.D. Vance was a staunch never-Trumper. J.D. Vance went from calling President Trump “a literal Hitler,” to appreciating Trump’s incredible leadership – a remarkable shift in opinion. To his strategic credit, Peter Thiel was successful in gaining both the Trump endorsement and the winning outcome of the 2022 Ohio Senate race. That success was now Senator J.D. Vance.

Within the Thiel network, you will note the aligned interests of another key financial friend and big federal contractor, Elon Musk. Together, Elon Musk and Peter Thiel form the core of a very wealthy group of modern tech political influence agents, including another Yale Law School graduate and J.D. Vance supporter, Vivek Ramaswamy. J.D. Vance named one of his three children Vivek. Suffice to say, they are close. What you have read so far is the background of how a billionaire, Peter Thiel, deeply enmeshed in the surveillance state, creates the process for the advancement of his interests. A few dozen millions are a worthy investment if the investment creates and supports the objectives of the billionaire (Palantir Technology).

As an outcome of an influence network in 2006, Senator Barack Obama was successfully installed. As an outcome of an influence network in 2022, Senator J.D. Vance was successfully installed. Both Barry Sotero (Obama) and James Bowman (Vance) are mirror images of each other; the playbooks used to create both are identical. One went through the path of community activism, the other through the military. Both paths have a target audience.

Starts with Bolton.

• Vice President JD Vance Discusses Russia-Ukraine Negotiations (CTH)

Vice President JD Vance appears on Meet the Press for an extensive interview about current events and the Russia-Ukraine negotiations. The beginning of the interview starts with questions about the FBI investigation of former National Security Advisor John Bolton.

This is what Azov wanted to hear on Ukraine’s Independence Day, yesterday And warmongers including Europeans too. Zelensky delivers.

• Zelensky Vows To Retake Crimea Despite Trump’s Peace Push (RT)

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has rejected US calls to withdraw its claim to Crimea or make any territorial concessions to Russia. In a speech marking Ukraine’s Independence Day on Sunday, Zelensky vowed to retake the peninsula, which is predominantly populated by ethnic Russians and overwhelmingly voted to join Russia after the 2014 Western-backed coup in Kiev. He also pledged to reclaim the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, which, along with Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, joined Russia in 2022 after referendums. “Here at the zero kilometer, this is a starting point where distances to Ukrainian cities are marked – to our Donetsk, our Lugansk, our Crimea,” Zelensky said in an address filmed at Kiev’s Maidan Square, the site of the Western-backed 2014 coup.

“All of this is Ukraine… and no temporary occupation can change that. One day… we will be together again as one country. It’s only a matter of time.” While mediating peace efforts between Moscow and Kiev, US President Donald Trump has floated the idea of “land swaps,” but firmly stated that Kiev will not regain Crimea, calling that scenario “impossible.” Land issues were reportedly on the agenda at talks between Trump, Zelensky, and Kiev’s EU backers earlier this week, but Zelensky reportedly rejected proposals to cede territory. He confirmed this in his speech on Sunday, declaring: “Ukraine will never again in history be forced to bear the shame that the Russians call ‘a compromise’.” Trump has called for a one-on-one meeting between Putin and Zelensky, saying it could accelerate the peace process, but warned that the Ukrainian leader must “show flexibility,” including on territorial claims.

He congratulated Ukraine on its national holiday in a post on X, while again urging Kiev to negotiate a settlement with Moscow to “stop the senseless killing.” Putin has not ruled out meeting with Zelensky, despite questioning the Ukrainian leader’s legitimacy due to the expiration of his term, but insists that this can only happen after tangible progress in negotiations. On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Putin could meet Zelensky “when the agenda is ready for a summit,” but added that “as things stand, no meeting is planned.” Moscow has consistently maintained it will only accept a peace deal that includes Ukrainian neutrality, demilitarization, and recognition of Crimea, Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye as Russian.

Lavrov has much to say. Kristen Welker is a disgrace, and embarrassing. She tries to interrupt him a thousand times -and fails-, but doesn’t listen. She’s interested only in venting her own agenda. But Lavrov is nobody’s fool.

• Russian FM Sergey Lavrov Extensive Interview On NBC’s Meet the Press (CTH)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov appears on Meet the Press (NBC) to outline the Russian position on further discussions for a peace agreement with Ukraine. Lavrov notes the working group from the Russian delegation is willing to meet in Istanbul to further negotiate the parameters for any principal meeting between President Putin and President Zelenskyy.

“..they should pay up BIG for having the privilege of using the most valuable airwaves anywhere at anytime!”

• ABC and NBC Should Be Taken Off Air – Trump (RT)

US President Donald Trump has said news channels ABC and NBC should have their broadcasting licenses revoked. Trump has long accused major media outlets of spreading lies about him and working to undermine his presidency on behalf of the Democrats. In a post on Truth Social on Sunday, Trump blasted ABC and NBC as “two of the absolute worst and most biased networks.” “They should lose their Licenses for their unfair coverage of Republicans and/or Conservatives, but at a minimum, they should pay up BIG for having the privilege of using the most valuable airwaves anywhere at anytime!” he wrote. He has previously labeled both networks “political pawns” of the Democrats.

In June, ABC dismissed veteran correspondent Terry Moran after he referred to senior Trump aide Stephen Miller as a “world-class hater.” In 2024, the network agreed to pay $15 million to Trump’s presidential library to settle a defamation lawsuit over inaccurate comments about his sexual assault and defamation trial involving columnist E. Jean Carroll. Last month, Paramount, the parent company of CBS News, agreed to pay $16 million as part of another settlement. Trump alleged the company deceptively edited a 2024 interview with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, who at the time was running against him in the presidential election. In July, Trump filed a lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal’s parent company, Dow Jones, and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, over a report claiming he had sent a birthday letter to financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein in the early 2000s.

..but … but… everybody keeps saying they want ALL of Ukraine…!

• Territory Is Not What Russia Is Interested In – Lavrov (RT)

Russia has no interest in seizing Ukrainian land but wants to protect ethnic Russians and Russian-speaking people from persecution by Kiev, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. In an interview with NBC on Sunday, Lavrov was asked whether halting Moscow’s military offensive was the only concession it was prepared to make. ”We don’t have any interest in territories. We have the biggest territory on Earth,” Lavrov said. “What we are concerned about… is the people who live on those lands, whose ancestors lived there for centuries.”

Lavrov said Moscow’s goal is “to remove any security threats to Russia coming from Ukrainian territory” as well as “to protect the rights of the ethnic Russian and Russian-speaking people who believe they belong to Russian culture and Russian history.” “The only way to protect them against this Nazi regime is to give them the right to express their will,” he stressed. Lavrov went on to underscore that “Ukraine has the right to exist,” but it should be ready to “let people go.” He noted, however, that Ukrainian officials have consistently sought to dehumanize and portray as “terrorists” people in its five former regions that voted to join Russia in 2014 and 2022.

Since the Western-backed armed coup in Kiev in 2014, Ukraine has moved to sever centuries-long ties with Russia and introduced restrictions on the Russian language in the media. It has also sought to phase out Russian in schools, and impose broader curbs on its use in social life. Kiev has also embarked on a campaign to eliminate cultural ties with Moscow, particularly through its controversial decommunization campaign, which involved renaming cities, streets, and landmarks that bore Soviet-era or Russian-linked names.

“They say we cannot allow the defeat of Ukraine. We cannot allow Russia to win…”

• US Seeking Diplomacy, EU Pushing War – Lavrov (RT)

Kiev’s backers in Europe want the conflict in Ukraine to continue, unlike US President Donald Trump, who seems to have genuinely embraced the path of diplomacy, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. Speaking in an interview with NBC aired on Sunday, Lavrov said that the reaction of many European officials to the summit in Alaska, and also their rhetoric during follow-up talks several days later involving Vladimir Zelensky, revealed that the European NATO nations remain as bellicose as ever about the Ukraine conflict. “The reaction… of these European representatives and what they were doing… indicates that they don’t want peace. They say we cannot allow the defeat of Ukraine. We cannot allow Russia to win,” Lavrov said.

Meanwhile, the minister noted that US President Donald Trump has opted for another approach. “We respect President Trump because President Trump defends American national interests,” he said, adding that the US leader seems to respect Russian President Vladimir Putin for doing the same for his country. “What… they discuss between themselves is not a secret. We want peace in Ukraine. President Trump wants peace in Ukraine,” Lavrov stressed. He also noted that Russia and Ukraine came close to a peace agreement early in the conflict during talks in Istanbul. “We proposed several times a peaceful resolution on a diplomatic basis. And as I said, it was not us who blew up the deal… in April 2022. It was personally [then-UK Prime Minister] Boris Johnson and… several officials from the Biden administration, the French and the Germans.”

During those negotiations, Russia and Ukraine discussed a draft agreement that entailed a neutral status for Ukraine, a scaling back of Kiev’s military, and security guarantees. Moscow has accused Johnson of intervening to urge Kiev to reject the proposed deal and continue fighting, a claim the ex-UK prime minister has denied. Following the Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump held talks with Zelensky and several European leaders, which focused on potential security guarantees for Kiev. Several European governments have also floated the idea of deploying troops to Ukraine once the conflict ends, a step Russia has described as a red line.

“A game he is very good [at playing] because he wants theatrics in everything he is doing. He does not care about substance,”

• Zelensky Can’t Sign Peace Deal – Moscow (RT)

Russia is open to talks with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky given that he is the “de facto head of the regime” in Kiev, but any deals could only be signed by a legitimate representative of Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. In a rare interview with NBC aired on Sunday, Lavrov did not rule out direct talks between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelensky “provided this meeting is really going to decide something.” However, the necessary groundwork for such talks, the foreign minister stressed, has not yet been done. Lavrov acknowledged that Zelensky is the “de facto head of the regime” but said that “the issue of who is going to sign the deal on the Ukrainian side is a very serious [one],” he said. “We would need a very clear understanding by everybody that the person who is signing is legitimate.”

The Ukrainian leader’s presidential term ended more than a year ago, and he has refused to hold a new election, citing martial law. Russia has since proclaimed him “illegitimate.” Lavrov also suggested that Zelensky’s calls for a meeting with Putin are “basically a game” and a way to strengthen the Ukrainian leader’s questionable legitimacy. “A game he is very good [at playing] because he wants theatrics in everything he is doing. He does not care about substance,” he said. Moscow sees no point in talks destined to yield no results due to Kiev’s position, Lavrov said, pointing out cases where Zelensky has directly defied US President Donald Trump. “Zelensky said no to everything… He clearly stated that nobody can prohibit him from joining NATO… he publicly stated that he is not going to discuss any territories.”

Russia maintains that any settlement of the Ukraine conflict must address the root causes of the crisis. Moscow insists that Ukraine must commit to block neutrality, demilitarization, denazification, and recognition of territorial reality on the ground. Kiev has said that while Zelensky is ready to discuss Ukraine’s territorial disputes with Russia, it has no intention to recognize its losses.

“Everywhere in the Western World democracy is in crisis and collapse. Democracy has become so dysfunctional that executive authority is superseding it.”

• Revolution or a Caesar? (Paul Craig Roberts)

FBI Raids Home of Trump’s First Term National Security Adviser John Bolton. Bolton was not detained, but is expected to be charged. Generally speaking, democracies die from corruption. The United States is no exception. America has always suffered from corrupt government at every level. Liberals who put unwarranted trust in government, especially at the federal level, have long been in denial about this fact. Liberals tend to see corruption in state and local governments, especially Southern ones. They see federal government intervention as the correction. Liberals know, or once did, of the corruption of President Grant’s government. They know of President Lincoln’s disregard of the US constitution. But liberals still see the federal government as a corrective force.

The federal government is no more safe from being hijacked by interest groups than state and local governments. Essentially, governments are agencies that influential private interests use to feather their own nest at the expense of others. The reason is that the President, and the members of the House and Senate obtain office courtesy of those private interests that provide their campaign funds. Therefore, it is the monied interests that government serves. Somehow the notion of a “public interest” has survived the many decades of contrary evidence. Over the course of my life I have noticed a quantitative/qualitative change in the power of private interests. Formerly they used the law to get what they want. Today they weaponize law in order to remove those in their way.

The use of law as a weapon to control policy perhaps dates from the Nixon era. President Nixon was making arms control agreements with the Soviets and opened to China. The military/security interests did not want to lose the communist enemy that enhanced their profits, and they went to work on Nixon. Growing suspicions about the assassination of President Kennedy foreclosed the physical assassination of Nixon, so they assassinated him politically with the Watergate orchestration. The bullet that hit President Reagan did not kill him, and the official narrative was accepted. Nevertheless, the CIA was opposed to Reagan’s idea of negotiating the end of the Cold War with the Kremlin. I know, because I was on a secret presidential committee to investigate the validity of the CIA’s opposition.

Whenever its origin, weaponized law in the US has been manifested in the 21st century. George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and the neoconservatives gave us 9/11 and a quarter century of war in the Middle East resulting in the destruction of 6 countries and millions of displaced persons who fled to the West and destabilized European countries and the UK. To facilitate the profits, budgets, and influence of the military/security complex, American civil liberties protected by the Constitution were erased by laws deemed necessary in order to protect us from an alleged “terrorism,” which was itself an orchestration. But all of this was foreplay. Democrat opposition to Trump’s election in 2016, and Trump’s intention to “normalize relations with Russia,” weaponized not only the Democrats and whore media against him, but also the CIA, Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the FBI.

US intelligence agencies falsified documents, lied to the FISA court and to Congress, and loaded the presstitutes with anti-Trump propaganda in order to hamstring, if not remove, a president deemed dangerous to the enormous profits that flowed from America having the Russian enemy. The “Russian Enemy” is very important to many pocketbooks. Trump is trying, or so it seems, to get rid of the Russian enemy for us, by passing the task of the Ukrainian conflict on to Europe which will purchase US weapons to continue the conflict. This way we are free of the conflict, but the profit interests of the military-security complex are not threatened, Now for John Bolton. Bolton is a neoconservative. Perhaps he just wants, as do other Americans, for the US to be the unquestioned power in the world. Perhaps he thinks that we are really threatened by the enemies we chose to make. Perhaps he takes bribes in behalf of Greater Israel and/or the military/security complex . I don’t know.

What I do know is that when a former National Security Adviser’s home and office are raided by the FBI who carry off his files, whether or not the raids are justified, the image of the United States suffers, just as eight years of false charges against Trump and the FBI raid on Trump’s home damaged the image of the United States. Once law is weaponized, the prospect is created of weaponized law becoming institutionalized. Additionally, the authority of high government positions is undermined by the positions being tainted with impropriety. If the CIA director dispenses with presidents and the FBI chief lies to Congress, trust in the agencies disappears. The Biden regime persecuted not only Trump but also his attorneys, appointees, and those who presented evidence of election theft. Trump, a former president, faced four criminal indictments in weaponized courts with weaponized charges presented by weaponized attorney generals, one of whom, a George Soros protege, currently faces indictment on the same charge she framed Trump with.

Once law is weaponized, it is a life and death matter who controls the government. A government in such turmoil can never serve the public’s interest. What goes around comes around. John Bolton brought it on himself. Bolton, Brennan, Comey, Clapper, and Merrick Garland are likely guilty of crimes, whereas Trump, his attorneys and supporters are likely not guilty. But whatever Bolton and the others suffer, so does the image of the United States. The use of high office for personal agendas separates the interests of government from the interest of the people and kills democracy. The image portrayed is one of a government serving foreign, material, and ideological interests, not the interests of the voters who elected the government. Everywhere in the Western World democracy is in crisis and collapse. Democracy has become so dysfunctional that executive authority is superseding it. When democracy fails, the choice becomes revolution or a Caesar.

More Sundance. He says there are two ‘gates’: Russiagate and ‘spygate’, where Obama et al spied on Americans for many years. According to him, ‘spygate’ is much more important -and bigger-, and Russiagate is used to divert attention away from it. Especially by people like John Solomon at Just The News.

The two ‘Outline #5’ pieces, here and below, are much longer than I can show here. Click the links.

“Beware the person who picks up the flag at the front of the parade, for they are likely steering the crowd for a reason.”

• Outline #5 – The Prequel (CTH)

If you have followed the construct of the Trump-Russia collusion story, you are likely outraged that accountability has not followed. There’s a very frustrating reason for that, and I will explain how two distinctly different issues are being conflated. Separating them is the key. The first issue is the FBI’s illegal surveillance of presidential candidates, including candidate Donald Trump. The second issue is the Clinton campaign inspired Russia-Collusion story, that led to Crossfire Hurricane, colloquially known as “Russiagate.” All investigative emphasis, including John Durham, has been on the latter which takes you into a DC silo construct where all tentacles lead to dead ends and inaction.

Russiagate was a Clinton-inspired political smear campaign that was given the patina of credibility by the FBI opening the investigation called “Crossfire Hurricane.” If you focus on that storyline, you end up with zero accountability and endless talk that goes nowhere. However, if President Trump and DNI Tulsi Gabbard reveal the first element, the FBI’s illegal surveillance of candidate Donald Trump, that path has a physical trail and documents that cannot be deflected by political obfuscation.

THE FBI SURVEILLANCE – The original agreement between Clinton and Obama, going back to 2008, was for Obama to take the nomination, the presidency and then eventually support Hillary Clinton’s 2016 election bid. Obama would be President. Obama would appoint Clinton to Secretary of State, Hillary would then use her office to build wealth for herself and her family, and then HRC would exit the Dept of State to begin her presidential run. John Podesta would enter the Obama administration as Hillary left (post Benghazi mess) in 2013. Podesta would look out for Hillary’s interests from his position inside the Obama White House. The Clintons and Obamas never fully trusted each other. Barack Obama would put all the mechanisms into place that would transition his administration into Hillary Clinton’s. That was always the plan running in the background.

In 2015, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama had a check-in meeting -just touching base to firm up the goals and objectives as Hillary began her campaign launch. Podesta then left the White House to take up position inside the campaign, and Obama would maintain Clinton’s interests as planned without a monitor. All of President Obama’s appointments, in/after 2015, were essentially through the prism of assisting Hillary Clinton to win in 2016. Attorney General Loretta Lynch (tarmac meeting), Deputy AG Sally Yates, Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe and FBI Director James Comey were all part of that. This is a key point missed by many. In the last two years of Obama, the cabinet and top-tier members of the administration would align their institutional interests to that of Hillary Clinton.

Technically, Hillary had eyes and ears all over the White House at the time, and with Hillary Clinton being a foregone conclusion, per the expectations of Washington DC, everyone would fall in line during the transition from Obama to Clinton. Again, this was the general plan. Obama would show up in 2016 to campaign for Hillary, and all would be seamless. The FBI was aware of the plan for transition from Obama to Clinton. Hence, the FBI role in eliminating the threat later presented by the Hillary Clinton laptop scandal, private servers and the subsequent issues of her receiving and transmitting classified information.

Remember, Clinton’s motive as Secretary of State was to sell her position for material wealth. That’s why she used a personal email, maintained her own servers, and generally controlled how her activity could be monitored and tracked. [Also, she didn’t fully trust Obama] The FBI activity was to support, defend and facilitate the Clinton effort. This is again a key to understanding “Russiagate.” After March 2016 (Super Tuesday), it became obvious Donald Trump was going to win the Republican nomination. Trump would be Clinton’s opponent.

“Stop focusing so much attention on Russiagate, it’s the shiny thing fraught with plausible deniability. Focus instead on declassifying and releasing the real story of how the NSA database has been used to conduct political surveillance for over a decade…”

• Outline #5 – The Full Spectrum Criminal Surveillance (CTH)

How this all comes together:

Fusion GPS was not hired in April 2016 simply to research Donald Trump. As shown in the evidence provided by the FISC, the Obama administration was already doing surveillance and spy operations. The Obama administration already knew everything about the Trump campaign and were monitoring everything by exploiting the FISA database. However, after the NSA alerts in/around March 9th, 2016, and particularly after the April 18th shutdown of contractor access, the Obama FBI needed Fusion GPS to create a legal albeit ex post facto justification for the pre-existing surveillance and spy operations. Fusion GPS gave them that justification in the Steele Dossier. That’s why the FBI small group, which later transitioned into the Mueller team, were so strongly committed to and defending the formation of the Steele Dossier and its dubious content.

The Steele Dossier was a tool needed to get a FISA Title-1 warrant, that became the cover and justification for a pre-existing surveillance operation. The Steele Dossier becomes the investigative virus the FBI wanted inside the system. To get the virus into official status, they used the FISA application as the delivery method and injected it into Carter Page. The FBI already knew Carter Page; essentially Carter Page was irrelevant, what they needed was the FISA warrant and the Dossier in the system. Fusion GPS was hired by Hillary Clinton to research Trump; however, the Obama administration was already doing surveillance and spy operations, using FBI contractors. The FBI needed Fusion GPS to give them something, a plausible justification for already existing surveillance and spy operations.

Fusion-GPS gave them the justification they needed for a FISA warrant with the Steele Dossier. Ultimately that’s why the Steele Dossier was so important; without it, the Obama administration was naked with their NSA database abuse. Investigating ‘Russiagate’, as dirty and unseemly as it was, takes you to a place where politics infected the DOJ/FBI and every participant carries plausible deniability. However, investigate the 2016 illegal surveillance of Donald Trump’s campaign via the NSA database and all of that activity can never be justified. nIf you understand the distinction above, then you start to realize why John Solomon is focusing on Russiagate. Beware the person who picks up the flag at the front of the parade, for they are likely steering the crowd for a reason.

If DNI Tulsi Gabbard focuses on the known FBI surveillance of the GOP candidates in 2016, by focusing on how FBI contractors exploited access to the NSA database to conduct political opposition research, then suddenly the entire story takes on a simpler to understand context. Declassify the Rosemary Collyer 99-page FISA report and outline the FBI contractors doing the surveillance. Stop focusing so much attention on Russiagate, it’s the shiny thing fraught with plausible deniability. Focus instead on declassifying and releasing the real story of how the NSA database has been used to conduct political surveillance for over a decade. Obama conducted full spectrum political surveillance and spying operations exploiting the NSA database from 2012 to 2016. All republican candidates were under surveillance.

THAT is the BIG STORY that will shake up DC.

A theme that’s gaining popularity: Putin trolling Trump. The contention is that since Putin agreed to a meeting with Zelensky, it has to take place tomorrow morning at the very latest. Any talk of preparing for the meeting is just trolling.

• Expect Putin To Pay Big-Time For Trolling Trump (NYP op-ed))

We expect Russia’s Vladimir Putin and his top minions to soon regret their decision to make a fool of President Donald Trump. At their Alaska summit, Putin gave Trump renewed hope for a peace deal on the Ukraine war — but that’s now looking like Lucy setting up Charlie Brown for another football humiliation. After initially signaling openness to a meet, Sergey Lavrov, Putin’s foreign secretary, just dumped yet more cold water on any chance for a Putin sitdown with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky. Bloviating on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Lavrov announced, “There is no meeting planned,” and none will happen without advance agreement that fits Putin’s “presidential agenda.” And that agenda is “not ready at all”: Ukraine must publicly agree it will never join NATO, Zelensky must repeal laws that Lavrov claims ban “the Russian language” and concede in advance on “territorial issues” Lavrov wouldn’t specify.

Oh, and he reiterated the Russians’ believe that Zelensky isn’t Ukraine’s “legitimate” president, though “we recognize him as the de facto head of the regime.” This follows a full week of Lavrov & Co. insisting, for example, that no European troops can be deployed in Ukraine to secure the peace, and indeed demanding a veto over any post-war security guarantees for Kyiv. The Russians are also pushing hard for Ukraine to agree in advance that it will cede the half of Donbas that Putin’s been trying to conquer since 2014. All of it clearly contradicts the gist of what Vice President JD Vance says Putin agreed to in Anchorage: “They’ve recognized that they’re not going to be able to install a puppet regime in Kyiv, and importantly, they’ve acknowledged that there is going to be some security guarantee to the territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Vance said on the same NBC show.

Yes, Putin from the start of his invasion has claimed he means to oust a supposed “neo-Nazi” regime in Kyiv (though Zelensky is Jewish!), and generally insists that Ukraine is really just a part of Russia that never should’ve been independent. So what? If Vlad were genuinely willing to discuss a lasting peace deal, he’d have been willing to set those delusions aside, and to order Lavrov and his fellow toadies to quit it. Instead, Putin has his minions outright trolling not just Zelensky, but Trump himself. The American president’s been slowly signaling his displeasure, posting days ago of this war that “it is very hard, if not impossible, to win a war without attacking” the invader’s country — a blatant warning that Washington might give Kyiv added ability to strike deep inside Russia.

That’s on top of the threats Trump has conspicuously so far left on the table, including secondary sanctions that would cripple Russia’s economy and so its whole war machine. Trump was beyond clear after Alaska that Putin only had another two weeks to publicly move toward a face-to-face with Zelensky as a key step in reaching a peace accord. One week’s already done, and Russia’s done nothing but signal that no sitdown is in sight unless Ukraine basically surrenders in advance on every issue up for discussion. That is, Putin’s displaying “the art of the no-deal” — and treating Trump like a sucker for believing everything he said to the contrary in Anchorage. The Russian plainly thinks he’ll get away with humiliating the leader of the Free World; it won’t be pretty when Trump finally moves to dispel that delusion.

The one thing this author has is :”During 2024-2025, the criminals embezzled about $80 000 of money allocated for purchasing of defense goods..”

If that is all you got, you shouldn’t waste people’s time by writing about this.

• Systemic Corruption Doesn’t Give A Chance For Peace In Ukraine (Antiwar)

Another huge scandal linked to embezzlement of budget funds in government procurement has broken out in Ukraine recently. On August 2, Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) exposed an organized criminal group created by “Servant of the People” party’s deputy Oleksii Kuznietsov and head of the State Administration of the Mukachevo District Serhiy Haidai. The group have been organizing purchases of overpriced FPV drones and electronic warfare systems for the National Guard of Ukraine. According to investigation data, beside Kuznietsov and Haidai, a head of one of the Military-Civil Administrations, a unit commander of the National Guard, and representatives of company manufacturing drones were also involved in the huge corruption scheme.

During 2024-2025, the criminals embezzled about $80 000 of money allocated for purchasing of defense goods. 30% from every government contract settled in their pockets. Now, all key persons of interest are taken into custody with the possibility of being out on bail. The head of the state Volodymyr Zelenskyy commented on the situation eloquently calling the fraud “absolutely immoral” and promised a “full and fair accountability” for the criminals. However, neither high-profile exposure of corrupt officials, nor passionate speeches of the president of the country haven’t been able to dispel the tension, that has accumulated over last several weeks, and exonerate the Kyiv authorities for Ukrainians and international public.

The reason for this is recent attempts of authorities to discredit the Ukrainian anti-corruption agencies and restrict their independence which really destroyed civilians’ faith in Zelenskyy’s and his team’s commitment to the rule of law and authorities’ interest in fighting corruption in general. I’m talking about a set of planned and well-coordinated attacks of current authorities on SAPO and NABU which preceded the exposure of the Kuznietsov-Haidai group. On June 21, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine (one month before the events the office of Prosecutor General was taken by Ruslan Kravchenko who is known for his loyalty to the Office of the President of Ukraine) and SBU conducted unauthorized searches in both agencies. As the result of the searches, several NABU detectives were taken into custody on suspicion of collaboration with Russia.

This joint operation of the secret services and the Prosecutor General’s Office (cynically called by the implementers “special operation”) literally paralyzed the work of NABU and SAPO and created a formal reason for tightening the control over anti-corruption agencies. The reason the Kyiv authorities have been looking for a very long time and not finding one, is that they created it themselves. Already on July 22, the Verkhovnaya Rada of Ukraine passed a new law which practically liquidated the independence of anti-corruption agencies and established full control over their work by the Prosecutor General’s Office. Later that night, the new law was quickly signed by the President Zelenskyy despite the will of Ukrainians.

Such an undisguised attempt to liquidate the anti-corruption agencies caused an immediate reaction from Ukrainians. Ukrainians openly stood against the culpable law: hundreds of people went to protests on the streets, and free Ukrainian media was full of critics and disapproval of Kyiv’s authorities. However, I hate to admit it, but Ukrainians wouldn’t stop the authorities’ arbitrariness by themselves without the help of Ukrainian allies. Only due to the fast interference and strong stand of European and American authorities which have made everything they could to stop Kyiv’s authorities’ treacherous actions. The process of liquidation of SAPO and NABU was reversed. As a result, on July 31, under pressure of Ukrainian and international public a new law was passed. It restored the independence of the anti-corruption agencies. Nevertheless, we shouldn’t hope that Kyiv’s authorities stop trying to destroy anti-corruption agencies.

One last Sundance -for today-:

”… the CIA seemingly operates in places like Ukraine without President Trump or Director John Ratcliffe having any power over the activity.”

• Devin Nunes Frames a Remarkable Reality (CTH)

While speaking to Lara Trump about the ongoing Russiagate review efforts, Devin Nunes notes, “The only thing that President Trump and this administration can do, is make sure that whoever can be held accountable, are held accountable, and that this doesn’t happen again; that these people are taught a lesson, so that this doesn’t happen again.” But there’s something even more revealing within the interview. Context: Devin Nunes is the chair of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, an alternative mechanism to review and analyze global and domestic intelligence information – with overlay against truth and reality that underpins the issue(s). Action: Accepting the intent of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, now insert the recent DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s directive to stop information sharing with allied countries as it specifically relates to President Trump’s efforts to create a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia.

Back to the interview: Here’s the statement that really deserves to be emphasized: “Imagine where we sit today, with all the things going on around the world, and the President has to have the DOJ, the FBI, the CIA, his own intelligence board, all making sure the intelligence is not weaponized. I mean it’s rather incredible, this is something that is unprecedented in the United States of America.” Think about that remarkable context. Essentially what Nunes is saying is that Pam Bondi, Todd Blanche, Kash Patel, Dan Bongino, John Ratcliffe, Tulsi Gabbard and Devin Nunes (et al) cannot trust the operational embeds under the agency heads within the United States Intelligence Community. Think about that, as it is said out loud. This is exactly what CTH has been trying to hammer home for years.

The modern IC system is now designed to be a rogue apparatus, disconnected from the traditional framework of executive control. The people who operate within that fourth branch of government are not constrained by the power or authority of the executive. This is exceptionally dangerous. We elect a President (Executive), we elect representatives (Legislative), the Executive and Legislative create the Judicial, who exactly is controlling the Intelligence Branch? Many, too numerous people to count, have dismissed my warnings about how this system is operating. Here we have the former Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and current Chair of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, saying exactly the same thing.

Ratcliffe, Gabbard, Patel, Blanche, Bongino, Bondi, Rubio and all of the Nunes advisory team, are trying to keep the IC system operators from targeting President Trump via weaponized, purposefully manipulated, intelligence information. By direct and unassailable implication, this means rogue influence operations are taking place external to the ability of executive to curtail them. As Devin Nunes is noting, the Office of the President is taking active measures to work around the intelligence agencies. This rogue nature of the intelligence apparatus is an example of how the CIA seemingly operates in places like Ukraine without President Trump or Director John Ratcliffe having any power over the activity.

Only Trump defends Christian values.

• Trends in Global Christian Persecution (Salgado)

Thousands killed and millions displaced from one religious group across multiple countries. Persecution, imprisonment, and murder loom. Does the world care? No, because this much-targeted religion is Christianity. When Jews and Christians are killed, the West turns a blind eye or downplays the violence. That is especially true when the victimizers are Muslims or Communists. Christians are being massacred in multiple countries worldwide, but you wouldn’t know that from mainstream media. We here at PJ Media, however, aim to highlight this global tragedy. Don’t let the Hamas propaganda fixate all your attention on the jihad-loving Gazans. As Open Doors reveals on its website, persecution of Christians has intensified in recent years and especially in countries with strong Islamic jihad groups or Communist governments. Why are Western aid, media, and and politicians never going to persecuted Christians?

Open Doors notes that “Authoritarian control in Central Asia” have been responsible for “violence and authoritarian restrictions against Christians have risen globally during the past year, most notably in Central Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. No country stood out more than Kyrgyzstan, which rose sharply on the WWL, the annual ranking of the countries where it is most difficult to live as a Christian.” WWL is the World Watch List for persecution. Civil wars also cause serious danger to many Christians, who can find themselves caught in between both sides in countries torn apart by internal and violent conflict. “Civil wars in Yemen, Myanmar, and Sudan, created unstable environments, putting Christians into the crossfires,” according to Open Doors.

The current genocide in Syria is also an outgrowth of civil war, as Islamic terrorist group HTS, now in charge of the country, was for years at war with the Assad regime. Christians often suffered from both sides, but particularly now that HTS’s al-Golani — now al-Sharaa — is fully in charge and overseeing vicious mass murder against Christian and Druze minorities. The violence against Christians in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is particularly bad. In fact, Open Doors labeled that region “the most violent place in the world for Christians. Chronic government instability and civil conflict have created a vacuum, which is filled by opportunistic Islamic militants, in several nations in SSA.” Do black lives matter? Do they not matter when they are Christian? Leftists love to blather about Africa, but not about Islamic jihad in Africa.

Furthermore, Open Doors highlights the phenomenon of the “disappearing Church.” It explains: The Church is driven out or driven underground in several countries. In the Middle East especially, several Christian communities are dwindling and, in some cases, on the verge of extinction. Finally, Open Doors discusses surveillance states. “Christians in China and other autocratic states are increasingly cautious about openly expressing their faith due to advanced surveillance.” The blood of the innocent cries out from the earth.

https://twitter.com/Real_RobN/status/1959289086247862680

keto

"It activates the brain's repair systems."

Dr. Mark Hyman explains how the keto diet can cure cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer's, schizophrenia and more.

"It helps cognitive function at every level… from autism, to Alzheimer's, to schizophrenia, to depression."

"Sugar is really… pic.twitter.com/eEcjKx1gmO

— Wide Awake Media (@wideawake_media) August 24, 2025

https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1959505163154059363

caryatid

With the help of artificial intelligence, we see the stolen Caryatid escape from the British Museum and return to her sisters at the Acropolis Museum. Let's hope it becomes a reality.pic.twitter.com/pvhHXoZuBx

— well-meaning (@FreshSummerWind) August 23, 2025

tarsier
https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1959488339402518674

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Debt Rattle June 30 2025

Jun 302025

June 30, 2025 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:12 am Finance Tagged with: Baltic Sea, Canada, China, Elon Musk, IAEA, Iran, Kagan, Kyle Bass, MAHA, Peter Thiel, Serbia, tariffs, weapons-grade 40 Responses »

Paul Gauguin Van Gogh painting sunflowers 1888

• China’s Economy Spirals With No End in Sight, Says Kyle Bass (ET)

• Canada Hands Big Win To Trump, Suspends US Tech Firm Tax (JTN)

• Elon Musk Escalates Attack On Trump’s Mega Bill (RT)

• Iran Could Rebuild Nuclear Program Within Months – IAEA Chief (RT)

• No Weapons-Grade Enrichment In Iran – Foreign Ministry Spokesman (RT)

• Top Economist: Trump May Have ‘Outsmarted All of Us’ on Tariffs (Margolis)

• One-World Government Greater Threat Than AI, Climate Change – Peter Thiel (ZH)

• Serbian Protesters Claim Blocking Traffic in 18 Cities Nationwide (Sp.)

• West Starts to See It Can’t Inflict Strategic Defeat on Russia – Lavrov (Sp.)

• Justice Kagan’s Own Words Come Back to Haunt Her on Injunctions (Margolis)

• Elie Mystal’s MSNBC Meltdown Over Trump Is One for the Ages (Margolis)

• MSM Claims MAHA “Threatens To Set Women Back Decades” (ZH)

• Baltic Sea’s WW2 Chemical Legacy Demands Russia-NATO Cooperation (RT)

Thank you for your donations overnight. Don’t stop now!

Trade deal
https://twitter.com/ThePatriotOasis/status/1939334146050183536

pic.twitter.com/oLWxHCXgcF

— Hamzé Attar (@hamzattar) June 29, 2025

pic.twitter.com/MRgXFsTXbD

— Calliope 彡 (@Calliope_Greece) June 29, 2025

Never

pic.twitter.com/AJmZOFK7Dp

— Donna Barford (@DonnaBarford) June 28, 2025

AOC

AOC built her entire political brand on being a “Girl from the Bronx.”

But is that true? No. It’s a lie.

I travelled to AOC’s actual hometown to investigate. It’s safe, clean, patriotic and wealthy. It’s a slice of small town American heaven.

Here’s where AOC is really from… pic.twitter.com/C7THiyyDsO

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) June 29, 2025

Dmitry Orlov: NATO is DONE

Snowden

This interview with @Snowden is the longest video I've ever posted.

I kept asking questions, because what he says is interesting: pic.twitter.com/XLlInwQMM9

— John Stossel (@JohnStossel) June 28, 2025

Take Bass seriously. He is no fool, and he does have a reputation to care about.

• China’s Economy Spirals With No End in Sight, Says Kyle Bass (ET)

Communist China is grappling with the most severe economic crisis in its history, a downturn that the regime will not recover from, according to Kyle Bass, founder and chief investment officer of Hayman Capital Management. “There is nothing that is going to bail China out of their economic spiral. They’re having a real estate crisis, a banking crisis, a youth unemployment crisis, and now they need to be worried about their current account,” Bass said in an interview on EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders” that aired on June 26. Bass said U.S. tariffs and declining trade threaten China’s economic advantage, which is its trade surplus with the United States.

China’s exports to the United States plunged by 35 percent in May compared to a year earlier, according to Chinese customs data. “China’s once bright spot is now in question,” Bass said. “I actually am surprised it’s not down more.” China has also been hit hard by capital flight. In 2024, Bass said, China experienced a massive outflow of both foreign direct investment (FDI) and portfolio investment totaling about $500 billion, pointing to the gap between its trade surplus of about $980 billion and its current account surplus of about $420 billion. China is also facing unsustainable debts. When combining China’s sovereign debt and local government financing debt, Bass estimated that the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio should be roughly 350 percent, which he said is difficult to manage considering the various economic challenges.

Another indicator of China’s financial crisis is the performance of China’s bond market, Bass said. As of June 27, the yield on China’s 10-year sovereign bond is approximately 1.64 percent, compared to 4.26 percent for the U.S. 10-year Treasury “So the Chinese government is pretty good at lying about whatever they want to lie about, but the bond market kind of tells the truth, and the bond markets telling you that China is in an economic winter,” Bass said. China’s economic troubles have persisted for several years, highlighted by the collapse of major real estate developers Evergrande and Country Garden, which marked the onset of the current property crisis in 2021. In February, the national unemployment rate reached 5.7 percent, the highest in two years, while the youth jobless rate topped 16.9 percent.

Adding to the concerns, consumer prices fell for a fourth consecutive month in May, while industrial profits decreased by 9.1 percent compared to a year earlier, underscoring deepening deflatory pressures in the world’s second-largest economy. Despite China’s economic struggles, the United States continues to rely on China for certain imports, particularly rare earths and pharmaceutical ingredients. According to data from the U.S. Geological Survey, the United States imported 70 percent of its rare earths from China between 2020 and 2023. In the face of China’s leverage over these items, Bass said that the United States retains the ultimate “trump card” through its control of the global dollar system. “They don’t have the ability to purchase things around the world in yuan or RMB because no one accepts a currency they don’t trust or that doesn’t trade,” Bass said.

Bass stated that the United States should signal to Beijing its intention to sever China’s access to the dollar system, the very moment the regime initiates military action against Taiwan. “Deterrence is something that we should all be engaging in to try to stop China from being militaristically belligerent with Taiwan,” Bass said. “That is a better first move on our part than sending carrier strike groups of our brave men and women into the Taiwan Strait in a kinetic conflict with China … tens of thousands of our men and women will die if that happens.” The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) claims Taiwan as a renegade province, intent on annexing the island, though the regime has never exercised authority there. Taiwan is a de facto independent nation with its own democratically elected government, military, constitution, and currency.

Canada/Carney comes with a whole new tax, retroactive to 2022 no less, that would cost US firms billions. Trump reacts by suspending trade talks, and Canada suspends the tax. Thinking: oh well, no harm done. But trust has been hurt gravely, while Carney’s hands are still empty. What were/are they thinking?

• Canada Hands Big Win To Trump, Suspends US Tech Firm Tax (JTN)

Canada announced Sunday night it was suspending a tax on U.S. technology firms that had caused President Trump to suspend trade negotiations between the two nations, handing a major victory to the American president. The Canadian government said it was suspending enforcement of the tax that was due to be collected starting Monday, saying the action was taken “in anticipation of a mutually beneficial comprehensive trade arrangement with the United States.” Prime Minister Mark Carney informed the Trump administration of the decision, and the two sides plan to resume trade talks on or about July 21. Trump had called the tax on technology firms an “attack” on America, and suspended trade talks Friday in an effort to pressure Canada.

“The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!”

• Elon Musk Escalates Attack On Trump’s Mega Bill (RT)

Billionaire Elon Musk launched a renewed attack on US President Donald Trump’s budget bill on Saturday, calling it “utterly insane” and warning that it would hurl America into “debt slavery” and destroy millions of jobs. The dispute between the two men who were once close allies turned ugly earlier in June over Trump’s “big, beautiful” tax and spending bill. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO’s outburst came hours before Senate Republicans narrowly advanced the bill in a 51-49 procedural vote, with Vice President J.D. Vance on standby to break a potential tie. Musk took to X to condemn the legislation, writing, “The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!”

The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!

Utterly insane and destructive. It gives handouts to industries of the past while severely damaging industries of the future. https://t.co/TZ9w1g7zHF

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 28, 2025

In a series of posts, he accused the bill of favoring “industries of the past” – likely a jab at fossil fuel subsidies – while undermining future-focused sectors like renewable energy and tech. Musk claimed that the bill’s $5 trillion debt ceiling hike would put the US in the “fast lane to debt slavery,” citing polling data that suggests GOP voters oppose the bill over fiscal concerns. After leaving the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk criticized the bill’s deficit impact, calling it a “disgusting abomination.” Trump retaliated by accusing Musk of having sour grapes over lost electric vehicle subsidies – a reference to federal incentives that had benefited Tesla. Musk escalated by insinuating that Trump had ties to late financier and convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, while Trump considered cutting SpaceX contracts. Later, Musk apologized, and Trump suggested that he could forgive him.

“So you cannot disinvent this. You cannot undo the knowledge that you have or the capacities that you have.”

• Iran Could Rebuild Nuclear Program Within Months – IAEA Chief (RT)

Iran could resume uranium enrichment within months, despite recent US and Israeli airstrikes on its nuclear facilities, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi has stated. In an interview with CBS News released on Sunday, Grossi said the strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, including Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan, inflicted “a very serious level of damage,” but some of the assets are “still standing.” “The capacities they [Iran] have are there. They can have, in a matter of months, I would say, a few cascades of centrifuges spinning and producing enriched uranium, or less than that,” he added, while acknowledging that even the Iranians likely do not yet know the extent of the damage.

According to the IAEA chief, Iran maintains a significant industrial capacity. “Iran is a very sophisticated country in terms of nuclear technology, as is obvious. So you cannot disinvent this. You cannot undo the knowledge that you have or the capacities that you have.” Grossi went on to say that concerns about Iran’s nuclear program cannot be put to rest through a military solution. “I think this should be the incentive that we all must have to understand that… you are not going to solve this in a definitive way militarily. You are going to have an agreement,” he said, expressing hope that IAEA inspectors would soon have access to the country’s nuclear sites again. Iran has barred the inspectors from its nuclear facilities, accusing the agency of distorting facts in a recent report, which Tehran claims served as justification for the Israeli and US strikes. Grossi responded by saying: “Really, who can believe that this conflict happened because of a report of the IAEA? And, by the way, what was in that report was not new.”

The comments come after a 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran, during which the US and Israel conducted airstrikes on Iranian nuclear sites. US President Donald Trump claimed the strikes “completely obliterated” Iran’s nuclear facilities and warned of further attacks if Iran pursues nuclear weapons. Several US media outlets have suggested, however, that the damage to Iran’s nuclear infrastructure was limited. Tehran has denied that it has plans to produce a nuclear weapon and maintains that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, stressing that it wants to reserve the right to enrich uranium for civilian use.

“Please, you can go through the reports by the IAEA and show me one single clue or evidence of Iran’s nuclear program deviating from peaceful purposes.”

• No Weapons-Grade Enrichment In Iran – Foreign Ministry Spokesman (RT)

Iran has no plans to obtain nuclear weapons but reserves the right to enrich uranium for civilian use, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei told RT on Saturday. He condemned recent Israeli and US strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities as dangerous and unprovoked. Baghaei dismissed Israeli claims that Tehran had been secretly developing nuclear weapons, which were cited as justification for the attacks. Reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) support Iran’s position, he added. “I think Iran has made it clear for the past two or three decades that it is not seeking nuclear weapons,” Baghaei said. “There has never been weapons-grade enrichment in Iran. Please, you can go through the reports by the IAEA and show me one single clue or evidence of Iran’s nuclear program deviating from peaceful purposes.”

“It is a matter of fact that Iran’s nuclear program remains totally peaceful,” he stressed. The spokesman referred to remarks by the global watchdog’s chief, Rafael Grossi, who stated earlier this month that the agency has found no evidence of “a systematic effort” by Iran to develop nuclear arms. Baghaei also voiced frustration with the IAEA for not strongly condemning the strikes. “What is expected from the IAEA and its Board of Governors is to remain loyal to their responsibilities and mandates by condemning, unambiguously, the US and Israeli regime’s attacks on our nuclear facilities,” he said.

He further defended Iran’s right to enrich uranium under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). “The US is offering a very dangerous interpretation of the NPT – that developing states have no right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. It is not acceptable for any responsible, decent member of the NPT,” Baghaei said. Earlier this week, Iran’s parliament passed a bill to suspend cooperation with the IAEA, accusing the agency of providing “a pretext” for the attacks.

“..even some of the most respected voices in economics are forced to admit that Trump’s tariffs have delivered results that the so-called experts said were impossible.”

• Top Economist: Trump May Have ‘Outsmarted All of Us’ on Tariffs (Margolis)

Donald Trump has a knack for making the so-called experts look foolish, and nowhere is that more apparent than in the ongoing debate over tariffs. The political and economic elite have ridiculed Trump’s approach, insisting that his tough stance on trade would backfire, cause a recession and cripple the U.S. economy. Yet despite all the apocalyptic predictions, the economy hasn’t gone south, and predictions of a looming recession have been quietly walked back. Recently, a prominent anti-Trump economist admitted what many on the right have been saying from the beginning: Trump’s tariff strategy wasn’t the reckless gamble the media made it out to be.

Instead, it was a calculated move designed to protect American workers, revive domestic manufacturing, and put America’s interests first. A prominent Wall Street economist who had slammed President Trump’s tariffs earlier this year now says that the president may have “outsmarted all of us” with his controversial trade policies. Torsten Sløk, chief economist at investment giant Apollo Global Management, said that while the uncertainty surrounding trade policy has already started to weigh on the economy, Trump could lower tariffs on most of the US trading partners while using the levies to boost federal revenue.

Sløk suggested in a recently posted analysis that the administration’s approach may be more strategic than previously thought. The optimistic outlook stands in stark contrast to his earlier position. In April, Sløk warned that Trump’s tariffs could trigger a recession by summer, particularly harming American small businesses and potentially halting the flow of goods from China to the US, leading to layoffs and a broader economic slowdown. Let’s be honest—Trump’s critics never gave him a fair shake. They scoffed at his insistence that America was getting fleeced by China and other trading partners. They dismissed his warnings about the hollowing out of our industrial base. They mocked his promise to bring jobs back to the heartland. But now, even some of the most respected voices in economics are forced to admit that Trump’s tariffs have delivered results that the so-called experts said were impossible.

Now, economists such as Sløk have egg on their faces. “Extending the deadline one year would give countries and US domestic businesses time to adjust to the new world with permanently higher tariffs,” Sløk writes. “It would also result in an immediate decline in uncertainty, which would be positive for business planning, employment, and financial markets.” He added, “This would seem like a victory for the world and yet would produce $400 billion of annual revenue for US taxpayers. Trade partners will be happy with only 10% tariffs and US tax revenue will go up. Maybe the administration has outsmarted all of us.” The reality is that Trump’s tariffs leveled the playing field. For decades, American workers have been forced to compete with countries that exploit cheap labor, ignore environmental standards, and manipulate their currencies.

The globalist consensus—championed by both parties in Washington—left our factories shuttered and our communities devastated. Trump dared to challenge that consensus, and the results speak for themselves. Manufacturing jobs have made a comeback. Wages for blue-collar workers have risen. And, perhaps most importantly, America has regained leverage on the world stage. Trump’s willingness to use tariffs as a bargaining chip forced our trading partners to the negotiating table and secured better deals for American workers. Trump’s approach wasn’t about starting trade wars for the sake of it—it was about restoring American strength. He understood that economic power is national power, and he wasn’t afraid to use every tool at his disposal to protect American interests. The fact that even his critics are now coming around to his way of thinking is a testament to his vision and leadership.

Just as people are saying Peter Thiel is the biggest threat.

• One-World Government Greater Threat Than AI, Climate Change – Peter Thiel (ZH)

In a wide-ranging interview on the future and global existential risks, billionaire technology investor Peter Thiel raised alarms not only about familiar threats like nuclear war, climate change, and artificial intelligence but also about what he sees as a more insidious danger: the rise of a one-world totalitarian state. Speaking to the New York Times’ Ross Douthat, Thiel argued that the default political response to global crises—centralized, supranational governance—could plunge humanity into authoritarianism. Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, shared his worries using examples from dystopian sci-fi stories. “There’s a risk of nuclear war, environmental disaster, bioweapons, and certain types of risks with AI,” Thiel explained to Douthat, suggesting that the push for global governance as a solution to these threats could culminate in a “bad singularity” – a one-world state that stifles freedom under the guise of safety.

Thiel critiqued what he described as a reflexive call for centralized control in times of peril. “The default political solution people have for all these existential risks is one-world governance,” Thiel observed, pointing to proposals for a strengthened United Nations to control nuclear arsenals or global compute governance to regulate AI development, including measures to “log every single keystroke” to prevent dangerous programming. Such solutions, the investor warned, risk creating a surveillance state that sacrifices individual liberty for security.

Drawing on historical and philosophical analogies, Thiel referenced a 1940s Federation of American Scientists film, One World or None, which argued that only global governance could prevent nuclear annihilation. Thiel juxtaposed this with a Christian theological framing: “Antichrist or Armageddon?” In both, the billionaire said he sees a binary choice between centralized control and catastrophic collapse. Yet, Thiel questioned the plausibility of a charismatic “Antichrist” figure seizing power through hypnotic rhetoric, as depicted in apocalyptic literature. Instead, he offered a modern twist: the path to global control lies in relentless fearmongering about existential risks.

“The way the Antichrist would take over the world is you talk about Armageddon nonstop,” Thiel explained. The billionaire contrasted this with earlier visions of scientific progress, like those of 17th- and 18th-century Baconian science, where the threat was an evil genius wielding technology. Presently, Thiel argued, the greater political resonance lies in halting scientific advancement altogether. “In our world, it’s far more likely to be Greta Thunberg than Dr. Strangelove,” he quipped, invoking the radical Swedish climate activist as a symbol of anti-progress sentiment. On AI specifically, Thiel struck a balanced tone, tempering both utopian and apocalyptic predictions. “One question we can frame is: Just how big a thing do I think AI is?” he asked himself. “My stupid answer is: It’s more than a nothing burger, and it’s less than the total transformation of our society.”

Thiel compared AI’s potential impact to the internet in the late 1990s, suggesting it could create “some great companies” and add “a few percentage points” to GDP, perhaps boosting growth by 1% annually for a decade or more. However, the billionaire expressed skepticism that AI alone could end economic stagnation, viewing it as a significant but not revolutionary force. While Thiel expressed nuanced views on artificial intelligence, his venture capital firm, Founders Fund, is aggressively backing the technology. Namely, it recently led a $600 million investment in Crusoe, a vertically integrated AI infrastructure provider. “The biggest risk with AI is that we don’t go big enough. Crusoe is here to liberate us from the island of limited ambition,” Thiel said at the time.

Organic or Soros? They call for civil war.

• Serbian Protesters Claim Blocking Traffic in 18 Cities Nationwide (Sp.)

Student protesters in Serbia reported blocking roads and traffic interchanges in 18 cities in the country on Monday night. On Saturday evening, the ultimatum expired that student protesters and opposition supporters issued to the authorities on June 25, demanding that they set a date for early parliamentary elections and remove the tent city of the president’s supporters in front of the Serbian parliament, the Assembly. On Sunday, they added a third demand — the release of all detained participants in the protest action from June 28 to 29. On their social networks and on a website dedicated to the protests, the students listed 24 locations in Belgrade where they blocked traffic until their demands were met, and 18 cities in Serbia from Subotica in the north to Zajecar in the southeast of the country, where they set up pickets on roads and interchanges.

Government agencies have not yet issued a statement on this matter; on social networks, protesters are distributing videos of blocked roads, often using garbage containers and other improvised materials. Earlier, Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said that 48 interior ministry employees had been injured during the riots in Belgrade on Sunday night, and 77 people had been detained. According to Dacic, 22 people sought emergency medical care, two of them with serious injuries. Radio and Television of Serbia reported the detention of eight more suspects in crimes against the constitutional order on Sunday. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that no fatalities during the riots in Belgrade on Sunday night was “only a miracle.”

Protesting students and opposition supporters threw firecrackers and various objects at a police cordon near the park in front of the Serbian presidential administration on Saturday evening, and heavily equipped police used tear gas, batons and pushed the crowd back. According to police director Dragan Vasiljevic, the police were forced to use physical force after demonstrators tried to break through the cordon for 5-6 minutes. The Serbian Interior Ministry reported on Saturday that a protest in Belgrade demanding early parliamentary elections had gathered 36,000 participants. Protesters in Belgrade called for the destruction of Serbia in a civil war, the parliament’s speaker and former prime minister Ana Brnabic said on Sunday night.

“..are openly trying to return to the days when France and Germany wanted to conquer Europe, primarily the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union..”

• West Starts to See It Can’t Inflict Strategic Defeat on Russia – Lavrov (Sp.)

The West probably starts to understand that it will not be able to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Sunday. “We have very close ties in all areas, and they are of particular importance, especially in the current very difficult and radically changed international situation, when we are witnessing an unprecedented confrontation between our country and the collective West, which has decided once again to go to war against us and inflict a strategic defeat on Russia, using the Nazi regime in Kiev as a ram. The West has never been able to do this, and it won’t work this time. They’re probably starting to figure it out,” Lavrov said during his meeting with Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Jeenbek Kulubayev.

Russia is open for honest efforts to resolve the Ukrainian crisis, but it is not ready for scheming, which is the preferred approach of some European leaders, Sergey Lavrov said. “As [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin has said recently, we are ready to defend a just settlement of the Ukrainian crisis. We are open to honest work, but we are not ready for the kind of scheming that some European leaders have been forcing us to engage in,” Lavrov said after a meeting with Kyrgyz Foreign Minister Zheenbek Kulubaev. French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz lack common sense and are trying to reestablish France’s and Germany’s control over Europe, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

Lavrov commented on Merz and Macron’s op-ed for the British newspaper, in which the two said that “the main source of instability for Europe comes from Russia” and called on Europe to arm itself. “I believe that these quotes alone are enough for a person who has some understanding of what is happening in Europe and follows events to understand that these people have completely lost common sense and are openly trying to return to the days when France and Germany wanted to conquer Europe, primarily the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union,” Lavrov said. Sergey Lavrov said that he had discussed labor migration with his Kyrgyz counterpart, Zheenbek Kulubaev, adding that Russia expected migrant workers to comply with the rules of stay.

“We attach great importance to the compliance with the rules of stay by foreign citizens in our country… We are interested in the influx of migrant workers, and our Kyrgyz friends are also interested in making the people, who go to work in Russia, feel at ease. Do achieve this, it is necessary that everyone regulate their status,” Lavrov said. Sergey Lavrov said that he had discussed the situation in Iran and Ukraine with his Kyrgyz counterpart, Zheenbek Kulubaev. “Of course, special attention was paid to the situation in the Middle East, the Palestinian problem, and the situation around Iran,” Lavrov said. Lavrov expressed Russia’s gratitude to Kyrgyzstan for its position on Ukraine.

“This can’t be right that one district judge can stop a nationwide policy in its tracks and leave it stuck for the years that it takes to go through a normal proces..,”

• Justice Kagan’s Own Words Come Back to Haunt Her on Injunctions (Margolis)

The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in Trump v. CASA, Inc., released Friday, finally put the brakes on the reckless abuse of nationwide injunctions by lower courts—and has Democrats in full meltdown mode. The left’s favorite judicial weapon just got neutered, and the hypocrisy is impossible to ignore. The liberal wing of the court didn’t do itself any favors, either. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s dissent was so horrible that Justice Amy Coney Barrett felt compelled to call it out in the majority opinion. But Justice Elena Kagan’s credibility also took a direct hit. In a stunning display of judicial flip-flopping, Kagan’s own words from 2022 have come back to haunt her, exposing the left’s all-too-familiar habit of changing the rules when it suits their political objectives.

Nationwide injunctions have been the left’s go-to tactic for derailing conservative policy at the stroke of a single judge’s pen. Under Trump, district judges from deep-blue enclaves repeatedly issued sweeping orders to block administration policies nationwide at an unprecedented pace, no matter how tenuous the legal grounds. Despite all the apocalyptic rhetoric, there’s no doubt that the left’s current position on nationwide injunctions is purely political—and Justice Elena Kagan accidentally proved it. How? Well, Justice Kagan, who dissented in this case, was singing a very different tune just a couple of years ago. Back in 2022, when President Biden was in the White House and conservatives were the ones seeking relief from his executive orders, Kagan was openly skeptical of nationwide injunctions. “This can’t be right that one district judge can stop a nationwide policy in its tracks and leave it stuck for the years that it takes to go through a normal process,” she said.

That’s not some out-of-context paraphrase—it’s her own words, on the record. Fast forward to 2025, and suddenly Kagan’s skepticism has evaporated. Now that Donald Trump is back in the Oval Office, she’s all-in for the same judicial overreach she once panned. It just goes to show you who the real partisans on the court are. They aren’t adhering to any particular judicial philosophy or the Constitution, they care only about whether a particular ruling hurts or benefits the Democratic Party. This isn’t just about one justice’s hypocrisy. It’s a window into the left’s broader approach to power. When they control the levers of government, they demand deference and restraint from the courts. When they’re out of power, they want unelected judges to act as a permanent veto against any policy they dislike. It’s not about the Constitution or the separation of powers—it’s about maintaining their grip on the bureaucracy by any means necessary.

The Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. CASA, Inc. is a must-needed correction, that frankly, should have been bipartisan. It restores a measure of balance and puts an end to the judicial free-for-all that has plagued our system for far too long. And if Justice Kagan and her allies are upset, maybe they should reread their own words from just a few years ago. Consistency, after all, used to be a virtue. But in today’s Democratic Party, it’s just another casualty of the endless war for power. The Supreme Court just restored the rule of law—and the left can’t handle it.

Trump aims to murder Canadian journalists?!

• Elie Mystal’s MSNBC Meltdown Over Trump Is One for the Ages (Margolis)

Elie Mystal’s latest outburst on MSNBC’s airwaves wasn’t just over the top—it was an embarrassing display of unhinged, irrational fearmongering. Speaking with host Ali Velshi, Mystal launched into a bizarre hypothetical that quickly devolved into the kind of wild-eyed rant you’d expect from a late-night Internet forum, not a supposedly serious political analyst on national television. Though I guess since this was MSNBC, it makes sense. “Imagine Donald Trump wants to do something illegal to you, Ali Velshi. Imagine that he wants to murder you,” Mystal began. “Imagine that he and Stephen Miller release an entire policy explaining about how they can murder Canadian journalists who are working in America because they’re taking the jobs from real American journalists, right?” The absurdity of the scenario was matched only by Mystal’s apparent belief that this was a reasonable way to discuss a Supreme Court ruling.

Deranged Elie Mystal explains SCOTUS nationwide injunction ruling by describing how Trump could hatch a plot to m*rder people.

“Imagine Donald Trump wants to m*rder you…"

Totally sane, normal stuff going on over there at MSNBC.

Totally sane.

Totally normal. pic.twitter.com/Ql1ZEHq78z

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) June 28, 2025

He continued, painting a picture where Velshi, upon learning of this imaginary murder plot, goes to court to stop Trump and his “plan to murder me.” According to Mystal, the court would agree with Velshi, issuing an injunction to prevent his assassination. “And so, you’re like, ‘Great, awesome!’ And you go home. And then Pat Kiernan shows up and he’s like, ‘What about me? I’m also a Canadian journalist.’” The parade of Canadian journalists supposedly fearing for their lives grew as Mystal added, “Ashley Banfield shows up too, ‘I’m also the, a Canadian, what, what about me?’” The legal logic here is as tortured as the scenario itself. Mystal claims the courts would tell these other journalists, “Well, I can’t help you ’cause Ali Velshi is the one who sued.” He insists that every individual would need to file their own lawsuit to avoid being murdered by the president—an assertion so detached from reality it borders on performance art.

“And while the Supreme Court is deciding who the Ali Velshi can’t be murdered, uh, injunction applies to, guess what? Donald Trump starts murdering people. That is the upshot of yesterday’s decision,” Mystal declared, as if the highest court in the land had just greenlit a presidential killing spree. He then tried to tie this fevered fantasy back to the actual ruling, claiming, “Donald Trump has declared that he is going to do an unconstitutional thing, and various people have been able to secure the court’s order that he cannot do the unconstitutional thing to them. And basically, what the Supreme Court has said is that, ‘Well, you had said something about um, um, um, Jimmy, but you didn’t say anything about Consuela, so we’re gonna deport Consuela while the Supreme Court figures it out.’ That is what the court said.”

This isn’t legitimate legal analysis. It’s barely coherent political commentary—more a cartoonish distortion of facts and law, aimed at stirring fear and outrage instead of informing or persuading. The Supreme Court’s decision, regardless of your view on it, did not authorize murder, nor did it claim that only individual lawsuits can protect against government overreach. Keep in mind, Trump’s executive actions have consistently fallen within established executive authority. If they hadn’t, left-wing groups wouldn’t have needed to shop around for friendly judges willing to block his policies. Mystal’s tirade perfectly illustrates how hyperbole and hysteria have replaced sober, reasoned debate in some media circles. Mystal’s performance was not just embarrassing—it was a disservice to anyone seeking to understand the real implications of Supreme Court decisions. Instead of offering insight, he chose to indulge in moronic hypotheticals that insult the intelligence of viewers and trivialize serious legal issues. If this is the standard for legal commentary on cable news, it’s no wonder public trust in the media is at an all-time low.

Our women can only be free if we poison ourselves.

• MSM Claims MAHA “Threatens To Set Women Back Decades” (ZH)

An increasing number of Americans are abandoning processed foods and taking control of their own food supply chain—planting backyard gardens and sourcing meat, eggs, dairy, and pantry staples directly from local markets and farms. The trend, which is gaining momentum under the “Make America Healthy Again” movement—and even noted by Goldman—reflects a broader push for food independence and a return to community-based sourcing. Not everyone is on board with MAHA — especially not the feminist journalists at SELF (owned by the corporate media company Condé Nast), who recently penned an article that reads like a hit piece against MAHA. Erica Sloan’s critique of MAHA is that food independence is unrealistic and burdensome for women in the modern progressive world.

In her article titled “How the MAHA Food Agenda Threatens to Set Women Back Decades,” Sloan writes… But it’s what MAHA isn’t saying that’s most important: Stoking so much fear around these vital industries implies that Americans—more specifically, the mothers of America—need to find a different way to feed their families. “Women do a disproportionate share of the kind of work that the MAHA movement is asking people to do, which is to grow their own food, to prepare all of their food from scratch, and to avoid processed food and even packaged foods,” Norah MacKendrick, PhD, associate professor of sociology at Rutgers University and author of Better Safe Than Sorry: How Consumers Navigate Exposure to Everyday Toxics, tells SELF. Even today, with approximately 60% of women working outside the home, women still spend about two hours more on housework daily and cook more than twice as many meals a week as men do. The implication that our current food system is inherently unsafe just stands to pile on the labor.

“In order for a family to eat a diet of mostly homegrown or even just homemade meals… that’s going to be a lot more work for women and mothers especially,” Dr. MacKendrick says. It’s an ideal that the MAHA moms have already embodied—and that would be not only unrealistic but unfair to expect from all American families. Decades?

The angle that Sloan uses to bash MAHA via a quote from some woman in acemedia is entirely flawed, that’s because MAHA doesn’t force anyone to grow their own food or make everything from scratch—it simply raises awareness about the systemic failures of Big Food and Big Pharma and empowers families to reclaim control where possible. Some folks plant gardens, while others buy from local ranchers and farmers. The movement calls for informed choices and better public policy—not a return to the primitive 1800s—or is asking women to live like the modern-day Amish. Heaven forbid women to cook from scratch for their families! More nonsense from the PR journalist … MAHA’s villainization of food processing just adds the burden of cooking from scratch to women’s plates. The journalist concluded the article with this: “Processed and ultraprocessed items are also functional necessities for many, and can spark joy. And again, some of them have positive nutritional value.”

Cooperate? But Russia!

• Baltic Sea’s WW2 Chemical Legacy Demands Russia-NATO Cooperation (RT)

Recovering ammunition still buried on the Baltic Sea floor after World War II must be an international effort rather than a unilateral action by any one nation, an expert has told RT. Germany recently completed a pilot project to recover the sunken munitions, prompting concerns about potential implications for the environment. An estimated 1.6 million tons of wartime ammunition, primarily left by Nazi Germany, are scattered across the seabed of the North and Baltic seas. While most of them are conventional shells, some 40 tons contain deadly chemical agents, such as mustard gas, phosgene, and other compounds. The munitions have been deteriorating over the decades and now pose a hazard to the marine environment and, potentially, to coastal areas.

The recovery and disposal of the munitions must be organized through an international effort to minimize the risks of a major environmental catastrophe in the Baltic, Bernhard Trautvetter, a German publicist and peace activist, believes. “The question was how to deal with the recovery of these poison time bombs for the biosphere of the Baltic Sea. Of course, due to the corrosion of these vessels, there is a danger for the fish and the plants, and other countries,” Trautvetter told RT on Sunday. The NATO states of the Baltic region, as well as Russia, which has access to the waterway through its Kaliningrad enclave and the St. Petersburg area, must join forces to “pull this time bomb out of the world,” he added.

Berlin launched a recovery project in 2023, starting the work in Lubeck Bay. The pilot phase concluded in April of this year. The German authorities declared it a success yet admitted some adjustments were needed for areas with a high density of discarded ammunition. Russia has long raised concerns over the toxic legacy of World War II in the Baltic, calling for an international recovery operation. However, Moscow was effectively left out of this effort due to its souring relations with the West.

Kookaburra

Sound of a kookaburra birdpic.twitter.com/4vqEPlyKSA

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) June 29, 2025

Alu cats

Fun fact.

Cats have an aversion to aluminum foil, which is why some people use it to deter cats from certain areas.pic.twitter.com/LjA9bGxiKk

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) June 29, 2025

Happy
https://twitter.com/IndiaTales7/status/1938917738224984129

The first time I heard something like this I was 22 and just happened to walk into a cathedral while in France. They were only practicing and it literally stopped me in my tracks. It was like heaven opened up. How did Catholics trade this for what sounds like bad 70s music? pic.twitter.com/zkzoHFFQaC

— Jeremy Wayne Tate (@JeremyTate41) June 29, 2025

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