Aug 022025
 


Samuel Colman The Edge of Doom 1836-38

 

Trump ‘Prepared’ For Nuclear War With Russia (RT)
Trump Moves Two Nuclear Subs Closer To Russia After Medvedev Tweets (NYP)
White House Makes Trump Nobel Peace Prize Claim (RT)
The Artificial Demon (James Howard Kunstler)
The BRICS Hit Back: Trump’s Old Tricks Meet New World (Sibal)
Chuck Grassley Releases Declassified John Durham Annex (CTH)
Durham Annex Bombshell Exposes New Twist in Russian Collusion Hoax (Margolis)
Sitting US Senator Now Implicated in Russia Hoax Cover-Up (Margolis)
Orban Hammers ‘Weak and Ridiculous’ EU (RT)
The Art of the Defeat: Kamala ‘Writes’ Memoir About 2024 Campaign (Margolis)
Marco Rubio Discusses Current Geopolitical Events and Russia Hoax (CTH)
Why Western Education Is Doomed (Marsden)
Ghislaine Maxwell Is Quietly Moved To Cushy New ‘Club Fed’ Prison (NYP)
Rule by Quacks (Paul Craig Roberts)
Pediatricians Organization Says Eliminate Vaccine Exemptions for Children (Dick)
CDC Recommended Vaccine Schedule 1986 vs. 2019 (CHD)
‘Dead zone’ In Gulf of America Shrank Sharply In 2025 (JTN)

 

 

Sachs

Ritter

Tuberville

CBDC
https://twitter.com/JimFergusonUK/status/1951190664194171030

MAGA
https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/1951101868865675361

Brennan

 

 

The next time you dislike your life, remember it’s all about perspective. I have a friend who reads 2-3 books a week, works out twice a day, has no financial worries, and has people who want to have sex with him all the time. And yet he constantly complains about how much he hates prison.

 

 

 

 

“Well, you just have to read what he said. He was talking about nuclear. When you talk about nuclear, we have to be prepared. And we’re totally prepared..”

Why does Trump react to tweets? He can just as easily ignore them.

Trump ‘Prepared’ For Nuclear War With Russia (RT)

President Donald Trump has said he cannot treat any talk of nuclear weapons lightly and that the US must always be “totally prepared” for any potential confrontation, responding to what he described as an inappropriate “threat” made by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump explained his alleged order to deploy two nuclear submarines closer to Russian waters, saying the move was necessary to ensure national security. “Well, we had to do that. We just have to be careful. A threat was made, and we didn’t think it was appropriate,” Trump said. “So I do that on the basis of safety for our people. A threat was made by a former president of Russia, and we’re going to protect our people.”

Earlier on Friday, Trump announced in a post on Truth Social that he had ordered the deployment of two US nuclear submarines to what he called “the appropriate regions,” in reaction to remarks made by Medvedev on social media. Trump condemned the former Russian leader’s rhetoric as “foolish and inflammatory,” warning that “words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences.” The dispute escalated after Trump referred to Medvedev as a “failed” leader and warned him to “watch his words.” Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, responded with a scathing message warning against provoking Moscow too far, referencing the legendary ‘Perimetr’ automatic nuclear retaliation system, which dates back to the Soviet era and is presumed to still exist in Russia.

“And about India’s and Russia’s ‘dead economies’ and ‘entering very dangerous territory’ – well, let him remember his favorite movies about ‘the walking dead,’ as well as how dangerous the fabled ‘Dead Hand’ can be,” Medvedev wrote. Though Russia has never officially confirmed the existence of the system, it is widely believed by Western analysts to serve as a last-resort deterrent in the event of a decapitating strike on the Russian leadership. The White House and the Pentagon have not provided any further comments, and Trump’s claim about the submarine redeployment remains impossible to verify, since the exact locations and patrol areas of US nuclear submarines are among the military’s most closely guarded secrets.

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“Trump issued a theatrical ultimatum to the Kremlin. The world shuddered, expecting the consequences. Belligerent Europe was disappointed. Russia didn’t care..”

Trump Moves Two Nuclear Subs Closer To Russia After Medvedev Tweets (NYP)

President Trump said Friday he had ordered two nuclear submarines moved closer to Russia in response to “highly provocative statements” by a top Kremlin official. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, had taunted Trump directly in a recent post on X, saying “each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war.” “I have ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, without revealing the location of the vessels. “Words are very important, and can often lead to unintended consequences, I hope this will not be one of those instances,” he added. The Pentagon referred requests for additional information to the White House, which declined to comment on the record.

Medvedev, a close ally of Putin and deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, taunted Trump in a series of posts on X. Trump had threatened Russia with secondary sanctions if Moscow does not stop its ongoing war on Ukraine by Aug. 8. Medvedev wrote in his post that Trump “should remember two things” as he issues his threats on Moscow — that “Russia isn’t Israel or even Iran” and that “each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country.” “Don’t go down the Sleepy Joe road!” Medvedev mocked. The former Russian president often makes aggressive remarks on social media and is less diplomatic toward the US than Putin in his public comments. Medvedev served as president from 2008 to 2012 and was widely seen as a puppet of Putin, who at the time was only allowed to serve two terms in a row.

While the Russian president has held off on commenting on Trump’s upcoming sanctions, Medvedev has taken to X numerous times to directly condemn the threat. “Trump issued a theatrical ultimatum to the Kremlin. The world shuddered, expecting the consequences. Belligerent Europe was disappointed. Russia didn’t care,” Medvedev wrote on July 15. Medvedev, 59, was even more belligerent under former President Joe Biden, arguing in November of 2024 that if the US were to send nuclear weapons to Ukraine, then Russia would have grounds to respond with an atomic attack. He also raged against Trump directing the US military to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities, writing on June 22, “at this rate, Trump can forget about the Nobel Peace Prize — not even with how rigged it has become. What a way to kick things off, Mr. President. Congratulations!”

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As the kids are dying in Gaza. Can the Nobel really sink any lower?

White House Makes Trump Nobel Peace Prize Claim (RT)

US President Donald Trump should have received a Nobel Peace Prize years ago, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has claimed, citing his role in multiple international peace agreements. Despite several nominations during his first presidency, Trump has not won the award. At a briefing in Washington on Thursday, Leavitt said Trump had intervened in conflicts such as the Thailand-Cambodia dispute by threatening to withhold US trade deals, which she claimed had led to a swift ceasefire. “We had about one peace deal every month,” Leavitt stated. Trump has repeatedly argued he deserves the award, saying in June that he has been overlooked because “they only give it to liberals.”

Several foreign leaders have recently nominated the US president for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu handed Trump a nomination letter earlier this month, crediting his role in mediating a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. Before any ceasefire talks began, however, the US launched a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities in June, aiming to cripple Tehran’s capabilities. Trump later said he didn’t want to cite Hiroshima or Nagasaki as examples, but claimed that just as those bombings had ended World War II, the 2025 strike had ended the Iran conflict. The comment drew sharp criticism from Japanese officials, who called it morally reckless and offensive.

Cambodia’s deputy prime minister also nominated Trump for his role in calming a border dispute with Thailand earlier this year. The Pakistani government publicly backed his nomination, highlighting his involvement in the India-Pakistan ceasefire talks. India, however, has firmly rejected claims of US involvement in the ceasefire, dismissing the notion of any third-party mediation. Trump had vowed to end the Ukraine conflict within 24 hours if re-elected – a promise he later walked back, suggesting a 100-day timeline instead and calling the original claim “a little bit sarcastic.” In July, his administration approved advanced arms deliveries to Ukraine, including Patriot missiles funded by EU NATO allies. Russia condemned the move as a provocation and accused the US of escalating the conflict under the guise of support.

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“With apologies for bluntness, the mainstream press fucked around, now the mainstream press is finding out.” —Matt Taibbi

The Artificial Demon (James Howard Kunstler)

By now, it must be kind of obvious that Mr. Putin of Russia was staged-up into a demon for the convenience of Hillary Clinton — resulting in a decade of deformed US foreign relations that has dragged us to the edge of a third world war. Nice work, Democratic Party! I will proffer a harsh truth to you: the best outcome in Ukraine would be for Russia to win the war as expeditiously as possible, neutralize and disarm the place, change-out its illegitimate government, and let it revert to being the frontier backwater it was for eight decades previous, when it was not a problem for the other nations of the region. Mr. Putin has put up with our country’s psychotic nonsense with remarkable patience. The idea that he seeks to conquer western Europe was a preposterous confection of the neocon crazies in our State Department and Intel “community.”

The long game for the neocon crazies has been to use NATO as the instrument to break up Russia and gain control of its resources. This was after Secretary of State James Baker told Mikhail Gorbachev on February 9, 1990, in discussions over German reunification, that “not an inch of NATO’s present military jurisdiction will spread in an eastern direction.” Starting in 1999 with the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland, sixteen additional nations were induced to join NATO, encroaching on Russia’s borders, with new military bases and missiles. It was a stupid game.

And it failed. Ukraine was the final gambit. The US destabilized it on purpose in 2014, installed a series of governments we could control, made it a ward of US taxpayers, sprinkled it with bio-weapons labs and money laundries, and gave Mr. Zelenskyy the go-ahead to start shelling the Donbas provinces adjacent to Russia. After years of that, Mr. Putin moved to stop it in 2022. The development of drone weapons, along with US-based satellite targeting tech, has prolonged the war. But, of course, the Russians, too, have modernized their own weapons arsenal to match that. The current state of things is a slow Russian grind to defeat a Ukraine that has run out of available fighting men and is apparently short of all weapons besides its drones.

On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump promised to end the Ukraine war in a New York minute. That proved more difficult and complicated than he realized. He said lately in so many words that he has “lost patience” with Mr. Putin for failing to join a ceasefire as a prelude to peace talks. Accordingly, Mr. Trump set a fifty-day deadline and then shortened it to twelve-days, running out on August 8-9 (accounting for time zones). Failure to comply will cause Russia to suffer a new round of sanctions. Mr. Putin has shrugged off that threat, saying that time has proven Russia to be sanction-proofed.

Some kind of game is afoot in all this. Neither Trump nor Putin could possibly want to turn this fiasco in Ukraine into a greater war that will destroy what’s left of Western Civilization. You might find this startling, but for all our efforts to anathemize Russia, it is still a part of Western Civ. After its soviet experiment failed, Russia wanted above all to reintegrate economically with Europe, but the neocons here and the globalists of Europe would not allow that. They became determined instead to wreck Russia — a vicious ethos likely to have emanated from the UK, with its lingering imperial delusions. (For Germany, it has brought only economic suicide.)

You might suspect that Mr. Trump has to pretend to be tough with Russia to counter the still-lingering suspicion — germinated by the Hillary Clinton campaign a decade ago — that he is “Putin’s puppet.” By coincidence, strange or not, that trope is now unraveling with the release of the RussiaGate intel archive that the rogue DOJ and FBI squirreled away since the Trump 1.0 term in office. Mr. Patel found a trove of documentary evidence in a burn-bag in a back room at FBI headquarters. DNI Tulsi Gabbard retrieves more previously-hidden evidence by the day from the vast NSA data base. It ought to be clear now that the initial Hillary Clinton campaign prank metastasized into the worst perversion of abusive government power in our country’s history, and is yet on-going.

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“Trump positions himself as a peacemaker and openly aspires to win a Nobel Peace Prize, while at the same time bombing Iran and assisting Israel in perpetuating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”

The BRICS Hit Back: Trump’s Old Tricks Meet New World (Sibal)

US President Trump has rattled Washington’s ties with New Delhi to an unexpected degree. Countries, including, India were prepared for rough diplomatic weather after Trump won his second term, but did not anticipate the kind of onslaught he has unleashed on the global system and diplomatic norms. Trump’s latest attack on India and the BRICS countries explains this underlying dynamic. The BRICS aspire to play a greater political, economic and financial role in global affairs. This aspiration is based on shifts of economic and concomitant political and financial power towards the so-called emerging powers or middle-income countries. BRICS countries have already begun to use their national currencies in trading with each other as much as possible. The use of draconian financial sanctions on Russia by the West has accelerated this process.

Today, almost all trade operations between Russia and China are conducted in rubles and yuan. India too is encouraging the use of its national currency in payment transactions with select countries. A significant portion of the trade between India and Russia is now settled using a rupee-ruble mechanism. Washington cannot use secondary sanctions to prevent countries, including India, from using the US dollar to trade with Russia and then oppose de-dollarization if these countries are compelled to use alternative payment mechanisms. If the US continues to weaponize the dollar, it will inevitably lead to the very “de-dollarization” that Trump is concerned about. India has officially disowned any de-dollarization agenda – not the least because the US is its biggest trade partner in goods and services. India seeks more investments and technology transfers from the US. In many ways, New Delhi’s ties with Washington are the most important for achieving its growth and developmental goals.

But that does not preclude India from establishing other partnerships to reduce over-dependence on one country, balance its external relations and hedge against the excesses of US foreign policy. Trump has exacerbated the disruptions caused by Washington’s frequent use of sanctions as a political weapon by also weaponizing tariffs. He is convinced that by imposing arbitrarily determined tariffs on imports from other countries he will compel them to enter into negotiations with the US to obtain relief by lowering their high tariffs on American products. But India on Wednesday sent a clear message: it is determined to protect the interests of its own businesses, farmers and people. Trump’s use of tariffs as lever, like in the case of Brazil, where he has cited President Lula’s treatment of his predecessor Bolsanaro as reason for imposing 50% levies, is being closely monitored by the world’s governments.

Trump has repeatedly targeted BRICS since his return to the Oval Office. He had threatened the countries with tariffs if they contonie to pledge to create a new common currency or support any alternative to the US dollar. Trump appeared to harbor the illusion that BRICS was ”dead” following his threats – which have now materialized into action. In reality, the BRICS summit held in Brazil this July showed no visible signs of intimidation. On the contrary, such overt displays of American economic coercion may well drive more countries toward alliances that seek to challenge the dominance of any single global power. The administration in Washington appears to lack realism in its assessment of global trends. Trump positions himself as a peacemaker and openly aspires to win a Nobel Peace Prize, while at the same time bombing Iran and assisting Israel in perpetuating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

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“Obviously, the DNC and the people running the Open Societies Foundation (Soros) knew what the Clinton campaign was doing; they also knew the FBI was assisting the Clinton campaign.”

Chuck Grassley Releases Declassified John Durham Annex (CTH)

The FBI, CIA, ODNI and DOJ declassified the annex to the John Durham investigation of the origin of the Trump-Russia collusion hoax. The declassified annex was released today by Senator Chuck Grassley. First, the basic outline. The John Durham Annex outlines how the CIA received information in mid-2016 from a “credible foreign source,” talking about Hillary Clinton’s campaign working with the FBI to manufacture a Trump-Russia conspiracy, as an October surprise. Beginning in 2014 and continuing through 2016, Russian hackers gained access to the email accounts and main accounts of the Soros Foundation/Open Societies Foundation who was working with the DNC and Hillary Clinton campaign. What the hackers discovered was a trove of information showing how the Clinton Campaign was constructing a smear job against Donald Trump with the manufacturing of a fraudulent Trump-Russia conspiracy.

The emails and communication showed the Clinton Campaign was directly working with the FBI to create the smear. A CIA source gained custody of the Russian analysis of the information. The information was then shared with the CIA, who evaluated the Russian framework as “authentic” and “valid.” The CIA then shared that information with the FBI, who said the information was “unreliable.” Obviously, the FBI held a conflict of interest because the information received outlined their misconduct. So, the FBI claimed the information gained from the hack was false and likely Russian propaganda. However, the CIA deemed it credible because it was clearly happening in real time. Additionally, this information was then used in the summer of 2016 by CIA Director John Brennan to brief President Obama on what the Russians knew about the Clinton Campaign working with the FBI to create this false political narrative.

Part of what the Russians knew from their intercepts was that President Obama would not support the Clinton campaign directly, but Obama had instructed Attorney General Loretta Lynch to assist Hillary Clinton’s efforts. Lynch would work with FBI officials to exonerate Hillary Clinton from her email server scandal and then greenlight the FBI to assist with the Trump-Russia smear. The 29-page annex then goes into details about who was communicating with whom and what the joint Clinton-FBI agenda was. The information inside the Durham Annex is remarkable in that it shows the planning of the Clinton Campaign to use Fusion GPS and the FBI to smear Donald Trump with the false Trump-Russia narrative.

The declassified Annex has two central components. First, it walks through the evidence against Clinton and the FBI organizing the operation. Second, it then takes a rather remarkable look at how the FBI manipulated the information around Carter Page to support the Clinton/FBI operation. All of the information contained within the declassified annex is not entirely new; however, the clear and compelling evidence it provides highlights the operation as it unfolded. Obviously, the DNC and the people running the Open Societies Foundation (Soros) knew what the Clinton campaign was doing; they also knew the FBI was assisting the Clinton campaign.

The term “special services” in this context is the FBI.

Crowdstrike and ThreatConnect would then push the Trump-Russia narrative into the media. That’s exactly what happened.

I strongly suggest everyone to take the time to read carefully the 29-page declassified Annex. The entire outline of the operation to discredit candidate Donald Trump is within it. CIA Director John Brennan then briefs President Obama to tell him the Russians’ are aware of the op. The Obama administration then begins making moves to target Russia, as both an enhancement to the Clinton operation and as a defensive move to protect themselves from discovery as the operation continues.

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“..explosive allegations that the FBI may have been doing George Soros’ bidding during Operation Crossfire Hurricane.”

Durham Annex Bombshell Exposes New Twist in Russian Collusion Hoax (Margolis)

In a bombshell development that should rattle every American, newly declassified documents confirm what conservatives have said all along: the Trump-Russia collusion narrative wasn’t just baseless; it was a deliberate political hit job that the highest levels of the Obama administration orchestrated, with Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign at the helm and the FBI eagerly playing along. But it gets worse. Buried in a classified annex to John Durham’s report, which is finally seeing the light of day after the Biden administration kept it under wraps, are explosive allegations that the FBI may have been doing George Soros’ bidding during Operation Crossfire Hurricane.

This intel, which Durham acquired and shared with a Senate committee, was reportedly so sensitive that whistleblowers say it never saw daylight until now. The hoax wasn’t just a smear campaign. It was a weaponized operation, and the American people were the targets. After Tulsi Gabbard declassified the annex, Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley released it to the public this morning. And buckle up because if the testimony witnesses provided to Durham is accurate, the Soros Foundation wasn’t just tangentially involved in this political hit job; it was knee-deep in it. We’re talking elbows-in, fingerprints-all-over level involvement in what now looks like one of the most brazen abuses of power in modern political history. Just the News has the details:

“Newly-declassified so-called Clinton Plan intelligence included intercepted communications from a George Soros ally which suggested that Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign against Donald Trump was plotting a “long-term affair to demonize” Trump by linking him to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, and that the Clinton campaign expected that “the FBI will put more oil into the fire.” The revelations, including intercepted purported communications from Leonard Benardo, a top official at George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, and communications by Clinton foreign policy adviser Julianne Smith, provide new insight into information that the U.S. intelligence community received in July 2016 – just before the FBI launched its politicized Crossfire Hurricane investigation. The bombshell allegations about a plot to falsely link Trump to Putin in an effort to distract from Clinton’s classified emails scandal are found within a formerly classified but now largely-unredacted appendix from special counsel John Durham’s 2023 report on the origins and conduct of the Russiagate investigation.”

According to the newly declassified annex, U.S. intelligence, including the FBI, received information suggesting that Clinton personally approved a scheme to link Donald Trump to Russian hackers in order to distract from her own email scandal. And it was a Hillary-approved plan. “HRC [Hillary Rodham Clinton] approved [Campaign adviser Julie’s] idea about Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections,” the email read. “That should distract people from her own missing emails.” The plot outlined how a Clinton adviser pushed a long-term plan to “demonize Putin and Trump,” using media outlets, CrowdStrike, and ThreatConnect to launder the narrative under the guise of cybersecurity analysis. Durham concluded that there’s credible evidence that the Clinton campaign’s plan to tie Trump to Russian hackers was real and that the campaign followed through with it.

“The office’s review of certain communications involving Smith provided possible additional support … to the notion that the Clinton campaign was engaged in an effort or plan in late July 2016 to encourage scrutiny of Trump’s purported ties to Russia, and that the [Clinton] campaign might have wanted or expected the FBI or other agencies to aid that effort (‘put more oil into the fire’) by commencing a formal investigation of the DNC hack,” Durham’s classified annex reads.These are not wild conspiracy theories. The documents have shattered the illusions of even the most stubborn deniers.

“Based on the Durham annex, the Obama FBI failed to adequately review and investigate intelligence reports showing the Clinton campaign may have been ginning up the fake Trump-Russia narrative for Clinton’s political gain, which was ultimately done through the Steele Dossier and other means,” Sen. Grassley said in a statement. “History will show that the Obama and Biden administration’s law enforcement and intelligence agencies were weaponized against President Trump. This political weaponization has caused critical damage to our institutions and is one of the biggest political scandals and cover-ups in American history.”

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“..Sen. Warner’s involvement marks a turning point. This scandal no longer stops with the intelligence agencies; it now reaches deep into Congress..”

Sitting US Senator Now Implicated in Russia Hoax Cover-Up (Margolis)

In recent weeks, a scandal of epic proportions has come to light, confirming that the Obama administration rigged intelligence to concoct the Russia collusion narrative against Donald Trump, and the conspiracy went all the way to the top: Barack Obama himself. This is no longer hearsay, thanks to two explosive document releases from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. They reveal a conspiracy coordinated between the highest levels of America’s intelligence community and the White House — an open assault on the presidency in retaliation for Trump winning the election. Barack Obama personally ordered the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment to rely on the notorious, unverified Steele Dossier, an opposition research hit job that even career analysts derided for its lack of credibility.

The dossier’s only real value was its utility: fueling Democratic cries of collusion and giving the legacy media a weapon to batter the new administration. Inside the agencies, voices of dissent were crushed. Analysts warned the dossier was junk, but their objections were overruled. The process became not about facts but about constructing a narrative at any cost. Amid this corruption, a senior analyst tried to do the right thing. He witnessed former CIA Director John Brennan warping intelligence and sought to raise the alarm. But speaking the truth in a rigged game is a recipe for punishment. When the analyst tried to report his concerns, he was promptly silenced by Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), then the Democratic chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, whose interest in oversight seemed to depend on political expedience.

Then, intimidation from the very top set in. According to notes obtained by The Federalist, then-DNI James Clapper’s right-hand man threatened the analyst’s career, making it clear that professional advancement hinged on parroting the party line. “The notes made public for the first time today recount a conversation the top analyst in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) had with an unnamed superior who worked closely with the then-Director James Clapper, according to sources familiar with the document,” explain Margot Cleveland and Mollie Hemingway. According to a person familiar with the notes, the analyst documented his recollection of the conversation on March 31, 2023 — more than six years after the conversation occurred.

The delay, The Federalist’s source explained, occurred because the analyst’s efforts to share his concerns, first with the Inspector General of the Intelligence Community (IC), and then later with Special Counsel John Durham and Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, proved unsuccessful. Only later did the analyst receive an inquiry for more information about his claims, leading to the drafting of the summary of his recollections. Those notes capture the analyst claiming in early January that his supervisor told him, “There is reporting you are not allowed to see,” adding that “if you saw it, you would agree” with the ICA. After noting he concurred “with varying confidence with most of the 2017 ICA’s Key Judgements,” the analyst explained that he “would need to review any reporting myself in order to consider it.”

“You need to TRUST ME on this,” Clapper’s crony countered, stating to the analyst he “would need to demonstrate [his] ability to ‘outgrow’” his refusal to sign off on assessments he did not share, in order to be recommended for a promotion. The analyst remained firm, according to the notes, which led his exasperated superior to reply, “I need you to say you agree with these judgements, so that DIA will go along with them!” Unlike the left’s celebrated whistleblowers, this analyst was ignored, stonewalled, and silenced for daring to expose the truth. Despite him raising concerns with the IC Inspector General, John Durham, and even Sen. Warner, no one listened — because his story threatened the power structure in Washington. For over six years, the same institutions that claim to protect democracy worked to bury his warnings. Now, the documents show something far worse than mere misconduct: a deliberate scheme to weaponize U.S. intelligence against a sitting president and subvert the will of the voters.

The Russia hoax wasn’t a mistake; it was a slow-motion coup dressed up as national security. And unless the people behind it face real consequences, there can be no restoring trust in the intelligence community. The evidence is now overwhelming that senior Obama officials didn’t just manufacture the Russia collusion hoax, but they actively worked to suppress anyone who challenged it. With the help of a sitting U.S. senator, they silenced a whistleblower to keep their deception buried. Sen. Warner’s involvement marks a turning point. This scandal no longer stops with the intelligence agencies; it now reaches deep into Congress. Lawmakers weren’t merely complicit; they played an active role in a coordinated plot to mislead the American people and undermine a duly elected president.

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“We are what we are. Weak, ridiculous, loud-mouthed. We educate others, but we have no strength when it comes to negotiating. We show neither talent nor ability. So it’s the worst combination.”

Orban Hammers ‘Weak and Ridiculous’ EU (RT)

The European Union’s recent dealings with the US have reinforced Brussels’ image as a weak yet overconfident partner prone to lecturing others, according to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Speaking on Friday during his regular interview on Kossuth Radio, Orban took aim at European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for her handling of trade negotiations with US President Donald Trump. He claimed she had failed to secure a balanced agreement and made side commitments – such as pledging to purchase US arms, presumably for Ukraine – that she had neither the authority to offer nor the capacity to fulfill.

Orban described the resulting trade arrangement as “an economic own goal,” and suggested the EU had lost ground in a trade dispute that remains unresolved. The Hungarian leader, a frequent critic of Brussels, said the bloc’s foreign policy approach was incoherent and ineffective, painting a picture of dysfunction at the top. “We are what we are. Weak, ridiculous, loud-mouthed. We educate others, but we have no strength when it comes to negotiating. We show neither talent nor ability. So it’s the worst combination.”

He likened EU diplomacy to “a little hamster huddling in the corner, hissing at everyone, arguing with everyone, humiliating ourselves, and then still thinking we are in a position to lecture others about human rights, democracy, and behavior.” Orban was commenting on a perceived diplomatic slight toward top EU officials during their visit to Beijing earlier this week. Members of the delegation, led by von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa, were seen exiting shuttle buses at the airport upon arrival before eventually being offered individual transportation. The footage shown by Chinese media prompted speculation that the reception was not in line with the dignitaries’ rank.

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“There are currently no details about what kind of advance she got for the book, which probably means it was really small.”

The Art of the Defeat: Kamala ‘Writes’ Memoir About 2024 Campaign (Margolis)

It looks like Kamala Harris isn’t fading away into the sunset just yet. Brace yourselves; she’s writing a book. After tanking so spectacularly in the 2024 election that her future in public office is all but shot, she’s chosen the classic liberal consolation prize: the post-defeat memoir. Harris has announced a memoir about her failed presidential campaign, titled “107 Days.” The video announcement, which she delivered with all the forced earnestness we’ve come to expect from the former vice president, attempts to reframe her presidential campaign as something noble, inspirational, and worth commemorating. You can already tell this book will be 300-plus pages of agonizing prose, blaming everything and everyone for her defeat, except Harris herself.

Even the title, “107 Days,” feels like a not-so-subtle attempt to plant the idea that she never really had a fair shot. It’s not her fault she burned through over a billion dollars and lost every swing state; it was just “the circumstances” that made victory impossible. The whole thing reads like a preemptive excuse masquerading as a reflection. “Just over a year ago, I launched my campaign for President of the United States,” she said. “107 days traveling the country fighting for our future, the shortest presidential campaign in modern history.” Apparently, Harris has spent her post-office time reminiscing about those three and a half months of political mediocrity, cobbling together what she calls a “journal” into a book. “Since leaving office, I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on those days,” she said, explaining she was “pulling my thoughts together… in essence writing a journal that is this book.”

Of course, she insists the book offers more than just an extended therapy session. She promises a “behind-the-scenes account” and insists it’s filled with “candor and reflection,” which in Harris-speak likely means recycled talking points and plenty of passive voice. “I believe there’s value in sharing what I saw, what I learned, and what I know it will take to move forward,” Harris added, though she neglected to explain how losing to Donald Trump by a landslide in 2024 qualifies her to lecture anyone on how to “move forward.”In other words, it’s the spiritual sequel to Hillary Clinton’s “What Happened?” She goes on to claim that one “truth” kept coming back to her while supposedly writing this book. That truth? “Sometimes the fight takes a while.” A poetic way of saying: I lost, but I’m still pretending it mattered.

Finally, Harris assured her dwindling fan base, “I will never stop fighting to make our country reflect the very best of its ideals, always on behalf of the people.” Translation: I’m not done chasing relevance. In what feels like the latest stop on Kamala Harris’s never-ending farewell tour minus the applause, “107 Days” is shaping up to be yet another entry in her growing library of hollow slogans and forced gravitas. “I cannot wait for you to read this,” she declares, which is ironic, because most Americans won’t. Simon & Schuster is publishing the book, which comes out in September. There are currently no details about what kind of advance she got for the book, which probably means it was really small.

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“..an evaluation of the Ukraine-Russia conflict and the frustration of the Trump administration to find a way to settle the issues..”

Marco Rubio Discusses Current Geopolitical Events and Russia Hoax (CTH)

Secretary of State/National Security Advisor, Marco Rubio, appears for an interview with Brian Kilmeade to discuss recent events in the world of geopolitics in addition to the events now surfacing with the declassification of the Trump-Russia hoax documents. The beginning of the conversation starts with an evaluation of the Ukraine-Russia conflict and the frustration of the Trump administration to find a way to settle the issues. The second subject is the status of U.S-India relations now that trade negotiations have stalled. The conversation then moves to the ongoing declassification of information. At 07:30 of the interview Rubio is asked about his previous SSCI investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election. Rubio talks about his prior role as Chairman of the SSCI and the efforts of the Intelligence Community to manipulate public opinion.

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Try woke spelling.

“Shur, whi not rite a sentins like this won, wear awl the wurdz sound rite but luk lyke they flunked owtta speling skool?”

Why Western Education Is Doomed (Marsden)

In France, the attempt to institute a similar post-knowledge educational system has seen middling results. High school math classes were ditched entirely in 2019 under President Emmanuel Macron. But the outcome was such a disaster that it was reversed for the 2023/24 school year. This year’s French final standardized exams for high schoolers and middle schoolers, which have just taken place, saw the French media publish a bunch of instructions that were given to the test graders to dummy things down for France’s future Nobel Prize hopefuls. “The first is to not deduct points for spelling or grammar mistakes. What matters is not compliance with the spelling code, but intelligibility,” said France’s RTL.

Oh, so something like this, you mean? “Shur, whi not rite a sentins like this won, wear awl the wurdz sound rite but luk lyke they flunked owtta speling skool?” Because that fits the stated criteria. Imagine an email from that colleague when he or she gets into your workplace.mnnApparently, graders were also told not to remove all points when a student is asked to conjugate a verb – and then gets the root of the same verb that was just listed wrong. Maybe the verb they replaced whatever was right in front of their eyes with doesn’t even exist, but the ending is right. Only half the points are taken away for that.

The final philosophy exam had to explain the meaning of the word “preponderant,” because it was apparently considered too hard for kids about to head off to university, RTL reports. The media outlet also pointed out that graders of the oral exam, read from a text that the student has 20 minutes to prepare, were only to focus on the student’s performance at the end of the session, to account for nerves. This may or may not have been read off a student’s page:

“Hai, my naym is Sam. I hav two bruthurs and wun sistur. We lyk to play soker togethur. My mum cuks gud fud and my dad lukes to wach mooviz wif us. I lyk drawin and playin vidyo gayms. Thansk for lisnin! Do I pas high skool now?” Oui, oui! A+. Every day seems to bring a new revelation about how the West’s Wokémon Academy is doing. In a world where feelings outrank facts and spelling is optional, it’s anyone’s guess what our ‘graduates’ will actually know and be equipped with for real life. But hey, at least their safe spaces are well-furnished.

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This is after talking to Deputy AG Todd Blanche for 9 hours this week.

”Maxwell is supposed to be locked up until 2037. Yet inmates “typically only go to a camp if you have just a couple years left,”

Ghislaine Maxwell Is Quietly Moved To Cushy New ‘Club Fed’ Prison (NYP)

Notorious sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell has quietly been moved to a cushy Texas prison camp known as Club Fed as she tries to hash out a deal to divulge her sordid secrets about late pedophile ex Jeffrey Epstein. The 63-year-old convicted child sex trafficker was transferred from a lockup in Florida to the minimum-security prison camp in Bryan, Texas, the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) confirmed to The Post on Friday. No reason was given for the move, but it comes days after she met Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche twice while trying to seek immunity and a deal to spill her secrets about Epstein. The notorious madam — who is serving 20 years for helping Epstein groom and abuse underage girls — will now be neighbors with white-collar criminals, including Elizabeth Holmes, the disgraced fraudster convicted of ripping off investors in her now-defunct blood-testing company Theranos.

“It’s one of the best prisons for anyone to go to,” Josh Lepird, regional vice president for the prison officers’ union that includes Maxwell’s new camp, told the Houston Chronicle on Friday. “When you hear people say ‘Club Fed,’ they’re talking about places like FPC Bryan. ”Maxwell is supposed to be locked up until 2037. Yet inmates “typically only go to a camp if you have just a couple years left,” Lepird told the outlet. “But if someone is a cooperating witness, they can request a lower security level.”

Her unexpected move from Federal Correctional Institution Tallahassee was handled directly by BOP officials, rather than US Marshals, according to the New York Sun, which said it included a “brief stopover” in FCI Oakdale in Louisiana. No reason was given for the unexpected move. Maxwell’s lawyer, David Oscar Marcus, also declined to elaborate, saying, “We can confirm that she was moved but we have no comment.” However, the sudden transfer comes a week after Blanche — the DOJ’s second-in-command and formerly President Trump’s defense lawyer — huddled with the disgraced British socialite and her lawyer at the US Attorney’s Office in Tallahassee.

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“Sit down with a double martini to help keep you calm, and try to think of even one American institution that serves a public interest..”

Rule by Quacks (Paul Craig Roberts)

Adam Dick of the Ron Paul Institute reports that the American Academy of Pediatrics last Monday called for mandated vaccinations of children for the full plethora of vaccines and the elimination of all exceptions. The irresponsible American Academy of Pediatrics served as despicable shills for Big Pharma’s murder for profit of children by insisting that every child be infected with the spike protein from the Covid vax. The academy’s support for mandatory vaccination of children with the 54 shots, many known to be toxic and dangerous and the cause of the extraordinary increase in childhood illnesses since the mass vaccination, fortunately for me after my generation, was imposed on naive parents, is proof that the American Academy of Pediatric is a collection of incompetent quacks on the take from profit-driven Big Pharma.

In my opinion, every member of the academy should be arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced for conspiracy to commit murder. American doctors are so indoctrinated by Big Pharma’s control over medical education and research that Americans can no longer trust their doctors. Americans can’t trust their hospitals either. Reports are emerging of hospitals harvesting for profit the organs of patients before they are dead. The value of money has replaced the value of life in American health care. We see it everywhere. For example, cancer cures such as Ivermectin and Fenbendzole are being suppressed in order to save the high profit chemotherapy and radiation treatment. It seems the entire purpose of medical research, 70% of which is funded by Big Pharma grants, is to protect Big Pharma’s control of health care practice.

Sit down with a double martini to help keep you calm, and try to think of even one American institution that serves a public interest. The health system serves profit. The educational system serves left-wing ideology by teaching white kids that they are racists and born into the wrong body and by replacing a merit-based society with DEI ideology. The military serves the power and profit of the military/security complex. Take it from here and extend the list. Is there any way short of massive violence for Americans to regain control over their lives?

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“Shots mandates for children are already widespread in America. But, that is not good enough for AAP. It appears determined to eliminate the ability of almost all parents to opt their children out of the mandates.”

Pediatricians Organization Says Eliminate Vaccine Exemptions for Children (Dick)

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) distinguished itself as an obsessive shots pusher and freedom theatener during the coronavirus crackdown. It was admonishing that children — who were at very minimal risk from coronavirus — be subjected to the quack practices of masking and social distancing to protect them until they became “fully vaccinated” with experimental coronavirus “vaccine” shots. The AAP was also calling on pediatricians to evangelize for giving these dangerous and ineffective shots to nearly all children in the age groups for which the United States government had approved the shots. Luckily for many American children, their parents resisted the AAP supported effort. But, many other parents, placing confidence in pediatricians that peddled the AAP line, went along.

While the coronavirus crackdown has receded into the past, the AAP, an organization claiming 67,000 members, is still pushing shots and threatening freedom on a grand scale. The latest example is the policy statement the AAP issued on Monday titled Medical vs Nonmedical Immunization Exemptions for Child Care and School Attendance. In the policy statement, the AAP endorses the presence of laws and regulations requiring children to receive “immunizations” as a prerequisite for attending school or daycare. Further, the AAP supports eliminating philosophical and religious based exemptions from such mandates — the means by which the vast majority of parents who have opted out across America have been able to protect their children from receiving some or all of the plethora of shots listed in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) childhood vaccination schedule.

The only exemption basis, declares the AAP in its policy statement, should be “medically indicated exemptions to specific immunizations as determined for each individual student.” As this phrasing from the policy statement indicates, this medical exemption route turns out to deny exemption for most children and can even limit the applicability of medical exemptions that may be granted to just one or some of the mandated shots. Showing a child has already been hurt by shots is part of one of the limited routes to maybe obtain a medical exemption. Such an exemption will, by definition, be too late. As I wrote in April of 2023, the medical exemption for vaccines “could more accurately be called the mirage exemption” given that it is unavailable to almost all children.

The AAP policy statement further says that, even once granted, medical exemptions should have hanging over them the possibility of being revoked at any time. The policy statement directs that “all pediatric health care providers” should “recertify the need for these exemptions on a regular basis.” Here today, gone tomorrow. The AAP also appears to want to shut the door on any doctors who try to grant medical exemptions in any but the most stingy manner. The policy statement declares that “states and territories should develop policies to ensure that any medical exemptions are appropriate and evidence based.” It is not the doctor’s determination after all. Big Brother will be there to crack down on any doctor who swims against the current. Shots mandates for children are already widespread in America. But, that is not good enough for AAP. It appears determined to eliminate the ability of almost all parents to opt their children out of the mandates.

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Who finds this a good thing?

CDC Recommended Vaccine Schedule 1986 vs. 2019 (CHD)

In the early 1980s, children received three vaccines for seven illnesses—two combination vaccines (diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis and measles-mumps-rubella) and a polio vaccine—totaling two dozen doses by age 18. In the decade following 1989 (beginning soon after the NCVIA’s implementation), the CDC packed multiple doses of several more vaccines into the childhood schedule, including those for Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), hepatitis B (on the day of birth) and varicella (chickenpox), as well as a rotavirus vaccine (withdrawn a year after its introduction)

Next, in the first decade of the 2000s, the CDC recommended an even larger batch of new vaccines, going after not just children but also adolescents and adults: hepatitis A, HPV, meningococcal conjugate, pneumococcal conjugate, rotavirus (again) and zoster (shingles), along with an adult tetanus-diphtheria-pertussis booster (Tdap) and a massive expansion of influenza vaccine recommendations for all ages . At present, the childhood vaccine schedule requires almost six dozen doses through age 18 for sixteen diseases.

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We’re not all used to ‘Gulf of America’ yet.

‘Dead Zone’ In Gulf of America Shrank Sharply In 2025 (JTN)

The Gulf of America’s “dead zone” has shrunk significantly this summer, with scientists measuring a hypoxic area of just over 4,400 square miles — roughly a third smaller than last year and far less than the long-term average, federal officials announced Wednesday. The dead zone, a stretch of oxygen-depleted water that forms annually off the Louisiana and Texas coasts, is caused primarily by excess nutrients washing into the Gulf from the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin. This year’s zone, measured during a July 20–25 survey aboard the research vessel Pelican, was 4,402 square miles — 21% smaller than NOAA’s early-season estimate and the 15th smallest on record, according to NOAA-supported scientists from LSU and the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium.

“This year’s significant reduction in the Gulf of America’s ‘dead zone’ is an encouraging sign for the future of this area,” said Laura Grimm, acting NOAA administrator. “It highlights the dedication and impactful work of NOAA-supported scientists and partners, and serves as a testament to the effectiveness of collaborative efforts in supporting our U.S. fishermen, coastal communities, and vital marine ecosystems.” The measured area is equivalent to roughly 2.8 million acres of bottom habitat temporarily made unavailable to marine life such as fish and shrimp due to low oxygen levels. That marks a 30% drop from 2024, when the zone spanned a massive 6,703 square miles — more than 1.3 times the long-term average and nearly 3.5 times larger than the target goal of 1,930 square miles set by the Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force.

Despite this year’s improvement, the five-year running average remains high at 4,755 square miles—still more than double the federal benchmark. Dead zones emerge when excess nutrients — mostly nitrogen and phosphorus from upstream agriculture and wastewater — fuel algae blooms. As algae die and sink, their decomposition consumes oxygen in bottom waters. Without sufficient oxygen, marine species must flee or perish.= In 2024, the area west of the Mississippi River experienced heavy hypoxia with extremely low oxygen readings and little water mixing, according to NOAA. “The stratification of warmer surface water over cooler, saltier bottom water was strong enough to prevent oxygen replenishment,” researchers wrote in a followup report.

Some bottom waters saw oxygen drop across the lower five meters of the water column. Even with relatively low chlorophyll readings — indicating modest live algae near the surface — researchers noted high concentrations of degraded algae and organic detritus near the seafloor, still enough to drive significant bacterial oxygen consumption. The Mississippi River/Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force, a coalition of federal and state agencies, has worked for over two decades to reduce nutrient pollution flowing into the Gulf. The EPA established a dedicated Gulf Hypoxia Program in 2022 to accelerate these efforts.

“The Gulf of America is a national treasure that supports energy dominance, commercial fishing, American industry, and the recreation economy,” said Peggy Browne, acting assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Water. “I look forward to co-leading the work of the Gulf Hypoxia Task Force to assess evolving science and address nutrient loads from all sources.” So far, nitrogen loading from the Mississippi River has not declined since the 2001 adoption of the Hypoxia Action Plan, scientists noted. NOAA’s June 2025 forecast, which had predicted a dead zone of 5,574 square miles, was based on U.S. Geological Survey nutrient data from spring river flows and fell within model uncertainty ranges.

NOAA’s Coastal Hypoxia Research, Ocean Technology Transition, and Uncrewed Systems programs are working to improve monitoring and prediction tools. This year, several autonomous surface vehicles were deployed alongside ship-based crews to compare mapping methods. Researchers said ASVs may provide a more cost-effective way to track dead zones in the future. NOAA also partners with the Northern Gulf Institute and Gulf of Mexico Alliance to expand observational capabilities and state-level technical support.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

DOGE: regulations

IVM
https://twitter.com/newstart_2024/status/1951236472314450127

Pelosi
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/1950982971533439364

 

 

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Jul 032025
 


Pablo Picasso Olga in a hat with feather 1920

 

Trumpworld Rages At GOP Holdouts After Tax Bill Stalls In House (ZH)
The Big Beautiful Bill Now Back in The House (CTH)
A Big Beautiful Bill for the Military-Industrial Complex (Ron Paul)
Coalition of Democrat Senators Challenge Layoffs As Rubio Shutters USAID (JTN)
President Trump Firm, No More Tariff Extensions Beyond July 8th (CTH)
Everywhere There Is Talk of War (Paul Craig Roberts)
The Keys to Trump’s Middle East Triumph (Joecks)
What Means ‘Winning’? (Alastair Crooke)
Biden’s Energy Department Disbursed $42 Billion in Its Final Hours (Varney)
Russiagate Was A Ploy To ‘Screw Trump’ – CIA Boss (RT)
NATO Chief ‘Totally Understands’ US Cutting Off Weapons For Ukraine (RT)
Halt To US Military Aid Could Spell Doom For Kiev – Bild (RT)
Polish President Approves Memorial Day For Victims Of Ukrainian Nazis (RT)
Women’s Sports Just Scored a Massive Win Against the Trans Agenda (Margolis)
Putin-Backed Effort Saves Siberian Tiger From Extinction (RT)

 

 

CNN

Bannon

Scott

 

 

 

 

A 940-page bill is not supposed to be easy.

“.. July 4th looks like a pipe dream from here – then again, we’ve seen these grifting gasbags shake a tail like nobody’s business when vacation is on the line.”

Trumpworld Rages At GOP Holdouts After Tax Bill Stalls In House (ZH)

Update (0018ET): Wednesday night came and went without the House GOP advancing the ‘Big Beautiful Bill Act’ to the floor for debate, after roughly a dozen Republicans stood their ground. As such, things have officially gotten ugly – with longtime Trump aides Jason Miller and Chris LaCivita telling the holdouts that they can either vote with Trump, “or you can vote with the Democrats.” “Buckle the fuck up,” said Miller, adding It’s a binary choice”. Top White House aide Stephen Miller, meanwhile, demanded that Republicans “stand with Trump” to show loyalty to the man who had peen persecuted by “the communist left.” Earlier in the evening, a procedural vote on adopting the rule for floor consideration of the Big Beautiful Bill was open for more than 2.5 hours, as Speaker Mike Johnson scrambled convince the holdouts to vote yes.

Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert indicated she’s sticking with her fellow Freedom Caucus members on any rule vote. “Not tonight,” she said, before several of the hard-liners huddled again, this time in Johnson’s office. -Politico Rep. Thomas Massie told the NY Times that he switched his vote to ‘no’ on the rule because if it ends up being the only vote on the BBB, he doesn’t want to be on record as having voted for it. “If it goes down, I can’t be a yes,” said Massie, who’s been a hard ‘no’ on the bill for weeks. That said, his comments seem to indicate that if his party is able to advance the procedural measure, he’d switch back and support bringing up the bill. Needless to say, July 4th looks like a pipe dream from here – then again, we’ve seen these grifting gasbags shake a tail like nobody’s business when vacation is on the line.

Update (2300ET): A dramatic scene is unfolding on the House floor, as four Republicans have voted ‘nay’ on the Senate-revised version of the ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ – when House Speaker Mike Johnson could only afford three. According to Fox News’ Chad Pergram; ‘A 216-216 tie loses by rule. Dems got all of their members there and stuck together GOP needs to flip 1 mbr so long as other Republicans don’t vote no.’ So now the question is; will someone flip?

* * *
Update (1450ET): Are we having fun yet? Major divisions within the House threaten to derail the Big Beautiful Bill, with Speaker Mike Johnson struggling to overcome resistance by fiscal conservatives. Earlier in the day the House appeared ready to hold a test vote, however several conservative Republicans raised objections – suggesting that Johnson might not have the votes to move forward, given that he can only afford a handful of defections on the measure. As of midday, at least two Republicans were a hard ‘no’ on the bill in its current form. Meanwhile Rep. Thomas Massie says he has the votes to block it…

President Trump, meanwhile, met with holdouts at the White House as Democrats and Republicans argued over the merits of the bill on the House floor. At the end of the day, Johnson has little room for maneuvering – as any changes to the bill would send it back to the Senate for further deliberation that could drag on for weeks. Members of the House Freedom Caucus are livid over measures added to the Senate that increases costs. “The Senate doesn’t get to be the final say on everything. We’ve got to work this out,” said Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) Wednesday morning, adding that there are enough Republicans “right now” who wanted to reopen the bill and don’t care about the July 4 recess deadline. More moderate Republicans objected to Medicaid cuts approved by the Senate that went deeper than the House’s May iteration.

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“As they say, Trump’s been right about everything, and this is the easiest of them all to predict..”

The Big Beautiful Bill Now Back in The House (CTH)

With the BBB back in the House of Representatives, Speaker Mike Johnson now has the difficult job to push the bill to a final floor vote and get it to President Trump’s desk. Anticipating pushback and refusal of support from the House Freedom Caucus, earlier this morning President Trump sent a message via Truth Social drawing attention to the objective of the bill to generate economic growth:

PRESIDENT TRUMP – “Nobody wants to talk about GROWTH, which will be the primary reason that the Big, Beautiful Bill will be one of the most successful pieces of legislation ever passed. THIS GROWTH has already begun at levels never seen before. Trillions of Dollars are now being invested into the USA, more than ever before. Likewise, hundreds of Billions of Dollars in Tariffs are filling up the coffers of Treasury. The Tariff money has already arrived and is setting new records! We are growing our way out of the Sleepy Joe Biden MESS that he and the Democrats left us, and it is happening much faster than anyone thought possible. ”

“Our Country will make a fortune this year, more than any of our competitors, but only if the Big, Beautiful Bill is PASSED! As they say, Trump’s been right about everything, and this is the easiest of them all to predict. Republicans, don’t let the Radical Left Democrats push you around. We’ve got all the cards, and we are going to use them. Last year America was a “DEAD” Nation, with no hope for the future, and now it’s the “HOTTEST NATION IN THE WORLD!” MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Meanwhile, as noted by Politico: “House Freedom Caucus members like Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) blasted the Senate’s bill Tuesday for adding to the deficit and softening clean energy tax credits. Roy and Norman both voted against the bill in the Rules Committee overnight.” Speaker Johnson has to navigate the timing of the BBB reaching the floor, and in an effort to dissuade the concerns of the professional republican naysayers he is informing them of possible alternatives to changes in the current bill. “In an interview on Fox News on Tuesday night, Johnson said the House will plan to do two more reconciliation bills during this session of Congress, which ends in 2026.”

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“..America should return to the Founders’ vision of a country that, in the words of John Quincy Adams, does not go “abroad in search of monsters to destroy”..”

A Big Beautiful Bill for the Military-Industrial Complex (Ron Paul)

The US Senate worked through the weekend on the “Big Beautiful Bill.” The goal was to pass it quickly to ensure the House will then pass it and send it to President Trump’s desk before the July 4th holiday. However, disagreements among Republican Senators over reductions in spending on programs including Medicaid and food stamps as well as language in the bill eliminating “clean energy” tax credits were preventing Senate Republican leadership from getting enough votes to pass the bill. Also, some Republicans disagree with other Republicans in both the House and Senate on increasing the state and local tax (SALT) deduction. Many conservatives see this income tax deduction as encouraging states to maintain high taxes to fund big governments.

One item in the BBB that few Republicans are objecting to is the bill’s increase in military spending. The House version of the BBB added 150 billion dollars to the Pentagon’s already bloated budget. The Senate bill gave the military-industrial complex 156 billion dollars. Increasing military spending contradicts President Trump’s promise to stop wasting money on endless wars that have nothing to do with ensuring the security of the American people. Some of the BBB’s military spending will be used to put troops on the border. I support strengthening border security. However, I do not support using the military for domestic law enforcement, which includes enforcing immigration laws. Soldiers are trained to view people as potential enemies, not as innocent civilians to be protected. Introducing this mindset into domestic law enforcement will lead to abuses of liberty.

Increasing spending on militarism while cutting spending on programs that help low-income Americans is bad politics and bad policy. Polls show that the majority of Americans, including many Republicans, do not support overseas intervention. The growing opposition to our hyper-interventionist foreign policy is easy to understand. The US has engaged in numerous military actions in many countries including Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria since the beginning of the 21st century. The American people pay for this militarism in several ways. One is the “inflation tax” imposed by the Federal Reserve in order to monetize the debt incurred by the US government for endless wars. President Trump has turned his back on his antiwar supporters by bombing Iran and by increasing military spending to over a trillion dollars.

The Republican insistence on increasing military spending is the main reason Congress cannot cut taxes without increasing the debt, making cuts in domestic welfare programs, or both. If the Republicans want to be the Make America Great Again party, they need to embrace a true America First foreign policy. This means no more regime change wars or US taxpayer supported “color revolutions.” Instead, America should return to the Founders’ vision of a country that, in the words of John Quincy Adams, does not go “abroad in search of monsters to destroy” and instead is “the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all” while “the champion and vindicator only of her own.” A return to a noninterventionist foreign policy is the only way we will be able to begin to pay down the national debt and restore a government that adheres to the constitutional limits on its powers and respects all the people’s rights all the time.

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A lot of corruption at USAID has been uncovered. Something must obviously change. Are these senators just trying to keep the graft vehicle in place so the money keeps flowing?

Coalition of Democrat Senators Challenge Layoffs As Rubio Shutters USAID (JTN)

A coalition of Democratic senators introduced legislation Tuesday to combat reductions-in-force within the State Department as Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the shuttering of the U.S. Agency for International Development. “This legislation is crucial to protecting America’s ability to respond to global threats,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., a sponsor of the bill. The legislation specifically targets an agency’s ability to conduct a reduction-in-force, where it can lay off large numbers of employees for budgetary reasons. Large-scale RIFs across the federal government marked the early days of the Trump administration, prompting a flurry of legal action against the government. The Senate legislation specifically targets RIFs against employees at the State Department and the now-shuttered U.S. Agency for International Development.

“The Trump administration is systematically dismantling our diplomatic institutions and weakening the workforce we depend on to advance U.S. interests, respond to crises, and out-compete adversaries like the People’s Republic of China,” Shaheen said. Rubio criticized USAID for its practices in distributing assistance across the globe. “The era of government-sanctioned inefficiency is OVER,” Rubio wrote in a social media post. “From now on, our foreign assistance programs will be accountable to the American taxpayer.” The state department secretary said USAID’s assistance functions will be absorbed by his agency. The bill contains four provisions that would limit the timeline and effectiveness of RIFs within the State Department.

First, the bill requires an agency to report RIFs involving more than 50 people to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and House Foreign Affairs Committee 20 days in advance of the planned layoff. The layoff must be accompanied by an explanation of the reduction that includes alternatives considered, whether the RIF complies with associated laws and how the RIF affects the agency’s mission. Second, the legislation extends protection for foreign service officers by only allowing them to be included in RIFs only based on job performance, rather than budget needs. This would include considering employment tenure, language capabilities and military preference before laying off a foreign service officer. The bill also requires a minimum 120 days’ notice for foreign service officers and 60 days for civil service employees included in RIFs.

Lastly, the bill requires the State Department to provide at least 30 days’ advance notice before making changes to RIF procedures. The bill will likely not pass in the Republican-controlled Senate. Additionally, Rubio’s dismantling of USAID further cemented the agency’s desire to cut spending across its operations. “Americans will not pay taxes to fund failed governments in faraway lands,” Rubio said. “Moving forward, our assistance will be targeted and time limited.” It is estimated USAID spent $715 billion over several decades in its operation. “We will favor those nations that have demonstrated both the ability and willingness to help themselves and will target our resources to areas where they can have a multiplier effect and catalyze a durable private sector, including American companies, and global investment,” Rubio said. Rubio said he would implement a 15% cut in the State Department on July 1 but appeared to delay while nationwide injunctions held up the layoffs in court.

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“This firm date is why India has extended their negotiation team in Washington DC, and is also the reason why Europe is coming Thursday..”

President Trump Firm, No More Tariff Extensions Beyond July 8th (CTH)

There is some interesting information within the video of President Trump aboard AF-1 as he returns from Florida. However, one of the more interesting aspects comes around 05:39 when asked if he was thinking about extending the tariff pause beyond July 8, 2025. As noted by President Trump, very firmly, no. There is no reason to extend the deadline for reciprocal tariffs beyond July 8th for any country not in direct negotiations as of that date. Trump intends to just send them a letter outlining the applied tariff rate and that’s it. Done is done. WATCH:

This firm date is why India has extended their negotiation team in Washington DC, and is also the reason why Europe is coming Thursday. The baseline tariffs are done, everyone pays 10% regardless of a FTA or not. The reciprocal tariff rate will be applied to those without an FTA effective July 9th. [The EU (who wants a trade deal now) is eventually going to align with Canada (who will need a trade deal later). This factors into the current trade dynamic and looms over the decision making.] Post July 9th, President Trump moves on to other important geopolitical matters with the tariffs as an ancillary weapon for adherence to the new international trade alignment.

Those who want to benefit commit to the U.S. dollar as the trade currency (that’s the reason for India’s announcement today), and trade preferences are then used to shake up the geopolitical alignments. Watch for how this plays out with Trump’s planned UK visit. From there, and after the gnashing of teeth settles down, later in the summer President Trump then triggers the USMCA renegotiation phase with Mexico and Canada. President Trump is essentially ambivalent to the pleas from nations who want to continue their trade imbalance. This sequencing and outline appears clear; but let’s watch and see what happens.

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“What percentage of the Western population understands that the Kremlin was forced to intervene in the Russian provinces in Ukraine in order to prevent a Gaza-type destruction of Russian people?”

Everywhere There Is Talk of War (Paul Craig Roberts)

Pundits are debating when the Israel-Iran war will resume. They are debating the West’s use of its Ukraine proxy in the war with Russia. They are debating when and how the US conflict with China will flare up. But no one is asking what is the point of the wars. What are they about? This is the most relevant question, especially when four of the parties to the conflicts have nuclear weapons. The answer to the question is the wars are about hegemony. Israel wants hegemony over the Muslim Middle East, and so does Washington. And Washington wants hegemony over Russia and China. Israel’s war with Iran is about eliminating an opponent to Israel’s hegemony as expressed by the Zionist aspiration of Greater Israel–from the Nile to the Euphrates, recently expanded to include half of Saudi Arabia and all of Pakistan.

Washington’s war with Russia and China is based on the Wolfowitz doctrine that declares US hegemony over the world as the principle goal of American foreign policy. No American president has yet repudiated this doctrine. So the wars are about nothing but the selfish aspirations of Israel for regional hegemony and Washington for world hegemony. Be sure you comprehend that it is nothing but the selfish aspirations of two countries that are the cause of millions of dead, maimed, and dislocated peoples, for the destruction of entire countries in the Middle East –Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Palestine, and Lebanon, with Iran a current target and with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Turkey waiting in the wings. The US is responsible for massive deaths, injuries, displacement, and destruction in Ukraine (and Palestine) and for provocations of Russia, such as the attack on the Russian strategic triad that eventually will result in nuclear war, with China waiting in the wings.

The US currently is increasing the pressure on Russia by fomenting color revolutions in former Central Asian provinces of the Soviet Union. Washington’s intent is to create more Ukraines on Russia’s borders in hopes of destabilizing the Russian government. As the American military/security complex sees it, the more proxy wars Washington can get going on Russia’s borders, the quicker the Russian state will be overcome. Foreign policy commentary pretends that the West is defensively resisting Russian aggression that otherwise will spread beyond Ukraine into the EU. The proxy war against Russia that Washington initiated by overthrowing the democratically elected government in Ukraine and installing a neo-Nazi American puppet and siccing US trained Ukrainian forces on the break-away former Russian provinces in Ukraine is presented as defending Ukraine against a Russian invasion. This transparent lie is treated as truth in Western foreign affairs commentary.

What percentage of the Western population understands that the Kremlin was forced to intervene in the Russian provinces in Ukraine in order to prevent a Gaza-type destruction of Russian people? How many know that Putin refused the request of the Donbas Russians to be reunited with Russia when Crimea was? How many know that instead Putin relied on the Minsk Agreement, which the West used for eight years to deceive Putin while building up a large and well equipped Ukrainian army to invade the Donbas and slaughter the Russian population? How many understand that it was only after the Biden regime, NATO, and the EU cold-shouldered Putin and Lavrov’s frantic efforts to achieve a mutual defense agreement with the West during December 2021-February 2022 when the Ukrainian army was poised to attack Donbas that Putin was forced to intervene for which Russia was unprepared as Putin, averse to war, had relied on negotiations.

What has Iran done to us? Iran has not assassinated our leaders, sanctioned us, bombed us or stolen our bank reserves. All lran has done is to refuse to submit to Israel. Why is that a cause for an American war with Iran? None of these facts are part of the foreign policy discussion. Those of us who insist on facts are labeled “Russian agent/dupe” and demonized as spreaders of disinformation. Who is it that wants war so badly that facts are unacceptable? Alas, the Western World has no media to investigate, no congressional and parliamentary committees to investigate, and no one but a few of us demonized souls to hold liars accountable. This is the sad state of affairs in the Western World.

As one of a diminishing number who defends Western Civilization for its achievement of embedding values in society and its mores, law, and politics that raised humans from barbarity into civilization–values such as respect for truth over power, of forgiveness over vengeance, of empathy over unconcern, of love over hate, of integrity and self-respect over material gain, I wonder at times whether I am defending an entity that no longer exists. Perhaps a society whose values have eroded away brings itself to its end in self-destruction. The weapons for the end of life on earth exist in abundance. It only takes one mistake, and we live in a world where human mistakes are the ruling hallmark of humanity, a world that has succumbed to evil.

What excuse is there for the Genocide of Palestine, for the world to stand aside while a people and their country are exterminated? What did Palestinians ever do to anyone? Why did Americans provide Satan’s Chosen People with the means to destroy a people who never harmed anyone, a people who submitted for 78 years to Israel stealing their country from them village by village, all the while demonizing them as terrorists? When one looks honestly at the West today and its Israeli appendage, is its survival morally justified? How can Western Civilization be renewed? Who can do it? Where are the leaders? All are busy feathering their nests as Western Civilization collapses.

Yesterday I described how President Trump could end the war in the Middle East and Washington’s war with Russia. That would be a beginning, but is it a bridge too far for a civilization that has been loosened from its moorage? Can Western Civilization renew itself when its universities and pubic schools teach its failures and not its successes? Can America be made great again when law schools do not believe in the US Constitution, which they designate as a “racist document,” when journalism schools teach that service to liberal-left agendas, not to truth, is the function of journalists, when governments at every level are accountable to the self-interest of interest groups who supply their campaign funds, not to voters, when decades of open borders have replaced an American population with a tower of babel? What is left for Trump to work with?

Trump needs to come home from the world stage to America. He should turn off the money and diplomatic protection to Israel and Ukraine and focus on trying to save America and Western Civilization. He will get little, if any help, from Europe and Canada, whose politicians have already delivered their ethnicities to The Camp of the Saints. But possibly America could be saved. It is a long shot, but worth a try. People should lay off Trump. Give him a chance to understand the real challenge. Perhaps he will undertake the challenge. Perhaps he will succeed. What other chance do we have?

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Meet the fanclub.

The Keys to Trump’s Middle East Triumph (Joecks)

If you blinked, you just missed World War III. President Donald Trump on June 23 announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. That came two days after Trump sent B-2 stealth bombers to drop bunker-buster bombs on the Fordow nuclear enrichment plant. Only the United States had the capability to obliterate the deeply buried site. U.S. submarines also launched 30 Tomahawk missiles against two other Iranian nuclear sites in Natanz and Isfahan. Despite some initial attempts to test its boundaries, the agreement has held up as of this writing. According to some of the loudest voices on the Left and Right, it wasn’t supposed to end this way. Shortly after it happened, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., declared that Trump’s decision to bomb Iran was “disastrous.”

“He has impulsively risked launching a war that may ensnare us for generations,” she wrote on X. “It is absolutely and clearly grounds for impeachment.” For months, Tucker Carlson has railed against attacking Iran. “It’s worth pointing out that a strike on the Iranian nuclear sites will almost certainly result in thousands of American deaths at bases throughout the Middle East,” he wrote on the social media platform X in March. He continued, “A bombing campaign against Iran will set off a war.” AOC and Carlson may not agree on much, but they now have this in common. They were both spectacularly wrong. It’s worth looking at what Trump understood, which they didn’t.

First, he rejected the false dichotomy of doing nothing or a regime-change war. This tactic is common in politics. It involves claiming that someone either supports your position or endorses an extremely unpopular position. In complicated policy issues, there are usually many options. Those opposed to Trump attacking Iran rushed out this line of attack. After the United States bombed Iran, Geraldo Rivera wrote on X that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “suckered Trump (and the USA!) into another forever war with Iran.” On June 23, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., posted on X, “Only 6 months in and we are back into foreign wars, regime change, and World War 3.” As Trump showed, there was another option. He destroyed Iran’s ability to make nuclear weapons and left the fate of the Iranian regime to the Iranian people.

Next, Trump exhibited moral clarity. There are many on the Left and some on the Right who are vocally anti-Israel. They attacked Israel as it fought Hamas after the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre. They attacked Israel for Operation Grim Beeper, which neutralized thousands of Hezbollah fighters. They attacked Israel for bombing Iran. But here’s the key point Trump understands. Some violent acts are morally good. In Michigan recently, a church member spotted a would-be mass shooter and ran into him with his pickup. An armed security guard then killed the gunman. Intentionally ramming someone with a car or shooting someone else is a violent act. In this circumstance, it was morally justified. Similarly, Israel acts violently to kill terrorists and foreign officials who plot to kill its civilians. That’s not morally equivalent to Iran and its terrorist proxies targeting Israeli civilians. Trump made that distinction.

Finally, Trump showed courage. It isn’t enough to have the world’s strongest military in theory. The country needs a leader with the internal fortitude to exercise that power. Just look at former President Joe Biden’s surrender in Afghanistan in 2021. Since Bill Clinton, every U.S. president has said that Iran can’t be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon. At the opportune moment, Trump had the guts to ensure it won’t any time soon. Unless the Iranian people overthrow it, the Iranian regime will remain America’s enemy. But by depriving it of access to nuclear weapons, Trump has made it a much less threatening one. Bravo.

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“..the Israeli promise of an ‘Iran ready to implode, Syria-style’ – an ‘Epic’ transformation to a ‘New Middle East’ – must have been alluring enough for Trump to brusquely sweep aside Tulsi Gabbard’s assertion that Iran had no nuclear weapon.”

What Means ‘Winning’? (Alastair Crooke)

At one level, Iran plainly ‘won’. Trump had wanted to be regaled with a reality-TV style, splendid ‘Victory’. Sunday’s attack on the three nuclear sites indeed was loudly proclaimed by Trump and Hegseth as such – having ‘obliterated’ Iran’s nuclear enrichment programme, they claimed. ‘Destroyed it completely’, they insist. Only … it didn’t: The strike caused superficial surface damage, perhaps. And seemingly was co-ordinated in advance with Iran via intermediaries to be a ‘once and done’ affair. This is a habitual Trump pattern (advance co-ordination). It was the mode in Syria, Yemen and even with Trump’s assassination of Qasem Soleimani – all intended to give Trump a quick media ‘victory’.

The so-called ‘ceasefire’ that rapidly followed the U.S. strikes – albeit not without some hiccoughs – was a hastily assembled ‘cessation of hostilities’ (and no ceasefire – as no terms were agreed). It was a ‘stop-gap’. What this means is that the negotiating impasse between Iran and Witkoff remains unresolved. The Supreme Leader has forcefully laid down Iran’s position: ‘No surrender’; Enrichment proceeds; and the U.S. should quit the region and keep its nose out of Iranian affairs. So, on the positive side of cost-benefit analysis, Iran likely has enough centrifuges and 450 kg of highly enriched uranium – and nobody (except Iran) now knows where the stash is hidden. Iran will resume processing. A second plus for Iran is that the IAEA and its Director-General Grossi have been so egregiously subversive of Iranian sovereignty that the Agency most likely will be expelled from Iran.

The Agency failed in its basic responsibility to safeguard sites at which enriched uranium was present. The U.S. and European intelligence services thus will lose their ‘eyes’ on the ground – as well as forego the IAEA’s Artificial Intelligence data collection (on which Israel’s identification of targets likely was heavily dependent). On the cost side, militarily, Iran of course suffered physical damage, but retains its missile potency. The U.S.-Israeli narrative of Iranian skies as ‘open wide’ to Israeli aircraft is yet another deception contrived to support the ‘winning narrative’: As Simplicius notes: “There remains not a single shred of proof that Israeli (or American, for that matter) planes ever significantly overflew Iran at any time.

Claims of ‘total air superiority’ have no grounds. [Footage] up until the final day shows Israel continued relying on their heavy UCAVs [large surveillance and strike drone aircraft] to strike Iranian ground targets”. Furthermore, drop tanks from Israeli planes were recorded washing up on Iran’s northernmost Caspian shores, suggesting rather, stand-off missile launches were being mounted by Israel’s Air Force from the north (i.e. from Azerbaijani airspace). Up a level in the cost-benefit analysis, one must move to the bigger picture: That the destruction of the nuclear programme was pretext, yet not the main objective. The Israelis themselves say that the decision to attack the Iranian State was taken last September/October (2024).

Israel’s intricate, costly and sophisticated plan (de-capitation, targeted assassinations, cyber-attack and the infiltration of drone-equipped sabotage cells) that unfolded during the 13 June sneak attack was focussed on one immediate aim: the implosion of the Iranian state, paving the path to chaos and ‘regime change’. Did Trump believe in the Israeli delusion that Iran was on the brink of imminent collapse? Very likely, he did. Did he believe the Israeli story (reportedly concocted by the IAEA Mosaic programme) that Iran was speeding ‘towards a nuclear weapon’? It seems possible that Trump was suckered – or more likely, was willing prey – to the Israeli and U.S. Israeli-Firster narrative building. As the Ukraine issue has proved more intractable than Trump expected, the Israeli promise of an ‘Iran ready to implode, Syria-style’ – an ‘Epic’ transformation to a ‘New Middle East’ – must have been alluring enough for Trump to brusquely sweep aside Tulsi Gabbard’s assertion that Iran had no nuclear weapon.

So, has the Iranian military response and the massive popular rallying to the flag been a ‘big win’ for Iran? Well, it is certainly a ‘win’ over the ‘brink of regime change’ pedlars; yet perhaps the ‘win’ needs refining? It is not a ‘forever win’. Iran cannot afford to let its guard down. ‘Iranian unconditional surrender’ is, of course, now off the cards. But the point here is that the Israel establishment, the pro-Israeli lobby in the U.S. (and possibly Trump too), will continue to believe that the only way to guarantee that Iran never moves toward threshold weapon status – is not through intrusive inspections and monitoring, but precisely via ‘regime change’ and the installation of a purely western puppet in Tehran.

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“..a sum that exceeded the total amount its Loan Programs Office (LPO) had put out in the past decade.”

Biden’s Energy Department Disbursed $42 Billion in Its Final Hours (Varney)

In its last two working days, the Biden administration’s Energy Department signed off on nearly $42 billion for green energy projects – a sum that exceeded the total amount its Loan Programs Office (LPO) had put out in the past decade. The frenzied activity on Jan. 16 and 17, 2025, capped a spending binge that saw the LPO approve at least $93 billion in current and future disbursements after Vice President Kamala Harris lost the 2024 election in November, according to documents provided by the department to RealClearInvestigations. It appears that Biden officials were rushing to deploy billions in approved funding in anticipation that the incoming Trump administration would seek to redirect uncommitted money away from clean energy projects.

The agreements were made despite a warning from the department’s inspector general, urging the loan office to suspend operations in December over concerns that post-election loans could present conflicts of interest. In just a few months, some of the deals have already become dicey, leading to fears that the Biden administration has created multiple Solyndras, the green energy company that went bankrupt after the Obama administration gave it $570 million. These deals include:

• Sunnova, a rooftop solar outfit that thus far had $382 million of its $3.3 billion loan guaranteed, filed for bankruptcy this month. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
• Li-Cycle, a battery recycling facility, had a $445 million loan approved in November, but since then, the company was put up for sale and has filed for bankruptcy. The Energy Department said no money has been disbursed on that deal. Li-Cycle did not respond to a request for comment.
• A $705 million loan was approved on Jan. 17 for Zum Energy, an electric school bus company in California, and its “Project Marigold.” At $350,000 and more, electric school buses currently cost more than twice as much as their diesel counterparts. So far, Zum has received $21.7 million from the government, according to usaspending.gov. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
• A $9.63 billion Blue Oval SK loan on Jan. 16 was the second largest post-election deal, topped only by a $15 billion loan the next day to Pacific Gas & Electric, with most of that for renewables. The Blue Oval project in Kentucky – a joint venture between Ford Motor Co. and a South Korean entity – has been dealing with numerous workplace complaints, and construction of a second EV battery manufacturing plant there has been delayed. More than $7 billion has been obligated on that deal, according to the Energy Department. Blue Oval did not respond to a request for comment.

The money and the hasty way in which it was earmarked have drawn the attention of the Trump administration. “It is extremely concerning how many dozens of billions of dollars were rushed out the door without proper due diligence in the final days of the Biden administration,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement to RCI. “DOE is undertaking a thorough review of financial assistance that identifies waste of taxpayer dollars.” The enormous sums came from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which injected $400 billion into the LPO, a previously sleepy Energy Department branch originally intended to spur nuclear energy projects. That total represented more than 10 times the amount the LPO had ever committed in any fiscal year of its existence.

Prior to the post-election blowout, the office’s biggest fiscal year was 2024, when it committed $34.8 billion, records show. Even with the rush to push billions out the door in its last months, close to $300 billion of the Inflation Reduction Act money remains uncommitted by the LPO. Trump administration officials have already nixed some smaller deals. Secretary Wright recently urged Congress to keep the money in place as the LPO now aims to use it to further the Trump administration’s energy policy, particularly with nuclear projects.

That unprecedented gusher of cash from the LPO echoes the efforts of the Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency to push $20 billion out the door before it left office. As RCI has previously reported, the EPA – which had never been a consequential grant-making operation – was tasked with awarding $27 billion in Inflation Reduction Act funding through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund and Solar For All programs. It did so in less than six months in 2024, including an unorthodox arrangement in which Biden officials parked some $20 billion outside the Treasury’s control. That money was earmarked for a handful of nonprofits, some of which had skimpy assets and were linked with politically connected directors.

The LPO’s post-election bonanza was put together in even less time. The Energy Department deals, however, involve mostly for-profit enterprises, which raises questions about whether the Biden administration was propping up companies that would not have survived in the private marketplace. Should any of the companies hit it big in the future, shareholders could get rich, while taxpayers will receive only the interest on the loan. “The loan office should not be in the virtual venture business,” said Mark Mills, executive director of the National Center on Energy Analytics. “But in a few cases, it could make sense to serve as a catalyst or backstop for viable and important projects from a national security or policy perspective.”

RCI spoke with several Trump administration officials who declined to comment on the record, given the extensive ongoing review of both the LPO’s post-election arrangements and other Energy Department projects linked to Biden’s climate agenda. “They wanted to get the billions to companies that probably wouldn’t exist unless they could get money from the government,” one current official said. “The business plans, such as they were, were ‘how do we secure capital from the government?’”

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“..calling the work on the report “chaotic,” “atypical,” and “markedly unconventional.”

Russiagate Was A Ploy To ‘Screw Trump’ – CIA Boss (RT)

A US intelligence report on Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 presidential election, commissioned by then-President Barack Obama, was nothing but a deliberate manipulation, CIA Director John Ratcliffe has said, citing his agency’s recent internal review. Known as the 2016 Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian Election Interference (ICA), the report kickstarted the Russiagate conspiracy, prompted special counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiry, and “ate up the first two years” of President Donald Trump’s first term, Ratcliffe said in an interview with the New York Post published on Wednesday. The new CIA head ordered an internal review of the report in May.

Obama ordered the ICA just six weeks before leaving office. According to the CIA review of its drafting and rushed release, declassified on Wednesday, then-CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey, and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper were unusually and “excessively involved” in the process. “The rushed timeline to publish both classified and unclassified versions before the presidential transition raised questions about a potential political motive behind the White House tasking and timeline,” the review said, calling the work on the report “chaotic,” “atypical,” and “markedly unconventional.”

The CIA review found that Brennan effectively directed the compilation of the ICA and particularly insisted on including the later discredited Steele dossier. The dossier – a compilation of unverified rumors about Trump and his alleged links to Russia – was compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele and reportedly funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign. “This was Obama, Comey, Clapper, and Brennan deciding, ‘We’re going to screw Trump,’” Ratcliffe said, commenting on his agency’s findings. “It was, ‘We’re going to create this and put the imprimatur of an IC assessment in a way that nobody can question it.’ They stamped it as Russian collusion and then classified it so nobody could see it.” “Brennan and Clapper and Comey manipulated [and] silenced all the career professionals and railroaded the process,” the CIA director added.

American public opinion was further manipulated by constant media leaks and unnamed officials cited by The Washington Post, The New York Times, and other mainstream outlets. “Before work on the assessment even began, media leaks suggesting that the IC had already reached definitive conclusions risked creating an anchoring bias,” the review noted. The ICA, as well as the FBI’s 2016 ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ investigation and the subsequent Mueller inquiry, cast a long shadow over Trump’s first term, with allegations of “Russian collusion” persisting in the media even after Mueller’s report found no evidence to support them. Moscow has also repeatedly denied any election interference.

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But… Just this once…

NATO Chief ‘Totally Understands’ US Cutting Off Weapons For Ukraine (RT)

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has said he “totally understands” the US prioritizing its own national interests, but stressed that European allies cannot continue backing Ukraine in its conflict with Russia without support from Washington. Rutte made the remarks in a Wednesday interview with Fox News, responding to reports that Washington has scaled back critical military aid to Kiev, including deliveries of air defense ammunition, missiles, and artillery shells. “I totally understand that the US always has to make sure that their own interests are covered,” the NATO chief said, but argued that “flexibility” was needed.

“In the short term, Ukraine cannot do without all the support it can get when it comes to ammunition and to air defense systems,” Rutte stated. When it comes to the burden shift from the US to Europe, that’s taking place, but we cannot do without the practical US support. According to Matthew Whitaker, Washington’s envoy to NATO, the cut in US aid to Ukraine is part of President Donald Trump’s domestic-focused policy shift. “This is what ‘America first’ looks like,” he told Fox News on Wednesday. The Pentagon needs to “make sure that the US has the strategic defense capabilities necessary to project power,” Whitaker stated.

The US president has previously criticized the hundreds of billions of dollars in aid sent to Ukraine under his predecessor Joe Biden. Trump has instead pushed for peace talks, while demanding that NATO allies take on a greater role in supporting Kiev and increase their own military spending. Last week, European members of the US-led military bloc pledged to provide Ukraine with more than €35 billion ($41 billion) in aid and vowed to increase their NATO military spending to 5% of GDP over the next decade, up from a longstanding 2% target. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned that such a “catastrophic” burden on NATO state budgets could spell “the organization’s collapse.”

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“..could make Kiev’s situation dire in less than two months..”

Halt To US Military Aid Could Spell Doom For Kiev – Bild (RT)

The US decision to suspend its supply of weapons to Ukraine could make Kiev’s situation dire in less than two months, the German tabloid Bild has reported, citing military experts. Without America’s support, the Ukrainian military would struggle to fight Russia in several major fields, the outlet stated. Washington’s envoy to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, confirmed to Fox News on Wednesday that the decision to halt arms shipments was made as part of the “America first” policy. He also said that the US needs to focus on maintaining its own “strategic defense capabilities” and particularly make sure that “we have enough Patriot missiles.”

Patriot missiles were included by several Western media outlets, including Politico and NBC News, among the categories of weapons that will no longer be sent to Kiev. The list also includes Stinger and AIM air-to-air missiles, hundreds of Hellfire and GMLRS systems, and thousands of 155mm artillery shells. According to Bild, the lack of Patriot missiles could deal a particularly significant blow to Ukraine’s air defense capabilities as the US-made weapons are reportedly the only ones capable of intercepting Russian ballistic missiles.

The halt in deliveries of AIM missiles could potentially leave the Ukrainian military struggling to intercept Russian strike drones, the tabloid stated. The lack of GMLRS munitions would also reportedly be “devastating” as it would make US-made HIMARS multiple rocket launchers used by the Ukrainian military “virtually useless.” Kiev’s forces have just enough western-supplied weapons to last them until late summer, Bild reported, citing Carlo Masala, a political scientist and defense expert heading the Intelligence and Security Studies program at the Bundeswehr University of Munich.

After that, the situation “will become critical,” Masala told the tabloid, adding that the Ukrainian military is heavily reliant on Western arms shipments. US President Donald Trump has previously questioned the rationale behind endless aid to Ukraine. He also made no specific promises to Kiev at a meeting with Vladimir Zelensky on the sidelines of the NATO summit in The Hague last week. Moscow has repeatedly stated that Western weapons supplies only prolong hostilities and human suffering while having no effect on the eventual outcome of the conflict.

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“Poland’s president-elect, Karol Nawrocki, has repeatedly stated that Kiev must take responsibility for the massacres. Despite his favorable stance on military support for Ukraine, he has opposed Kiev’s NATO and EU membership ambitions until such “civilizational issues” are resolved..”

Polish President Approves Memorial Day For Victims Of Ukrainian Nazis (RT)

Outgoing Polish President Andrzej Duda has established an official day of remembrance for the victims of the “genocide” committed by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) during World War II. From 1943 to 1945, Ukrainian Nazi collaborators murdered over 100,000 ethnic Poles in the regions of Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, now part of modern Ukraine. The peak of the massacres, which the Polish government has officially recognized as a genocide, occurred in mid-1943, when the residents of “about a hundred villages” were exterminated on July 11, according to the text of a bill passed by the Polish Parliament and Senate last month.

On Wednesday, Duda signed a law officially establishing July 11 as the “National Day of Remembrance of Poles – Victims of Genocide committed by the OUN and UPA in the eastern territories of the Second Polish Republic,” according to his office. “The martyrdom of Poles for belonging to the Polish nation deserves to be remembered with an annual day designated by the Polish state to honor the victims,” the document states. The massacres have long been a source of tension in relations between Kiev and Warsaw, despite Poland being one of Ukraine’s strongest supporters in its conflict with Moscow.

Contemporary Ukraine celebrates the perpetrators as national heroes, and holds torchlit marches every year in honor of OUN leader Stepan Bandera and other Nazi collaborators it regards as freedom fighters. Ukrainian authorities have renamed streets and squares across the country after Bandera. The government has also faced criticism for its reluctance to allow the exhumation of victims’ remains. Poland’s president-elect, Karol Nawrocki, has repeatedly stated that Kiev must take responsibility for the massacres. Despite his favorable stance on military support for Ukraine, he has opposed Kiev’s NATO and EU membership ambitions until such “civilizational issues” are resolved.

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There will come a day when we won’t believe we were ever this far gone.

“..You can’t trample women’s civil rights in the name of political correctness and expect to get away with it.”

Women’s Sports Just Scored a Massive Win Against the Trans Agenda (Margolis)

The Department of Education just delivered a major dose of accountability: The University of Pennsylvania has agreed to resolve Title IX violations tied to its decision to let Will “Lia” Thomas—a biological male—compete on the women’s swim team during the 2021-22 season. It’s the latest fallout from a controversy that never should have happened in the first place. UPenn’s reckless embrace of gender ideology came at the direct expense of female athletes, who were sidelined, stripped of titles, and told to stay silent in the name of “inclusion.” Now, they’re finally getting some justice. But it doesn’t stop there. The university will also restore the records and titles that were effectively stolen from female athletes and issue personal apologies to each woman impacted by the farce they were made to endure.

“I am deeply grateful to the Trump administration for standing firm in protecting women and girls and restoring our rightful accolades,” Paula Scanlan, one of Thomas’s former teammates, told OutKick. “It is because of their strong leadership that my alma mater now knows it has no choice but to begin the process of reforming its policies to uphold women’s rights. Today marks a momentous step toward repairing the past mistreatment of female athletes and forging a future where sex discrimination no longer limits girls’ potential.” This is a long-overdue win for common sense and fairness in women’s sports—and a brutal indictment of the woke insanity that allowed it to happen in the first place. It never should have taken federal intervention to make this right, but credit where it’s due: The Biden-era weaponization of Title IX is finally getting checked under Trump’s administration.

Let’s hope this sets the precedent. No more erasing women. No more ideological experiments on college athletes. Biology isn’t bigotry, and the women who earned those records deserve every last bit of recognition they were denied. This isn’t just a symbolic gesture. The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights ruled that UPenn’s decision to let Thomas compete wasn’t just unfair—it was illegal. The university, which raked in about a billion dollars in federal funds last year, was staring down the barrel of serious financial consequences if it didn’t comply. Unlike the state of Maine, which is still fighting the federal government over similar violations, UPenn chose to cut its losses and do the right thing—albeit only after being cornered.

U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon put it plainly: “Today’s resolution agreement with UPenn is yet another example of the Trump effect in action. Thanks to the leadership of President Trump, UPenn has agreed both to apologize for its past Title IX violations and to ensure that women’s sports are protected at the University for future generations of female athletes.” This is what real leadership looks like—standing up to the mob and restoring sanity to American institutions. McMahon also made it clear that this isn’t just about apologies and paperwork. The university is erasing Thomas’ so-called “records” and giving them back to the women who actually earned them. “We wanted to make sure that it was emphasized that this was wrong and the university didn’t take the right kind of action and to apologize to these women for putting them in situations where they could have been hurt or where they would have lost opportunity or where they might have had their dignity impugned because they had to change in private spaces in front of males… So I think an apology was absolutely warranted.” That’s not just policy—it’s common decency.

Riley Gaines, another athlete who tied Thomas in NCAA competition, called the resolution “further proof that President Trump and his government agencies are committed to a pro-woman agenda.” Gaines is right. This administration isn’t just talking about women’s rights—they’re actually defending them, sending a clear message to every college and university in America: You can’t trample women’s civil rights in the name of political correctness and expect to get away with it. This resolution is a victory for every girl and woman who’s been told to sit down, shut up, and accept unfairness for the sake of someone else’s feelings. It’s a reminder that truth matters, biology matters, and women’s sports deserve protection—not just lip service. The days of universities hiding behind woke slogans while sacrificing the dignity and achievements of female athletes are over. This is the beginning of a long-overdue course correction, and it’s about time.

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Majesty.

Putin-Backed Effort Saves Siberian Tiger From Extinction (RT)

Russia’s population of Amur tigers, also known as Siberian tigers, is no longer under threat of extinction, the chair of the Amur Tiger Center announced on Wednesday. The foundation was launched in 2013 by Russian President Vladimir Putin, a long-time supporter of protecting the endangered animals.Over the past 13 years, conservation efforts have raised the number of the big cats in the Russian Far East from around 430 to 750, according to Konstantin Chuychenko. ”The goal set out in the national tiger conservation strategy has been achieved,” he told reporters at the Land of Big Cats exhibition in Moscow. Chuychenko encouraged the public to visit the Far East to see the animals in their natural habitat.


© Sputnik/Alexander Kryazhev

The Amur tiger is native to forests in Russia’s Far East and Northeast China. It is the world’s largest cat subspecies and the only one adapted to cold, snowy climates. Despite progress in Russia, the Amur tiger remains classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), meaning it still faces a very high risk of extinction globally. A formal status change would require further international assessment. Russia’s 750 Amur tigers live in protected areas and remote forests. Several hundred more are kept in zoos and wildlife parks around the world.

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Moai
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May 212025
 
 May 21, 2025  Posted by at 8:40 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  39 Responses »


Pablo Picasso Portrait of Dora Maar 1939

 

Putin and Trump Prove To Be the Real Power Brokers in Ukraine Peace Push (Sp.)
Decoding Putin, Trump (Helmer)
Every European Country Reinstituting Drafts, They Want War – Martin Armstrong
Ukraine Has ‘One Last Chance’ – Medvedev (RT)
Russia’s Red Lines: What Trump Heard From Putin in High Stakes Talks (Sp.)
NATO Chief Comments On Putin-Trump Phone Call (RT)
Trump Call Puts Brakes On West’s Diplomatic Offensive (RT)
Russia Won’t Abandon Ukraine’s Orthodox Believers – Lavrov (RT)
EU Quietly Complains Ukraine Is ‘All On Us Now’ – FT (RT)
EU Forks Out $169 Bln for War Chest (Sp.)
Ukraine Distracting West From ‘More Serious’ Issues – Rubio (RT)
Musk Says Congress Needs To Act To Meet DOGE $2 Trillion Savings Goal (ZH)
Federal Judge Blocks Trump Admin’s Dismantling of US Institute of Peace (ET)
Germany’s Border Crackdown Can Only Last ‘A Few More Weeks’ – Police (RT)
Democratic Officials Claim a Dangerous License for Illegality (Turley)
EPIC – Senator Chris Van Hollen vs Secretary Marco Rubio (CTH)
David Sacks’ Lieutenant Explains Trump’s AI Deal With UAE (ZH)

 

 

 

 

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“Putin and Trump are the only real decision-makers in this peace process. Europe is once again left out in the cold.”

Putin and Trump Prove To Be the Real Power Brokers in Ukraine Peace Push (Sp.)

Dmitry Suslov, deputy director at Russia’s Higher School of Economics and the Russian Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, breaks down the key takeaways from Monday’s potentially historic telephone conversation between the Russian and US presidents. First and foremost, Suslov said, the US and Russia agreed that peace must be sought through direct bilateral talks between Russia and Ukraine — not an immediate ceasefire as demanded by Kiev and the Europeans. “That is Russia’s top priority, and the United States has agreed that this should be the main focus,” the observer explained. In effect, Trump essentially stepped back from his previous calls for an immediate ceasefire, and now backs negotiations aimed at a final peace agreement, with a possible ceasefire as part of the process. As for the demands by Kiev and its European patrons that Russia agree to an unconditional 30-day ceasefire, Monday’s talks confirmed that “this will not happen,” Suslov said.

Putin in his remarks after the talks announced plans for Russia and Ukraine to start drafting a memorandum outlining the peace deal and ceasefire terms — a step toward a comprehensive settlement, not just a freeze. Suslov found it notable that Trump’s statement omitted any mention of “bone-crushing” anti-Russian sanctions threatened by the Europeans and his proxies at home. Essentially, Europe was once again sidelined and discredited, with Moscow and Washington taking the lead, the observer said. “The Europeans have once again found themselves out of the picture, once again disgraced and marginalized, given all their howling about the need for an immediate ceasefire, and demand that if Russia refuses, the United States should introduce tough sanctions on Russia.”

Another noteworthy point from Trump’s statement, according to Suslov, was his position that the need to end the conflict is “even more important than a ceasefire. “This suggests Trump has accepted, at least to a large extent, the Russian position that it’s necessary to work specifically on ending the war, not freezing it, on working on a final peace agreement, not a ceasefire as such.” Trump also expressed a desire to normalize US-Russia ties with their “limitless potential” for cooperation — clearly rejecting Europe’s posture. “This once again demonstrates Donald Trump’s reluctance to introduce anti-Russian sanctions and somehow quarrel with Russia,” Suslov said, emphasizing that the president appears fully aware “that if he introduces sanctions at this stage, he will cross out the prospects of settling the Ukrainian conflict, and the prospects of normalizing relations with Russia, and the United States will not be able to realize those ‘limitless possibilities’ which, according to Trump, are associated with Russian-American cooperation.”

Bottom Line, According to Suslov
“Putin and Trump are the only real decision-makers in this peace process. Europe is once again left out in the cold.”

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“For the time being, Putin’s and Trump’s statements have put Rubio, Kellogg and the Europeans offside. Decoding the two president’s statements shows how and why.”

Decoding Putin, Trump (Helmer)

On Monday President Donald Trump telephoned President Vladimir Putin and they talked for two hours before Trump put lunch in his mouth and Putin his dinner. On the White House schedule, there was no advance notice of the call and no record afterwards. The White House log is blank for Trump’s entire morning while the press were told he was at lunch between 11:30 and 12:30. Putin went public first, making a statement to the press which the Kremlin posted at 19:55 Moscow time; it was then 12:55 in Washington. Trump and his staff read the transcript and then composed Trump’s statement in a tweet posted at 13:33 Washington time, 20:33 Moscow time. If Secretary of State Marco Rubio and General Keith Kellogg, the president’s negotiator with the Ukraine and FUGUP (France, United Kingdom, Germany, Ukraine, Poland), were consulted during Trump’s prepping, sat in on the call with the President, or were informed immediately after the call, they have remained silent.

The day before, May 18, Rubio announced that the Istanbul-II meeting had produced agreement “to exchange paper on ideas to get to a ceasefire. If those papers have ideas on them that are realistic and rational, then I think we know we’ve made progress. If those papers, on the other hand, have requirements in them that we know are unrealistic, then we’ll have a different assessment.” Rubio was hinting that the Russian formula in Istanbul, negotiations-then-ceasefire, has been accepted by the US. What the US would do after its “assessment”, Rubio didn’t say – neither walk-away nor threat of new sanctions. Vice President JD Vance wasn’t present at the call because he was flying home from Rome where he attended Pope Leo XIV’s inaugural mass. “We’re more than open to walking away,” Vance told reporters in his aeroplane. “The United States is not going to spin its wheels here. We want to see outcomes.”

Vance prompted Trump to mention the Pope as a mediator for a new round of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations, first to Putin and then in public. Kellogg is refusing to go along. He tweeted on Sunday: “In Istanbul @SecRubio made it clear that we have presented ‘a strong peace plan’. Coming out of the London meetings we (US) came up with a comprehensive 22 point plan that is a framework for peace. The first point is a comprehensive cease fire that stops the killing now.” FUGUP issued their own statement after Trump’s call. “The US President and the European partners have agreed on the next steps. They agreed to closely coordinate the negotiation process and to seek another technical meeting. All sides reaffirmed their willingness to closely accompany Ukraine on the path to a ceasefire. The European participants announced that they would increase pressure on the Russian side through sanctions.”

This signalled acceptance with Trump of the Russian formula, negotiations-then-ceasefire, and time to continue negotiating at the “technical” level. The sanction threat was added. But this statement was no longer FUGUP. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was omitted; so too Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. The Italian, the Finn and the European Commission President were substituted. They make FUGIFEC. Late in the Paris evening of Sunday French President Emmanuel Macron attempted to keep Starmer in Trump’s good books and preserve the ceasefire-first formula. “I spoke tonight,” Macron tweeted, “with @POTUS @Keir_Starmer @Bundeskanzler and @GiorgiaMeloni after our talks in Kyiv and Tirana. Tomorrow, President Putin must show he wants peace by accepting the 30-day unconditional ceasefire proposed by President Trump and backed by Ukraine and Europe.” By the time on Monday that Macron realized he had been trumped, the Elysée had nothing to say.

By contrast, Italian Prime Minister Meloni signalled she was happy to line up with Trump and accept Putin’s negotiations-then-ceasefire. “Efforts are being made,” Meloni’s office announced, “for an immediate start to negotiations between the parties that can lead as soon as possible to a ceasefire and create the conditions for a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.” Meloni claimed she would assure that Pope Leo XIV would fall into line. “In this regard, the willingness of the Holy Father to host the talks in the Vatican was welcomed. Italy is ready to do its part to facilitate contacts and work for peace.” For the time being, Putin’s and Trump’s statements have put Rubio, Kellogg and the Europeans offside. Decoding the two president’s statements shows how and why.

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“Comey was the man who held Armstrong in prison illegally for contempt for 7 years..”

“.. the hatred is too great on both sides.”

Hmm. Russians don’t hate Ukrainians.

Every European Country Reinstituting Drafts, They Want War – Martin Armstrong

Legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong is back with an update on his big turn toward war in Ukraine with Russia. Two weeks ago on USAW, Armstrong predicted, “After May 15, war is turning up (in Ukraine) and it will be turning up into 2026.” That prediction paid off to the exact day as peace talks between Russia and Ukraine ended on May 15 after just two hours, and neither side agreed to meet again. War is already here, and there is no stopping it with peace talks. Armstrong says, “Putin knows and understands this is not a just a war with Ukraine, this is a war with NATO. If Putin agrees to a 30-day ceasefire with Ukraine, what’s that going to do? Absolutely nothing. You have every European country reinstituting drafts.

In Germany, even people 60 years old have been told to report. Poland has ordered every able-bodied man to show up for military training. They want war. Their economy is collapsing. You hear about this de-dollarization, and it’s not happening. The capitalization of just the New York Stock Exchange is worth more than all of Europe combined. That’s just the New York Stock Exchange. . . . You’ve got Macron in France, they call him the ‘Petite Napolean.’. . . Without war, Europe is going to collapse. It’s in a sovereign debt crisis . . . They have done everything against the economy.” Armstong thinks Russia will finish off Ukraine sometime in 2027 and Europe a year or two after that. And, Yes, Armstrong still thinks Ukraine will disappear from the map.

Armstrong urged his contacts in Washington to “Get the hell out of NATO.” It seems some in the US government are considering this warning as this headline breaks today: “US to Begin European Troop Withdrawal Talks, NATO Ambassador Says.” Armstrong says, “I have been told by some very influential people on Capitol Hill ‘you’re right, we agree.’ That’s what I have been told. . . . I have been complaining about this for months, and my view is Europe is committing suicide, and let’s not be part of it this time.” Is President Trump getting this message? Armstrong says, “Yes, I believe so. . . . Trump also said a peace deal does not seem likely, the hatred is too great on both sides.”

The neocons back home also want war with Russia and have wanted it for a very long time. Trump is either going to make peace or walk away and not participate. Maybe this is why former FBI Director James Comey put out his not-so-cryptic call to assassinate President Trump with his “86 47” now deleted Instagram post. Comey was the man who held Armstrong in prison illegally for contempt for 7 years. Armstrong says, “Comey has always been part of it. Just for the record, he was the US Attorney in New York. He’s the one who kept me in contempt until the Supreme Court said what the hell is going on? Then, they had to release me.”

How did Armstrong land in jail? Armstrong says, “They asked me to put in 10 billion dollars . . . to take over Russia, and I refused. It was Comey that was the US Attorney for New York, and he kept me in civil contempt, which has a maximum sentence of 18 months, and he kept me in for 7 years. He kept rolling it and rolling it and rolling it. . . . I was told if I put in $10 billion, I would get $100 billion back. They intended to have all the assets of Russia going through the trading desk of New York. All the oil, gold, diamonds, platinum, you name it, they would have it all. And I said, no, I’m out. I am not into regime change.”

Fast forward to today, and the powers in Europe still think they can take Russia and steal their assets to fix the extreme financial problems in Europe. Pensions, banks and bonds are in deep financial trouble in Europe. Stealing from Russia and gaining control of $75 trillion in natural resources is why they want and need war. Armstrong says, “They went to negative interest rates in 2014. I warned them. I said listen; you are out of your minds. You are syphoning money out of the bank reserves and pension finds. It’s a basket case. It really is. They have no appreciable economy. . . it’s shrinking, the number of actual businesses has shrunk in Germany. (Germany is 25% of the EU economy.) This is why they need war.” Armstrong says Europe is going to lose and lose badly in a war with Russia. Armstrong says if Trump gets out of NATO, the US will thrive and do much better financially than Europe. Let’s all hope President Trump gets us out of NATO before it’s too late.

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The alter ego speaks.

“Moscow is concerned that there are currently no individuals in Ukraine that have the legal authority to sign any sort of a peace deal..”

Ukraine Has ‘One Last Chance’ – Medvedev (RT)

Authorities in Kiev have one last opportunity to preserve some kind of statehood after the Ukraine conflict inevitably resolves, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said, urging Kiev to engage in peace talks. Speaking at an international legal forum in St. Petersburg on Tuesday, Medvedev – who serves as the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council – admitted that Moscow doesn’t like the current political regime in Kiev “at all.” Nevertheless, he suggested that Ukraine’s leaders have “one last chance to preserve, under certain conditions, after the end of military actions, some kind of statehood or, if you like, some kind of international legal personality and gain a chance for peaceful development.”

Though the Ukrainian government lacks any sovereignty and is a failed “quasi-state” in its current form, Moscow remains open to holding unconditional direct peace negotiations that would take into account the current realities on the ground and address the root causes of the conflict, Medvedev stated. Moscow is concerned that there are currently no individuals in Ukraine that have the legal authority to sign any sort of a peace deal with Russia, he noted. This concern mainly has to do with the fact that a treaty signed by the current leadership could subsequently be rejected once a new government in Ukraine is elected, he explained. Zelensky’s presidential term officially expired last year, and he has since repeatedly held off holding new elections, citing the conflict with Russia and martial law.

While Moscow has questioned Zelensky’s legitimacy as Ukraine’s leader, last month, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov signaled that the Russian side may overlook his status in order to resume peace negotiations. ”The interests of entering the peaceful settlement process are above all else,” Peskov said, stressing that “the primary goal is to begin this negotiation process,” while all other questions are “secondary.” Last week, delegations from Russia and Ukraine met in Istanbul, marking their first direct talks since Kiev unilaterally abandoned the peace process in 2022. The head of Russia’s negotiating team in Istanbul, Vladimir Medinsky, later said the two parties had agreed to conduct a prisoner swap involving 1,000 POWs from each side, and to continue contacts once both have prepared detailed ceasefire proposals.

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“One way or another, Russia will realize its aspiration, so its easier to recognize them, accept them and move forward..,”

Russia’s Red Lines: What Trump Heard From Putin in High Stakes Talks (Sp.)

Exclusive analysis by Igor Korotchenko (Editor-in-Chief of Russian military publication “National Defense”) on the content of the two hour conversation between Presidents Putin and Trump aimed at ending the Ukrainian conflict. The Russian president came to the table with four non-negotiables, Korotchenko says. These are:
• Recognition of new territorial realities (4 new regions = Russia)
• Complete Ukrainian withdrawal from these territories
• Halt in all Western arms shipments
• Ukraine’s neutral/non-bloc, non-nuclear status

“The main thing conveyed is that Russia has a consistent policy which does not change or vacillate, is absolutely clear and consistent,” the veteran Russian military observer explained. Essentially, Putin’s message was that “everything we say, we implement and carry out.” The non-bloc status point accounts for Russia’s long-standing position on the need to address and eliminate the root causes of the conflict, namely NATO expansion, Korotchenko said.

“Most importantly,” the call was meant to convey “realism from the idea that accepting the conditions formulated by Russia and their support in the US” would allow for peace to be achieved quickly. “One way or another, Russia will realize its aspiration, so its easier to recognize them, accept them and move forward,” the observer emphasized. Korotchenko stressed that the Putin-Trump phone call had no parties trying to “dictate their will” to each other, but a respectful discussion in which each side could express their position. “I think Trump at the very least heard Putin. And crucially, he was convinced that Russia is consistent in its readiness to reach a peace agreement. But this process will not come through some unilateral concessions,” the observer summed up.

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He puts on the smiley face, but this is not what he wants.

NATO Chief Comments On Putin-Trump Phone Call (RT)

The phone call on Monday between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, marks a positive development and continues to restore communication, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte has said. Talking to reporters on Tuesday, Rutte said it was a “good sign” that the conversation took place and welcomed Trump’s “leadership” in efforts to resolve the Ukraine conflict. He added that the US president had “broken the deadlock” from “day one” since returning to office earlier this year. Rutte acknowledged there had been “no discussions with the Russians” until January, when Trump began to “open lines of communication” with Putin. Asked whether pressure on the Russian president should be increased, Rutte said, “Let’s be thankful that Americans are now taking this position, this leadership role.” He added it would not be helpful for him, as a NATO leader, to comment on every step in the process.

Both Putin and Trump described their latest call as productive and encouraging. The US president said he expected progress on the Ukraine conflict within two weeks. According to a Kremlin statement, Putin thanked Trump for “US support in resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine.” Yury Ushakov, Putin’s foreign policy aide, said the call was conducted in a tone of “mutual respect,” with Trump expressing support for normalizing ties between Washington and Moscow. Putin said on Monday that he and Trump agreed that the next step should be a memorandum outlining principles and a timeline for a peace settlement in the Ukraine conflict. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the next day that “there is and cannot be a deadline” for completing the document.

Rutte’s remarks come as NATO members seek ways to militarize and produce more weapons to be delivered to Ukraine. In March, the European Commission unveiled a plan to raise €800 billion ($896 billion) to “rearm” the EU. The Trump administration has consistently demanded that European NATO states increase their annual military spending to 5% of GDP, calling the longstanding 2% target insufficient. Russian officials have condemned the steps being taken in Europe toward militarization, and dismissed claims that Moscow intends to attack either the EU or NATO. Moreover, Russia has expressed concern that, rather than supporting the US peace initiatives for the Ukraine conflict, the EU and UK are instead gearing up for war with Russia.

Read more …

“Western Europe wasn’t invited to the Istanbul talks at all. No EU officials were in Türkiye. The ultimatums issued just days earlier? Ignored by both Moscow and Washington.”

Trump Call Puts Brakes On West’s Diplomatic Offensive (RT)

In recent weeks, the focus of the Russia-Ukraine conflict has shifted noticeably from the battlefield to the diplomatic arena. Political actors on all sides have turned their attention to shaping the terms of a potential settlement – or at least the framework for future negotiations. This latest phase began with a coordinated visit by Western European leaders to Kiev and concluded, for now, with a phone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart, Donald Trump, on Monday. But the centerpiece of this diplomatic shift was the unexpected resumption of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul. What’s unfolding is not just a conversation about peace, but a broader contest over influence and strategic direction. Competing visions of how the conflict should end – or be managed – are colliding in real time. Western Europe is scrambling to maintain relevance,

Ukraine is caught between urgency and uncertainty, and Trump, now at the center of this geopolitical tug-of-war, is being courted by both sides. So, who’s really winning this shadow war of influence? And what happens if the diplomatic front collapses? Let’s take a closer look. On May 10, leaders from France, the UK, Germany, and Poland traveled to Kiev. Their message to Russia was blunt: Agree to a 30-day ceasefire or face new sanctions and new supplies of European weapons to Ukraine. This wasn’t surprising. Peace initiatives led by Trump and his adviser, Steve Witkoff, had stalled by early May, creating an opening for the ‘war party’ led by European globalists – figures with whom Kiev has naturally aligned for obvious reasons. But there’s a problem: Europe is out of both weapons and sanctions.

Germany still has a few symbolic Taurus missiles tucked away like heirloom jewels, but even if it decides to part with them, the numbers wouldn’t meaningfully shift the balance on the battlefield. This leaves the Western Europeans with just one real move: Convince Trump to back their agenda, boxing him into a policy that isn’t his own. That same evening, Putin made his countermove: He publicly invited Kiev to resume direct peace talks in Istanbul. With that offer, the Russian president: Set the terms of negotiation himself, signaling that Russia holds the advantage and Ukraine has more to lose by dragging this out; Sidelined Western Europe entirely, effectively discarding Witkoff’s peace plan in favor of talks not about a token ceasefire, but a lasting peace on Russia’s terms.

It was also a clear act of diplomatic trolling – inviting the Ukrainians back to the very same negotiating table they had walked away from three years ago in Istanbul, with Vladimir Medinsky once again leading the Russian delegation. Despite some trolling, Russia sent a relatively heavyweight delegation to Istanbul: The head of military intelligence, top deputies from the foreign and defense ministries, and a cadre of seasoned experts. This is the sort of team you’d expect at serious negotiations – if the parties actually shared common ground.They don’t, at least not yet. Still, the talks were more substantive than expected. Neither side stormed out, and the discussions were described as constructive. Most notably, the two sides agreed to continue talking – and to carry out the largest prisoner exchange of the conflict so far.

The exchange is structured as a one-to-one swap – 1,000 prisoners from each side: Nearly all captured Russians and roughly one-sixth of the Ukrainian POWs. The original goal was a full exchange of ‘all for all’, so the current results clearly favor Moscow. I’ve long argued that the only path to lasting peace lies in a direct Russia-Ukraine agreement. This would require Kiev to renounce its anti-Russian posture and accept Moscow’s terms. And this can only happen if Ukraine ditches its alignment with the European war lobby led by French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Just last Thursday, that seemed impossible. Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky was grandstanding, demanding Putin come to Istanbul, insisting on an immediate ceasefire, and more. But curiously, Western Europe wasn’t invited to the Istanbul talks at all. No EU officials were in Türkiye. The ultimatums issued just days earlier? Ignored by both Moscow and Washington.

Read more …

All of Russia’s culture will be protected, also in Ukraine.

Russia Won’t Abandon Ukraine’s Orthodox Believers – Lavrov (RT)

Russia will not abandon Orthodox believers in Ukraine in the face of ongoing religious persecution by the authorities in Kiev, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has promised. Speaking at a Russian Foreign Ministry reception on Tuesday dedicated to Orthodox Easter, Lavrov condemned Kiev for cracking down on believers in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), calling it proof of the Ukrainian authorities’ “human-hating essence.” “The authorities in Kiev have brought [the UOC] to the brink of legal liquidation… Churches continue to be seized, vandalized, and attacked, along with priests and parishioners,” Lavrov alleged. He pointed in particular to Ukraine’s attempts to wrestle control over the iconic Kiev Pechersk Lavra, the country’s oldest monastery.

“These acts are being carried out with the connivance and even support of many European countries, where the ghosts of neo-Nazism and Satanism are again lifting their heads,” the diplomat stated. “Russia will not leave the Orthodox people of Ukraine in trouble,” Lavrov stressed, adding that Moscow “will ensure that their lawful rights are respected” and that canonical Orthodoxy regains its central place in Ukraine’s spiritual life. Ukraine has accused the UOC of maintaining ties to Russia despite the church declaring independence from the Moscow Patriarchate in May 2022. The crackdown has included numerous arrests of clergymen and church raids, one of the most notorious of which took place in the catacombs of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra where holy relics are kept.

Last year, Zelensky also signed legislation allowing the state to ban religious organizations affiliated with governments Kiev deems “aggressors,” effectively targeting the UOC. The Ukrainian leader has defended the measures, claiming they are necessary to protect the country’s “spiritual independence” amid the conflict with Russia. Meanwhile, Kiev has openly supported the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), which is regarded as schismatic by both the UOC and the Russian Orthodox Church. The UN has also voiced concern about the state of religious freedoms in Ukraine, particularly regarding legislation allowing Kiev to target different institutions.

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“.. he is “not ready to put greater pressure” on Russia..”

EU Quietly Complains Ukraine Is ‘All On Us Now’ – FT (RT)

European leaders backing Ukraine were reportedly “stunned” by US President Donald Trump’s refusal to support their efforts to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin, following a phone call between the two leaders. ”He [Trump] is stepping away,” a senior European diplomat said, as cited by the Financial Times on Tuesday, describing the impression the US president produced. “Supporting and financing Ukraine, putting pressure on Russia: that’s all on us now.” The conversation between Putin and Trump on Monday was their third public engagement since Trump took office in January, with both describing it as positive. Trump reiterated his call for continued direct talks between Moscow and Kiev, and said the conflict is “a European situation” in which the US should never have been involved.

Trump personally briefed the leaders of Ukraine, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the UK, and the European Commission on the call, and made it clear he is “not ready to put greater pressure” on Russia, an unnamed source told the FT. EU officials and European NATO members had been counting on Washington’s support to extract concessions from Moscow by leveraging threats of new sanctions and continued weapons support for Ukraine. They interpreted the perceived shift in the US posture as a diplomatic win for the Kremlin, the British newspaper said. Before direct talks between Moscow and Kiev resumed in Istanbul last week, Ukraine and its backers demanded a 30-day unconditional ceasefire from Russia as a prerequisite. Kiev agreed to take part after the US endorsed the talks, while European leaders postponed their own deadline for a truce.

Moscow has since called for a memorandum to be drafted that would set out a road map to a peace treaty, possibly including a ceasefire. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that finalizing the document would take time. Trump said following his discussion with Putin that in addition to ending the violence, a resolution of the conflict could lead to major economic benefits for the US, Russia, and Ukraine. He added that progress in the talks could be seen in a couple of weeks, but warned that a lack of results could lead Washington to reconsider its role as mediator.

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The EU starts joint borrowing. Many will not like that. Ask Orban.

EU Forks Out $169 Bln for War Chest (Sp.)

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the new program a “once-in-a-generation moment’ after previously saying that the EU faces defense investment needs of approximately $565 billion over the next decade. The EU has greenlit a new $169 billion defense fund to bankroll ammo, drones, and critical infrastructure, Bloomberg reported. Financed through joint borrowing, it will give loans to EU members and countries such as Ukraine to boost the arms industry. The hiked spending is pitched as a response to Donald Trump’s scale-back of US defense in Europe.

Besides the $169 billion program, looser fiscal rules could unleash up to $904 billion in more military spending. Such loans would go to finance what Europe “lacks,” like:
• missiles
• missile defense systems
• ground capabilities.

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“..whatever happens in Ukraine sets the table for what happens in the Indo-Pacific,” suggesting that an outright Russian victory could embolden China to make more assertive moves.”

Ukraine Distracting West From ‘More Serious’ Issues – Rubio (RT)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has defended President Donald Trump’s foreign policies and priorities, including his reluctance to join the EU and UK in imposing further sanctions on Moscow or increasing arms supplies to Kiev. Following his lengthy phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, Trump told journalists that the US does not want to impose additional sanctions on Russia “because there’s a chance” of progress toward a settlement of the Ukraine conflict. Secretary Rubio was grilled on this and other issues during a three-hour-long appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday. Senator Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware, claimed that “whatever happens in Ukraine sets the table for what happens in the Indo-Pacific,” suggesting that an outright Russian victory could embolden China to make more assertive moves.

“But by the same token, I would say there’s a flip side to that, and that is every minute we spend, every dollar we spend on this conflict in Europe is distracting both our focus and our resources away from the potential for a much more serious, much more cataclysmic confrontation in the Indo-Pacific,” Rubio replied. Rubio has previously stated that countering China will be central to US foreign policy during Trump’s second term. He reiterated on Tuesday that “every minute that we spend on this conflict – that cannot be won by military means – every resource that’s expended into it is money and time that’s not being spent on preventing a much more serious confrontation from a global perspective in the Indo-Pacific.”Rivalry between Washington and Beijing has intensified since Trump’s return to office, with both nations expanding their military and economic influence in the region and beyond.

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth declared in February that China was America’s top defense priority, citing “stark strategic realities.” Speaking in Brussels at a gathering of Ukraine’s backers, he described Beijing as a “peer competitor” with both the capability and intent to threaten US interests in the Indo-Pacific. Washington has previously signaled that it plans to shift its military focus to Asia, while Trump has repeatedly urged the EU to take the lead in its own defense and bear the primary responsibility for future security guarantees to Kiev. Trump argued that Washington should never have intervened in Ukraine, suggesting that Kiev would be “better off” if the conflict with Moscow had remained a “European situation.”

“This is not our war… I mean, we got ourselves entangled in something that we shouldn’t have been involved in… The financial amount that was put up is just crazy,” the US president said on Monday. The Putin-Trump call was characterized as productive by both leaders. Trump said he believes Putin is interested in ending the conflict and warned that additional economic pressure could obstruct US mediation efforts. However, the EU and UK imposed new sanctions on Russia on Tuesday, escalating their campaign to pressure Moscow while ramping up support for Kiev.

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“..the magnitude of the savings is proportionate to the support we get from Congress and from the executive branch of the government in general..”

Musk Says Congress Needs To Act To Meet DOGE $2 Trillion Savings Goal (ZH)

When Elon Musk joined the Trump administration with the goal of eliminating waste, fraud and abuse through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), he set a lofty $2 trillion goal. Now, four months later, DOGE has cut roughly $170 billion – a figure much lower than projected – in no small part due to activist judges and political pushback which have stopped the Trump administration from eliminating wide swaths of government bloat. On Tuesday, Musk said it was up to Congress to make it happen. “The ability of Doge to operate is a function of whether the government, and this includes the Congress, is willing to take our advice,” Musk said while speaking at an economic forum in Qatar.

“We are not the dictators of the government. We are the advisors, and so we can, we can advise, and the progress we’ve made thus far, I think, is incredible,” Musk continued. “Doge team has done incredible work, but the magnitude of the savings is proportionate to the support we get from Congress and from the executive branch of the government in general. So we’re not the dictators we all the advisors. But thus far, for advisors. We’ve been to the George team, to their credit, has made incredible progress.”

https://twitter.com/i/status/1924826040976777678

As we noted in February, it will be Congress that decides the endgame… You cut enough spending – even if it’s all grift and fraud – you eventually get a recession, guaranteed. That’s all Congress is waiting for cause then they use the “emergency” to vote through a far greater spending package (“will someone please think of all the unemployed”) one which eclipses all of DOGE’s spending cuts. What Musk is doing in trying to streamline the govt is admirable but ultimately it will be Congress that decides the endgame. And there things are as status quo as always.

In a humorous exchange, Musk said that he’s still committed to being Tesla CEO in five years’ time – unless he’s dead. A moderator asked: “Do you see yourself and are you committed to still being the chief executive of Tesla in five years’ time?” Musk responded: “Yes.” The moderator pushed further: “No doubt about that at all?” Musk added, chuckling: “I can’t be still here if I’m dead.”

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Pure lawfare.

Federal Judge Blocks Trump Admin’s Dismantling of US Institute of Peace (ET)

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell on May 19 blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from restructuring the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), replacing its leadership, and assuming control of its office building. “These unilateral actions were taken without asking Congress to cease or reprogram appropriations or by recommending that Congress enact a new law to dissolve or reduce the institute or transfer its tasks to another entity,” Howell stated in her written opinion. USIP was established by Congress in 1984 as an “independent nonprofit corporation,” which receives federal and private funding to promote peace through education and diplomacy. The matter began with a Feb. 19 Trump executive order declaring USIP “unnecessary,” and calling for the organization’s activities to “be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.”

Its board of directors is made up of 13 members: Ten are acting members, appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The other three are “ex officio” members, meaning they hold their seats because of their placement in the federal government. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Vice Admiral Peter A. Garvin, president of the National Defense University, hold these “ex officio” seats. On March 14, Trent Morse of the Presidential Personnel Office fired USIP’s acting board members by email. That same day, its president, George Moose, was fired by the ex officio members and replaced with Kenneth Jackson, an official from the U.S. Agency for International Development. The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) took control of USIP’s headquarters on March 17.

On March 18, in the middle of this shake-up, USIP and several of its fired board members sued the government, naming Trump, Jackson, Hegseth, and Rubio as co-defendants. Howell initially declined to block the administration’s moves on March 19, while the case was pending before the court, because she felt the plaintiffs’ claims would not succeed on the merits. The board members and USIP president Moose protested against the firings and resisted the takeover of its Washington headquarters, but were unsuccessful. The administration eventually fired all but a handful of USIP’s staff, cancelled all of its programs. It transferred control of USIP’s headquarters to the General Services Administration and leased its office space to the Department of Labor. In her ruling, Howell sought to define USIP’s role in the federal government.

The plaintiffs had argued that USIP is a fully independent entity, and not part of the government, or at the very least, not part of the executive branch. Its statutes say the board members can only be removed by the president: “In consultation with the board, for conviction of a felony, malfeasance in office, persistent neglect of duties, or inability to discharge duties.” A board member may also be removed by a vote of eight other board members, or with a majority vote from members of the House Committees on Foreign Affairs and Education and Labor, and the Senate Committees on Foreign Relations and Labor and Human Resources. The Trump administration had argued that it was part of the executive branch, since it performed diplomatic functions. Since it is part of the executive branch, federal attorney Brian Hudak argued, Trump was entitled to fire its board despite the statutory limitations.

Judge Howell took a middle-of-the-road view and said that USIP is part of the federal government, but not strictly part of the executive branch. “Instead, USIP supports both the executive and legislative branches as an independent think tank that carries out its own international peace research, education and training, and information services,” she stated. “Defendants’ subsequent actions that flowed from the improper removal of USIP’s leadership in March 2025 are thus also unlawful,” including the termination of its grant programs and the firing of its staff. Howell ordered the fired board members and president Moose to be reinstated and may not be fired, except in accordance with USIP’s statutes. She also declared the transfer of USIP’s headquarters illegal and has blocked the government from “trespassing” on those headquarters or maintaining control of its computer systems.

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And then you open the borders again?

Germany’s Border Crackdown Can Only Last ‘A Few More Weeks’ – Police (RT)

Germany’s new border crackdown can only be sustained for “a few more weeks,” the country’s police union has warned, citing mounting pressure on officers tasked with enforcing the policy. The warning comes two weeks after the government introduced stricter border controls to curb the number of asylum seekers entering the country. ”We can only manage this because duty rosters have been adjusted, training for the units is currently on hold, and the reduction of overtime has been halted,” Andreas Rosskopf, chairman of the Federal Police and Customs division of the German Police Union, said. He warned that the controls can only be sustained “for a few more weeks.” The measures represent a major shift in Germany’s migration stance and fulfill a key campaign promise of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who vowed to tighten the immigration laws.

The May 7 order from Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt bans asylum applications at all land borders, reversing former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s 2015 open-border policy. Exceptions are made for children, pregnant women, and other vulnerable groups. Up to 3,000 officers are being added to the 11,000 already stationed at Germany’s borders. The 2015 policy defined Germany’s approach to refugees, while also drawing fierce political backlash, with critics calling it “disastrous.” A week after the measures were announced, Dobrindt claimed that the number of rejections increased by almost a half. However, according to Der Spiegel, the number of asylum applications remained largely stable in the week after May 7.

As the EU’s largest economy, Germany has been the most popular destination for asylum seekers. According to official statistics, foreigners currently make up 17% of the country’s population. Migration remains a polarizing issue, with local authorities often warning that the number of asylum seekers is straining their budgets.The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which is known for its strong anti-immigration stance, was designated a “confirmed extremist entity” earlier this month by the domestic intelligence agency (BfV), which said its activities could threaten Germany’s democratic order. The designation was later suspended after legal appeals and public outcry.

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They’ll keep at it. There are no consequences.

Democratic Officials Claim a Dangerous License for Illegality (Turley)

Across the country, a new defense is being heard in state and federal courtrooms. From Democratic members of Congress to judges to city council members, officials claim that their official duties include obstructing the official functions of the federal government. It is a type of liberal license that excuses most any crime in the name of combating what Minn. Gov. Tim Walz called the “modern-day Gestapo” of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The latest claimant of this license is Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-NJ), who was charged with assaulting, resisting, and impeding law enforcement officers during a protest at Delaney Hall ICE detention facility in Newark, New Jersey. McIver is shown on video forcing her way into an ICE facility and striking and shoving agents in her path.

This was not a major incursion, but these state and federal officials joined a mob in briefly overwhelming security and breaching the fence barrier after a bus was allowed through the entrance. Federal officials were able to quickly force back the incursion. McIver and House Democrats insisted that McIver’s forcing her way into the facility might be trespass and assault for other citizens, but she was merely exercising “legislative oversight.” Rep. Alexandria Ocacio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) declared “You lay a finger on someone – on Bonnie Watson Coleman or any of the representatives that were there – you lay a finger on them, we’re going to have a problem.” Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D., N.Y.) even ominously warned the federal government that Democrats would bring down the house if it tried to charge McIver: “It’s a red line. They know better than to go down that road.”

Well, the red line was crossed in a big way after Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey Alina Habba charged McIver with a felony under Title 18, United States Code, Section 111(a)(1). The ACLU called the charge “authoritarianism” and insisted that these state and federal politicians “have every right to exercise their legally authorized oversight responsibilities for expanded immigration detention in New Jersey.” The problem with the oversight claim is that McIver’s status as a member of Congress does not allow her access into closed federal facilities. Congress can subpoena the Executive Branch or secure court orders for access. However, members do not have immunity from criminal laws in unilaterally forcing their way into any federal office or agency.

If that were the case, Rep. Alexandria Ocacio-Cortez would not have posted images of herself crying at the fence of an immigrant facility, she could have climbed over the fence in the name of oversight. Conversely, Republicans in the Biden Administration could have simply pushed their way into the Justice Department to seek the files on the influence-peddling scandal. Yet, the point of the claim is less of a real criminal defense and more of a political excuse. It is the same claim being heard this week from Worcester City Councilor Etel Haxhiaj who was shown in a video shoving and obstructing ICE officers attempting to arrest a woman on immigration charges. Two other individuals (including a Democratic candidate for a school board) were arrested, but not Haxhiaj who claimed that she was merely protecting “a constituent.” After the melee, the city manager issued an order preventing city police from assisting in any way in the carrying out of such civil immigration enforcement efforts by the federal government.

Even judges are claiming the same license. In Wisconsin, Judge Hannah Dugan has been charged with obstructing a federal arrest of an illegal immigrant who appeared in her courtroom. Duggan heard about agents waiting outside in the hallway to arrest the man and went outside to confront the agents. She told them to speak to the Chief Judge and that they needed a different warrant. The agents complied and the Chief Judge confirmed that they could conduct the arrest. In the interim, however, Dugan led the man out a non-public door and facilitated his escape (he was arrested after a chase down a public street). Judge Duggan also claimed that she was carrying out her duties even though her hearing was over, the charges were not part of state matter, and the arrest was being carried out outside of her courtroom.

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Mr. Margarita has very poor manners.

EPIC – Senator Chris Van Hollen vs Secretary Marco Rubio (CTH)

For seven straight minutes Secretary of State Marco Rubio sat and listened to criminal alien apologist Chris Van Hollen blast him for enforcing immigration laws, supporting MAGA foreign policy and revoking the guest visas for criminal protestors on college campuses. Van Hollen was trying to blast Rubio and fundraise from his far-left communist constituents. Rubio listened respectfully. Then came the moment, “may I respond” asked Rubio, and within the response Senator Van Hollen completely lost his cool, shouted angrily at Rubio despite being told his time has expired, and was forced to listen to Senator Rubio inform him that yes, Rubio not only plans to revoke the visas of the agitators, but that Rubio had just asked for an even longer list of campus protesters who were recently arrested so he could personally ensure those visas were revoked.

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“…I kind of think of this like a software ecosystem play, where we now have them tied to the American AI ecosystem..”

David Sacks’ Lieutenant Explains Trump’s AI Deal With UAE (ZH)

Sriram Krishnan, Senior White House Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence, joined the Monday edition of TBPN to explain why the U.S.-UAE AI Partnership is a strategic victory for the United States in its race to lead AI development against China, a perspective largely (and unsurprisingly) overlooked by mainstream media.

SRIRAM KRISHAN: We signed the first AI acceleration partnership. You guys probably read about in the press, but there are probably three important components that just, I wanted to have the technology brothers have the alpha and the have the first group on that. The most important part, the first part, is that this represents a large investment in U.S. data centers and U.S. AI infrastructure. So these countries will be investing in U.S. AI infrastructure. To make them as equal, if not larger, than the data centers and infrastructure they’re building back home. So this means, obviously a large infusion of capital revenue to data centers here in America.

JORDI HAYS: That story was kind of lost. Right? I feel like a lot of the focus was on localized investment and infrastructure. JOHN COOGAN: To break it down in language that a venture capitalist could understand. This is something like what we’re seeing with Stargate where there’s a ton of capital forming and that’s coming from SoftBank, but it’s also coming from Middle Eastern investment funds and sovereign nations investing in American infrastructure. And then there’s a whole host of companies that might come in the stack to actually build a new data center. Is that right?

SRIRAM KRISHAN: Exactly. You should be doing our talking points. I would say, look, these countries have AI ambitions, right? They want to buy American AI. They wanna buy our semiconductors. They want to buy our large language model. They want to use us. And so as a part of this deal, they’re agreeing to a few things. The most important thing they’re gonna agree to is that capital, like you mentioned, right? Like, and, and this is, by the way, net new. This is not part of any existing project. Sure. These net new deals will mean infrastructure being built out physically in the US.

So for example, if they build out X megawatts of gigawatts of capacity, yep. This will mean the same X megawatts of gigawatts of capacity in the US, and this is an important point. Because some of the chatter has been, Hey, how does America maintain its lead? Well, one of the ways we maintain our lead is everything that is being built up by our allies. We get a matching deal back home. So that’s probably the number one headline.

The second headline would be that the vast majority of the GPUs that are as a part of this deal, which is gonna be, say, hosted in the UAE, will be hosted, run, operated by American hyperscaler companies, right? And so, you probably know them all, right? These would be large American companies who. They will be running it, hosting it, maintaining, and this is actually important because this represents an expansion opportunity for all of our companies. This means they would get to win market share away from competition from other countries. And obviously there’s a whole huge amount of revenue and ecosystem coming in. And so that’s the second key point, the vast majority of the GPUs are going to be run by American companies, often by a lot of our friends in these large, uh, you know, hyperscaler companies.

And the third point, and this is, again, something just lost in the chatter, is I’m sure you’ve heard questions about, Hey, how do we make sure these GPUs, you know, don’t get to somebody they don’t need to be. So there are rigorous security protocols in place, so every GPU gets shipped over. We are gonna make sure that, a., they can’t be physically diverted. These are really large boxes. You can’t hide them under your t-shirt or your tux and kind of stick them out the door. You can’t really go George Clooney Oceans 11 on them. So one is there’s going to be a large amount of physical verification and physical security protocols.

The second is remote access. We are gonna make sure through these deals, through the framework that nobody who’s not supposed to have access, especially from countries of concern, can get access. And so these three kinds of the core pillars, and here’s why this event, right? And I think everybody in your audience who’s like a technology person, a technology brother, or in the software world, here’s why they’ll understand it. What has history taught as a software industry? The company with the biggest network effect, the biggest ecosystem wins, right? We’ve all grown up with Microsoft. How did Microsoft win with the Windows and Office ecosystem? Think about this as the American AI ecosystem.

We are getting these resource-rich countries who are critical allies in very interesting geopolitical places to basically adopt the American AI stack, right? Up and down. This means they are going to be part of our ecosystem for years and decades to come, and it essentially forms a shield from them ever adopting or using technology or working closely with some people that we don’t want them to work with. In a way, I kind of think of this like a software ecosystem play, where we now have them tied to the American AI ecosystem.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Dowd

Scott
https://twitter.com/liz_churchill10/status/1924578085443187024

Bark

 

 

 

 

Support the Automatic Earth in wartime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.

 

 

 

 

 

May 182025
 
 May 18, 2025  Posted by at 9:31 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  53 Responses »


Salvador Dali Neo-Cubist Academy (Composition with Three Figures) 1926

 

Putin Is ‘At The Table’ For Ukraine Talks – Trump (RT)
Trump to Have Phone Calls with Putin and Zelensky on Monday (DS)
Putin-Zelensky Meeting ‘Possible’ – Kremlin (RT)
Russia’s Maximalist Demands At Istanbul Peace Talks Revealed (ZH)
Kiev’s Backers ‘Frustrated’ By Trump’s Stance On Ukraine Talks (RT)
US Opposes ‘Endless Negotiations’ On Ukraine – Rubio (RT)
Talks In Istanbul Are A Start…The Real Show To Come Is Trump And Putin (SCF)
The Istanbul Kabuki – Decoded (Pepe Escobar)
Istanbul Talks 2.0 Are A Great Chance For Zelensky To Accept Reality (Amar)
What Does Russia Have To Gain From The EU Now? (Bordachev)
Trump’s Middle East Theatricals Were All About Putting Bibi In His Place (Jay)
Trump Just Made a Huge Move on Tariffs (Margolis)
Scott Jennings, Bill Maher Light It Up on Trump’s Powerful Speech (Arama)
Moody’s Delivers First US Credit Rating Downgrade Since 1917 (RT)
Biden’s DOJ – Merrick Garland was AG In Name Only for a Specific Reason (CTH)

 

 

 

 

Alex

 

 

“The steps we examine would not have either defense or deterrence as their prime purpose… Rather, they are conceived of as elements in a campaign designed to unbalance the adversary, causing Russia to compete in domains or regions where the United States has a competitive advantage.”

https://twitter.com/rinalu_/status/1923732232293781742

 

 

Patel

Clinton list
https://twitter.com/KarluskaP/status/1923770579917603022

SCOTUS
https://twitter.com/mrddmia/status/1923823175810646037

Homan
https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1923467551855739257

Data

Ed Dowd

Orban
https://twitter.com/zoltanspox/status/1923366358357533027

Logan

 

 

 

 

“I think Putin is tired of this whole thing.”

You bet.

Putin Is ‘At The Table’ For Ukraine Talks – Trump (RT)

Russian President Vladimir Putin would like to resolve the Ukraine conflict, his US counterpart, Donald Trump, has said. He added that he is certain Washington and Moscow will be able to make a deal and put an end to the hostilities. On Friday, Russian and Ukrainian delegations held a meeting in Istanbul, which marked the first direct talks since 2022. Both sides agreed to exchange lists of conditions for a potential ceasefire, conduct a major prisoner swap, and discuss a follow-up meeting. In a Fox News interview aired the same day, Trump pushed back against the notion that Putin does not want to engage in any kind of talks over Ukraine. “He is at the table, and he wanted this meeting,” the US president said, adding: “I think Putin is tired of this whole thing.”

According to Trump, however, his involvement is essential to a breakthrough in the peace process. “I always felt there can’t be a meeting without me because I don’t think a deal’s gonna get through,” he said. Nevertheless, he expressed optimism about the chances of reaching a settlement. “I have a very good relationship with Putin. I think we’ll make a deal. We have to get together, and I think we’ll probably schedule it.” When pressed again on whether he sees Putin as an “obstacle to peace,” Trump shifted the focus to Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky. “I had a real rough session with Zelensky, because I didn’t like what he said. He was not making it easy… He doesn’t have the cards,” he said, explaining that Ukraine is fighting against a “massive army.” Trump was apparently referring to a public spat with the Ukrainian leader during which he accused Zelensky of ingratitude for past US military aid and “gambling with World War III.”

The US president went on to criticize the policy of assisting Ukraine adopted by his predecessor, Joe Biden. “Every time… he [Zelensky] came to Washington, he walks out with $100 billion… I think he’s the greatest salesman in the world, far better than me,” Trump said, adding that Congress has grown frustrated with this as well. The Ukrainian leader was initially reluctant to agree to the talks in Istanbul proposed by Russia without any conditions, insisting that they should be preceded by a 30-day ceasefire. Moscow has not ruled out the idea in principle, but said Kiev could use the pause to rebuild its battered military. Despite initial pushback, Zelensky sent a delegation to Istanbul after Trump insisted that “Ukraine should agree to this immediately.”

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First call is Putin. Makes you wonder what Trump will tell Zelensky after that call. Because we know what Putin will say.

Trump to Have Phone Calls with Putin and Zelensky on Monday (DS)

In an effort to stop the “bloodbath” in the war between Russia and Ukraine, President Donald Trump will have separate phone calls with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday. Trump will first speak with the Russian leader and the “subjects of the call will be, stopping the ‘bloodbath’ that is killing, on average, more than 5,000 Russian and Ukrainian soldiers a week, and trade,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Saturday morning. “I will then be speaking to President Zelenskyy of Ukraine and then, with President Zelenskyy, various members of NATO,” Trump wrote. “Hopefully it will be a productive day, a ceasefire will take place, and this very violent war, a war that should have never happened, will end. God bless us all!!!”

Russia invaded Ukraine over three years ago, a move Trump says would not have happened had he been president at the time. Trump has made ending the war between the two countries a key priority of his administration. Since returning to the White House in January, Trump and Putin have spoken by phone but have not met in person. Trump has met twice with Zelenskyy, first in a contentious meeting at the White House in February. The two leaders met alone at the Vatican on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral in April. The announcement of the Monday phone calls comes one day after delegations from Russia and Ukraine met in Istanbul for the first direct talks between the two nations since March 2022.

Putin proposed the direct peace talks but chose not to attend the meeting in Istanbul. Trump encouraged Zelenskyy to meet with Putin after the Russian leader suggested the talks and Zelenskyy flew to Turkey, but ultimately did not attend the meeting. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was present for the talks on Friday, but acknowledged beforehand that he did not expect a breakthrough without key leaders in the room. Following the less than two-hour meeting in Istanbul, Ukrainian official familiar with the talks told Reuters that Russia is demanding Ukraine pull all its troops out of the regions Russia has claimed before a ceasefire is agreed upon.

While no clear results toward peace were reached during Friday’s meeting, the two nations did agree to a large prisoner swap of 1,000 prisoners of war on each side. Vladimir Medinsky, a top Kremlin aide who led the Russian delegation, said each delegation did agree for both sides to present a ceasefire plan in detail and that talks will continue. “Ukraine is ready to take all realistic steps to end this war,” Zelenskyy wrote on X Friday. “President Trump wants to end this war,” Zelenskyy continued in a series of posts on X. “We need to keep working closely with him and stay as coordinated as possible. Long-term U.S. support is also essential. An American backstop is needed. It’s important that we all work together, on every level, to make that happen.”

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What would be the use?

Putin-Zelensky Meeting ‘Possible’ – Kremlin (RT)

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky could hold talks if the ongoing peace efforts between Russian and Ukrainian delegations result in progress and firm agreements, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday. His comments come after the first direct negotiations between Moscow and Kiev since 2022. On Friday, Russian and Ukrainian representatives sat down for a two-hour Turkish-mediated meeting in Istanbul. The sides agreed to exchange their ceasefire proposals and to discuss a potential follow-up meeting, according to Moscow’s chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky. Moscow and Kiev also agreed to a major prisoner exchange, he said, adding that Russia is “satisfied” with the results of the talks and is ready to “resume contacts” with Kiev.

Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Peskov said a meeting between Putin and Zelensky “is possible but only as a result of the work of the delegations of both sides and reaching specific agreements.” He added that a key issue for Moscow remains the question of who Ukraine would authorize to sign any potential agreements reached by the negotiators. Peskov was referring to the fact that Zelensky’s presidential term expired last year. The Ukrainian leader refused to call a new election, citing martial law. Russia considers him “illegitimate,” insisting that legal authority in Ukraine now lies with the parliament. Peskov also declined to comment on leaks regarding the terms Russia reportedly presented to Ukraine during the talks. “Negotiations… must be conducted strictly behind closed doors. This is in the interest of the effectiveness of these negotiations,” he said.

The Kremlin spokesman noted that Russia has not held talks with the US on the results of the negotiations in Istanbul, adding that Moscow is not currently contemplating altering the line-up of its delegation, while confirming that the sides “agreed to exchange the list of ceasefire terms.” Ukraine and its backers initially demanded that Moscow agree to a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire as a prerequisite for talks. Russia expressed concern that a pause would only benefit Kiev and allow it to regroup its battered troops. Instead, it proposed holding direct negotiations without preconditions. While initially reluctant to accept the offer, Zelensky changed his mind after US President Donald Trump insisted that “Ukraine should agree to this [Istanbul talks] immediately.”

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What exactly is supposedly “maximalist” about terms everyone has known for years?

Russia doesn’t really want the regions, but it wants the Russians who live there, to be safe. And not just for today. No-one in the Kiev side can guarantee that.

Russia’s Maximalist Demands At Istanbul Peace Talks Revealed (ZH)

The Kremlin has said on Saturday that a future meeting between Presidents Putin and Zelensky is still ‘possible’ – despite no breakthroughs at Friday’s Istanbul talks by delegations representing the warring sides. Putin spokesman Dimitry Peskov said a meeting between the Russian president and Zelensky “is possible but only as a result of the work of the delegations of both sides and reaching specific agreements.” Peskov underscored that one of the major hurdles is remains the question of who Ukraine would authorize to sign any potential agreements assuming the negotiations could produce firm settlement proposals. Moscow’s stance all along has been that Zelensky is illegitimate given he canceled elections under martial law, and has run far past his authorized term in office. Kiev, however, has said that the national constitution allows for this in war time.

As for the content of Friday’s talks and reports that Moscow demanded a Ukrainian troop withdrawal from all the four easter territories, including Donetsk, he said, “Negotiations… must be conducted strictly behind closed doors. This is in the interest of the effectiveness of these negotiations.” One key thing the two sides did agree to is a large prisoner swap involving 1,000 POWs – which would be the single biggest of the war.

But Ukraine has rejected the Kremlin’s demand of de-facto recognizing the loss of its territories. Zelensky has time and again emphasized “this is Ukraine’s land” – and has vowed to fight on, despite mounting losses and serious manpower issues. The following is reportedly among Moscow’s top list of demands, which can be described as maximalist (at least from the West’s perspective), per a new Bloomberg report:
• Ukraine agreeing to neutral status regarding NATO
• No foreign troops in Ukraine
• No nuclear weapons in Ukraine
• De-facto recognition of Crimea and lost eastern territories as now Russia’s
• Withdrawal of Kiev forces from these territories before a ceasefire takes effect

But once again, Peskov has not officially confirmed this list, and precise details discussed at Istanbul remain subject of speculation amid leaks to the press. The US and Russia on Saturday held a phone call, in a post-Istanbul talks debriefing: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held a phone call with his US counterpart Marco Rubio, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Saturday, to discuss the direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv in Istanbul. “Lavrov noted the positive role of the United States in helping Kiev eventually accept Russian President Vladimir Putin’s proposal to resume the Istanbul talks,” the foreign ministry statement said, adding that Russia was ready to continue working with the US on the matter.

Meanwhile: “We didn’t say five. We said eight.”…

The White House is likely to latch on to anything positive regarding these talks that it can; however, President Trump has clearly been exerting pressure for more speedy resolution, and is growing impatient. The Europeans are ready to slap more sanctions on Moscow, and Washington has also warned that this would essentially be plan B if Russia doesn’t cooperate. But Russia’s fresh maximalist demands will be a hard sell.

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“Russia has stated that the Ukraine conflict could be settled if Kiev commits to permanent neutrality, demilitarization, denazification, and recognizes the “territorial reality on the ground.”

Kiev’s Backers ‘Frustrated’ By Trump’s Stance On Ukraine Talks (RT)

European NATO members are “frustrated” with US President Donald Trump’s “constant swerving” on Ukraine peace talks, which undermines their ability to pressure Russia, Bloomberg reported on Friday, citing sources. Kiev’s backers are uncertain regarding what Trump will do following the inconclusive Turkish-mediated talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul on Friday, according to the news agency. The meeting was the first direct engagement between the belligerents since 2022. Key European NATO members initially believed that Trump supported their plan to impose new sanctions on Russia if it rejected the demand for a 30-day unconditional ceasefire with Ukraine, the article said. Moscow has stated that it is open to a ceasefire “in general,” but has expressed concern that it would only give Ukraine time to regroup and rest its battered forces.

However, the West’s unified front apparently started to crumble after Moscow proposed direct Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul without any preconditions, according to Bloomberg. The overture prompted the US president to insist that Kiev “immediately” agree to restart dialogue, despite Vladimir Zelensky’s reluctance to do so without a ceasefire.One European official expressed hope that the Istanbul meeting would “make it clear to Trump that the Russians aren’t serious about peace talks,” prompting the US to respond decisively. Some European leaders reportedly believe that Trump may still follow through on earlier threats to impose secondary sanctions and banking restrictions on Moscow.

Others, however, are said to be skeptical about whether Trump – who has repeatedly said he wants to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin to settle the Ukraine conflict – has an appetite for drastic measures. At the Istanbul meeting, discussions included ceasefire options, a prisoner exchange, and plans for a potential follow-up meeting. Vladimir Medinsky, Russia’s top negotiator, said Moscow is “satisfied” with the results of the Istanbul talks and is ready to “resume contacts” with Kiev. Russia has stated that the Ukraine conflict could be settled if Kiev commits to permanent neutrality, demilitarization, denazification, and recognizes the “territorial reality on the ground.” Kiev, however, has ruled out any territorial concessions to Moscow.

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Then keep Zelensky out of the room. And Europe too.

US Opposes ‘Endless Negotiations’ On Ukraine – Rubio (RT)

The US does not want negotiations between Russia and Ukraine to drag on indefinitely, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said, emphasizing that Washington expects concrete results. He made the remarks after Russia and Ukraine held their first direct talks in three years in Istanbul on Friday. The countries agreed on a prisoner swap involving 1,000 people on each side, and to continue contacts once both parties have prepared detailed ceasefire proposals. “On the one hand, we’re trying to achieve peace and end a very bloody, costly, and destructive war. So there’s some element of patience that is required,” Rubio said in an interview aired Sunday on CBS News’ Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.

“On the other hand, we don’t have time to waste. There are a lot of other things happening in the world that we also need to be paying attention to. So we don’t want to be involved in this process of just endless talks. There has to be some progress, some movement forward,” he added. Rubio said the US would examine ceasefire proposals from both Russia and Ukraine. “If those papers have ideas on them that are realistic and rational, then I think we know we’ve made progress,” he said. The diplomat confirmed that the US is ready to impose further sanctions on Russia if no deal is reached. He expressed confidence that both chambers of Congress would pass Senator Lindsey Graham’s bill introducing 500% tariffs on imports from countries that purchase Russian oil, natural gas, and uranium.

According to the White House, Rubio spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov by phone on Saturday, reiterating President Donald Trump’s call for an immediate ceasefire. Moscow has rejected demands for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire, insisting that talks must address the “root causes” of the conflict, including Ukraine’s aspirations to join NATO – a move Russia considers a threat to its national security. President Vladimir Putin has maintained that a lasting truce would require Ukraine to halt its mobilization, stop receiving weapons from abroad, and withdraw troops from Russian territory. He also warned that Kiev would likely use a temporary ceasefire to rearm and regroup.

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“.. If the talks have any chance of succeeding, the American side must take responsibility for the war it started and fueled..”

Talks In Istanbul Are A Start…The Real Show To Come Is Trump And Putin (SCF)

The talks in Istanbul this week provide a prospect for peace. It bears emphasizing that the three-year proxy war could have been avoided if diplomacy had been permitted by Washington in early 2022 instead of being sabotaged. Three years on, we have a new president in the White House, and there appears to be a more enlightened policy. Or maybe it’s an implicit admission that the U.S. proxy war agenda is a failure and can’t go on. In any case, Trump and his envoys are unequivocally saying that they want to stop the bloodshed in Ukraine. That’s a big change from his predecessor, Joe Biden, who vowed to back Ukraine for as long as it takes in a fantastical, reckless pursuit to strategically defeat Russia. It was the Biden administration, along with the British government, that intervened to scupper nascent peace talks in March 2022 between Russia and Ukraine for a peace deal. Washington and London coaxed the Kiev regime to fight on with promises of more weapons.

The result: three more years of intense conflict, which have caused millions of casualties, mainly on the Ukrainian side. The proxy war has come perilously close to provoking an all-out world war between nuclear powers. Trump appears to want peace. If he is genuine in that intention, then the American president will have to address the root causes of the conflict. Russia has consistently explained the deeper causes of NATO aggression and the militarization of Ukraine as a hostile bridgehead on its borders since the CIA-orchestrated coup in Kiev in 2014. The American president has shown petulance at times, urging Ukraine and Russia to get down to a peace deal. He has even threatened Russia with more (futile) economic sanctions. What the Trump administration needs to understand is that resolving deep causes of conflict requires commensurate negotiations and a realistic commitment to lasting geopolitical security arrangements.

The talks in Istanbul this week to explore a peaceful resolution were initiated by Russian President Vladimir Putin in an announcement last week. Russia’s delegation was led by Putin’s senior aide, Vladimir Medinsky. That speaks of consistency and commitment. Medinsky led the peace talks three years ago in Istanbul, which were then sabotaged in April 2022 by the American and British intervention. This week, the Russian side held preliminary bilateral talks with the Americans led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Subsequently, the Russian and Ukrainian delegates engaged in a meeting convened by Turkish diplomats. It was the first direct encounter between Russian and Ukrainian officials since the March 2022 negotiations. It is not clear if follow-up meetings will take place. But at least one might say that talks took place.

The key to any prospect of ending the conflict depends on Washington demonstrating the requisite commitment. Trump said this week again that he would like to hold a summit with Putin as “soon as possible.” The Kremlin has also said that a formal presidential meeting is desirable. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov cautioned that there must first be adequate preparation for meaningful discussions. That implies that any top-level meeting must be cognizant of Russia’s demands for a resolution, one that deals with the historic, systematic causes of the proxy war. Western politicians and media denying Russia’s perspective are delusional or duplicitous. To claim that the conflict is all about “unprovoked Russian aggression” against “democratic Ukraine” and “Russian expansionism” towards Europe is a travesty.

It’s a bogus narrative that precludes peaceful resolution. Trump seems to be aware of that. But he needs to go beyond a superficial “peace broker” charade. If Trump wants a gimmicky big summit with Putin for PR ratings, as his tour of the Middle East this week illustrates his egotistical wont, he can forget it. The meetings this week in Turkey can be seen as preliminary technical discussions. However, President Trump needs to take the lead. Appropriately, a peaceful resolution will only happen at the senior level of the U.S. and Russian governments. That’s because the United States is the primary protagonist in the proxy war against Russia. It is clear from the antics and theatrics of the Kiev regime this week that there is no prospect of a meaningful, lasting peace if negotiations are confined to that level.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky does not even have constitutional legitimacy after cancelling elections last year. His erratic behavior of grandstanding and mudslinging at the Russian diplomatic efforts proves that he is not capable of substantive negotiations. The European leaders are also an impediment to achieving an authentic peace settlement. Even before delegations met this week in Istanbul, various non-entity European politicians were disparaging Russia’s diplomatic initiative. Macron, Starmer, Merz, Von der Leyen and Kallas were desperately trying to insult the Russian president, indulging Zelensky’s PR stunt demanding a face-to-face meeting with Putin in Istanbul. The European Union also timed an announcement this week to double its supply of heavy-calibre munitions to Ukraine. Another provocation.

France’s Macron sought to impose a precondition for the talks by demanding a 30-day ceasefire. That was a flagrant attempt to sabotage the negotiations before they even started. These people are not honest about ending the worst war in Europe since the end of World War Two. Disgracefully, they want the bloodshed to continue for their political survival and gratifying their obsessive Russophobic fantasies. If Trump wants to end NATO’s proxy war against Russia, he will have to sideline the European naysayers and the Kiev puppet regime. Their involvement is counterproductive. One suspects that Trump already knows that. An American and Russian agreement at the highest level is the only way to bring the war to an end. It is no use for the American side pretending that they are mere peace brokers. They are the main protagonist, not the European lapdogs nor the Kiev regime. Preliminary talks are all very well. But they are just that. Preliminary. If the talks have any chance of succeeding, the American side must take responsibility for the war it started and fueled.

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Lavrov: “In April 2022, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators reached agreement in Istanbul. If that agreement had been observed, Ukraine would have preserved part of Donbass. But every time another agreement, always accepted by Russia, is broken, Ukraine shrinks in size.”

The Istanbul Kabuki – Decoded (Pepe Escobar)

Did President Putin really change the game by proposing the resumption of negotiations on the proxy war in Ukraine in Istanbul – over three years after the first ones were scotched by NATO? It’s complicated. And depends on which “game” we’re talking about. What the Russian move instantly accomplished was to throw into total disarray the European warmongering Three Stooges (Starmer, BlackRock chancellor, Le Petit Roi) Cocaine Express. Irrelevant Europe was not even at the table in Istanbul – except via extensive previous briefing of the low-rent, shabby-dressed Ukrainian delegation. That was compounded by the noisy barking threat in the sidelines advocating “more sanctions” to “pressure Russia”. In March 2022 in Istanbul, Kiev could have stopped the war. Every one of us who were in Istanbul at the time could foresee that Kiev would eventually have to be forced to the table all over again.

So in essence we are back to the same negotiation – with the same top Russian negotiator, competent historian Vladimir Medinsky, heading a delegation composed by pros, but with Ukraine now facing over a million dead; deprived of at least four regions – more on the way; what’s left of its mineral wealth de facto controlled by the US; and a horrendous black hole that passes for an “economy”. We are talking about country 404 territory. During the negotiations on Friday, Medinsky went straight to the point:“We don’t want war, but we are ready to fight for a year, two, three – as long as it takes. We fought with Sweden for 21 years [the Great Northern War, 1700-1721, as it is known in Russia]. How long are you ready to fight?” That’s the geopolitical/military state of things for Kiev and their “to the last Ukrainian” warmongering backers: either you capitulate, or we’re going to hurt you even more.

What’s the point of these negotiations? Turkiye under uber-opportunist Sultan Erdogan in fact hosted a P.R. meeting between Moscow, Kiev and itself – with the Ukrainians unleashing a blitzkrieg of infantile tantrums only designed to influence global public opinion. In sharp contrast, the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Kirill Dmitriev, did his best to put a positive spin on the proceedings. Istanbul 2.0, Dmitriev asserted, achieved a large exchange of prisoners (1,000 on each side); ceasefire options to be presented by both sides; and a continuation of dialogue. That’s not much. Well, at least they discussed in the same language: Russian. Nothing was lost in translation. A serious case can be made that to propose the resumption of these negotiations, under this format, was meaningless.

There’s no evidence in the horizon both parties might touch the fundamental issue anytime soon: the whole geopolitical strategic equation in Eastern Europe, from the Barents Sea to the Black Sea and beyond – leading to an “indivisibility of security” new deal with global repercussions. That implies that whatever track these negotiations may follow further on down the road, they are an objective impossibility. Meanwhile, the proxy war in Ukraine – and the SMO – will go on. That would also suggest that the Moscow security establishment considers the neo-nazi instrumentalized goons in Kiev at best as a re-enactment of the 6th Army of Paulus, with which you negotiate the end of a battle, but not the end of the war. Even NATO semi-realists as retired Commodore Steven Jermy have been forced to admit that “Russia is in the driving seat” and clueless Europeans “appear to believe that the losers should dictate the terms of ceasefire or surrender.”

All the barking by the – European – chihuahuas of war cannot disguise the fundamental geopolitical/military fact: a massive NATO humiliation. Trump’s humongous problem is that he has to manage it – and sell it to domestic public opinion and the global public opinion as some sort of “deal” he struck with Putin. It’s enlightening once again to go back to Grandmaster Lavrov, always the uber-realist, back in September 2024: “In April 2022, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators reached agreement in Istanbul. If that agreement had been observed, Ukraine would have preserved part of Donbass. But every time another agreement, always accepted by Russia, is broken, Ukraine shrinks in size.”

Now back to the (Great) Game. Kiev negotiators eventually admitting Ukrainian capitulation means a NATO capitulation and an Empire of Chaos capitulation. That’s the ultimate anathema for the US ruling classes. Even an ultra-negotiated, carefully managed Ukrainian surrender will be an impossible sell – not to mention Washington under Narcissus Drowned Trump acknowledging a strategic defeat.

Because that will mean the Empire of Chaos losing Eurasia for good: the ultimate Mackinder/Brzezinski nightmare. Coupled with the consequential solidification of the multi-nodal, multipolar world. The Russia-China stategic partnership is very much aware of every nook and cranny in this larger-than-life process. Beyond the current Turkish kabuki, they clearly understand the Big Eurasia Equation. Beijing is fully aware NATO’s real goal was always to confront it via Russia. Ukraine was NATO’s pawn to take down Russia then get to China from the West. The goal of the US ruling elites as they configured their thalassocratic empire remains to blockade China from the West by land and sea, using Russia; then use Taiwan as a staging area to blockade China from the East by sea. No wonder control of Taiwan is a Chinese strategic imperative.

Enter Mackinder panic – all over again: the China-Russia strategic partnership can beat NATO hands down – and Russia, by itself, is already doing it. Xi and Putin once again discussed the chessboard in detail, in person, prior to the Victory Day parade last week in Moscow. The endgame, once again, is clear: the US losing the entire Eurasian land mass. Ukraine, under these immense geopolitical imperatives, is only a sovereign-deprived pawn in the (Great) Game. As for the tantrum-addicted clown in Kiev, he is merely an actor with no authority whatsoever, negotiations included. He is completely dominated by Ukrainian neo-Nazis who will kill him if and when the war is over. He merely fronts for them and gets paid off. And that’s why – enthusiastically supported by inconsequential London, Paris and Berlin – he’s obsessed to continue a Forever War destroying the very nation he claims to represent.

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“This Istanbul meeting has taken place because of Moscow’s initiative, not that of the West or Ukraine. It was Putin who, on May 11, suggested, in essence, two things: First to start direct talks without preconditions. And second – this is the part everyone in the West pretends to miss – to do so by re-starting talks where “they were held earlier and where they were interrupted.” That was, of course, a clear reference to the Istanbul negotiations in the spring of 2022.”

“Putin’s offer of re-starting the Istanbul talks amounted to a second chance for a Kiev regime that – judging by its atrocious record of sacrificing Ukraine to brutal Western geopolitics – it certainly does not deserve. But ordinary Ukrainians do.”

Istanbul Talks 2.0 Are A Great Chance For Zelensky To Accept Reality (Amar)

Despite Ukraine’s and the EU’s worst efforts at underhanded sabotage, the Istanbul talks – the first direct Russian-Ukrainian talks in three years – have now taken place. They may be over for now, they may continue soon. They may still turn into a dead end or they may help get somewhere better than war. What is clear already is that they are not meaningless. The question is what that meaning will be once we look back on them from the near future of either peace or continuing war. The leader of the Russian team in Istanbul, Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky, cautiously praised the two-hour talks as satisfying “overall.” A substantial prisoner exchange has been agreed (but not in the “all-for-all” format Ukraine unrealistically called for). Ukraine’s request for a meeting between its superannuated leader Vladimir Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin has been made – this time apparently in a serious and diplomatic manner – and the Russian side has taken cognizance of it. Both sides have agreed to detail their vision of a potential future ceasefire and then to meet again.

This is much better than nothing. It’s also not a miracle breakthrough. But those expecting or even demanding the latter only have themselves to blame. That sort of thing was never in the cards. And that’s normal. For diplomacy, especially to end a war, is a complex activity for patient adults, by definition. It is also historically normal that such negotiations take place while fighting is still ongoing. It is silly and simply dishonest to pretend – as do Ukraine, its obstinate European backers, and sometimes (now depending on the mood on any given day) the US – that negotiations can only happen with a ceasefire in place. Medinsky has pointed out this basic fact in an important interview on Russia’s most watched political talk show. Westerners should pay attention. Because he’s right and, perhaps even more importantly, it’s yet another clear signal from Moscow that it will not walk into the simple-minded Western-Ukrainian trap of a ceasefire without at least a very clear path to a full peace.

Indeed, Medinsky referenced the Great Northern War of 1700-1721 to illustrate that Russia will fight as long as it takes. And that it’s a very bad idea not to take a comparatively good deal from Moscow when you are offered one, because the next one will be worse. Zelensky has already done this to his own country once or even twice (depending on how you count). During these second-chance Istanbul talks, an unnamed Russian representative warned Ukraine that if it misses this opportunity again, then the next one will involve additional territorial losses, again, as Russian TV reported. But let’s zoom out for a moment: There is a very simple thing about the current talks between Russia and Ukraine that virtually everyone in Western mainstream media and politics apparently cannot process. So let’s clarify the obvious: This Istanbul meeting has taken place because of Moscow’s initiative, not that of the West or Ukraine.

It was Putin who, on May 11, suggested, in essence, two things: First to start direct talks without preconditions. And second – this is the part everyone in the West pretends to miss – to do so by re-starting talks where “they were held earlier and where they were interrupted.” That was, of course, a clear reference to the Istanbul negotiations in the spring of 2022.As intelligent observers suspected immediately, these first Istanbul talks ended without results because the West instructed the Kiev regime to keep fighting. This is not a matter of opinion anymore. The evidence is in and unambiguous. Even the head of Ukraine’s 2022 negotiating team, David Arakhamia, has long publicly admitted two things: First, that Russia was offering Kiev a very advantageous deal back then, demanding no more than neutrality and an end to unrealistic NATO ambitions; everything else, to quote Arakhamia, was merely “cosmetic political seasoning.”

And second, that it was indeed the West that told Zelensky to bet on more war instead. And to his eternal shame, Zelensky chose to betray his country by obeying the West. That means – like it or not – that Putin’s offer of re-starting the Istanbul talks amounted to a second chance for a Kiev regime that – judging by its atrocious record of sacrificing Ukraine to brutal Western geopolitics – it certainly does not deserve. But ordinary Ukrainians do. Regarding Zelensky, he should have been elated and grateful to get a chance to, if not make up for his horrific decision in 2022 (that’s impossible), at least to finally correct it. But Zelensky has remained Zelensky. His response to the Russian offer was – as so often – stunningly narcissistic, megalomanic, and dishonest. Instead of seizing the chance for his country and himself, Zelensky started a transparent maneuver to put Russia in the wrong so as to impress, above all, US president Donald Trump.

Western politicians and mainstream media, meanwhile, spent tankerloads of venom on denouncing Moscow and Putin, accusing them of sabotaging the talks – which, again, Russia actually initiated – in, allegedly, two ways: by Putin not attending in person and by, as they claim, sending only a “low-level” team instead. These Western information war talking points have been so ubiquitous that it feels – once again – as if everyone is copying from the same, daft memo. Take the Bloomberg version, for instance. It can stand for all the others. Bloomberg is right about one thing: The composition of the Russian delegation – while by no means “low-ranking,” actually – was bound to “fall far short” of Kiev’s expectations. But that was the result not of Moscow’s decisions, but of Kiev’s inflated expectations and the way Zelensky tried to realize them. Once Zelensky had, in essence, made a public ultimatum out of his baseless demand that Putin attend in person, it was, obviously, extremely unlikely to happen.

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Not much left to gain. Europe is Swiss cheese.

What Does Russia Have To Gain From The EU Now? (Bordachev)

When Russian President Vladimir Putin recently remarked that Russia and Western Europe would “sooner or later” restore constructive relations, it was less a statement of policy than a reminder of historical inevitability. For now, there are no signs of readiness on the part of the EU. But history is full of unexpected reversals, and diplomacy has always required patience. Still, when that moment comes, Russia will have to ask a hard question: what, exactly, does it have to gain from Western Europe? At present, the answer appears to be very little. EU leaders behave as though Russia remains the same country they remember from the 1990s – isolated, weakened, and desperate to be heard. That world is gone. Today’s Russia neither needs Western European approval nor fears its condemnation.

And yet EU officials continue speaking in tones of paternalism and ultimatums, as if they still believe they represent something decisive on the world stage. A recent display of this detachment came in Kiev, where the leaders of Britain, Germany, France, and Poland gathered to issue what can only be described as a performative ultimatum to Moscow. The content was irrelevant; it was the posture that was telling. One could only wonder: who, exactly, do they believe is listening? Certainly not Russia, and increasingly, not the rest of the world either. Western Europe today poses no independent threat to Russia. It lacks both military capability and economic leverage. Its real danger lies not in strength but in weakness: the possibility that its provocations could drag others into crises it cannot control. Its influence has diminished, and it has largely burned the bridges that once made cooperation costly for Russia.

The West’s cold war fantasies are now detached from the material realities of global power. The EU elite’s fundamental miscalculation is assuming that Russia still views the western part of the continent as a model to emulate. But today’s Russia has little reason to aspire to European institutions, politics, or economic design. Indeed, in areas such as digital governance and public administration, Russia is ahead. Western European efforts to “modernize” Russia through consulting and institutional outreach have long since lost relevance. EU stagnation is not just political but also technological. Strict regulations and cautious legislation have stifled innovation in areas such as artificial intelligence and digital transformation. In fields where other European nations could once have partnered with Russia, different global actors have already stepped in.

The reality is that Western Europe has little to offer that Russia cannot obtain elsewhere. In education, too, Western Europe’s attraction has faded. Its academic institutions increasingly serve as conduits for intellectual siphoning, rather than genuine exchange. What was once a strength is now perceived as an instrument of cultural dilution. To be clear, Russia is not rejecting diplomacy with other European powers. But such diplomacy must be grounded in mutual benefit – and right now, Western Europe offers little. The real tragedy is that many European leaders were raised in a post-Cold War world that taught them they would never face consequences. That arrogance has calcified into a kind of strategic illiteracy. Figures like Emmanuel Macron and Britain’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer, exemplify this reality: performative, insulated, and disconnected from the costs of their decisions.

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“We can see now though that this idea of the tail wagging the dog, even if once it might have been true to some extent, has now been dealt with head on by Trump.”

Trump’s Middle East Theatricals Were All About Putting Bibi In His Place (Jay)

Was it Bill Clinton in the White House with Benjamin Netanyahu who, in a press conference, muttered those vulgar and certainly immortal words “who’s the f*** superpower around here?” The question was really about whether the U.S. is running Israel and its activities in the Middle East or it is in fact Israel which is running the U.S. In recent months in both the Biden administration and the Trump one which followed, many pundits have claimed that Israel is in control of U.S. foreign policy, with some even going as far as speculating that this control even goes beyond the Middle East itself. This cabal of online commentators made so much of how Trump adjusted Bibi’s seat when he sat down in the Oval Office. We can see now though that this idea of the tail wagging the dog, even if once it might have been true to some extent, has now been dealt with head on by Trump.

His visit to the Middle East and his impressive speech in Saudi Arabia which mocked the bellicose approach to bombing civilians was a direct message to Netanyahu in Israel: America is back. Trump is literally taking control of U.S. foreign policy in the region and pushing back Israel’s attempts to bomb its way to peace, whether this be in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria or, of course, in Iran. The move comes at a tough time in the region where the country which seemed to bring about a revolution with the Arab Spring – Tunisia – is falling into an abys as it becomes a leading example of a dictatorship which knows no limits on its brutal suppression. For Netanyahu, a number of pundits now are pointing to the “clear light” between Trump and him with some claiming that these two leaders aren’t even talking anymore. Trump defied him by talking to Iran, negotiating with the Houthis and now scrapping sanctions in Syria.

Israel cannot even dream of attacking Iran with the U.S. help and so a big part of Netanyahu’s mojo has been removed. And now Trump is calling the shots on aid to Gaza, but stopped short of calling for the Palestinians to have their own state. Yet his move on Syria is telling. Israel’s plans were always to have head-chopping extremists running the show – which they backed in the Syria civil war – with a constant mayhem present so that they can always take advantage of the chaos while ensuring that the path which once stood between Tehran and Beirut is always blocked. Trump’s announcement that all sanctions will be lifted will not be welcomed by Bibi who will see the move as a stunt by the Donald to demonstrate who is running the show, although the announcement itself might prove to be premature.

Senator Lindsey Graham states only Congress can change the country’s designation as a “state sponsor of terror” and that Trump must make his case to Congress for that to happen. “That report has not been received, and Congress has the opportunity to review this action if it chooses. The designation of Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism has tremendous ramifications apart from the sanctions,” Graham stated. The senator stated that he is sure that Congress must be informed before sanctions are lifted, and the legislative body would then “make an informed decision on whether or not it should approve the change in designation.” But he also stated that Israel’s opinion matters and that Congress would consult Netanyahu so it’s fair to say that Syria’s fate is still yet to be decided regardless of whatever Trump has said at the podium in Riyadh.

It would appear that Bibi and Trump are set to clash now and we shouldn’t be surprised at what resources Trump will deploy to show Israel’s leader that Trump is both serious about peace in the region but also that Israel must put aside its warmongering – which may well include even supporting a two-state solution, pushed more recently by France and the UK. And then we will see who is the f*** super power and who is the client state. Almost certainly the fate of Syria and Gaza will be used as a rod for Bibi’s back until he succumbs to Trump’s rule.

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There’s not enough time to do the negotiations with 100+ nations properly.

Trump Just Made a Huge Move on Tariffs (Margolis)

President Donald Trump demonstrated once again why he’s the master of the art of the deal. During his trip to the Middle East, Trump made it clear that countries dragging their feet on trade negotiations are about to face the music. So far, the trade negotiations are going well, and the economic apocalypse that Democrats claimed was going to happen hasn’t. It’s nothing new for Democrats to be wrong, and while they’re still harboring delusions that Trump is going to kill the economy, his latest move is likely to send them into a tailspin. Trump isn’t playing around. With over 150 countries clamoring to make deals with the United States, the president announced that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick will be sending letters to these nations in the coming weeks, essentially telling them that tariffs might rise again soon.

“We have, at the same time, 150 countries that want to make a deal, but you’re not able to see that many countries,” Trump said in Abu Dhabi on Friday. “So at a certain point, over the next two to three weeks, I think Scott and Howard will be sending letters out, essentially telling people — we’ll be very fair — but we’ll be telling people what they’ll be paying to do business in the United States.” CNN has more. “Trump on April 9 paused his massive so-called reciprocal tariffs, which he announced on what he called “Liberation Day” on April 2. The reprieve was supposed to be for 90 days, to allow countries to negotiate with the administration. Trump officials have said around 100 countries have offered to negotiate deals, setting a tremendously difficult task before US trade negotiators to race against the clock to make new commitments.

Without those negotiated deals, Trump could impose reciprocal tariffs – some of which are as high as 50%. The tariffs aren’t technically reciprocal, and many smaller countries with large trade gaps with the United States would end up with significant tariff burdens. “I guess you could say they could appeal it, but for the most part I think we’re going to be very fair, but it’s not possible to meet the number of people that want to see us,” Trump said.” And the results are already rolling in. The United Kingdom, showing remarkable foresight, quickly secured a deal that limits its tariffs to just 10%, the first formal agreement since Trump’s “Liberation Day” announcement in early April. That’s what happens when you negotiate in good faith with the Trump administration. But perhaps the most significant development is happening with China. The communist regime, which initially tried to play hardball, is now singing a different tune.

According to Trump, they “wanted to make that deal very badly.” Both nations have temporarily suspended tariffs that had reached a staggering 100%, with a 90-day window to hammer out a permanent agreement. This is exactly why the American people elected Trump to a second term. He understands that the only way to fix decades of terrible trade deals is to negotiate from a position of strength. The administration’s approach is that countries should either come to the table ready to deal fairly or face the consequences. The liberal media might wring its hands about trade wars, but Trump is proving once again that his approach works. With 150 countries practically begging to negotiate, it’s obvious who holds the cards. As these next few weeks unfold, we’re about to see which nations understand the new reality of trading with America and which ones need to learn the hard way. That’s what real leadership looks like.

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“..[that] [the Republicans] had always been “war and peace,” that Trump had changed it to “peace and war.”

Scott Jennings, Bill Maher Light It Up on Trump’s Powerful Speech (Arama)

President Donald Trump gave a stirring speech in Saudi Arabia this week of what might be termed an outline of the “Trump Doctrine,” a revival of peace through strength, but recognizing that you don’t always have to be interventionist.

“Before our eyes, a new generation of leaders is transcending the ancient conflicts and tired divisions of the past and forging a future where the Middle East is defined by commerce, not chaos,” the president said, “where it exports technology, not terrorism; and where people of different nations, religions, and creeds are building cities together, not bombing each other out of existence — we don’t want that.” He skewered those who failed, saying that, “in the end, the so-called ‘nation builders’ wrecked far more nations than they built, and the interventionalists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves. They told you how to do it, but they had no idea how to do it themselves.”

In that, you can see how ridiculous the “dictator” talk about Trump is. He’s the man of the Abraham Accords, who brought more peace in the Middle East, who’s trying even now to bring peace to Ukraine. But he’s also the guy who will act with strength and take out people who attack us; he will put America first. How unique was that speech? Even Bill Maher thought it was a radically different take, on HBO’s “Real Time” show on Friday, which included guest Scott Jennings.

Jennings then went on to say how we [the Republicans] had always been “war and peace,” that Trump had changed it to “peace and war.” “He talks about peace more than he talks about war. He’s still hawkish enough to bomb people who need to be bombed like the Houthi rebels,” Jennings said. He’s “Peace through Strength,” like Reagan. Jennings continued, “Putting peace ahead of war is pretty popular with the American people.” That got big applause from Maher’s audience, which Jennings termed a seismic shift. It’s not just foreign policy where Trump is bringing transformative change in policy, bringing the government back to reality and more in touch. You can also see it by moving the FBI out of its ivory tower in D.C. and to middle America. Jennings spoke about breaking up that D.C. concentration to put the workers into the middle of the country, so they would have a “better understanding”:

https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1923626513221537931?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1923626513221537931%7Ctwgr%5E6c720826bbbde35fc82cd8b4a40e023c7f52a9ce%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fredstate.com%2Fnick-arama%2F2025%2F05%2F17%2Fscott-jennings-and-bill-maher-talk-trumps-powerful-speech-transformative-change-hes-bringing-n2189210

That also got a lot of cheers. Peace through strength, and getting more in touch with what Americans want. It’s hard to argue with that as a doctrine. Team Trump has been thinking outside the box, and it’s refreshing after four years of Biden malaise.

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“..Moody’s “would not have stayed silent as the fiscal disaster of the past four years unfolded” if the agency “had any credibility.”

The timing is curious. Is this the worst situation in 108 years?! Or has Moody’s gone TDS woke?

Moody’s Delivers First US Credit Rating Downgrade Since 1917 (RT)

Moody’s has stripped the US of its perfect triple-A credit rating, citing increasing concerns over debt affordability. The rating agency had held the country’s sovereign credit rating at the highest possible level since 1917. The move brings the 116-year-old agency into line with its global rivals. Fitch Ratings downgraded the US rating to AA+ from AAA in August 2023, and Standard & Poor’s cut it to AA+ from AAA in August 2011. The reduction to Aa1 “reflects the increase over more than a decade in government debt and interest payment ratios to levels that are significantly higher than similarly rated sovereigns,” Moody’s said in a statement released on Friday.The agency noted that successive US administrations and Congress have failed to reach an agreement on measures to reverse the pattern of large annual fiscal deficits and rising interest costs.

Moody’s stated, however, that the US retains exceptional credit strengths, citing its size, resilience, dynamism, and the role of the dollar as the global reserve currency. Earlier this month, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned about the possibility of a default as soon as August, calling for either raising or suspending the debt ceiling – a statutory limit on how much the federal government can borrow – to avoid running out of money to cover federal expenses. The US reached its ceiling of $36.1 trillion in January. Once the limit is hit, the government is legally barred from borrowing further to meet its obligations. The total federal debt has climbed to $36.2 trillion, according to official figures.

The Treasury has avoided default by using so-called “extraordinary measures” – mainly accounting maneuvers such as suspending contributions to federal employee retirement funds – to keep up with its financial commitments. Under former President Joe Biden, the debt ceiling was raised three times. The current president, Donald Trump, has argued that the cap should be eliminated entirely, calling it pointless if it’s routinely lifted. He has argued that the concept of a debt ceiling “doesn’t mean anything, except psychologically.” Commenting on the rating downgrade, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said on Friday that Moody’s “would not have stayed silent as the fiscal disaster of the past four years unfolded” if the agency “had any credibility.” He also claimed that the Trump administration is currently dealing with the “mess” left by the previous administration.

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‘sundance’ deep dive.

Biden’s DOJ – Merrick Garland was AG In Name Only for a Specific Reason (CTH)

There has been a lot of discussion about who was running the Biden administration against the backdrop of numerous revelations about his cognitive incapacity while in office. However, one key point keeps being overlooked about the DOJ during his tenure. Merrick Garland was not selected to be Joe Biden’s Attorney General because the crew in control of the events wanted Merrick Garland as Attorney General. Garland was removed from his position as DC Circuit Court Justice in order to make room for Ketanji Brown-Jackson to take Garland’s place, get Senate confirmed and then await the resignation of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Bryer. {GO DEEP} As a standalone Supreme Court nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown-Jackson would have been a radical pick.

Judge Brown-Jackson was a known activist in the DC District Court; however, by removing Garland as chief circuit justice and replacing him with KBJ, who needed Senate confirmation as chief circuit justice, she could get through a later Senate confirmation easier and then sit on the Supreme Court for thirty years. Garland was removed to make room for KBJ. It was a strategy. Garland was a U.S. Attorney General in name only. The actual lead of the DOJ was from Obama’s crew, Deputy AG Lisa Monaco. WHY? Back in 2009 President Obama selected Eric Holder to be Attorney General. AG Holder’s role was to lead the Lawfare ‘fundamental transformation’ we have seen in the 16 years since. In the 2010 midterms, Obama was “shellacked,” that triggered AG Holder to ask the Treasury Department to participate in a “special research project.” {Go Deep}

The IRS was asked for the Schedule-B’s of groups who were registered as “patriot” groups (Tea Party Patriots) and other names associated with the political uprising against Barack Obama and the takeover of federal healthcare, ie Obamacare. The Cincinnati field office of the IRS then sent the DOJ a batch of CD-ROM’s containing the names of the individual donors listed on the IRS 501-c (3)(4) forms. That list was then compiled and used by the federal government to target the donors and supporters. A whistleblower came forward; the IRS controversy swirled in 2012. On September 25, 2014, the Justice Department said Attorney General Eric Holder would resign as soon as his successor is confirmed. Holder was succeeded by Loretta Lynch on April 27, 2015. Lynch was selected because she was the bridge to Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016. Remember the Bill Clinton and Loretta Lynch tarmac meeting? It’s all connected. [Sidebar – the reporter who broke the story of the Arizona Clinton/Lynch tarmac meeting later died from “suicide.”]

Summary so far: Obama appointed Holder to lead and create the weaponized Lawfare transition within Main Justice. Eric Holder did just that, and also created the DOJ-National Security Division (to use FARA investigations against DC operatives as leverage). Holder then left the DOJ, took the special research project data, and went to work in California. Loretta Lynch was then appointed as the transitional AG between Obama and Hillary Clinton. That was the plan. The DOJ/FBI would protect Clinton’s interests, and that’s exactly what they did in 2015 and 2016. Eric Holder was then hired by the State of California right after the surprising and unexpected election result of 2016. Eric Holder then began constructing the BETA test for what was to come later. Eric Holder organized the motor-voter rolls in California to auto-register illegal alien voters. The California legislature passed a law permitting illegal aliens to get drivers licenses.

Eric Holder’s program linked those drivers licenses automatically to voter registration. Do you remember the 2018 mid-term election in California? For weeks after 2018 election day in California, the new process of mail-in ballots changed the entire election day outcome. California was the BETA test for the national 2020 mail-in ballot fraud system. It all links back to the California ballot and illegal alien voter registration operation carried out by Eric Holder. Eric Holder was Obama’s weaponized Attorney General (2009-2015). Loretta Lynch was the Attorney General in place to facilitate the transition to Hillary Clinton (2015-2016). Merrick Garland was Biden’s Attorney General (2021) to pave the way for Ketanji Brown-Jackson to be a U.S. Supreme Court Justice (2022). Lisa Monaco was the person running the day-to-day DOJ operations (2021-2025). KBJ was put into the planning book back in February 2020, yes, 2020!

It was February 25th, 2020, to be precise, just four days before the South Carolina Democrat primary. South Carolina Representative James Clyburn went backstage at the presidential debate and told Biden, “You’ve had a couple of opportunities to mention naming a Black woman to the Supreme Court,” Clyburn lectured his friend of nearly half a century, like a schoolteacher scolding a child. “I’m telling you, don’t you leave the stage tonight without making it known that you will do that.” {link} Unbeknownst to Biden at the time, just two days earlier Barack Obama and James Clyburn came to an agreement and created the most consequential alliance of the 2020 Democrat campaign. Barack Obama the figurative and ideological leader of the movement known as “Black Lives Matter”, and James Clyburn the figurative and ideological leader of the political construct within the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) church, had struck a deal.

Obama and Clyburn really had no choice but to come to an agreement and form the alliance. If they did not act fast, Bernie Sanders was gaining momentum, and they could not have Sanders at the top of the 2020 ticket, because he was too outside the club system which was now almost exclusively focused on racial identity as a tool for political power. A Bernie Sanders -vs- Donald Trump general election would have been a disaster; and it would be almost impossible for the racial operatives in the key precincts [Atlanta (GA), Philly (PA), Clark County (NV), Wayne County (Mich), Madison (WI)] to feel inspired enough to risk themselves and commit fraud to help Bernie win.To get rid of Sanders, BLM and AME aligned. This was the actual moment when Hillary Clinton was cast into the pit of irrelevance in Democrat politics. Within the agreement, Obama and Clyburn selected Biden as the tool they could easily control to deliver on their larger, progressive, leftist intentions.

A few days later, James Clyburn then endorsed Biden while Barack Obama began making phone calls telling each of the other candidates to drop out in sequence and support Biden or else the club would destroy them. The only one told not to drop out yet was Elizabeth Warren, as she would be needed as the insurance policy, the splitter against Bernie Sanders. Each of the candidates was promised the traditional indulgences for toeing the party line, and the rest is history. Joe Biden wandered around doing what everyone told him to do, which was mostly stay in his basement and let the club work on his behalf, until the club delivered the nomination. Inside that process, the strategic map was modified to ensure Ketanji Brown-Jackson would advance to the Supreme Court.

With Biden installed, he would select Merrick Garland as his Attorney General. Judge Garland was an important judge on the important DC Circuit Court. Garland’s replacement would need to be a Senate confirmed seat for that Circuit Court assignment. Brown-Jackson would be put into Garland’s open spot, and the Senate could not deny her the SCOTUS confirmation, having just confirmed her months before. {Go Deep} It was always the team around -and including- Barack Obama operating in the background of Biden.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Schneider
https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1923214689124876687

Cole

Yeadon

https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/1923525533159027176

Lipstick
https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1923699988049072173

Paint
https://twitter.com/RobSchneider/status/1923423415182008704

Elk

Hammer

Rap1946

Cliff

 

 

 

 

Support the Automatic Earth in wartime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.

 

 

 

 

 

May 172025
 


Marc Chagall The painter to the moon 1917

 

Secretary Rubio Begins the Process for a Trump and Putin Summit (CTH)
Rubio and Trump: This Is the ‘Only Way’ to End the War in Ukraine (PJM)
Trump Still Pressing Forward On Meeting Putin ‘As Soon As We Can’ (ZH)
Trump Quips, ‘I Should’ve Asked For More’ After Securing $2T, Qatar jet (NYP)
Tulsi Gabbard Calls for Jailing Comey (Victoria Taft)
What’s Next for James Comey in Secret Service Investigation (Susan Crabtree)
Cool? (James Howard Kunstler)
Ukraine Conflict Could Have Ended In Weeks – Russia’s Top Negotiator (RT)
Trump Says Zelensky ‘Pissed Away’ Ukraine Aid (NYP)
Trump Threatens Russia With ‘Crushing’ Sanctions (RT)
Russia Hits Out At British PM (RT)
Trump Bashes Supreme Court For Blocking Use of Alien Enemies Act (Allen)
The Real First 100 Days (Victor Davis Hanson)
Conservative Holdouts Vote Down ONE, BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL (ZH)
Biden/Hur Tapes Released: Question is, Who Was Running the Country? (CTH)
The NY Times Runs Video of Yale Professors Fleeing to Canada (Turley)
Rickards to Bannon: Petrodollar 2.0 Is Coming (DR)

 

 

8647 days
https://twitter.com/tehterminator/status/1923218132992393269

 

 

Trump Qatar
https://twitter.com/iAnonPatriot/status/1923369862082048228

Oren Cass

Chemtrails

We didn’t say five. We said eight.

Qatar deal
https://twitter.com/KAGdrogo/status/1923442698888892824

 

 

 

 

“There’s quite literally almost no place on the planet where President Trump and Vladimir Putin could meet without hearing the drumbeat of opposition against their assembly. Almost….”

“Keep in mind that President Trump has been speaking to Vladimir Putin directly via phone, and consequentially through his emissary Steven Witkoff. Vladimir Putin has been speaking to President Trump through the same channel.”

Secretary Rubio Begins the Process for a Trump and Putin Summit (CTH)

A meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin brings with it the focus of the entire world. For a myriad of geopolitical reasons both domestically and abroad, there are ‘trillion-dollar’ interests who want to keep them apart. Earlier today, fearing that President Trump might actually travel to Turkey, NATO Secretary Mark Rutte and Senator Lindsey Graham quickly arranged dispatch to intercept and participate. The global intelligence apparatus wants to keep Trump and Putin apart, so too does the NATO alliance, the CIA, the U.K and every other influence agent in partial control of the USA proxy war against Russia using Ukraine.

A decade of carefully scripted narratives against President Trump and any forward leaning Russian foreign policy sits in the background, with an almost incalculable number of opposition elements aligned against President Trump forming any positive USA-Russia relationship. There’s quite literally almost no place on the planet where President Trump and Vladimir Putin could meet without hearing the drumbeat of opposition against their assembly. Almost….

For President Trump and Vladimir Putin to join in strategic interest is to disrupt the global order of things, and I do mean everything. The military industrial complex, the global banking system, the World Economic Forum assembly, the multinational stock markets, the world trade system, the entire European continent, Asian continent, Australian continent, African continent and North American continent, as well as every conflict therein, could be impacted by joint decisions between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. To say the stakes are high, would be to understate the scale of the dynamic.

In this interview, Secretary of State Marco Rubio seems to nurture the seeds placed by President Trump in his earlier remarks about sitting down with Vladimir Putin to hammer out the details of a ceasefire agreement between Ukraine and Russia. The entire world pretends not to know that all of the military engagement within Ukraine and around Ukraine, is essentially a proxy war between the USA and Russia. A potential meeting between President Trump and Vladimir Putin destroys that framework. This is heavy stuff. WATCH:

Keep in mind that President Trump has been speaking to Vladimir Putin directly via phone, and consequentially through his emissary Steven Witkoff. Vladimir Putin has been speaking to President Trump through the same channel. A face-to-face meeting was always going to happen, the only part of the dynamic we were awaiting was how the two presidents were going to coordinate the meeting of consequence, and how would President Trump ditch the U.S. control elements.

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“..we could spend it instead on creating wealth and prosperity and human development. Obviously, that’s not the way the world works, but that’s what he hopes we can achieve.”

Rubio and Trump: This Is the ‘Only Way’ to End the War in Ukraine (PJM)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been traveling with Donald Trump to the Middle East this week. He’s currently in Turkey, working to build a stronger NATO by pushing for increased defense spending and fairer burden sharing, among other things. On Friday, he met with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Ukrainian Presidential Administration Head Andriy Yermak. There have been some rumors that Vladimir Putin himself would show up in Turkey to meet with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky this week, but in the end, Putin declined. Both Rubio and Trump now believe there is only one way to get the two leaders together and end the war once and for all.

On Thursday night, Rubio explained the situation to Sean Hannity on Fox News who asked about the situation: “And you also went into detail – there had been some hope, maybe, in the background – was never any full commitment – that Vladimir Putin might show up at this and have a meeting with Zelensky. And then you were pretty clear today that you believe if that’s going to happen, it would take Donald Trump sitting down with Vladimir Putin. What exactly did you mean by that?” Rubio went on to explain that he believes the only way the Russia-Ukraine War will finally come to an end is if Trump and Putin sit down at a table together, face-to-face, and talk.

“Yeah, it’s my assessment and I think it’s the President’s assessment. By the way, I think he said publicly today that the only way we’re going to have a breakthrough here – nothing is going to happen at this point – given everything we know, after months of working on this, nothing is going to happen until President Trump sits across the table from Vladimir Putin and puts it on the line and puts it on the table. I think that’s the only chance we have at peace at this point given everything we’ve seen over the last few weeks. There’s been talks, there’s been negotiations, there’s been trips and meetings. But in the end, I think we’ve reached the conclusion, and rightfully so, as the President has, that the only way this is going to happen – if it has a chance to happen, the only way it happens is – is the President directly engages with Vladimir Putin. So I don’t know what the date or the place of that is yet, but that’s really the only chance at this point. And I think there are a lot of countries here that would privately share that assessment as well.”

On Friday, Trump echoed the sentiment, telling reporters in Abu Dhabi that he’s ready for the meeting “as soon as we can set it up,” adding, “I think it’s time for us to just do it.” Trump also asserted on Thursday that the reason Putin refused to meet in Turkey this week is that Trump himself wasn’t there. “Nothing is going to happen until Putin and I get together,” he said. Rubio has made it clear in recent weeks that this war will require a diplomatic solution, and as we’ve seen over the last week in the Middle East (with apologies to Rubio), there may be no better diplomat in the world than Donald Trump right now. Rubio, who called the president a “lover of peace,” seems to agree. He told Hannity:

” I think the President the other night or the other day in Saudi Arabia gave perhaps one of the most impressive speeches of his presidency and one of the most meaningful speeches by an American president overseas in decades. And in it, one of the things he talks about is how he wants to see more building and less bombing. In essence, he wants to see us building things up, not destroying things. The President, frankly, is a lover of peace. He… wants to stop wars and prevent wars and end wars. That’s what the President endeavors to do. In fact, he openly has said – and he said it in the speech – that he wishes we didn’t have to spend all this money on the military; we could spend it instead on creating wealth and prosperity and human development. Obviously, that’s not the way the world works, but that’s what he hopes we can achieve. And that’s what he’s trying to achieve here. That’s it.”

I was just asked a question by the media here about this a few minutes ago, and I said I still don’t understand why some would be critical of the President – they should be happy that the President of the most powerful nation on earth is a peacemaker who seeks to prevent wars, seeks to end wars, and seeks to stop existing wars. I think this is something we should be very proud of, that we have a President that seeks peace, seeks the end of death and destruction – in this case, in the Russia-Ukraine war which has gone on far too long, destroyed thousands and thousands of lives, and really is going to cost billions of dollars to rebuild from. ”

Meanwhile, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin also stated on Friday that Pope Leo XIV plans to offer up the Vatican as a place where Putin and Zelensky can sit down and talk. Parolin also said the fact that Putin failed to show up in Turkey this week is “tragic because we hoped that a process could be started, perhaps slow but with a peaceful solution to the conflict, and instead we are back at the beginning.” I’m not sure if that invitation would extend to Trump as well, but I hope it does. The more I hear Trump and Rubio talk, the more it sounds like a resolution to the war could be imminent.

Read more …

On Putin’s absence for the meeting, which was to be expected, Trump described, “He didn’t go, and I understand that..”

Trump Still Pressing Forward On Meeting Putin ‘As Soon As We Can’ (ZH)

President Donald Trump said Friday as he wrapped up his four-day visit to the Middle East that the White House is still moving forward on setting up direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and that this will happen as soon as possible.”I think it’s time for us to just do it,” Trump told reporters, addressing whether an in-person meeting will still happen. He added that a meeting with Putin will happen “as soon as we can set it up”. He suggested that peace will ultimately only be possible if the two leaders sit at the same table. That’s when he said, interestingly that “I would actually leave here and go” – an apparent reference to Istanbul where rare Russia-Ukraine talks are being held Friday. But he referenced his daughter Tiffany having given birth to her first child. “I do want to see my beautiful grandson,” he said.

“I don’t believe anything’s going to happen whether you like it or not, until he and I get together,” Trump said further, in reference to his Russian counterpart. “But we’re going to have to get it solved because too many people are dying.” As we reported earlier, there are no signs of any breakthrough toward peace coming from the Istanbul meeting, which lasted less than two-hours; however, each side is signaling that it could lead to more talks. On Putin’s absence for the meeting, which was to be expected, Trump described, “He didn’t go, and I understand that,” and that “We’re going to get it done. We got to get it done. Five thousand young people are being killed every single week on average, and we’re going to get it done.”But Ukraine is now trying to make the case that Putin was never interested in peace talks, and is using the process to string Washington along as its forces try to solidify greater hold over Ukraine’s east.

https://twitter.com/Breaking911/status/1923095289654591909?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1923095289654591909%7Ctwgr%5E19687c7f83734018079e2cfa88339f0e2e9f86dd%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Ftrump-still-pressing-forward-meeting-putin-soon-we-can

One Amsterdam-based publication and Russia monitor writes of the less than prominent man Putin tapped to head Russia’s delegation–Medinsky was joined by Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin, Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin and Igor Kostyukov, the head of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency. Experts have described Moscow’s revival of direct talks within the Istanbul framework as a symbolic gesture not intended to seek a real solution to the war. Meanwhile, Trump has said while en route back to the United States from the Middle East that he’ll likely phone Putin soon.

Trump later told reporters after boarding Air Force One to begin the journey back to Washington that he may call Putin soon. “He and I will meet, and I think we’ll solve it or maybe not,” Trump said. “At least we’ll know. And if we don’t solve it, it’ll be very interesting.” An actual Putin-Trump sit-down would be bad news for Kiev, which has seethed at being cut out of US-Russia bilateral engagement, given much of this engagement is related to the fate of Ukraine. With the minerals deal signed, Zelensky is attempting to reset the rocky relationship with Trump. A lot of pressure has been coming from the US administration, urging Kiev to be willing to negotiate peace, which would require some level of significant concessions.

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“They were being coaxed very strongly by China,” Trump continued. “That solves China’s fuel problems forever. “It wasn’t their preference, but they were on their way.”

Trump Quips, ‘I Should’ve Asked For More’ After Securing $2T, Qatar jet (NYP)

President Trump joked Friday that he regretted not asking “for more” from the Gulf states during his visit to the Middle East, where he secured more than $2 trillion in US investments and even scored a potential replacement for Air Force One. “There’s never been a trip like this by any president or anybody ever before,” Trump told Fox News’ “Special Report” host Bret Baier about his four days in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The president sealed deals throughout his Middle East swing, including a $600 billion investment commitment from Saudi Arabia, a $1.2 trillion economic exchange agreement and a $243.5 billion commercial and defense pact with Qatar and $200 billion in UAE commercial investment agreements. “I should’ve asked for more,” Trump said of the four-day windfall.

Ahead of his voyage — Trump’s first official foreign trip of his second term — the president was also gifted a luxuriously upgraded Boeing 747-8 worth an estimated $400 million from a member of Qatar’s royal family. Trump plans to use the so-called “flying palace” as a temporary replacement for the 40-year-old Air Force One planes currently in use after the Department of Defense makes the necessary upgrades to bring the jet up to presidential standards. The jet, currently parked in the US, was not presented to Trump by Qatar during the visit. The president has been critical of Boeing for being slow to deliver new Air Force One aircraft. “You know, until you bring this up now, I haven’t heard about it for three days,” Trump, sounding annoyed, told Baier when he brought up the jet. “I mean, we can talk about it again. You ready?”

“They’re giving it to the United States Air Force/Defense Department of the United States and not giving it to me,” the president asserted. “I made a good deal,” Trump continued. “We need a plane for a couple of years before we get the other ones, because Boeing is very late.” The president argued that previous administrations had not shown the Gulf states, which he described as “very important,” enough regard — pushing them closer to China. “It was never treated properly,” Trump said of the Middle East, “and it was certainly not treated well by Biden, who didn’t know he was alive, frankly.”

“He didn’t treat this group well,” the president continued, referring to former President Joe Biden’s handling of relations with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE. “They were being coaxed very strongly by China,” Trump continued. “That solves China’s fuel problems forever. “It wasn’t their preference, but they were on their way.” Trump was adamant that under his administration, close ties between the Gulf nations and China would not happen. “We’re closer to them than ever before,” the president said of US relations with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE as he wrapped up his trip.

Full interview

Read more …

Note: Comey has a new book to sell. He needs the publicity.

Tulsi Gabbard Calls for Jailing Comey (Victoria Taft)

Could the feds find an orange jumpsuit to fit a 6’7″ former FBI director? They may have to. FBI Director James Comey thought it would be great fun to post what appeared to be a death threat against the president of the United States, Donald Trump, on Instagram on Thursday. Federal law enforcement wasn’t laughing. It’s supposed to be bad form to issue death threats when a president is out of town. We suppose those days are over. Trump’s been overseas in Jihadi Kingdom, where one guy with C4, a vest, and ball bearings could change the course of history. The feds, however, take a dim view of death threats against a president who’s already been shot in one of three assassination plots.

The Secret Service, Trump family, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard don’t find the message to get rid of POTUS all that humorous. In fact, Gabbard is calling for the former FBI cirector to be arrested and jailed for his threat against President Trump. Yes, she said it. As I reported in “Did Former FBI Director James Comey Just Call for Trump To Be Murdered?” Comey posted on his Instagram page a collection of seashells spelling out “86 47.” Anyone above a certain IQ has heard the term 86—a call to get rid of someone—and knows that 47 refers to Trump 47. As I wrote, “The message was received loudly and clearly by the Trump family.” On Jesse Watters’ Fox News show Thursday evening, a usually serene Tulsi Gabbard showed a seldom seen anger while discussing how incredibly unfunny the former top U.S. lawman’s threat was. She also said that she wasn’t buying for one second Comey’s lame excuse that he didn’t know what it meant. Here’s how her conversation with Jesse Watters went. Read all her comments because there’s a surprise in there.

https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/1923180004738781466

“Gabbard: A guy who had a career out of prosecuting mobsters and gangsters; people who know and execute other humans and use this exact lingo of “86.” Comey himself admitted in his follow-on message that he knew this was a political statement. Well, the only reason he knew that, Jesse, is because a little over a month ago, a bunch of anti-Trump, anti-Elon Musk protesters were proliferating the use of this 86-47 slogan, which was a veiled call to action to murder the sitting president of the United States. So, for Comey to think, that we, the American people are so stupid as to think that as a former FBI Director, former prosecutor, and to someone who clearly pays attention to what’s going on would believe his lie that he didn’t know what this actually was calling for, the dangerousness of this, Jesse, cannot be underestimated when we have two assassination attempts on the president’s life.

When we have people who look to guys like Comey celebrated by MSNBC, the Democratic elite, CNN as the beacon of integrity, the law and order guy, the guy who tells the truth no matter what the consequences. This is the guy who is issuing a hit on President Trump, the president the American people voted for. So it’s guys like Comey and others to call the president the modern day Nazi, people who are in great positions of influence who are saying that President Trump poses an existential threat to our country. These are people who hate democracy and hate the American people and cannot stand that the people who overwhelmingly chose to elect Donald Trump and send him back to the White House, so they are seeking other means to get their way and to try to remove him from that position.

Watters: How serious is the administration taking this and what are the next steps going to be?

Gabbard: We’re taking this very seriously. As you mentioned, the Department of Homeland Security and specifically Sean Curran, the current Secret Service Director, the man who has been willing to lay down his life as the lead of President Trump’s Secret Service detail for years now, he takes this seriously and is leading the investigation into this threat. There has to be accountability for this. There was a Rutgers study that came out over a month ago, Jesse, that asked respondents their view on these calls to assassinate President Trump and over 55% of respondents felt that murdering Donald Trump would be quote, unquote somewhat justified. This is the effect of people like James Comey doing this kind of stuff. This study also pointed out that there is a quote unquote assassination culture that is starting to take over the views of what they call the extreme left. We, the American people, cannot take this lightly. Whatever your politics, we cannot allow people to get by without being held accountable for this kind of public call to assassinate the president of the United States.

Watters: Do you believe that Comey is goading you guys to come after him because he wants to be a political matyr; he wants to be set up so he can say, ‘Oh, you’re right! Donald Trump is a dictator. They’re coming after me. They’re arresting me. They’re interrogating me. I was just using my free speech.’

Gabbard: You know, whatever his intent, I will tell you that there’s a guy in Georgia issuing threats on my life about a month ago and he’s in jail today. He has been in indicted with a crime, as he should have been, and he is in jail as we speak. Whatever James Comey[‘s] intent, the rule of law is that people like him need to be held to account according to the law which is something he claims to have given his life for and stand by the rule of law. Fantastic. The rule of law says that people like him who issue direct threats against the president of the United States—essentially issuing a call to assassinate him— must be accountable under the law.

Watters: Do you think he should be in jail?

Gabbard: I do. Any other person with a position of influence that he has, people who take very seriously what a guy of his stature, his experience, and what the propaganda media has built him up to be, I’m very concerned for the president’s life. I’m very concerned about these assassination attempts. I’m very concerned for his life. And James Comey, in my view, should be held accountable and should be behind bars for this.”

Lawbreaking isn’t new for James Comey. He has done far worse with his attempted blackmail and framing of Donald Trump for being a Russian secret agent in the fake Russia collusion information operation. That operation was a conspiracy between Comey’s FBI, the CIA, the Hillary Clinton campaign, the DOJ, and the Obama/Biden administration. It is the biggest scandal in American political history. Nobody’s gone to jail for it. The Secret Service has taken point on the threat investigation, but FBI Director Kash Patel weighed in on social media about it late Thursday afternoon. We are aware of the recent social media post by former FBI Director James Comey, directed at President Trump. We are in communication with the Secret Service and Director Curran. Primary jurisdiction is with SS on these matters and we, the FBI, will provide all necessary support. He wrote the message on X.

Department of Homeland Security head Kristi Noem was also fired up about the threat by a person who should have known better. This “86 47” messaging has been popular on TikTok and other social media for a while. Governor Gretchen Whitmer toyed with a version of it, “86 45,” when Trump ran for re-election in 2020. But that was before the assassination attempts. But when a president has been nearly assassinated twice, the last thing a former law man should be doing is calling for more. Comey later pretended he didn’t know what it meant and took the post down. The left worships the former FBI man as a pillar of moral rectitude. He’s a pillar of something, alright. I can’t wait for the part where the Secret Service says, “Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law.” That should make Comey’s book tour quite entertaining.

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“These threat investigations are immediate,” he said. “There’s no delay in these types of investigations, they are going to seek to speak to him as soon as possible.”

What’s Next for James Comey in Secret Service Investigation (Susan Crabtree)

The Secret Service may try to force former FBI Director James Comey to answer pointed questions about a social media post he issued depicting an image of “8647,” but a U.S. attorney whom President Donald Trump appointed will determine whether to prosecute Comey over the post.If Comey refuses to comply with their request for what’s known as a protective intelligence interview, the Secret Service leading the investigation into the Instagram post can apply for a subpoena through an assistant U.S. attorney. It’s that prosecutor who will determine whether the former FBI director is legally required to answer their questions and the full U.S. attorney in the office ultimately will decide whether to bring charges against him for threatening the president, Secret Service sources tell RealClearPolitics.

As an attorney and former top law enforcement official in the nation, Comey is well aware that he can decline an interview without having an attorney present, so he may refuse to cooperate with Secret Service agents’ questioning until he can hire a lawyer to represent him. On the other hand, Comey could agree to demonstrate how open and transparent he is and immediately cooperate and sit down for an interview. Top law enforcement and intelligence officials on Thursday said they were investigating Comey’s viral social media post, which many Trump supporters viewed as a threat against the president. Just hours after Comey, who Trump fired in 2017, took down the post, claiming he was unaware the message has violent connotations, Homeland Security Department Secretary Kristi Noem announced that her agency and the Secret Service are investigating “this threat and will respond appropriately.”

FBI Director Kash Patel and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard also weighed in, arguing that the FBI is ready to assist the Secret Service with “all necessary support,” while Gabbard stressed that the administration and the Secret Service are taking the incident “very seriously.” “There has to be accountability for this,” she told Fox News host Jesse Watters. “The Department of Homeland Security and Sean Curran, the current Secret Service director—a man who has been willing to lay down his life as the lead of President Trump’s Secret Service detail for years now—he takes this seriously and is leading the investigation into this threat.” The Secret Service, however, declined to disclose its exact activities. Asked if agents had already try to contact Comey or located him or had plans to do so, agency spokesman Anthony Guglielmi declined to specify.

“The Secret Service vigorously investigates anything that can be taken as a potential threat against our protectees,” he said in an emailed statement. “We are aware of the social media posts by the former FBI director, and we take rhetoric like this very seriously. Beyond that, we do not comment on protective intelligence matters.”The Secret Service treats social media threats to all presidents as a top priority requiring immediate attention and have likely tried to locate Comey and may try to conduct what’s known as a protective intelligence interview to determine the motivations behind the post and whether anyone else was involved in the decision to release it on Instagram, where Comey first posted it. Charles Marino, a former Secret Service agent and national security expert, late Thursday predicted that Comey was “gonna have a very, very, very long night.”

From his experience in the Secret Service, Marino predicts the Washington field offices for the Secret Service and the FBI have already been activated and either already have or are planning to pay Comey a visit tonight to interview him about the threatening social media post against Trump. “Look, here’s the deal: They’re sending agents out, and they’re going talk to him, and he’s not going to have a choice,” Marino said. “He’s going to have to talk to them, because this stuff about, well, you know, I found this on the beach. I didn’t know what it meant. None of that makes sense.” “These threat investigations are immediate,” he said. “There’s no delay in these types of investigations, they are going to seek to speak to him as soon as possible.” Marino also noted Comey can be prosecuted for the threatening social media post under 18 USC 871, which governs threats against presidents.

The Secret Service closes out a high percentage of these investigations into online social media threats after determining that the people are either incapable of formulating an actual attack or don’t have the means to do so, according to two sources in the Secret Service community. But if the Secret Service agents investigating Comey uncover information undermining his explanation that he didn’t know that “86” has a violent connotation or evidence of a conspiracy of any kind, then they can forward their findings and recommendations to the U.S. attorney for prosecution. Because the probe is focused on a social media post with an impact across jurisdictions throughout the United States, there is more flexibility in determining which U.S. attorney to submit any evidence uncovered. Marino confirmed that Jeanine Pirro, a fiery former Fox News host whom Trump recently appointed to the position of U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., could be in the mix of potential prosecutors determining whether to charge Comey with a crime for issuing the Instagram post.

It would be the case of a lifetime for Pirro, a former New York judge and district attorney who vigorously and regularly defended Trump on Fox News. But critics would no doubt impugn her obvious bias in favor of the Trump administration should she take on the case. “Comey is going to have some ‘splainin’ to do,” Marino added. “In this current political climate …This case has to be presented to a United States attorney for acceptance of the case or declination.” Several celebrities have made threatening remarks or posted about wanting to see Trump die on social media, while only one suffered a notable career setback for doing so. Comedian Kathy Griffin faced backlash in 2017 for circulating a photo of herself holding a bloody severed Trump head. CNN fired Griffin from her long-running gig co-hosting the network’s New Year’s Eve special with Anderson Cooper, and two departments within the Justice Department investigated her for a conspiracy to assassinate the president.

Griffin argued the photo was protected speech but later apologized as the harsh criticism continued among even some fellow left-leaning comedians, including Stephen Colbert. Also in 2017, Madonna, during a surprise appearance at the anti-Trump Women’s March on Washington, said she “thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House.” The Secret Service opened an investigation and tried to interview Madonna, but she referred them to an attorney. Ultimately, the Secret Service did not press for a subpoena, according to one Secret Service source familiar with the case. Madonna at the time said her comment was a metaphor and was taken out of context. But for average Americans, threats to “blow up” a person’s house or a place of business are usually taken very seriously by police. At the very least, it’s commonplace for police to conduct cursory investigations of these types of comments, whether they are made publicly or privately and reported to police.

Late into Thursday night, Comey’s name was still trending on X.com as a debate raged over whether his tweet amounted to a threat to Trump, and if so, how serious it was. Meanwhile, copycat social media influencers released their own “8647” memes and defended them as free speech. Ed Krassenstein, a left-wing anti-Trump social media creator with more than a million followers, posted four billiard balls lined up to form “8647.” Therein lies the rub that makes Comey’s tweet so dangerous, according to Marino.“Do I personally think that James Comey has an intention to do harm in a physical manner to the president? No, I don’t,” he said. “Do I think that what he just posted has the ability to incite others? Absolutely.” Others on social media and cable news Thursday night questioned whether Comey was trying to gin up publicity in advance of the release of his new book “FDR Drive,” a legal thriller, which will be out May 20.

Watters asked Gabbard whether she thought Comey was trying to “goad” the Trump administration into investigating and prosecuting him to make him a legal martyr so he can regain political relevance. After two assassination attempts against Trump, it doesn’t matter, Gabbard said. She pointed out that Comey made a career out of prosecuting mobsters, who regularly use the term “86” as code for murder, and that the phrase had already been circulating among anti-Trump and anti-Elon Musk protesters as calls to assassinate the 47th president. “This is a guy issuing a hit on President Trump,” she said.

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“By the time this blog is up, officers of the Secret Service may be visiting Mr. Comey at home. No need to batter down the front door with guns drawn, though. That would be so un-cool.”

Cool? (James Howard Kunstler)

“Cool shell formation on my beach walk,” Jim Comey, former FBI Director wrote on Instagram about the message “86 47” laid out in seashells on the sand that he came across, innocently. You’d have to ask yourself: what was “cool” about that, exactly? Especially if, as Mr. Comey claimed on X soon after, that he didn’t know what it meant. Are things that you don’t understand “cool”? Is it just “cool” to learn that you can spell stuff out with seashells? (Who knew?)

Maybe he was surprised to learn that people other than Jim Comey fans might see his cute coded clip and conclude that it wasn’t such an innocent little gag. “47,” of course, refers to Donald Trump in the cavalcade of US presidents. Among the not-strrictly-fans was DNI Tulsi Gabbard, who went on TV hours later and said that Mr. Comey should go to prison for it — in so many words. You must suppose she meant after the appropriate procedures: an FBI deposition, a grand jury, an indictment, a trial. After all that, we’d probably get to the bottom of what JC meant by “cool.”

Now, it happens that in this new milieu of memes flying around every which way, the code “86 47” is not a complete mystery. It is apparently employed casually in settings where angry citizens gather to denounce the president. “86” is a term in restaurant kitchens when there is no more of an item that a waiter just brought in an order for. “Eighty-six on the monkfish, Carla,” the line-cook might yell. Apparently, mobsters like the phrase, too, for its pithiness: “Ay, somebody, go eighty-six that stronzo Rocco Vaselino, already! He ain’t paid da vig in a munt.” Soon, there will be no more of Rocco, you see. He will be food for the hellgrammites in the soil of the Jersey pine barrens. . . .

As DNI Gabbard pointed out — in case no one noticed — there have been two recent assassination attempts on Mr. Trump. It is a fact well-known to police psychologists that would-be assassins are curiously suggestible to prompts floating around in the zeitgeist. They tend to take them as commands. Go do this. And if anyone was a commanding figure, it would be Jim Comey, towering hero of the early anti-Trump resistance. Thus, it appears that Mr. Comey called for there to be no more of Mr. Trump. Not cool.

Also, not so cool, in the grand annals of the resistance, is the new book Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again, by journalists (cough cough) Jake Tapper (of CNN) and Alex Thompson (Axios). The book purports to explain how the entire governance apparatus of the USA hid the mental decline of “Joe Biden,” the phantom president. Realize, please, that the news media is a vital part of that apparatus, and has been since the invention of the printing press, with its crucial role (until lately) as a regulating mechanism on the engine of public affairs.

In fact, it is precisely the role of the news media to notice things that public officials try to hide, so as to keep citizens apprised of what is really going on. And that is exactly what the news media intentionally declined to do during the four years of “Joe Biden.” But then, at least half the country, seeing “Joe Biden” in action on video, did not fail to notice his ever-worsening feeble bewilderment. Tapper and Thompson seek to shift the blame for this game of Pretend onto the gremlins behind the scenes in the White House who ran the “Joe Biden” show.

Tapper and Thompson are lying, of course, and in exactly the same brazen way as the bigwigs in the Democratic Party who sponsored this treasonous fraud. Jake Tapper, for one, stated repeatedly on-the-air from 2021 onward that “Joe Biden” was a capable and effective chief executive and denounced anybody who tried to argue otherwise. Just as Thompson, while accepting the Award for Overall Excellence at the White House Correspondents’ Annual Dinner in April, lied saying, “We, myself included, missed a lot of this story.” Really? Then what, exactly, was “excellent” about his reporting?

They also missed the story as to how the White House gremlins behind “Joe Biden” were wrecking the country with open borders, election fraud, drag queens in kindergarten, censorship, lawfare, and a colossal stream of secret grift from taxpayers through USAID-linked NGO’s to Democratic Party foot-soldiers like Stacey Abrams. The more plausible story — the truth, actually — is that the companies many reporters worked for, the old big newspapers like The New York Times and the WashPo, and the cable-news channels such as (especially) CNN and MSNBC were losing their audiences until they discovered that Trump Derangement was the only way to stave off complete failure.

Once they got going with that business model in 2016, they wrecked the news media’s credibility. And virtually everything after that has been an ongoing cover-up for their dishonorable malfeasance and the crimes of the party they fronted for. But the levers of power are in other hands now. There will be consequences for government officials who go to war against the people of this land, committing sedition and treason. Suggesting the murder of a president on social media is no light matter. By the time this blog is up, officers of the Secret Service may be visiting Mr. Comey at home. No need to batter down the front door with guns drawn, though. That would be so un-cool.

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Ukraine and Europe want us to think that Putin sent some low-level lackey. But historian/diplomat Medinsky is not that. He doesn’t need to read up or talk to people: he was there 3 years ago, in the same function.

Ukraine Conflict Could Have Ended In Weeks – Russia’s Top Negotiator (RT)

The Ukraine conflict could have ended very quickly if Kiev had chosen to negotiate from the beginning rather than heed its Western backers and fight Russia, Vladimir Medinsky, head of Moscow’s delegation at the Istanbul talks, said in wake of the negotiations. Medinsky made the comments after nearly two hours of talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul on Friday. The two nations agreed upon a major prisoner swap involving 1,000 POWs from each side, as well as to continue contacts once each side has prepared a detailed ceasefire proposal, the Russian delegation said.After the meeting, the presidential aide and professional historian sat down for a major interview with the Russia’s Rossiya 1 broadcaster.

The hostilities between Moscow and Kiev, which have already dragged on for more than three years, could have ended in mere weeks, Medinsky believes. Ukraine just needed to stick to the arrangements it had reached with Russia during the initial rounds of peace talks in the Belarusian city of Gomel in late February, he stated. Kiev could have “agreed to a peace in late February [2022], but they did not and dragged their feet instead,” the official said. The Russian peace proposal presented at the following round of talks, which was held in Istanbul in the spring of 2022, was already less favorable to Ukraine, as it already reflected some “changes on the ground,” he added.“The Istanbul process was also regrettably disrupted because of the West’s direct involvement,” Medinsky stated, blaming then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s visit to Kiev in May of 2022 for scuttling the initial peace negotiations.

According to David Arakhamia, who headed the Ukrainian delegation at that time, Johnson told Kiev to “just fight.” Attempts by Western nations to influence other countries’ policies have historically brought catastrophic consequences to the European continent, Medinsky warned. As a vivid example, he took the Berlin Congress held in 1878, which was called by a coalition of Western countries to revise the results of the Russian-Turkish war that had ended earlier the same year. Western nations, including the UK, France, Italy, and Germany, thought the peace treaty, which led to the liberation of a host of Balkan nations from Ottoman control, was too favorable to the Russian Empire, as they thought it would give it too much clout over the Balkans.

As a result of the West’s interference, the borders of the newly-liberated states were redrawn, thus laying the foundation for the territorial disputes that ultimately triggered World War I, Medinsky said. “Unregulated problems in the Balkans led to WWI,” he stated. “This was a direct consequence of interference by Western nations.” Medinsky has dismissed Ukraine’s demand for a ceasefire as a precondition for any peace talks as unnecessary and excessive. “A war and talks are being conducted simultaneously,” he said. “Only people who know nothing about history” can claim that a ceasefire has always preceded peace talks, the official maintained. Kiev has repeatedly demanded that Moscow agree to a 30-day ceasefire before any talks take place. Russia has rejected that demand, arguing Ukraine would merely use the pause to rearm and regroup its troops.

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All the money went to the most corrupt country in the western hemisphere and you wonder where it went?!

Trump Says Zelensky ‘Pissed Away’ Ukraine Aid (NYP)

President Trump accused his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky of having “pissed away” billions of dollars in US aid for the war-torn country. Trump, in a Friday interview with Fox News’ “Special Report” host Bret Baier, insisted that Kyiv’s management of US-provided funds bothered him more than the amount of money Washington has doled out to Ukraine since Russia’s February 2022 invasion. “The money is the money,” the president said. “What bothered me — I hated to see the way it was, you know, excuse me, pissed away.” Trump vented his frustrations with Zelensky’s handling of US aid in response to a question from Baier on whether he’s considering additional sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin. “I hated to see that checks were sent for $60 billion every time Zelensky [traveled to Washington],” he fumed. “I think he’s the greatest salesman in the world. Far better than me,” Trump said of the Ukrainian president.

“Where is all this money going?” he added. Trump continued to voice his displeasure with Kyiv even after Baier interjected, “But I’m focused on Putin.” “We send checks. We don’t always send equipment. We send — just checks. We send — just cash,” the president claimed. “Where is it?” When Trump started to argue that European nations should’ve contributed more than the US to the war effort, Baier once again tried to redirect him to his Putin question. “Wait,” Trump responded, before arguing that the US has been “treated worse” than Europe by Ukraine.“We inherited this mess, but I think it’s going to get solved.”Trump’s response comes as officials estimate that the US will have spent through all its congressionally approved funds to support Ukraine by June.

The US has approved some $175 billion in aid for Ukraine since the war broke out. The president, however, indicated that he hopes to schedule a meeting with Putin, which he believes will result in a peace agreement. “I think we’ll do it fast,” Trump said of meeting with the Russian president and hammering out a deal. “I think he’s tired of this whole thing. He’s not looking good, and he wants to look good.”

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27,000 sanctions so far, or was that 37?! Empty threat.

Trump Threatens Russia With ‘Crushing’ Sanctions (RT)

US President Donald Trump has said Washington will impose new sanctions on Russia if it fails to reach a peace settlement with Ukraine. His remarks came shortly after the two countries held their first direct negotiations since 2022. In an interview aired on Friday, Fox News anchor Bret Baier asked Trump whether he would introduce new sanctions on Moscow. “Honestly, I will if we’re not going to make a deal,” the president said. “Nobody uses leverage better than me.” Trump added that the US would assess the outcome of Friday’s Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul. “We’ll see what happens. It will be crushing for Russia because they’re having a hard time with the economy,” he claimed. He also argued that his plan to boost domestic oil production would lower global prices, undermining Russia’s energy exports.

Trump claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin is “tired” from the conflict and said he would schedule a meeting with him sometime in the future. “I have a very good relationship with Putin. I think we’ll make a deal. We have to get together.”As Trump has been trying to broker a deal between Russia and Ukraine, a group of senators led by Lindsey Graham has drafted a bill to impose sanctions on Moscow and levy tariffs on countries that purchase Russian oil, gas, and uranium. The head of Russia’s negotiating team in Istanbul, Vladimir Medinsky, said the two sides had agreed upon a major prisoner swap involving 1,000 POWs from each side, as well as continuing contacts once each side has prepared a detailed ceasefire proposal.

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“Who is it unacceptable to? We are not negotiating with London.”

Russia Hits Out At British PM (RT)

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s ultimatums and sanctions threats just demonstrate that the UK wants to undermine the settlement of the Ukraine conflict, the Russian Embassy in the UK has said. Last week, the leaders of the UK, France, Germany, and Poland met in a Kiev and threatened to impose more sanctions on Russia if Moscow did not agree to a 30-day unconditional ceasefire by Monday. That date has come and gone, and no truce was agreed upon during Friday’s direct Russian-Ukrainian talks. “Now, having issued that ultimatum, we must be prepared to follow through, because if Russia won’t come to the negotiating table, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin must pay the price,” Starmer said at a security meeting in Albania on Friday. “The Russian position is clearly unacceptable, and not for the first time.”

The Russian Embassy in London has pointed out that Downing Street is not part of the talks between the belligerents. “The British Prime Minister hasty statement claiming that Russia’s position at the talks in Istanbul is unacceptable and that a response is being prepared causes outright bewilderment,” the embassy said in a statement on Friday. “The British have been behind all the escalatory moves by the West, from supplying offensive weapons to Kiev’s military and to using Western long-range missiles against civilians deep in Russian territory,” the embassy wrote. London was the first of Kiev’s Western sponsors to send domestic long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine.

“Now, such ultimatums, made against the backdrop of the negotiation process, are obviously aimed at complicating or undermining the settlement,” the statement said. “It seems Downing Street is not aware of the self-incriminating nature of its actions.” The UK has also scuttled previous peace talks, the embassy noted. “It was London that made a considerable effort to disrupt the first negotiation process in 2022, and to subsequently keep the conflict hot,” it wrote. The unsuccessful 2022 negotiations in Istanbul were torpedoed by then UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who convinced Ukraine to pull out, according to the Ukrainian delegation’s top negotiator at the talks, David Arakhamia.

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This comes mere days after: “U.S. District Judge Stephanie Haines in Pennsylvania has ruled that President Donald Trump validly invoked the Alien Enemies Act in March as part of an effort to deport Venezuelan gang members.”

Trump Bashes Supreme Court For Blocking Use of Alien Enemies Act (Allen)

The Supreme Court has extended its block on the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport illegal alien gang members from Venezuelan. “The Supreme Court has just ruled that the worst murderers, drug dealers, gang members, and even those who are mentally insane, who came into our country illegally, are not allowed to be forced out without going through a long, protracted, and expensive legal process,” President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social Friday evening. In an unsigned opinion Friday, the justices sent the case back down to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit and asked the lower court to determine the procedural specifics the illegal aliens are legally entitled to before they are removed.

The appeals court needs to determine “whether the Alien Enemies Act … authorizes removal of these detainees and if so, what notice is due before removal,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in his concurring opinion. Trump warned that the result of the Supreme Court’s “decision will let more criminals pour into our country, doing great harm to our cherished American public. It will also encourage other criminals to illegally enter our Country, wreaking havoc and bedlam wherever they go.”

The case before the court specifically pertains to a group of Tren de Aragua gang members who are being held in Texas. After designating Tren de Aragua as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, the White House announced in March that Trump would use the powers of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to remove members of the gang from America. On April 19, the Supreme Court ordered the administration to pause the deportation of a group of criminal illegal aliens until the court could rule further. The order followed an emergency appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the illegal aliens the administration was preparing to deport.

Following the court’s ruling to extend the ban on the removal of the gang members, Trump said the Supreme Court “is not allowing me to do what I was elected to do,” referring to his campaign promise to deport criminal illegal aliens. More than 10 million illegal aliens entered the U.S. under the Biden administration, according to Customs and Border Protection, and “in order to get them out of our country, we have to go through a long and extended process,” Trump said, adding that the court’s order represents “a bad and dangerous day for America!” Trump thanked Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas for dissenting from the court’s order. The Supreme Court had “no authority to issue any relief,” Alito argued in the decant.

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“Almost everything the vast majority of Americans and their elected representatives did not want—far-left higher education, a Pravda media, biological men destroying women’s sports, an open border, 30 million illegal aliens, massive debt, a weaponized legal system, and a politicized Pentagon—became the new culture of America.”

The Real First 100 Days (Victor Davis Hanson)

Pundits are confused about what to make of the first 100 days of the second Trump administration. Supporters talk of “flooding the zone,” believing President Donald Trump is making so many changes so quickly that his opposition is reduced to deer-in-the-headlights infancy. They must be right when the nation suffers daily Democrat pottymouth videos, vandalism of Teslas, infantile meltdowns at congressional witnesses, rioting against federal agents to protect illegal alien felons, protesting on behalf of women beaters, M-13 gangbangers, human traffickers, and assaulters, and visa-holding violent students praising Hamas terrorists. In contrast, opponents either claim that Trump’s first three months are either directionless chaos or a Hitlerian nightmare or both. But what is really happening?

One, Trump is finally addressing the problems that proverbially “cannot go on forever, and so they won’t go on.” When, if ever, would the Left have closed the southern border? After 10, 30, 50 million illegal aliens? How many more criminal illegal entrants was the Biden administration willing to allow into American neighborhoods—500,000? One million? Three million? How long was the world simply going to ignore the human destruction on the doorstep of Europe? Would former President Joe Biden or former Vice President Kamala Harris have sought a ceasefire? Or would it have taken another 1.5, 3, or even 5 million more dead, wounded, and missing Ukrainians and Russians? Nor did past administrations ever seek a solution to the massive national debt, much less the uncontrollable budget and trade deficits.

All prior presidents passed the day of judgment on to some vague future presidency, assured that their money printing would at least not blow up on their watch. All moaned that China was piling up huge trade surpluses while denying its own population the usual modern safety net. They knew Beijing’s aim was to use the trillions of dollars in trade surpluses to build a new massive military, a greater arsenal of nuclear bombs, and a new imperial Belt and Road overseas empire. Yet no administration did anything but greenlight American outsourcing and offshoring while ignoring Chinese trade cheating and technology theft. Indeed, prior presidencies appeased and enriched China on the foolish belief that such indulgence would lead to Chinese prosperity, and with such Western-style affluence, soon a globalized, democratic, and supposedly friendly China. In sum, we just witnessed all at once a 100-day, 360-degree effort to address all the existential challenges that we knew were unsustainable but were either afraid or incompetent to address.

Second, the administration apparently wants to confront the source of these crises and believes it is the progressive project. The Left maintains real political power not by grassroots popularity, but rather by unelected institutional clout. The party of democracy uses antidemocratic means to achieve its ends of perpetual control. It wages lawfare through the weaponization of the state, local, and federal courts. It exercises executive power through cherry-picked federal district and circuit judges and their state and local counterparts. The permanent bureaucracies and huge federal workforce are mostly left-wing, unionized, and weaponized by a progressive apparat. Their supreme directive is to amalgamate legislative, judicial, and executive power into the hands of the unelected Anthony Faucis, Jim Comeys, and Lois Lerners of the world—and thus to override or ignore both popular plebiscites and the work of the elected Congress.

Over 90% of the media—legacy, network, social, and state—are left-wing. Their mission is not objectivity but, admittedly, indoctrination. Academia is the font of the progressive project. Ninety percent of the professoriat are left-wing and activist—explaining why campuses believe they are above the rules and laws of the Constitution, the Supreme Court, and the U.S. Congress. Add into the mix the blue-chip Accela corridor law firms and the globalized corporate and revolving-door political elite. The net result is clear: Almost everything the vast majority of Americans and their elected representatives did not want—far-left higher education, a Pravda media, biological men destroying women’s sports, an open border, 30 million illegal aliens, massive debt, a weaponized legal system, and a politicized Pentagon—became the new culture of America.

So, Trump is not just confronting unaddressed existential crises but also the root causes of why, when, and how they become inevitable and nearly unsolvable. His answer is a messy, knock-down-drag-out counterrevolution to reboot the country back to the middle where it once was and where the Founders believed it should remain. His right and left opponents call such pushback chaotic, disruptive, and out of control. But the counterrevolution appears disorderly and upsetting, mostly to those who originally birthed the chaos; it certainly does not to the majority of Americans who finally wanted an end to the madness.

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Before you know it, the bill gets too big. But there’ll be another vote.

Conservative Holdouts Vote Down ONE, BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL (ZH)

Update (1210ET): The House Budget Committee has voted down the reconciliation bill by a vote of 16-21 – with GOP Reps. Clyde, Roy, Breechen, Norman and Smucker (who flipped his vote) all voting “no”. “This bill falls profoundly short. It does not do what we say it does with respect to deficits,” said Rep. Chip Roy. Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) said “I am unable to support this package in its current form, but I look forward to strengthening this bill to ensure that it does pass, so that we full all of our America First promises to the American people.” Whilst Ralph Norman (R-SC) said “Sadly, I’m a hard no until we get this ironed out.” According to Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman, Smucker likely flipped “no” to preserve the ability to reconsider the bill at a later time. House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Jody Arrington (R-TX) said after the vote “I do not anticipate us coming back today.”

* * *
A fiery intra-party fight exploded on Capitol Hill Friday as House Republicans clashed over President Donald Trump’s mammoth “One Big Beautiful Bill,” with Trump himself jumping into the fray to torch conservative holdouts as attention-hungry “grandstanders.” As the House Budget Committee met to advance the 1,116-plus-page megabill – packed with Trump’s signature proposals on taxes, Medicaid, and immigration – chaos broke out behind the scenes, and in front of the cameras, as hardline conservatives threatened to blow up the entire process. “Republicans MUST UNITE behind ‘THE ONE, BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL!’” Trump posted on Truth Social. “We don’t need ‘GRANDSTANDERS’ in the Republican Party. STOP TALKING, AND GET IT DONE!”

The scorched-earth post came as the House Budget Committee met down to mark up the massive reconciliation bill, which bundles together much of Trump’s second-term policy wishlist: tax cuts, welfare reform, immigration crackdowns, and the death of Biden’s green energy subsidies. But what was supposed to be a legislative victory lap turned into a high-stakes hostage crisis, with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) caught between warring GOP factions, each demanding major changes and threatening to sink the bill if they don’t get their way. Conservatives on the committee – Reps. Chip Roy, Ralph Norman, Andrew Clyde, and Josh Brecheen – signaled they were ready to vote against the bill unless major changes were made. Their demands include a faster phase-in of Medicaid work requirements, a ban on undocumented immigrants receiving federal benefits, and immediate termination of Inflation Reduction Act clean energy provisions. “If they don’t [change it], I’m gonna vote no. We’ll kill it,” Norman warned Thursday. “I don’t want to. But I will.” The vote is ongoing, with Roy and Norman both using their time during committee to voice their opposition, CNN’s Sarah Farris reports.

The tension spilled into full view Friday morning when Norman, Roy, and Clyde abruptly left the committee room moments before the markup was scheduled to begin, prompting immediate speculation they were staging a walkout. All three returned shortly afterward, saying little, but still signaling deep frustration. Norman told reporters the situation was “very disappointing,” adding “I hope they recess.” Johnson, for his part, is trying to keep the circus moving. He has pledged to make some concessions – such as speeding up work requirement timelines and possibly harmonizing those across both Medicaid and SNAP – but every adjustment risks triggering a backlash from the other side of the GOP spectrum. “If you push too hard on one side, the other side bulges out,” opines Punchbowl News. “That’s exactly what’s happening here.”

Moderates are already howling over cuts to safety net programs and demanding changes of their own. Blue-state Republicans want the SALT deduction cap raised above the $30,000 ceiling currently in the bill. Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) wants to remove language that would block legal refugees from getting food aid. And Florida Republicans are furious over a provision that clamps down on provider taxes – a method states use to draw more federal Medicaid dollars. The markup itself became a theater of dysfunction – with Rep. Blake Moore (R-UT) joking about the fact that he went viral earlier this week for falling asleep during a late-night hearing. “I also appreciate that you schedule the markup during daylight hours,” he said. Chair Jodey Arrington (R-TX) fired back: “Some of the staff decided to chip in and equip your chair with an electric shocking mechanism… I hope that is also a bipartisan proposal.”

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‘sundance’ says Tony Blinken, Victoria Nuland and Samantha Power. And Susan Rice.

Biden/Hur Tapes Released: Question is, Who Was Running the Country? (CTH)

Axios obtained the audio of former President Biden’s October 2023 interviews with special counsel Robert Hur. In the first segment below, recorded on the first day of interviews, former President Biden was questioned about where he kept documents. Biden had difficulty recalling that it was 2015 when his son Beau died. Biden also shared that President Obama discouraged him from running for president. The interview tapes reveal the scope of cognitive decline the control agents around Joe Biden were trying to keep hidden from the country. As the tapes reveal, Joe Biden was not in any capacity to be in office. The question remains, who was running the country? Listen:

Biden’s mental capacity was severely compromised. It is obvious everyone around him knew the problem. We all saw it even before he took office and the answer to the question is the same today as we discussed in 2020, 2021 and beyond. These tapes only confirm what we already knew. The State Dept was being run by Tony Blinken, Victoria Nuland and Samantha Power. The Clinton and Obama networks, along with their allies in congress and in various political organizations, were being paid and financed through various NGOs and stood up non-profits organized by the beneficiaries of the funding. All of those connections were revealed by the DOGE audits of USAID and other agencies.

Keep in mind that Susan Rice was part of the White House network up to the day Biden announced his intent to run again in 2024; so, she obviously knew his mental state. Others in the White House, again part of the Obama and Clinton networks were running the day-to-day operations. Biden was a figurehead, an avatar for the handlers operating in the background. The DOJ, Main Justice and the FBI were being run by Lisa Monaco, again an Obama operative. The job at Main Justice was to use their Lawfare strategy to protect the fake and corrupt administration, keep everyone in line and attack all of their political opposition. Obviously, Jill Biden was/is a power-hungry enabler for the entire dynamic. Sick and twisted people operate like this.

Think of all the COVID-19 nonsense this crew carried out in 2021 and 2022, including the vaccine mandate and all of the authoritarian rules that came with the “Biden” COVID response stuff. These are sick people. Congress, both parties, knew all of this. In fact, the entire Washington DC system was well aware of the cognitive state of mind behind the false presidency. Biden wasn’t in control of anything – that’s transparently obvious when you listen to the tapes.The media covered for all of it. They all knew, yet they attacked anyone who dare question the obvious. There is no one associated with the preceding four or five years around the 2020 campaign and administration that followed who did not know of the mental issues. Additionally, they all knew who was running things and they lied to the American people because these are power-hungry psychopaths.


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There are not enough words to listen to these tapes and express the level of disgust that comes to mind. The damage done to our country is horrific. However, at the end of that review we must remember all of the economic pain and suffering that accompanied the anxiety the handlers of Joe Biden willfully delivered to our nation. These people are sick!

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“We Study Fascism…We’re Leaving the U.S.”

Don’t let the door hit you on the way.

The NY Times Runs Video of Yale Professors Fleeing to Canada (Turley)

The New York Times continues to work tirelessly to maintain the narrative that the United States is now a fascist regime. Earlier, the Times demonstrated its view of balanced analysis by running a collection of legal opinions titled “A Road Map to Trump’s Lawless Presidency.” Now, it is featuring three Yale professors fleeing fascism for the safety of Canada, making direct references to the rise of the Nazis. The video is titled “These Yale Professors Study Fascism.” All three professors are going permanently to Canada to teach at the University of Toronto. It appears that the systemic rollback of free speech for conservatives in Canada is not a deterrent for Yale professors longing to be free. The seven-minute opinion video features the three scholars: Yale philosophy Professor Jason Stanley and history professors Marci Shore and Timothy Snyder (who are married).

Shore insisted that the United States is now a fascist country replicating the Nazi takeover. Indeed, she mocks those of us who believe that our constitutional system has proven itself for centuries as a guarantor of civil liberties, including our system of checks and balances. Shore dismisses such assurances while suggesting that the American people are a virtual ship of fools in not recognizing the fascists all around them: “The lesson of 1933 is that you get out sooner rather than later.” She added that Americans are“like people on the Titanic saying, ‘Our ship can’t sink.’ We’ve got the best ship. We’ve got the strongest ship. We’ve got the biggest ship. Our ship can’t sink,” she said. “And what you know as a historian is that there is no such thing as a ship that can’t sink.” Professor Snyder declared that Americans are deluding themselves:

“If you think there is this thing out there called ‘America,’ and it’s exceptional, that means that you don’t have to do anything. Whatever is happening, it must be freedom. Soon, you are using the word freedom, what you are talking about is authoritarianism.” The New York Times splices in ominous images of migrants being detained, children crying, and anti-Israel protesters being arrested. It also shows the image of Elon Musk’s alleged Nazi salute, a ridiculous claim fostered by the media.

Previously, Snyder did interviews claiming an oligarchic conspiracy led by Musk:“we’re shifting from a democracy, which had some pretty heavy oligarchical streaks running through it, toward something like an oligarchy, in which I think it’s fair to say that it’s not Trump who’s the most important person. It’s Musk. Trump has debts. Musk has money. Trump has debts specifically to Musk for getting him elected. And I think the burden of proof is actually on Trump to show that he has any room for maneuver in this system. And it’s going to be interesting to see how congressional Republicans react, because what this particular oligarch wants is to break the federal government. And whatever their views might be, not — many of them don’t actually want the United States of America to cease to exist so that oligarchs can pick up the pieces.”

That is who the New York Times featured in its latest apocalyptic diatribe. What is interesting about one interview is how Snyder predicts Trump will engage in censorship through litigation, noting that it will not involve direct censorship barred by the First Amendment. He entirely ignores the massive censorship system of conservatives fostered by the Biden Administration on social media. That was apparently not something that you would speak out against, let alone leave the country over. Professor Stanley’s past contributions to the political debate include his condemnation of “the right-wing hateosphere” in a diatribe that he later reaffirmed: I am really, truly, embarrassed by the fact that my mild comment ‘F[**]k those assholes’ is being spread. This wildly understates my actual sentiments towards homophobic religious proponents of evil like Richard Swinburne, who use their status as professional philosophers to oppress others with less power. I am SO SORRY for using such mild language.

In the New York Times video, Stanley clinically explains that “you know you’re living in a fascist society when you’re constantly going over in your head the reasons why you’re safe. What we want is a country where none of us have to feel that way.” It is a curious statement. Most of us fight to preserve our civil liberties to maintain a country that remains the longest, most stable, and most successful constitutional system in history. We do not dramatically pick up our things and stomp out of the country in a self-aggrandizing huff. Losing elections can certainly make some “feel that way,” but for the rest of the country, it seemed like democracy at work. In the meantime, our courts are sorting out challenges to Trump executive orders, with many judges, including Trump appointees, ruling against the Administration. Those are the pesky “checks and balances” that Professor Shore blissfully dismissed in the New York Times video.

What is truly striking is that even Yale (which has purged virtually all conservatives from its faculty ranks) is not sufficiently “safe” for these three academic émigrés. They are going to the University of Toronto and Ontario to feel truly safe. Of course, Ontario is not viewed as a safe space for many conservatives or contrarians. It proved hardly protective for University of Toronto professor emeritus Jordon Peterson when he was ordered to take mandatory training classes to curb his controversial writings. That order was upheld by successive Canadian courts. So now these three academics will relocate to Toronto to teach Canadian students about fascism. They may, however, want to tread lightly on the subject of free speech.

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“The U.S., by strengthening its relationship with Saudi Arabia, and creating Petrodollar 2.0, puts the pressure on China to reduce their tariffs and meet Trump’s requirements. Otherwise they don’t have a source of dollars.”

Rickards to Bannon: Petrodollar 2.0 Is Coming (DR)

Our friend and colleague Jim Rickards was on Steve Bannon’s War Room show Tuesday, and it may be the most important interview Jim has done this year. In this fascinating discussion, Jim starts with the history of the original petrodollar system. And he knows the subject well, having helped create it. The premise of the 1974 petrodollar agreement was that Saudi Arabia would only sell oil in dollars, which would stimulate demand for greenbacks as a reserve currency. Here’s Jim explaining the basics to Steve Bannon’s audience: “We had a carrot and stick approach. Bill Simon, who was Secretary of the Treasury, went to the Saudis and said ‘everybody in the world needs oil, and if you price oil in dollars, then everybody needs dollars.’ And that basically underpins the role of the dollar today as the world’s reserve currency.

The stick was, if you don’t do it we’re going to invade Saudi Arabia and take over oil production. The carrot was, if you price oil in dollars, we’ll give you a security umbrella. It’s rare to hear such candor coming from someone who was directly involved in the formation of the petrodollar system. Needless to say, the petrodollar system was successful and led to a resurgence in the American dollar as the world’s key reserve currency (despite Nixon ditching the gold standard just 3 years earlier). At this point, Steve Bannon interrupted with an insightful question (paraphrased): “Wait, you say the petrodollar system is still in place, but the Saudis are now selling oil to China for yuan. Aren’t cracks showing in the petrodollar system?”

Jim responded that yes, cracks are starting to show in the system, and that’s why Trump was in Saudi Arabia, to seal a “Petrodollar 2.0” agreement. Jim also points out that, at least for now, the amount of oil Saudi Arabia is selling for yuan and other currencies is miniscule compared to dollar-based sales. Jim proceeds to lay out the purpose of Petrodollar 2.0: “The U.S., by strengthening its relationship with Saudi Arabia, and creating Petrodollar 2.0, puts the pressure on China to reduce their tariffs and meet Trump’s requirements. Otherwise they don’t have a source of dollars.” This time around, Trump is using a strictly carrot-based approach. He’s on a charm offensive and looking to build strong, lasting ties with Saudi Arabia and the broader Middle East. This is a smart approach and we expect it will bear fruit in the near future. Had President Trump taken a threatening approach to Saudi Arabia, it almost certainly would have driven the country into China’s waiting arms. And America can’t afford to let that happen.

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Yeadon

Statins

Gold

Ice

Smell
https://twitter.com/gunsnrosesgirl3/status/1923334642423173150

Freedom
https://twitter.com/TheFigen_/status/1923360725621244351

Dogs

 

 

 

 

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May 152025
 


Kazemir Malevich Floor polishers 1912

 

Why China Will Win The Arms Race (Wolfgang Münchau)
Russian Delegation Will Be Waiting For Ukrainians In Istanbul – Kremlin (RT)
Zelensky Claims Ban On Russia Talks Doesn’t Apply To Him (RT)
Zelensky’s Regime Only Stable When At War – Former Senior UN Official (RT)
Rubio and Witkoff Will Travel To Istanbul On Friday – Reuters (RT)
Trump Envoy Kellogg Reveals NATO Troop Deployment Plans For Ukraine (RT)
US Opposes Zelensky Attendance At NATO Summit (RT)
The Unraveling of The Old World Order And The Role of Russia (Bordachev)
Russia Doesn’t Need Western Approval To Shape Global History (Lukyanov)
Trump Shocks the World – Again (Spencer)
Qatar Commits To “Largest Order Of Jets In The History Of Boeing” (NYP)
Every Anti-Trump Economic Narrative Is Collapsing (Margolis)
Trump Economy Defies ‘Gloom And Doom’ Expectations (Whedon)
Federal Judge Says Trump’s Invocation of Alien Enemies Act Was Legal (ET)
Average Americans Poised for Double-Digit Tax Cuts In 2027 (ZH)
Court Rules On Von Der Leyen’s Secret Covid Vaccine Deal Messages (RT)
Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Signed Oath to Conceal COVID Info (YN)
A New False Tribunal Is In The Making (Stephen Karganovic)

 

 

 

 

Tulsi

Assange

1940

Alex

“Russia. Kremlin. Putin. 25 years”

Tucker Carlson interviews Ed Martin

 

 

 

 

“..a swarm of AI-powered drones..”

Why China Will Win The Arms Race (Wolfgang Münchau)

When Donald Trump visits the Middle East this week, he will bump into some familiar people. Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Fink and Sam Altman will also be in Riyadh. I doubt they will spend much time talking about Gaza, or Iran. They are all there for the same reason: to talk about AI. The stock markets have currently put a high price on these tech companies. But AI is also commanding a high price from America’s foreign and security policy community: it will change the nature of warfare more profoundly than any other innovation we have experienced in our lifetimes. Ronald Reagan’s infamous Strategy Defence Initiative, also known as Star Wars, failed because the old technology could not deliver the precision that was needed. But AI could make it a reality and America’s concern is that China might get there first.

But America also worries that they are leading the charge with AI-powered drones. We think of drones as modern, but those used in the Russia-Ukraine war still need an operator. Imagine, then, if one side had AI-powered drones at their disposal? The West and Nato may be comfortable in their current — swiftly dating — military capabilities. But AI warfare is a completely new game. And China is already forging ahead in the two areas that will prove critical. The first is the supply of energy — which is vital to power large AI data centres. The West should be concerned by the sheer scale of the expansion of China’s energy capacity. China has a renewable capacity target of 2,461 gigawatts by 2030. The corresponding numbers for the EU and US are respectively 1,100 and 500 gigawatts.

For the Chinese, the heavy lifting will come from renewable sources, such as the world’s largest hydropower plant in Tibet, which will have an energy capacity roughly the size of Germany’s capacity today. Just from one single dam. This dam is not even included in China’s target number. AI is furiously energy-hungry. As the car industry has only recently found out, the electric car is not just an evolution — it is a different product. The same applies to anything reliant on AI. Germany’s Rheinmetall is a formidable producer of ammunition and tanks. They make the best tanks in the world. But they are old-school — the heavy-metal version of defence manufacturing. You don’t want to be in one of them when being attacked by a swarm of AI-powered drones.

And so, as China marches ahead, Europe’s absurd data protection regulations and AI regulation effectively criminalise the 21st century’s most important evolving business sector. The Financial Times reported that British soldiers were prevented from using signal jamming on the grounds that it violated GDPR. Europeans have, in general, no idea what damage they are inflicting upon themselves with their absurd data protection obsession. And no clue what it does to their security. In the gilded foreign policy salons of Europe’s capitals, you will not hear much about AI-drones, or satellite-based AI-missiles systems. It is as though AI has yet to be invented in the Western foreign policy universe.

China, meanwhile, has more energy than we do, puts serious money into AI, and is not regulating itself to death. Take 5G. While we Europeans struggle with it, the Chinese are already developing 6G — the technology which is needed to handle the communications for next generation manufacturing. This is the second critical area in which China is excelling: high-tech manufacturing. In the US and the UK, the prevailing view is that sophisticated countries should move into services and leave the shop-floor economy to upstarts like China. This is a story we have been telling ourselves for too long. And it is one that economists, in particular, don’t understand.

They think it is more efficient to let China do all the manufacturing, for the US to specialise in high tech and finance, and to let Europe be a museum. They are simultaneously oblivious to those voters who want real jobs, to the nature of 21st-century manufacturing, and to security concerns. The irony here is that the US understands the AI-service economy like no one else. And it still just about leads the world in research. But China has been able to catch up because all the new technology is open-source. As an anonymous employee at Google candidly admitted: “We have no moat, and neither does OpenAI.” Nor does the US. This is not a world of secret algorithms, or of industrial patents. The costs of entry are low — all you need is a bunch of desktop computers with a good graphics card. Anyone can join in. In the old world, the technology leadership meant that the US was years ahead of the competition. No more.

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They should have arrived as I write this. Wonder what they talk about 🙂

Russian Delegation Will Be Waiting For Ukrainians In Istanbul – Kremlin (RT)

Moscow will be sending a delegation for direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on Thursday and expects Kiev to do the same, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to resume direct negotiations between Moscow and Kiev to find a lasting settlement to the conflict between the two countries. After his proposal was supported by US President Donald Trump, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky, who had previously ruled out any talks with Moscow, also expressed his readiness. Kiev earlier stated that the only official Zelensky would talk to is Putin. The Russian president has so far made no indication that he is planning to travel to Istanbul.

When asked by journalists on Wednesday if the talks in Türkiye were still on the cards, Peskov replied by saying: “Indeed, the Russian delegation will be waiting for the Ukrainian delegation in Istanbul on Thursday, May 15, that is – tomorrow.” “I can confirm once again that everything that the president said in his statement on May 11… remains relevant,” he stressed. Peskov declined to reveal the lineup of the Russian delegation that will travel to Istanbul. It will be announced “when we receive instructions from the president. So far, there have been no such instructions,” he explained.

On Tuesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said that, during potential talks, Moscow wants to discuss “a sustainable settlement of the situation, first of all, by addressing the very roots of this conflict, resolving issues related to the denazification of the Kiev regime, ensuring recognition of the realities that have developed recently, including the entry of new territories into Russia.” Ryabkov refrained from making any forecasts on the outcome of discussions, but stressed that Moscow is committed to negotiating “seriously and responsibly.”

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“The Ukrainian Constitution bars elections during wartime and requires that presidential authority pass to the speaker of parliament if no legal successor is chosen..”

Zelensky Claims Ban On Russia Talks Doesn’t Apply To Him (RT)

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has claimed that a law he signed banning negotiations with Russia does not apply to him personally, after calling for a direct meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Zelensky intends to travel to Türkiye later this week, where direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine are expected to resume for the first time since Kiev suspended talks in 2022. He has insisted that Putin must attend the talks in person to prove that Moscow has a genuine interest in peace. Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Zelensky rejected claims that his outreach contradicts Ukrainian law. A September 2022 decree, endorsed by Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council and signed by Zelensky, prohibits negotiations with Russia while Putin remains in office. The law was introduced as Kiev pursued a military victory in the conflict.

”It’s a Russian narrative that I cannot speak with Putin,” Zelensky said. “Nobody but me can conduct negotiations on sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, on our course.” Zelensky claimed in January that the ban was intended to prevent unauthorized negotiations by other Ukrainian officials, particularly to curb separatist influences and “shadow” negotiation channels. Russian officials have pointed to the law as evidence that Kiev is unwilling to engage diplomatically. The Ukrainian Constitution bars elections during wartime and requires that presidential authority pass to the speaker of parliament if no legal successor is chosen. Zelensky’s presidential term expired last year, yet he remains in power, dismissing opponents as Kremlin sympathizers for questioning his legitimacy.

Moscow has described Zelensky’s political status as an internal Ukrainian matter but cautioned that any treaties he signs could be challenged for lacking legitimacy. US President Donald Trump, whose administration has offered to broker a peace deal between Kiev and Moscow, has described Zelensky as “a dictator without elections.” The US has conducted multiple rounds of talks with Moscow and Kiev, promoting trust-building measures such as a 30-day moratorium on strikes against energy infrastructure. Russia says its forces adhered fully to the plan, while accusing Ukraine of violating the partial ceasefire multiple times. US officials have called direct talks the next logical step in the Ukraine peace process. Senior American negotiators will reportedly observe the meeting in Istanbul. Kiev has urged its Western supporters to impose additional sanctions on Russia, should Putin decline to attend. Moscow has yet to confirm its delegation.

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Interesting view.

“..should a peace accord be reached during the negotiations, “I don’t know how long the Zelensky regime will [last]. It may fall apart.”

Zelensky’s Regime Only Stable When At War – Former Senior UN Official (RT)

Vladimir Zelensky’s regime enjoys relative stability only because of the conflict with Russia, and so may be reluctant to seal a peace agreement with Moscow, former director-general of the United Nations Office at Geneva, Sergey Ordzhonikidze, has told RT. The untrustworthiness of the Ukrainian leadership will loom large for the Russian delegation during an expected meeting in Istanbul, Türkiye, on Thursday, the veteran diplomat predicted on Tuesday. The talks were originally proposed last week by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who offered to resume direct negotiations between Moscow and Kiev without any preconditions to reach a lasting settlement to the Ukraine conflict.

Zelensky has expressed his readiness to engage in dialogue with the Russian side, but has insisted that it be preceded by an unconditional 30-day ceasefire – a demand Moscow has repeatedly rejected. Zelensky has also said that he would only come to the meeting in Istanbul if Putin attends in person. Ordzhonikidze told RT that should a peace accord be reached during the negotiations, “I don’t know how long the Zelensky regime will [last]. It may fall apart.” “He obviously will have many internal problems because… he has some Nazi, fascist organizations that would [convict] him of betrayal,” he predicted, claiming that “it’s not a stable regime in the sense that it can be stable only during war.” The seasoned Russian diplomat also predicted that once Western leaders see Zelensky as a liability, they will get rid of him without a second thought.

History shows that months and in some cases even years of “homework” have underpinned successful negotiations. While overnight breakthroughs have also happened, much is determined by the level of trust between the parties concerned, Ordzhonikidze stressed. Ukrainian authorities have a poor track record in this respect, he told RT, citing the 2014-2015 Minsk agreements, which were supposed to grant Donetsk and Lugansk regions special status within the Ukrainian state, but were never implemented. ”Obviously, we need a country that would act like a… guarantor of the… possible agreement, if any at all,” Ordzhonikidze stated, noting that even if some nation, most likely the US, assumes the role, there is not much room for optimism as to whether Kiev would honor any agreement.

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“The first direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in more than three years..”

Rubio and Witkoff Will Travel To Istanbul On Friday – Reuters (RT)

US President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff has said he and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to Istanbul on Friday, according to Reuters. Earlier this week, Trump announced that US officials would take part in the upcoming talks on the Ukraine conflict. The first direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in more than three years are set to take place in the Turkish city on May 15. On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to resume dialogue to find a lasting settlement to the ongoing conflict that would address its root causes. Witkoff made the remarks on Wednesday while speaking to reporters in Doha, where he and Rubio are accompanying Trump on a state visit to Qatar as part of a broader Middle East trip.

Trump said on Tuesday that Rubio and other US officials would join the talks in Istanbul. A White House spokesman later clarified to reporters that Rubio, Witkoff and US Special Envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg would attend the negotiations. Trump, who had previously suggested he might attend in person, told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Qatar that his schedule would not allow it. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow would be sending a delegation and expected Ukraine to do the same. Kiev stated previously that Vladimir Zelensky would only talk directly to the Russian president. On Wednesday evening, the Kremlin named its delegation for the talks, to be led by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, who also headed the Russian side during negotiations in Istanbul in 2022.

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Kellogg’s an fool. Dump him. “Russia has rejected the presence of NATO troops in Ukraine in any form..” And look at what Kellogg talks about: NATO troops in Ukraine. He’s like the anti-Witkoff.

Trump Envoy Kellogg Reveals NATO Troop Deployment Plans For Ukraine (RT)

Washington is in talks with its European NATO allies about deploying military contingents to Ukraine as part of a possible post-conflict settlement, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, Keith Kellogg, has said. A group of European NATO member states has for months been seeking to muster a force to be deployed to Ukraine as part of a so-called “coalition of the willing,” purportedly in a post-conflict peacekeeping role. Russia has repeatedly warned it would treat any foreign troops on Ukrainian soil as legitimate targets, saying such a move could escalate the conflict. Speaking to Fox Business on Tuesday, Kellogg said troops from France, Germany, the UK, and Poland could be part of what he described as a “resiliency force.” “This is a force referred to as the E3, but it’s actually now the E4 – when you include the Brits, the French, and the Germans, and in fact, the Poles as well,” he said.

Kellogg added the troops would be positioned west of the Dnieper River, placing them “outside the contact zone.” “And then to the east you have a peacekeeping force, and what it would look like with a third party involved with that. So, you can actually monitor a ceasefire; we have this thing pretty well planned out,” he said. The remarks come as preparations are underway for possible direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul. Kellogg and Steve Witkoff, another senior envoy for US President Donald Trump, are reportedly expected to attend. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday proposed conducting negotiations without preconditions in Türkiye on May 15. Vladimir Zelensky said he was ready to meet Putin on Thursday, but insisted that any talks should be preceded by the start of a 30-day ceasefire.

Moscow has repeatedly ruled out this suggestion, saying such a pause would give Kiev an opportunity to regroup militarily and renew hostilities. On Monday, the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, and the UK, along with the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas, issued a joint statement after talks in London. They pledged “robust security guarantees for Ukraine,” including “exploring the creation of a coalition of air, land, and maritime reassurance forces that could help create confidence in any future peace and support the regeneration of Ukraine’s armed forces.” Russia has rejected the presence of NATO troops in Ukraine in any form. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said it would pose a direct threat to Russia. Security Council Secretary Sergey Shoigu has warned it could trigger World War III, potentially involving nuclear weapons.

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He has no business there at all.

US Opposes Zelensky Attendance At NATO Summit (RT)

The US is against inviting Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky to the NATO summit in The Hague next month, Italy’s ANSA news agency reported on Wednesday, citing anonymous diplomatic sources. Kiev has long sought membership in the US-led military bloc – something Russia considers a fundamental threat to its national security. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly described the prevention of such a scenario as one of Moscow’s top objectives in the Ukraine conflict. Since assuming office in January, US President Donald Trump has on multiple occasions ruled out Ukraine’s accession to NATO in the foreseeable future. In its article, ANSA reported that “for now… a NATO-Ukraine Council at the level of leaders is not planned,” adding, however, that no final decision has been made yet.

According to the publication, Kiev could participate in some of the meetings on June 24-25, but only at the level of foreign and defense ministers. The Italian outlet reported that for the time being the only non-member states that have received invitations are Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. ANSA also reported that “at the moment, a very concise program is expected at the summit, in contrast to what has happened in recent years, to avoid possible friction with Donald Trump.” Zelensky joined NATO leaders for sessions of the NATO-Ukraine Council at the 2023 Vilnius Summit and the 2024 Washington Summit.

Also on Wednesday, Bloomberg quoted unnamed diplomats familiar with the matter as saying that membership for Ukraine will not be on the agenda during the upcoming gathering in the Netherlands, with the main focus expected to be on ramping up defense spending. The outlet similarly reported that the NATO summit in June will likely be shorter than the previous meetings.Speaking during a press conference last Friday, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte stated that “we never agreed that, as part of a peace deal, there would be guaranteed NATO membership for Ukraine.” He emphasized that Ukraine’s accession to the bloc had been agreed upon by its members, but “for the longer term, not for the peace negotiations ongoing at the moment.” Rutte noted, however, that NATO maintains close cooperation with Kiev with respect to military aid and personnel training.

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“Western Europe, once a central pillar of global diplomacy, appears to be in the final phase of its strategic decline – a region now better known for procedure than power.”

The Unraveling of The Old World Order And The Role of Russia (Bordachev)

The day is not far off when the very notion of “international order” will lose its former meaning – just as happened with the once-theoretical concept of “multipolarity.” Originally conceived in the mid-20th century as a way to balance power among great states, multipolarity now bears little resemblance to what its originators had in mind. The same is increasingly true of international order. In recent years, it has become commonplace to say that the global balance of power is shifting and that previous leaders are no longer able to maintain their dominant positions. This much is obvious. No group of states today is capable of enforcing its vision of justice or order upon the rest of the world. Traditional international institutions are weakening, and their functions are being re-evaluated or hollowed out. Western Europe, once a central pillar of global diplomacy, appears to be in the final phase of its strategic decline – a region now better known for procedure than power.

But before we join the chorus, lamenting or celebrating the end of one era and the start of another, it is worth asking: what exactly is “international order”? Too often, this concept is treated as a given, when in fact it has always been a tool – one used primarily by states with both the means and the will to coerce others into accepting certain rules of the game. Historically, “international order” has been imposed by dominant powers capable of enforcing it. But today, emerging players outside the Western sphere – nations like China and India – may not be particularly interested in taking up that role. Why should they invest their resources in a vague, abstract idea that primarily served the interests of others?

The second traditional purpose of international order has been to prevent revolutionary upheaval. In the current strategic environment, this function is largely fulfilled not by institutions or diplomacy but by the simple fact of mutual nuclear deterrence. The handful of states with major nuclear capabilities – Russia, the United States, China, and a few others – are enough to keep general war at bay. No other powers are capable of truly challenging them in an existential way. For better or worse, that is what guarantees relative global stability.It is therefore naive to expect new great powers to be enthusiastic participants in building a new international order in the traditional sense. All past orders, including the current UN-centered one, emerged from intra-Western conflicts. Russia, while not a Western country in the cultural or institutional sense, played a decisive role in those conflicts – especially the Second World War – and was central to the global architecture that followed.

In fact, one could argue that the current international order, such as it is, was a product of Russia’s intervention in a Western civil war. It’s no coincidence that at the 1815 Congress of Vienna, Tsar Alexander I behaved not as one of many European leaders, but as a figure set apart – an “arbiter of Europe.” Russia has always seen itself this way: too large, too sovereign, and too independent to be just another node in someone else’s system. This is a key distinction. For Russia, participation in international order has never been an end in itself, but a means to preserve its own unique position in world affairs. That is something it has pursued with remarkable persistence for over two centuries.

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“..Russia has a far more productive engagement with many countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America than with most in Europe.”

Russia Doesn’t Need Western Approval To Shape Global History (Lukyanov)

The 9th of May Victory Day celebrations in Moscow once again captured international attention – despite the many other global events vying for the headlines. This wasn’t simply about pageantry or military symbolism. The Red Square parade was, as always, a statement: a public expression of one country’s position in the evolving global environment. Whether critics will admit it or not, events like this provoke reactions – and that in itself signals relevance. Eighty years after the end of the Second World War, the memory of that conflict is being viewed through new lenses. It was, undeniably, a world war – its consequences reshaped the international order. The creation of the United Nations was its most formal legacy, but the broader historical impact extended far beyond. The war marked the beginning of the end for the colonial system.

From the late 1940s onward, decolonization accelerated rapidly. Within three decades, colonial empires had all but disappeared, and dozens of new states emerged across Africa, Asia, and elsewhere. Their paths varied, but they fundamentally changed the structure of global politics. Looking back from 2025, one could argue that this wave of decolonization – driven by the global South – was no less historically important than the Cold War or the bipolar superpower confrontation. Today, the role of the so-called “global majority” is expanding quickly. These nations may not dominate the international system, but they increasingly form a vibrant, influential environment in which all global actors must operate. The presence of guests from Asia, Africa, and Latin America at this year’s parade in Moscow was a symbolic confirmation of that shift.

It signaled that the world has definitively moved beyond the Cold War structure, which framed international life around a North Atlantic-centric axis. Equally important was the fact that this reconfiguration was highlighted in Moscow – through Russia’s own initiative. It reflected not just commemoration, but transformation. A similar event is expected in Beijing in September to mark the end of the war in the Pacific theater. Together, these ceremonies highlight how the geopolitical center of gravity is gradually shifting away from its traditional Western base. As time distances us from the largest war in human history, its meaning doesn’t diminish. On the contrary, it reappears in new forms. Like it or not, memory has become a political force. It increasingly defines which community a country belongs to. Each nation has its own version of the war – and that’s to be expected. This isn’t revisionism. It’s the natural result of different historical experiences shaped under different conditions.

There will never be a single unified narrative of the past, and attempts to impose one are not only unrealistic but dangerous. The focus should be on finding compatibility between differing interpretations, not enforcing uniformity. Using memory as a political weapon erodes the foundations of peaceful international coexistence. This issue is particularly relevant for the global majority, which may one day voice its own historical claims more loudly – especially against former colonial powers in the West. In this context, the growing divergence between Russia and Western Europe over the legacy of the Second World War cannot be ignored. Efforts to preserve and defend Russia’s interpretation of the conflict are vital – not to convince others, but for domestic coherence and national identity. Other countries will write their own histories, shaped by their own interests. That cannot be controlled from the outside. The real issue is whether differing historical narratives can coexist. And on this front, it turns out that Russia has a far more productive engagement with many countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America than with most in Europe.

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“Just two-months ago, Ahmad al-Sharaa remained designated as an al-Qaeda terrorist by the United States Government, there was a $10 million-dollar bounty on his head. Yesterday, as Syria’s interim President, Ammad al-Sharaa shook hands with President Donald Trump in Saudi Arabia.”

Trump Shocks the World – Again (Spencer)

Trump has done it again. That much is clear. He has outmaneuvered and out-thought everyone else, and did what many others assumed to be impossible. But what exactly has he done? On Wednesday morning, during his trip to Saudi Arabia, Trump met with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who from 2017 until January of this year, was known as Abu Mohammad al-Julani. Al-Sharaa was the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the “Syrian Liberation Group,” a Sunni jihad group that had been linked to al-Qaeda and was working to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. In January 2025, HTS finally attained its goal. Assad fled to Russia. Al-Julani took control in Damascus and announced that he was establishing a regime that would respect the rights of all Syrians. He insisted that he had broken with al-Qaeda years before, and to signify that he was a new man, he shed his nom de guerre and reverted to his birth name. He trimmed his beard, took off his fatigues, and donned a suit.

Yet almost immediately, al-Sharaa’s attempts to construct a new image for himself foundered upon harsh reality. His forces were involved in mass killings of members of the Alawite sect. Since Bashar Assad was an Alawite, this sect was associated with the old regime. As recently as March 7, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz declared that al-Sharaa was behind it: “Al-Julani took off his galabiya, put on a suit, and presented a moderate facade. Now, he has removed the mask, revealing his true face: a jihadist terrorist from the Al-Qaeda school, committing atrocities against the Alawite civilian population.” Al-Sharaa, however, condemned the killings and vowed to punish those responsible, even if they were his own men, saying: “Syria is a state of law. The law will take its course on all. We fought to defend the oppressed, and we won’t accept that any blood be shed unjustly, or goes without punishment or accountability, even among those closest to us.”

How since is al-Sharaa? Is he still a jihadist, practicing Muhammad’s dictum, “War is deceit”? Or does he genuinely wish to establish a regime in Syria that will ensure the rights of all people? Donald Trump is giving him a chance to put up or shut up. Trump made it clear throughout the 2024 presidential campaign: he was determined to end the cycle of endless wars and establish a new era of peace. He repeatedly made it clear that this would involve challenging what the foreign policy establishment has long held to be unquestionable truths, and finding new ways to reach accords with previously hostile entities based on common interests. In many ways, Trump’s meeting with al-Sharaa is as momentous, and could be more momentous, than his first-term overtures to Kim Jong Un. The two meetings come from the same wellsprings: Trump is attempting to break longstanding logjams and end the status quo that the foreign policy establishment, both inside the U.S. and elsewhere, had come to take for granted.

NBC News reported Wednesday that Trump announced: “We are currently exploring normalizing relations with Syria’s new government, as you know, beginning with my meeting with President Ahmed al-Sharaa.” Yet he is not proceeding without asking certain things of al-Sharaa as well. NBC reported that he “encouraged Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to recognize Israel’s statehood.”Trump explained to al-Sharaa that he had “a tremendous opportunity to do something historic in his country.” The president “urged the Syrian leader to sign on to the Abraham Accords.” He “also advised Sharaa to tell foreign terrorists to leave Syria, deport Palestinian terrorists, help the U.S. prevent the resurgence of the Islamic State and assume responsibility for Islamic State detention centers in Syria’s northeast.” Trump declared that he wanted to give Syria “a chance at greatness.”

So Trump wants to make peace with old foes based on mutual economic interests. He is giving al-Sharaa a chance to demonstrate that he really is no longer a jihadi and wants to build a stable and prosperous Syria. It could happen. The global jihad, although it is ignored everywhere, continues nevertheless. It never goes away. Individuals and states, however, can and do put it aside for considerable periods in order to pursue other interests. A reminder of how difficult this will be, however, came in the fact that, as NBC noted, “Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was also present and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined by phone.” The presence of Erdogan on the phone was a reminder that al-Sharaa has been propped up by Turkish forces, and that many see his forces in Syria as a tool of Erdogan’s interests in restoring the Ottoman caliphate.

This is a matter Trump may well have to deal with before too long. Whether or not al-Sharaa is sincere in renouncing jihad, Erdogan seems to be moving in the opposite direction. Nevertheless, Trump’s attempt to create peace based on common interests and move beyond the present logjam is as welcome as it is audacious. Once again, Trump appears to be way ahead of everyone else, as he was when he established the Abraham Accords even as John Kerry was confidently telling the world that such a thing was impossible. The establishment will howl at Trump’s meeting; that’s only to be expected. The president, meanwhile, is moving ahead with astonishing vision, immense confidence, and considerable imagination. The peace and stability of the Middle East, and of the entire world, are riding upon his success.

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Orders: $200 billion. Qatar GDP: $200 billion. “Qatar and the US also signed a commitment to generating $1.2 trillion worth of economic exchange..”

Qatar Commits To “Largest Order Of Jets In The History Of Boeing” (NYP)

President Trump announced Wednesday that the Qatari government had committed to the “largest order of jets in the history of Boeing” — touting the transaction despite trashing the American company earlier this week for its slowness in delivering a new Air Force One. Trump said the oil and gas-rich monarchy, which has offered to provide the US president with a luxury “palace on wings,” committed to spending $160 billion on the planes as part of a broader $243.5 billion economic pledge. “We’re going to see some of it in action tomorrow…. it’s going to be an air fair,” Trump said during a meeting with the country’s leaders shortly after he arrived in the ultramodern capital on the shores of the Persian Gulf. Wednesday evening, at a state dinner in Trump’s honor, the president said that the investments could ultimately generate $1.2 trillion in economic activity.

“Working together, we can help the entire region unlock its potential,” Trump told his host, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. “You have unbelievable potential here, such great, such rich land, such beautiful, magnificent — it’s just a magnificent place, and you’re unlocking its potential.” Moments earlier, the emir had said Trump’s decision to visit Qatar on the first major overseas trip of his second term “was no mystery.” “Yes, the United States is a superpower, boosting the largest economy and military force in history,” al-Thani said. “Meanwhile, Qatar is one of the smallest countries with one of the smallest populations, and as the Americans in the room know, DC is almost 7,000 miles away from here, but my friends, small nations have their own superpowers, resilience, nimbleness, and we are a powerful agent for peace precisely because of our size.”

A White House fact sheet describing the new business deals said that “Boeing and GE Aerospace secured a landmark order from Qatar Airways, a $96 billion agreement to acquire up to 210 American-made Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 777X aircraft powered by GE Aerospace engines.” The release described the transaction as “Boeing’s largest-ever widebody order and largest-ever 787 order. This historic agreement will support 154,000 U.S. jobs annually, totaling over 1 million jobs in the United States during the course of production and delivery of this deal.” The reason for the discrepancy between the topline plane-sale figures cited by Trump and the fact sheet was not immediately clear. Trump hailed what he called a “very special relationship” with Qatar, even likening one royal to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, calling both men “tall handsome guys.”

Qatar, which hosts more than 10,000 US military forces at Al Udeid Air Base just outside Doha, has forged a close relationship with Trump dating to his first term, when American advisers helped broker a deal to end a Saudi-led blockade of the peninsular nation. Qatar has offered to give Trump a luxuriously upgraded Boeing 747-8 worth an estimated $400 million, drawing bipartisan pushback. That jet, currently parked in the US, won’t be presented during the visit, the White House says. Trump has repeatedly defended the proposed transaction, telling Fox News host Sean Hannity in an interview that aired Tuesday night: “We’re the United States of America – I believe that we should have the most impressive plane.” “Some people say, ‘Oh, you shouldn’t accept gifts for the country.’ My attitude is, why wouldn’t I accept a gift?” the president added. “We’re giving to everybody else, why wouldn’t I accept a gift? Because it’s going to be a couple of years, I think, before the Boeings are finished.”

On Monday, Trump told reporters at the White House that he was “very disappointed” in the timetable for the delivery of two US-made jets, currently set for 2027 and 2028. “They’re way behind,” he said. “They were way behind, another mess that I inherited from Biden, and it’s going to be a while before we get them.” Qatar and the US also signed a commitment to generating $1.2 trillion worth of economic exchange in the years to come, without specifying details. Massachusetts-based Raytheon will receive $1 billion from Doha for access to the company’s counter-drone capabilities, making Qatar the first in the world to obtain Raytheon’s Fixed Site – Low, Slow, Small Unmanned Aerial System Integrated Defeat System (FS-LIDS), dedicated to attacking unmanned aircraft.

Qatar will also pay San Diego-based General Atomics nearly $2 billion deal to acquire the company’s MQ-9B remotely piloted aircraft system. The two countries also outlined future potential security deals amounting to $38 billion, according to a White House readout.“These new agreements and instruments aim to drive the growth of the U.S.-Qatar bilateral commercial relationship, create thousands of well-paying jobs, and open new trade and investment opportunities for both countries over the coming decade and beyond,” the administration said. On Tuesday, Trump signed deals securing $600 billion worth of investments with Saudi Arabia — with more agreements expected when the president visits the UAE for the final stop of his trip.

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“The anti-Trump economic narratives haven’t just failed; they’ve completely collapsed.”

Every Anti-Trump Economic Narrative Is Collapsing (Margolis)

Remember how the liberal media and Democrats warned that Donald Trump’s economic policies would bring about financial armageddon? How many times have they been proven wrong? I haven’t been keeping track, but they’ve been proven wrong once again. This shouldn’t surprise anyone. When Trump was president from 2017 to 2021, we experienced one of the strongest economies in our nation’s history until COVID hit. The liberal media spent four years trying to convince us that Barack Obama deserved credit for Trump’s economic success, and then it spent the last three years insisting that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris deserved credit for the post-COVID recovery. The media’s latest effort was to convince the public that Trump’s tariffs were going to cause prices to soar and send us into a recession. Even the liberal media has had to admit that that just ain’t happening.

“Prices climbed at an unexpectedly slow pace last month, offering a boost to President Donald Trump, whose aggressive trade policies have sparked fears of a resurgence in inflation,” Politico reported on Tuesday. “The Labor Department on Tuesday reported that prices rose at an annual rate of 2.3 percent, the smallest increase since early 2021. While price growth in so-called core sectors of the economy — which exclude volatile food and energy costs — remained elevated at 2.8 percent, April’s Consumer Price Index contained only scant evidence that Trump’s tariffs have meaningfully driven up the cost of living.” Even though tariff rates have fallen since the administration negotiated a temporary détente with China, Fed Governor Adriana Kugler said Monday that the administration’s new taxes on imports are still “pretty high” and that she expects inflation to rise and growth to slow soon.

So far, that hasn’t happened. Few economists had expected that overall inflation surged last month. But there was broad anticipation that Trump’s levies on Chinese imports, steel and aluminum and certain Canadian and Mexican products had caused prices for apparel, electronics and other consumer goods to spike. If anything, the opposite occurred: The cost of clothing and new cars — two areas that were highly exposed to Trump’s initial levies — both fell. Similarly, inflation hit its lowest level since 2021. It certainly pained CNN to report that. And remember that recession experts told us was totally happening this year? JP Morgan is no longer predicting that it will happen. Of course, Politico was not only disappointed that the bad predictions of the Trump economy didn’t pan out, but it also lamented how this will embolden Trump.

“The CPI report will likely bolster the administration’s claims that grim forecasts for the economy have been overblown,” the paper groaned. The report will also amplify Trump’s calls for Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell to lower interest rates. Powell and other Fed policymakers have warned that the rapid escalation of import costs may soon cause consumer prices to spike and that the central bank needs to keep inflation at bay.n And many economists still expect inflation to rebound in the coming months. Analysts at Citi say they expect the personal consumption expenditures index — the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge — to climb by 3 percent by the end of the year. While that is less than their previous forecast for 3.5 percent inflation, it’s still well above the Fed’s annual target of 2 percent. The anti-Trump economic narratives haven’t just failed; they’ve completely collapsed.

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Trump just announced a tariff deal offer from India. The big ones first, the rest will follow.

Trump Economy Defies ‘Gloom And Doom’ Expectations (Whedon)

With April’s inflation report coming in below forecasts, the Trump economy appears to be defying analysts’ and politicians’ predictions of collapse in the wake of his “Liberation Day” tariffs and subsequent trade negotiations. As Trump adds more notches to his belt in deals with key trade partners, the stock market has rebounded to pre-tariff levels, even while many tariffs remain largely in place on major economies such as China and the UK. In April of this year, former Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the developments of Trump’s tariffs point to “a loss of confidence in U.S. economic policy” and called the tariffs “the worst self-inflicted policy wound I’ve ever seen in my career inflicted on our economy […] they are “doing immense damage.” Trump, on April 2, announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs on nearly every nation, imposing a “reciprocal” rate calibrated to address the American trade deficit with each nation.

The tariffs far exceeded what analysts had expected, and the stock market was sent reeling for days. Trump himself reshared a video suggesting that he deliberately crashed the market to force an interest rate cut to allow the government to refinance its debt at a lower rate. Bond markets bucked at the move and Trump ultimately announced a 90-day pause on most tariffs to pursue trade agreements, though he left in place a 10% baseline and kept China’s above 100%. Markets gradually recovered, and major indices have since exceeded their April 1 closes. Boosting some of that movement have been trade deals with the United Kingdom and China, two of the biggest American trading partners. Both deals resulted in lower import tariffs on American goods and higher import tariffs on goods from those nations, marking net gains for the U.S. in Trump’s bid to rebalance trade.

Read together, multiple indicators suggest that the Trump economy defied expectations and that the trade policies did not adversely damage the nation’s overall economic health. If the trend continues, Trump will have fulfilled what politicians call “dinner table” issues for millions of Americans. Inflation fell to an annualized rate of 2.3% in April, down from the March figure of 2.4%. Analysts had expected it to hold steady. January’s inflation rate stood at 3.0%, and the figure has marked a steady decline since Trump took office. Inflation reached a high of 9.1% in July 2022 in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the issue was a leading factor in driving down President Joe Biden’s approval rating in subsequent years. Trump campaigned extensively on the issue, saying he would bring inflation down through energy production.

[..] After more than a month of negotiations, Trump confirmed last week that he had reached an agreement on trade with the United Kingdom, marking the first substantive deal since Liberation Day. “The agreement with the United Kingdom is a full and comprehensive one that will cement the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom for many years to come,” Trump said on Truth Social ahead of the formal agreement. The agreement left in place the 10% reciprocal tariff and subjected imported vehicles from the UK to a 25% tariff after the first 100,000. In 2024, UK automakers only exported 106,000 cars to the United States. In turn, the UK lowered its tariff rates on U.S. goods from 5.1% to 1.8%. UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer made a phone cameo at the announcement, saying “there are no two countries that are closer than our two countries that now we take this into new and important territory by adding trade and the economy to the closeness of our relationship.”

The most aggressive — and widely reported — trade standoff came with China, as Trump left high tariffs in place even as he paused those on most other nations for 90 days. Boosting market sentiment, this week Beijing and Washington reached an agreement to substantially lower their tariffs, with the U.S. setting its rate at 30% for imported Chinese goods and the Chinese dropping theirs to 10%. “This initiative aligns with the expectations of producers and consumers in both countries and serves the interests of both nations as well as the common interests of the world,” the Chinese Commerce Ministry said in a statement republished by PBS. PBS added that “The ministry called the agreement an important step for the resolution of the two countries’ differences and said it lays the foundation for further cooperation.”

“The consensus from both delegations this weekend is neither side wants a decoupling,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at the time. “And what had occurred with these very high tariffs … was an embargo, the equivalent of an embargo. And neither side wants that. We do want trade.” Trump on Tuesday signed an agreement with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and secured $600 billion in investment pledges during his trip to that nation. Another possible indicator of economic vibrancy is the pace of U.S. vacation travel. The American Automobile Association (AAA) this year expects a record 45.1 million Americans to travel for Memorial Day, according to a press release. The organization also predicted a 2% hike in air travel over the weekend.

Since January 2025, the U.S. economy has also steadily added jobs, including a gain of 143,000 in January and 177,000 in April. The unemployment rate has remained steady at 4.2%, with the Department of Labor reporting that the economy added 177,000 jobs in defiance of expectations. In March, the economy added 228,000 jobs. Bloomberg News reported that JPMorgan Chase & Co. on Tuesday dropped its recession call for 2025, saying “[t]he administration’s recent dialing down of some of the more draconian tariffs placed on China should reduce the risk that the US economy slips into recession this year.” JPMorgan’s Chief US Economist Michael Feroli was optimistic but guarded, saying “We believe recession risks are still elevated, but now below 50%.”

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21 days’ notice, in English and Spanish. For gang members?

Federal Judge Says Trump’s Invocation of Alien Enemies Act Was Legal (ET)

A federal judge in Pennsylvania has ruled that President Donald Trump validly invoked the Alien Enemies Act in March as part of an effort to deport Venezuelan gang members. More specifically, U.S. District Judge Stephanie Haines held that the gang—Tren de Aragua (TdA)—was engaging in the type of “predatory incursion” that the Alien Enemies Act mentions. In an opinion issued on May 13, Haines noted that TdA has been designated a foreign terrorist organization. That designation, she said, “heavily supports the conclusions … that TdA is a cohesive group united by a common goal of causing significant disruption to the public safety of the United States.”Three other district court judges have ruled against the Trump administration, finding that a proclamation Trump issued in March misapplied the law. Each of those judges disagreed with Trump’s description of TdA as engaging in an invasion or predatory incursion.

Trump invoked the law in March, stating that TdA gang members had infiltrated the Venezuelan regime and invaded the United States, justifying their expedited removal. “Evidence irrefutably demonstrates that TdA has invaded the United States and continues to invade, attempt to invade, and threaten to invade the country; perpetrated irregular warfare within the country; and used drug trafficking as a weapon against our citizens,” Trump’s March 15 proclamation reads. In a federal court in New York City, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein disagreed. On May 6, he found that TdA members “do not seek to occupy territory, to oust American jurisdiction from any territory, or to ravage territory. “In April, the Supreme Court intervened twice in related cases, but without ruling on whether the administration had properly invoked the Alien Enemies Act.

Instead, it halted some deportations in a brief order on April 19, and told the administration on April 7 that it must provide suspected gang members with notice that they are subject to removal, as well as an opportunity to challenge their detention. It specified that “the notice must be afforded within a reasonable time and in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek habeas relief,” which is a legal avenue for challenging one’s detention. Haines also issued an order on May 13 that stated the administration had provided insufficient notice to detainees. She said that the administration couldn’t remove a Venezuelan national who had brought the lawsuit in Pennsylvania unless it provided 21 days’ notice, among other things. Her order also required that the notice be provided in English and Spanish.

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Too complex for senators and congress(wo)men.

Average Americans Poised for Double-Digit Tax Cuts In 2027 (ZH)

A sweeping Republican tax overhaul proposal, estimated to deliver double-digit percentage reductions in tax bills for average-income Americans, is drawing mounting opposition in the Senate over its accompanying cuts to health care and clean energy programs – underscoring the internal divisions complicating Republican efforts to advance a unified economic agenda. According to a new analysis from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), households earning between $30,000 and $80,000 would see their federal taxes drop by approximately 15 percent in 2027 under the House GOP plan. Americans earning between $15,000 and $30,000 would see an even steeper 21 percent decline – at least initially. But those same low-income earners would see their tax bills rise sharply in later years unless extended, with increases of 12 percent in 2029 and 20 percent in 2030, the JCT found.

The report attributed some of those changes to proposed reforms of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), a benefit for low-income workers that Republicans argue is vulnerable to improper payments. While the report’s topline numbers have fueled Republican claims that the proposal is middle-class focused, Democrats seized on the overall distribution of tax cuts in dollar terms, Politico reports. Taxpayers earning more than $500,000 are slated to receive an aggregate cut of about $170 billion in 2027 – nearly triple the $59 billion going to households earning $30,000 to $80,000. The proposal has already provoked heated exchanges in the House Ways and Means Committee, where lawmakers debated the fairness and sustainability of the tax package. Democrats derided the bill as a boon to the wealthy, while Republicans pointed to new breaks for tips, overtime, and seniors as evidence of its broader appeal.

The report is not a complete picture of winners and losers under Republicans’ plans. It doesn’t include a potential deal among lawmakers to further increase the SALT cap, beyond a proposed $30,000 limit. The report also only looks at the tax side of Republican plans, and does not account for changes in spending programs, like Medicaid. -Politico. “It’s a trick,” said Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI). “You do it temporarily so you can get through the 2026 election” and “then these benefits for children and elders and workers disappear, while the tax benefits for the ultra-wealthy soar.” Yet beyond the debate over tax cuts, the House plan is facing stiff resistance in the Senate for how it proposes to offset some of the revenue losses: by slashing Medicaid and rolling back key clean energy incentives passed under the Biden administration.

A Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimate found that the House bill’s Medicaid reforms could result in 8.6 million people losing health care coverage, largely due to new work requirements, cost-sharing mandates, and restrictions on how states finance their Medicaid programs. Several Senate Republicans voiced concern over the health care implications, especially for rural areas. “These are working people in particular who are going to have to pay more,” said Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO), referring to new cost-sharing rules. He warned that changes to provider taxes – which states use to draw federal Medicaid dollars – could reduce coverage in his state and strain rural hospitals. “I continue to maintain my position we should not be cutting Medicaid benefits,” Hawley said. Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), said the proposed treatment of provider taxes “would be very harmful to Maine’s hospitals,” echoing concerns raised by other senators from rural and Medicaid-reliant states.

Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), also pointed to the disproportionate burden that Medicaid cuts would place on states like hers, calling the issue a key sticking point in ongoing Senate discussions. In addition to health care, some senate Republicans are also wary of the House’s aggressive plans to unwind tax credits for clean energy and hydrogen development, incentives championed in the Inflation Reduction Act and credited with bringing manufacturing investments and jobs to red and purple states alike. Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), who faces a competitive reelection race next year, expressed concern over quickly ending climate initiatives – suggesting that the House language on energy tax rollbacks would need to be revised. “You can’t shock the markets by doing it all at once,” Tillis said of the proposed clean energy phaseouts. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) also flagged potential impacts to her state’s clean hydrogen initiatives, saying she would review the House’s plan to eliminate the 45V hydrogen production credit, which could affect nearly $1 billion in planned federal support for the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub.

The House GOP plan is expected to pass narrowly along party lines, but Senate Republicans made clear this week that the legislation will require significant changes to win broader support in the upper chamber. “We are coordinating very closely with our House counterparts,” said Senate Minority Whip John Thune of South Dakota. “We know they have to get 218 votes… but it’s likely we’ll have a Senate substitute.” As Republican leaders try to reconcile competing priorities — delivering tax relief, restraining federal spending, and maintaining political support in swing states — the path forward for the legislation remains uncertain. “How we navigate this,” said Murkowski, “is something we’re all trying to wander through.”

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“The so-called “Pfizergate” decision comes as a major embarrassment for the EU chief..”

Like she cares. In reality, she’s now free to do it again.

Court Rules On Von Der Leyen’s Secret Covid Vaccine Deal Messages (RT)

The European Commission wrongly denied the media access to secret text messages between its president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the CEO of pharma giant Pfizer, exchanged during negotiations of a multi-billion dollar Covid-19 vaccine deal, the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled on Wednesday. The so-called “Pfizergate” decision comes as a major embarrassment for the EU chief, who has responsibility for transparency and rule of law issues in the bloc. The case centers on a 2021 interview von der Leyen gave to the NYT in which she claimed she had been negotiating a deal for 900 million COVID vaccine shots with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla via sms messages. The NYT subsequently filed an access request for the messages, to which the EC claimed the texts, which have never been released, were not in its possession.

The court ruled that the EC “cannot merely state that it does not hold the requested documents but must provide credible explanations enabling the public and the Court to understand why those documents cannot be found.” It also criticized the Commission for failing to justify why the texts were not retained and to clarify how they were deleted. In response, the EC said it recognized the need for greater transparency and promised to issue a new decision with more detailed reasoning. It did not, however, commit to releasing the messages in question. The ruling can be appealed to the European Court of Justice. A similar CJEU judgment last July found that the EC lacked transparency in how it negotiated vaccine contracts with Pfizer and AstraZeneca. The deals, signed in 2020 and 2021 and worth approximately €2.7 billion ($3 billion), were shielded from disclosure to European Parliament members on the grounds of protecting commercial interests.

https://twitter.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1922564484838609364

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Can’t make Trudy look bad!

Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer Signed Oath to Conceal COVID Info (YN)

Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, and nearly 30 senior federal health officials signed a confidential oath during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, pledging not to release information that could “embarrass” the Trudeau cabinet, according to internal records obtained through Access to Information requests. The oath, revealed by Blacklock’s Reporter, was part of a broader secrecy policy within the Public Health Agency and other government departments including Health, Industry, Foreign Affairs, and National Defence. Internal communications from 2020 show that vaccine supply manager Alan Thom voiced concern about the widespread requirement for federal managers to sign non-disclosure agreements, noting, “at a certain point the Department of Public Works determined individual non-disclosure agreements were no longer needed… as we are all covered through our responsibilities as public servants.”

The confidentiality agreement emphasized that any “unauthorized disclosure of confidential information… may result in embarrassment, criticism or claims against Canada and may jeopardize Canada’s supplier relations and procurement processes.” Managers acknowledged their ongoing obligations under the Values And Ethics Code For The Public Sector, according to the documents. The oaths were signed shortly after the Trudeau administration secured billions in COVID-19 vaccine contracts with companies including Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Novavax, Johnson & Johnson, Medicago, and Sanofi. Dr. Tam, a longtime proponent of mass vaccination, oversaw public messaging during the rollout. The first mRNA vaccine to be approved in Canada was Pfizer’s BioNTech shot, authorized on December 9, 2020, followed closely by Moderna’s vaccine.

The approvals came after the Trudeau government granted vaccine manufacturers legal immunity from liability for adverse effects. Parliamentarians requesting to review those contracts were denied access. In response to growing reports of vaccine-related injuries, Canada launched its Vaccine Injury Support Program (VISP) in late 2020. As reported by LifeSiteNews, the program was created after legal protections were granted to pharmaceutical companies. A memo from Canada’s Department of Health now warns that VISP payouts are set to exceed the program’s original $75 million budget, prompting the federal government to allocate an additional $36 million. Despite dwindling public demand, the government continues to purchase new doses, even as its own statistics show widespread rejection of booster injections by Canadians. Compounding concerns, an inhalable mRNA vaccine—developed using fetal cell lines and funded by Ottawa—has now entered Phase 2 clinical trials.

Data from Statistics Canada also indicates that post-vaccine rollout, deaths attributed to COVID-19 and “unspecified causes” significantly increased, raising further questions about the long-term safety and effectiveness of the vaccine campaign. LifeSiteNews has compiled an extensive archive of research linking COVID mRNA injections to adverse events such as myocarditis, blood clots, and fertility issues. Additional findings highlight risks in children, while all currently available COVID shots have ties to abortion-derived fetal cell lines. With growing scrutiny over vaccine safety and government transparency, the revelation that Canada’s top public health officials signed agreements to avoid reputational harm to federal leadership adds another layer of controversy to the country’s pandemic response.

Oath

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“..European puppet leaders are planning to establish a “special tribunal” within the framework of the Council of Europe to judge Russia for “aggression” and other alleged crimes in Ukraine..”

A New False Tribunal Is In The Making (Stephen Karganovic)

Kaja Kallas’ delusional and laughably ill-timed announcement, made the day after Russia’s 9 May Victory Day triumph in Moscow, that European puppet leaders are planning to establish a “special tribunal” within the framework of the Council of Europe to judge Russia for “aggression” and other alleged crimes in Ukraine jogs some memories from the Hague. ICTY, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, is located there, as the new Tribunal Kallas has mentioned will also be. This writer had spent some of the most interesting years of his life there. An enduring memory is former Serbian and Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who was abducted by the vassal regime installed in his country after the October 2000 colour revolution and sent to the Hague to be put on trial. During his initial appearance in the courtroom, addressing the judges and Prosecutor Carla del Ponte, Milosevic referred to the court as a “false tribunal.”

That phrase stuck in my mind. Milosevic’s English was adequate, but it was not flawless. Hence the picturesque turn of phrase he used. Had he been more fluent in idiomatic English he would have called it a “phony” or “bogus” tribunal. Instead he translated what he meant to say directly from his native Serbian with a result that was more amusing than academically precise. But no harm was done. In fact, under the circumstances the glaringly unidiomatic locution made his profound point even stronger. Regrettably, Kaja Kallas has not disclosed technical details about the projected Tribunal which should be made available before the credibility of this venture can be properly assessed. There are several parameters that must be established before any such “court” can be taken seriously.

The first of these is a clear definition of the new judicial body’s mandate. It is not enough merely to say that it shall deal with war crimes and crimes against humanity arising from the conflict in the Ukraine since February 2022. Whose crimes will be the subject of the court’s investigation and ultimately judgment? Kallas’ rationale behind the creation of this court raises serious issues in that regard. She refers exclusively to “Russian crimes,” a reference also echoed by EU Commission President Ursula van den Leyen and EU Rule of Law Commissioner Michael McGrath. Has no one else been observed committing crimes in Ukraine during the period under consideration, or perhaps going back a bit further, to 2014? If there are any lingering doubts concerning this matter, which directly impacts the Tribunal’s objectivity, they were settled by the clarification on the European Commission posted on its website:

“The Tribunal will have the power to investigate, prosecute and try Russian political and military leaders, who bear the greatest responsibility for the crime of aggression against Ukraine.”

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Plandemic

Ed Dowd: If this is true in humans we have a potential gigantic demographic time bomb globally. Just halt the jabs and investigate.

https://twitter.com/NicHulscher/status/1922329204336541772

Florida

Party

Cats
https://twitter.com/buitengebieden/status/1922379741539017148

Owl

Otomati

 

 

 

 

Support the Automatic Earth in wartime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.

 

 

 

 

 

May 032025
 
 May 3, 2025  Posted by at 9:35 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , ,  41 Responses »


Pablo Picasso Girl with a boat (Maya Picasso) 1938

 

US Demands Direct Russia-Ukraine Talks (RT)
Russia and Ukraine ‘Closer’ To Settlement – Rubio (RT)
Ukraine Conflict ‘Not Going to End Any Time Soon’ – Vance (Sp.)
Ukrainian MP Threatens Terror Attack On Red Square (RT)
Brussels Floats Trade Solution To Trump – FT (RT)
European Security Is Impossible Without Russia (Fetouri)
Trump Claims US Did ‘More Than Any Other Country’ to Win World War II (Sp.)
Ukraine Can’t Reclaim Lost Territory – Rubio (RT)
The Hardest Working Man In The Trump Administration (Sarah Anderson)
What’s Normal, Exactly? (James Howard Kunstler)
We’re Gonna Lose the PR War Over Tariffs Until We Start Doing THIS (Pinsker)
Germany’s AfD Party ‘Definitely Right-Wing Extremist’: Spy Agency (RMX)
Germany ‘Has Rebuilt The Berlin Wall’ – Vance (RT)
Germany Is Weaponizing WWII Memory Against Russia (Amar)
Germany Is ‘Tyranny In Disguise’ – Rubio (RT)
Odessa Massacre: Point of No Return Marked Ukraine’s Slide Into Nazism (Sp.)
Trump Reportedly Turns To L3Harris For “Interim” Air Force One Jet (ZH)
The Ghost in the Machine. AI and The Spectral Ontology of Value (Ruggeri)

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1917982262869582328

Miller

RFK

https://twitter.com/nicksortor/status/1918101908889206911
https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/1918108357245751334

Full

 

 

 

 

As the week progresses, attention will increasingly shift to the consequences of the tariffs dispute. It’s been a month since Liberation day, and that’s the time Chinese goods need to arrive in the US – or not. The MSM will milk it not just for everything it is, but for everything they can make it appear to be.

As for Ukraine, the US needs to lose Zelensky and his Azov neo nazi support.

US Demands Direct Russia-Ukraine Talks (RT)

The US will no longer serve as mediator in negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce has said. Speaking at a regular press briefing on Thursday, she stated it was time for the two parties to propose their own solutions and engage in direct talks. Trump had previously pledged to end the Ukraine conflict “within 24 hours” if elected, though he later described the claim as an “exaggeration.” Since taking office in January, he has pressed both sides for a ceasefire but has expressed frustration over the slow progress in the talks. Trump has warned that the US may withdraw from the peace process if it continues to falter. Earlier, Moscow signaled it’s ready to start direct negotiations with Kiev “without preconditions,” while Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian forces to observe a short ceasefire during Victory Day celebrations next week.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has branded the Russian truce announcement a “manipulation.” “We will not be the mediators,” Bruce told reporters when asked about Washington’s future role. “We certainly are still committed to it and we’ll help and do what we can, but we are not going to fly around the world at the drop of a hat to mediate meetings.” “It’s time for both of the nations involved in this conflict to come up with concrete proposals about how this conflict ends. It’s going to be up to them,” Bruce added. Her remarks contrasted with comments by US Vice President J.D. Vance, who said earlier this week that Washington planned to dedicate another 100 days to mediating a peace deal.

Media reports have claimed the US peace proposal includes recognizing Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea and its de-facto control over parts of four former Ukrainian regions that chose to join Russia. It also reportedly calls for “freezing” the conflict along current front lines. Commenting on Moscow’s decision to halt military operations next week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the pause should serve as “the start of direct negotiations with Kiev without preconditions.” Kiev, however, demanded an immediate, unconditional 30-day ceasefire.

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“They’re closer, but they’re still far apart..”

Russia and Ukraine ‘Closer’ To Settlement – Rubio (RT)

Russia and Ukraine are closer to a peace agreement than at any point in the past three years, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said. He cautioned, however, that the sides still need to bridge numerous differences to end the conflict. In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Rubio reflected on efforts by US President Donald Trump to settle the Ukraine conflict, a promise he had made while still on the campaign trail. “For a hundred days he has done efforts to bring about peace… Look, we’ve gotten closer. We – for the first time – we haven’t known this for three years – we kind of can see what it would take for Ukraine to stop. We can see what it would take for the Russians to stop,” Rubio said.

However, stark differences between Moscow and Kiev remain, the State Secretary noted. “They’re closer, but they’re still far apart. And it’s going to take a real breakthrough here very soon to make this possible… or I think the president is going to have to make a decision about how much more time we’re going to dedicate to this,” he added. His comments come as State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce affirmed that the US is committed to settling the conflict, but is “not going to fly around the world at the drop of a hat to mediate meetings.” Instead, she signaled that it is now up to Russia and Ukraine “to present and develop concrete ideas about how this conflict is going to end.” Last month, the Trump administration indicated that the US could withdraw from the peace process altogether if there is no clear indication of progress in the talks.

Earlier media reports suggested that the US had proposed a peace agreement that includes Washington’s recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea, as well as “freezing” the conflict along the current front line and acknowledging Moscow’s control over large parts of the four former Ukrainian regions which voted to join Russia. The deal would also reportedly prevent Ukraine from joining NATO and initiate a phased removal of the sanctions imposed on Russia. Russia has maintained that any peace settlement must include recognition of the new territorial reality on the ground, Ukraine’s demilitarization and denazification, as well as assurances that Kiev will not join NATO. Ukraine, however, has consistently refused to acknowledge its former territories as part of Russia.

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“..Ukraine ditched the 2015 Minsk Agreements and the 2022 Istanbul peace deal, and has repeatedly ignored Russia’s calls for talks — including President Vladimir Putin’s 2024 peace proposal..”

Ukraine Conflict ‘Not Going to End Any Time Soon’ – Vance (Sp.)

US Vice President JD Vance said Russia and Ukraine know each other’s terms for peace, and it is up to Moscow and Kiev to reach a deal. “For three years, these sides have fought, and each of them has said, no peace, we’re going to fight until the other guys are basically knocked out. What we’ve seen now in the last couple of weeks is each side has put down. This is our peace proposal. The Ukrainians did it. The Russians did it. And now I think the question is to see whether we can actually find some middle ground here for these guys to bring this conflict to a close,” Vance boasted about a ‘deal’ that doesn’t exist. He said it would be up to Russia and Ukraine to decide. “It’s not going anywhere. It’s not going to end any time soon,” Vance emphasized.

“When I say this deal, I mean getting these guys to actually propose a peace settlement,” Vance said — blissfully unaware that Ukraine ditched the 2015 Minsk Agreements and the 2022 Istanbul peace deal, and has repeatedly ignored Russia’s calls for talks — including President Vladimir Putin’s 2024 peace proposal. Russia has been conducting its special military operation since February 24, 2022. President Vladimir Putin has said the operation aims to “protect people subjected to genocide by the Kiev regime.” According to the president, the ultimate goal of the operation is to completely liberate Donbass and create conditions that guarantee Russia’s security: Ukraine must undergo demilitarization and denazification.

Moscow says arms supplies to Ukraine hinder the settlement and directly involve NATO countries in the conflict. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has stressed that any cargo containing weapons for Ukraine will be a legitimate target for Russia. The top diplomat has called the US and NATO out for not only supplying weapons to Kiev, but also training personnel in the UK, Germany, Italy and other countries. The Kremlin has stated that Western arms supplies to Ukraine hinder peace talks.

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“..the final decision rests with Ukraine’s military leadership, taking into account the presence of foreign dignitaries from neutral countries..”

Ukrainian MP Threatens Terror Attack On Red Square (RT)

Kiev could target Moscow’s Red Square during next week’s Victory Day celebrations, a Ukrainian lawmaker has suggested, despite Russia’s offer of a three-day ceasefire. May 9 marks the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a 72-hour ceasefire from May 8 to 10, citing “humanitarian considerations.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov later described the truce as a chance to begin “direct negotiations with Kiev without preconditions.” However, in an interview with Ukrainian media on Wednesday, Yury Pavlenko openly suggested that Ukraine could try to derail Victory Day, which is one of the most revered holidays in Russia, as well as many former Soviet republics.

”I think the time will come when we will strike Red Square – whether it happens this May 9 or sometime later, that time will come,” Pavlenko said, claiming that the Russian capital is full of “legitimate military targets… that have brought much grief to Ukrainian soil.” He noted that the final decision rests with Ukraine’s military leadership, taking into account the presence of foreign dignitaries from neutral countries. This year’s Victory Day parade is expected to be attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, among others.

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has branded the Russian truce proposal a “manipulation,” while calling for a longer ceasefire of 30 days. “They are now concerned that their parade is in jeopardy and rightly so,” Zelensky said. “What they should worry about is that this war continues.” In response, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova suggested that Kiev “is literally planning terrorist attacks on air,” which she said undermines the prospects for peace talks. Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Kiev has conducted a number of drone attacks on Moscow. On May 3, 2023, Russia accused Ukraine of attempting to assassinate Putin by targeting the Kremlin with two drones, which were shot down before they could cause significant damage.

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US purchased $230 billion more from EU than vice versa. The European Trade Commissioner sees a $56 billion deficit problem.

Brussels Floats Trade Solution To Trump – FT (RT)

The EU wants to substantially increase purchases of goods from the US, according to European Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic, as cited by Financial Times. The move could help the bloc secure the elimination of import tariffs proposed by US President Donald Trump, the official has said. As part of his sweeping ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs on major trading partners, Trump sharply raised duties on US imports from the 27-nation bloc. The US president sees the tariff campaign, which targeted over 90 countries, as a solution to what he calls unfair trade imbalances. If what we are looking at as a problem in the deficit is €50 billion ($56 billion), I believe that we can really … solve this problem very quickly through LNG purchases, through some agricultural products like soybeans, or other areas, Sefcovic said on Thursday in an interview with the newspaper.

He emphasized that the bloc would not accept the 10% tariffs on its goods being kept in place as a fair resolution. He also warned that it would be “very difficult” to strike a deal that is “clearly good and acceptable for our member states and our European parliament.” Earlier this year, the Trump administration announced a sweeping 20% tariff on all EU goods and a 25% tariff on all car imports in an effort to eliminate the trade deficit with the bloc. Brussels was set to introduce 25% retaliatory tariffs on US imports before Trump announced a 90-day pause on most tariffs to allow for talks. However, the 10% baseline tariff and 25% tariff on certain goods remain in place.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has offered Washington a deal whereby tariffs on all industrial goods would be removed. However, Trump has rejected the zero-for-zero tariffs proposal, saying that it doesn’t solve the problem of the trade imbalance. Trade volumes between the US and the EU amounted to $975.9 billion in 2024, according to official data tracked by the Office of US Trade Representative. The US purchased $605.8 billion worth of EU goods, while the bloc’s imports from the US amounted to $370.2 billion.

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Because it is a European country.

European Security Is Impossible Without Russia (Fetouri)

The narrative around Russia’s role in European security has become increasingly distorted in recent decades. Once a central player in European geopolitics, Russia is now considered an outsider at best and an outright enemy at worst. Looking at Moscow through this narrowed prism has become the norm not the exception. It makes the focused observer wonder if European leaders really believe that much can be done without Russia, particularly security-wise. To say such a European view of Moscow is both unfair and short-sighted may be an understatement. It is only 80 years since the Soviet Union, of which Russia was the center, led the liberation of Europe from what was essentially the European evil of Nazism, which is coming back to haunt the old continent.

Do current European leaders really forget such recent history or do they, intentionally, want to rewrite it to suit their current agendas and future Europe, in another generation or two? There is an irony here: while some European leaders are intentionally casting Russia as a “non-European” entity, the historical and practical reality paints a starkly different picture – where Russia is not only a European country but an essential player in ensuring the continent’s stability and prosperity. What cannot be changed is this: Russia is and will always be as European as France or Germany. Any serious debate about security in Europe is meritless and factitious without acknowledging Russia’s pivotal role. Throughout history Europe needed some kind of balancing powers between its internal powers (such as France and Germany), and Russia has been key in maintaining the balance of power on the continent.

A case in point: had it not been for the Soviet Union defeating Nazi Germany, who knows what kind of Europe would have emerged from World War II? The Soviets sacrificed more than 27 million human lives – soldiers and civilians – to rid the world of Nazi Germany and help create a new Germany, even though Germany has never been fully denazified. The United States played a part in liberating Europe and some 190,000 of its soldiers were killed, but that does not make the US a natural ally of Europe more than Russia. After the war, Western Europe accepted US hegemony, but that does not change the fact that Russia is a European and neighborly country and should be part of any European context discussions.

After the Cold War ended, Russia became even more important to be considered European than even the United Kingdom. The UK, eventually, chose to be an extension of America geopolitically and ended up threatening the EU had it not left the superficially harmonic union. Even the claim that shared values unite Europe and America and Europe within NATO is more of a justification for excluding Moscow than a reality. What are the noble values the UK shared with America in invading Iraq or Afghanistan? Where are such shared values within the NATO alliance, led by the US, that compelled it to destroy Libya in 2011? In both cases Moscow was out of the calculation except as a potential adversary.

This negative image of Moscow across much of Europe has been on the rise, becoming what the Russians rightly describe as “Russophobia,” taking a life of its own after the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine. Today many European leaders have reinforced this binary view of Russia as a threat, despite its historical and cultural ties to Europe. It seems that, in modern European politics, the question of Russia’s European identity is too often answered with a resounding “no.” Portraying Russia as a non-European country is an unfair characterization loaded with adversarial connotations. Who can deny the simple geographical fact that the Russian Federation is part of Europe and that Moscow lies firmly within Europe? Yet European school textbooks hardly count Moscow as a European capital city. Commonly, Russia in this context is described as the “other,” implying exclusion.

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And WW! too.

Trump Claims US Did ‘More Than Any Other Country’ to Win World War II (Sp.)

US President Donald Trump declared May 8 Victory Day, saying that the United States did “more than any other country” to win World War II. The Soviet Union bore the brunt of defeating Nazi Germany and its European allies — destroying the vast majority of German forces on the Eastern Front. With over 27 million dead, it was the Red Army’s relentless push from Stalingrad to Berlin that shattered Hitler’s war machine. The USSR also played a crucial role in Japan’s defeat, crushing the Kwantung Army in August 1945 — a key factor in Tokyo’s surrender.

“Many of our allies and friends are celebrating May 8th as Victory Day, but we did more than any other Country … I am hereby renaming May 8th as Victory Day for World War II and November 11th as Victory Day for World War I. We won both Wars, nobody was close to us in terms of strength, bravery, or military brilliance, but we never celebrate anything — That’s because we don’t have leaders anymore, that know how to do so! We are going to start celebrating our victories again!” Trump said on Truth Social on Friday. As for America’s so-called “military brilliance”? The US became the only country in history to use nuclear weapons — killing hundreds of thousands of civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. World War I wasn’t much different: the US talked big, joined late, and still claimed victory. So much for all that “bravery.”

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“Should Kiev abandon plans to join the US-led military bloc and withdraw its troops from the four new territories, Moscow is ready to institute an immediate ceasefire..”

Ukraine Can’t Reclaim Lost Territory – Rubio (RT)

Ukraine will not be able to reclaim its 2014 borders from Russia, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said. Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has publicly stated he will never recognize the lost territories, including Crimea, as Russian. The peninsula voted overwhelmingly to join Russia in 2014, shortly after the US-backed armed coup in Kiev. Kherson, Zaporozhye, Donetsk and Lugansk regions held their own referendums in 2022 to become part of Russia. Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Keith Kellogg told Fox News that Kiev has expressed a willingness to cede land de facto, if not de jure, as part of a peace deal. “Ukraine can’t push the Russians all the way back to where they were in 2014,” Rubio said in an interview with Fox News on Thursday.

After months of US-brokered peace efforts, Washington has a pretty clear idea of what both sides want, the top US diplomat noted. “We kind of can see what it would take for Ukraine to stop. We can see what it would take for the Russians to stop,” he said, adding that Moscow’s and Kiev’s settlement demands are still “far apart.” “It’s going to take a real breakthrough here very soon to make this possible, or I think the President is going to have to make a decision about how much more time we’re going to dedicate to this,” Rubio said. Both Trump and Rubio have previously warned that the US could walk away from being a peace broker in the Ukraine conflict, if there is no progress soon.

“Not that a war in Ukraine is not important, but I would say what’s happening with China is more important,” Rubio said, adding that Iran is another US concern. Moscow has repeatedly stated that its peace terms include Ukraine’s neutrality, demilitarization and denazification, as well as for Kiev to give up its ambitions to join NATO. Also, ceding the new Russian regions of Kherson, Zaporozhye and the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics is not up for discussion, Russian President Vladimir Putin said last year. Should Kiev abandon plans to join the US-led military bloc and withdraw its troops from the four new territories, Moscow is ready to institute an immediate ceasefire, he added.

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“In recent years, it often seemed like he was the only adult in the room when it came to recognizing just how big of a problem China is for us..”

The Hardest Working Man In The Trump Administration (Sarah Anderson)

I’ve heard various members of Donald Trump’s administration say that it’s hard to keep up with the president at the pace he’s been going since Jan. 20. But there may be one man in the cabinet who can do it. Marco Rubio. In case you missed the news on Thursday, Trump shook his administration up a bit by announcing that Mike Waltz would no longer be his national security advisor. A little while later, the president surprised pretty much everyone — including State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce, who was mid-briefing — when he posted on Truth Social that he’d be nominating Waltz to be the next United States Ambassador to the United Nations instead. In the same post, he announced that he would be appointing Rubio as acting national security advisor. If you’re keeping track at home, Rubio now serves four — four! — roles in the Trump administration.

https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/1918032465219776901?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1918032465219776901%7Ctwgr%5E131b83389bf4f01796a60ebe103fda880dc04efd%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fpjmedia.com%2Fsarah-anderson%2F2025%2F05%2F02%2Fthe-hardest-working-man-in-the-trump-administration-n4939427

Of course, Trump nominated Rubio for Secretary of State almost immediately after he was elected in November, and he was confirmed hours after Trump was sworn in on Jan. 20. On Feb. 3, which seems like years ago now, the president announced that Rubio would become Acting Administrator of USAID, and that the State Department would absorb the agency. Since then, we’ve learned what a mess USAID was, and Rubio announced that about 83% of its programs would be canceled. Shortly after that, on Feb. 7, Trump fired the Archivist of the United States, Colleen Joy Shogan, and on Feb. 16, he announced that Rubio would take her place. And now he can add national security advisor to his resume. Not bad for the guy Trump once called “Little Marco.” Rubio’s new workload has become a major talking point online and throughout the media ever since Trump made the announcement.

The Guardian points out that Rubio is the “first person since Henry Kissinger to hold the national security adviser and secretary of state positions at the same time. In the article “Marco Rubio, Secretary of Everything,” the New York Times also writes, “The former senator from Florida is now the head of four government bodies. He has outdone Henry Kissinger and even Xi Jinping, China’s leader, who has only three titles.” (Pretty sure the Jinping reference was meant to be some sort of dig after skimming the article, but I didn’t read the whole thing carefully, but it’s the New York Times, so the odds are…) Heck, even People magazine wrote an entire article based on the fact that Rubio has four jobs now. nRubio himself appeared on “Hannity” on Fox News tonight and spoke briefly about it, and he posted, “I’m honored to serve under the leadership of @POTUS” on X.

And here I am, sitting in my bed with my laptop after midnight on Thursday, writing about it for PJ Media, even though I told a couple of our editors earlier that I wasn’t going to. Why am I doing that? Well…If you come here regularly, you might notice that I write about Rubio and the State Department often. There are a few reasons for that. First, I’ve been a huge Rubio fan since he became a senator. He’s a bit older than me, but I always felt like he understood my generation more than any other politician in my lifetime, and he spoke to us about topics that mattered to us. (I could dig a little deeper into this and maybe one day I will, but not tonight.) I always felt like he understood things in ways that most other people who supposedly represent the country never did. Not only was he book smart, as they say, but he possessed a lot of common sense. It’s hard to find that, well, anywhere, much less in Washington, D.C.

I know many of you are Rubio fans now, too. Every single time I write one of those articles, I see dozens of comments about how impressed most of you are with him so far. Back during the 2016 primary, he became the only presidential candidate whose campaign I’ve ever supported financially. I’ve defended him both privately and professionally at times when many conservatives turned on him, and when I hopped back on the Trump train last summer, I hoped the president would choose him for, if not vice president (which I know was an issue because of Florida), Secretary of State. One reason for that is China. In recent years, it often seemed like he was the only adult in the room when it came to recognizing just how big of a problem China is for us. You could hear that loud and clear during his Senate confirmation hearing in January.

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“The job here is to enforce the federal civil rights laws, not woke ideology.” — Harmeet Dhillon, US Assistant AG for the Civil Rights Division

What’s Normal, Exactly? (James Howard Kunstler)

When a claque of deep state shills such as Norm Eisen, Chuck Schumer, Bill Kristol, David Brooks, and Larry Summers holler about Mr. Trump’s attempt to reform a depraved political culture as “an assault on norms,” are you not prompted to wonder what, exactly, those norms might be? Looks like they are describing a colossal matrix of racketeering operations in concert with an epic program of crypto-Marxist mind-fuckery, mountains of money purloined under color-of-law, swindles galore of practically every public enterprise, the capital city of a so-called republic fogged in gaslight to conceal a Satyricon of pedophilia, sodomy, and sado-masochism in every closet, cabinet, and pigeon-hole of the political class. So, along comes Mr. Trump for the second round, with a supernaturally able clean-up crew this time, and the monsters feeding off that depraved normality commence to shriek in mortal panic as the scaffold of their crimes gets methodically disassembled and secrets are revealed.

Many of you have been pouting over the lack of criminal prosecutions these first hundred days. Why is AG Ms. Bondi preening on Fox News when she should be banging-out subpoenas and arrest warrants, you ask? And what broom-closet is Dan Bongino hiding in over at the Hoover Building? How is Hillary Clinton still at-large in the land? Does Alejandro Mayorkas still make his Saturday excursions to the boutiques along M Street? Looks like the months of May and June are setting up to be the season of shocks and consequence. Item: James O’Keefe, founder of Project Veritas (he was cancelled from it) and now running O’Keefe Media Group, put out a mighty strange eighteen-second video this week. Looks like it was filmed in a basement somewhere. “I’m going dark, he says ruefully. “I’m not suicidal. Pray for me. This one scares me, guys.”

A week earlier, O’Keefe announced that he had bombshell recordings of public figures breaking the law, involving billions of dollars, which he expected would lead to indictments. What spooked him in the week since then? I guess we’ll have to stand by to find out, or see if JO’K was bluffing. Meanwhile Virginia Guiffre, a former Jeffrey Epstein teen sex slave, likewise said just over a week ago: “I am making it publicly known that in no way, shape, or form am I suicidal. If something happens to me, for the sake of my family do not let this go away and help me to protect them. Too many evil people want to see me quieted.” This was a month after she was injured in a traffic accident with a school bus in Western Australia. On April 24, she reportedly committed suicide at home, after release from the hospital. What do you suppose changed her mind?

An ominous silence surrounds the promised release of the Epstein case material, whatever it consists of: depositions, flight logs, photographs, video recordings of prominent people in compromising situations. Remember, not long after inauguration day, the FBI’s New York field office was found to be sitting on a huge trove of previously hidden Epstein case evidence. The DOJ swiftly “retired” the chief agent of the office, James Dennehy, who additionally had failed to cooperate with requests to disclose the names of agents involved in the Jan-6 investigations. Supposedly, since the discovery of the Epstein trove, a thousand agents were assigned to “process” it, redact the names of the innocent victims, so they say. Are they close to finishing?

Speaking of the J-6, 2021 matter, pressure is building for the Republican majority Congress to hold hearings on exactly what went on that fateful day. FBI Director Patel has yet to disclose how many government agents (not just FBI), and how many “confidential human sources” (i.e., provocateurs), were in the crowd around and inside the US Capitol. It’s getting to be past time to ask Mr. Patel for a straight answer on that in an official proceeding, and continue from there to related business, such as Nancy Pelosi’s failure to reinforce the Capitol Police with National Guard troops that day, and the strange doings around the DNC pipe bomb ploy few blocks away. Personally, I doubt that Mr. Patel is inclined to lie or dissemble about all that. But the natives are getting a little restless.

Mr. Kennedy at HHS is already pretty frisky in his role supervising the enormous cluster of agencies that have done so much to wreck the nation’s health in recent years. Goodbye fluoride in the drinking water. Hello to placebo testing for new drugs and vaccines. Welcome to a vigorous six-month campaign to determine a likely cause of the autism epidemic. RFK is even asking what exactly is in those aviation contrails that folks have been observing and complaining about for so many years. And then there was the bomb he dropped during this week’s cabinet meeting: that under Joe Biden, HHS acted as a major vector for the trafficking of children. Say, what??? Lotta people wondered, did Bobby really say that? And does he know exactly who in HHS is responsible. . . like, names attached? I guess we’ll find out.

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“As of today, Americans are thinking about tariffs though the lens of the mainstream media outlets..”

We’re Gonna Lose the PR War Over Tariffs Until We Start Doing THIS (Pinsker)

I’ll begin with the counterargument: If everything goes according to plan, the PR war over tariffs will be irrelevant, because the ultimate “spin” is a complete and total victory. And there’s a clear path to the finish line, which we outlined a month ago:

“Trump’s best PR path forward is to do exactly what he just did: On day one, impose painful tariffs on everyone. This way, you frontload the bad news. And then, after a few weeks of economic turmoil, the other countries will (hopefully) come begging to renegotiate — their hat in hand — because the possibility of losing the rich, rewarding, ultra-lucrative U.S. marketplace makes ‘em panic. After a few weeks of horrible, devastating economic news (which, alas, we’re seeing now), the headlines will then change in a hurry: Every other day, Trump would have a new, positive tariff treaty to announce! After the first few countries cave, it will incentivize all the other nations to get their [tushies] in gear and get a deal done fast — lest they wait too long and are frozen out of the U.S. marketplace. Done right, it creates a win-win domino effect: The new American gold rush!”
However, there was a caveat:
“But it’s still a high-risk strategy for Trump, because there’s no guarantee the other top countries will quickly fold. Sure, we expect places like France to live up to their white-flag-waving reputations (“Je suis un lâche!”), but national pride is tricky to predict. In the foreign countries that viscerally loathe Trump, the politicians can score points by “standing up the American bully.”

We’re now one month removed from Liberation Day, and MAGA Nation certainly frontloaded the bad news. There was a lot of it. And the latest polls reflect it. Here’s a hodgepodge of headlines over the last seven days:
• Fox News: Trump poll numbers on economy fall during trade fight, survey finds
• Gallup News: Most Americans Skeptical About Benefits of Tariffs
• CNN: CNN Poll: A growing majority says Trump has made the economy worse, with most skeptical of his tariff plans
• ABC News: Nearly two-thirds of Americans disapprove of Trump tariffs
• The Hill: Almost 6 in 10 say Trump policies making economy worse
• Yahoo News: Poll: After 1st 100 days, Trump’s approval rating continues to crater as 57% say he’s ‘gone too far’ on tariffs
• CBS News: Trump’s first 100 days seen as bringing big changes, but still too much focus on tariffs — CBS News poll
• NBC News: Poll: Americans vent disappointment with Trump ahead of 100 day, especially on tariffs
• Reuters: Risk of global economic recession surges on US tariff shockwaves: Reuters poll
• Newsweek: Americans Lose Faith in Economy Amid Trump Tariffs

Not good, and it’s a credit to Trump that the polls weren’t worse. This entire month has been a loud, angry drumbeat of media negativity — and Americans weren’t well-educated about tariff policy or global trade deals beforehand, because it’s not a sexy topic. In those (boring) days pre-Trump, Bill O’Reilly on Fox News and Rachel Maddow on MSNBC almost never mentioned ‘em. So, it’s not like illegal immigration, where we’ve heard the different arguments a zillion times and have already settled on a conclusion (which is why the media’s negativity about that lovable Maryland family man failed to move the needle). But with tariffs, we’re still hearing the arguments. Some Americans for the first time ever.

Without the “institutional knowledge” (including, sadly, those lovely on-air tutorials from the Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies; he would be so helpful right now) to sort through the hysteria, the public is vulnerable to PR manipulation. As of today, Americans are thinking about tariffs though the lens of the mainstream media outlets. And those outlets are focusing on:
• The economy is cratering! Everything’s crashing!
• Trump is a power-hungry maniac and out of control!
• Inflation will explode! We’ll all be broke!
• Shelves will be bare!
• Tariffs are stupid and destructive, lowering America’s standing in the world!

That’s a problem.

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Reads a bit like: what if Kamala Harris had been elected president? (In Germany, she was). The divide between Germany and the US is gaping.

Germany’s AfD Party ‘Definitely Right-Wing Extremist’: Spy Agency (RMX)

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has been declared “definitely right-wing extremist,” by the powerful domestic spy agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV). The party is reacting with outrage. The BfV claims that the party is pursuing efforts against the “free democratic order,” which the agency now says is “certain.” Previously, the party was only declared as a “suspected case,” with this new designation paving the way for not only a ban but also mass surveillance of the entire party, including all its members. With this new designation, the BfV can surveil members, including their emails, phone calls, and chats, without a warrant. In addition, the BfV can now legally infiltrate the entire party with informants and use other spy techniques. Already, other parts of the AfD at the state level were classified as “definitely right-wing extremist,” but the new designation now applies this label to the entire national party.

The party is reacting with outrage, with Alice Weidel, the co-leader of the party, writing: “The decision of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is a severe blow to German democracy!” Regarding the statement by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, AfD federal spokespersons Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla said: Today’s decision by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is a severe blow to German democracy: In current polls, the AfD is the strongest force. The federal government only has four days left in office, the intelligence agency doesn’t even have a president anymore. And the classification as a so-called suspected case is not yet legally binding. Nevertheless, the AfD, as an opposition party, is now being publicly discredited and criminalized shortly before the change of government. The associated, targeted interference in the democratic decision-making process is therefore clearly politically motivated. The AfD will continue to defend itself legally against these defamations that endanger democracy.”

The BfV, however, is attempting to justify its decision, which will be seen by many as an attack on the country’s largest opposition party. Due to the “extremist character of the entire party, which disregards human dignity,” the BfV noted in its statement. Vice presidents of the authority, Sinan Selen and Silke Willems, further indicated that statements and positions of the party “violate the principle of human dignity.” One of the key factors that the BfV is attempting to use to justify the designation is the AfD’s alleged position on “ethnic Germans.” “The ethnic-descendant understanding of the people prevailing in the party is not compatible with the free democratic basic order,” reads the statement from the BfV. “The AfD, for example, does not consider German citizens with a migration history from predominantly Muslim countries to be equal members of the German people, as ethnically defined by the party.”

The Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has been declared “definitely right-wing extremist,” by the powerful domestic spy agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV). The party is reacting with outrage. The BfV claims that the party is pursuing efforts against the “free democratic order,” which the agency now says is “certain.” Previously, the party was only declared as a “suspected case,” with this new designation paving the way for not only a ban but also mass surveillance of the entire party, including all its members. With this new designation, the BfV can surveil members, including their emails, phone calls, and chats, without a warrant. In addition, the BfV can now legally infiltrate the entire party with informants and use other spy techniques.

https://twitter.com/RMXnews/status/1888999118326108392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1888999118326108392%7Ctwgr%5E1c7ec0fa2146094423148b3c66b422bb2d906d25%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Frmx.news%2Farticle%2Fbreaking-germanys-afd-party-is-declared-definitely-right-wing-extremist-by-bfv-spy-agency-paving-the-way-for-a-ban%2F

Already, other parts of the AfD at the state level were classified as “definitely right-wing extremist,” but the new designation now applies this label to the entire national party. The party is reacting with outrage, with Alice Weidel, the co-leader of the party, writing: “The decision of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution is a severe blow to German democracy!” Regarding the statement by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, AfD federal spokespersons Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla said: Today’s decision by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution is a severe blow to German democracy: In current polls, the AfD is the strongest force. The federal government only has four days left in office, the intelligence agency doesn’t even have a president anymore. And the classification as a so-called suspected case is not yet legally binding.

Nevertheless, the AfD, as an opposition party, is now being publicly discredited and criminalized shortly before the change of government. The associated, targeted interference in the democratic decision-making process is therefore clearly politically motivated. The AfD will continue to defend itself legally against these defamations that endanger democracy.” The BfV, however, is attempting to justify its decision, which will be seen by many as an attack on the country’s largest opposition party. Due to the “extremist character of the entire party, which disregards human dignity,” the BfV noted in its statement. Vice presidents of the authority, Sinan Selen and Silke Willems, further indicated that statements and positions of the party “violate the principle of human dignity.”

One of the key factors that the BfV is attempting to use to justify the designation is the AfD’s alleged position on “ethnic Germans.”“The ethnic-descendant understanding of the people prevailing in the party is not compatible with the free democratic basic order,” reads the statement from the BfV. “The AfD, for example, does not consider German citizens with a migration history from predominantly Muslim countries to be equal members of the German people, as ethnically defined by the party.”

Read more …

“The AfD is the most popular party in Germany, and by far the most representative of East Germany. Now the bureaucrats try to destroy it,” Vance wrote on X.”

Germany ‘Has Rebuilt The Berlin Wall’ – Vance (RT)

US Vice President J.D. Vance has compared the German government’s treatment of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party to rebuilding the Berlin Wall. On Friday, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, classified the anti-immigration AfD as an “extremist” organization, citing “xenophobic, anti-minority, Islamophobic, and anti-Muslim statements made by leading party officials.” The label enables police to closely monitor the party’s activities. “The AfD is the most popular party in Germany, and by far the most representative of East Germany. Now the bureaucrats try to destroy it,” Vance wrote on X. “The West tore down the Berlin Wall together. And it has been rebuilt – not by the Soviets or the Russians, but by the German establishment,” he added.

The party’s co-leader, Alice Weidel, accused the government of attempting to quell dissent. “Since the AfD is the strongest party in polls now, they want to suppress the opposition & freedom of speech,” she wrote on X. AfD was founded in 2013 as a backlash to Germany’s handling of the eurozone debt crisis. It has since shifted focus to demanding tighter immigration and asylum laws and opposing the “woke agenda.” The party also criticizes NATO and has staged protests against sending weapons to Ukraine. AfD finished second in the federal elections in February, winning 152 seats in the 630-seat Bundestag. Last month, it topped opinion polls for the first time, with 26% support. The party is especially popular in the economically underdeveloped regions of former East Germany. AfD has also been embroiled in controversy, as some members have had links to far-right and neo-Nazi groups or used slogans associated with Nazi Germany.

Major German parties have refused to cooperate or form coalitions with AfD under the so-called “firewall” principle. Vance criticized efforts to isolate the party during his speech at the Munich Security Conference in February. “Democracy rests on the sacred principle that the voice of the people matters. There is no room for firewalls. You either uphold the principle or you don’t,” the US vice president said. The Berlin Wall was a concrete barrier built by East Germany in 1961 to stop its citizens from fleeing to West Berlin. It became a powerful symbol of the Cold War and remained in place until it was torn down in 1989, leading to German reunification.

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Russia: 26 million deaths. US: just over 292,000.

Germany Is Weaponizing WWII Memory Against Russia (Amar)

Eighty years ago, Germany suffered its worst self-induced military – as well as moral, political, cultural, you name it – catastrophe ever. First, Nazi Germany led the global fascist challenge that we call World War II. Then, Germany was not merely defeated but crushed by the combined efforts of, in order of importance, the Soviet Union, the US, and UK, to name only those powers that really mattered decisively for the outcome of the war in Europe. This Allied victory in Europe is celebrated in May. In the West, the commemorations peak on the 8th and in Russia, one day later. In Asia, things were different. World War II started earlier – in July 1937, not September 1939, and ended later – in August, not May, 1945. Regarding the war in Europe, the West has always, with varying intensity, sought to diminish the preponderant role of the Soviet Union – and within the latter, of Russia.

Concerning the war in Asia, the West’s main target of this weaponized forgetfulness has been China, rightly labeled “the forgotten ally” by historian Rana Mitter. China, like the Soviet Union and now Russia, has always dared challenge Western hegemony and especially US ‘primacy’. And, as with Russia and the former Soviet Union, it is this geopolitical independence that has led the West to deny the Chinese people’s real and massive World War II contribution and sacrifices, which were enormous (the death toll alone, to quote only one figure, is estimated at 12-20 million). But for now, back to the European part of the war. There, in historical reality, it was the Soviet Union that did the most – by far – to destroy Nazi Germany. And that is a simple, even quantifiable historical fact. Merely a decade ago, it was occasionally admitted even in Western mainstream media, such as America’s Washington Post and Britain’s Independent.

A few figures suffice to sketch just how predominant the Soviet share in the victory over Nazism was: Over the course of the war, in all its theaters, 17 to 18 million Germans served in the Nazi forces (including the Wehrmacht and the smaller but especially important and vicious Waffen-SS). At least 4 million German soldiers were killed in the fight against the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1945 alone. Estimates indicate that at least as many were injured, probably more; around 3 million became POWs. The upshot of this is simple: A massive chunk, some historians estimate up to 80%, of the total German fighting manpower of World War II – not only those who invaded the Soviet Union – was eliminated on what the Germans called the Eastern Front. Without going into easily available details, the picture is similar when we focus not on men but materiel.

Ask, for instance, Google’s Gemini AI in Deep Research mode, and it will sum it up thus: “It is evident that the Eastern Front absorbed the vast majority of Germany’s total tank losses throughout the war.” It turns out that the failure of Germany’s touted Leopard tank in the Ukraine conflict has a long tradition reaching back to Nazi Germany’s Panthers and Tigers: Russia, neutering German cats since 1941. Put simply, as with Sweden’s Gustav XII and France’s Napoleon, it was Russia and the Soviet Union that broke Hitler’s back. And at enormous cost and sacrifice: Current, solid figures put Soviet losses (military and civilian combined) at 26-27 million. (Compare, for instance, with the US: Military casualties, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, just over 292,000; civilian losses were negligible, even if every individual death is, of course, tragic.)

And now it is Germany – of all places – that has marred the run-up to this year’s May anniversary with an embarrassingly ugly scandal. Its essence is a German government attempt to crudely instrumentalize the commemorations to make them serve the propaganda war that has been part of the West’s proxy war in Ukraine, while accusing Russia of doing just that. In Germany, more and more often, every accusation is a confession, as they say about Israeli propaganda.

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“..officially designate AfD a “confirmed extremist entity.” This legal status allows the BfV to deploy surveillance and intelligence measures to monitor the party’s activities without restriction.”

Germany Is ‘Tyranny In Disguise’ – Rubio (RT)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has sharply criticized Berlin for designating Alternative for Germany (AfD), the country’s most popular party according to recent polling, as “extremist.” Such actions have nothing to do with democracy, he has warned. “Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition,” America’s top diplomat wrote on X on Friday. “That’s not democracy – it’s tyranny in disguise.” Earlier in the day, the German domestic security service (BfV) announced the decision to officially designate AfD a “confirmed extremist entity.” This legal status allows the BfV to deploy surveillance and intelligence measures to monitor the party’s activities without restriction.

Explaining the move, the agency cited “the extremist nature of the entire party, which disregards human dignity.” It pointed to the party’s “prevailing understanding of the people based on ethnicity and descent,” which it said was “incompatible with the democratic basic order.” The AfD has long been known for its harsh anti-immigration stance. “What is truly extremist is not the popular AfD… but rather the establishment’s deadly open border immigration policies that the AfD opposes,” Rubio argued, calling on Berlin to “reverse its course.” The right-wing party has been enjoying steady support from Washington ever since US President Donald Trump entered the White House for his second term.

US Vice President J.D. Vance strongly criticized politicians who shun parties such as the AfD at the Munich Security Conference in February. US-based billionaire and Trump adviser Elon Musk has repeatedly openly expressed support for the party. In January, ahead of the German parliamentary vote, he hosted a livestream on X with AfD co-leader and then chancellor candidate, Alice Weidel. The party came in second during the February election, behind the center-right Christian Democrats, which ruled out any coalitions with the AfD. Recent polls show the two parties being neck-and-neck, with one survey published by Forsa Institute putting AfD one percent point ahead of their center-right rivals.

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“Ukraine’s drive to join Europe involved denying its heroic past, glorifying criminals and Nazi collaborators, and promoting the “Banderization” of society.”

Odessa Massacre: Point of No Return Marked Ukraine’s Slide Into Nazism (Sp.)

On May 2, 2014, a pro-Maidan crowd outnumbering anti-Maidan protesters trapped dozens inside the Trade Union building and set it on fire with petrol bombs. At least 42 anti-Maidan activists died—either burned, asphyxiated, or killed by gunfire. The mass murder of innocent people in Odessa’s Trade Union house marked a “point of no return” for Ukraine, Ukrainian politics expert Alexander Dudchak told Sputnik. Those behind the West-backed coup that year were driven by Nazi-fueled “hatred for humanity.” Their goal was to build an “anti-Russia,” with Russophobia stoked from abroad. After the tragedy, “it became clear to those who disagreed with the [pro-Western Ukrainian] government that there was no way to defend their rights except through force.” Thus, the Odessa massacre can be seen as the turning point for all subsequent events.

“It became obvious what these forces represented – human-hating, pure Nazism, which came to power in Ukraine,” said Dudchak. Long before the Soviet Union’s collapse, NGOs and foreign funds, like the notorious Soros foundation, began distorting history to ideologically target the younger generation. Ukraine’s drive to join Europe involved denying its heroic past, glorifying criminals and Nazi collaborators, and promoting the “Banderization” of society. Despite the public’s strong preference for ties with former Soviet countries, a West-inspired coup took place, reshaping public consciousness. History was rewritten, dissent silenced through brutal methods, and media control imposed.

On May 2, 2014, Ukrainian nationalists locked anti-Maidan protesters, who opposed Euromaidan and Ukraine’s rapprochement with the European Union, in the Odessa Trade Union House and set the building on fire. Almost 50 people died, and some 250 protesters were injured in clashes with the radicals, according to the United Nations. The massacre was executed by the West’s protégés and under their control. “I don’t rule out that the West may have even written the script for this event. They needed to show the population what happens to those who try to oppose them. And that is what they did – with an animalistic cruelty,” concluded Dudchak.

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Boeing’s problems are all over the company. Engineers used to run the company; now it’s accountants.

Trump Reportedly Turns To L3Harris For “Interim” Air Force One Jet (ZH)

Frustrated by repeated delays in Boeing’s new Air Force One production timeline, President Trump has reportedly commissioned defense contractor L3Harris Technologies to retrofit a Boeing 747 previously used by the Qatari government as an interim presidential aircraft. The Wall Street Journal reported that L3Harris has been tasked with retrofitting the Qatari 747 with communications systems and other equipment to transform the luxury aircraft into Air Force One. According to the people familiar with the matter, President Trump requested that L3Harris complete the needed retrofitting of the jumbo jet by as early as fall. In February, FOX Business’ Edward Lawrence confirmed that Boeing had suffered global supply chain snarls that changed project timings and delayed the completion date to 2029.

White House communications director Steven Cheung told FOX Business at the time: “It is ridiculous that the delivery of a new Air Force One airplane has been delayed for such a long time,” adding, “The president working on identifying ways to speed up the delivery of a new plane, which has been needed for a while.” Months later, WSJ’s L3Harris report may suggest that there were very limited options to speed up the Boeing delivery. Here’s more from the report:

“Before Trump’s inauguration, White House Military Office and senior Air Force officials considered canceling Boeing’s contract for the new planes, according to people familiar with the matter. White House officials under Trump have also discussed whether they can sue the plane manufacturer, some of the people said. Trump initially tapped the bloated defense contractor to build the next-generation presidential aircraft during his first term, aiming to replace the aging fleet. Boeing’s failure to deliver on time has become emblematic of the broader military-industrial complex: bloated, sluggish, and unaccountable. The military-industrial complex’s failures must urgently be corrected. For now, L3Harris is stepping in, aiming to deliver a retrofitted Qatari 747 as an interim Air Force One jet by this fall. America’s defense space needs more domestic competition if it wants to compete in the 2030s.

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“The manufactured presentation of the self (fabricated authenticity) is the ultimate neoliberal imperative: people are actively encouraged to become producers of themselves. The name of the game is “fake it till you make it.”

“..this state of affairs is undermining real engagement and driving an increasing number of frustrated and disillusioned users away from these platforms, leaving bots to interact with other bots, as advertisers already lament.”

The Ghost in the Machine. AI and The Spectral Ontology of Value (Ruggeri)

By now it should be abundantly clear how social influencers operate. Self-promotion, exaggerated claims, and a well-crafted image can snowball into credibility before anyone checks credentials. They build parasocial relationships with their followers who feel like they know the influencer, even if they have never met. Influencers attempt to create an aura of individuality and authenticity through personal storytelling, share raw footage or sensational material, invite followers to “peek” into their lives encouraging voyeuristic engagement. However, this aura is even more fragile than the artificial aura mentioned by Walter Benjamin when in the 1930s he described the Hollywood-driven phenomenon of elevating actors to celebrity status, creating cult-like personas that compensated for the loss of aura in in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction. Not only is the influencers’ derivative content easily replicable, they too are vulnerable to replacement by AI-generated personas.

Benjamin recognized in the spell of the star’s personality “the phony spell of a commodity.” But most importantly, he warned that a medium that has a dual capacity to abolish distance between the audience and the depicted world while simultaneously detaching the audience from the physical world and its material conditions, is ideally suited to the aims of fascism. Benjamin was primarily referring to film and photography, but in an era of algorithmic reproduction controlled by a handful of tech companies his observations have become more relevant than ever.

Influencers leverage the bandwagon effect, that mix of conformity and fear of missing out. Once a persona gains momentum, with the help of thousands of bots whose cost is now less than a cent for basic accounts, humans jump on. Social media’s smoke and mirrors work because we are wired for stories, not audits. But with billions of automated bots flooding social media platforms, there is a roughly 50% chance that any account you engage with, whether by liking a post, commenting, or following, is a bot. Bots have become so sophisticated that it has become increasingly harder to detect them. As to the remaining accounts that are still operated by humans, about half of them publish content that is generated by artificial intelligence.

Even those with limited expertise on a given topic can produce persuasive posts and articles, while readers would need an AI tool such as GPTZero to identify their artificial origin. A simple prompt ensures that the AI-generated content they publish is aligned, and resonates, with their followers’ ideological leanings, interests and preferences. An article that appeared in a conservative news outlet can be automatically rewritten to please a liberal audience and vice versa. A paper published by an academic can be summarized and interspersed with jokes and colloquialism to appeal to a non-academic audience, three articles can be seamlessly meshed into one creating a cohesive piece that synthesizes their content, etc. You get the drift.

Shaped by a mix of human activity and AI-generated content, the Internet and social media now resemble a phantasmagoria, a make-believe optical show that projects ghostly images, fetishizes human desires and experiences, and intensifies narcissistic self-reference to create an illusion of authenticity. The manufactured presentation of the self (fabricated authenticity) is the ultimate neoliberal imperative: people are actively encouraged to become producers of themselves. The name of the game is “fake it till you make it.” Lack of qualifications or professional expertise is no barrier for aspiring influencers. Ambition, a background in marketing, a good knowledge of psychological manipulation techniques, the ability to leverage algorithms, and an initial investment in an army of bots to boost content are better guarantors of success.

Those who make the cut can rake in juicy contracts to promote products, services or a political agenda. The more engagement their hustle generates, the more data capital social media platforms accumulate. Unsurprisingly, this state of affairs is undermining real engagement and driving an increasing number of frustrated and disillusioned users away from these platforms, leaving bots to interact with other bots, as advertisers already lament.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Hydroxide

mRNA

Tom plays dead

 

 

 

 

Support the Automatic Earth in wartime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.

 

 

 

 

 

Apr 232025
 


Edward Hopper Sailing 1911

 

Trump Makes ‘Final Offer’ To End Ukraine Conflict – Axios (RT)
Trump Signals Step Back On China Tariffs (DC)
‘Only Trust Primary Sources’ On US-Russia Talks – Kremlin (RT)
Ukraine Not Ready to Discuss US Peace Plan Proposal – Reports (RT)
Ukraine Will Not Recognize Russia’s Crimea – Zelensky (RT)
Rubio and Witkoff To Skip London Ukraine Talks (RT)
EU and UK Preparing Naval Blockade of Russia – Patrushev (RT)
Zelensky Could Easily Rig Wartime Election – Ex-Campaign Chief (RT)
US To Propose Crimea Recognition As Part of Ukraine Peace Deal – WaPo (RT)
Putin Offers To Halt Fighting Along Current Front Lines In Ukraine: FT (ZH)
Tesla Shares Pop 5% After Musk Says He’ll Limit Time With DOGE In May (ZH)
Rubio Announces MAJOR State Department Overhaul (PJM)
Trump’s Courage to Fight the Good Fight (DS)
How Trump ‘Restored Law and Order’ to US Borders (Allen)
Woke Blackout in Tinseltown (Ryumshin)
The Big Short and The Bigger Long (Egon von Greyerz)

 

 


Nikas Safronov (gifted to Trump by Putin)

 

 


https://twitter.com/iam_smx/status/1914636471778111601

JFK

Nap/Sachs

Rice

Zeldin

BlackRock
https://twitter.com/JimFergusonUK/status/1914581682675449912

 

 

 

 

“..the US is said to be prepared to grant “de jure” recognition of Crimea as part of Russia, and unofficially acknowledge Moscow’s “de facto” control over the[four regions]..”

Zelensky simply says no, not acceptable. For Kiev, It’s just a game.

Trump Makes ‘Final Offer’ To End Ukraine Conflict – Axios (RT)

Washington has presented Kiev with what US President Donald Trump is calling a “final offer” to end the conflict in Ukraine, according to a report by Axios. The Kremlin, however, has urged the public to rely on official sources for developments in US–Russian talks. The one-page document was reportedly drafted following Trump envoy Steve Witkoff’s four-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier this month, and was presented to Ukrainian officials in Paris last week, Axios reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources with direct knowledge of the discussions. Under the proposed deal, the US is said to be prepared to grant “de jure” recognition of Crimea as part of Russia, and unofficially acknowledge Moscow’s “de facto” control over the Lugansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, as well as the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions.

The plan also includes provisions for lifting post-2014 sanctions on Moscow and enhancing bilateral economic cooperation. In addition, Washington would formally oppose Ukraine’s bid to join NATO. In return, Ukraine would reportedly receive a “robust security guarantee” from a coalition of EU and other like-minded countries, though the proposal lacks details on how this “peacekeeping” operation would function. Russia has consistently rejected the deployment of NATO forces to Ukraine under any pretext. The framework also promises Kiev unimpeded access to the Dnepr River and potential compensation for reconstruction efforts, although it does not specify where the funding would originate. The plan references a minerals deal between the US and Ukraine, which Trump expects to be signed on Thursday.

Another component of the proposal, according to Axios, involves designating the area around the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (NPP) as neutral territory under US administration. Washington reportedly expects Kiev to respond to the proposal during a multinational meeting in London on Wednesday. Both Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will skip the event, with General Keith Kellogg, another Trump envoy focused on Ukraine, leading the US delegation instead. Witkoff is expected to travel to Moscow for a follow-up meeting with Putin. Rubio warned last week that the US could abandon the peace initiative and “move on” to other issues if negotiations fail. Trump said on Monday there is “a good chance of solving the problem” this week.

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has repeatedly ruled out ceding any territory to Russia and continues to urge the US and other allies to provide sustained military support. Moscow has consistently stated that the status of Crimea – which joined Russia in 2014 following a referendum held after a Western-backed coup in Kiev – and the four other former Ukrainian regions that voted to join Russia in 2022 is not open to negotiation. Russian officials insist that any peace agreement must address the “root causes” of the conflict. Putin has added that a viable ceasefire would require Western nations to halt arms deliveries to Ukraine.

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“..I think they’re going to be happy, and I think we’re going to live together very happily and ideally work together.”

Trump Signals Step Back On China Tariffs (DC)

President Donald Trump signaled Tuesday evening from the Oval Office that the U.S. will ease tariffs on China, saying they’ll “come down substantially” but won’t be eliminated entirely. On April 2, Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on several countries, with higher rates for nations like China due to their own trade barriers against the U.S. When asked Tuesday about the tariffs against the foreign country, Trump said that the 145% hit would not last forever. “I’m sure 145% is very high, and it won’t be that high, not going to be that high,” Trump said. “It got up to there. We were talking about fentanyl where, you know, various elements built it up to 145. No, it won’t be anywhere near that high.” Following Trump’s initial tariff announcement, the U.S. and China entered a tariff war, with China responding by imposing steep tariffs of its own.

By April 9, Trump said the U.S. would raise tariffs on China from 104% to 125% — after the country refused to lift its retaliatory measures — while implementing a 90-day pause on tariffs for other countries. “It’ll come down substantially, but it won’t be zero. It used to be zero,” Trump said. “We were just destroyed. China was taking us for a ride and just not going to — it’s not going to happen. We’re going to be very good to China. I have a great relationship with President Xi, but they would make billions and billions and billions of dollars a year, and they were building a military out of the United States on what they made.” By April 10, the White House said that Trump’s announced 125% tariff would actually total 145% on all Chinese imports, according to The New York Times.

The administration said the 125% would be added on top of a previously announced 20% tariff already in place on goods from China, the outlet reported. “So that won’t happen. But they’re going to do very well, and I think they’re going to be happy, and I think we’re going to live together very happily and ideally work together. So I think it’s going to work out very well, but, no, it’s at 145%. It will not be anywhere near that number,” Trump said. During a speech Tuesday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he expects a “de-escalation” in the tariff war between the U.S. and China, adding that the ongoing conflict would be unsustainable in the long run, according to the Associated Press.

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Maybe the no.1 item for the day. If the Kremlin feels they must warn about what everybody already knows, it’s serious. The other day I mentioned NPR, NYT, Politico as suspicious sources on the topic. Today the FT very much joins those ranks.

“A lot of fakes are being published now, including by respected publications..”

‘Only Trust Primary Sources’ On US-Russia Talks – Kremlin (RT)

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has urged people to go to the primary sources regarding developments in talks with the US on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, warning of fake news. In an interview with RIA Novosti on Tuesday, Peskov was asked to comment on a recent report from the Financial Times claiming that Moscow is ready to freeze the conflict along the current front lines. “A lot of fakes are being published now, including by respected publications, so you should only listen to the primary sources,” he said. According to the FT article from Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to freeze the conflict during his meeting with US special envoy Steve Witkoff earlier this month in St. Petersburg.

Russian presidential foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov confirmed on Tuesday that Moscow is expecting another visit from Witkoff later this week. This will be the diplomat’s fourth visit to Russia since the start of the US diplomatic push regarding the Ukraine conflict. US President Donald Trump has touted a big reveal of his plan to wrap up the hostilities in Ukraine. “I will be giving you a full detail over the next three days,” he told journalists on Monday, adding that the US has “had very good meetings on Ukraine, Russia.” The Kremlin stated that while work is underway, the peace process is unlikely to conclude soon.

“This topic is so complex that it probably shouldn’t be constrained by strict timeframes,” Peskov told the press on Tuesday. Trump and his administration have signaled growing dissatisfaction with the pace of the peace talks. “If it is not possible to end the war in Ukraine, we need to move on,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters last Friday. Throughout the conflict, Moscow has said it is open to talks with Kiev. Negotiations must be based on the realities on the ground and address the root causes, such as Ukraine’s aspirations to join NATO. The Kremlin previously stated that it would not accept a temporary halt in the hostilities, saying this would simply allow Ukraine’s Western backers to rearm its military.

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“Not ready yet.” Trump is being played.

Ukraine Not Ready to Discuss US Peace Plan Proposal – Reports (RT)

Ukraine appears to be reluctant to discuss the peace plan framework, prepared by the United States, during the upcoming talks in London, Axios reports, citing a US official. In the past 24 hours, there had been “indications from the Ukrainians” that they only planned to discuss a 30-day ceasefire on Wednesday, instead of US President Donald Trump’s complex peace plan proposal, Axios said on Tuesday night. The Washington Post reported earlier on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter, that the Trump administration was going to propose during the upcoming talks with Ukrainian and European representatives in London that Crimea gets recognized as part of Russia and that the front lines get freezed as part of a peace agreement.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing a person with knowledge of the negotiations, that British and French officials were “open to a scenario” where Ukraine would “accept the loss of control of some of the territories taken by Russia,” in exchange for economic support and security guarantees. The newspaper specified that France and the United Kingdom would prefer a Ukraine peace deal that acknowledged control of territories “only in a de facto way.” The New York Post reported, citing a senior US administration official, that Kiev was seemingly “willing to give up 20% of its land,” but only if it was considered a “de facto” recognition of the territory and not “de jure.”

Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff, the US special presidential envoy for the Middle East, held talks on the conflict resolution with representatives from Germany, the United Kingdom and Ukraine, as well as with French President Emmanuel Macron, in Paris. On April 18, Rubio said he hoped the next meeting between Ukrainian and European representatives would lead to progress in the Ukrainian settlement. On Tuesday, US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said that Rubio was not going to attend the upcoming talks in London. The US will be represented by special envoy Keith Kellogg. Axios suggested on Tuesday that the decision to send Kellogg was made because of Kiev’s reluctance to discuss Trump’s peace plan framework.

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Zelensky claims Russia wants to prolong the war…

Ukraine Will Not Recognize Russia’s Crimea – Zelensky (RT)

Kiev refuses to discuss recognizing Crimea as a Russian territory, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky told journalists on Tuesday, according to Ukrainian outlet Suspilne. “[Crimea] is our territory, the territory of the people of Ukraine. We have nothing to talk about on this topic – it is outside our Constitution,” Zelensky said. The Ukrainian leader claimed that discussing the issue of Crimean ownership will only lead to prolonging the war. “As soon as we start talking about Crimea, about our sovereign territories, we enter the format of prolonging the war,” he said, adding that this is “what Russia wants.”

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The US will now send Kellogg, who was recently demoted to make place for Witkoff.

“Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov reportedly told the US envoys that Kiev is “90%” aligned with Washington’s proposed peace framework..”

Rubio and Witkoff To Skip London Ukraine Talks (RT)

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will not attend the upcoming Ukraine talks in London, despite earlier plans to take part, the State Department has confirmed. President Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, has also withdrawn from the meeting, according to the Financial Times, and is expected to visit Moscow instead. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce cited scheduling conflicts as the reason for Rubio’s withdrawal from Wednesday’s talks, insisting this does not signal a change in the US commitment to the peace process. “Secretary Rubio is a busy man… And so when there’s certain plans, they’re conditional. And in this particular instance, while the meetings in London are still occurring, he will not be attending. But that is not a statement regarding the meetings; it’s a statement about logistical issues in his schedule,” Bruce told journalists on Tuesday.

General Keith Kellogg, another Trump envoy tasked with negotiating with Kiev directly, will represent Washington at the London discussions. The talks will include officials from the UK, France, and Germany – countries that advocate continued military support for Ukraine – as well as representatives from Kiev. The London talks follow a series of high-level meetings in Paris last week, where Rubio and Witkoff held discussions with European and Ukrainian officials. According to the New York Post, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov reportedly told the US envoys that Kiev is “90%” aligned with Washington’s proposed peace framework, which has not yet been made public. Sources cited by the Washington Post on Tuesday claimed that the US proposals include formally recognizing Crimea as Russian territory and potentially lifting sanctions on Moscow as part of a future agreement.

Meanwhile, the Financial Times claimed that Russia is prepared to halt the hostilities along the current front line. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov urged the media and public to rely on official sources regarding developments in US–Russian talks on the Ukraine conflict, warning that “a lot of fakes are being published now, including by respected publications.” Both Washington and Moscow have officially confirmed that Witkoff will travel to Russia for talks “later this week.” Moscow has stated that the status of Crimea – which joined Russia in 2014 following a referendum held after a Western-backed coup in Kiev – and the four other former Ukrainian regions that voted to join Russia in 2022, is not subject to negotiation. Russian officials maintain that recognizing the “reality on the ground” is essential to achieving a lasting peace.

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Russia would have to react. EU and UK hope that starts a war with NATO.

EU and UK Preparing Naval Blockade of Russia – Patrushev (RT)

The EU and the UK are gearing up to impose a naval blockade on Russia, Nikolay Patrushev, a senior aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin, has said. He warned that Moscow has a fleet powerful enough to respond to any such move. In an interview published on Monday by Kommersant, Patrushev, who chairs Russia’s Maritime Board, a body which oversees national policy in this domain, stated that Moscow is facing escalating threats and challenges at sea amid growing geopolitical tensions. “The collective West no longer hides its intentions to expel our shipping from the seas, while sanctions plans mulled, for example, by the British and some EU members increasingly resemble a maritime blockade,” he said. Patrushev warned that these steps would “meet an adequate and proportionate response” from Moscow.

“If diplomatic or legal instruments do not take effect, the security of Russian shipping will be ensured by our navy. The hotheads in London or Brussels need to clearly understand this,” he said. Patrushev emphasized that Russia is pursuing a large-scale naval modernization program, including the development and deployment of unmanned systems while refining navy tactics. However, Moscow does not intend to get involved in a “naval arms race,” he added. Western countries introduced maritime restrictions on Russia in 2022 over the Ukraine conflict, and have sanctioned dozens of Russian ships for allegedly circumventing an oil price cap. Russian ships have also faced major obstacles in accessing EU ports, insurers, and financial institutions.

The British Navy has been shadowing Russian ships passing near its waters for months, citing concerns about a perceived threat to national security and maritime infrastructure. Maritime tensions have also been heightened in recent months following several ruptures in underwater infrastructure in the Baltic Sea. While there has been speculation about alleged Russian involvement, Western officials have offered no evidence. The Kremlin has dismissed the speculation as “absurd.” NATO has increased its military presence in the Baltic Sea following the sabotage allegations, prompting Russia to warn that it would respond appropriately to any “violations” by the bloc’s vessels.

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You can’t have a fair election with him as a candidate, or an organizer.

Zelensky Could Easily Rig Wartime Election – Ex-Campaign Chief (RT)

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has the ability to manipulate the outcome of a presidential election under the current martial law, according to his former campaign chief, Dmitry Razumkov. Zelensky’s presidential term expired last year, but he asserts that no leadership change can occur while the conflict with Russia persists. In an interview with journalist Anna Maksimchuk on Monday, Razumkov, a seasoned political strategist who propelled Zelensky to power, expressed concern over his former client’s ability to maintain control. ”If someone devises a system for elections under martial law, Zelensky will end up with 102% of the vote,” he quipped. “They’ll station conscription officers at every polling station and draft on the spot anyone who dares not support the current government.”

Razumkov further criticized the notion of conducting a remote election via Ukraine’s e-government service, asserting that “whoever controls Dia will then secure that same 102%.” He quipped that Russia could engineer Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s election in Ukraine through such a faulty system. “Dia,” which translates to “the state and I,” is an app closely associated with Digitalization Minister Mikhail Fedorov. Razumkov managed the successful 2019 campaign that turned Zelensky from a comedian into a head of state. Subsequently, he served as the speaker of parliament until 2021, when he was ousted by fellow lawmakers from the president’s party in what many observers said was a consolidation of power.

Zelensky has continuously extended martial law in Ukraine roughly every three months, with the latest prolongation last week pushing the expiration date to early August. His emergency rule has even been condemned by US President Donald Trump, who called Zelensky a “dictator without elections” in February. Moscow contends that, according to the Ukrainian constitution, Zelensky should transfer presidential authority to the current parliamentary speaker, Ruslan Stefanchuk. Zelensky’s refusal to do so casts doubt on the legal validity of any documents he signs, including potentially a peace treaty with Russia, President Vladimir Putin has observed.

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“.. it was “Witkoff’s idea” for the US to designate Crimea as Russian “without forcing Ukraine to recognize it.”

US To Propose Crimea Recognition As Part of Ukraine Peace Deal – WaPo (RT)

Washington will propose a peace deal recognizing Russian sovereignty over Crimea and freezing the front lines in the Ukraine conflict at a meeting with Ukrainian and European officials this week, the Washington Post has reported, citing sources. The US is expected to hold talks in London on Wednesday with Ukrainian and European officials as US President Donald Trump continues his push for a deal. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg are reportedly set to meet foreign ministers and security advisers from France, Germany, the UK, and Ukraine. People familiar with the matter told the outlet on Tuesday that US proposals, presented to Ukraine in Paris last week, include Washington formally recognizing Crimea as Russian territory and eventually lifting sanctions against Moscow under a future accord.

One Western official described the pressure on Ukraine as “astounding.” European officials are expected to push for security guarantees for Ukraine and postwar reconstruction efforts, possibly funded in part by frozen Russian assets, the report said.Trump has threatened to walk away if progress is not made soon, and told reporters on Monday that he would be releasing details of the US proposals “over the next three days.” US special envoy Steve Witkoff, who has had multiple rounds of talks with senior Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, will visit Russia later this week, Moscow has confirmed. According to one of the Post’s sources, it was “Witkoff’s idea” for the US to designate Crimea as Russian “without forcing Ukraine to recognize it.”

Crimea held a referendum to join Russia in 2014 following a Western-backed armed coup in Kiev. The new Ukrainian government, along with its Western supporters, has refused to recognize the vote’s legitimacy.Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has ruled out relinquishing any territorial claims against Russia and has urged the US and other nations to continue providing military aid – a policy the Trump administration has said it will end. Moscow insists that the status of Crimea, the city of Sevastopol, and the four former Ukrainian regions which voted to join Russia in 2022, is not up for negotiation. Russian officials have emphasized that recognizing the “reality on the ground” is key to achieving lasting peace.

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This is the report the Kremlin warns about.

Putin Offers To Halt Fighting Along Current Front Lines In Ukraine: FT (ZH)

In a huge development, President Vladimir Putin has offered to halt his invasion of Ukraine across the current front line as part of ongoing efforts to work with US President Donald Trump toward reaching a permanent peace deal. This reportedly happened during ongoing dialogue with Trump’s top envoys. This is according to several sources which spoke to Financial Times, which wrote further in a Tuesday report, “The proposal is the first formal indication Putin has given since the war’s early months three years ago that Russia could step back from its maximalist demands to end the invasion.” “The Russian president told Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy, during a meeting in St Petersburg earlier this month that Moscow could relinquish its claims to areas of four partly occupied Ukrainian regions that remain under Kyiv’s control, three of the people said,” FT continues.

The Kremlin side has not publicly acknowledged this, and so the breaking report should be taken with a grain of salt, given this contradicts Putin’s public stance that Russia will never relinquish the four territories which were declared part of the Russian Federation after the Moscow-backed referendums of Sept. 2022. However, if Russian forces did simply halt their advance based on an agreed-upon freeze in fighting, there would be portions of these territories still not under Russian military control. The FT report goes on, “The US has since floated ideas for a possible settlement that includes Washington recognizing Russian ownership of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, the people added, as well as at least acknowledging the Kremlin’s de facto control over the parts of the four regions it currently holds.”

All of this is being reported hours after Ukraine’s President Zelensky said he has rejected the possibility of ceding over Crimea, after the Trump administration reportedly offered the ‘gift’ to Putin of US recognition of Russian sovereignty over the strategic peninsula and home to the Russian navy’s Black Sea fleet. According to Ukrainian media: “Ukraine will not legally recognize Russia’s occupation of Crimea under any circumstances, President Volodymyr Zelensky said during a briefing in Kyiv on April 22. “There is nothing to talk about. This violates our Constitution. This is our territory, the territory of the people of Ukraine,” Zelensky told reporters. Zelensky added, “As soon as talks about Crimea and our sovereign territories begin, the talks enter the format that Russia wants — prolonging the war – because it will not be possible to agree on everything quickly.”

Kiev has also recently accused Moscow of using negotiations as a smokescreen while in actuality prolonging the war, also coming off the 30-hour Eastern truce, which saw both sides accuse the other of many violations. The Financial Times acknowledged this possibility, and the fact that Moscow is in the driver’s seat related to any potential settlement that would end the conflict, in the following: But European officials briefed on US efforts to end the war cautioned that Putin would probably use the apparent concession as bait to lure Trump into accepting Russia’s other demands and forcing them on Ukraine as a fait accompli. “There is a lot of pressure on Kyiv right now to give up on things so Trump can claim victory,” one of them said.

The reality remains that if Zelensky can’t so much as admit that Crimea will be permanently in Russia’s hands, with no hope of Kiev ever getting it back, the prospect of a peace settlement happening anytime soon seems very remote. But clearly Moscow is seeking to show itself willing to compromise by these overtures, but whether there’s much substance or genuineness behind the offer to halt all frontline fighting is another question. At the moment, at least 99.5% of Kursk territory is back in Russia’s control. Russia’s military also still continues to advance in remaining parts of Donetsk still held by Ukraine, but slowly and village by village.

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Tesla will be alright. So will Musk.

Tesla Shares Pop 5% After Musk Says He’ll Limit Time With DOGE In May (ZH)

In a candid call with analysts on Tuesday, Elon Musk announced that he will begin scaling back his involvement with the federal government starting in May, signaling a shift in priorities back toward Tesla. As a result, Tesla shares were up 5% late in the after hours session.“I think starting probably next month, May, my time allocation to DOGE will drop significantly,” Musk said. Musk has been a central figure in the effort to streamline the federal government under the Trump administration through an initiative he dubbed the “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE. That effort has involved an aggressive reduction of federal workforce levels, targeting DEI programs, and a broad reorganization of agency resources. Despite growing protests against Tesla and Musk’s role in Washington, he remains unapologetic. “The work with DOGE is critical,” he stated, while dismissing the backlash as “organized and paid for.”

Although the billionaire entrepreneur holds the title of “special government employee”—a designation that legally limits him to 130 days of federal work per year—his presence in the capital has been nothing short of influential. Musk indicated that the heavy lifting to establish DOGE is “mostly done,” allowing him to reallocate his schedule. “I will spend ‘a day or two’ per week on government matters if President Trump wants me to,” he said, but emphasized that more of his attention will now return to Tesla. Despite his pullback from the capital, Musk said he will “continue to advocate for lower tariffs, rather than higher tariffs,” noting that this is the extent of his ongoing engagement on trade policy. Tesla remains the only publicly traded firm among Musk’s sprawling portfolio, which includes SpaceX, Neuralink, XAI, and The Boring Company. As such, it has absorbed much of the public response—both praise and criticism—related to Musk’s deepening political ties.

Yet, the CEO expressed confidence in Tesla’s direction. “I remain extremely optimistic about Tesla’s future,” he said, pointing to the company’s ambitions in autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots. He reiterated his forecast that Tesla will become the most valuable company in the world, noting that robotaxis are expected to deliver a meaningful financial impact by mid-2026. He also revealed that Tesla aims to have thousands of its Optimus humanoid robots operational in factories by the end of the year, with plans to scale to one million units annually within five years—a pace he described as faster than any product in the company’s history. Closing the call with idealism, Musk said, “I like this phrase sustainable abundance for all,” and affirmed his commitment to continue leading Tesla through its next phase of innovation and expansion. Tesla reported earnings after the market closed that were worse than analyst expectations. The stock, with most of the bad news seemingly already priced in, held its ground in after hours trading. The results were:

• Revenues $19.34BN, big miss to estimates of $21.37BN
• EPS 27c, missing estimates of 43c
• Gross margin 16.3% (down from 17.4% y/y), and beating estimates of 16.1%
• Automotive gross margin ex reg credits 12.5%, beating estimates of 11.9%
• Operating income $399 million, -66% y/y, missing estimates of $1.13 billion
• Free cash flow $664 million (vs. negative $2.53 billion y/y) missing estimate $1.08 billion
• Capital expenditure $1.49 billion (down -46% vs $2.77Bn y/y and down 47% vs $2.78BN Q/Q), missing estimates of $2.49 billion
Of note, Tesla eked out positive free cash flow number by slashing capex almost in half compared with the prior quarter and a year ago. Absent that, it would have burned cash.

Tesla offered a measured outlook during its earnings report, signaling that it will revisit its 2025 guidance in the Q2 update, while notably omitting any concrete forecast for a return to growth. The company emphasized that its rate of growth will hinge on a range of variables, including global trade policy, which it admitted is difficult to quantify in terms of impact. Tariffs, in particular, are expected to weigh more heavily on the company’s energy unit than its automotive business, with Tesla cautioning that the broader tariff landscape could have a larger effect on demand and operational strategy. Nevertheless, the company maintained that actions are being taken to stabilize performance over the medium to long term, and it expressed confidence in having sufficient liquidity to fund its product roadmap. Tesla confirmed that plans for new, more affordable vehicle models remain on track for production in the first half of 2025, though it acknowledged that these models may lead to less dramatic cost reductions than previously expected. Even with trade headwinds, the company reiterated a growing need for energy storage solutions across markets.

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“In its current form, the Department is bloated, bureaucratic, and unable to perform its essential diplomatic mission..”

Rubio Announces MAJOR State Department Overhaul (PJM)

Secretary of State Marco Rubio made a huge announcement on Tuesday regarding the State Department and the Donald Trump administration’s “America First” agenda. It’s being called the biggest shakeup at State in decades. “Today is the day,” Rubio began in a post on X, adding, “Under @POTUS’ leadership and at my direction, we are reversing decades of bloat and bureaucracy at the State Department. These sweeping changes will empower our talented diplomats to put America and Americans first.” The post included an official statement from the State Department, which reads (emphasis mine): We are facing tremendous challenges across the globe. To deliver on President Trump’s America First foreign policy, we must make the State Department Great Again. In its current form, the Department is bloated, bureaucratic, and unable to perform its essential diplomatic mission in this new era of great power competition.

Over the past 15 years, the Department’s footprint has had unprecedented growth and costs have soared. But far from seeing a return on investment, taxpayers have seen less effective and efficient diplomacy. The sprawling bureaucracy created a system more beholden to radical political ideology than advancing America’s core national interests. That is why today I am announcing a comprehensive reorganization plan that will bring the Department into the 21st Century. This approach will empower the Department from the ground up, from the bureaus to the embassies. Region-specific functions will be consolidated to increase functionality, redundant offices will be removed, and non-statutory programs that are misaligned with America’s core national interests will cease to exist. Under President Trump’s leadership, we have a commander in chief committed to putting America and Americans first. As his Secretary of State, I am confident a reformed State Department will meet the moment and help make our country great once again.

So what exactly does a “comprehensive reorganization” of the State Department look like? According to The Free Press, which Rubio says has the “real exclusive,” — by the way, how do we get one of those exclusives here at PJ Media? — internal documents show that the Department “will close 132 agency offices, including those launched to further human rights, advance democracy overseas, counter extremism, and prevent war crimes.” That’s a 17% reduction to start. Additionally, “under secretaries at the State Department are also being instructed within 30 days to present plans to reduce their U.S. personnel in individual departments by 15 percent,” including “six top offices employing thousands of people.”

Rubio also wrote about the shakeup in what appears to be a new Substack for the State Department, stating that “The Department has long struggled to perform basic diplomatic functions, even as both its size and cost to the American taxpayer has [sic] ballooned over the past fifteen years. The problem is not a lack of money, or even dedicated talent, but rather a system where everything takes too much time, costs too much money, involves too many individuals, and all too often ends up failing the American people.” He also expanded on a topic I covered last week, the shuttering of the Global Engagement Center — an office that censored U.S. citizens — citing it as just one of many reasons why this overhaul is necessary.

“An example of an out-of-control Department is the Global Engagement Center (GEC) that I shuttered last week. The office engaged with media outlets and platforms to censor speech it disagreed with, including that of the President o the United States, who its director in 2019 accused of employing ‘the same techniques of disinformation as the Russians.’ Despite Congress voting to shutter it, the GEC simply renamed itself and continued operating as if nothing had changed. Unless we confront the underlying bureaucratic culture that prevents the State Department from carrying out an effective foreign policy, while allowing offices like GEC to flourish in the shadows, nothing will change. That is why I am initiating a broad reorganization of the Department to address the steady growth of bureaucracy, duplication of functions, and capture by special interests that have crippled American Foreign Policy.

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“Courage means feeling fear but behaving in a way that is noble and good..”

Trump’s Courage to Fight the Good Fight (DS)

When the White House invoked the “Immortal Chaplains” to illustrate the history between the United States and Greenland, it touched on a theme emerging in the second Trump administration: the importance of courage. On Feb. 3, 1943, the American steamship SS Dorchester embarked with 902 souls—soldiers, merchant seamen, and civilians—bound for a U.S. Army base in southern Greenland to support the buildup of military personnel during World War II. The ship’s captain ordered those on board to sleep in their uniforms and life jackets in case of an attack by German submarines, but many disregarded the order because of heat from the ship’s engine. Just after midnight, a U-boat’s torpedo slammed into the Dorchester’s starboard side below the water line. Four Navy chaplains—a rabbi, a Methodist minister, a Catholic priest, and a Protestant reverend—gave up their own life vests and guided panicked crew members to the lifeboats.

The Dorchester sank in 20 minutes. One of the 230 survivors later recalled what he saw as he swam away from the ship: “The bow came up high and she slid under. The last thing I saw, the four chaplains were up there praying for the safety of the men. They had done everything they could.” Courage means feeling fear but behaving in a way that is noble and good, as the chaplains did when they acted on their deepest convictions aboard the Dorchester. Donald Trump once wrote that courage is not the absence of fear but “the ability to act effectively, in spite of fear.” In 2016, Trump showed moral courage when he spoke the truth to American voters: A parasitic “establishment” of political and corporate interests had been exploiting our workers, farmers, and soldiers. When Trump challenged 16 opponents in the Republican primary, he exposed untruths in a conservative orthodoxy passed down from Ronald Reagan through George W. Bush.

Establishment foes hounded him with investigations and impeachment proceedings throughout the four years of his presidency, but Trump refused to compromise his principles or check his ambition to “make America great again.” Emboldened by Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021, the establishment connived to use the 14th Amendment to prevent Trump from running for president a third time. They leveled charges against him in two federal district courts, tried him in a New York state court, and indicted him in Georgia for alleged RICO Act violations. Though Trump was unbowed, his campaign manager, Susie Wiles, was concerned: “I just worry that if they can’t get him this way, they’ll try to kill him.” And that almost happened on July 13 at the fairgrounds in Butler, Pennsylvania, when an assassin’s bullet grazed Trump’s ear.

Where Trump modeled courage, the establishment shows only cowardice—their decade-long effort to destroy Trump has been prosecuted from the shadows, hiding behind the anonymity that bureaucratic power affords. They falsely claimed that Trump “colluded” with Vladimir Putin and Russia. They used a cloak-and-dagger plan to scuttle the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. And, in 2022, someone leaked a copy of the Dobbs decision overruling Roe v. Wade. In spite of Chief Justice John Roberts’ promise, the leaker remains unidentified and unaccountable. Some say that Trump’s opponents exemplify courage in their bold attacks on his character and reputation. But talk doesn’t make them courageous, least of all because it costs them nothing. Their admonitions are purely performative means to curry favor with the media and the establishment at large, which are viciously opposed to Trump’s reforms.

There is nothing courageous about yelling “F–k Trump” into a microphone. Whatever force it has in the political sphere depends on showing that the saying is accompanied by a doing. Trump’s been talking tough for years and backs it up by action of some kind. In the moment that he rose to his feet in Butler, with his face bloodied and yelling, “Fight! Fight! Fight!,” he gave the final proof that he’s more than a tough talker. Biden’s presidency is a rich example of cowardice: Insiders worked for years to conceal that the sitting president was incapable of executing the duties of the office. In the book “Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House,” longtime political reporters Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes pull back the curtain on Biden’s presidency, detailing how his staff stage-managed a declining president and hid his impairment from the American people. Biden “lived in bubble wrap inside bunkers,” the authors write.

Though “the signs of decline were clear to anyone who was willing to see them,” Biden’s inner circle believed that “no one walks away from the house, the plane, the helicopter,” so, onward they went. When the scam was exposed at the presidential debate last June, the power players in Washington again retreated to the secrecy of the back room and hatched a scheme to cede the delegates that Biden had secured to nominate a candidate of their choice rather than the people’s choice. For decades, presidents talked about moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, but no one did until Trump. For years, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and Bernie Sanders called for tariffs to restructure world trade. But when Trump did what he said he would do and imposed tariffs? That was all it took for the same people to discover their opposition to tariffs.

The cowardice of Biden and the leading lights in the Democratic Party contrast sharply with the new administration. Trump and many others have gambled their reputations, fortunes, and future interests on a bold but polarizing agenda. They face the American people, every day, openly and fearlessly. For Trump, the most important quality for aides and Cabinet members is not loyalty but courage—and the willingness to pay a price for things that matter.

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Turns out, the border is a problem only if you invite people over.

How Trump ‘Restored Law and Order’ to US Borders (Allen)

The House Homeland Security Committee released its latest “Border Brief” Tuesday, highlighting significant changes at the border since President Donald Trump took office, and a staggering year-over-year decline in the number of illegal immigrants attempting to enter the United States. “Southwest border crossings have hit another record-low because we now have a president and [a Department of Homeland Security] secretary who enforce the law,” Rep. Mark Green, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, told The Daily Signal. “In less than three months, President Trump has restored law and order to our nation’s borders, removed criminal illegal aliens from our communities, and helped ensure the safety of the American people by empowering Department of Homeland Security law enforcement to do their jobs,” according to a committee press release.

In March, encounters with illegal aliens between ports of entry at the southern border fell by 94% compared to March 2024. Customs and Border Protection encountered 29,065 illegal aliens nationwide last month, down 88% from the 246,505 encountered in March 2024. Border Patrol’s daily apprehensions nationwide were the lowest in recorded history in March, averaging 264, a 94% decline from the previous year. The House Homeland Security Committee credits the decline in illegal crossings to the “Trump administration’s sustained deployment of military and federal law enforcement across the Southwest border, as well as partnerships with countries like El Salvador.” Since Jan. 20, the Trump administration has deployed thousands of troops and additional military resources to the southern border. The U.S. also formed an agreement with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to house deported illegal aliens in El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center.

The Trump administration has also ended various parole programs set in place or expanded under the Biden administration, such as the CBP One mobile application that allowed illegal aliens to schedule an appointment at a port of entry to claim asylum. The result of ending the Biden administration’s parole programs, according to the House committee, is an 80% decline in migrant encounters at U.S. ports of entry since March 2024. The daily average of known “getaways,” illegal aliens who manage to evade Border Patrol apprehension, has also fallen by more than 90% since Trump took office. Last week, a Maryland jury found Victor Martinez-Hernandez, a reported illegal alien gotaway from El Salvador, guilty of murdering Rachel Morin, a mother of five. The number of unaccompanied alien children arriving at the southern border declined by 92% last month when compared with March 2024.

Border Patrol has also witnessed a 97% year-over-year decline in the number of Chinese nationals crossing the southern border between ports of entry. Rather than “commending this return to law and order,” Green, R-Tenn., said his “colleagues across the aisle are working to defend an illegal alien MS-13 gang member who was rightfully removed from our country.” Democrats are advocating for the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, an illegal alien with ties to MS-13 who the Trump administration recently deported to a prison in El Salvador. Some Democrats, such as Mayland Sen. Chris Van Hollen who traveled to El Salvador to meet with Abrego Garcia, claim the man was wrongfully removed from the U.S. “To the American people, the contrast could not be clearer,” Green continued.

“Make no mistake—our communities are safer because the Trump administration has empowered DHS law enforcement to do their jobs, remove violent criminals, and dismantle the cartels’ business model. Now, Congress must codify President Trump’s homeland security agenda and provide the necessary funding to continue successfully securing our borders.” The House Homeland Security Committee’s March “Border Brief” celebrates the 32,809 arrests of illegal aliens at the hands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers during the first 50 days of the Trump administration. The nearly 33,000 arrests included “14,111 convicted criminals, of whom 1,155 were criminal gang members, as well as 39 aliens on the Terrorist Screening Data Set,” according to the committee. ICE has also arrested more than 300 members of the violent prison gang Tren de Aragua since Trump took office.

The committee in April advanced legislation introduced by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., that would require the DHS to publish the known number of special interest aliens, that is illegal aliens who pose a possible national security risk to the U.S., who cross U.S. borders. In its first border-related hearing of the 119th Congress, the committee highlighted the changes at the border during a Border Security and Enforcement Subcommittee hearing on March 28, aimed at showcasing the Biden administration’s “failure” at the border. “President Trump continues to deliver on the promises he made to secure our border,” Rep. Michael Guest, R-Miss., told The Daily Signal. “As the chairman of the Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement, I am honored to have the opportunity to work alongside President Trump to continue delivering results for the American people.”

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Woke has bankrupted Hollywood. Or almost. Bad for business.

Woke Blackout in Tinseltown (Ryumshin)

The conservative winds that have swept across America since January 20, 2025 have reached all the way to California. Hollywood, once the global capital of progressive values, is rapidly turning its back on the previous narrative. Transgender characters are quietly being cut from scripts, LGBT-themed productions shelved, and studios are shifting toward content with Christian and family-oriented values. Entire projects have been dropped. Others are being rewritten on the fly to avoid positive portrayals of LGBT characters. Just a year ago, such a reversal seemed unthinkable. Hollywood, which had long been synonymous with ‘woke’ ideology, appeared firmly entrenched in its liberal agenda. Anti-Trump themes were being churned out with near industrial efficiency, and conservative attempts at counter-programming lacked the budget or reach to compete. In the cultural trenches, liberals were not just winning, they were dominating. But now, studios are backing off.

The liberal press, already ringing alarm bells, has pinned the blame squarely on Donald Trump. In this rare case, they might have a point. Following his re-election, President Trump wasted no time in asserting ideological control. He signed executive orders recognizing only two genders, reinstated the ban on transgender individuals serving in the military, and scrapped federal Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) guidelines. In the cultural sphere, he made a bold appointment: Brendan Carr, a staunch Trump supporter and co-architect of the ‘Project 2025’ conservative reform blueprint, was named chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC might seem bureaucratic, but under Carr, it has become a powerful cultural weapon. Investigations were quickly launched into media outlets seen as hostile to Trump.

Disney, one of the most vocal progressive corporations, was accused of violating equal opportunity laws through its DEI policies. After making some adjustments, Disney still found itself under pressure, with Carr even threatening to revoke ABC’s broadcasting license. The result? Rapid, widespread self-censorship. Studios aren’t backpedaling because they’ve had a change of heart, they simply don’t want to attract the regulatory wrath of Washington. Amazon, led by Jeff Bezos, was ahead of the curve. Bezos cultivated ties with the Trump camp, quietly axed DEI advisors, and began investing only in “safe” content. The reward? Government scrutiny vanished. Still, it would be unfair to credit Trump alone for Hollywood’s pivot.

The shift had begun before the 2024 election, driven by cold economic realities. The traditional business model of cable TV is collapsing. Streaming services, flooded with progressive content, have failed to turn a profit. Worse, many of those “inclusive” productions have sparked controversy, underperformed at the box office, and alienated large swathes of the audience. Family-oriented and religious films, by contrast, often require modest budgets and cater to a mainstream audience. Conservative content, it turns out, is not just safer – it’s more profitable. There’s also the matter of public fatigue. Americans are tired of being lectured. Box office returns, streaming numbers, and network ratings all tell the same story. Once-dominant liberal cable channels are in freefall. As of December 2024, CNN and MSNBC had lost half their prime-time audiences, plunging to 30-year lows.

Fox News, meanwhile, is thriving. So are conservative-leaning podcasters like Tucker Carlson and Joe Rogan, now the dominant voices in America’s ‘new media’ landscape. None of this is a coincidence. The broader cultural and economic environment in the United States has shifted. Hollywood’s liberal monopoly was unsustainable, both financially and ideologically. Trump’s return to power merely accelerated a transformation already underway. Will this rightward turn change the face of global culture? Almost certainly. Will it return Hollywood to its former glory? Time will tell. But what is already clear is that the old narrative is dead – and the new one is being written with a red pen.

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“..the total collapse which is about to happen, is not “Trump’s fault”. He just happened to be the right person to execute the inevitable downfall of a major monetary era. But even if it is not his fault, history will unfairly blame him as the villain who brought the world economy down, and thus see him as probably the worst president in history. So not the best of timing for Mr Trump.”

The Big Short and The Bigger Long (Egon von Greyerz)

For at least 35 years, the monetary system has been telling us that the current era is coming to an end. That means a debt collapse, a currency collapse and a collapse of most bubble assets like stocks and property. THUS THE BIG SHORT! As I am writing this on Easter Monday, the Dow is down 1,100 points (2.9%) and the Nasdaq is down 3.3%. Anyone who buys the dips will be slaughtered. As I have said for a very long time, before this is over, stocks will be down 90-99% in real terms, which is gold. More importantly, this total collapse has very little to do with TRUMP. More later.

And don’t for a moment believe that gold is overvalued. As many have used conventional technical tools to predict a gold correction, I have been saying for a long time that gold is in an acceleration phase and will reach multiples of the current price. (Yes, of course, there will be corrections on the way up, but most probably not yet.) THUS THE BIG LONG! As many have used conventional technical tools to predict a gold correction, I have been saying for a long time that gold is in an acceleration phase and will reach multiples of the current price. (Yes, of course there will be corrections on the way up but most probably not yet). THUS THE BIG LONG!

END OF A MONETARY ERA The end of a monetary era is always the same, with bubble assets going up in smoke. The majority of investors haven’t got a clue what is happening. They are hanging on to their stocks, hoping that Trump will save them by firing Powell and telling the next Chairman of the Fed to lower interest rates. But the time of manipulating rates is over. The market will now determine rates, which it should always do. And with uncontrollable debt escalation in the US and many other countries, the cost of debt can only go one way – UP! Remember, there is only one buyer of US debt, which is the Fed. But the Fed can only buy debt if the US government issues more debt. And therein lies the crux. More debt must be created in a futile attempt to save the ever-growing and out-of-control finances of the US. This is without doubt the biggest Ponzi scheme in history. Madoff would certainly have enjoyed it.

And still, it would have been so easy, as all of this has been totally predictable. To paraphrase Churchill, the more you study history, the more self-evident the future becomes. Still no government, no central banker, no journalist and virtually no market student spends any time on learning from the past. Why, why, why, you ask yourself. Well, it is clearly sheer arrogance in believing that we know better today and that we have better tools. And of course, “The times are different today”. Hmmm! But they are not and have never been. Every monetary system has collapsed in history, and every currency has gone to ZERO, without fail. As I witnessed Greenspan’s expansionary policy after the property market collapse in the 1990s and how debt and derivatives quickly continued to grow, I was certain that we were seeing the end of a major monetary system.

I had, since the late 1980s, been convinced that gold was the best insurance against yet another coming failure of the monetary system. As major central banks like the UK and Switzerland were selling their gold in the mid to late 1990s, it was clear that we were near the bottom. So we waited until the 1999 gold bottom at $250 and confirmation of the gold price recovery in the early 2000s before buying physical gold. BACK TO TRUMP – the culprit. But everything is, of course, Trump’s fault! All the misery hitting the world now is due to Trump’s capricious actions. Here are just a few examples of how TRUMP is now wrecking not just the US but the whole world economy, according to the general public as well as the media and politicians in most countries:

Stocks crashing, bonds crashing, rates up, dollar crashing, trade wars with massive daily tit for tat yo-yo swinging tariffs between 10% and 145%, much higher Inflation, collapse of global trade etc, etc. Yes, all of the above is happening and much more and it is all Trump’s fault.But is it really? No, Trump is not the culprit. Instead, Trump happens to be the catalyst. An absolutely superb analysis of the US-China trade war was given by this very acute Chinese influencer: “Leaders are instruments of their time, and they appear at the time in the cycle to carry out what was going to happen anyway.

Just like Thatcher and Reagan were the right leaders to lead the upturn in the early 1980s, Trump is perfect for creating the havoc and chaos that comes with the end of a major monetary era. What is happening in the US and global economy today, and the total collapse which is about to happen, is not “Trump’s fault”. He just happened to be the right person to execute the inevitable downfall of a major monetary era. But even if it is not his fault, history will unfairly blame him as the villain who brought the world economy down, and thus see him as probably the worst president in history. So not the best of timing for Mr Trump.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

ivm

 

 

Malhotra

 

 

Hotez

 

 

https://twitter.com/DiedSuddenly_/status/1914837101486518732

 

 

 

 

Phone

 

 

Mom

 

 

Goose

 

 

https://twitter.com/Lin11W/status/1914406273602277705

 

 

Feynman

 

 

Goats
https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1914628619722281004

 

 

 

 

Support the Automatic Earth in wartime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.

 

 

 

 

 

Apr 202025
 


Edward Hopper The long leg 1935

 

Opposition to ‘Eurofascism’ Driving US and Russia Closer – Spy Agency (RT)
Russia Announces Easter Ceasefire (RT)
European Union Bans Commemorating The Defeat of Nazi Germany (SCF)
Trump Administration Plans To Send Envoy Witkoff To Russia Again – CNN (RT)
Scott Ritter: Rubio’s Threats to Quit Ukraine Talks Look Like Sabotage (Sp.)
US Threats To Quit Ukraine Talks Aimed at Kiev Rather Than Moscow (TASS)
US Sets Timeline For Kiev To Agree To Ceasefire (RT)
Germany Wants The UK To Hold Its Hand While It Starts WWIII (Marsden)
Moldova Wages War On Christians To Please Its EU Overlords (Romanenko)
Will Trump’s Tariffs Hurt GOP in Midterms? (Caldwell)
US, Iran Agree To Enter Next Phase Of Nuclear Negotiations (JTN)
Trump On Deported Migrant: ‘He’s Got MS-13 Tattooed’ On His Knuckles (JTN)
SCOTUS Order Pauses Deportations Under Alien Enemies Act (Allen)
SCOTUS Blocks Deportation of Alleged Venezuela Gang Members for Now (ET)
SCOTUS Halts Venezuelan Deportations, 4th Circuit Upholds Garcia Order (Turley)
Judge Blocks Trump’s Order Ending ‘X’ Gender Marker on Passports (ET)
Tesla Continues to Reign Supreme Despite Leftist Violence (Blackmon)

 

 

 

 

90 days

Cernovich
https://twitter.com/bennyjohnson/status/1913298101915238458

Tish
https://twitter.com/LynneBP_294/status/1913223009462010142

DEI

injunctions

Left

Ireland

Conor

 

 

 

 

“.. work together to prevent “a new global conflict” and confront “possible provocations both from Ukraine and from the ‘maddened Europeans’..”

Opposition to ‘Eurofascism’ Driving US and Russia Closer – Spy Agency (RT)

The US and Russia are natural allies against “Eurofascism” and the tyrannical tendencies prevalent in Western European countries, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has said. The spy agency published a text on its website on Wednesday titled ‘Eurofascism, just as 80 years ago, is the common enemy for Moscow and Washington.’ The SVR argued that Europe has a “historical predisposition” to “various forms of totalitarianism that periodically produce devastating, global-scale conflicts.” It cited the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution and the “bloody actions” of Napoleon as examples. It also referenced the Charlemagne Division of the SS, made up of volunteers from Nazi-occupied France.

The agency credited French author Pierre Drieu la Rochelle, who collaborated with Nazi Germany, with introducing “the concept of Eurofascism… and its ideology.” According to the SVR, la Rochelle believed that “Eurofascism … [is] inherent not only to the Germans but to other European ‘societies’ as well.” The agency cited unnamed experts as saying that the current rift between the US and the EU facilitates a “situational rapprochement of Washington and Moscow.” “The United States is free due to the willingness of the ancestors of modern Americans to confront such dictatorships as the British Monarchy or the Jacobin Revolution,” it said. The SVR claimed that “conservative expert circles in the USA believe that the British elite … is very much inclined to commit the gravest crimes against humanity.”

“America felt the effect of similar inclinations of the British back in August of 1814, when the British troops occupied Washington, burned the Capitol and the White House,” the SVR claimed. The agency said that “foreign expert circles” are hopeful that Russia and the US will work together to prevent “a new global conflict” and confront “possible provocations both from Ukraine and from the ‘maddened Europeans’ traditionally urged on by Great Britain.” The statement was released as the US is attempting to broker a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. Russian officials said that, unlike the Biden administration, President Donald Trump and his team have shown a readiness to listen to Moscow’s positions and understand the root causes of the conflict.

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It took just seconds for Zelensky to claim Russia was violating its own ceasefire. And that is the only newsbit broadcast all across the west.

Russia Announces Easter Ceasefire (RT)

Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced a temporary Easter pause in hostilities with Ukraine, which is slated to begin at 18:00 Moscow time on Saturday and last until midnight on April 21. The announcement came during his meeting with Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov in Moscow. Putin expressed hope that Kiev would demonstrate goodwill and adhere to the ceasefire. ”At the same time, our troops must be prepared to respond to any violations or provocations by the adversary, to any aggressive actions,” he said. Putin stated that Ukraine’s reaction to the ceasefire would be a clear indicator of whether Kiev is sincerely willing to engage in negotiations to end the conflict. The president referenced the US-brokered 30-day energy infrastructure truce agreed to on March 18, accusing Ukraine of violating it.

“We know that the Kiev regime has violated the agreement on pausing energy infrastructure strikes more than a hundred times,” Putin explained. “Therefore, I ask you [Gerasimov] to remain extremely vigilant and prepared for an immediate and full-force response.” Shortly after Putin’s statement, the Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the ceasefire, calling on Kiev to reciprocate. ”The ceasefire is being introduced for humanitarian purposes and will be observed by the Russian Joint Group of Troops, provided it is mutually observed by the Kiev regime,” the ministry said. While Kiev did not immediately provide a clear response to Putin’s announcement, it appeared to reject the temporary truce. Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky branded it an attempt to “play with human lives,” claiming that swarms of Russian kamikaze drones were detected in the country’s skies at 17:15 Moscow time.

The drones “in our skies show Putin’s true attitude to Easter and human lives,” Zelensky said in a statement. According to RT war correspondent Andrey Filatov, reporting from the Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk) area in Donetsk People’s Republic, multiple violations of the ceasefire were observed within an hour of it taking effect. Ukrainian forces in the area have been actively using drones, mortars and heavy artillery, striking Russian positions with cluster munitions. Earlier this week, Moscow suggested a full long-term ceasefire with Ukraine was highly unlikely, given Kiev’s long history of broken promises and violations of previous deals.

Speaking to reporters at UN headquarters on Thursday, Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia said there are “big issues with the comprehensive ceasefire,” referencing the fate of the long-defunct Minsk agreements, as well as repeated violations of a US-brokered 30-day moratorium on energy infrastructure strikes. In the meantime, Washington has signaled that time is running out for finding a solution to the Ukraine conflict. On Friday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration was prepared to throw in the towel soon. “We need to figure out here now, within a matter of days, whether this is doable in the short term. Because if it’s not, then I think we’re just going to move on,” Rubio stated.

Read more …

In case you were wondering what the EU stands for. This should be hard to believe. Unfortunately, it is not.

European Union Bans Commemorating The Defeat of Nazi Germany (SCF)

The European Union is warning European leaders not to attend the 80th anniversary of Victory Day in Moscow on May 9. Ostensibly, the rationale for such a ban is that Russia is allegedly waging a war against Ukraine and threatening the rest of Europe, according to the EU. That’s one way of seeing it. Another way of seeing the matter is that the conflict in Ukraine is a proxy war sponsored by the EU and NATO to defeat Russia, eight decades after Nazi Germany failed to do it. The Euro elites who have come to dominate policymaking share the same fascist mentality. No wonder, then, that they are against attending the 80th anniversary event in Moscow next month. They need to sully that event by way of covering up their despicable politics. The event marking the defeat of Nazi Germany and fascism in Europe is a massively important historical date for the entire world.

Eighty years ago, on May 9, 1945, the Soviet Red Army crushed the Nazi regime in Berlin thereby ending the most horrific war in human history. Up to 27 million Soviet citizens – perhaps more – gave their lives in the epic struggle to defeat Nazi Germany and its fascist European allies, including Vichy France, Italy, Hungary, Finland and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Russia holds the honor of liberating Europe from the evil of fascism. By comparison, the other anti-fascist allies of the United States and Britain lost less than 5 per cent of the casualties that the Soviet citizens endured. It is fitting that many international leaders are attending the Victory Day parade in Moscow this year. They include China’s Xi Jinping and India’s Narendra Modi. Many others, however, will not be in Moscow, which is lamentable.

The American President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer should be present to pay respects to the soldiers and civilians who sacrificed their lives. Deplorably, the toxic politics that have poisoned relations between Western states and Russia have rendered such participation impossible. What is all the more appalling, however, is the explicit ban on European leaders attending the celebrations in Moscow. This week, Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s Commissioner for Foreign Affairs, issued a warning that any politicians who went to Moscow would face severe consequences. Kallas, who was formerly the prime minister of the tiny Baltic state of Estonia, was appointed last year as the EU’s most senior official on foreign policy. One of those defying orders is Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico. He rebuked Kallas for daring to tell him, as the leader of a sovereign nation, where and where not to go.

He added: “I will go to Moscow to pay respects to thousands of Red Army soldiers who died liberating Slovakia.” Fico was elected on a platform calling for friendly relations with Russia and an end to the NATO proxy war in Ukraine. He has consistently opposed sending more military aid to the Kiev regime. Last year, Fico survived an assassination attempt in which he was shot by a gunman motivated by pro-Ukraine politics. Of particular note, the European Union’s sanctions on politicians attending the Victory Day commemoration in Moscow are targeting candidate states joining the 27-member bloc. Kallas threatened that their candidacy could be cancelled. They include the Balkan nations of Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia, as well as Moldova and Georgia. Nevertheless, Serbian President Aleksander Vucic stated that he would be going to Moscow despite intense pressure from Brussels.

“We are proud of our struggle against fascism, and that was the key reason why I accepted the invitation”, said Vucic. He spoke, however, of the sinister leverage on his government. “It seems to me that the sky is about to fall on my head due to the pressure surrounding the trip to Moscow,” said the Serbian president, who added that his country was being destabilized by outside agitators. The unseemly controversy over the Victory Day parade in Moscow serves to highlight the growing malevolent tendencies of the EU. Increasingly, the bloc’s centralization of political power is becoming more authoritarian and hostile towards Russia. Any dissent among the EU members questioning the bloc’s support for the proxy war in Ukraine is ruthlessly suppressed with threats of political and economic sanctions.

The EU leadership, under Russophobic autocrats like European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Kaja Kallas, is implicated in suppressing elections in Romania, Moldova and Georgia to prevent parties that are calling for an end to the war in Ukraine and better relations with Russia. The recent dubious prosecution in France of nationalist politician Marine Le Pen, who has been critical of NATO’s proxy war, is another baleful example of the EU moving to crush dissent. It is startling how much the EU has come to operate like a fascist bloc. Policy decisions about funding a NeoNazi regime in Ukraine to fight a proxy war against Russia are being made by Russophobic elites with no democratic accountability.

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This will be visit no. 4. Putin and Trump now know from each other what they want, not just what they say they want.

This is the first time that I see Witkoff saying a peace deal would include not only the recognition of Crimea as Russian, but also the other 4 regions.

Trump Administration Plans To Send Envoy Witkoff To Russia Again – CNN (RT)

US President Donald Trump’s administration is planning one more meeting between special envoy Steve Witkoff and senior Russian officials to get Moscow on board with its vision for peace in the Ukraine conflict, CNN has claimed, citing an anonymous source. Witkoff has already met with Russian President Vladimir Putin three times this year as the US president tries to broker a ceasefire between Kiev and Moscow. In its article on Saturday, CNN further quoted its source as saying that Washington’s plan, which was reportedly presented to Ukrainian officials and several European leaders during a top-level meeting in Paris on Thursday, envisages a ceasefire along the current front line. The US government also supposedly signaled a willingness to recognize Crimea as Russian territory.

Commenting on his meeting with Putin in Moscow last Friday, Witkoff told Fox News on Monday that the nearly five-hour talks were “compelling” and that the Kremlin is seeking a lasting solution to the Ukraine conflict. Trump’s special envoy claimed that Moscow and Kiev “might be on the verge of something that would be very, very important for the world at large.” According to the US official, any potential peace deal would include the recognition of Crimea, the Donetsk, and Lugansk People’s Republics, and Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions as part of Russia. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday that while there were “no clear outlines of any agreement yet,” Moscow values the “constructive and substantive” contact with the US.

Witkoff’s remarks did not sit well with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, who on Thursday accused Trump’s envoy of “wittingly or unwittingly spreading Russian narratives.” He reiterated that Kiev will “never recognize any temporarily occupied Ukrainian territory as Russian.” Russia has maintained that it is open to peace talks with Ukraine in principle, as long as its key security concerns are addressed. Moscow demands among other things that Kiev renounce its NATO aspirations and recognize the territorial “realities on the ground.” The Kremlin has insisted it will not accept a mere freeze of the conflict.

On Saturday, President Putin announced a temporary Easter truce effective from 18:00 Moscow time through midnight on Sunday night. While he expressed hope that Ukraine would reciprocate, he also stated that the “Kiev regime has violated the agreement on pausing energy infrastructure strikes more than a hundred times.” Putin argued that Ukraine’s reaction to the ceasefire would be a clear indicator of whether Kiev is serious about wanting to achieve peace.

Read more …

Trump cannot leave the talks. They’re his, after all. And it would lead to a Moscow-Brussels war, which would involve Paris, London, Berlin and … NATO. They will try to blackmail the US into that fight. Trump should simply say, beforehand, that he wants none of this to happen.

Scott Ritter: Rubio’s Threats to Quit Ukraine Talks Look Like Sabotage (Sp.)

Marco Rubio warned Friday that the US could walk out of the Ukrainian peace process if progress is not made “within days.” A day earlier, Volodymyr Zelensky accused Trump Ukraine envoy Steve Witkoff of “spreading Russian narratives,” and claimed Witkoff has no “mandate…to speak about Ukrainian territories.” The US secretary of state’s remarks on potentially ending the US peace push in Ukraine signal dual frustrations: with Steve Witkoff’s influence over Ukraine policy, and with Russia’s demands for a lasting peace instead of a temporary ceasefire, military analyst and former Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter told Sputnik. “I think this is an effort by Marco Rubio to insert himself into the process, but I want to remind people that he doesn’t make policy, especially policy concerning US-Russian relations,” Ritter emphasized.

Ritter sees Rubio’s comments as an attempt to “create the atmosphere of a failed policy” to try to get the US to abandon its current policy on Ukraine, but doesn’t see President Trump accepting this position. Ritter also recalled that Rubio’s position in the Trump administration has forced him to pull a 180 degree turn on the traditional pro-Ukraine, anti-Russia posture he held throughout his career in the Senate. “Rubio’s statement actually empowers Europe and Ukraine in many ways because now all they have to do is drag this out. The key here is for Europe and Ukraine is to get the United States out of the peacekeeping business and hopefully get the US back into the war-fighting business, that is, to continue their proxy conflict against Russia. That doesn’t seem to be the policy direction that Donald Trump favors,” the observer stressed.

Ultimately, Ritter said, what the Ukraine crisis needs right now is diplomacy. “This requires the United States to put pressure on Europe, to put pressure on Ukraine. The Trump administration doesn’t seem to have the leverage necessary to achieve that. This is where Marco Rubio is supposed to be stepping forward to take the lead diplomatically to see the president’s will translated into actual policy that can be implemented. But Rubio doesn’t seem to be inclined to do this.” “So what I envision happening is, in a week or so, you’ll see Marco Rubio make a play with the Trump administration, with the president himself, to terminate America’s effort to bring this conflict to an end. But I don’t see Donald Trump accepting that. I see Donald Trump rejecting that advice and continuing to press forward and giving Steve Witkoff a chance to work with the Russians. But this is a process that if it continues, is going to take weeks, if not months, before you get the kind of detailed agreement necessary to allow Russia to accept a ceasefire,” Ritter summed up.

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“..we’re just going to say, ‘You’re foolish, you’re fools, you’re horrible people.’

US Threats To Quit Ukraine Talks Aimed at Kiev Rather Than Moscow (TASS)

Washington’s threats to walk away from the negotiation process on Ukraine are directed against the Kiev regime rather than Moscow, the Axios portal said, citing European officials. “Two European diplomats confirmed Rubio said Trump was losing his patience and might withdraw from the process if a deal wasn’t reached soon,” the portal wrote, adding that “three European diplomats felt Rubio’s comments were mostly aimed at the Ukrainians.” “A source close to the Ukrainian government also said it seemed Rubio’s comments were aimed at pressing Ukraine. The source was also concerned that a Trump withdrawal from the negotiations could lead to suspension of US military aid to Ukraine,” the portal noted.

The European diplomats pointed out that during talks in Paris, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has not mentioned “increasing the pressure on Russia.” “The impression was that Rubio and Witkoff are under a lot of pressure from Trump and they are channeling it to the other players,” a European diplomat said. According to Axios, Rubio said that US President Donald Trump had decided that “he has dedicated a lot of time and energy to this, and there are a lot of things going on in the world right now that we need to be focused on.” “We need to figure out <…> within a matter of days, whether this is doable in the short term. If it’s not, then I think we’re just going to move on,” the top US diplomat added.

Rubio told reporters in Paris that Trump may abandon his efforts to settle the Ukraine crisis if there is no immediate progress. “We’re not going to continue with this endeavor for weeks and months on end,” he explained. Earlier, Trump himself did not rule out the US leaving the negotiations. “Now if, for some reason, one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we’re just going to say, ‘You’re foolish, you’re fools, you’re horrible people.’ And we’re going to just take a pass, but hopefully we won’t have to do that,” he told reporters at the White House.

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“..as early as next week..”

I think the talks will take much longer.

US Sets Timeline For Kiev To Agree To Ceasefire (RT)

US President Donald Trump reportedly expects to “make a determination for a full and comprehensive ceasefire” between Ukraine and Russia as early as next week. Both are to be presented with the final offer, the New York Post has claimed, citing an anonymous senior administration official. Trump has stated on multiple occasions that he wants to put an end to the Ukraine conflict as soon as possible. Since he assumed office in January, Washington and Moscow have been engaged in active diplomacy, holding several rounds of high-level talks. The newspaper quoted a source on Friday as saying that “this coming week in London, we want to make a determination for a full and comprehensive cease-fire.” The unnamed US official added that the “intent then is to have [discussions] with the Russians” and determine where Moscow and Kiev stand on this “final offer.”

According to the publication, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and President Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff during their meeting in Paris on Thursday that Kiev is “90%” on board with Washington’s peace framework, which has yet to be made public. Ukraine’s remaining concerns mostly revolve around territories which Kiev claims as its own, but are in fact under Moscow’s control at present, the Post reported.Russia has demanded that Ukraine officially recognize the “reality on the ground,” while Vladimir Zelensky has repeatedly ruled out such a scenario.

The media outlet further alleged that the US could offer Russia a “carrot”: the relaxation of sanctions and the potential unfreezing of Moscow’s seized assets, which are currently held by Western institutions. Speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump echoed a remark made by Rubio earlier in the day, stating that “if for some reason one of the two parties makes it very difficult… we’re going to just take a pass.” Russian authorities have expressed skepticism about the feasibility of a ceasefire with Ukraine and accused Kiev’s backers in Europe of undermining US efforts. Speaking to journalists on Thursday, Moscow’s UN representative, Vassily Nebenzia, stated that due to the West’s record of using peace deals to help build up the Ukrainian military, expectations of a full ceasefire are “simply unrealistic at this stage.”

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“..Merz needs a useful idiot to ride shotgun alongside him in the doltmobile to share in any responsibility for the eventual mayhem when things inevitably go pear-shaped. “You rang?” say the Brits.”

Germany Wants The UK To Hold Its Hand While It Starts WWIII (Marsden)

Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz doesn’t officially take office until May 6, but that hasn’t stopped him from hitting the press circuit like it’s demolition day. Apparently, he’s got some lost time – and infrastructure – to make up for. In a chat with Germany’s public broadcaster, ARD, he floated the idea that Kiev, which seems to rank higher than Berlin on his priority list, needs to “get ahead of the situation” on the battlefield and “shape events” instead of playing defense. The event he seems most eager to shape? Oh, just the Third World War, apparently. Because he pivoted straight to the Kerch Bridge – mainland Russia’s lifeline to the Crimean peninsula – like it’s been living on borrowed time.

Merz said that “if for example, the most important land connection between Russia and Crimea is destroyed, or if something happens on Crimea itself, where most of the Russian military logistics are located, then that would be an opportunity to bring this country strategically back into the picture finally.” Cool, cool. Which picture would that be, exactly? The one labeled “Catastrophic Misjudgments of the 21st Century”? Probably. Which is why Merz needs a useful idiot to ride shotgun alongside him in the doltmobile to share in any responsibility for the eventual mayhem when things inevitably go pear-shaped. “You rang?” say the Brits. Or at least that’s what Merz is apparently hoping they say. “Our European partners are already supplying cruise missiles,” Merz said in an interview. “The British are doing it, the French are doing it, and the Americans are doing it anyway, this must be jointly agreed. And if it’s agreed, then Germany should take part.”

Merz’s fellow Christian Democratic Party MPs have been floating the idea in the Western press that he’s waiting for an official permission slip from London. It would probably read something like this: “Dear Herr Friedrich, You are hereby authorized to partake in a highly coordinated, militarized pub crawl. First stop: a punch-up with Russia, followed by a wobbly march to a greasy spoon for black coffee, bad lighting, and a collective hangover.” Merz is just days away from grabbing the wheel, and he’s done pretending to be the guy in the backseat yelling directions at Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Scholz, for his part, always said that Germany wouldn’t hand Kiev the Taurus long-range missiles. Not that he had much wiggle room after last year’s leaked audio from Russian intelligence of German Air Force brass workshopping ways to hit the Kerch Bridge without leaving any German fingerprints.

Kind of a bad look for a guy who keeps overtly declaring that he wants peace. So naturally, he was furious. Which is why, if Team Scholz suddenly turned around now and said, “You know what? Let’s try a few long-range missile strikes, just for funsies,” people might reasonably assume that he’d undergone a surprise lobotomy with a NATO letter opener. As the coalition partners for Merz’s incoming government, Scholz’s Social Democrats’ support would be needed on any vote. And so far, they’ve shown no interest in greenlighting his WW3 passion project. You know, democracy and all that. Minor hiccup, I know. If military ambition and musings alone were all it took, Merz would already be well on his way to having a Netflix original named after him and maybe even a seat with his name on it waiting at The Hague.

But hey, hear the guy out. What if it’s, like, a group project? Das ist gut, ja? Nah, dude. Nicht gut. Nicht gut at all. What exactly does Team Merz think this would look like? Would the Brits and Germans sit side by side, fingers hovering over their respective missile buttons, doing a tense little “one, two, three, fire” and just praying that neither one flinches at the last second and leaves the other one with some very awkward phone calls to make? If so, that would certainly explain why they’re talking about specifically needing Britain’s non-negotiable participation and not France – the country that trained a flagship brigade for the Ukrainian army, who apparently learned how to bail out before even seeing action. “Paris hailed it as a ‘unique’ initiative,” reported France24. Training 1,700 Ukrainians in France to fight who then just end up surrendering to the foie gras and rosé at the local café prior to deployment is ‘unique’, alright.

“Ah, wonderbar!”

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“..Moldova’s airport detentions echo the trajectory taken by the Kiev authorities in Ukraine..”

Moldova Wages War On Christians To Please Its EU Overlords (Romanenko)

On Thursday, Moldovan authorities chose to detain Bishop Marchel of the Moldovan Metropolis, a metropolitanate under the Russian Orthodox Church, at Chiinau International Airport. Bishop Marchel was on his way to Jerusalem to bring back the Holy Fire for Easter, one of the most sacred ceremonies of the year for Orthodox believers. According to reports, he was pulled aside for a thorough inspection of his person and luggage, had his passport confiscated, and was not allowed to board his flight even though nothing suspicious was ever found. His documents were only returned thirty minutes after the plane departed. By contrast, the rival Metropolis of Bessarabia, a different Orthodox Christian church in Moldova, canonically under the Romanian Patriarchate, sent its own delegate, Bishop Filaret, on the same mission unmolested.

This isn’t an isolated outrage but rather the latest episode in a systematic campaign against anyone deemed pro Russian. On March 25, 2025, Eugenia Gutul the democratically elected head of the Gagauz autonomy was detained at the very same airport. Her passport was confiscated and she was held incommunicado for 72 hours on opaque corruption and illegal financing charges, before being put under house arrest to await trial. Two days later, opposition figure Alexei Lungu was stopped from leaving the country on murky grounds, and Viktor Petrov another Gagauz leader was held for hours in February after flying in from Istanbul, an arrest he claims was orchestrated by Prime Minister Recean’s office. These incidents form a clear pattern: every pro Russian politician, cleric or public figure is under suspicion of destabilizing European choice or colluding with foreign powers.

At its core, what is being played out in Moldova in regards to the Moldovan Metropolis is an attempt to hold the spiritual life of the majority hostage to a political agenda. Nearly 70 percent of Moldovans adhere to the Moldovan Metropolis of the Russian Orthodox Church. By making its shepherds and representatives into targets, the government is sending a message: worship with a Romanian or European aligned body and you re free to practice your faith; profess loyalty to a politically inconvenient church and you risk being treated like a criminal. This is not a security measure it is a politicization of religion.

Worryingly, Moldova’s airport detentions echo the trajectory taken by the Kiev authorities in Ukraine. In August 2024, the Ukrainian parliament passed a law effectively banning any religious organization affiliated with a state engaged in armed aggression a barely veiled reference to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate (UOC MP). The bill sailed through 265 29 and obliged each parish to sever ties with Moscow or face court ordered closure within nine months. President Zelensky hailed it as a step toward spiritual independence, yet by criminalizing an entire denomination, Kiev set the stage for unprecedented state intrusion into religious life.

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“if a far-left radical is the one raising the most money, and someone who’s arguing that Democrats should go even further left, that’s good for Republicans.”

Will Trump’s Tariffs Hurt GOP in Midterms? (Caldwell)

As President Donald Trump moves at a feverish pace in imposing tariffs and undoing much of his predecessor’s legacy, a question has emerged: How will voters react to these bold actions when midterm elections arrive in 2026? Trump has said that his tariffs—which have corresponded with a drop in his economic job-approval rating—will end up benefiting him and Republicans in midterms. “And I really think we’re helped a lot by the tariff situation that’s going on, which is a good situation,” he said at a National Republican Congressional Committee fundraising dinner last week. “It’s going to be legendary. You watch.” But Brad Bannon, a veteran pollster and political consultant for Democrat congressional campaigns, told The Daily Signal he thinks lower approval ratings and higher uncertainty on the economy will benefit Democrats significantly.

“I don’t believe that anybody should panic, but the Republicans should be worried, based on the latest polling I’ve seen,” said Bannon. Bannon said he was paying particular attention to a CBS poll that showed 53% of people thought the economy had worsened in the past three months and 54% thought Trump had ownership for the state of the economy, rather than former President Joe Biden. Though he acknowledged that Trump’s economic approval rating has risen since its nosedive amid the market crash, he suggested that the fall in the stock market would trigger backlash from voters with 401(k)s who “got basically killed during the tariff thing.” But Republican consultants painted a different picture.

Jason Roe is a reelection campaign consultant for Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Mich., who flipped Michigan’s 7th Congressional District in 2024, which is one of the most volatile swing districts in the country. Michigan is in a special situation as a state that’s especially reliant on Canadian goods, but also has many voters who suffered from deindustrialization in the wake of prior free-trade agreements. Roe says polling suggests to him that voters are willing to give Trump a chance on his ambitious restructuring of the economy. “Everyone seems to—even people that don’t love Trump—feel like we’ve got to do something,” Roe said. “It’s unsustainable as it is.” “So, I think there’s this willingness to give the benefit of the doubt, and you see that in polling on issues like tariffs that don’t poll well, yet Trump’s numbers are still holding. He’s at 47 in the most recent CBS poll. For him to be doing what he’s doing and being who he is, that’s an extraordinarily strong number… but if we get much past Labor Day and people aren’t seeing results… then we could see political problems.” he added.

Democrats also have much to fear as they look toward the 2026 midterms. The Democratic Party had a 27% approval rating in an NBC poll in March. Additionally, the Democratic Party has begun to gravitate toward polarizing figures, such as Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Jasmine Crockett of Texas, as leaders. Republican strategists think that will be a great asset when midterm season comes. “The national party heads become great targets,” said Brett O’Donnell, a veteran of many presidential campaigns who is consulting for the reelection campaign of Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark. He contends that figures such as Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., would alienate most voters. “They make for great targets because they’re talking about things that, for the most part, aren’t the concerns of the majority of Americans,” O’Donnell said.

Todd, the Republican consultant, who argues that the Democrats suffered in 2024 because “they’ve allowed themselves to get so far out of the mainstream,” thinks that those figures will hurt Democrats in the next election cycle. Asked about Ocasio-Cortez’s massive fundraising efforts, he replied, “if a far-left radical is the one raising the most money, and someone who’s arguing that Democrats should go even further left, that’s good for Republicans.”

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“..Iran completely free of nuclear weapons and sanctions, and maintaining its ability to develop peaceful nuclear energy..”

US, Iran Agree To Enter Next Phase Of Nuclear Negotiations (JTN)

The U.S. and Iran have agreed to enter the next phase of negotiations over the Iranian regime’s nuclear program. The second round of the talks began in Rome on Saturday between Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and President Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff through the mediation of Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi. The envoys have “agreed to enter into the next phase of their discussions that aim to seal a fair, enduring and binding deal which will ensure Iran completely free of nuclear weapons and sanctions, and maintaining its ability to develop peaceful nuclear energy,” a spokesperson for Oman’s foreign ministry said in a statement posted on Saturday on X. “It is only in dialogue and clear communication that we will be able to achieve a mutually credible agreement and understanding for the benefit of all concerned regionally and internationally. It is also agreed that the next round will take place in Muscat in the next few days,” the statement also read.

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Is that the hill you want to die on?

“Two other Congressional Democrats have asked the House Oversight Committee to allow them to travel to El Salvador on the taxpayers’ dime to visit the migrant, but Chairman James Comer denied the request on Friday.”

Trump On Deported Migrant: ‘He’s Got MS-13 Tattooed’ On His Knuckles (JTN)

President Donald Trump on Friday night doubled down on his administration’s allegation that a deported migrant now in El Salvador is connected to the violent MS-13 gang. Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who was originally from El Salvador, has become the focal point of one of the biggest deportation cases in recent history, after he was sent back home with another group of illegal migrants. Democrats have argued that Abrego Garcia was a peaceful, law-abiding man from Maryland prior to his deportation, but the Trump administration argues that he was a member of MS-13, who had beaten his wife. Court documents from 2021 showed Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez, applied for a protective order against her husband, though the case was eventually dismissed. Trump, in a post on Truth Social, shared an image of what he claimed was Abrego Garcia’s hand, which showed tattoos on his knuckles that included a marijuana leaf, a cross, a skull and a smiley face.

“This is the hand of the man that the Democrats feel should be brought back to the United States, because he is such ‘a fine and innocent person,'” the president wrote in the post. “They said he is not a member of MS-13, even though he’s got MS-13 tattooed onto his knuckles, and two Highly Respected Courts found that he was a member of MS-13. “I was elected to take bad people out of the United States, among other things,” he continued. “I must be allowed to do my job. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” The post comes after Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen met with Abrego Garcia in El Salvador this week. Two other Congressional Democrats have asked the House Oversight Committee to allow them to travel to El Salvador on the taxpayers’ dime to visit the migrant, but Chairman James Comer denied the request on Friday.

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“I am sympathetic to everything you’re saying, I just don’t I think I have the power to do anything,” Boasberg told the attorneys for the illegal aliens.”

SCOTUS Order Pauses Deportations Under Alien Enemies Act (Allen)

The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration early Saturday morning to pause the deportation of some Venezuelan illegal aliens until the court can rule further. The Court did not grant or deny the use of the Alien Enemies Act to remove the illegal aliens, who the Trump administration claims are Tren de Aragua gang members, but instead the justices simply hit pause on the matter. “The Government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this Court,” the order states. After designating Tren de Aragua as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, the White House announced in March that President Donald Trump would use the powers of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to remove members of the gang from America.

The illegal immigrants in question in the ongoing case are currently being held in Texas. The Supreme Court order is in response to an emergency appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented from the Court’s order. Before the Supreme Court issued the order, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington, D.C. told the lawyers representing the illegal aliens that he did not have the power to stop deportation flights. “I am sympathetic to everything you’re saying, I just don’t I think I have the power to do anything,” Boasberg told the attorneys for the illegal aliens.

Boasberg did, last month, issue a temporary restraining order barring the U.S. from using the Alien Enemies Act to rapidly deport illegal aliens, but shortly thereafter the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration could resume deportations of Venezuelan criminal illegal aliens under the Alien Enemies Act. The previous 5-4 decision from the justices was narrow and did not address the constitutionality of using the Alien Enemies Act to deport members of the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua. Instead, the court said in its opinion that “judicial review” was requested in the wrong court. The attorneys for the illegal alien should have filed their lawsuit against the deportations in Texas, where the illegal aliens are being held, instead of filing in Washington, D.C., the court found.

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“..immediate apprehension, detention, and removal” of members of the group who are Venezuelan citizens 14 years of age or older and who are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents of the United States.”

SCOTUS Blocks Deportation of Alleged Venezuela Gang Members for Now (ET)

The Supreme Court on April 19 temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting an unspecified number of Venezuelan men currently in immigration custody who are alleged to be members of a criminal gang. The new, unsigned order granting the Venezuelans’ emergency application was issued on Saturday at about 12:55 a.m. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented. Alito’s reasoning will be added to the court’s file later, according to the order. “The Government is directed not to remove any member of the putative class of detainees from the United States until further order of this Court,” the order states. The order notes that a request to block the deportations is currently pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

After the Fifth Circuit acts, Solicitor General D. John Sauer should file a response to the application with the Supreme Court as soon as possible, the order states. The order was issued after the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed an emergency request on behalf of its Venezuelan clients late on April 18 asking the Supreme Court to immediately block the Trump administration from deporting the clients. The emergency application in A.A.R.P. and W.M.M. v. Trump, which challenges President Donald Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport illegal immigrants who are alleged or confirmed criminal gang members, was directed to Justice Samuel Alito. The ACLU is also seeking a temporary restraining order from the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, as well as a stay of removal order from the Fifth Circuit, according to the application.

On March 14, President Donald Trump signed Proclamation 10903, in which he officially declared that Tren de Aragua, a designated foreign terrorist organization, “is perpetrating, attempting, and threatening an invasion or predatory incursion against the territory of the United States.” The group is using mass illegal immigration to the United States to harm U.S. citizens, undermine public safety, and support the goal of the Venezuelan regime with which it is associated to destabilize “democratic nations in the Americas, including the United States,” the proclamation said. The president invoked the Alien Enemies Act to authorize the “immediate apprehension, detention, and removal” of members of the group who are Venezuelan citizens 14 years of age or older and who are not U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents of the United States.

The application said the ACLU’s clients are challenging the Trump administration’s use of the federal statute to deport them. The clients “are in imminent and ongoing jeopardy of being removed from the United States without notice or an opportunity to be heard, in direct contravention of this Court’s order in Trump v. J.G.G.” “Many individuals have already been loaded on to buses, presumably headed to the airport” and are at risk of being sent to a prison in El Salvador, according to the application. On March 15, the Trump administration used the Alien Enemies Act to deport at least 137 Venezuelans to El Salvador, where they are now incarcerated “possibly for the rest of their lives” at the Salvadoran Terrorism Confinement Center, which is “one of the most notorious prisons in the world,” the application said.

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Turley ignores that there are a million+ cases, and they cannot possibly all be heard.

Yeah, the law works on paper. But the people do not.

SCOTUS Halts Venezuelan Deportations, 4th Circuit Upholds Garcia Order (Turley)

It has been a busy 24 hours in the courts. Early this morning, the Supreme Court blocked (for now) the deportations of any Venezuelans held in northern Texas under the Alien Enemies Act, a law only used three times before in our history. At the same time, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld the lower court’s order in the case of Abrego Garcia. Despite the growing counter-constitutional movement, both decisions show how the courts are functioning appropriately and expeditiously in sorting out these difficult cases. Indeed, I wanted to flag a couple of paragraphs in the Fourth Circuit case that I hope everyone will take a second to read and consider from Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, a widely respected conservative judge. The justices ordered the Trump administration not to remove Venezuelans being held in the Bluebonnet Detention Center “until further order of this court.”

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented from the order. However, this is merely a hold on deportations pending further review of the emergency appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union, which is challenging the use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. This rarely used and highly controversial law stretches back to the Adams Administration. There are good-faith arguments on both sides of the case that the Court wants to consider. Accordingly, this is not surprising. The Fourth Circuit also correctly upheld the lower court order in the Garcia case. I remain confused by the administration’s appeal. The Supreme Court already upheld the order requiring the Administration to facilitate Garcia’s return. I have been critical of that opinion, but it clearly recognized the authority of the district court to issue that part of the earlier order.

However, Judge Wilkinson’s opinion contains one passage that I wanted to excerpt. It is a measured and important point that both branches need to show mutual respect in these cases. This sage advice is not coming from a critic or a liberal jurist. It is coming from someone who has been at the heart of conservative jurisprudence for decades:

“The basic differences between the branches mandate a serious effort at mutual respect. The respect that courts must accord the Executive must be reciprocated by the Executive’s respect for the courts. Too often today this has not been the case, as calls for impeachment of judges for decisions the Executive disfavors and exhortations to disregard court orders sadly illustrate.

Now the branches come too close to grinding irrevocably against one another in a conflict that promises to diminish both. This is a losing proposition all around. The Judiciary will lose much from the constant intimations of its illegitimacy, to which by dent of custom and detachment we can only sparingly reply. The Executive will lose much from a public perception of its lawlessness and all of its attendant contagions. The Executive may succeed for a time in weakening the courts, but over time history will script the tragic gap between what was and all that might have been, and law in time will sign its epitaph. It is, as we have noted, all too possible to see in this case an incipient crisis, but it may present an opportunity as well. We yet cling to the hope that it is not naïve to believe our good brethren in the Executive Branch perceive the rule of law as vital to the American ethos. This case presents their unique chance to vindicate that value and to summon the best that is within us while there is still time.”

Well said, your honor. One can disagree with the ultimate merits on legal issues. However, as I have previously written, the disagreement on those issues should not trigger demands for impeachment or other extreme measures.

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At first I thought Elon Musk had filed a lawsuit.

Judge Blocks Trump’s Order Ending ‘X’ Gender Marker on Passports (ET)

A federal judge ruled against the Trump administration’s executive order banning the use of an “X” on passports marked by people self-identifying as neither male nor female. U.S. District Judge Julia Kobick of the District Court of Massachusetts awarded the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) a preliminary injunction on April 18, staying the president’s executive action requiring sex, instead of gender identity, to be used as an identifier on government-issued identification documents. The executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” was one of several signed by President Donald Trump on his first day in office. “It is the policy of the United States to recognize two sexes, male and female,” the order stated. ”These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”

The order stated that gender identity “reflects a fully internal and subjective sense of self, disconnected from biological reality and sex and existing on an infinite continuum, that does not provide a meaningful basis for identification and cannot be recognized as a replacement for sex.” It ordered the secretaries of State and Homeland Security, and the director of the Office of Personnel Management to “implement changes to require that government-issued identification documents, including passports, visas, and Global Entry cards, accurately reflect the holder’s sex.” It also ordered the rescinding of prior federal guidance documents, including “The White House Toolkit on Transgender Equality.”

The ACLU took legal action against the order on behalf of five plaintiffs who identify as transgender and two who identify as nonbinary, seeking to preserve the pro-LGBT policies put in place under President Joe Biden, allowing a third option on identification documents. “We all have a right to accurate identity documents, and this policy invites harassment, discrimination, and violence against transgender Americans who can no longer obtain or renew a passport that matches who they are,” ACLU lawyer Sruti Swaminathan said in a statement. The Trump administration argued that the president had broad discretion in setting the passport policy, and those policy changes did not “violate the equal protection guarantees of the Constitution.”

The federal government also denied any harm befalling the plaintiffs due to the policy, since they were still free to travel abroad. The judge said the administration didn’t demonstrate substantial government interests in changing the rule. “The Executive Order and the Passport Policy on their face classify passport applicants on the basis of sex and thus must be reviewed under intermediate judicial scrutiny,” Kobick wrote. “That standard requires the government to demonstrate that its actions are substantially related to an important governmental interest. The government has failed to meet this standard.”

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“Overall during the first 3 months of 2025, Tesla sold more EVs than the next 10 EV makers combined in the United States..”

Tesla Continues to Reign Supreme Despite Leftist Violence (Blackmon)

The obviously organized attacks on electric carmaker Tesla’s infrastructure and owners of Tesla cars by leftists apparently suffering from Musk Derangement Syndrome dominated the news throughout much of February and March. Sadly, the campaign was supported by a variety of virtue signaling celebrities and cynical politicians like Arizona Democrat Sen. Mark Kelly putting out videos of themselves selling off their own Teslas and replacing them with other electric vehicles or, in Kelly’s case, a gas-guzzling SUV. You can’t make this stuff up, you really can’t.

The frequency of these attacks appears to have largely died down after law enforcement officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Justice Department, arrested and charged a number of the activists with felonies, but the objective was clear: The campaign of attacks was designed to damage Tesla’s brand, in the process hoping to punish founder and CEO Elon Musk for his efforts to support the Donald Trump administration by leading the DOGE project to cut government waste and fraud.Certainly, some damage was done to Tesla’s infrastructure, and to its reputation among its liberal-heavy consumer base. But if the goal was to dethrone Musk’s EV juggernaut as the dominant player in the U.S. and global EV industry, first quarter results show the campaign of violence, vandalism, and virtue signaling to have been a miserable failure.

Web-based EV news site Teslarati compiled the numbers, and reports that Tesla still dominated the US market during the first quarter of 2025, and not just by a little, but by a lot. Tesla’s Model Y and Model 3 cars lead all others in total sales for the quarter with 64,051 and 52,520 units, respectively. Coming in a very distant third was Ford’s Mustang Mach E with just 11,607 units sold. Tesla’s vaunted, weirdly designed Cybertruck continued to be more than a bit of a disappointment, selling just 6,406 units, trailing the equally underperforming Ford F-150 Lightning by more than 700 units sold. But here’s the kicker: Overall during the first 3 months of 2025, Tesla sold more EVs than the next 10 EV makers combined in the United States. Musk’s car company dominates the EV space every bit as overwhelmingly as Google dominates the search engine space in the U.S.

Obviously, as I wrote here a few weeks ago, rumors of Tesla’s looming demise are highly overblown. And its dominant status in the market is not limited to the United States. Germany-based Blackout News reported on April 9 that just four EV companies worldwide are operating profitably today. The only one of those four EV makers not based in China – where we must admit that financial reporting is suspect at best – is, you guessed it, Tesla. That’s right: Not a single pure-play EV maker in the United States, Europe, or anywhere else outside of China is operating in the black even after 30 years of heavy financial subsidization by western governments and regulatory actions tilting the automaker playing field in their favor.

But Blackout News does not limit its report to pure-play EV companies like Rivian, Lucid and Fisker, all of which are either in bankruptcy or teetering on the brink today. The report also details the struggles of traditional car companies like Ford, GM, BMW, and others to record profits in their own EV business units, a topic I’ve covered here several times in the past few years. What it all boils down to is this: No matter how hard cynical Democrats like Sen. Kelly and crazed activists try to damage what has become one of America’s great automakers and its thousands of employees, the market is going to be the ultimate decider of the company’s fate. For the first quarter of 2025, the market has spoken, and Tesla and Musk have come out as the clear winners. That may be a bad thing for Democrats, but it’s a great thing for America.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Severe autism

Makary

Measles

Fauci

Neura

Maculatus

Catmouflage

Santorini
https://twitter.com/mamboitaliano__/status/1913482407660990550

Malaga

 

 

 

 

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Apr 182025
 
 April 18, 2025  Posted by at 10:03 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , ,  33 Responses »


Salvador Dali The knight of death 1934

 

China Is In Much Deeper Trouble Than Most Realize (Strom)
US Expects Ukraine Ceasefire Within Weeks – Bloomberg (RT)
Europe Seeking ‘Direct Line’ With Trump – NYT (RT)
Meloni’s White House Trip Paves Way For European Union Rapprochement (JTN)
US Will Pull EU to Pieces Before Letting It Partner Up With China (Sp.)
Trump Admin Fights Back Against Rogue Judge’s Contempt Warning (Margolis)
Convicted FBI Lawyer Clinesmith Was Spared From Prison By Boasberg (JTN)
REPORT: President Trump Opposed Israeli Strikes on Iran Nuclear Sites (CTH)
Pam Bondi Outlines Timeline and History of MS13 Illegal Alien (CTH)
Bondi Announces Lawsuit Against Maine Over Boys in Girls’ Sports (ET)
Rubio Shuts Down Censorship Program Biden Admin Claimed was Ended (Turley)
A Chihuahua That Thinks It’s A Lion: The Decline of Britain (Bordachev)
China Replacing US Oil With Canadian – Bloomberg (RT)
Trump Tariffs Could Cost EU $1.25 Trillion (RT)
German Anti-Russia Propaganda Is Reaching Nazi-era Levels (Amar)
Court Rules Google Illegally Holds “Monopoly Power” In Online Ad Tech (ZH)
Trump to Make an Epic Move at the IRS (Margolis)
Climate Myths (John Stossel)

 

 

 

 

Trust

Ritter

Poso
https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1912573038303863007

What is China’s messsage here? That you might as well make it at home?No wait, that’s Trump’s message.
https://twitter.com/acnewsitics/status/1912841340968395205

 

 

Pepe

 

 

 

 

Contentious topic.

“[Xi] has counted on making the US economy dependent on China to keep us cowed. Trump is turning that logic on its head.”

China Is In Much Deeper Trouble Than Most Realize (Strom)

In the tariff war between China and the United States, a lot of chatter in the Pravda Media is about Xi Jinping’s defiance, his outreach to European countries and other less important but collectively significant developing countries, and his retaliatory moves against America. They make it sound like China has a lot of cards to play in the trade war with America. Collectively, these stories tell a tale: Donald Trump may have bitten off more than he can chew in his economic war with China. Trump’s moves will hollow out the American middle class! Europe will choose China over the United States! We are doomed! The Chinese are putting up a very brave front, until recently matching Trump’s blow for blow and pointing to Chinese willingness to endure everything up to eating grass for a year to defeat their adversaries. The Chinese plan for the long term! Yeah, well, not so much.

It all sounds impressive, and some pissed-off ally countries have even hinted at turning Chinaward as a response to what they consider a stab in the back from President Trump. Except…Reality. Our ticked-off allies are acting like 6-year-old children angry at their parents, threatening to run away. As much as they resent the United States, they are utterly dependent upon us and chose to be so. They are militarily weak and have sputtering economies that rely on the US as an export market. The United States, not themselves, defends its sea lines of communication, and they all know that China is a predatory power and not a reliable economic partner. The US not only represents 25% of the world economy, which is quite impressive in itself. But it has about 40% of the world’s consumer spending. No manufacturer of consumer products can afford to turn their backs on the US.

China may be an attractive market, but it is not sufficiently large enough to make a dent in their losses should the US close our markets to them. Which brings us to China itself. All that bluster sounds good, but it hides a stark reality: their economy is utterly dependent on US consumption. As much power as they have over us–they can cause us temporary pain as we adjust to finding new suppliers–we have infinitely more over them. Even their holdings in US debt are a double-edged sword. The US has relied on China to purchase government bonds, but as the old saying goes–If you owe the bank a billion dollars, you have power over them. The tariffs on China have been DEVASTATING. Not will be devastating. They are already devastating. China’s economy is reeling from the impact of tariffs, and public discontent is growing.

On Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, videos show citizens openly criticizing the government’s rigid stance on tariffs, with some even taking to the streets in protest. Chinese authorities are cracking down, forcibly dispersing crowds and suppressing evidence of unrest, but these efforts can only hold for so long. As joblessness and food shortages deepen, desperation is setting in, pushing people to the brink. China’s heavy reliance on the U.S. market gives America the upper hand—we can outlast them until they yield or face internal upheaval, potentially threatening President Xi’s leadership. China’s government is and appears quite strong because it is. But something can be both very strong and very brittle–meaning that it performs well until the moment it shatters. Think ceramics or glass, both of which can be very strong until the moment they shatter. They don’t bend and spring back–they are good until the breaking point, and then boom.

China’s government is not loved, but it is tolerated because it is strong and because it generally delivers on its major promise: economic growth, pulling a billion people out of poverty as quickly as possible. Tariffs aren’t just a threat to that strategy. If Trump really pushes, Xi Jinping’s government is in real trouble, and not the kind of trouble that means a midterm loss or failure to get reelected. This is regime-threatening. Xi, who looked to be in the catbird seat, could be facing a collapse of his legitimacy as leader of China. The Trump administration plans to use ongoing tariff negotiations to pressure U.S. trading partners to limit their dealings with China, according to people with knowledge of the conversations. The idea is to extract commitments from U.S. trading partners to isolate China’s economy in exchange for reductions in trade and tariff barriers imposed by the White House.

U.S. officials plan to use negotiations with more than 70 nations to ask them to disallow China from shipping goods through their countries, prevent Chinese firms from locating in their territories to avoid U.S. tariffs, and not absorb China’s cheap industrial goods into their economies. These measures are meant to put a dent in China’s already rickety economy and force Beijing to the negotiating table with less leverage ahead of potential talks between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. The exact demands could vary widely by nation, given their degree of involvement with the Chinese economy. China’s strategy of growing its economic power and influence depends on a river of money with its headwaters in the United States. And its ability to make deals in countries not hostile to the United States is only possible because the US tolerates its moves and is committed to using only modest soft power to oppose the moves.

Donald Trump is not in a mood to tolerate expanding Chinese influence. Look at the Panama Canal port deals. Trump’s goal is not so much to own the canal as to deny China influence in the region. China, not Panama, is the target. In fact, most of Trump’s seemingly bizarre foreign policy moves–Canada as the 51st state and annexing Greenland are about trying to change the political geography to keep China from gaining influence in the Arctic. The flow of information out of China on economic performance since the tariffs hit is sparse, but I have been checking in on the social media chatter coming out of China, and the news is bleak. Consumer spending is down, export products are being sold at firesale prices, and business owners are locking doors and leaving employees unpaid. This is all chatter right now, but also likely true.

Trade wars suck for everybody involved, and when the cost of Chinese-made products go up there will be some pain here in the United States, whatever Trump and his people say. But none of this pain will be an existential threat to Trump, the country, or the Republican Party. There will be a price to pay, but it will be modest in the longer term. Not so for China. Their regime is under threat because their hand is much, much weaker. Weaker than Trump’s and weaker than people think. Of course, if China were a normal country, what Trump is doing would be a horrible policy. Generally speaking, destroying a trading partner’s economy is both morally questionable and terrible for business. Normally you would cut a deal. But China and the United States are heading for a war, and a big one at that. Xi Jinping has made that abundantly clear, and he has counted on making the US economy dependent on China to keep us cowed. Trump is turning that logic on its head.

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I don’t think they do. Looks more like they’re getting ready to pull out.

US Expects Ukraine Ceasefire Within Weeks – Bloomberg (RT)

Senior US officials have told European allies that Washington anticipates a comprehensive ceasefire in the Ukraine conflict within weeks, Bloomberg has reported. US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of State Marco Rubio outlined the timeline during a series of meetings in Paris on Thursday, hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, Bloomberg reported the same day, citing anonymous sources. The European side sought to persuade the Americans that President Donald Trump should “harden its position toward Moscow,” the report said, describing the discussions as “the latest attempt by Europe to influence the outcome” of US talks with Russia.

Last week, Witkoff traveled to St. Petersburg for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which he has characterized as “compelling.” Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has criticized Trump’s envoy, accusing him of echoing “Russian narratives.” Russian officials have expressed skepticism about the feasibility of a ceasefire with Ukraine, asserting that Kiev’s backers in Europe are undermining US efforts. Speaking to journalists on Thursday, Moscow’s UN representative, Vassily Nebenzia, highlighted that Kiev has failed to adhere to a US-mediated moratorium on strikes against energy infrastructure.

The diplomat said that the West’s record of using purported peace deals to build up the Ukrainian military means that expectations for a full ceasefire are “simply unrealistic at this stage.” “I cannot speak on behalf of President Trump,” Nebenzia said. “Perhaps, he knows better what I don’t know.” The 30-day energy ceasefire announced on March 18 is set to expire this week. When asked on Wednesday whether Russia would alter its military strategy, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Putin had issued no new directives on the matter.

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What Europe? Do you mean Von der Leyen, who has no links to any European, or Macron, who’s despised by those he does have a link to? Who would Trump talk to, and why?

Europe Seeking ‘Direct Line’ With Trump – NYT (RT)

European officials are seeking to establish a “direct line” of communication with US President Donald Trump, unsure whether his team can make any real decisions or is willing to cooperate at all, the New York Times reported on Thursday, citing sources. The report, based on interviews with numerous unnamed European officials, describes the US president as “the ultimate decision maker” who is often difficult to predict, making the goal of getting Trump’s ear a priority for the Europeans. Many top-level negotiators in European NATO countries have found traditional diplomatic channels – such as the State Department and embassies – ineffective, the report said. The confusion is compounded by the fact that the most effective interlocutors on the US side are not career diplomats but rather trusted special envoys and advisers, such as Elon Musk and Steve Witkoff, the article said.

The officials also told the NYT that their US counterparts are primarily focused on fulfilling the president’s wishes, showing limited interest in the perspectives of America’s allies. The Trump administration is “not terribly interested in what the Europeans have to say,” a NYT source said. “It’s all about unilateralism and they don’t consult much. After all, if they don’t consider us allies to that extent, why would they?” While senior Trump officials have held “cordial” talks with their European counterparts on a number of issues, “it is never clear to allies” whether they have “real power over foreign policy or trade,” the article said. ”Everyone in D.C. says you have to talk to Trump directly,” a senior European official told the NYT.

However, this has proved difficult even for the highest-ranking EU officials, as Trump “despises the collective power of the European Union and sees many NATO allies as freeloaders,” the paper said, adding that leaders such as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are struggling to get on Trump’s calendar. The communication breakdown comes at a time of tenuous US-EU relations, marred by Washington’s decision to slap the bloc with tariffs and its push to make European NATO members pay more for their defense. Differences over the Ukraine conflict have also come into play, with Trump pursuing active diplomacy with Russia to end the conflict while the EU insists on supporting Kiev for “as long as it takes.”

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Yes, Meloni might be the EU contact for Trump. But Brussels would not give her any voice of her own.

Meloni’s White House Trip Paves Way For European Union Rapprochement (JTN)

President Donald Trump’s meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Thursday at the Oval Office came amid the ongoing trade dispute between the European Union and Washington and appeared to pave the way for a presidential visit to the continent to address the matter with its leaders. “I want to thank President Trump for having accepted an invitation to pay an official visit to Rome in the near future and consider the possibility in that occasion to meet also with Europe,” Meloni told reporters in the Oval Office. “The goal for me is to make the West great again, and I think we can do it together. We can and we will keep [working] on that.” The Italian leader generally ranks among those European figures with the strongest relationships with Trump himself.

A stalwart conservative and opponent of illegal immigration, Meloni shares many of Trump’s own positions, putting her on solid footing with her counterpart in the Oval Office. She further acknowledged those points in the meeting, saying “I know that we share lots of things on tackling illegal migration, on fighting against synthetic drugs.” Meloni was the only European Union leader to attend Trump’s 2024 inauguration and was among the first to congratulate him on his reelection. The pair have generally enjoyed a strong relationship and Trump himself called her a “great prime minister” during the meeting. Ahead of her trip to Washington, Meloni had been widely regarded as the European leader best suited to negotiating with Trump.

Italy is the 25th most populous nation globally with more than 59 million residents, according to data from the U.N. Dept. of Economic and Social Affairs, and a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $2.3 trillion (USD). In January 2025, the United States exported $2.82 billion to and imported $6.11 billion from Italy, resulting in a negative trade balance of $3.29 billion. The Observatory of Economic Complexity reported that in January 2025, the top exports of the United States to Italy were Hormones ($580M), Petroleum Gas ($249M), and Crude Petroleum ($211M). In the same month, the main imports to the United States from Italy were packaged medicines ($634M), vaccines, blood, antisera, toxins and cultures ($436M), and commodities not specified otherwise ($268M).

In early April, Trump declared “Liberation Day” and announced the imposition of sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs on most foreign nations. He later paused some of the largest tariffs, though he maintained a 10% baseline on most countries and left in place large-scale tariffs on China. Shortly after Liberation Day, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a “zero for zero” tariff offer to the United States, though Washington has yet to agree to any permanent arrangement. Trump initially imposed 20% tariffs on most European goods, but he has since brought Brussels down to the 10% rate for a 90-day period and Meloni was expected to pursue a resolution to the issue. Ahead of the meeting, the White House was optimistic that it would be able to secure agreements with many nations eager to reach lasting agreements. “We’ve got 90 deals in 90 days possibly pending here,” White House advisor Peter Navarro said.

Multiple White House officials have shared that sentiment publicly, though it is not clear which nations have expressed interest in negotiating trade deals. Meloni’s visit was decidedly more jovial than that of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which resulted in his removal from the White House after a tempestuous press conference. By contrast, the Oval Office meeting with Meloni saw many laughs as the pair exchanged compliments and pronounced the productiveness of their talks. “We have been talking about many bilateral topics and things that we can do together, about defense, about economic [sic], about economy, about space, about energy, Italy will have to increase its LNG imports and also nuclear that we are trying to develop,” Meloni said. “I think there can be ways to work together.” She further highlighted the commitment of Italian firms to American investment, but did not speak to the prospect of an individual trade deal between the United States and Italy.

“And the Italian enterprises will invest, as they’ve been doing for many years, as you know, in the next years, I think around $10 billions,” she added [sic]. “That shows how interconnected our economies are.” Meloni did not arrive officially as an envoy for the EU, though she did emphasize the importance of America’s relationship with the continent. During the Oval Office meeting, she pointed primarily to the economic relationships between Italy and the United States, but used the American relationship with her country as a segue to discuss the continental issue. “Mr. President, it’s not only about Italy, it’s about the entire Europe. The exchange between us is a very big one, investments, trade,” she said. “So I think even if we have some problems okay between the two shores of the Atlantic, it is the time that we try to sit down and find solutions.” “I know that when I speak about the West mainly, I don’t speak about a geographical space. I speak about [the] civilization, and I want to make that civilization stronger,” she added.

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“In the US’s ‘grand geopolitical chessboard’, the EU remains “one of the big, most important parts..”

US Will Pull EU to Pieces Before Letting It Partner Up With China (Sp.)

Trump’s global trade rampage has left the European Union and China seeking improved trade and investment relations. But that’s not a realistic prospect, says veteran Hong Kong-based Italian financial analyst Angelo Giuliano. For starters, “you need to keep in mind that the EU leaders were pre-selected by the Bilderberg Group and the US. Basically…the EU is actually a US project to destroy nation states,” Giuliano told Sputnik. Much of the bloc’s former and current top leadership (including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni, Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany, France’s Emmanuel Macron and NATO chief Mark Rutte) are members of the Atlanticist club or have spoken at its meetings.

Second, the EU doesn’t decide its own fate, a reality demonstrated by Washington’s success in decoupling the bloc from Russia’s cheap, plentiful energy resources, and forcing it to import much more costly US LNG, Giuliano said. This left the EU’s industrial output uncompetitive globally and triggered widespread deindustrialization as hundreds of companies downsized, stopped production and shifted production abroad, including to the US. Washington can and will do the same vis-à-vis Europe and China as it consolidates alliances against the emerging, BRICS-led multipolar world order, Giuliano believes. “There’s going to be some backfiring from the business community, but ultimately [Europe’s] leaders are going to side with the US as they see Russia and China as the enemies,” the observer emphasized.

Besides US vassalage, closer EU-China ties are stymied by other factors, like:
• China’s warm relations with Russia, a sharp contrast to active EU support for the anti-Russia proxy war in Ukraine.
• The acrimonious relationship with Russia means new infrastructure like the Northern Sea Route, the North-South Transport Corridor and overland transit via Russia remain closed to the EU. Instead, Europe-China trade relies on transit via the Red Sea, hindered by Houthi ops against the US and Israel.
• Fears of China’s sophisticated and cost-competitive automotive and green tech, which along with consumer goods, chemicals and steel could further deindustrialize the EU, especially as China enjoys access to discounted Russian energy while the bloc is stuck with pricey American gas deliveries.
• Unresolved industrial subsidies, agricultural dumping, IP and tech-related bitterness.

Ultimately, enhanced EU-China would be possible, and advantageous, Giuliano says, but only if Brussels “had a more neutral stance” in international affairs, “siding a little bit with BRICS and also the Belt and Road Initiative. “But again, there are a lot of obstacles for that, and the US would not allow it to happen, because they want to have a sphere of influence between North and South America and the EU. They want to control those blocs. And they fight with the multipolar world and this transition to a multipolar world,” the observer noted. In the US’s ‘grand geopolitical chessboard’, the EU remains “one of the big, most important parts,” Giuliano summed up.

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“A single Obama-appointed district judge is trying to hamstring the entire executive branch’s ability to enforce immigration law.”

Trump Admin Fights Back Against Rogue Judge’s Contempt Warning (Margolis)

The Trump administration has just shown exactly how to handle judicial activism: by fighting back with everything it has. In a bold move that’s sure to have the Democratic establishment sputtering with rage, Trump’s legal team filed an immediate appeal Wednesday evening against Judge James Boasberg’s outrageous contempt threat. The judge’s unprecedented power grab attempted to block crucial deportation flights, and he’s learning the hard way that the Trump administration isn’t taking his judicial overreach sitting down. The administration’s legal response was swift and devastating. Its appeal systematically dismantled Boasberg’s ruling, pointing out how it represents a “massive, unauthorized imposition on the Executive’s authority” and directly contradicts recent Supreme Court precedent.

The Trump administration’s brief appeal to the D.C. Circuit Court does not include any new details, as the facts of the case have already been heard by the district and appellate court. The appellate court last month ruled 2-1 to uphold Boasberg’s temporary restraining order. The Supreme Court, however, ruled 5-4 last month that the Trump administration could resume its deportation flights under the Alien Enemies Act, so long as individuals subject to removal under the law were given due process protections, and the opportunity to pursue habeas relief – or the ability to have their case heard by a U.S. court prior to their removal. Boasberg said Wednesday that the court found that the Trump administration had demonstrated a “willful disregard” for his March 15 emergency order, which temporarily halted all deportation flights to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 statute providing for such deportations during “a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government, or any invasion or predatory incursion” by a foreign nation.

What makes this pushback so satisfying is how it exposes the left’s double standard. When Trump follows the law and exercises his constitutional authority to protect Americans, leftists cry “contempt.” But when Democratic appointees like Boasberg ignore Supreme Court rulings they don’t like? Crickets from the mainstream media. Team Trump’s legal filing didn’t pull any punches. It meticulously detailed how Boasberg’s ruling attempts to usurp executive authority that the Supreme Court explicitly confirmed just last month. The 5-4 decision authorized these deportation flights, but apparently, left-wing district court judges think they can override the Supreme Court because “Orange man bad.” The administration’s response demonstrates exactly why Trump’s approach to the judiciary is so necessary.

While previous Republican administrations might have meekly complied with such judicial overreach, Trump’s team recognizes these tactics for what they are — an attempt to legislate from the bench. A single Obama-appointed district judge is trying to hamstring the entire executive branch’s ability to enforce immigration law. The Trump administration isn’t just fighting back against one bad ruling; it’s defending the fundamental separation of powers. This appeal systematically addresses every aspect of Boasberg’s flawed and blatantly partisan reasoning while simultaneously highlighting the urgent national security implications of these deportation flights. Of course, the left is not used to an administration that actually fights back against judicial activism. It expected Trump to roll over like so many Republicans before him. Instead, it’s getting a masterclass in constitutional governance.

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“Knee-deep in the mud..”

Trump’s present day nemesis judge fulfilled that role also during the Russiagate years. When Clinesmith falsified a FISA application.

Convicted FBI Lawyer Clinesmith Was Spared From Prison By Boasberg (JTN)

Convicted FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith — whom Judge James Boasberg gave a slap on the wrist for his crimes years before becoming a public foe of President Donald Trump’s deportation policies — was more deeply involved in the deeply flawed Crossfire Hurricane investigation than previously known. Clinesmith, who worked on both the FBI’s Hillary Clinton email investigation and on the Trump-Russia collusion inquiry, pleaded guilty to falsifying a document during the bureau’s efforts to renew FISA authority to wiretap Carter Page, who was an adviser to Trump’s 2016 campaign. Newly-declassified details about Clinesmith’s involvement include a wide swath of information about his role in the case. He was a key go-to for former FBI lawyer Lisa Page and fired FBI special agent Peter Strzok throughout the debunked collusion saga and a main driver in obtaining a FISA warrant against Page based on the infamous Steele dossier.

Clinesmith also granted his seal of approval on a document describing the FBI’s pretextual briefing of then-candidate Trump, was deeply involved in the investigation into retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, played a role in going after former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, and more. He also helped the FBI push its “Cross Wind” investigation, which Just the News can confirm related to the targeting of security expert Walid Phares, which resulted in no accusations of wrongdoing and no charges. Clinesmith confessed in August 2020 that he had manipulated a CIA email in 2017 to state that Carter Page was “not a source” for the CIA when that agency had actually told the bureau on multiple occasions that Page was in fact an “operational contact” for the CIA.

Boasberg, the federal judge who is blocking Trump’s efforts to deport Venezuelan gang members, also played a key and controversial role in the aftermath of the Trump-Russia collusion saga as the leader of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The judge, nominated to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by then-President Barack Obama in 2011, is currently engaged in an all-out legal battle with the Trump Justice Department. But in his role as the head of the FISA Court he made a number of divisive decisions, including a slap on the wrist for a member of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane team, the appointment of officials who had defended the FBI’s actions during the Russiagate saga, the renewal of the FBI’s FISA powers, and more. Boasberg ruled this week that “probable cause exists” to hold Trump administration officials in criminal contempt after they violated his orders by continuing deportation flights. But his ruling follows the Supreme Court holding that Boasberg’s court was in an improper venue for the case altogether.

Boasberg, in his role as a federal judge, denied the Justice Department’s efforts to seek up to six months behind bars for Clinesmith, who pleaded guilty in Special Counsel John Durham’s Trump-Russia investigation — instead giving Clinesmith a year of probation, 400 hours of community service, and no fine. Durham argued that Clinesmith’s “deceptive conduct” related to the FISA application fabrication “was antithetical to the duty of candor and eroded the FISA’s confidence in the accuracy of all previous FISA applications worked on by the defendant,” and said his deception “fueled public distrust of the FBI and of the entire FISA program itself.” But Boasberg seemed to defend Clinesmith’s deceptive FISA-related actions during his January 2021 sentencing.

“Mr. Clinesmith likely believed that what he said was true,” Boasberg wrote, adding, “I do not believe he was attempting to achieve an end he knew was wrong.” The judge claimed that “it is not clear to me that the fourth FISA warrant would not have been signed but for this error. … Even if Mr. Clinesmith had been accurate about Mr. Page’s relationship with the other government agency, the warrant may well have been signed and the surveillance authorized.” Durham had argued that Clinesmith’s deception “fueled public distrust of the FBI and of the entire FISA program itself.” Anthony Scarpelli, then a top prosecutor on Durham’s team, also argued that “the defendant’s criminal conduct tarnished the integrity of the FISA program” and that “the resulting harm is immeasurable.”

Clinesmith told the court that “I am deeply remorseful for any effect my actions may have had” on the FISA process even as he claimed that “I never intended to mislead my colleagues about the status of Dr. Page.” But Boasberg lamented that Clinesmith had been “abused” and “vilified” on a “national scale” when the judge handed down his sentence, though he did acknowledge that the FISA court’s reputation “has suffered” from the ex-FBI attorney’s actions. DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz in 2019 found huge flaws with the FBI’s Russia collusion investigation, finding at least 17 “significant errors and omissions” related to the FISA warrants against former Trump campaign associate Carter Page. He also criticized the “central and essential” role of British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s debunked dossier in the FBI’s politicized FISA surveillance. Clinesmith reportedly circulated the dossier to other law enforcement staff.

FBI notes of a January 2017 interview with Steele source Igor Danchenko showed he told the bureau he “did not know the origins” of some of Steele’s claims and “did not recall” other dossier information. Danchenko also noted much of what he gave to Steele was “word of mouth and hearsay,” some of which stemmed from a “conversation that [he] had with friends over beers,” and the most salacious allegations may have been made in “jest.” The special counsel assessed that “the FBI ignored the fact that at no time before, during, or after Crossfire Hurricane were investigators able to corroborate a single substantive allegation in the Steele dossier reporting.” The new revelations about Clinesmith come partly through further declassified text messages sent by Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, and others involved in the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.

Read more …

“We keep watching….”

REPORT: President Trump Opposed Israeli Strikes on Iran Nuclear Sites (CTH)

The report comes as a result of leaks to the New York Times. Which, given the nature of the subject matter and administration officials involved, indicates the sourcing is from the domestic IC side of things. Specifically, the greatest likelihood is from someone in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) talking to media. Keep that in mind. According to leaked information to the New York Times, President Trump did not agree with an Israeli proposal to launch military strikes against Iran. According to the narrative as advanced, President Trump, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were in agreement to attempt diplomatic solutions instead of bombing Iran. Israel could not conduct the attack without U.S. support, which President Trump decided not to give. Instead, Trump wanted a more forceful push toward engagement and diplomacy with Iran surrounding the ongoing contentious issue of nuclear development.

NEW YORK TIMES – “Israel had planned to strike Iranian nuclear sites as soon as next month but was waved off by President Trump in recent weeks in favor of negotiating a deal with Tehran to limit its nuclear program, according to administration officials and others briefed on the discussions. Mr. Trump made his decision after months of internal debate over whether to pursue diplomacy or support Israel in seeking to set back Iran’s ability to build a bomb, at a time when Iran has been weakened militarily and economically. The debate highlighted fault lines between historically hawkish American cabinet officials and other aides more skeptical that a military assault on Iran could destroy the country’s nuclear ambitions and avoid a larger war. It resulted in a rough consensus, for now, against military action, with Iran signaling a willingness to negotiate.

Israeli officials had recently developed plans to attack Iranian nuclear sites in May. They were prepared to carry them out, and at times were optimistic that the United States would sign off. The goal of the proposals, according to officials briefed on them, was to set back Tehran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon by a year or more. Almost all of the plans would have required U.S. help not just to defend Israel from Iranian retaliation, but also to ensure that an Israeli attack was successful, making the United States a central part of the attack itself. For now, Mr. Trump has chosen diplomacy over military action.”

This is where we need to insert the element that all media generally refuse to associate, Russia.” Iran has reengaged with officials from President Trump’s administration following a letter Trump wrote to the leadership in Iran. President Trump wants Mideast peace; he also wants to avoid the issue of Iran having a nuclear weapon. President Trump views military action as the last possible resort for failed diplomatic and geopolitical efforts. Israel wants to attack Iran. President Trump wants to support Israel but doesn’t want expanded military conflict that pulls the USA into more Mideast war. As we see in the continued issues within Ukraine, the CIA supports expanded conflict in both Ukraine and Iran. Israel and the CIA are in alignment. Hence, in our ongoing restaurant analogy, the CIA is the kitchen, and Israel has a table there. Russian President Vladimir Putin could be an influential geopolitical partner with President Trump, if Trump can get the issues of Ukraine and Russia solved and then pivot to Iran.

Unfortunately, the CIA does not want the issues within Ukraine solved, doesn’t want Trump and Putin coordinating and certainly doesn’t want Trump and Putin to work out a new strategic global map that does not contain useful conflict. Again, Israel and the CIA are in alignment. If President Trump builds a new bridge to Putin the bypass will significantly hurt traffic around the restaurant. The congressional zoning commission (House) is sympathetic to the long-term contract held by the chef, and the Israeli chamber of commerce are paying the county commissioners (senators) ‘indulgency fees’ to maintain the current ingress and egress. With the January change in shingle, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is now the maître d at the front of the house. Secretary Rubio is not using the menu options created by the kitchen team.

The kitchen is not happy (drones into Moscow). DNI Gabbard in place as the IC hostess, is trying to keep the restaurant operation seamless so the customers generally don’t notice. Unfortunately, the kitchen isn’t soundproof, and we can hear plates crashing (NYT leaks). Around the neighborhood, the locals are worried the kitchen staff might start spitting in their food if they are seen enjoying the new service and menu options. A few of the regulars have told the maître d and hostess about the rumors. The issue is being discussed as part of a pre-planned remodel. The interior architect (Trump) and interior designer (Musk) are proposing to remove the walls so the customers can see the kitchen operation as part of a new and modern decor, style and ambiance [transparency]. However, the guys who eat in the kitchen aren’t going to be happy if they are exposed to the riffraff and forced to eat at ordinary tables.

We keep watching….

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“Pam Bondi: Every American should be thanking Trump tonight..”

“..it was a stealth DOJ Lawfare operative who purposefully wrote in a court filing that Garcia’s deportation was a “mistake.”

Pam Bondi Outlines Timeline and History of MS13 Illegal Alien (CTH)

Not since the Sandra Fluke election operation have the intel democrats coordinated so heavily with their media allies to organize support for a random person within the political/social narrative space, as they have with Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Apparently, the controlled U.S. media and their leftist politicians in office are choosing to use Garcia as a 2026 midterm election cry, similar to 2020’s George Floyd. The professional democrat party, their social media warriors/foot soldiers and the aligned propaganda media are all-in to use Kilmar Abrego Garcia as the face of their politics.

Attempting to counter the false narratives that surround the deportation of Garcia, Attorney General Pam Bondi makes her 77th appearance on Fox News to push back. Sean Hannity provides the Fox venue du jour. The responsibility is accurately applied to Bondi’s effort, considering it was a stealth DOJ Lawfare operative who purposefully wrote in a court filing that Garcia’s deportation was a “mistake.” The failure of Main Justice to catch the Lawfare operation within their ranks, has triggered these media events.

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“Maine Democrats have doubled down on their far-left agenda, and now our students and families stand poised to lose hundreds of millions in federal funding..”

Maine claims that keeping guys out of girls’ private rooms is “politically motivated”. Huh?

Bondi Announces Lawsuit Against Maine Over Boys in Girls’ Sports (ET)

The Department of Justice is seeking a federal court injunction requiring Pine Tree State schools to immediately stop transgender boys from competing in girls’ sports and return all athletic records and titles to their rightful female owners. The federal agency will also consider retroactively pulling funding from school districts that have not complied with Title IX regulations in the past, Attorney General Pam Bondi said during an April 16 news conference in Washington. “Pretty basic stuff,” she said. “This is about women’s sports. This is also about young women’s personal safety.” Bondi was flanked by Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Maine Assemblywoman Laurel Libby, who was censured by her state’s Democrat-led state legislature for posting photos and the identity of a male transgender athlete from Greely High School who won an indoor track state pole vaulting title this year.

Maine high school athletes who competed against transgender males also appeared on stage, along with Riley Gaines, a former NCAA swimmer who brought this debate to the national stage after losing the championship to a transgender male who had competed in the men’s division until his senior year. Bondi said a Maine transgender male also won a cross-country state title last fall in the girls’ division and placed at state-level skiing competitions this past winter. “That took away a spot from young women in women’s sports,” Bondi said. “Shame on him.” Bondi did not disclose where this federal lawsuit was filed. In a separate court case related to the same debate, a judge ordered the federal government to unfreeze Department of Agriculture funding to schools.

President Donald Trump previously issued executive orders clarifying Title IX and prohibiting males from competing in women’s sports. The NCAA has already complied, and Republican House members are working on a bill to codify that regulation. Maine’s attorney general has already informed Bondi that his state has no intention of complying with the order. School district superintendents told their communities that until directed otherwise, they are expected to comply with state laws that are contrary to Trump’s executive order. Trump publicly sparred with Maine Gov. Janet Mills at a governor’s workshop on Capitol Hill in February, warning her that he would pull funding if she continued to defy his executive order. At the state level, the Greely High School community has shown public support for all transgender athletes, including their state champion pole vaulter, criticizing Trump and the NCAA for its compliance. But Libby has also received plenty of support via her social media presence and continues to state that most Mainers do not support men competing as women in their state.

“Maine Democrats have doubled down on their far-left agenda, and now our students and families stand poised to lose hundreds of millions in federal funding,” Libby said in a statement provided to The Epoch Times. “Their radical gender ideology is endangering the continued existence of women’s sports and penalizing Maine students against the will of Maine citizens.” Mills issued a statement after Bondi’s news conference, saying that Trump and the Department of Justice’s actions are politically motivated. “As I have said previously, this is not just about who can compete on the athletic field, this is about whether a President can force compliance with his will, without regard for the rule of law that governs our nation. I believe he cannot,” the governor said.

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They would simply rename a office and say they shut it down.

Rubio Shuts Down Censorship Program Biden Admin Claimed was Ended (Turley)

For years, I have written about the Global Engagement Center (GEC) in columns and my book, The Indispensable Right. It was one of the hubs of the censorship network under the Biden Administration, which claimed it was shut down after Congress cut off funding. However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio just announced that he has terminated the office, which was operating under a different name (a familiar tactic by the anti-free speech movement). Secretary Rubio announced the closure of the State Department’s Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference office, which was previously known as the Global Engagement Center (GEC): “Over the last decade, Americans have been slandered, fired, charged, and even jailed for simply voicing their opinions. That ends today…

When Republicans in Congress sunset GEC’s funding at the end of last year, the Biden State Department slapped on a new name. The GEC became the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R-FIMI) office, with the same roster of employees. With this new name, they hoped to survive the transition to the new administration. Today, we are putting that to an end. Whatever name it goes by, GEC is dead. It will not return.” Bravo, Mr. Secretary, Bravo. We previously saw this dishonest practice in the Biden Administration when they claimed to shut down a censorship office only to shift work to other offices.

As we celebrated the demise of the infamous Disinformation Governing Board, the Biden administration never disclosed a larger censorship effort. That includes a recently disclosed back channel to Twitter where dozens of FBI agents tagged citizens for censorship. I have testified on that evidence of evasion and censorship. The new move will remove 50 full-time staff positions at the Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference office. Rubio discussed his decision in an op-ed for The Federalist. The GEC was part of the Election Integrity Partnership, which we have also discussed as a consortium of nonprofits, social media platforms, and government agencies that were key to the censorship system.

The Biden Administration created censorship offices throughout the government while sending massive amounts of federal funding to groups and universities to help target individuals and groups.Rooting out these offices and grants will take a prolonged effort, but great progress has already occurred under the Trump Administration. Of course, this will add to the ranks of censorious Ronins looking for new sponsors. Many will find homes in academia and in Europe. Yet, there is reason to take heart even as we fight to regain the ground lost under Biden. As Winston Churchill said in 1942, “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

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A Chihuahua rules the waves…

A Chihuahua That Thinks It’s A Lion: The Decline of Britain (Bordachev)

There are only two countries in the world that have exercised full autonomy over major political decisions for more than 500 years: Russia and Britain. No others come close. That alone makes Moscow and London natural rivals. But now, we can say with confidence that our historical adversary is no longer what it once was. Britain is losing its foreign policy clout and has been reduced to what we might call “Singapore on the Atlantic”: an island trading power, out of sync with the broader trajectory of world affairs. The fall from global relevance is not without irony. For centuries, Britain caused nothing but harm to the international system. It played France and Germany off one another, betrayed its own allies in Eastern Europe, and exploited its colonies to exhaustion. Even within the European Union, from 1972 until Brexit in 2020, the UK worked tirelessly to undermine the project of integration – first from within, and now from without, with backing from Washington.

Today, the British foreign policy establishment still attempts to sabotage European cohesion, acting as an American proxy. The late historian Edward Carr once mocked the British worldview with a fictional headline: “Fog in Channel – Continent Cut Off.” This egoism, common to island nations, is especially pronounced in Britain, which has always existed beside continental civilization. It borrowed freely from Europe’s culture and political ideas, yet always feared them. That fear was not unfounded. Britain has long understood that true unification of Europe – especially involving Germany and Russia – would leave it sidelined. Thus, the primary goal of British policy has always been to prevent cooperation between the major continental powers. Even now, no country is more eager than Britain to see the militarization of Germany. The idea of a stable Russia-Germany alliance has always been a nightmare scenario for London.

Whenever peace between Moscow and Berlin looked possible, Britain would intervene to sabotage it. The British approach to international relations mirrors its domestic political thought: atomized, competitive, distrustful of solidarity. While continental Europe produced theories of political community and mutual obligation, Britain gave the world Thomas Hobbes and his “Leviathan,” a grim vision of life without justice between the state and its citizens. That same combative logic extends to foreign policy. Britain doesn’t cooperate; it divides. It has always preferred enmity among others over engagement with them. But the tools of that strategy are disappearing. Britain today is a power in steep decline, reduced to shouting from the sidelines. Its internal political life is a carousel of increasingly unqualified prime ministers. This is not simply a result of difficult times. It reflects a deeper problem: the absence of serious political leadership in London.

Even the United States, Britain’s closest ally, is now a threat to its autonomy. The Anglosphere no longer needs two powers that speak English and operate under the same oligarchic political order. For a time, Britain found comfort in the Biden administration, which tolerated its role as transatlantic intermediary. London leveraged its anti-Russian stance to stay relevant and inserted itself into US-EU relations. But that space is narrowing. Today’s American leaders are uninterested in mediators. During a recent trip to Washington, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer could barely answer direct questions on foreign policy. His deference reflected a new reality: even the illusion of independence is fading. Meanwhile, France’s Emmanuel Macron, for all his posturing, at least leads a country that actually controls its nuclear arsenal.

Britain claims to have authority over its nuclear submarines, but many doubt it. In ten years, experts believe it may lose even the technical capacity to manage its nuclear weapons without US support. At that point, London will face a choice: full subservience to Washington or exposure to EU pressures, especially from France. Recent talk in London of sending “European peacekeepers” to Ukraine is a case in point. Despite the unrealistic nature of such proposals, British and French officials spent weeks debating operational details. Some reports suggest the plan stalled due to lack of funds. The real motive was likely to project relevance and show the world that Britain still has a role to play. But neither the media spin nor the political theater can change the facts. Britain’s global standing has diminished. It is no longer capable of independent action and has little influence even as a junior partner. Its leaders are consumed by domestic dysfunction and foreign policy fantasy.

In practical terms, Britain remains dangerous to Russia in two ways. First, by supplying weapons and mercenaries to Ukraine, it increases our costs and casualties. Second, in a moment of desperation, it might try to manufacture a small nuclear crisis. If that happens, one hopes the Americans would take the necessary steps to neutralize the threat – even if that means sinking a British submarine.There is nothing positive for Russia, or the world, in the continued existence of Britain as a foreign policy actor. Its legacy is one of division, sabotage, and imperial plunder. Now, it lives off the crumbs of a bygone empire, barking from the Atlantic like a chihuahua with memories of being a lion. The world moves on. Britain does not.

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Trump will have tariffs for that.

China Replacing US Oil With Canadian – Bloomberg (RT)

China has been importing record amounts of crude oil from Canada and drastically reducing supplies from the US in light of the trade war with Washington, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. Washington and Beijing have implemented a series of reciprocal tariff hikes over the past two months in light of which the latter has slashed purchases of US oil by roughly 90%, according to the outlet. China previously indicated that it would not implement more tariff hikes against US goods but would rather employ alternative ways to retaliate. Chinese crude imports from a port near Vancouver on Canada’s Pacific coast soared to a record 7.3 million barrels in March and may exceed the figure this month, Bloomberg reported, citing data from London-based global oil and gas cargo tracking firm Vortexa Ltd.

Chinese imports of US oil, meanwhile, have fallen to 3 million barrels per month from a peak of 29 million last June, it added. China’s direct imports of Canadian crude oil had historically been minimal, primarily due to infrastructure constraints. Chinese refineries have mainly sourced crude from the Middle East and Russia. Roughly 1.7% of China’s total crude imports came from the US last year, according to Chinese customs data, down from 2.5% in 2023. Nearly all of Canada’s oil is shipped to the US to be processed there or re-exported to Asia. However, the completion last May of the Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline, which takes crude to Canada’s Pacific coast, provided the country with an alternative route to export more volumes directly, primarily to Asia, thus reducing its reliance on the US.

“Given the trade war, it’s unlikely for China to import more US oil,” Bloomberg quoted Wenran Jiang, president of the Canada-China Energy & Environment Forum, as saying. “They are not going to bank on Russian alone or Middle Eastern alone. Anything from Canada will be welcome news.” China accounted for roughly 5% of US crude oil exports last year, according to ship-tracking data from Kpler. Russia remains China’s largest supplier of crude oil. Russian shipments to China reached the highest level on record in 2024. The increase in recent years is largely attributable to the discounts being offered on Russian crude. China’s imports of oil from Saudi Arabia, its second-largest supplier, declined by 9% year-on-year in 2024.

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EU will buy US LNG. Lots of it.

Trump Tariffs Could Cost EU $1.25 Trillion (RT)

A trade war with the US could cost the EU up to €1.1 trillion ($1.25 trillion) over the next four years if Donald Trump proceeds with proposed tariffs, according to a study by the German Economic Institute (IW). Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced a sweeping 20% tariff on all EU goods and a 25% tariff on all car imports in a bid to eliminate what Washington sees as a large trade deficit with the bloc. Brussels was set to introduce 25% retaliatory tariffs on US imports before Trump announced a 90-day pause on most tariffs to allow for negotiations. If an agreement is not reached and US tariffs are imposed, the EU’s cumulative costs are estimated to range between €780 billion ($886.5 billion) and €1.1 trillion ($1.25 trillion) from 2025 to 2028, depending on the scenario, the study released on Thursday said.

The institute also projects that Germany’s GDP could slump by 1.2% annually during the same period under tariffs. If trading partners respond with similar measures, the costs for Berlin could rise to 1.6%, according to the report. Germany’s economy, already facing challenges, is expected to grow by only 0.1% in 2025 after two consecutive years of contraction. The IW forecasts a total economic output loss of €180 billion (around $205 billion) by 2028 for Germany, primarily due to export losses and declining investments. The US was Germany’s largest trading partner in 2024, with bilateral trade totaling €253 billion ($287.5 billion). A trade conflict could significantly impact key sectors, including automotive and pharmaceuticals, experts have warned.

The IW also pointed out that although the tariffs have been suspended for 90 days, uncertainty remains high, hitting global investment planning.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen earlier proposed a “zero-for-zero” tariff agreement to eliminate duties on industrial goods between the EU and the US. However, Trump rejected the offer, stating it was insufficient and demanded that the EU commit to purchasing $350 billion worth of American energy to receive tariff relief. Trump has criticized the EU’s trade practices, asserting that the bloc is “very bad to us” and highlighting the US trade deficit as justification for his stance. Officials from Washington and Brussels met for trade talks earlier this week, but made little headway in resolving their differences. US officials signaled that most tariffs on EU goods are likely to remain in place, according to Bloomberg.

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“The current iteration of traditional German the-Russians-are-coming..”

German Anti-Russia Propaganda Is Reaching Nazi-era Levels (Amar)

Like people almost everywhere in NATO-EU Europe, Germans are currently being subjected to a relentless barrage of shameless, often astonishingly crude propaganda. That’s because their political elites and mainstream media are desperately trying to prepare them for war against Russia. And this time, not by proxy, that is, by way of a devastated Ukraine and dead Ukrainians, but directly. As a former, very evil but in his prime all-too-popular German master of mass manipulation – who also happened to love war with Russia more than was good for him (or Germany) – explained a century ago, effective propaganda keeps the world very, very simple. Or, to add a little detail, propaganda’s sometimes literally stunning success is built on two primitive yet powerful – and very old – tricks: the broken-record principle and the litany effect.

Their meaning, too, is elementary: In essence, if your image of reality is delusional, you don’t have sound arguments, and your case is absurd, do not despair. Instead, ceaselessly drum in a few very basic and bogus ideas until the audience is dizzy with repetition (the broken-record principle), while also eliciting frequent consent from it (the litany effect). In short: Keep shouting the same nonsense at them and make them bleat back “yes” regularly. You know, like a ritual, really. In the case of the manufacturing of the current iteration of traditional German the-Russians-are-coming hysteria as well, it is easy to identify its handful of specious, daft, and childishly simplistic key motifs: Russia and Russia alone is to blame for the war in Ukraine; Russia intends to attack Europe (if not the world) – and soon; and Russia is incredibly devious and scheming, so you cannot find a reasonable compromise with it.

Yet what about the nuts and bolts of this propaganda campaign? Even a simple story needs detail, and, if told and retold almost without letup, that detail at least needs to vary: Same old story but different flavor. That’s where things get tricky. For one thing, if you pick the wrong flavor, your propaganda may start looking as silly as it actually is. A current example in Germany – as well as the EU parliament – would be the recent hysteria over the global hit Sigma Boy from Russia. Its brilliantly catchy tune is a piece of art, like it or not. But its lyrics are about as profound as a margarine commercial.

Yet that won’t stop Germany’s radical-Centrist elite from exploring the song’s ominous depths as a weapon of nefarious Russian cultural warfare. Because Sigma Boy, one EU parliamentarian from Hamburg has noticed – with a little help from Ukraine – is really “a viral Russian trope used on social media that communicates patriarchal and pro-Russian worldviews” as well as “only one example of Russian infiltration of popular discourse through social media.” Also, you see, Sigma Boy is really just code for – scary sound effect – PUTIN!

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Google is huge, it has many branches and companies, spends a fortune. Still, 77.4% of its revenue came from online ads in 2023. Break it up fast. It’s a threat to a million small companies.

Court Rules Google Illegally Holds “Monopoly Power” In Online Ad Tech (ZH)

A U.S. federal court ruled that Google had illegally monopolized key digital advertising markets, including publisher ad servers, ad exchanges, and advertiser ad networks. This ruling could deal a major blow to Google’s core business pillar: advertising revenue (advertising accounted for about 77.4% of Google’s total revenue in 2023). U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema found on Thursday morning that Google had violated antitrust law by “willfully acquiring and maintaining monopoly power in the open-web display publisher ad server market and the open-web display ad exchange market.”

Here are the key findings in the landmark antitrust case (U.S. v. Google, 23-cv-00108, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia (Alexandria):
Google violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act by willfully acquiring and maintaining monopoly power in:
• The open-web display publisher ad server market, and
• The open-web display ad exchange market Google also violated Sections 1 and 2 by unlawfully tying its publisher ad server (DoubleClick for Publishers/DFP) to its ad exchange (AdX). The court did not find that

Google held monopoly power in the third alleged market: advertiser ad networks.
Legal and Procedural Notes:
• The DOJ and 17 states originally brought the suit, accusing Google of monopolizing three key ad tech markets.
• Google had earlier tried to dismiss the case and transfer it to New York but failed.
• The court conducted a three-week bench trial and reviewed extensive expert testimony and evidence.

This case is one of several antitrust actions pending against Google. In a separate lawsuit, the Justice Department seeks to force Alphabet to divest its Chrome browser following a landmark ruling that found the company had monopolized the online search market. “Google will be drastically reshaped by court decrees in the next year or two,” The Information said, adding, “Google will likely be forced, as a result of today’s decision, to dismantle much of its ad tech business which dominates both how advertisers buy ads on independent websites, and how web publishers sell their ad space.”

Here are the next steps for Google, and it appears the court will be deciding on potential remedies:
• Google was found liable on Counts I, II, and IV, violating Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act. Count III was dismissed.
• The court will set a schedule for briefing and hearings to determine remedies, potentially including divestiture of DFP and AdX, injunctions against anticompetitive practices, and other measures to restore competition.
• The ruling highlights Google’s decade-long strategy of tying products and imposing exclusionary policies to maintain dominance in digital advertising, harming publishers, competition, and consumers.

Market response: Alphabet shares fell as much as 3.2% after the ruling. Competitor The Trade Desk’s stock jumped nearly 8%, reflecting investor optimism about improved competition in the ad tech space.

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He put the whistleblowers in charge.

Trump to Make an Epic Move at the IRS (Margolis)

Tax Day was Tuesday, and it goes without saying that we’d all love to see the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) disappear into the dustbin of history. But just as it is certain that we’re all going to die, we’re going to have to pay taxes. There have been some welcome changes at the IRS. As PJ Media previously reported, the IRS is now sharing illegal aliens’ tax information with ICE to help facilitate deportations. Trump has been pushing to turn every federal agency into an effective tool for catching and deporting illegal immigrants. And wouldn’t you know it, acting IRS Commissioner Melanie Krause couldn’t handle doing the right thing and resigned. And guess who’s likely to take her place? Gary Shapley, the IRS whistleblower who blew the lid off the Hunter Biden tax probe. He testified under oath that he faced retaliation simply for doing his job and cooperating with congressional investigators looking into the shady business dealings of the president’s son.

Now, according to the Associated Press, Shapley is expected to be promoted to acting commissioner of the IRS. Shapley and fellow IRS investigator Joseph Ziegler were sidelined from the Hunter Biden probe in December 2022 after raising serious concerns with their superiors. According to their testimony, the Justice Department under then-U.S. Attorney David Weiss repeatedly “slow-walked investigative steps” and stalled enforcement actions in the critical months leading up to the 2020 election. The saga over Hunter Biden’s taxes ended when Joe Biden gave Hunter a blanket pardon for any and all crimes he may have committed for a nearly ten-year period. Hunter had been facing trial in California for failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes but abruptly agreed to plead guilty just as jury selection was about to begin.

Despite that unfortunate ending to the story, the promotion of Shapley is welcome news. It’s a classic Trump-style move — putting truth-tellers in positions of power and pushing out the bureaucrats who’ve been protecting the swamp. In March, Shapley was promoted to Deputy Chief of IRS Criminal Investigations, and another IRS investigator who testified about Biden’s taxes, Joseph Ziegler, was assigned to the Treasury Secretary’s office as a senior adviser for IRS reform. Now, the tax collection agency is planning to name Shapley to one of the highest-ranking roles at the agency — in an interim role — as former Missouri congressman Billy Long awaits a confirmation hearing to lead the agency permanently, the people say. They were not authorized to speak publicly about the plan.

President Donald Trump nominated Long, who worked as an auctioneer before serving six terms in the House of Representatives, to serve as the next commissioner of the IRS. “Gary is a long-tenured civil servant who has dedicated the last 15 years of his professional life to the IRS,” a Treasury spokesperson told the Associated Press. “Gary has proven his honesty and devotion to enforcing the law without fear or favor, even at great cost to his own career. He’ll be a great asset to the IRS as we rethink and reform this crucial organization.” Shapley may only serve temporarily, but you can’t ignore the symbolism behind the move.

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“The era of global boiling has arrived!”

Climate Myths (John Stossel)

I guess United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres didn’t think his hyping global warming risks brought him enough attention, so now he says, “The era of global boiling has arrived!” Global boiling? Give me a break. Yes, the climate is warming. We can deal with that. What annoys me is politicians, activists and media pushing hysterical myths.

Myth 1: The Arctic will soon be ice-free. It “could already be ice-free by the summer of 2030!” shrieks a DW report. “‘Doomsday Glacier’ is melting faster than scientists thought,” adds the BBC. “Earth’s biggest cities are at risk!” Nonsense. “It’s not happening at nearly the catastrophic pace that they claim,” says Heartland Institute fellow Linnea Lueken in my new video. But the media show dramatic images of melting and missing ice. “No ice! There’s all these walruses laying out on a stony beach. … It’s because it’s the summertime! In the winter, it all comes right back!”

As far as ice disappearing in winter, too, “Compared to the amount of ice that’s in the Arctic,” says Lueken, it “is like a grain of sand … so minuscule compared to the amount of ice that’s there, it doesn’t even show up on a trend chart when you plot it.” But zealots push hysteria. In 2009, Al Gore, while collecting a Nobel prize, said there was “a 75% chance that the entire north polar ice cap … during some of the summer months, could be completely ice-free within five to seven years!” In just five to seven years! Oh, no! Wait … seven years have passed. In fact, 16 years passed. The ice cap has plenty of ice, even in summer. Yet nobody calls him on it. “They absolutely should be calling him on it,” says Lueken.

Myth 2: Polar bears are going extinct. Polar bears look cute, so environmental groups use them in ads to sucker you into donating money. But Polar bear populations have increased! In the 1960s, 17,000-19,000 was the highest of three scientific estimates of polar bear population. Today, there are about 26,000 polar bears. Yet the Environmental Defense Fund collected almost a quarter-billion dollars from gullible donors running ads that say: “Your support can help Environmental Defense Fund save the polar bears!” The EDF hasn’t agreed to my interview requests. I understand why. I would call their advertising sleazy. “Absolutely,” agrees Lueken, “the data is right there. It’s not hard to find out that polar bears are fine.” OK, maybe polar bears aren’t going extinct, but we might starve!

That’s Myth 3. MSNBC shrieks, “Climate change could create a massive global food shortage.” President Barack Obama said, “Our changing climate is already making it more difficult to produce food!” “There is no claim less true.” sighs Lueken. “Food production has skyrocketed.” She’s right, and the data is there for everyone to see. Agriculture output sets record highs year after year. In fact, the extra carbon dioxide in greenhouse gasses probably increases food production. “We inject CO2 into greenhouses for a reason,” Lueken points out. “It helps to fertilize plants for faster and better growth.” As the climate has warmed, the world experienced the biggest drop in hunger and malnutrition ever.

Still, when food prices rise, media idiots still blame climate change. The New York Times claimed “devastation that climate change had wrought” caused a rise in coffee prices.But global coffee production has increased by 82% since the 1990s.The Times story focused on a brief decline in coffee production in Honduras. But since the ’90s, coffee production there rose more than 200%. “They never apologize,” I note. “They never say, ‘Oh, we got this wrong.'” “No,” replies Lueken. “Even if they did have a retraction, the damage is already done.” Alarmist media and environmental groups never apologize. When doom doesn’t happen, they just move on to the next scare. I’ll cover four more myths about climate change next week..

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Alarma

 

 

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Egret

 

 

 

 

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