Sep 062026
 
 September 6, 2026  Posted by at 8:57 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , ,  38 Responses »


Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud, Brussels 1873
The literary prowess gathered in that photo is insane.


• U.S. Central Command Destroys Three Iranian Tankers (CTH)
• Ukraine Pushes Congress For Russia Sanctions Before Election Recess (RFE/RL)
• General David Petraeus Now Claims 1.4 million Russians Killed or Wounded (CTH)
• America’s Immigrant Population Plummets For First Time In A Century (MN)
• Masked Men Block Dover Port at Mass Migration Protest (Salgado)
• “We Have The Receipts”: Bartiromo Denies Fox Firing (ZH)
• We Have New Details on the Maria Bartiromo Situation (Matt Margolis)
• Reputation Assassins Are Targeting Sen. Fetterman and Elon Musk (Pinsker)
• Radicals Scrubbing Social Media of Past Statements (Turley)
• Trump Was Right About the Kennedy Center… In a HUGE Way! (Matt Margolis)

 


 

https://twitter.com/ConstitustionX/status/2095763735516475892?s=20 https://twitter.com/RippleXrpie/status/2095931973302665282?s=20 https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/2095942449780933116?s=20 https://twitter.com/Tironianae/status/2096019749347946634?s=20

 


 

Back in 2015:

 


 


“After IRGC Fires Upon U.S. Navy Vessels ..”

• U.S. Central Command Destroys Three Iranian Tankers (CTH)

The U.S. Central Command has released video showing their elimination of three Iranian oil tankers following an attack on two U.S. navy vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. TAMPA, Fla. — U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces struck three Iranian crude oil carriers, Sept. 5, after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched ballistic missiles toward two U.S. Navy warships patrolling regional waters. A U.S. aircraft carrier and guided-missile destroyer successfully evaded multiple unprovoked Iranian attacks. No American personnel were harmed.
Following Iran’s failed attacks, CENTCOM permanently disabled the IRGC crude oil carriers M/T Downy off the coast of Kharg Island and M/T Stark 1 near Jask. American forces also completely destroyed the unladen crude oil carrier M/T Kylo (also known as the “Noxen”) in the Gulf of Oman, striking the vessel in multiple critical locations to render it inoperable after the crew was directed to abandon ship. The three Iranian crude oil tankers are part of a multibillion-dollar shadow network that funds the IRGC and its regional proxies. Iran has no means by which to defend them.


“Let the message to the IRGC be clear: If you shoot at two of our ships, we will impose an even higher economic cost —taking out three of yours,” said Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander. “We will not hesitate to defend American forces, and if necessary, destroy Iran’s limited and exposed oil fleet.”

Read more …

While we’re visiting Putin.

• Ukraine Pushes Congress For Russia Sanctions Before Election Recess (RFE/RL)

Ukraine’s top sanctions official says he remains optimistic about prospects for a sweeping Russia sanctions bill in the US Congress despite growing uncertainty over when the House of Representatives will take it up, as lawmakers face a sharply shortened legislative calendar ahead of the November elections. Vladyslav Vlasiuk, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s sanctions commissioner, spent this week in Washington meeting lawmakers and congressional staff as Kyiv presses Congress to advance the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026.


The legislation passed the Senate on August 7 by an overwhelming 86-11 vote, reflecting rare bipartisan agreement. The bill would give the president additional authority to impose punitive tariffs on countries that continue buying Russian fossil fuels. It also includes provisions targeting Iran, which Vlasiuk said is engaged in close military-industrial cooperation with Moscow.But the measure faces a more complicated path in the House, where some Democrats have expressed reservations about provisions that would give President Donald Trump additional authority to impose tariffs.

Republican leaders announced on September 3 that the final two weeks of the pre-election House session are canceled, severely curtailing what had been a full legislative calendar for September.House members are expected to leave Washington no later than September 17 and not return until mid-November. The House will reconvene for one additional week of business after next week’s Labor Day break. The compressed calendar has increased pressure on supporters of the sanctions legislation. Senior Republican aides told RFE/RL that the bill remains a GOP priority, provided Democrats “get their ducks in a row.”

Democratic aides, in response to RFE/RL inquiries, expressed cautious optimism about the measure, underscoring uncertainty over whether Speaker Mike Johnson will bring it to the floor. Vlasiuk said he held roughly 20 meetings with lawmakers and congressional staff during his Washington visit, including discussions with members of both parties. He said the Ukrainian delegation encountered broad support for increasing pressure on Russia and that no lawmaker told him outright that they would oppose the legislation.

“Everyone agreed that it was necessary to increase pressure on Russia,” Vlasiuk said at a briefing at the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington. “No one said that he definitely would not support this bill.” He described Ukraine as “quite optimistic” about the level of support for the legislation, including among Democrats. One potentially important route would be for the House to consider the bill under suspension of the rules, a fast-track procedure generally used for legislation expected to command broad support. Vlasiuk said that was among the realistic scenarios for moving the bill forward.

“I think that there is really good chance that this bill will be brought onto the floor,” he said. Vlasiuk has previously identified the week after next as Kyiv’s preferred window for a House vote. With the House calendar now compressed, that period could provide one of the last opportunities for a vote before lawmakers leave Washington. Asked by RFE/RL whether the momentum surrounding the bill was still there, Vlasiuk pointed to what he characterized as continued bipartisan backing for Ukraine.

“There is a lot of support for Ukraine on the Hill,” he said, adding that Kyiv has been “very vocal” in stressing the urgency of passing the bill. “At the same time, well, I mean, let’s wait and see,” Vlasiuk said.

Read more …

“Witkoff and Kushner Met with Putin for Three Hours,..”

We know by now how idiotic the Russian victim numbers are that come from Ukraine and the west.

• General David Petraeus Now Claims 1.4 million Russians Killed or Wounded (CTH)

The longer we review the stuff coming out of the legacy U.S. Intelligence Community, the more I realize how much of a fool I was for ever trusting their nonsense. Today, former CIA Director General David Petraeus claims that Russia has suffered over 1.4 million killed or wounded in action (KIA/WIA). {SOURCE}


For those just recently entering the era of ‘great awakening’, let this type of nonsense propaganda serve as a starting point to realize what CTH has described from the outset of the Ukraine-Russia ‘conflict’ as, essentially, World War Reddit. There are approximately 140 million Russian people living in Russia. Of that population there are approximately 60 million males. Of the 60 million males there are approximately 20 million men aged 18-35. Additionally, 75% of the Russian population lives in urban centers, ie. cities.

If 1.4 million men (out of 20 million) were killed or wounded in the Ukraine conflict, the hospitals and convalescent facilities in around the cities of Kazan, Moscow and St Petersburg would be full; at least significantly beyond ordinary medical capacity. They are not. Not even close.mI have no idea where these western ‘intelligence’ analysts and experts come up with these statistics, but they are so far beyond nonsense the light from where silly stuff originates could not reach them for years. They could have just used the word “eleventy’. There is nowhere near that number of KIA/WIA in Russia; not even close.


[SOURCE – Kremlin]

U.S. Special Envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have departed Moscow after roughly three hours of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin focused on ending the war in Ukraine. The two are expected in Kyiv on Sunday to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as part of the Trump administration’s latest push to revive stalled peace negotiations. Putin has ordered a 72 hour pause in strikes on Kyiv during their visit. Witkoff and Kushner are now aboard U.S. Air Force C-32A SAM934. They will likely travel to Poland before continuing by ground transportation to Kyiv. {Source}

Putin aide Yuri Ushakov says the Kremlin talks with US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were “substantive, extremely frank and conducted in an atmosphere of trust.” He outlined that Moscow offered what he called a “clear and comprehensive” assessment of the situation in the Ukraine conflict, while Witkoff and Kushner presented several ideas on possible routes towards a settlement. The two sides also discussed economic cooperation and the prospect of major joint US-Russian projects. Ushakov added that Putin and Trump remain in direct personal contact. {source}

(VIA DAILY MAIL) – Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff spent over three hours in top-secret talks with Vladimir Putin amid the White House’s renewed bid to end the war in Ukraine. The US envoys landed in Moscow on Saturday morning and were escorted by the Russian President’s investment envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, to the Kremlin. Putin met with Witkoff and Kushner for closed-door talks where he described the conflict as a ‘complicated situation,’ but praised his American counterpart for wanting to end the war.

[…] ‘Understanding that he is entering a difficult situation, he nevertheless does not stop his efforts to help bring about a settlement and to make his contribution to resolving the Russian-Ukrainian conflict,’ Putin said of Trump. Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy both agreed to pause strikes on each other’s capitals while the talks took place. (more)

KREMLIN – Vladimir Putin received in the Kremlin Special Envoy of the President of the United States of America Steve Witkoff and entrepreneur, founder of Affinity Partners Jared Kushner. On the Russian side, the meeting was attended by Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov and Special Presidential Representative for Investment and Economic Cooperation with Foreign Countries, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Colleagues, I heartily welcome you to Moscow. The situation we are to sort out today is, of course, a difficult one. But before we begin, I would like to ask you to convey my best wishes and words of gratitude to the President of the United States, Mr Trump.

While he realizes that he is facing a difficult situation, he nevertheless does not stop his efforts to resolve it and to contribute to the settlement of the Russian- Ukrainian conflict. Today, we will discuss all its components and all its aspects, and for our part, we are also ready to inform you about our view of the situation.

As you informed us, I know that you are planning to go to Kiev after visiting Moscow. In any case, of course, no matter what happens next, contacts of this kind are certainly always beneficial. And here, of course, the quality of mediation and trust in those who are engaged in it are very important. I’d like to tell you that we find it comfortable to work with you, and, of course, we have a very high level of trust during this work.

We are glad to see you. Welcome.

Steve Witkoff: So, first of all, President Putin, thank you so much for having us. We were sitting outside just now, me, Jared and Kirill, and then Yury joined us, and we were all talking about when we retire, we’ll have all these incredible stories and incredible memories, and yours will be right at the top of it all.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much.

Steve Witkoff: President Trump sends you his best wishes. The Gilman family is incredibly indebted to you and thanks you very, very much for Bob Gilman being allowed to come home.

Vladimir Putin: They should be thanking President Trump; it was he who made the appeal.

Steve Witkoff: They have thanked President Trump, but they’ve thanked you also, sir. I want to thank you for endorsing the no shoot policy in Kiev and in Moscow for these three days that allowed us to be able to come here in a safe manner.

Vladimir Putin: We received this request through official channels both through the intelligence services and through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to stop the strikes on Kiev. I issued the respective order, and since midnight on September 5, these strikes on Kiev have not been carried out. I would like to note that the Ukrainian side has also significantly reduced by an order of magnitude the strikes on the territory of the Russian Federation, including Moscow.

The Ukrainian authorities have published their call for a broader three day truce, but we have never agreed on this with them. Yet we will do everything in our power to ensure the safety of the negotiation process and the mediators, represented by you and, perhaps, by those accompanying you.

Steve Witkoff: Thank you.

Read more …

2.3 Million Illegals Gone.

“A late Biden-era internal memo, exposed in July, laid out a plan to expand TPS in the final days of that presidency in a way that would have locked in de facto protection for more than 3 million foreign nationals and boxed the incoming administration into years of litigation.”

• America’s Immigrant Population Plummets For First Time In A Century (MN)

The numbers the open-borders crowd swore were impossible are now in black and white.


A new Center for Immigration Studies analysis of the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey finds the illegal immigrant population has fallen by about 2.3 million since President Trump returned to office in January 2025. Another 600,000 legal immigrants have left. The total foreign-born population is down 2.9 million.

That is the first sustained drop in America’s immigrant population in nearly a hundred years.

https://twitter.com/ThePatriotOasis/status/2095837643971952826?s=20

CIS research director Steven A. Camarota and demographer Karen Zeigler tracked the government’s monthly household survey from January 2025 through July 2026. The foreign-born total – naturalized citizens, lawful permanent residents, long-term temporary visitors and illegal immigrants – fell from roughly 53.3 million to 50.5 million. Camarota’s preliminary estimate puts the illegal population at 13.5 million in July, down from 15.8 million when Trump took the oath. “We’ve never seen anything quite like this before,” Camarota told The Washington Times. “This is big and sustained, as best as we can tell.”

He added: “It is a fundamental change, and it’s profound.” The same dataset shows what happened during the Biden years. From January 2021 to January 2025 the foreign-born population jumped 8.3 million – the largest four-year increase in American history. Catch-and-release, mass parole, asylum abuse and a wide-open southern border did exactly what critics said they would do. The survey now shows that surge going into reverse.

CIS is not counting plane seats. It is measuring net change: new arrivals minus deportations, voluntary departures, legalizations and deaths. That is why the 2.3 million illegal decline can sit beside larger Homeland Security departure figures. At the one-year mark of Trump’s second term, DHS said nearly 3 million illegal immigrants had left the country, including about 675,000 formal removals and 2.2 million self-deportations. CIS is looking at who is still here after new arrivals are subtracted.

Latin American non-citizens who arrived in 1980 or later account for the entire drop in the foreign-born count. That group overlaps heavily with the illegal population. Naturalized-citizen numbers actually rose by about 680,000 over the same stretch. The collapse is among non-citizens who should not have been waved in. Interior ICE removals more than tripled compared with the tail end of the Biden term. Voluntary departures tied to enforcement jumped as well. Camarota put it simply in the CIS release: “The best data we have shows an enormous decrease in the total foreign-born population, with most of the falloff among illegal immigrants.”

He added, “Regaining control of the border and robust interior enforcement has partly undone the huge increase in the illegal immigration that took place during the border surge.” Only 44 percent of those who left were workers. That goes some way to explain why the national jobs numbers have not imploded the way corporate lobbyists predicted. U.S.-born employment has continued to rise even as immigrant workers in the household survey fell by a little less than 1.3 million. Some regional pockets – construction in South Texas is the example Camarota cited – have felt it. The country as a whole has not.

“It’s nothing to panic about,” he told the Times. “First of all, we’re mostly losing low-income workers. But like anything else, it can create challenges. And it creates winners and losers.”Workers competing for jobs and housing are the winners. “On balance, I think it’s a good deal for the country because I think most people are more worried about wages, housing prices, congestion and impact on schools and hospitals.”

Census analysts had already flagged a “historic” drop in net international migration when they reported that overall population growth slowed to 0.5 percent from mid-2024 to mid-2025 – a window that captured only the first months of the new enforcement regime. Camarota now says the country’s total population is likely heading toward an unprecedented decline. That is what happens when an 8.3 million artificial surge is no longer being pumped through the border.

The media spent four years insisting the border was “secure” and that anyone who noticed otherwise was a bigot. Then Joe Scarborough, trying to score points on Trump’s deportation totals, walked straight into the truth on his own show. “They should know when to take the victory. They could have been campaigning on closed southern border this whole time!” Scarborough said. Then: “You’re never going to get the [deportation] numbers that Joe Biden had, right? You’re not going to get those numbers because Joe Biden and his administration were letting in so many illegal immigrants. It was very easy to sweep up 5,000 right on the border and send them back.”

Nobody cornered him. He said it unprompted.

That is the whole scam in one clip. Biden-era “removals” were a revolving door at the Rio Grande. Trump closed the door. Crossings collapsed. The population inside the country started falling for the first time in a generation. The same networks that called that outcome “impossible” or “racist” are now reduced to quibbling over methodology while the survey they usually treat as gospel shows a 2.9 million decline.

The drop did not happen by accident. It happened because the new administration treated Temporary Protected Status as what it had become: a backdoor amnesty, not a temporary shelter.

A late Biden-era internal memo, exposed in July, laid out a plan to expand TPS in the final days of that presidency in a way that would have locked in de facto protection for more than 3 million foreign nationals and boxed the incoming administration into years of litigation. The scheme was designed to run out the clock through activist courts after voters had already chosen mass deportations.

Read more …

Will Europe defend itself vs the EU?

• Masked Men Block Dover Port at Mass Migration Protest (Salgado)

Fury at the endless stream of illegal aliens into European countries with governments ignoring everything their people ask for has reached boiling point in multiple European countries.


A group of masked men in black hoodies marched to Dover to block the offloading of crowds of new migrants, with the protesters simply walking through sparse police barriers without incident, based on video from the Hungarian outlet Visegrád 24. The protesters, who chanted “Stop the boats! Stop the boats!,” seem to be eager to show their friendliness toward locals standing on sidewalks and at least one local was handing water out to them. “Cheers, well done,” shouted the man who took the video enthusiastically, as protesters waved or gave him thumbs up.

GB News reported that the protestors intimidated some people, and people who missed some of their work shifts were understandably upset, but there are no reports of the protesters engaging in violent behavior. The protestors did eventually leave, according to a whiny statement from the UK government. Even one Dover councillor who was bashing the protesters admitted to Metro there was no violence, and the protesters voluntarily left not long after they arrived. Many people have condemned the masks, but given the lack of violence, the likelihood is that they were trying not to get arrested given that the UK will hand out harsher prison sentences for free speech than for rape.

Spanish protesters are turning out in multiple cities, particularly in Ceuta, which is completely overrun with Muslim men. The Spanish government is providing taxpayer-funded freebies and NGO aid to the invaders while condemning the locals. In Madrid, police fired charges at protesters. Police used similar means against protesters in Ceuta. Police did not employ them against the Muslim invaders in Ceuta. Video of Muslim men torturing a baby dolphin in Ceuta for fun has provoked international outrage. But the invaders have also committed many crimes against humans there.

After the people of Iceland rejected a referendum to join the European Union, a group of Irish patriots called for a similar referendum to remove Ireland from the EU, given its horrible mass migration requirements for membership. The people of Europe are waking up. The problem is that their parliamentary systems and their dictatorial governments make it even harder for them to enact major change.

Read more …

Getting complicated.

• We Have New Details on the Maria Bartiromo Situation (Matt Margolis)

On Thursday, Fox News announced that Maria Bartiromo was “no longer with Fox News Media.” This created the impression that she had been fired. Bartiromo’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, pushed back hard on the firing narrative, disputing the reports outright. New reporting from Dylan Byers at Puck gives us some details about what actually happened. From where I sit, it looks less like a firing and more like a slow-motion punishment for trying to do her job.

So what set this all off? It starts with President Trump’s primetime address in July on the 2020 election, in which he laid out allegations of Chinese interference and calling on Congress to tighten voting rules before the midterms. Seeing as how it was a big primetime speech, Bartiromo naturally planned to cover it on her show.

As it turned out, Bartiromo had been planning to cover Trump’s speech on her show, according to sources familiar with her plans. She had also planned to book Peter Navarro, a senior counselor to Trump who has aggressively pushed the voter fraud narrative, to talk about the president’s remarks and the administration’s broader concerns over election integrity. However, the night before the speech, Ralph Giordano, Fox Business Network’s senior vice president of programming, texted Bartiromo’s production team, instructing them not to cover the speech.

When Bartiromo renewed her Fox News Media contract in February of last year, she reportedly negotiated language specifically barring Giordano from having any say over her show. He kept meddling anyway. Navarro told Byers in a Friday interview that Bartiromo sent him a screenshot of Giordano’s instructions to prove management was blocking her coverage, which he described as “censoring” it. Navarro said he passed the information “up the chain” to senior administration officials. An unnamed high-ranking White House official then called Fox News leadership to complain, effectively outing Bartiromo as the source of the leaked guidance.

It came on the heels of a report from the outlet Status claiming Bartiromo had shared internal editorial guidance with the administration, a report both Fox News and a representative for Bartiromo declined to comment on. Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott and President Jay Wallace were reportedly furious, though they let her show continue through the summer before pulling her off the air last Thursday. Fox’s reluctance to air the speech in the first place traces back to Bartiromo being named as a defendant in the Dominion and Smartmatic defamation lawsuits, both stemming from 2020 election coverage. Puck also noted that Giordano and Bartiromo already had a tense relationship at the network.

The troubling thing about this story is that the Democrats have long regarded any Republican who questions the 2020 election as a threat to democracy itself, even though there were documented irregularities in several battleground states that year.

However, it was the Democrats who first made it acceptable to question the results of the elections, beginning with George W. Bush’s wins in 2000 and 2004, and then again with Trump’s victory in 2016. The same media outlets that for years promoted the theory of Russia’s collusion in 2016 now regard any examination of 2020 as nonsense proven wrong. The approved story was that 2020 was the safest, most secure election in history, and anyone who said otherwise was undermining “our democracy.”

Bartiromo appears to have learned what happens to people who try to cover a story that contradicts that line.

Read more …

“Maria Bartiromo was not fired for pushing claims about the 2020 election – she was fired for revealing that Fox had told its own staff not to talk about it.”:

• “We Have The Receipts”: Bartiromo Denies Fox Firing (ZH)

New details are rolling in about the Bartiromo situation – as the anchor is denying reports that she was fired from the station. According to The Hollywood Reporter: Bartiromo, who is now repped by Bryan Freedman, who recently repped Justin Baldoni, as well as journalists Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo after their dramatic exits from CNN as well as Tucker Carlson’s exit from Fox, denies that she was fired and further claims that she is “still employed by Fox.” Freedman suggests they may pursue the matter in court.


“For many years, Maria Bartiromo hosted three number-one-rated television shows on Fox channels. She has been, without question, one of the hardest-working journalists throughout her award-winning career,” Freedman said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.

“The irresponsible reports that have been published stating that Maria Bartiromo was fired or is no longer an employee of Fox are absolutely and unequivocally false. Make no mistake, we have the receipts and witnesses and they will come out whether through the courthouse or otherwise. Those reporting her firing or the incredulous facts supporting that fiction have exhibited a complete and utter reckless disregard for the truth,” he continued.

* * *

Maria Bartiromo was not fired for pushing claims about the 2020 election – she was fired for revealing that Fox had told its own staff not to talk about it. Fox News Media announced on Thursday it had parted ways with the anchor effective immediately after more than twelve years, thanking her for her work and giving no reason.

The guidance at the center of it went out in July, after President Donald Trump used a prime-time address to tie China to the 2020 result. Fox Business management privately instructed senior staff not to lend credibility to the claims, and killed a China-and-2020 story Bartiromo wanted to pursue. The sensitivity stemmed from legal concerns – Fox paid Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million in 2023 over 2020 election coverage, and Smartmatic’s $2.7 billion claim is still outstanding, with Bartiromo named in both.

Fox did not catch the leak itself. Puck’s Dylan Byers reported that Bartiromo took a screenshot of that guidance and sent it to senior White House officials, which Fox executives learned of after receiving a call from the White House. In a terse statement, Fox News said Bartiromo is no longer with the company, effective immediately and thanked her for her work, while wishing her well in her next chapter.

Status’s Oliver Darcy, who built his brand at CNN by pushing censorship campaigns against conservative media, was first to report that Bartiromo leaked internal guidance after Fox Business management privately directed senior staff not to lend credibility to claims President Donald Trump made in a July address regarding China’s interference in the 2020 election.

However, a new report alleges that Bartiromo was in FOX’s crosshairs for several reasons beyond the alleged leak. Mediaite reports: According to a source familiar with the matter, sharing the memo about Trump’s July comments was “not the only reason” that led to her abrupt defenestration.

The source confirmed that it was “a confluence of factors,” including Fox’s whopping $787.5 million settlement it had to pay to Dominion Voting Systems in 2023 over 2020 election fraud claims Fox had aired, plus another similar lawsuit from Smartmatic “still hanging out there.” Bartiromo was among the main on-air personalities cited in these lawsuits and has continued to periodically peddle in election denialism. A Fox News media spokesperson told Mediaite that the move was simply a “business decision” and declined further comment.

Comments Kevin O’Leary made on a May 11 episode of Mornings With Maria also factored in, the source said, in which the Shark Tank star accused nonprofit organizations that opposed his data center project in Utah of being secret agents of the Chinese Communist Party.

Trump blasted Fox’s decision to sever ties with Bartiromo, calling the host a “true warrior.” “I can’t believe Maria Bartiromo is no longer going to have her great show(s) on FoxNews/Business. Three different shows, always number one,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “Maria is a total professional, and a true warrior. Her fans, of which there are many, will not be happy. God bless you, Maria!”

Read more …

“Back in 2023, [Fetterman] was a Democrat liberal darling. He was at plus 68 points. Look at how low he has fallen, down to negative 40 points. He’s down there with the Titanic..”

• Reputation Assassins Are Targeting Sen. Fetterman and Elon Musk (Pinsker)

Let’s acknowledge the obvious before spelunking down our rabbit hole: Sen. John Fetterman (D-Penn.) and Elon Musk might really, truly be guilty of every very nasty, vile, jaw-dropping smear. I mean, I doubt it. Seems extraordinarily unlikely. Our media ecosystem, after all, doesn’t just tilt towards sensationalism; it zooms towards it like a speeding bullet. Sensationalism outsells the truth. (Mostly because it’s more entertaining.) That’s great news for the reputation assassins, because a smear doesn’t need to be truthful to stick. It’s just gotta be memorable — and if you don’t believe me, go ask Richard Gere. (I won’t explain. If you know… you know.)


But it’s also great news for victims, because the media’s credibility is in the toilet: Nobody takes anything at face value anymore. As a result, if the mainstream media can’t quickly overwhelm its target, it usually leads to a frustrating, World War I-inspired cycle of trench warfare, with neither side ceding an inch — or ever gaining an inch. And eventually, everyone runs out of ammo and heads home. Over the past few days, shocking stories have emerged about two men that the radical left despises the most. We’ll begin with John Fetterman: “Wall Street Journal (Sept. 3, 2026): Behind Closed Doors, John Fetterman Shows Little Interest in the Work of a Senator..”

This is the news story that kicked the latest round of Fetterman-bashing into high gear. It paints the picture of a lazy, mentally compromised man who prioritized Fox News interviews over paralyzed military veterans. (A curious allegation, considering that Fox News and the Wall Street Journal are both owned by NewsCorp.) Liberals pounced because the WSJ validated every left-wing gripe: Fetterman has changed! He’s lost his damn mind! He’s a stooge of Fox News and the Israeli lobby!

Fetterman is vulnerable to these attacks because his mental struggles are real: He’s had a stroke and was hospitalized for depression. His medical history makes the allegations sticky. Furthermore, there’s a political motive: He’s the Democrat that Democrats hate the most.

Back in 2023, [Fetterman] was a Democrat liberal darling. He was at plus 68 points. Look at how low he has fallen, down to negative 40 points. He’s down there with the Titanic among Democrats in this Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. And to put a comparison to it, you always hear about how Chuck Schumer is disliked by the Democratic base nationwide. Chuck Schumer has a net popularity rating of about -2 points. He is net 38 points more popular than John Fetterman with Pennsylvania Democrats.

Some of the allegations, however, lose their wallop when placed under a microscope. For example, Mediaite listed this smear among its “5 Wildest Details from the Wall Street Journal’s Bombshell John Fetterman Report”: Fetterman also backed out of attending the funeral for three police officers killed near his hometown of York last year, according to the report. After an aide explained that the formal ceremony would last at least three hours, Fetterman responded: “3 hours??” Told it was effectively three separate funerals, he replied: “This may be a nonstarter.”

It sounds absolutely deplorable — until you learn that Pennsylvania’s other Senator wasn’t going either, and it would’ve required Fetterman to drive 9+ hours to attend all three funerals. (Which is probably relevant, because previous media hit-pieces have accused Fetterman of being a poor driver.) Another smear in Mediaite’s top five: The Journal reported that Fetterman frequently refused or canceled meetings with constituents and lawmakers. When an aide told him Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia wanted to discuss Medicaid cuts last year, Fetterman allegedly responded: “Why do I have to keep having to meet with chop.”

After being told the hospital was concerned about vaccines and Medicaid, he replied: “Well I’m not,” before adding: “I’m convinced they just want free trips to DC.” It’s a brutal allegation, because it implies that Fetterman is indifferent to the suffering of cancer-stricken kids. (That monster!) But the CBS article makes it clear that Fetterman had already met with the people from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia multiple times! If you’re a Fetterman-hater, the most compelling evidence probably came from Adam Jentleson, the senator’s ex-chief-of-staff, who fed anti-Fetterman stories to New York Magazine in 2025:

Read more …

“.. the “Big Tent” party has little room for moderates.”

• Radicals Scrubbing Social Media of Past Statements (Turley)

A certain pattern is emerging on the far left. Political figures spend years currying the favor of other extremists with outrageous commentary, proudly proclaiming their commitment to eliminating the Senate, opening the border, and other measures. Then, they delete all of the comments and declare themselves mainstream. The idea is to run in the center but govern from the far left, the so-called Spanberger strategy. The latest example is William Lawrence, who is running for Michigan’s 7th Congressional District. However, Lawrence’s prior self reveals just how radical this movement could prove.

br/> Like many professors, pundits, and politicians on the left, Lawrence has called for sweeping changes in our constitutional system. Lawrence reportedly has demanded a “fundamental overhaul” of the Constitution while calling for the elimination of the Senate, police, prisons, and borders. He has even denounced the nuclear family as an “isolating, individualistic, violent way of organizing society.”

Notably, he is the latest radical to show that the “Big Tent” party has little room for moderates. While establishment figures like Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries seek to use this mob, radicals have made clear that they will be next. Darializa Avila Chevalier is the latest Democratic Socialist to mock the establishment’s pitch of a Big Tent party: “A big tent doesn’t pay your rent, lower your grocery bill, or take on the corporations bleeding our country dry. Democratic socialism does.”

In Lawrence’s case, he even put the intent to music, writing a song a few years ago that calls for the death of moderate former Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, declaring, “Our generation says f**k you for everything…Hurry up and die so that we can get started.” He has also denounced capitalism and the very concept of the nation-state= Lawrence was previously arrested for resisting police officers while protesting a pipeline.

As discussed earlier, candidates like James Talarico in Texas have scrubbed their social media accounts or dismissed their earlier radical claims, including attacks on capitalism. Supporters view these candidates as already proving their bona fides and understanding that they are just sanitizing their records for voters who want the illusion of a moderate. Accordingly, many applaud figures such as Socialist Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, dismissing her own extremist statements just a few years ago as “Woke 1.,” like some distant childhood stage.

Lawrence’s past positions show little nuance and closely track the platform of the Democratic Socialists of America. Destroying the constitutional system, rejecting the nation-state, eliminating prisons, and other radical positions propelled these candidates through the primaries. The effort to now scrub the records shows the utter contempt that many have for average voters.

Lawrence shows the delusion of establishment figures such as Gavin Newsom that they can use a mob to gain power without being eventually devoured by it. In my book Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution, I discuss the French Revolution and its decline into what the Framers called a mobocracy. What became known as “The Terror” was started not by the working class, but by educated lawyers, journalists, and even aristocrats as part of the Jacobin movement.

These are hardcore revolutionaries with an agenda that would destroy the world’s oldest and most successful democratic system in history. Party leaders facilitate them because they can only think about the next election, not the next generation. Lawrence is a cautionary tale that Benjamin Franklin remains correct, this is our Republic but only if we can keep it.

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He’ll fix it.

• Trump Was Right About the Kennedy Center… In a HUGE Way! (Matt Margolis)

President Donald Trump has spent months trying to return the Kennedy Center to its former glory, and leftists have been trying to stop him at every turn. This week, the building did their work for them. A chunk of the Grand Foyer ceiling came crashing down onto the red carpet. I’m guessing that’s still not enough proof for Democrats that the place needs work.


The collapse hit overnight into Thursday, after a powerful storm tore through Washington, D.C. Meteorologists say it was the strongest system to hit the city since the derecho that flattened trees and power lines back in 2012. This time, it took out part of the ceiling in one of the Kennedy Center’s most recognizable rooms, leaving debris scattered across the carpet where donors and dignitaries usually walk. Kennedy Center spokeswoman Roma Daravai wasted no time connecting the dots.

https://twitter.com/romadaravi/status/2096248945760444420?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2096248945760444420%7Ctwgr%5E0adabd6ba811553b321ba27f94a17544c745c045%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpjmedia.com%2Fmatt-margolis%2F2026%2F09%2F05%2Ftrump-was-right-about-the-kennedy-center-n4956928

Last month, Justice Department lawyers told a federal court that the building’s “dangerously dilapidated, outdated, and decrepit” condition, combined with millions of dollars in financial losses, has put the Kennedy Center in a “financial and structural death spiral.” Fixing it, they said, will take two years of closure. Without that work, they warned, “the Center will deteriorate further into an unsafe, decrepit structure that will be required to be taken down, with a determination to follow on what to build on the site, such as a large outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River that has been proposed, by some, for many years.”

The board already voted last month to move forward with a $250 million renovation plan. That plan, and the two-year closure it requires, remains tied up in litigation.The board has been pushing for this renovation for months, and the fight over Trump’s name goes back even further. In July, an appeals court ruled against the administration’s attempt to block Trump’s name from being stripped off the building. Rather than keep fighting that battle, the board pivoted. It voted to have “Restored and Renovated by President Donald J. Trump” inscribed on the building instead.

The left has given all sorts of excuses for why Trump can’t fix the building or have his name attached to it. Maria Shriver, President John F. Kennedy’s niece, called the building a memorial to her uncle.

“The Kennedy Center was named after my uncle, President John F. Kennedy,” she said. “It was named in his honor. He was a man who was interested in the arts, interested in culture, interested in education, language, history. He brought the arts into the White House, and he and my Aunt Jackie amplified the arts, celebrated the arts, stood up for the arts and artists.” She continued, “It is beyond compression [sic] that this sitting president has sought to rename this great memorial dedicated to President Kennedy. It is beyond wild that he would think adding his name in front of President Kennedy’s name is acceptable. It is not. Next thing perhaps he will want to rename JFK Airport, rename the Lincoln Memorial, the Trump Lincoln Memorial. The Trump Jefferson Memorial. The Trump Smithsonian. The list goes on.”

The problem with that, of course, is that the Kennedy Center was never a memorial to begin with. Congress created it in 1958 as the National Cultural Center. It only added JFK’s name to it after his assassination. Calling it a “memorial” gives people the wrong idea about what the place was actually built for, and Shriver knows it.

Further, if Democrats really believed this building were some sacred shrine to JFK, they might have noticed it was falling apart, or cared to do something about it now.

Trump was right. Again.

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Oct 232022
 


Rembrandt van Rijn Landscape With the Rest on the Flight into Egypt 1647

 

• Elite US Unit Ready To Fight In Ukraine If Conflict ‘Escalates’ – CBS (RT)
• US-Led Force Might Intervene In Ukraine Conflict – Petraeus (RT)
• Hungarian Foreign Ministry Criticizes ‘Pro-war’ EU (RT)
• Ukraine War Evolves: Slouching Toward Armageddon (Falk)
• Ukraine Confiscates Russian Cargo Ships (RT)
• Russia Urges UN To Prevent Ukraine’s ‘Terrible Provocation’ (RT)
• Zelensky Calls On ‘World’ To Strike Russia (RT)
• Net Zero Bombshell: The World Does Not Have Enough Lithium and Cobalt (DS)
• Electric Cars In Germany May Fall Victim To Energy Crisis – Spiegel (RT)
• A Judge is About to Rule on Pfizergate Case (BN)
• Fauci’s Calendar: What Was He Doing in the Months Before the Pandemic? (CHD)
• Fauci (et al) Fraud Finale? (El Gato)
• EU Sets Out Commitment to “Legally Binding” Global Pandemic Treaty (DS)
• Inside the Proton, the ‘Most Complicated Thing You Could Possibly Imagine’ (QM)

 

 

 

 

I am not a robot: what that means

 

 

 

 

Keri Lake
https://twitter.com/i/status/1583511672995528705

 

 

 

 

Biden

 

 

Assange

 

 

 

 

America’s finest reduced to a propaganda stunt. And sitting ducks. On national TV. So Americans will think: now the Russkies will be afraid!

• Elite US Unit Ready To Fight In Ukraine If Conflict ‘Escalates’ – CBS (RT)

The US Army 101st Airborne Division would not hesitate to enter Ukraine should a conflict break out between Russia and NATO, CBS News reported on Friday citing the unit’s military commanders. The elite division is currently conducting war games in Romania, close to the NATO country’s border with Ukraine. The unit’s commanders told CBS that they would be prepared to cross into Ukraine if the fighting escalates – without elaborating what that would entail – or if NATO were to come under attack. They highlighted that their current deployment in Europe, the first since WWII, is “to defend NATO territory.” “We’re ready to defend every inch of NATO soil”, Deputy Commander Brigadier General John Lubas told the news network.

In Romania, the 101st Airborne Division is holding joint live-fire ground and air assault exercises. According to Colonel Edwin Matthaidess, Commander of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, his division is the closest US unit to the fighting in Ukraine. He noted that the US troops, have been “closely watching” the Russian military while “building objectives to practice against” and organizing the drills to “replicate exactly what’s going on” in Ukraine. “It keeps us on our toes,” he added. In total, about 4,700 American soldiers from the 101st Airborne’s base in Fort Campbell, Kentucky, have been sent to Europe. NATO has repeatedly stated that it is not a party to the conflict and will not send its troops into Ukraine.

In late June, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced that the US-led bloc would significantly increase the number of its forces on high alert from 40,000 to over 300,000. Since the start of Russia’s military offensive on February 24, Ukraine has received substantial military aid from NATO countries, with billions of dollars’ worth of weaponry pouring into the country – which Moscow has repeatedly criticized. The 101st Airborne Division, also known as the “Screaming Eagles,” has a distinguished military history. It took part in the airborne operations during the D-Day landings in Normandy in 1944 and in the Battle of the Bulge, where it fought in a complete encirclement. The unit was also involved in the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

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“.. a multinational force led by the US and not as a NATO force..”

“Petraeus commanded US forces in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2011, presiding over America’s highest death tolls during the 20-year war, and increased civilian casualties.”

• US-Led Force Might Intervene In Ukraine Conflict – Petraeus (RT)

The US and its allies might directly intervene in the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev, even when there is no threat to any NATO member states, retired US Army general David Petraeus told France’s L’Express weekly on Saturday. Washington might form a new coalition of the willing in such a scenario and use it instead of NATO, Petraeus, who also briefly served as the CIA director, believes. Russia could take some actions in Ukraine that would be “so shocking and so horrific” that it would prompt a response from the US and other nations, he said, adding that they “might react in one way or another, but as a multinational force led by the US and not as a NATO force.” The military alliance would still likely be bound by its treaty and would only join the conflict if Article 5 is invoked, i.e. if one of its members is attacked, the general believes.

Petraeus also said that Moscow is not interested in escalating the conflict and turning it into a global war. A wider conflict is “the last thing” Russian President Vladimir Putin needs right now, he added. Earlier in October, Petraeus claimed that the US could wipe out all Russian forces in Ukraine, alongside with the Russian Black Sea fleet, if Moscow uses nuclear arms in Ukraine. On Saturday, he doubled down on these words by saying that Washington’s response to such a move on Russia’s part would involve “more than diplomatic … economic and legal actions.” At the same time, Petraeus said that his earlier words had described “just one” of “many options” America has in store in case Russia resorts to the use of nuclear arms, which he called an “extremely bad decision.”

The general also said that he still thinks there is nothing Russia could do to change the situation on the frontlines, which, according to Petraeus, is unfavorable to Moscow. Petraeus commanded US forces in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2011, presiding over America’s highest death tolls during the 20-year war, and increased civilian casualties. The general helped persuade then-President Barack Obama to deploy an additional 30,000 US troops to the country, but his counterinsurgency plan, which hinged on “securing and serving” the local population, flopped. He then became CIA director in 2011, only to resign the following year after having an extramarital affair with the woman who was writing his biography.

Judge Nap and Scott Ritter

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“..we need immediate peace instead of a longer war. Peace requires an immediate ceasefire and dialogue.”

• Hungarian Foreign Ministry Criticizes ‘Pro-war’ EU (RT)

The Hungarian Foreign Ministry has rejected EU calls for Russia to be defeated in Ukraine, saying the bloc needed peace, not a prolonged conflict. EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson made several statements on the hostilities this week, stressing the bloc’s “determination, resolve and unity to stand by Ukraine as long as it takes.”She also insisted that “to end this crisis, first, Putin must lose.” Responding on Friday, Tamas Menczer, State Secretary at Hungary’s Foreign Ministry, accused Johansson of making “a very dangerous statement because it links the end of a crisis with a military event, about which we don’t know when will it happen or if it happens at all.” “This pro-war stance of Brussels extends the conflict and suffering. This is extremely dangerous and unacceptable,” he insisted.

Menczer reiterated the position of the Hungarian government, which is that “we need immediate peace instead of a longer war. Peace requires an immediate ceasefire and dialogue.” Hungary has remained relatively neutral since the outbreak of fighting in Ukraine in late February. It has refused to send arms to Kiev unlike many fellow EU members and consistently criticized the sanctions imposed by Brussels on Moscow. Budapest, which is heavily dependent on Russian fuel, was also able to negotiate an exemption for itself from the bloc-wide ban on Russian oil. Moscow, which has repeatedly invited Kiev to come to the negotiating table, has blamed the Ukrainian side for undermining any potential for a peaceful settlement of the conflict.

Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky signed a declaration that officially made it “impossible” to hold any negotiations with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. The move followed the inclusion of the Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, and the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, into Russia as result of referendums in those territories. Kiev and its Western backers have labeled September’s votes a “sham” and continue to view the areas as parts of Ukraine.

More for oligarchs
https://twitter.com/i/status/1583771357544083457

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‘to be so far from God and yet so close to the United States.’

• Ukraine War Evolves: Slouching Toward Armageddon (Falk)

[..] even if it can be argued that Russia/Putin have launched a war that is unlawful, immoral, and unjustified, the wider geopolitical context remains crucial if peace is to be restored and catastrophe avoided. For one thing, the Russian attack may be all of those things alleged, and yet form part of a geopolitical pattern of established behavior that the U.S. has itself confirmed in a series of wars starting with the Vietnam War, and notably more recently with the Kosovo War, Afghanistan War, and the Iraq War. None of these wars were legal, moral, and justifiable, although each enjoyed a geopolitical rationale that made them seem desirable to U.S. foreign policy elites and its closest alliance partners.

Of course, two wrongs do not make a right, but in a world where geopolitical actors enjoy a license to pursue vital strategic interests within traditional spheres of influence, it is not objectively defensible to self-righteously condemn Russia without taking account of what the U.S. has been doing around the world for several decades. Antony Blinken may tell the media that spheres of influence became a thing of the past after World War II, but he must have been asleep for decades not to notice that the Yalta Agreement on the future of Europe reached in 1945 by the Soviet Union, United States, and the United Kingdom was premised on precisely the explicit affirmation of such spheres, which in retrospect, however distasteful in application, deserve some credit for keeping the Cold War from becoming World War III.

Such compromised sovereignty of these borderland countries is descriptive of the prerogatives claimed by so-called Great Powers throughout the history of international relations, not least by the United States through the Monroe Doctrine and its extensions. In this sense, Ukraine finds itself in the long unenviable position of Mexico, and indeed all of Latin America. Many years ago the famous Mexican cultural figure, Octavio Paz, proclaimed the tragedy of his country ‘to be so far from God and yet so close to the United States.’

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“Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer pointed out that any decision to transfer Russian assets to help Ukraine would have to be made in court..”

• Ukraine Confiscates Russian Cargo Ships (RT)

Kiev has handed over nine vessels belonging to Russia to a Ukrainian company, the country’s authorities announced on Saturday. “The income received from managing the vessels will go to the state budget of Ukraine. The total cost of the ships is over UAH 532 million (nearly $14.5 million),” the Prosecutor General’s Office said in a message on its Telegram channel. The ships entered Ukrainian ports in late 2021 and early 2022 and, according to the agency, were transporting cargo. They were then “arrested” and transferred to ARMA, a government agency for the search and management of assets.


In August, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky announced that Kiev had confiscated $765 million worth of Russian assets on Ukrainian territory, and was going to seize more assets belonging to the Russian state, and to use the proceeds for Ukraine’s defense and reconstruction. On Friday, the EU said it would look into ways of using the €300 billion ($292 billion) worth of Russian assets it has frozen as part of sanctions against Moscow, to finance Ukraine. After a summit in Brussels, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer pointed out that any decision to transfer Russian assets to help Ukraine would have to be made in court, as Europe was committed to the rule of law. Moscow has repeatedly condemned the seizure of its assets by Western nations and has described it as theft.

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Of course, the west says it’s Russia that threatens the dam.

• Russia Urges UN To Prevent Ukraine’s ‘Terrible Provocation’ (RT)

Russia has formally asked the United Nations Security Council to prevent Ukraine from destroying the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric dam in Kherson Region. Such a disaster could result in the deaths of thousands of civilians, Moscow’s ambassador to the UN warned on Friday. Speaking at a Security Council briefing, Vassily Nebenzia noted that as the West chooses to ignore “any criminal acts” committed by Ukraine, the country has been “consistently conducting strikes on civilian infrastructure in its former territories”, including the town of Novaya Kakhovka in Kherson Region, which was recently incorporated into Russia. According to the envoy, most of the missiles are being launched from US-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS).

“Ukrainian forces are aiming at the Kakhovskaya dam in order to break it, causing the water level to rise and the adjacent areas to flood,” the diplomat said. Should this happen, Nebenzia warned, “thousands of civilians may be killed, and thousands of homes damaged.” The envoy said Russia has distributed a letter to Security Council members, calling on the UN leadership to prevent “this terrible provocation.” The Ukrainian military frequently shells settlements and civilian infrastructure in the Kherson Region. Aside from the Kakhovskaya plant, Kiev has been targeting the Antonovsky Bridge and a pontoon crossing over the Dnepr River in the city of Kherson, in a bid to disrupt Russian logistics in the area.

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin imposed martial law in Kherson Region, as well as three other former Ukrainian territories, amid reports that Kiev’s forces were preparing a large-scale offensive against the area’s capital city. A day earlier, local authorities announced the relocation of civilians from the province. Kiev’s forces have also repeatedly targeted Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, which is located in the neighboring region, with Russian authorities warning that the attacks could trigger a disaster that would eclipse the Chernobyl incident.

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Kolomoisky should withdraw his puppet.

• Zelensky Calls On ‘World’ To Strike Russia (RT)

The world should make it clear to Russia that it would have to face immediate military response if it decides to use nuclear arms against Kiev, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky told CBC and CTV broadcasters in an interview this week. The Ukrainian leader accused Russia of using “terrorist” blackmail tactics and said that Moscow only understands the language of force. Zelensky accused Moscow of repeatedly threatening to strike “decision-making centers” in Ukraine, including with nuclear arms and said that the world should respond if such a strike does take place. “It does not matter if Ukraine is a NATO member or a non-NATO nation,” he said, adding that no one should be allowed to “blackmail [other nations] like a terrorist.”

According to the Ukrainian president, the world should tell the Russians: “If you strike Bankova Street [the Ukrainian President’s Office], there will be a strike at where you are.” If Moscow does strike Kiev, there should be “a strike at the decision-making centers” in Russia the next “second,” regardless of the results of the Russian attack, he added. Such a stance would be, in turn, not a blackmail but a kind of self-defense that would supposedly prevent those issuing a threat from following through on their plans, Zelensky argued. “One can talk about humanism for a long time,” the Ukrainian president told journalists, adding that his nation lives in a situation, where it has a “neighbor that does not understand anything but force.”

The Ukrainian president also squarely blamed all Russians for what happens in Ukraine. “The society of the Russian Federation must know that they attack our [Ukrainian] society,” he said, adding that the Russians “support a terrorist authority.” If the Russians “do not exert pressure” on President Vladimir Putin, “the world will isolate itself from you,” Zelensky warned, adding that nobody would talk to Russia since it only speaks “the language of threats.” The Ukrainian president also said that the world must itself decide who to talk to in Russia since “they are terrorists now. All of them.”It is not the first time the Ukrainian leader makes such appeals. Earlier, he already called on NATO to carry out preventive strikes on Russia to deter the use of nuclear weapons.

At that time, his words sparked an angry reaction from Moscow that accused Zelensky of trying to spark a third world war. Zelensky later walked back his remarks, claiming that he actually meant “preventative kicks” and blaming the ‘misunderstanding’ on the translation. The Ukrainian president then walked back his statement, claiming it was mistranslated and that he really meant to say preemptive sanctions, not “preemptive strikes.” Back in September, Putin said that Russia would defend its territory using all means available and would do “everything to ensure the security of its people.” At the same time, he also said that Moscow was ready for talks with Kiev and called on Ukraine to “to cease all hostilities” and return to the negotiating table.

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Not a bombshell.

• Net Zero Bombshell: The World Does Not Have Enough Lithium and Cobalt (DS)

Influential elites are either in denial about the horrifying costs and consequences of Net Zero – witness last Wednesday’s substantial vote against fracking British gas in the House of Commons – or busy scooping up the almost unlimited amounts of money currently on offer for promoting pseudoscience climate scares and investing in impracticable green technologies. Until the lights start to go out and heating fails, they are unlikely to pay much attention to a recent 1,000 page alternative energy investigation undertaken for a Finnish Government agency by Associate Professor Simon Michaux. Referring to the U.K.’s 2050 Net Zero target, Michaux states there is “simply not enough time, nor resources to do this by the current target”.

To cite just one example of how un-costed Net Zero is, Michaux notes that “in theory” there are enough global reserves of nickel and lithium if they are exclusively used to produce batteries for electric vehicles. But there is not enough cobalt, and more will need to be discovered. It gets much worse. All the new batteries have a useful working life of only 8-10 years, so replacements will need to be regularly produced. “This is unlikely to be practical, which suggests the whole EV battery solution may need to be re-thought and a new solution is developed that is not so mineral intensive,” he says. All of these problems occur in finding a mass of lithium for ion batteries weighting 286.6 million tonnes. But a “power buffer” of another 2.5 billion tonnes of batteries is also required to provide a four-week back-up for intermittent wind and solar electricity power.

Of course, this is simply not available from global mineral reserves, but, states Michaux, it is not clear how the buffer could be delivered with an alternative system. Michaux sounds a clear warning message. Current expectations are that global industrial businesses will replace a complex industrial energy ecosystem that took more than a century to build. It was built with the support of the highest calorifically dense source of energy the world has ever known (oil), in cheap abundant quantities, with easily available credit and seemingly unlimited mineral resources. The replacement, he notes, needs to be done when there is comparatively very expensive energy, a fragile finance system saturated in debt and not enough minerals.

Most challenging of all, it has to be done within a few decades. Based on his copious calculations, the author is of the opinion that it will not go fully “as planned”. Last Sunday, Sir David Attenborough concluded six episodes of pseudoscientific green agitprop Frozen Planet II by demanding that the world embrace Net Zero, “no matter how challenging it may be”. Net Zero is a political command-and-control project, the full horror of which is yet to be inflicted on the general population. Michaux is quite clear what it entails: “What may be required, therefore, is a significant reduction of societal demand for all resources, of all kinds. This implies a very different social contract and a radically different system of governance to what is in place today.”

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Make that the entire German car industry. Who’s buying cars?

• Electric Cars In Germany May Fall Victim To Energy Crisis – Spiegel (RT)

The current energy crisis in Europe could put the brakes on electric mobility in Germany and make e-vehicles unattractive to potential customers, Der Spiegel reported on Friday. With electricity getting ever more expensive, charging an e-vehicle is sometimes pricier than filling up a petrol or diesel vehicle, the newspaper writes. The combustion engine is more than €30 cheaper per month on average with a mileage of 15,000 kilometers, the publications writes. By the end of next year, an e-car should “clearly be at a disadvantage,” Der Spiegel quotes Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer from the Center for Automotive Research as saying.

The state bonuses for buying electric vehicles were also reduced by 25%. With an almost a year-long wait for an ordered electric car to arrive, the buyer will get a smaller bonus than they were expecting, the outlet writes, adding that there’s no longer any state subsidy for hybrid cars. In the current climate, consumers may have little desire to buy a new car. The situation was described as a “toxic mixture of energy crisis and inflation” by Sabine Jaskula from ZF, Germany’s second largest car systems supplier. Electric car production will collapse in Europe next year, she predicts, as only 11 million cars could roll off the assembly line across the industry instead of the planned 18 million.

Another ZF representative described the EU plans to stop selling petrol and diesel cars by 2035 as “illusory.” There’s also a shortage of public charging stations across Germany, according to Der Spiegel. In some metropolitan areas, a single station has to be shared between as many as 60 vehicles, and a large-scale station refurbishment is needed to provide enough charging spaces for everyone. According to veteran battery car dealer Wolf Warncke, “There is a risk that prospective buyers will turn their backs on e-mobility.”

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Brook Jackson. “Staff who conducted quality control checks were overwhelmed by the volume of problems they were finding.”

• A Judge is About to Rule on Pfizergate Case (BN)

The last shred of hope for holding Big Pharma accountable for fraud now rests on a lawsuit against vaccine manufacturer Pfizer. In an update provided to Becker News, a judge is soon expected to issue his ruling on whether or not the ‘Pfizergate’ fraud case proceeds to trial. “The judge is deciding, as I type, whether we go to discovery or the case is dismissed,” Pfizer whistleblower Brook Jackson tells Becker News. After the CDC this week voted to add the Covid shots to its Childhood Vaccines Schedule, under the PREP Act, it has effectively been granted legal immunity to lawsuits. There is no legal immunity if Pfizer committed fraud, however. In September, Pfizer whistleblower Brook Jackson came forward with her explosive report about the company’s alleged malfeasance, citing ‘falsified data’ and manipulated clinical trials.

In January, she filed a lawsuit against Pfizer for committing fraud against the American people. In February, the judge ruled that the lawsuit, being led by attorney Robert Barnes, can proceed to pre-trial discovery phase. It is now on the verge of potentially going to trial. Brook Jackson is a former clinical trial auditor who was fired after raising her concerns. She first came forward with inside information and documented evidence about Pfizer’s operations in a BMJ investigation conducted by Paul Thacker. The report raises serious red flags that the FDA and Pfizer engaged in massive fraud to justify vaccine mandates. “A regional director who was employed at the research organisation Ventavia Research Group has told The BMJ that the company falsified data, unblinded patients, employed inadequately trained vaccinators, and was slow to follow up on adverse events reported in Pfizer’s pivotal phase III trial,” the BMJ reported. “Staff who conducted quality control checks were overwhelmed by the volume of problems they were finding.

After repeatedly notifying Ventavia of these problems, the regional director, Brook Jackson, emailed a complaint to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Ventavia fired her later the same day. Jackson has provided The BMJ with dozens of internal company documents, photos, audio recordings, and emails.” “Jackson has told The BMJ that, during the two weeks she was employed at Ventavia in September 2020, she repeatedly informed her superiors of poor laboratory management, patient safety concerns, and data integrity issues,” the report added. “Jackson was a trained clinical trial auditor who previously held a director of operations position and came to Ventavia with more than 15 years’ experience in clinical research coordination and management.” The U.S. government has moved to dismiss the case, which cites the False Claims Act.

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His entire calendar, minus redactions.

• Fauci’s Calendar: What Was He Doing in the Months Before the Pandemic? (CHD)

On Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2020, at 9 a.m., Dr. Anthony Fauci joined staff at the National Security Council (NSC) — the President’s national security and foreign policy advisory shop — for a meeting in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building about the novel coronavirus. Fauci would continue to have meetings in classified settings throughout the month. Fauci’s calendar entries included NSC meetings, White House Situation Room meetings and meetings in other classified settings, as COVID-19 was breaking in China. (To our knowledge, the existence of these meetings before Jan. 28, 2020, was not previously disclosed.) On Friday, Jan. 24, four days after China admitted human-to-human transmission of the virus, Fauci started attending a small group COVID-19 discussion that first took place in “Anthony’s Office” in a building next to the White House.

Anthony, in this case, appears to be an NSC employee and an expert in biodefense and China. Flashing back to December 2019, when patients in Wuhan were showing up at hospitals with unidentified pneumonia cases, Fauci attended the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — National Institutes of Health (NIH) dinner and workshops on Dec. 19 and 20 — the sixth annual event for NIH staff and Gates Foundation executives. On the morning of Dec. 19, billionaire Bill Gates tweeted out his own hopes for the coming year and his now prescient prediction: “one of the best buys in global health: vaccines.” Today, we only know about these meetings, because our organization at OpenTheBooks.com, in partnership with the public-interest law firm Judicial Watch, sued the NIH in federal court.

NIH had refused to even acknowledge our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. So, for the first time, here is our exclusive release of Fauci’s official calendar. For a government bureaucrat, this sure was one tightly held calendar. The refusal by NIH to follow open records law was a strategy to delay transparency: NIH forced us into expensive taxpayer-paid litigation to slow-walk 156 pages of semi-redacted calendar production. Fauci’s calendar has 933 events during this five-month period — including 224 media interviews and 84 redacted events (only significant redactions that prevented analysis and understanding were counted, for example, phone number redactions were not included). It’s a document that NIH and Fauci didn’t want you to see … Why? What did Fauci know? And when did he know it?

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“..Tony made written response to questions to which he was required to provide verified answers under penalty of perjury but failed to sign them. They were instead signed by an underling.”

• Fauci (et al) Fraud Finale? (El Gato)

The lawsuit Missouri et al vs about the whole of US public health is progressing in its exploration of the explicit and deliberate role of the us government and many of its agents including Fauci, Murthy, Biden, and Jankowicz (amidst a cast of dozens and several agencies) in the systematic shaping, suppression, and censorship of information regarding covid. As those quaint few who still believe in things like “the 1st amendment” may recall, this is a bit of a constitutional no no. The government is not allowed to dominate the press. This is a matter of sound and settled law. 2. A private entity violates the First Amendment “if the government coerces or induces it to take action the government itself would not be permitted to do, such as censor expression of a lawful viewpoint.” Biden v. Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia Univ., 141 S. Ct. 1220, 1226 (2021) (Thomas, J., concurring). “The government cannot accomplish through threats of adverse government action what the Constitution prohibits it from doing directly.” Id.

These practice date back to well before covid and appear to have been a widespread program by which one political party stifled the views of the other, enhancing left leaning messaging and suppressing the right. It’s been part and parcel of a behavioral package dating back to at least the beginnings of the obama administration, the politicized weaponization of the IRS, the FBI, and who knows how much media right up through such hit singles’ as “the Hunter Laptop is misinformation but the Steele Dossier is real” and “questioning the 2016 election is patriotism but questioning 2020 is insurrection.” The fun part of this is perfectly encapsulated by this quote: “Missouri AG Eric Schmitt: “No one has had the chance to look under the hood before – now we do.”

But a funny thing happened on the way to discovery: Most of the subjects of the investigation have been steadfastly refusing to testify (a crime for which Bannon just got jail). The refusals, prevarications, and slights of hand have been wild. It’s been the entire teflon tony playbook. But it looks like the courts have has just about enough of this slippery behavior. in an exemplary act of evasiveness, Tony made written response to questions to which he was required to provide verified answers under penalty of perjury but failed to sign them. They were instead signed by an underling. This astonishing action serves as its own indictment and fits neatly into a longstanding pattern of lying to Congress and to the American people and it appears that judge doughty (huge win for nominative determinism on that one) is declaring an and to the shenanigans.Folks are going to get deposed under oath, penalty of perjury, and under threat of contempt.

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As well as Lockdowns, Vaccine Passports, Mask Mandates. What justification is left by now?

• EU Sets Out Commitment to “Legally Binding” Global Pandemic Treaty (DS)

The document emphatically reinforces the EU’s commitment to a new “legally binding” pandemic treaty with a “reinforced WHO at its centre” and commits over half a billion euros (equivalently, dollars and pounds) to making it happen.

“Lastly, the EU believes it is vitally important to build on the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and to strengthen the global health architecture – with a reinforced WHO at its centre. The EU is determined to be a driving force in the negotiations on a new, legally binding, international agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response and on targeted amendments to strengthen the International Health Regulations 2005. These complementary processes are a priority for the EU and provide a historic opportunity to find multilateral solutions to common challenges, based on the principles of collective solidarity, equity, fairness, inclusiveness and enhanced transparency. Moreover, the new Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF) for Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response, to which Team Europe has already pledged at least €588 million, will provide funding to support pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, including the implementation of the amended International Health Regulations and the new international agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response.”

The document also trails a forthcoming “EU global health strategy” which “will provide the political framework with priorities, governance and tools, enabling the EU to speak with one influential voice and making the most of Team Europe’s capacity to protect and promote health globally”. This is a very disturbing document. For those of us who still hold to the evidence-based pandemic strategies of pre-2020, premised only on mitigating impacts by expanding emergency healthcare capacity and finding safe and effective treatments, and not imposing intrusive, harmful and unproven methods of trying to prevent the spread of a disease that is anyway harmless to most people, this bodes ill indeed for the current direction of travel in Europe and globally.

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“The proton is a quantum mechanical object that exists as a haze of probabilities..”

• Inside the Proton, the ‘Most Complicated Thing You Could Possibly Imagine’ (QM)

More than a century after Ernest Rutherford discovered the positively charged particle at the heart of every atom, physicists are still struggling to fully understand the proton. High school physics teachers describe them as featureless balls with one unit each of positive electric charge — the perfect foils for the negatively charged electrons that buzz around them. College students learn that the ball is actually a bundle of three elementary particles called quarks. But decades of research have revealed a deeper truth, one that’s too bizarre to fully capture with words or images. “This is the most complicated thing that you could possibly imagine,” said Mike Williams, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “In fact, you can’t even imagine how complicated it is.”

The proton is a quantum mechanical object that exists as a haze of probabilities until an experiment forces it to take a concrete form. And its forms differ drastically depending on how researchers set up their experiment. Connecting the particle’s many faces has been the work of generations. “We’re kind of just starting to understand this system in a complete way,” said Richard Milner, a nuclear physicist at MIT. As the pursuit continues, the proton’s secrets keep tumbling out. Most recently, a monumental data analysis published in August found that the proton contains traces of particles called charm quarks that are heavier than the proton itself.

The proton “has been humbling to humans,” Williams said. “Every time you think you kind of have a handle on it, it throws you some curveballs.” Recently, Milner, together with Rolf Ent at Jefferson Lab, MIT filmmakers Chris Boebel and Joe McMaster, and animator James LaPlante, set out to transform a set of arcane plots that compile the results of hundreds of experiments into a series of animations of the shape-shifting proton. We’ve incorporated their animations into our own attempt to unveil its secrets.

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Dog dewormer

 

 

 

 

Centripetal force

 

 

 

 

Halloween

 

 

 

 

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