Aug 062025
 


Pablo Picasso Interieur au Pot de Fleurs 1953

 

Your Wages Aren’t Rising By Accident. They’re Rising By Design (Nas)
Trump Rules Out Scott Bessent As Fed Chair (NYP)
Clintons, ex-AGs and FBI Directors Subpoenaed For Epstein Testimony (NYP)
Here Comes The Find Out Phase: Russia Collusion Hoax Grand Jury Is On (Taft)
DOJ To Present Russiagate Hoax To A Grand Jury For Criminal Charges (ZH)
The EU-US Deal Is Positive and the Only Realistic Alternative (Lacalle)
GOP Could Bring Down Adam Schiff and Letitia James with LETITIA Act (Margolis)
‘Biden’s DOJ Secretly Targeted Trump’s Inner Circle (Margolis)
Sanctions On Russia’s Partners ‘Obvious Next Step’ – US NATO Envoy (RT)
US ‘On Precipice’ Of Recession – Moody’s (RT)
Ukrainian Officials Busted In ‘Large-Scale’ Military Bribery Scheme (RT)
Europe’s Last Security Project Is Quietly Collapsing (Lukyanov)
Colonial Theft vs. Wartime Fundraising: The Double Standard of Western Museums (Sp.)
Thank God for Robert F. Kennedy (Paul Craig Roberts)
I Run The Country and The World”: Donald Trump (Paul Craig Roberts)
Is Trump Taking Us to War? (Paul Craig Roberts)
A Catastrophic War Seems Inevitable (Paul Craig Roberts)

 

 

16%
https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/1952716496523710784

Pelosi
https://twitter.com/TRUMP_ARMY_/status/1952699081832140896

2018

 

 

Ratcliffe: On July 31 2016, the FBI started an investigation into candidate Trump. 6 days before, Russian intelligence “predicted” that would happen. They didn’t guess. They had read the playbook.

 

 

 

 

I’m early today. Could have posted -most of- this last night. My timezone here is E(D)T+6. Maybe more later. A whole day ahead.

 

 

X thread.

The highest ranking US government official in history who’s -openly- gay.

Who was involved in breaking the Bank of England.

Nice interview.

Your Wages Aren’t Rising By Accident. They’re Rising By Design (Nas)

The numbers are staggering.Household income growth hit 0.7-0.8% in April alone. Real wages for hourly workers rose almost 2% in just 5 months. Bessent dropped this bombshell: “No president has done that before.” But here’s where it gets interesting… Blue-collar wage growth is at its highest level since Trump’s first term. Under Biden? It plummeted. Now it’s back up “just in a few months.” The reason is simple… Bessent revealed the hidden mechanism behind exploding wages: It’s not about minimum wage laws or government mandates. It’s about strategic displacement of cheap labor. “12 or 20 million illegal aliens coming out of the workforce” creates massive wage pressure upward. The manufacturing revolution is here.

Only 9% of Americans work in manufacturing. But here’s what they don’t tell you: Manufacturing jobs deliver “much stronger wage growth than the service economy.” Trump is rebuilding America’s industrial base by design. The negotiation strategy is working brilliantly. 75+ nations are bringing “their best offers” to Treasury. When Trump threatened 50% EU tariffs, European leaders called within hours. Tariffs aren’t just revenue. They’re leverage that gets results. Here’s the secret Wall Street doesn’t want you to know. For decades, they’ve had “a great run” while Main Street struggled. Bessent’s mission? “Now it’s Main Street’s turn to also participate.” The policy shift is already working… The economic data proves it: CPI: 0.1% (best since 2020) PPI: 0.1% (best since 2021)

Recession predictions: Dead wrong Reality: “Economy is very strong” But there’s a deeper story here… Bessent’s opened up about his backstory. His father went broke twice. Young Scott got his first job at age 9 – putting out beach umbrellas and busing tables. “That’s why I am so focused on the debt here and having responsible finances.” This isn’t just policy – it’s personal vendetta against financial recklessness. “We are not going to make the same mistakes my family did.” He’s treating America’s economy like he wished someone had treated his family’s finances. The Wall Street vs Main Street war is real. For years, coastal elites thrived while middle America got “hollowed out.” Bessent’s solution? Bring back strategic industries: steel, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals.

“We got to bring them back home.” Hamilton’s original tariff strategy had two purposes:
• Finance the treasury
• Protect nascent industries
Trump added the third leg: negotiation leverage. This is economic warfare disguised as trade policy. And it’s working. The results speak for themselves: Manufacturing emphasis + immigration control + tariff leverage = exploding wages. It’s not magic. It’s applied economics. And workers are seeing the benefits in real time. This is the economic revolution hiding in plain sight. While media focuses on political drama, actual policy is reshaping American prosperity. Your wages aren’t rising by accident. They’re rising by design.

Bessent

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Actually, he ruled himself out.

“I asked him just last night, ‘Is this something you want?’ [Bessent said], ’Nope, I want to stay where I am.’ He actually said, ‘I want to work with you.’ It’s such an honor’. I said, ‘That’s very nice. I appreciate that.’””

Trump Rules Out Scott Bessent As Fed Chair (NYP)

President Trump took Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent off his list of possible candidates to helm the Federal Reserve next year and joked about selecting CNBC anchors for roles with the central bank Tuesday. Trump, 79, claimed he has four finalists in mind to replace current Fed Chair Jerome Powell, whose term ends in May 2026. “I love Scott, but he wants to stay where he is,” Trump told “Squawk Box” of Bessent. “I asked him just last night, ‘Is this something you want?’ [Bessent said], ’Nope, I want to stay where I am.’ He actually said, ‘I want to work with you.’ It’s such an honor. I said, ‘That’s very nice. I appreciate that.’” Bessent’s name had been floated for weeks as a possible successor to Powell, with the Treasury secretary refraining from publicly ruling himself out.

Trump has long fumed at Powell for his reluctance to slash interest rates, bashing him as “too late” and “highly political.” Still, the president has denied that he will attempt to dismiss Powell before his term ends. Critics and legal experts have cast doubt on whether the president even has the authority to fire the Fed chair, who has reportedly insisted he will not resign despite the criticism. “In the end, there are numerous people that are qualified. Everyone on your phone right now, in terms of at your beautiful studio, would be very qualified in my opinion,” Trump quipped about replacing Powell. “You guys are better than most of the people that do it for a living.” During the wide-ranging interview, Trump riffed about two widely reported contenders to take over the Fed — National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett and former Fed board member Kevin Warsh.

Over the weekend, Hassett told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he has the “best job in the world” and is “really well placed at the National Economic Council” but did not rule out accepting the job if Trump asked. Warsh, who served on the Fed’s Board of Governors from 2006 to 2011, was passed over by Trump in favor of Powell during his first term. “Both Kevin Warsh and Kevin Hassett are very good candidates for the Fed,” Trump said, before adding that “I have two other people” under consideration without specifying who those were. The president views Powell’s insistence on keeping interest rates elevated as undermining efforts to refinance the roughly $9 trillion in US debt. However, some economists have defended Powell, noting that the annual inflation rate remains above the Fed’s 2% goal.

During its meeting last week, the Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee, which makes interest rate decisions, opted to leave its benchmark rate between 4.25% and 4.5%. Trump is also dealing with the fallout from an underwhelming employment report, which found only 73,000 jobs were added in the month of July and revised the figures for May and June down by a whopping 258,000 jobs. Hours after the report came out, Trump dismissed Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer, accusing her of fudging the numbers. “Squawk Box” co-host Joe Kernen noted to the president that the soft job market could hasten the Fed’s decision to lower interest rates. “It’s not what I want,” Trump shot back. “I don’t want that. I wanted it a year ago. I wanted it a long time ago. Jay Powell is highly political. And I think, you know, I call him ‘Too late.’”

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In both Epstein and Giuffre’s cases, it is reported non-stop that they committed suicide. In both cases, there are serious questions about that.

Clintons, ex-AGs and FBI Directors Subpoenaed For Epstein Testimony (NYP)

House Republicans subpoenaed nearly a dozen former federal officials and politicians — including Bill and Hillary Clinton — as well as records from the Department of Justice on Tuesday amid an expanding probe into the deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The officials — including former FBI Directors James Comey and Robert Mueller as well as six ex-US attorneys general — were compelled to testify before the House Oversight Committee. Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) announced the move less than two weeks after DOJ officials interviewed Epstein’s late accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence in a federal prison for conspiring to sexually abuse young girls. “The facts and circumstances surrounding both Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell’s cases have received immense public interest and scrutiny,” Comer wrote in all of the letters.

“While the Department undertakes efforts to uncover and publicly disclose additional information related to Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell’s cases, it is imperative that Congress conduct oversight of the federal government’s enforcement of sex trafficking laws generally and specifically its handling of the investigation and prosecution of Mr. Epstein and Ms. Maxwell.” The investigation kicked off after President Trump faced backlash over a two-page memo, released by his DOJ and FBI July 6, that found a “systematic review” of evidence uncovered no Epstein “client list” of rich and well-connected associates implicated in his sickening crimes. Epstein, 66, committed suicide in his Manhattan jail cell Aug. 10, 2019, multiple federal and independent medical investigations determined, but his well-documented links to Hollywood stars, high-powered attorneys, politicians and influential business leaders have caused furious speculation for years.

Trump’s current attorney general, Pam Bondi, had indicated a client list was “sitting” on her desk for the review in February — and that the FBI’s New York Field Office was “in possession of thousands of pages of documents related to the investigation and indictment of Epstein.” But the July 6 memo said threre was “no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions” and no “evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.” The FBI-DOJ document also noted that Epstein’s crimes impacted “over one thousand victims.” On July 17, Trump posted on Truth Social: “Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, I have asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval.” “This SCAM, perpetuated by the Democrats, should end, right now!” he added.

Trump also told reporters of the public’s right to previously undisclosed Epstein information: “Anything that’s credible, I would say, let them have it.” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche interviewed Maxwell July 24 and 25 at the US attorney’s office in Tallahassee, Fla., before she was shuttled to a spacious correctional center in Bryan, Texas, last week. Maxwell — who was given limited immunity — answered every question about “100 different people,” according to her lawyer, Oscar David Markus. The discussions came amid speculation that the former Epstein associate’s legal team could be seeking clemency for their client, who was convicted in December 2021 and sentenced in June 2022. Her lawyers have already appealed her conviction to the US Supreme Court, arguing that she should have been off limits to prosecutors under a plea agreement reached when Epstein was first charged with sex crimes. The justices will consider her petition in late September.

The disgraced financier had to register as a sex offender after pleading guilty to Florida charges of soliciting sex from a minor in 2007, but went on to host lavish parties and enjoy professional relationships with associates like Prince Andrew and Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Bill Clinton rode on Epstein’s private jet abroad, nicknamed the “Lolita Express,” several times. Hillary Clinton has been asked to appear Oct. 9, while Bill Clinton was ordered to sit for his deposition on Oct. 14 Mueller’s deposition is scheduled for Sept. 2; Comey’s is scheduled for Oct. 7. Also summoned were former President Joe Biden’s AG Merrick Garland, Trump AGs Bill Barr and Jeff Sessions, former President Barack Obama’s AGs Loretta Lynch and Eric Holder as well as former President George W. Bush’s AG Alberto Gonzalez. Barr [..] is set to be deposed Aug. 18, Gonzales on Aug. 28, Lynch on Sept. 9, Holder on Sept. 30 and Garland on Oct. 2. The Justice Department has been given until Aug. 19 to turn over the “full, complete, unredacted Epstein Files.”

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“We believe that the right move is the grand jury, but not if it’s in DC. That’s felony dumb.”

“The sad situation is that no one remotely right of center would get a fair trial in Washington, D.C. That’s not just sad, it’s true—and it’s criminal..”

Here Comes The Find Out Phase: Russia Collusion Hoax Grand Jury Is On (Taft)

DOJ leaks reveal that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has green-lighted a grand jury to investigate the Russia Collusion hoax. I’d say that this is a BLOCKBUSTER! BAM! BREAKING story, and it IS a HUGE MOVE, but you read PJ Media to get context and insight, so there are questions. Here’s the nut of the exclusive report by Fox News on Monday evening: “EXCLUSIVE: Attorney General Pam Bondi directed her staff Monday to act on the criminal referral from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard related to the alleged conspiracy to tie President Donald Trump to Russia, and the Department of Justice is now opening a grand jury investigation into the matter, Fox News Digital has learned. Bondi personally ordered an unnamed federal prosecutor to initiate legal proceedings and the prosecutor is expected to present department evidence to a grand jury, which would allow the department to secure a potential indictment, according to a letter from Bondi reviewed by Fox News Digital and a source familiar with the investigation. ”

Gabbard’s concerns are republic-shaking ones but not the only ones. Fox Digital reported: “The DOJ confirmed two weeks ago it received a criminal referral from Gabbard. The referral included a memorandum titled “Intelligence Community suppression of intelligence showing ‘Russian and criminal actors did not impact’ the 2016 presidential election via cyber-attacks on infrastructure” and asked that the DOJ open an investigation. Hmmm? While this skeletal report telegraphs a few clues, Bondi’s team has leaked that the AG’s team is acting on Gabbard’s criminal referrals, but there’s no word about the possibly even more concrete referrals from CIA Director and former U.S. federal prosecutor John Ratcliffe. Both sets of allegations are serious, but why leave Ratcliffe’s referrals out of the story?

Here are the allegations he referred to pertaining regarding John Brennan, James Comey, James Clapper, and Hillary Clinton:
• Lying under oath to Congress or federal investigators
• Abuse of office and politicization of intelligence by advancing unsubstantiated claims and manipulating intelligence

Gabbard’s referrals based on the documents she released underscored the conspiracy and its treachery. While that oversight could be because Bondi is caught up between the signal and the noise, what she could be doing is holding her powder. The reason behind that could be what constitutional lawyer and Fox News host Mark Levin said on Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo–and it is important. Bartiromo asked, “How would you be handling this case?” And Levin held a clinic.

I’ll break down what Levin said. It makes sense to those who resist the urge to make the perfect the enemy of the good. “I think it doesn’t help us as to what laws might have been violated. Who cares? Right now, you need to dig in to find out who did what, then you’ll figure out what laws have been violated. We know laws were violated. You’re not bringing charges yet; you’re not bringing a bill of indictment yet. You have to conduct an investigation. I mean, I can think of laws that I haven’t even mentioned. What about federal campaign finance laws? What they did to Donald Trump in Manhattan is a ruse … really? Those are campaign violations. That[‘s] for another day.

What should happen now, for me, my view, the Department of Justice should be making a list of every potential witness or participant. They should immediately receive a letter that a criminal investigation has begun, and they are to preserve all records whether they are to preserve all records—whether they took public records with them—whether they took private records with them, and that includes the long list of texts and emails and on and on and on. What you’ll find, then, is that you are going to find a lot of collusion between the Department of Justice, the FBI, the CIA, the White House—the whole damned bunch of them—and the media.”

Levin is in the camp of preserving documents now and getting to the prosecution later. Sounds great to me. The other huge issue the announcement fails to address is WHERE this grand jury will be convened. Will this grand jury be convened in the Southern District of Florida, where the Mar-a-Lago raid took place, or in the lost land of Washington, D.C. where there is ZERO chance that ANY Democrat would be found GUILTY of any crime? The right answer is Florida. Monday night’s move was huge, but only if Bondi is as careful as a cat stalking a bird. Meow. I told you we wouldn’t punk you. We believe that the right move is the grand jury, but not if it’s in DC. That’s felony dumb. The sad situation is that no one remotely right of center would get a fair trial in Washington, D.C. That’s not just sad, it’s true—and it’s criminal.

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“The report said that then-President Barack Obama didn’t want Hillary’s scandal to taint his legacy..”

DOJ To Present Russiagate Hoax To A Grand Jury For Criminal Charges (ZH)

Attorney General Pam Bondi has directed that the Justice Department move forward with a probe into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation, following the recent release of documents about collusion between the Obama administration and the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign. Bondi has directed a prosecutor to present evidence to a grand jury after referrals from the Trump administration’s top intelligence official, a person familiar with the matter said Monday. Fox News first reported the development. It was not clear which former officials might be the target of any grand jury activity, where the grand jury that might ultimately hear evidence will be located or which prosecutors — whether career employees or political appointees — might be involved in pursuing the investigation.

It was also not clear what precise claims of misconduct Trump administration officials believe could form the basis of criminal charges, which a grand jury would have to sign off on for an indictment to be issued. In one batch of documents released last month, Gabbard disclosed emails showing that senior Obama administration officials were aware in 2016 that Russians had not hacked state election systems to manipulate the votes in Trump’s favor. Sen. Chuck Grassley, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also released a set of emails last week. The emails were part of a classified annex of a report issued in 2023 by John Durham, the special counsel who was appointed during the first Trump administration to hunt for any government misconduct during the Russia investigation.

According to the annex, an FBI informer identified as “TI” provided the bureau in 2016 with two intelligence reports, which described “confidential conversations” between then-Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz and two people at the George Soros-funded Open Society Foundation: Leonard Bernardo and Jeffrey Goldstein. The report said that then-President Barack Obama didn’t want Hillary’s scandal to taint his legacy. Accordingly, “To solve the problem, the President puts pressure on FBI Director James Comey through Attorney General Lynch, however, so far without concrete results.”

The same report also said that Comey favored Republicans, and that the FBI didn’t have any evidence against Clinton—because she deleted her emails. While the FBI informant’s intelligence wasn’t corroborated at the time, the FBI indeed closed its investigation into Clinton without recommending charges. Republicans have particularly focused on a July 27, 2016, email in Durham’s newly declassified annex that claimed that Hillary Clinton had approved a plan during the heat of the campaign to link Trump with Russia. Durham’s own report took pain to note that investigators had not corroborated the communications as authentic and said the best assessment was that the message was “a composites of several emails” the Russians had obtained from hacking.

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Possible. Still, it’s not about the outcome, but about the process. Did Ursula fight for Europeans? Looks like she didn’t raise a single finger.

The EU-US Deal Is Positive and the Only Realistic Alternative (Lacalle)

The agreements the United States has signed with its main trading partners are both positive and realistic. They demonstrate that, in 2024, the world was not a trade paradise of spontaneous cooperation among free-market companies as per David Ricardo’s ideal, but rather a statist system filled with barriers against US businesses and political efforts to pick winners and losers. The controversy surrounding the agreement between the United States and the European Union can only be explained for three reasons: animosity toward any achievements of the Trump administration, ignorance about the only realistic alternative, or because critics of the deal were genuinely satisfied with the protectionism and European barriers in place in 2024.

Critics of the deal must answer two questions: What was the only real alternative? The only real alternative was a collapse in European exports, a loss of competitiveness versus Japan, the United Kingdom, South Korea, and other partners, greater offshoring of companies, and, crucially, keeping existing European trade barriers. What would the critics have done? Critics must explain how they would have achieved supposedly better deals when global export leaders have signed agreements like that of the European Union. They need to share with us what essential information they have that the EU negotiators do not, reportedly enabling them to achieve better conditions than Japan, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Australia, China, and others. Is it reasonable to think that EU negotiators were stupid or reckless and did not weigh all options to achieve a beneficial agreement?

Claiming that the agreement with the United States is detrimental is, inadvertently, to defend the trade barriers with Europe’s main global partner as if they were wonderful and should be preserved. It also stems from a fantastical vision of global trade, imagining that the US market could be replaced by others. What’s worse is that some seem to believe all of this is Trump’s fault—a favourite in today’s economic analysis—and that in four years, a Democratic president or a softer Republican will return everything to the way it was in 2024. This is a mistaken vision. Biden kept all the tariffs from the Trump and Obama administrations and increased several of them.

Why wasn’t there a significant outcry when the EU implemented substantial trade barriers or when Democratic presidents established tariffs? The outrage frequently conceals bias against Trump and conveniently overlooks Europe’s persistent imposition of new barriers on US products. Why wasn’t there an outcry over the EU’s tariffs on US chemicals, agriculture, livestock, automobiles, and manufacturing equipment – or over the 2030 Agenda, the New Green Deal, the CO2 tax, and all the constant excessive regulation? It took Draghi to remind us that the EU imposes more hidden tariffs on itself than the United States does.

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“Law Enforcement Tools to Interdict Troubling Investments in Abodes”.

GOP Could Bring Down Adam Schiff and Letitia James with LETITIA Act (Margolis)

It looks like Senate Republicans aren’t just talking tough on corruption—they’re laying the groundwork for real accountability, and Democrats like Sen. Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James may finally have reason to worry. Sen. John Cornyn has introduced the Law Enforcement Tools to Interdict Troubling Investments in Abodes—or the LETITIA Act, pointedly named after the New York AG herself. But this isn’t just a symbolic jab. The bill represents a serious move to expand criminal liability and, more importantly, stiffen penalties for public officials who abuse their positions for personal gain—specifically through shady dealings like mortgage or tax fraud.

There’s no mistaking the intent behind this legislation. Letitia James is famous for her partisan pursuit of President Trump, yet she herself now entangled in a federal investigation over mortgage fraud. But the real intrigue emerges with the bill’s potential impact on Adam Schiff—the very same Schiff who for years cloaked himself in the language of integrity while leading partisan witch hunts against Trump and his allies. The tables may be turning. Details in the public record are damning. Housing authority Bill Pulte has accused Schiff of falsifying bank documents and misrepresenting primary residences across multiple states to secure more favorable mortgage terms. These aren’t garden-variety clerical mistakes—they’re deliberate moves that, under Cornyn’s proposal, would be subject to mandatory prison terms.

If signed into law, the LETITIA Act would slap public officials convicted of bank fraud, loan or mortgage fraud, or tax fraud with minimum sentences—one year for bank or loan fraud, six months for tax fraud—ratcheting up to five years for repeated patterns of abuse. No more tepid reprimands or backroom wrist-slaps for insiders who get caught. So, is this the moment where the Senate GOP draws a legal bullseye on Adam Schiff? Cornyn makes no effort to hide his intention to empower President Trump and authorities to finally “hold crooked politicians like New York’s Letitia James accountable for defrauding their constituents, violating their oath of office, and breaking the law.” The context leaves little doubt: this bill is meant not just as a warning to all but as a calibrated legislative knife aimed specifically at the likes of James and Schiff—high-ranking Democrats who have made a career out of prosecuting their rivals and hoisting the banner of unassailable virtue.

Adam Schiff, having cultivated an image as the tireless force against corruption and chaos, now finds that the same legal tripwires he spent years setting for others could be lying directly in his path. The Justice Department hasn’t pressed charges yet, but the bill puts a powerful tool in their hands—one designed to close the loopholes that have too long separated members of the political elite from real-world accountability.

When law’s hammer falls, it must strike without favoritism. The message from Senate Republicans is unmistakable: if Schiff is guilty of the mortgage fraud allegations leveled against him, he should face the same jail time and personal ruin the system eagerly imposes on anyone outside the Beltway. The LETITIA Act, if passed and enforced, tears down the shield of privilege, daring to answer the question: Will Adam Schiff finally be held legally accountable? The answer may come sooner rather than later. For now, the Senate GOP has set the stage. The only thing left is for the Justice Department to decide whether it will step up and bring the same intensity to prosecuting Schiff as he did to others.

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“Those who dared to challenge the regime were met not with due process, but with the full force of a weaponized federal machine.”

‘Biden’s DOJ Secretly Targeted Trump’s Inner Circle (Margolis)

There are new, disturbing revelations about the weaponization of the federal government against former Trump officials that demand attention. Just weeks before returning to the White House, officials who served President Donald Trump during his first term discovered they had been swept up in a politically charged dragnet under orders from the Biden administration. Google, following a legal process that the FBI triggered, quietly collected personal information from their accounts, only alerting the targets after the fact, and only because the court-imposed gag order had finally lifted. Dan Scavino, now White House Deputy Chief of Staff, received one of these anonymous yet chilling notifications from Google.

“Google received and responded to a legal process issued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation compelling the release of information related to your Google account. A court order previously prohibited Google from notifying you of the legal process…” The Orwellian undertone cannot be missed. Scavino described it as “Biden lawfare” in action, calling it “a small taste of the INSANITY that many of us went through—right here in the United States of America. LAWFARE at its finest. A Complete and Total Disgrace!!!!!” According to Fox News Digital, soon after Scavino’s post, Kash Patel, who now serves as FBI Director, revealed he too received one of these covert warnings. This wasn’t a one-off; this was a coordinated campaign of intimidation. Jeff Clark, acting administrator at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, also stepped forward, stating he got a similar message.

“Indeed, a whole Jack Smith team was assigned to go through my emails after there was a privilege review.” Clark didn’t stop there; he exposed how the “group of lawyers ignored my religious pastor privilege, marital privilege, and other privileges and basically shipped all they could to Jack Smith. But it still cost me tens of thousands to try to protect my communications.” Smith, the former special counsel whom Merrick Garland handpicked, got the green light to relentlessly pursue Donald Trump and his allies through a series of politically charged investigations. His mandate? To criminalize Trump’s efforts to challenge the highly questionable 2020 election results and, later, to go after him over the possession of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, despite a long history of former officials handling such matters without prosecution.

Smith’s team rolled through personal data with utter disregard for privacy and protected communication. “My medical records and other private communications had nothing to do with the 2020 election,” Clark said. “They were no one’s business. But it didn’t matter to these thugs with law degrees and the willingness to abuse government power.” This was vengeance dressed up in legal jargon. And once again, we’re staring down undeniable proof that under Biden’s watch, the law wasn’t blind; it was a weapon aimed squarely at his political enemies. The administration didn’t treat the Constitution as a safeguard but as an obstacle to ignore. Those who dared to challenge the regime were met not with due process, but with the full force of a weaponized federal machine. This is the legacy of the Left’s “justice”: intimidate, isolate, and destroy.

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The countries you seek to sanction will need oil regardless, but they will have to pay a higher price. That lifts global oil prices, so Russia gets paid more.

Sanctions On Russia’s Partners ‘Obvious Next Step’ – US NATO Envoy (RT)

Targeting Russia’s partners with sanctions and tariffs is the “obvious next step” in US efforts to mediate the Ukraine conflict, Washington’s ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, says. Moscow has stated that it is open to talks, holding three rounds of US-mediated negotiations with Kiev in the past two months that resulted in major prisoner swaps and settlement proposals. It views the conflict as a Western proxy war and has said the hostilities would end if Kiev accepts neutrality and demilitarization. US President Donald Trump has expressed frustration with delays in settlement efforts and threatened to place 100% tariffs and secondary sanctions on Russia’s trade partners if a deal is not reached by August 8.

“President Trump’s been clear that this war needs to end… And… is creating the environment that Russia will come to the table and negotiate a ceasefire,” Whitaker told Bloomberg TV on Monday.“Secondary sanctions and tariffs against those that are paying for this war, like China, India, and Brazil, by buying the oil that Russia is producing, is an obvious next step to try to bring this war to an end.” While Trump has acknowledged that new sanctions might prove ineffective, Whitaker said Washington sees targeting Russia’s oil trade as worth trying. “I think this is going to really hit them where it counts, and that is in their main revenue source, which is the sale of oil to these countries,” he stated.

On Monday, Trump threatened New Delhi with new tariffs unless it halts Russian oil purchases. India has refused to take part in the sanctions on Russia, calling its energy trade a matter of national interest. Moscow has faced waves of Western sanctions since the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022. It has condemned them as illegal and counterproductive, adding that they have largely failed, as Russia redirected most of its trade to Asia, with China and India now its biggest energy buyers. Russian officials say the sanctions will not alter the course of the conflict and have downplayed Trump’s threats, adding that the country has built “immunity” after years of sanctions.

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I call BS on Moody’s. They appear to play politics.

Tariffs may influence where money flows in America, but the money stays in the country. Part is used to pay down the debt, part flows back to the people.

Likewise, fewer immigrant jobs means more American jobs. Maybe they get paid more, but that money, too, stays in the country.

How can this add up to a recession? There’s simply a shift in money flows.

US ‘On Precipice’ Of Recession – Moody’s (RT)

US President Donald Trump’s tariffs and immigration policy are pushing the economy toward a downturn, Moody’s chief analyst, Mark Zandi, has warned. He described the US as “on the precipice” of a recession.The warning followed a Bureau of Labor Statistics report showing the US added an average of just 35,000 jobs a month from May to July – less than a third of last year’s pace and the weakest since 2020. Experts say the slowdown signals weakening economic growth. Other indicators have also been bleak: June consumer spending rose only 0.1% after inflation, prices climbed 2.7% year-on-year – the highest since February – and factory activity contracted for the fourth straight month as orders and jobs fell.

“The economy is on the precipice of recession. That’s the clear takeaway from last week’s economic data dump,” Zandi wrote on X on Sunday. “Consumer spending has flatlined, construction and manufacturing are contracting, and employment is set to fall.”He warned that inflation above target leaves the Federal Reserve little room to revive growth, especially under Trump’s policies.“It’s no mystery why the economy is struggling; blame increasing US tariffs and highly restrictive immigration policy,” Zandi stated. “The tariffs are cutting increasingly deeply into the profits of American companies and the purchasing power of American households. Fewer immigrant workers means a smaller economy.”

Since returning to office, Trump has tightened restrictions on illegal immigration, planning to deport 4 million people over four years – a move many warn will trigger severe labor shortages. He has also imposed tariffs on hundreds of US trade partners, framing them as a “reciprocal” strategy to secure better trade terms, protect jobs, revive manufacturing, cut deficits, and fund tax relief. Zandi is not alone in warning of the risks. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has cautioned that tariffs could sharply raise both inflation and unemployment. The Economic Policy Institute estimated that Trump’s mass deportations plan could destroy nearly 6 million jobs. Trump’s alma mater, the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, warned that deportations would shrink most worker paychecks, cut GDP, and further swell the already massive federal budget deficit.

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“..a contract for electronic warfare systems at an intentionally inflated price, with the group receiving illegal benefits worth 30% of the contract amount.”

Ukrainian Officials Busted In ‘Large-Scale’ Military Bribery Scheme (RT)

Several senior Ukrainian officials have been detained on suspicion of receiving up to 30% in kickbacks from military contracts, anti-corruption agencies have announced. The arrests came just days after Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky was forced to abandon his attempts to restrict the independence of the anti-graft agencies.In a statement on Saturday, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) said they had uncovered a “large-scale” corruption scheme involving contracts for the purchase of drones and electronic warfare systems for the Ukrainian army.

Ukrainian media has identified three of the four suspects – Aleksey Kuznetsov, an MP with Zelensky’s Servant of the People party, former Lugansk Governor Sergey Gayday, and Rubezhansky district head Andrey Yurchenko. Between 2024 and 2025, the group allegedly created a scheme to steal budget funds allocated by local governments for defense needs. One part of the scheme involved awarding a contract for electronic warfare systems at an intentionally inflated price, with the group receiving illegal benefits worth 30% of the contract amount.

A separate contract for FPV drones, worth around $240,000, was allegedly overpriced by around $80,000, with the company’s officials later handing over kickbacks to members of the group, the investigators said. The same day, Zelensky stated that he had met with the heads of NABU and SAPO to discuss the scandal, calling it “absolutely immoral” and thanked the agencies for their good work. Two weeks earlier Zelensky had attempted to bring both bodies under government control only for street protests to force him to sign off on their independence last week.

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“Europe is no longer the center of the world it once was. It has become a theater, not a director, of global affairs.”

Europe’s Last Security Project Is Quietly Collapsing (Lukyanov)

This week marks the 50th anniversary of a landmark event in European diplomacy. In 1975, the leaders of 35 countries, including the United States, Canada, and almost all of Europe, gathered in the Finnish capital Helsinki to sign the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE). The agreement capped years of negotiation over peaceful coexistence between two rival systems that had dominated world affairs since the end of the Second World War. At the time, many believed the Final Act would solidify the postwar status quo. It formally recognized existing borders – including those of Poland, the two Germanys, and the Soviet Union – and acknowledged the spheres of influence that had shaped Europe since 1945. More than just a diplomatic document, it was seen as a framework for managing ideological confrontation.

Fifty years later, the legacy of Helsinki is deeply paradoxical. On the one hand, the Final Act laid out a set of high-minded principles: mutual respect, non-intervention, peaceful dispute resolution, inviolable borders, and cooperation for mutual benefit. In many ways, it offered a vision of ideal interstate relations. Who could object to such goals? Yet these principles were not born in a vacuum. They were underpinned by a stable balance of power between the NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The Cold War, for all its dangers, provided a kind of structure. It was a continuation of the Second World War by other means – and its rules, however harsh, were understood and largely respected. That system no longer exists. The global order that emerged after 1945 has disintegrated, with no clear replacement.

The post-Cold War attempts to graft a Western-led system onto the rest of Europe succeeded only briefly. The OSCE, which evolved from the CSCE, became a vehicle for imposing Western norms on others – a role it can no longer credibly perform. Despite the growing need for cooperation in an unstable world, the OSCE today exists mostly in theory. The notion of ‘pan-European security’ that underpinned the Helsinki Process has become obsolete. Processes are now fragmented and asymmetric; rivals are unequal and numerous. There is no longer a shared framework to manage disagreements. That hasn’t stopped calls to revive the OSCE as a political mediator, particularly amid recent European crises. But can an institution forged in a bipolar world adapt to the multipolar disorder of today?

History suggests otherwise. Most institutions created in the mid-20th century have lost relevance in periods of upheaval. Even NATO and the EU, long considered pillars of the West, face mounting internal and external pressures. Whether they endure or give way to new, more flexible groupings remains to be seen. The fundamental problem is that the idea of European security itself has changed – or perhaps disappeared. Europe is no longer the center of the world it once was. It has become a theater, not a director, of global affairs. For Washington, Europe is increasingly a secondary concern, viewed through the lens of its rivalry with China. American strategic planning now sees Europe mainly as a market and an auxiliary partner, not a driver of global policy.

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“They use Ukrainian artifacts to raise money. With African artifacts, they just do business.”

Colonial Theft vs. Wartime Fundraising: The Double Standard of Western Museums (Sp.)

Europe’s museums and not just British ones hold artifacts stolen during colonial rule, forming part of Europe’s wealth, says Yamb Ntimba, political philosopher and founder of the Kheper think tank. These objects are displayed because Europe lacks its own heritage of such diversity, using others’ culture to fuel its economy and tourism. “But with Ukrainian artifacts, the situation is different. They are being used to stir sympathy among the public for Ukraine. That sympathy supports government actions to provide Ukraine with weapons and money.” African artifacts serve as trophies of conquest, displayed in Europe to showcase past dominance over Africa and reinforce a sense of superiority, the commentator believes.

“As for Ukrainian artifacts, I see it as manipulation. They manipulate the minds of their people to create an emotional basis for supporting Ukraine. They send weapons, give money, dispatch soldiers. This is an entirely different path. There are no parallels. It should be clear to everyone: Africa is not Ukraine, and Ukraine is not Africa,” he tells Sputnik. “The exhibition of Ukrainian artifacts is nothing but a fundraising operation. This will be special revenue used to support the war in Ukraine. But people should know that these museums, earning £3.4 billion, get at least 40% of it from African artifacts. That’s money Africa loses simply because our artifacts are there. They do not share these funds with Africa. They use Ukrainian artifacts to raise money. With African artifacts, they just do business.”

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4 Paul Craig Roberts aticles in a row. Oh well, let’s have it. He’s shifting away frrom blaming Trump and Putin for everything under the sun.

“..civilization has been replaced by a short-term agenda to maximize short-term profits regardless of cost.”

Thank God for Robert F. Kennedy (Paul Craig Roberts)

For at least two decades it has been an unassailable hard scientific fact that mercury in vaccines is highly toxic and responsible for serious injuries and child development problems. But campaign contributions from the criminal pharmaceutical industry to the whore US Congress and the whore American media living on Big Pharma advertisements put profits before health and life. Honest scientists were demonized as “anti-vaxers” and threatened with loss of employment. The scientifically ignorant American population was indoctrinated that vaccine critics, such as Robert F. Kennedy, were threats to the health and lives of their children.

Their own doctors, dumbshit shills of the pharmaceutical industry, told them that only 54 doses of vaccines filled with mercury could save their children, and the ignorant parents believed them. Consequently, a plethora of childhood afflictions never previously seen characterize the deceptively imposed vaccine era. Robert F. Kennedy, son and nephew of his CIA-murdered father and uncle, has used his authority as Secretary of Health to remove mercury from vaccines used in America. This accomplishment in itself justifies the Trump presidency. In my opinion, the pharmaceutical corporations comprise a criminal conspiracy against the American people in which profits come before health. The only solution is to nationalize the pharmaceutical industry and to get Big Pharma money out of health policy and health education.

My “socialist” recommendation will shock free-market libertarians who continue to hold on to their naive faith that private business can do no wrong. As a life-time libertarian I have been taught by endless examples over the course of my long life of profit-driven private business totally failing every public interest, including, peace, health, and truth. Can any honest libertarian find any redemption in the privately owned media? Is there any example anywhere of a state controlled media worst than CNN, the New York Times, Bloomberg? Did Hitler or Stalin have a journalist worse than Jake Trapper?

The reason I think that Western civilization or its remnants will not survive much beyond my lifetime is that civilization has been replaced by a short-term agenda to maximize short-term profits regardless of cost. Corporations make decisions on short-run stock prices, Governments make decisions based on quarterly employment and GDP numbers which are so poorly calculated as to be worthless. Prosecutors make decisions based on maximizing their conviction rates. Judges make decisions based on clearing their court dockets. No one in the West makes decisions based on the relevant issues that confront us.

Justice demands that Big Pharma and its whore media accomplices be held accountable in class action law suits for negligence in exposing millions of Americans to unnecessary mercury injections. If I had to bet, I would bet that in the agreement Kennedy achieved to ban mercury from vaccines, there is a clause that Big Pharma admits nothing and cannot be sued. In America money is power, not truth, not justice. Money can only be overthrown by violence. Karl Marx said that violence is the only effective force in history. Was he correct?

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“Is Trump’s over-the-top confidence a guise to hide his submissiveness to Israel? Is Netanyahu the real boss?”

I Run The Country and The World”: Donald Trump (Paul Craig Roberts)

“I run the country and the world” Donald Trump says in Atlantic interview. The whore media is making much out of this. However, when you think about it, Trump’s over-lthe-top expression of confidence is easy to understand. He came back from, and triumphed over, the worst combination of political and personal blows imaginable.

Some Senate Rinos voted to convict him on the House impeachment charges; Republicans allowed Democrats to steal his re-election; Republicans supported the Democrats’ “insurrection” charges and the kangaroo trials of supporters who attended the January 6 rally; a corrupt New York court (are there any honest courts in NY?) tried to steal his NY properties; golf tournaments blacklisted his golf courses; a corrupt Justice (sic) Department, CIA, and FBI working with Hillary Clinton orchestrated a frame-up of Trump with the Russiagate hoax; corrupt Democrat prosecutors in NY and Georgia prosecuted him on false charges; week after week the whore media served the attacks on Trump, emphasizing the four indictments and speculating on his time in prison. From all of this and more, Trump came back, took control of the Republican Party, mobilized the electorate, and decisively defeated the Democrats.

Trump deserves his confidence. He has done good things. He has stopped the immigrant invasion whether or not the Men in Black allow him to deport the illegals. He has recalled the Democrats’ DEI policy of intentionally discriminating against white people, especially heterosexual males, whether or not the corrupt Democrat civil service abides by his ruling. He has enabled Health Secretary Robert Kennedy to chip away at Big Pharma’s control over health policy that puts profits before health. He has enabled his Director of National Intelligence to expose the criminal actions of the Obama Five who weaponized law against democracy.

Trump’s confidence has produced huge accomplishments for which we should be very appreciative. But Trump must not let his confidence get over-the-top in his dealings with Russia, China, and Iran. The ultimatum Trump delivered to Putin is both nonsensical and dangerous. It has probably convinced Russia that war is inevitable. If indications are reliable that Putin, finally, is equipping Iran with the S-400 air defense system, US and Israeli attacks on Iran are ceasing to be an option. And someone needs to tell Trump that his tariffs on China fall on the offshored production of US corporations. It is the offshored production of US firms that is the main cause of the US trade deficit with China. On this front the Trump administration seems to lack economic competence. His tariff threats to the entire world come across as bullying.

Before we get disillusioned with Trump, think about what it would be like under the Democrats: open borders, weaponized law, DEI discrimination against white people and merit, no limits on Big Pharma’s profits -before- health policy, persecutions of Christians. In effect, an all-out attack on what remains of American society. Trump’s biggest failure is on the Israel front. He has continued Washington’s policy of enabling Israel’s genocide of Palestine, military attacks on Iran, and absorption of parts of Syria into Greater Israel. The question is raised: Is Trump’s over-the-top confidence a guise to hide his submissiveness to Israel? Is Netanyahu the real boss?

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“Trump issues meaningless ultimatums that show that Trump is not sincere about ending tensions with Russia.”

Is Trump Taking Us to War? (Paul Craig Roberts)

I need to be more empathetic with Putin’s hopes. Sometimes I, too, let hopes run away with me. Yes, I was wrong to hope President Trump would normalize relations with Russia. Perhaps Trump intended to do so, until the men in black knocked on his door and told him that he was not allowed to takeaway the enemy that justified the power and profit of the military/security complex. In the era of nuclear weapons it makes perfect sense to be on good terms with other nuclear powers. Mutual suspicions and high tensions can result in catastrophic consequences. Russia has not threatened us and clearly has no territorial ambitions. Putin’s ambition is a mutual security agreement with the West.For some reason Trump won’t consider it. Perhaps the situation is one of armament profits taking precedence over life.

Trump doesn’t negotiate. He delivers ultimatums with punishments attached for non-compliance. Never during the Cold War did an American president issue an ultimatum to the Soviet leader. What is Putin supposed to comply with? Trump hasn’t told us or Putin. It seems that Trump intends for Putin to make a deal with Zelensky to end the conflict. But how can Putin do this when Zelensky has said that his terms are for Russia to give back Donbas, Crimea, and pay war reparations, when Zelensky is no longer officially the president and has no authority to negotiate for Ukraine, and when Zelensky is merely the proxy that Washington is using in its war with Russia?Trump says it is not his war. Perhaps, but it is Washington’s war, and Trump is the president in Washington. So it is Trump’s war.

Trump can stop the war by ending weapons delivery, financing, and diplomatic cover, but Trump has not done so. Trump can stop the conflict by sitting down with Putin, understanding what Putin means by “the root causes of the war,” and addressing these issues, but Trump has not done so. Instead, Trump issues meaningless ultimatums that show that Trump is not sincere about ending tensions with Russia. Clearly, ultimatums are not the way to normalize relations.

As far as I can tell, the media have not asked Trump what the agreement is or what parts of the agreement are unacceptable to the Russians. It is reckless to issue threats to Russia in an atmosphere so tense. Putin’s efforts to avoid real war have been misinterpreted as irresolution, thus resulting in more provocations. Putin’s avoidance of war is leading to a larger war. At some point the provocation will go too far. Maybe it will be the missiles that Trump and the Germans are talking about firing at Moscow. This is the dangerous situation that urgently needs to be resolved, not the conflict in Ukraine. If the root causes are addressed, the war goes away.

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“The principle goal of US foreign policy is to prevent the rise of any country that can serve as a constraint on US unilateralism.”

A Catastrophic War Seems Inevitable (Paul Craig Roberts)

Yesterday, August 4, Nima and I discussed on Dialogue Works the three iron constraints on the US government that seem to guarantee the world is heading into catastrophic war. https://www.youtube.com/live/AdnUdbcfp3U One constraint is the US foreign policy doctrine of US hegemony over the world, known as the Wolfowitz Doctrine: The principle goal of US foreign policy is to prevent the rise of any country that can serve as a constraint on US unilateralism. This doctrine targets Russia and China. As President Trump recently declared to the Atlantic magazine, ” I run the country and the world.” This is a statement of hegemony. Another constraint is the US military/security complex, a heavy political campaign contributor, which needs enemies, such as Russia, China, Iran, to justify its massive budget and power.

A third constraint is the blackmail power over the US and entire Western world of Epstein’s honey-trap Mossad operation that has films of members of the ruling class having sex with underaged persons. Wrapped up in these chains, no Western leader can undertake action to avoid war.Russian President Putin has contributed to the coming catastrophic war by his ignoring of provocations in the hope that in the end he would secure a mutual security agreement with Washington that would end the tensions that threaten both countries. Putin’s hopes were fruitless, because they ignored the Wolfowitz doctrine, the power of the US military-security complex, and Israel’s blackmail power over the government in America.

In A.P.J. Taylor’s history, The Origins of the Second World War, Taylor points out that the war, which no one intended, including Hitler, resulted from diplomatic blunders, the consequences of which no one understood.Today the same kind of blunders are being repeated, building tensions instead of reducing them. To these tensions Trump adds egomania, which is blinding. The failure of leadership will end in disastrous war.

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OK
https://twitter.com/NextNewsNetwork/status/1952523611631223064

RFK

Marik

Note


https://twitter.com/EricLDaugh/status/1952454331296350587

Box
https://twitter.com/buitengebieden/status/1952632263125995766

lizard

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Apr 102025
 


Salvador Dali Bacchanale 1939

 

Trump Hikes China Tariff To 125% (RT)
Trump “Pauses” Reciprocal Tariffs For 90 Days On Every Nation -Except China (ZH)
Trump Tariff Shock Sends Oil To Four-Year Low (RT)
House Republicans Block Democratic Bid to Force Vote on Tariffs (ET)
Trump Admits He Reacted To Stock Market Plunge (RT)
Chinese Companies Could Be Removed From US Stock Markets – Bessent (RT)
Bessent Responds to China Raising Tariffs on US Goods to 84% (Barkoukis)
The EU Is Aligning With China? (CTH)
China Vows to “Fight to the End” in Economic War with America (CTH)
Scott Bessent Provides More Details on Global Trade Reset Strategy (CTH)
DOGE Exposed Our Immigration Asylum Disaster. The Tip of the Iceberg (Ries)
To Team Trump, Tariffs Are a National Security Issue (Saunders)
What Would It Take to Destroy the United States? (Victor Davis Hanson)
Biden White House Secured Trump’s Phone For FBI in Jan. 6 Probe (JTN)
Sen. Kennedy Goes Absolutely Savage on AOC (Margolis)
Ukraine ‘Betrayed’ Its History – Lavrov (RT)
‘European Aggression’ Behind All Global Tragedies – Lavrov (RT)
Kiev Targeting Russian Gas Supplies To Southern Europe – Moscow (RT)
US ‘Just Lost A War With Russia’ – Tucker Carlson (RT)

 

 

 

 

Bessent

iPhone
https://twitter.com/LangmanVince/status/1909565870818328873

SSN

Turley

Takedown

Gracias

Banks

VDH

Proud

 

 

 

 

Things moved and changed so fast through yesterday, there issn’t even a trend visible anymore. We are all over the place. Some of today’s Debt Rattle articles will overlap.

Trump Hikes China Tariff To 125% (RT)

US President Donald Trump has raised the tariffs on Chinese goods to 125% in response to retaliatory measures imposed by Beijing earlier on Wednesday. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump wrote that “based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets, I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately.” He expressed hope that Beijing would realize that “ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable.” The move came hours after China’s Finance Ministry announced a tariff hike of its own, which brought tariffs levied on American imports to a total of 84%, thus mirroring Washington’s previous increase by 50%.

The continual tit-for-tat escalation of the trade war between the world’s two top economies was set in motion when Trump imposed a 20% tariff on all Chinese goods in March. Last week, he added an additional 34%, to which Beijing responded in kind. Writing on Truth Social, the US president also announced a 90-day pause and a “substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately” granted to the multitude of other nations that Washington has recently imposed sweeping tariffs on. Trump cited calls made by “more than 75 countries” to the Departments of Commerce, Treasury, and the Office of the United States Trade Representative. According to the president, these nations expressed willingness to discuss trade barriers, tariffs, currency manipulation, and non-monetary tariffs. Trump also pointed out that, unlike China, “these Countries have not, at my strong suggestion, retaliated in any way, shape, or form against the United States.”

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Keep it simple?! Why deal with 100 diffferent countries if you can focus on one?

Trump “Pauses” Reciprocal Tariffs For 90 Days On Every Nation -Except China (ZH)

Update (1320ET): And President Trump finds an off-ramp for non-retaliating countries. The President wrote on his Truth Social account:

“Based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets, I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately. At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable. Conversely, and based on the fact that more than 75 Countries have called Representatives of the United States, including the Departments of Commerce, Treasury, and the USTR, to negotiate a solution to the subjects being discussed relative to Trade, Trade Barriers, Tariffs, Currency Manipulation, and Non Monetary Tariffs, and that these Countries have not, at my strong suggestion, retaliated in any way, shape, or form against the United States, … …I have authorized a 90 day PAUSE, and a substantially lowered Reciprocal Tariff during this period, of 10%, also effective immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!”

• The result is a massive surge in US equity markets (up 7-9%)…
• …cutting losses post-Liberation Day in half…
• Bitcoin is also soaring…
• Oil prices are also spiking…

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called China, “the biggest source of US trade problems,” adding that he seeing Japan, Vietnam, India, and South Korea today for negotiations. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick added:. “Scott Bessent and I sat with the President while he wrote one of the most extraordinary Truth posts of his Presidency. The world is ready to work with President Trump to fix global trade, and China has chosen the opposite direction.” Bessent also confirmed that both Mexico and Canada are included in the ‘pause’ (despite what appeared to be retaliation). No mention of Europe yet, which also retaliated. Additionally, Bessent said that the bond market meltdown did not impact this decision… sure!

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Four-year low oil prices. And then yesterday they spiked. Hard to keep up.

Trump Tariff Shock Sends Oil To Four-Year Low (RT)

Oil prices have dropped to their lowest point in over four years, with losses deepening on Wednesday as markets respond to fears of recession and slowing energy demand. Brent crude, the global benchmark, fell to about $61 per barrel, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) dropped to around $58, both reaching their lowest levels since February 2021. The slide began after US President Donald Trump announced a round of sweeping tariffs on most imports last week. Since then, prices have tumbled around 16%, as concerns grow that a global trade war could damage growth and reduce fuel consumption. The situation escalated on Wednesday when Trump’s tariffs took effect. While energy imports were exempt, the markets reacted sharply.

The new round of tariffs brings the rate on Chinese goods to 104%, up from the 34% initially announced. China had responded with a matching 34% tariff, prompting the White House to raise the stakes. China’s Commerce Ministry vowed to respond decisively, raising fears of a broader economic slowdown. Analysts worry that prolonged tensions between the two top economies could drag down trade and stifle investment. OPEC and its allies, including Russia, added pressure to the market by announcing a 411,000 barrel-per-day production increase for May. Analysts say this could lead to oversupply and deepen price drops.

“Crude oil has been in free-fall ever since President Trump unveiled fresh tariffs on US imports Wednesday evening,” Trade Nation senior market analyst David Morrison said in a note seen by Business Insider. He added the OPEC+ production boost was a “double whammy.” Morrison said oil prices may stabilize within a narrow range, as investors anticipate weaker demand and strong supply. He noted this trend supports Trump’s goal of providing cheap energy to strengthen manufacturing. The White House has pushed to bring crude prices down to $50 or lower, according to J.P. Morgan. Trump reinforced this goal on Monday, writing on Truth Social: “Oil prices are down, interest rates are down,” while highlighting the benefits of his trade strategy.

Russia was left out of the new tariffs. The White House explained that the existing sanctions already “preclude any meaningful trade,” making further restrictions unnecessary. However, Russia’s central bank warned that the collapse in oil prices and the expanding trade conflict could harm its economy. “If the escalation of the tariff wars continues, this usually leads to a decline in global trade and the global economy, and possibly, demand for our energy resources,” central bank head Elvira Nabiullina said on Tuesday. Russia’s Urals crude also dropped sharply, briefly nearing the $50-per-barrel mark for the first time in almost two years, before recovering to around $67.

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“The president has paused new tariffs on dozens of countries for 90 days and raised levies on Chinese goods to 125 percent.”

These politicians get 1000 calls a day from worried voters. They’re looking for some quiet. They don’t want to get the blame.

People don’t like change. They’ll only admit change is needed when it’s too late.

House Republicans Block Democratic Bid to Force Vote on Tariffs (ET)

House Republicans blocked on April 9 an effort by Democrats to force a vote on halting the reciprocal tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump, which are currently paused for three months. The maneuver was done through a rule, which the House of Representatives must vote on to advance to votes on measures. The House Rules Committee advanced the rule 9-3 on April 9, which mainly deals with the unrelated budget resolution to unlock the reconciliation process to pass Trump’s signature legislative agenda. The rule punts the vote on the resolution to September. The disapproval resolution would block the emergency authority that allowed Trump to enact the tariffs, which were announced on April 2. The reciprocal tariffs took effect at 12:01 a.m. ET on Wednesday.

The resolution was introduced by Reps. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), and Richard Neal (D-Mass.). It has an additional 23 co-sponsors. “By implementing these tariffs, Trump has now imposed the largest and most regressive tax in modern history, sent the stock market into its worst plunge since COVID, and is risking a global recession,” they said in a statement. “These tariffs are nothing more than a sales tax on American families, driving up prices on everything from groceries to cars.” Disapproval resolutions force a vote in the House and Senate, where a simple majority is needed for passage as opposed to being subject to the 60-vote filibuster threshold. The Senate passed a resolution last week to block Trump’s 25 percent and 10 percent tariffs on Canadian goods and energy, respectively. All Democrats and four Republicans voted in favor of it. The House is not expected to take it up, and the president is expected to veto it should it pass Congress. House Republicans blocked a similar disapproval resolution last month through a rule.

Trump announced on Wednesday a 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs for dozens of countries and retained a baseline 10 percent tariff for all countries, except China. The president increased tariffs to 125 percent on China, after Beijing announced 85 percent retaliatory tariffs on the United States. “At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable,” posted Trump on Truth Social, announcing the pause. The president said he paused most reciprocal tariffs because more than 75 countries have reached out to the administration, requesting trade negotiations.

Congressional Republicans have largely expressed support for Trump’s tariffs. Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas) told reporters that the president is “making good on a campaign promise to shake things up, to reorder the world system whether it’s trade or whether it’s alliances or military organizations.” Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) told reporters that the tariffs finally put China on notice. “If China needs our market more than we need their market, because they already put unfair tariffs and regulations and restrictions on us, they’re going to suffer way more from this than we are in a trade war,” he said. “If the rest of the world’s going to come to the table, why shouldn’t China too?” he added.

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“..a little bit yippy, a little bit… afraid..”

“I was watching the bond market. The bond market is very tricky. I was watching it. But if you look at it now, it’s… it’s beautiful..”

Trump Admits He Reacted To Stock Market Plunge (RT)

President Donald Trump has admitted that his decision to delay further tariff hikes was driven in part by a sharp downturn in US financial markets, saying he was closely monitoring investor sentiment as people grew too “yippy” and “afraid” before announcing a 90-day freeze. On Wednesday morning, Trump urged Americans to “be cool” and told investors that “this is a great time to buy,” after US markets lost more than $1.5 trillion in capitalization the day before. The sell-off came ahead of the implementation of a 104% tariff on Chinese imports and sweeping new levies on dozens of other countries. Just hours later, the president announced his decision to keep most tariffs at a “baseline” 10 percent – except for China, which saw its rate raised even further to 125 percent. Speaking to reporters later that day, Trump said he had been tracking the markets closely before taking action.

“I was watching the bond market. The bond market is very tricky. I was watching it. But if you look at it now, it’s… it’s beautiful,” he said. “But, yeah, I saw last night where people were getting a little queasy.” I thought that people were jumping a little bit out of line. They were getting yippy, you know? They were getting a little bit yippy, a little bit… afraid. Trump’s announcement triggered a historic rally on US stock markets. The S&P 500 closed up 9.5 percent – its biggest gain since 2008. The Dow Jones rose 7.9 percent, marking its best day since 2020, while the Nasdaq soared 12 percent, its largest single-day increase in 24 years. While Wednesday’s surge added over $5 trillion in market value, US markets have yet to fully recover losses sustained since the president launched the tariff war last week. Still, Trump insisted his “reciprocal” trade actions marked a turning point.

“The big move wasn’t what I did today. The big move was what I did on Liberation Day. We had Liberation Day in America. We were liberated from all of the horrible trade deals that were made,” he said. Asked whether certain American companies could be granted exemptions during the 90-day period, Trump said the administration would evaluate requests on a case-by-case basis. “Some [companies] get hit a little bit harder, and we’ll take a look at that – just instinctively, more than anything else,” he said. “You almost can’t take a pencil to paper. It’s really more of an instinct.” Trump also cautioned that the situation remains fluid, adding that “nothing is over yet,” with dozens of countries – including China – now seeking to secure “fair” deals with the United States to avoid the full impact of the levies.

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“If China starts devaluing, then that is a tax on the rest of the world, and everyone will have to keep raising their tariffs to offset the devaluation..”

Chinese Companies Could Be Removed From US Stock Markets – Bessent (RT)

Washington is considering delisting Chinese companies from US markets amid the escalating tariff war, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said. Speaking to Fox Business on Wednesday, Bessent described China’s latest move to raise its tariffs on American goods to a total of 84% as “unfortunate.” The measure was announced after US President Donald Trump increased the tariffs on all Chinese imports to 104% earlier this week. “I think it’s unfortunate that the Chinese actually don’t want to come and negotiate because they are the worst offenders in the international trading system,” Bessent claimed, suggesting that the US could end up imposing even higher tariffs. “If China starts devaluing, then that is a tax on the rest of the world, and everyone will have to keep raising their tariffs to offset the devaluation. So I would urge them not to do that and to come to the table,” he said.

Asked whether Washington is considering delisting Chinese companies from US stock exchanges, Bessent stated that all options are on the table and that it’s up to the president to do so. Currently, 286 Chinese companies, including Alibaba, one of the world’s largest retailers and e-commerce operators, are listed on US stock exchanges. “That will be Trump’s decision,” he said. The new threats come after China introduced an additional 50% tariff – due to take effect on Thursday – on all American goods. The measure comes on top of the previously imposed 34% tariff, China’s Finance Ministry announced earlier on Wednesday. “The US’ practice of escalating tariffs on China is a mistake on top of a mistake, which seriously infringes on China’s legitimate rights and interests and seriously damages the rules-based multilateral trading system,” the ministry said in a statement.

Earlier this week, Beijing vowed to fight the trade war with the US “to the end” and “firmly defend its interests.” Apart from cranking up tariffs, China has filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization against the US over its practices, as well as placing certain American businesses on its ‘unreliable entity’ list or subjecting them to export controls. The escalating trade war comes amid Trump’s efforts to straighten out America’s import-export balance, which involves the introduction of massive retaliatory tariffs on most countries. In March, Trump imposed a 20% tariff on Chinese imports. Last week, he added an additional 34%, bringing the total to 54%. Beijing retaliated in kind, introducing a 34% tariff on US goods – after which Trump added another 50%, bringing the total to 104%.

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“I do business in China. They don’t play by the rules,” he added. “They’ve been in the WTO for decades, they have never abided by any of the rules they agreed to when they came in.”

Bessent Responds to China Raising Tariffs on US Goods to 84% (Barkoukis)

China said it is raising tariffs on U.S. imports from 34 percent to 84 percent starting Thursday, an announcement that came hours after President Trump’s tariffs went into effect. “If the U.S. insists on further escalating its economic and trade restrictions, China has the firm will and abundant means to take necessary countermeasures and fight to the end,” the Ministry of Commerce wrote in a document, reports USA Today. The latest tariffs on the U.S.’s trading partners includes a 104 percent tax on Chinese goods. “It was a mistake for China to retaliate,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday. “When America is punched, [the president] punches back harder, and that’s why there will be 104% tariffs going into effect on China tonight at midnight.”

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called the escalation a “loser” for China. “I think it’s unfortunate that the Chinese actually don’t want to come and negotiate because they are the worst offenders in the international trading system,” he said. “And I can tell you that this escalation is a loser for them.” He seemed unfazed by China’s response. “They can raise their tariffs, but so what?” Some argue a 104 percent tariff on Chinese goods doesn’t go far enough. “I’m advocating 400 percent,” Shark Tank star and investor Kevin O’Leary said on CNN’s Laura Coates Live. “I do business in China. They don’t play by the rules,” he added. “They’ve been in the WTO for decades, they have never abided by any of the rules they agreed to when they came in. For decades. They cheat, they steal, they steal IP. I can’t litigate in their courts. They take product technology, they steal it, they manufacture it and sell it back here.”

When Coates followed up, O’Leary doubled down. “I want [President] Xi [Jinping] on an airplane to Washington to level the playing field,” he said. “This is not about tariffs anymore. Nobody has taken on China yet. Not the Europeans. No administration for decades. As someone who actually does business there, I’ve had enough. I speak for millions of Americans who have IP that have been stolen by the Chinese. I have nothing against the Chinese people. They brought great literacy, art and tech to the world. The government cheats and steals and finally an administration — you may not like Trump, you may not like his style or his rhetoric — finally, an administration that puts up and says ‘Enough! 400% tariffs tomorrow morning!’

“I’ll tell you why,” he continued. “Xi can only stay the Supreme Leader if people are employed. If we wipe out any business there because we are still 39 percent of all consumables on Earth and 25 percent of the world’s GDP. America is the No. 1 economy on earth with all the cards. We will not have that forever. It’s time to squeeze Chinese heads into the wall now!”

https://twitter.com/MAGAVoice/status/1909838439253786943?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1909838439253786943%7Ctwgr%5Edf272215fdbe810e37320439d0f7ba2cd4470e8b%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftownhall.com%2Ftipsheet%2Fleahbarkoukis%2F2025%2F04%2F09%2Fchina-tariffs-n2655238

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“None of these other countries, not even China, not all of them combined, can replace what the U.S. can do for them and has been doing for generations.”

The EU Is Aligning With China? (CTH)

The EU is aligning with China? Yes, and I think “D One” nails it here. “The time for polite pretending is over.” ….”This all makes perfect sense now. Von der Leyen and the rest of the Eurocrat leadership are desperate to avert the Trump tariffs. They cannot do it on their own and do not care who they have to sidle up with to get it done. If it came down to it, they would even ditch Ukraine and align with Russia to make it happen. This is because the money the EU has been getting from the old arrangement of one-sided tariffs and other one-sided trade restrictions is the money they are using to keep the EU in existence. Not just to keep it functioning, but to keep it in power. To keep it in their power.

The internal contradictions and old resentments and national and ethnic differences and animosities are too much to be held down by good will and appeals to altruism alone. It takes money and a lot of it. Consider what happened starting in 2009 with the Greek debt crisis. The northern Europeans (in particular the Germans) believed the Greeks caused the crisis through their own incompetence and mismanagement and they really hated the idea that they had to save the Greeks by bailing them out with their own money. The news reports back then were full of explanations about how the northern European economies had to carry the southern European economies. Stories about how unfair it all was that the harder-working and more frugal northern Europeans were having to face bailing out the easier-going and less diligent southern Europeans, and so on.

Many of you probably remember those reports. I think it gets to the crux of what is going on now regarding the fright and desperation that von der Leyen and the other Eurocrat leaders are now experiencing. What was it that finally smoothed over everything between northern Europe and bailing out and pacifying the Greeks and other struggling countries in southern Europe? It was the access to American dollars that the old trade arrangements provided that allowed them to make the Greek crisis go away without having to hit German and other northern European bank accounts and slow down their economies. Those old trade arrangements were what they relied upon every time there was an internal threat to the stability of the EU. And the whole EU is even weaker now, due in no small part to their stupid green policies and other decisions, than it was in 2009.

Now that Trump is threatening that ability to tamp down their internal contradictions with U.S. money, the next internal crisis may well blow the EU apart for good, and with it the good life of the Eurocrats would disappear. That is why they will side with anyone, even the Chinese, to get the U.S. to back off and let them continue on as they have. Trump has the upper hand with the EU. I think he can pretty much demand anything he wants from them, and they will end up giving it to him. None of these other countries, not even China, not all of them combined, can replace what the U.S. can do for them and has been doing for generations.”

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That was only yesterday morning.

China Vows to “Fight to the End” in Economic War with America (CTH)

Full dragon, no panda mask. Beijing begins using war terminology to discuss the trade conflict with the United States. Through a series of cumulative trade tariffs, President Trump has now placed Chinese imports into the USA in a position of 104% tariffs. 104%! In response Beijing has devalued their currency and dumped treasuries, but no amount of subsidy, devaluation or use of their sovereign wealth fund is going to compensate for 104% taxes on Chinese products. Very soon all purchase orders from the USA for Chinese manufactured products will stop. The Beijing dragon is looking at the future through a zero-sum position. Now, they vow to fight to the death.

BEIJING, April 9 (Xinhua) — With firm will and abundant means, China will resolutely take countermeasures and fight till the end if the United States insists on further escalating economic and trade restrictive measures, China’s Ministry of Commerce said Wednesday. “I want to emphasize that there is no winner in a trade war, and China does not want a trade war, but the Chinese government will by no means sit by when the legitimate rights and interests of its people are being hurt and deprived,” said an official with the ministry. The official made the remarks when responding to media questions regarding a white paper released Wednesday by the State Council Information Office on China’s position on some issues concerning China-U.S. economic and trade relations.”

Noting that the successes of China and the United States are opportunities rather than threats for each other, the official said that China hopes the United States will immediately remove its unilateral imposition of tariffs, and work with China to strengthen dialogue, manage differences, and promote cooperation. China is willing to communicate with the U.S. side on key bilateral economic and trade issues, address their respective concerns through dialogue and consultations on an equal footing, and jointly advance the steady, healthy and sustainable development of China-U.S. economic and trade relations, the official noted.

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“The objective was to give all nations’ time to absorb the impact while reducing the reverberation noise.”

Scott Bessent Provides More Details on Global Trade Reset Strategy (CTH)

Appearing 4/8/25 on CNBC, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent outlined some of the specifics within the negotiation strategy of President Trump as it pertains to the ongoing global trade reset. Bessent notes at the request of President Trump, all administration officials were to pull back from commentary following the “liberation day” tariff announcement. The objective was to give all nations’ time to absorb the impact while reducing the reverberation noise. After a few days, President Trump then began to assess the inbound communication from various country leaders and their request for renegotiation. The priority schedule permits the honest trade allies to come first in the queue to the office of U.S. Trade Representative Jamison Greer, as approved by President Trump.

Japan and South Korean delegations and trade representatives will be the first trade teams engaged; not coincidently both of those ASEAN nations have pre-positioned manufacturing investment in the USA, the truest measure of a trade partnership. The outcome of these first agreements will form the baseline for every nation thereafter. Both Japan and South Korea have North American manufacturing systems in place; however, it is likely more investment in U.S jobs and products being created in mainland USA will remain a top priority. Additionally, for these nations the largest element of their “reciprocity” will come from a commitment to reduce the trade deficit with better terms and bigger contracts for U.S. product imports.

Bessent

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“Under the Biden administration, so many employment documents were issued to immigration parolees (without congressional authorization), asylum applicants, and other temporary aliens that DHS could not keep up with renewing the authorizations..”

DOGE Exposed Our Immigration Asylum Disaster. The Tip of the Iceberg (Ries)

Elon Musk, Antonio Gracias, and the Department of Government Efficiency team recently exposed how rampant immigration fraud and government corruption became under the Joe Biden administration. Specifically, they showed how aliens “getting” asylum can receive work authorization and, with it, an automatic Social Security number, which enables them to obtain driver’s licenses, commit voter fraud, and receive other benefits. This already sounds alarming. But the truth is even worse. Under current U.S. regulations, asylum applicants can apply for a work authorization document with the Department of Homeland Security five months after their asylum application is filed (rather than five months after it’s granted). There’s no filing fee for asylum applications—meaning there is literally no cost involved in applying.

This creates a huge incentive for inadmissible aliens to file fraudulent asylum applications to gain U.S. work authorization. And while adjudicating the asylum application can take DHS or the Justice Department years to complete, DHS prioritizes granting employment authorization applications, averaging mere months to complete such applications. In other words, individuals can fraudulently apply for asylum and then receive work authorization shortly after, safe in the knowledge that their asylum application may not be decided for years. Asylum was created to protect the persecuted. But this system means it’s more prone to be exploited by inadmissible aliens as a way to get work authorizations, Social Security numbers, driver’s licenses, and other government benefits.

As a result, the system is being flooded. Under the Biden administration, so many employment documents were issued to immigration parolees (without congressional authorization), asylum applicants, and other temporary aliens that DHS could not keep up with renewing the authorizations. To “solve” the problem, Biden’s DHS finalized a rule in December 2024 to permanently increase the automatic extension period for expiring employment authorization from six months to 18 months. That is, DHS chose to automatically extend work authorization without ever considering whether the aliens should continue to have it. According to one chart (shown by DOGE’s Gracias at a recent Wisconsin town hall), 270,000 new aliens were issued Social Security numbers in fiscal year 2021. That number rose to 590,000 in fiscal year 2022, 964,000 in fiscal year 2023, and approximately 2.1 million in fiscal year 2024.

According to Gracias, the Social Security Administration automatically mails aliens Social Security numbers—without requiring them to prove their identity or complete an interview. Gracias says, “The defaults in the system from Social Security to all the benefit programs have been set to max inclusion, max pay for these people. And minimum collection.” During its investigations, DOGE found 1.3 million aliens who were already receiving Medicaid. It also found among the millions a subset who were registered to vote—and some who did indeed vote. All this is the result of broad administrative state abuse of alien work authorization—something Congress needs to end by reclaiming its own constitutional authority and by returning asylum (our nation’s second-most important immigration benefit, after U.S. citizenship) back to its intended role of protecting people from persecution.

Specifically, Congress should legislate the principle that immigration benefit applicants (including those receiving asylum) may not receive work authorization until the underlying benefit (e.g., asylum) is granted, not just filed. While waiting for their applications to be adjudicated, applicants should fund their stay in the U.S. via a sponsor responsible for their financial well-being. Congress should also enact anti-fraud asylum measures, which would significantly decrease the number of fraudulent asylum applications—and, by extension, would decrease the yearslong wait for DHS and DOJ to adjudicate legitimate asylum applications. DOGE can also step in and examine immigration benefit applications at DHS and DOJ to identify fraudulent applications and remove them from the 9.4 million and nearly 3.7 million respective agency backlogs. This would decrease the processing times for the remaining valid applications and restore integrity to our lawful immigration process.

Finally, DOGE should set automatic notifications across the benefits lifecycle so that when a non-citizen is denied an immigration benefit, downstream systems and parties are likewise notified to terminate their respective benefits. Under this system, if an alien’s asylum application or employment authorization application were denied or terminated, the alien’s employer, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Social Security Administration, the Internal Revenue Service, and the alien’s state(s) of residence would be notified to ensure the alien was no longer working, receiving benefits or voting—and, ultimately, that he was removed from the country. By acting now, DOGE and Congress can decrease the deportable alien population, ensure U.S. taxpayer benefits go to Americans first, and incentivize better compliance with our generous immigration laws.

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“Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on “Face the Nation” Sunday: “We don’t make medicine in this country anymore. We don’t make ships,” he said. “We don’t have enough steel and aluminum to fight a battle, right?”

To Team Trump, Tariffs Are a National Security Issue (Saunders)

“Don’t be a PANICAN,” President Donald Trump cautioned on social media. Critics have questioned the universal tariffs he unleashed last week, and Americans have had to steel themselves before checking the balance of their 401(k)s. The Trump tariffs came fast and larger than expected. The markets responded. Now Republicans and Wall Street big shots find themselves defending an economic approach that was anathema to them not long ago. But the world has changed. “Their export-based economy is, I think, beginning to hit the end of its course,” Chuck DeVore of the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation opined over the phone Monday. After years of manufacturers quitting the USA, tariffs could be good for national security. My favorite sound bite in favor of Trump’s tariffs came from Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on “Face the Nation” Sunday.

“We don’t make medicine in this country anymore. We don’t make ships,” he said. “We don’t have enough steel and aluminum to fight a battle, right?” Lutnick’s right, and the beneficiaries have been college-educated voters like me, as the offshoring of manufacturing offered cheaper goods, but also fewer jobs for non-college graduates—who, coincidentally, voted for Trump. Trump is the rare U.S. politician who wants to do something about the working class. Wall Street is coming to the same table. JPMorganChase CEO Jamie Dimon is a hardcore capitalist. But in his annual shareholder letter, Dimon acknowledged the downside of tariffs when he wrote, “Whether or not the menu of tariffs causes a recession remains in question, but it will slow down growth.” Even still, on CNBC, Dimon remarked, “If it’s a little inflationary, but it’s good for national security, so be it. I mean, get over it.”

“You’ve got Wall Street caterwauling and wanting the government to back off,” DeVore told me. But: “The president is serious about applying what he sees as medicine to this economy.” Trump used the same term on Air Force One on Sunday when he said, “Sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something.” Confession time: I’m not a huge fan of tariffs. On the one hand, they’re a tax hike that is spooking the markets and costing some people their jobs. Last week, Stellantis laid off 900 U.S. workers as the automaker assesses the impact of Trump’s move.

On the other hand, Trump campaigned telling voters he would raise tariffs, and he won the election. The elephant in this room is China. “The Chinese believe that the United States are a great power in inevitable decline,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio argued during his confirmation hearing, “and that they are in inevitable rise.” DeVore warned, “The last thing you want to do at this point is show weakness.”

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In short: 4 (more) years of Biden admin. That’s what it would take.

What Would It Take to Destroy the United States? (Victor Davis Hanson)

Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal. I was looking at the news this week and I thought of an experiment. What if you really wanted to destroy the United States? What if you’d had ill intention for America? What would you do? What agenda would you pursue? And then I started thinking of civilizations. What was the stuff of civilizations that made them work? And it’s basic: their borders, their finances, their unity, their fuel, their food. So, if you really wanted to, in civilizational terms, destroy the United States, the first thing I would do if I were an enemy of the United States is I would destroy the borders. In other words, I would just let anybody come across our version of the Rhine or the Danube, as they happened in fifth century. And that’s pretty much what we have done the last 40 years, but particularly, the last four years.

We talked about comprehensive immigration reform as needed to stop the influx, but President Donald Trump, before the Biden administration and after the Biden administration, had no such recourse. He just simply stopped it, temporarily. And he has now. But what was behind all that? Former President Joe Biden, apparently, thought that if he let in 12 million people, without audits or background checks—would it alter the demography? Would it give him new constituencies for big government? What was the thinking about it? But it’s caused billions of dollars in increased expenses. It’s really damaged the inner city. It’s damaged the Rio Grande Valley. It’s damaged the San Joaquin Valley. We have all of this crime spike. Was it deliberate?

If you also wanted to hurt the United States, you know what I would do if I had nefarious intent? I would keep printing money. And I would call that, in fact, “Build Back Better.” And the more inflationary it got, I would say it was going to be the “Inflationary Reduction Act.” And in that process, I would borrow maybe $7 trillion within four years, maybe $8 trillion, and add to an existing $38 trillion in national debt, $37 trillion, so that the interest per day would be $3 billion. That would really hurt the United States. You know what I’d also do? If I looked at the United States and I said, “Oh my gosh, they’ve got almost limitless supplies of natural gas, they’ve got almost more coal than any European country, they’ve got all of this oil. They once had a vibrant—they were the nuclear energy, they were the founders of nuclear power. They have all these dams of hydroelectric,” I know what I’ll do.

I will castigate all of that and say it makes either the environment too hot, global warming, or it ruins the natural landscape with dams. Or it will kill us all through radiation. Whatever particular complaint I’d have, I would stop it as much as I could. Dismantle nuclear power plants. Cut back on natural gas. Stop full drilling, fracking. Blow up dams rather than build them. And I’m talking about California, for example, where the result would be 40 cents a kilowatt. Would make it unaffordable. That way, if you did all of that, a quarter of all the people who paid their power bills would default. And that model would sweep across the United States.

The third thing that I would do—and I think it’s besides debt and borders and fuel—I would sow disunity. And I would say that the content of our character is not as important as the color of our skin. And I would go back and reinterpret all of the hard-won progress of the civil rights movement and sort of get rid of it. I would just say the color of our skin matters more than anything and so we’re going to hire on the basis of superficial appearance. We’re gonna have reparations to go back eight generations and adjudicate who might have had an ancestor that owned a slave and who didn’t. And then I would say I’m gonna predicate graduations, dorms—who gets to go into a dorm, who gets to go into a library, a safe space—oh, on the basis of race. But I’m not gonna call it racism or segregation. I’m gonna call it diversity, equity, and inclusion and mainstream it.

If I also wanted to create disunity, I would just say, from now on, after 7,000 years of civilization, there are three sexes, not two. And women’s sports must include biological males. Not that it was an important topic, but it would create enormous tension and disunity. What am I getting at? It seems to me that in the last four years, if you had an agenda that was designed to hurt the United States, in terms of an influx of 12 million foreigners that were unaudited, an unprotected border, a repression on energy, a desire to print money rather than to cut expenses and save money and go toward a balanced budget, and a way to divide the people—if you wanted to do all that, you couldn’t have done a better job than what we have seen from 2021 to 2025.

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Will the whole story ever surface?

Biden White House Secured Trump’s Phone For FBI in Jan. 6 Probe (JTN)

Senate Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley and Senator Ron Johnson published new emails from FBI whistleblowers showing that President Joe Biden’s then-Deputy White House Counsel Jonathan Su personally assisted the FBI in securing President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence’s cell phones to assist the nascent “Arctic Frost” investigation over January 6. The new whistleblower emails also show that a future member of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team and an anti-Trump FBI agent were closely involved in the origins of the FBI probe. Operation Arctic Frost formed the basis of former Special Counsel Jack Smith’s false elector case under which former President Donald Trump was later charged with a conspiracy to defraud the United States for his campaign’s attempts to assemble alternate slates of electors under claims that the 2020 election had been stolen.

The new emails are contained in a letter the senators sent to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel urging cooperation with their requests for all information related to the FBI probe. “Overall, these newly disclosed emails show the extensive collaboration between and among select FBI agents from the Washington Field Office and prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office – Washington D.C. to plan, approve and execute Arctic Frost,” Grassley and Johnson wrote. “The emails also provide further support that ASAC Thibault played a central role in advancing its approval to a full field criminal investigation when other agents had concerns the supporting evidence only allowed for a preliminary investigation.”

“Lastly, the emails illustrate the Biden White House’s personal involvement in providing former President Trump and former Vice President Pence’s phones to the FBI at their request when neither of them was a subject of the investigation at that point in time,” they added. The emails turned over to the committee by whistleblowers show that the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Chief John Crabb emailed Su at the White House on May 2, 2022 and copied Assistant Special Agent in Charge Timothy Thibault.

“Jonathan, Would you please coordinate with Tim Thibault (who’s copied on this email) about picking up the telephones,” Crabb wrote. “Thanks John. Tim, it is good to meet you, and please let me know what works for you in terms of timing the next couple days,” Su replied. By May 4, other committee records show, the FBI had successfully obtained both President Trump and Vice President Pence’s official phones from the Biden White House, even though then-former President Trump had not yet become a criminal subject of the Arctic Frost probe.

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“I think she’s the reason there are directions on a shampoo bottle..”

Sen. Kennedy Goes Absolutely Savage on AOC (Margolis)

Once again, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) has proven that he’s the king of political zingers. He appeared on Sean Hannity’s show last night with several other Republican senators, where he delivered what might be the most savage takedown of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) we’ve heard yet. Kennedy has a gift for cutting through the nonsense with his signature southern wit. “What do you think of the new leadership: Jasmine, AOC, and Bernie?” Hannity asked. “I consider Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez to be the leader of the Democratic Party,” Kennedy said. “She’s entitled to her opinion. I’m entitled to mine.” And then he went for the jugular. “As I’ve said about her before, I think she’s the reason there are directions on a shampoo bottle,” he said. That’s it. Game over.

https://twitter.com/charliekirk11/status/1909803276528501103

To really drive the point home, he added, “Our plan for dealing with her is called Operation Let Her Speak.” Last month, after Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) voted to let the continuing resolution advance in the Senate, Kennedy described the backlash against the Senate Minority Leader in a similarly savage manner. “Among them right now, we’ve all seen the news, he’s about as popular as chlamydia,” he said. Kennedy nailed it when he said, “The loon wing of the Democratic Party is firmly in control,” which perfectly summed up the radical circus the Democrats have become, especially with their denial of basic biological truths. “These people are deeply weird,” he added, which might be putting it mildly. “Our Republican secret plan for dealing with the Democrats is called Operation Let Them Speak.”

Kennedy didn’t shy away from the hard truth behind the Democrats’ downward spiral, saying, “That’s good for our party, but it’s bad for America.” He’s right. Democrats have become so unhinged that while it makes the GOP look better, having such a radical political party as one of the two mainstream parties in the country isn’t a good thing. Kennedy’s ability to dismantle the Democrats is nothing short of masterful. His barbs aren’t just accurate; they’re downright hilarious. With his trademark folksy sharpness, he slices through the progressive façade and lays bare the intellectual emptiness at its core.

So yes, as he wisely says: let them speak. Let AOC keep pitching her latest plan to wreck the economy. Let Jasmine Crockett keep proving she’s wildly unqualified to hold public office. Let Bernie Sanders continue playing the role of elder statesman for a party that’s lost its grip on reality. Frankly, we couldn’t have picked better representatives for the left if we tried. Sometimes the smartest move is to step back and let the radicals do what they do best: implode.

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“The forgetting of history, their spiritual and moral values, their roots, if you like, all this has become one of the main reasons for what we are now seeing in Ukraine..”

Ukraine ‘Betrayed’ Its History – Lavrov (RT)

Ukraine has “betrayed” its own history by allowing the West to bring a Nazi regime to power in Kiev, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. In an interview for the TASS Children project released on Wednesday, the diplomat said the West’s actions were deliberate, aimed at bringing about a “strategic defeat” of Russia. “The forgetting of history, their spiritual and moral values, their roots, if you like, all this has become one of the main reasons for what we are now seeing in Ukraine,” he said, referring to the ongoing conflict, which he described as one that pitted the authorities against their own people from the outset. Lavrov accused the West of trying to rewrite history by “instilling oblivion of Russian roots” and promoting ideas in Ukrainian society that led to what he called “social amnesia.”

“This was used by the Americans and Europeans to bring an openly Russophobic Nazi regime to power in Ukraine that declared war against its own people, seizing power through an illegal coup d’etat, calling those who disagreed with this coup terrorists, and starting a real war against them,” he said. Lavrov noted that among European countries, there are two views on confronting their own history with Nazism – some seek to “quickly erase the pages of their national shame,” while others see Nazi ideology as a “tool for maintaining their positions on the European political scene.” He pledged that Russia would continue to fight both trends. “Our ambition is to ensure that this sacred memory never leaves history, never leaves the memory of all generations, that it remains unchanged. And we are convinced of our historical, moral and human rectitude,” he concluded.

Commemorations of World War II-era nationalist figures with ties to Nazi Germany have been common in Ukraine. Ukrainians hold annual torchlight marches in honor of Stepan Bandera, a leader in the militant Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), which collaborated with Nazi Germany and was involved in the massacre of more than 100,000 Poles, Jews, Russians, and Soviet-aligned Ukrainians. Less than two months ago, the Ukrainian city of Rivne marked the 120th birthday of Ulas Samchuk, a Nazi collaborator and anti-Semitic propagandist who welcomed the mass killings of Jews during the war. Moscow has repeatedly warned of a Nazi revival in Ukraine, citing “denazification” as a central aim of its military operation against Kiev. Western officials and media, however, have largely downplayed such concerns, often dismissing the allegations as “Russian propaganda.”

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“After all… all global tragedies began with aggressive actions by Europeans: The Napoleonic Wars, World War I, and World War II..”

‘European Aggression’ Behind All Global Tragedies – Lavrov (RT)

Western European countries have once again “taken up arms” against Russia, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said, commenting on the increasingly hostile stance of many governments toward Moscow. Addressing the constant calls to prepare for a presumed Russian attack – a notion which Moscow has dismissed as baseless – Lavrov said all previous global conflicts were sparked by similar aggressive actions from Europe. “We are witnessing another wave in which Europe is taking up arms against Russia, and by the looks on some faces, even growling at Russia. After all… all global tragedies began with aggressive actions by Europeans: The Napoleonic Wars, World War I, and World War II,” he said in an interview for the TASS Children project released on Wednesday. Lavrov added that during World War II, nearly all “neutral” European countries, in addition to those officially aligned with Nazi Germany, fought alongside Germany – including France.

“They did have a resistance movement, but like most other European countries, the official authorities in Paris meekly surrendered to the will of the victors… and French troops fought battles on the side of Hitler’s Germany, taking part in a number of punitive operations,” he said, adding that “there were many examples of this.” Lavrov went on to say that France and the UK are “obsessed” with “defeating Russia on the battlefield,” as evidenced by the billions they have spent on Kiev’s war effort and recent discussions about deploying troops to Ukraine, supposedly in a peacekeeping role. He accused the West, including Washington, of installing what he called an “openly Russophobic Nazi regime” in Ukraine as part of its goal of defeating Russia. “Some want to quickly and finally erase from history the pages of their national shame, collaborationism, connivance with the Nazis,” he said.

“While others see in Nazi ideology some new instrument for maintaining their positions on the European political scene.” Lavrov added that Russia has long tried to warn the West against rewriting history. “Consigning history to oblivion, one’s spiritual and moral values, one’s roots, if you will, all this has become one of the main reasons for what we are now seeing in Ukraine,” he said, in reference to the authorities in Kiev who honor World War II Nazi collaborators as national heroes and “undermine and denigrate” the role of the Soviet Union in defeating Nazi Germany. “We will fight against this,” Lavrov said, expressing hope that “not everyone has forgotten the lessons of history.” “Many leaders… are beginning to understand the dead end and catastrophic consequences,” he said, referring to attempts to defeat Russia.

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All of southern Europe. Who will stop them? The EU?

Kiev Targeting Russian Gas Supplies To Southern Europe – Moscow (RT)

The Ukrainian military has launched multiple drone attacks overnight, targeting a a Russian gas pumping station which supplies fuel to southern Europe via the TurkStream pipeline, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said. The ministry has accused Kiev of continued violations of an energy ceasefire agreed by Russia, the US and Ukraine last month. On Wednesday, the Russian military announced that it intercepted eight Ukrainian drones targeting the energy facility near the town of Korenovsk in the southern Krasnodar Region. The attack on Tuesday night was detected by defenses and caused no damage, as all aircraft were successfully intercepted, the report stated.

“This was a deliberate attack by the Kiev regime against an international energy site,” the ministry emphasized, adding that since Russia accepted a US-proposed moratorium on strikes targeting energy infrastructure, Ukrainian forces have not paused such attacks “for a single day.” Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an immediate suspension of strikes on Ukrainian energy sites following a phone conversation with US President Donald Trump in mid-March. Moscow maintains it is observing the partial ceasefire, despite Ukrainian violations, in a bid to foster goodwill with Washington.

The Korenovskaya compressor station targeted by Kiev is part of the Pochinki-Anapa pipeline, which entered service in July 2022 to enhance supplies for the TurkStream link under the Black Sea. The ground section of the pipeline has a maximum capacity of 63 billion cubic meters of gas per year, though the Defense Ministry noted it is currently functioning at about half that flow rate. TurkStream is one of the primary export routes for Russian natural gas directly to Türkiye, facilitating further supplies to Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Greece. In late February Hungary accused Kiev of threatening its sovereignty by jeopardizing its energy supplies, after a Ukrainian drone raid targeted the Russkaya gas compressor station, which feeds fuel into TurkStream.

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“Moscow will employ all tools at its disposal against what it perceives as an existential threat. Ukraine and its Western supporters have dismissed the Russian leader’s statements as “nuclear blackmail.”

US ‘Just Lost A War With Russia’ – Tucker Carlson (RT)

American policymakers are too arrogant to acknowledge that they have “lost a war with Russia” over Ukraine, US journalist Tucker Carlson has said. Russian officials perceive the Ukraine conflict as a NATO proxy war – a notion that some Western politicians, including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, have openly agreed with. In an interview with Alex Jones published on Wednesday, Carlson accused those perpetuating the hostilities of ignoring that Russia has emerged victorious. ”We just lost a war with Russia,” the former Fox News host declared. “The US was running that war – the US military, the Pentagon, State Department, CIA – running the war against Russia. It was not… was never about Ukraine.”

Carlson expressed concern that “nobody will say that out loud – that we’re overstating our power.” He likened the US to a divorced 60-year-old man attempting to woo a 25-year-old woman, oblivious to how absurd and humiliating he appears. “That’s called hubris and that’s how empires get destroyed and populations vaporized,” Carlson warned. “Maybe we should readjust our expectations a little bit.” Jones argued that many advocating for unconditional support of Kiev are “militarily ignorant,” mentioning actor Sean Penn’s dismissal of nuclear escalation risks with Russia. He emphasized that the scenario of major nuclear conflict is termed ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’ for a reason.

In response, Carlson referenced a Pentagon assessment indicating that at one point the risk of the Ukraine conflict escalating to nuclear war reached 50%, arguing that any policymaker comfortable with such odds belongs “in prison for the criminally insane.” Senior Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have publicly asserted that Moscow will employ all tools at its disposal against what it perceives as an existential threat. Ukraine and its Western supporters have dismissed the Russian leader’s statements as “nuclear blackmail.”

Read more …

 

 

 

 

One
https://twitter.com/toobaffled/status/1909741736924155971

Cancer
https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1909597411627986982

Hugo

EarthVenus
https://twitter.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1909522433242968229

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Nov 232024
 


Titian The rape of Europe 1560-62

 

In the Weeds of the Swamp (Kunstler)
Ukrainians Have Stolen Up To Half Of US Aid – Ex-Polish Deputy Minister (RT)
Trump Eyes Richard Grenell As Special Envoy For Ukraine (RT)
Ukrainian Military Plans For 2025 ‘Derailed’ – Moscow (RT)
RFK Jr.’s Plans for Reshaping HHS Draw Strong Reactions (ET)
Trump Names Billionaire Scott Bessent As Treasury Secretary (ZH)
Washington Chose to Go to War with Russia (Paul Craig Roberts)
World ‘Very Close To Point Of No Return’ – Scott Ritter (RT)
US Investor Eyes Nord Stream 2 Purchase, Citing Strategic Value for US (Sp.)
White House Refuses to Recognize Responsibility for Escalation in Ukraine (Sp.)
Musk on His ‘To-Do List’ on Time Cover: We Need to Colonize Other Planets (Sp.)
NY ‘Hush Money’ Judge Grants Trump Request To File For Dismissal (ZH)
Israel Preparing to Attack Iranian Nuclear Facilities (Sp.)
European States Vow To Arrest Netanyahu (RT)
US Senator Threatens Invasion of Netherlands (RT)
HBO Delivers Blow Against the Anti-Rowling, Anti-Free Speech Movement (Turley)
British Operation KISS – “Kill Instantly Skripals” – Has Failed (Helmer)
G20 Knocks Out G7 Agendas (Pepe Escobar)

 

 

 

 

https://twitter.com/i/status/1859755179836371333

App

Cuts

DOGE

Ruhle

Ron Paul
https://twitter.com/Rothmus/status/1859512945127854571

Celente

 

 

 

 

 

 

“RussiaGate is starting to look like ancient history to many, but it is a giant slime trail of sedition and treason involving many people who are still very much alive..”

In the Weeds of the Swamp (Kunstler)

Okay, you’ve had enough post-election euphoria. Time to wake TF up. Rats from inside the walls of the Deep State are trying to gnaw their way into the Trump cabinet. Ever hear of an outfit called Cipher Brief? Of course not. Cipher Brief is sort of the McKinsey of blob-world (a.k.a. the “national security” network), a combination Human Relations / Public Relations firm, totally spooked-up with former CIA officers. Quite a few of the spooks who signed the infamous letter in October 2020 that said Hunter Biden’s laptop was “Russian disinformation” are contractors there. They all knew the heinous laptop was genuine, though, and they did it anyway to queer the election for “Joe Biden.” Why? Because. . . Trump. One Cipher Brief operative is a character named Dan Hoffman, a retired CIA “clandestine service” officer who ran the agency’s Middle East Bureau, among other things. He’s now a sometime talking head on Fox News.

Hoffman has scuttled his way to the sidelines of the Trump transition team, trying to punk them on personnel. I received my own intel about Dan Hoffman and his current operations. “Hoffman talks the talk,” I’m informed. “He was involved in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. He is 100-percent Deep State. They think he is a brother-in-arms. He is not. Hoffman and the people around him are in direct contact with Tulsi Gabbard [DNI-designate] and John Ratcliffe [CIA Director-designate]. Remember, agency ops officers are trained to be all things to all people, to manipulate them, detect their vulnerabilities, and exploit them. Their game vis-a-vis Donald Trump? To kneecap his attempts to lower tensions world-wide, stop efforts to reduce and reform the intel and defense communities, push a generally Globalist policy agenda, keep the American ‘empire game’ running so they can cash out, and keep non-Beltway Americans from having any say in our foreign policy.

“Hoffman is not a minor figure. He is heading up the cabal trying to co-opt Ratcliffe and Gabbard. Understand that [this group] essentially took over Agency operations during the so-called Global War on Terror [GWOT] after 9/11. Not only did these assholes lead America into the quicksand of the Middle East, they feathered their own nests and those of their buddies with hundreds of millions in ‘contracts’. . . they cooked up the Ukraine War . . . . Nobody associated with Cipher Brief should be anywhere near Ratcliffe or Gabbard, period. They should be blacklisted. They are the people who worked to take down Trump, and now they are trying to cover their tracks and sneak into the new administration.” Dan Hoffman, remember the name.

And thus, the chatter this week about former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Mike Rogers (a.k.a. Admiral Michael S. Rogers) floated as the next Director of the FBI. Oh, really? Not a joke (har har)? Mike Rogers was DNI throughout the first years (2016-17) of the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” op to take down the then-new president Donald Trump using Hillary Clinton’s concocted “Steele Dossier,” known to be utter bullshit by all involved at the highest levels, but used anyway. Mike Rogers was in office when the FBI took down new National Security Advisor Mike Flynn in February, 2017, for talking to the Russian ambassador. (Since when are high US officials not allowed to speak with foreign diplomats?) By the way, Mike Rogers was endorsed for the FBI job this week by former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, one of the chief managers of The RussiaGate op, which included “Crossfire Hurricane,” and the FBIs programmatic lying to the FISA court.

RussiaGate is starting to look like ancient history to many, but it is a giant slime trail of sedition and treason involving many people who are still very much alive, and some who are still in positions of power (Christopher Wray). It is going to be re-litigated in the new administration, but many other crimes just as sinister, carried out under color-of-law by the FBI and its parent, the Department of Justice (DOJ), have followed since then. For instance: the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol instigated by “confidential human resources” (FBI plants), and actual FBI agents — labeled “the insurrection” by blob publicists. It was engineered by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, General Mark Milley, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, and others to prevent a public review of election irregularities in the joint session of Congress convened to certify the electoral vote. It succeeded splendidly, and was promptly converted into one of the worst national mind-fucks in US history. Debate over dubious vote-counts was squelched and objections were never allowed to be heard. From that sprung the “Big Lie” that anyone voicing skepticism over the 2020 election is a criminal — and thus, the two preposterous federal cases (plus the Fulton County, GA, case) cooked up against Mr. Trump three years later.

There is also the matter of the pipe bomb op at the DNC and RNC headquarters blocks away from the US Capitol the same hour of the same day, 1/6/21, when, for no good reason, Vice-president-elect Kamala Harris hid-out in the DNC building. (Why would she not have been attending the joint session of Congress in the Capitol at that hour when the signal achievement of her life to-date was to be grandly announced in front of all her colleagues?) I will tell you why: because the pipe bomb was supposed to be Plan-A for disrupting the electoral vote certification — to set off wild alarms about “terrorism” and scatter the lawmakers. It just happened that the riot at the Capitol (Plan-B) successfully stole the show and Nancy Pelosi got what she said she was “waiting for” — the means to permanently knock Donald Trump off the game-board.

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Americans too:

“..war-related corruption is linked not only with Ukraine, but also the supplier nation..”

Ukrainians Have Stolen Up To Half Of US Aid – Ex-Polish Deputy Minister (RT)

Ukraine did not receive as much foreign aid as claimed by the administration of US President Joe Biden, and whatever help it did get was largely embezzled, a former Polish deputy minister has claimed. Up to a half of the funds that reached Kiev was stolen by Ukrainian officials, Piotr Kulpa has alleged. The political commentator previously held several posts in the Polish government, serving as deputy labor minister in the mid-2000s, and is currently a regular contributor on Ukrainian online shows. Kulpa is a vocal supporter of US President-elect Donald Trump, as evidenced by his remarks to Ukrainian journalist Lana Shevchuk on Thursday. “Everyone understands that war-related corruption is linked not only with Ukraine, but also the supplier nation,” he said. “Who would ever believe that the US burned through $2 trillion in Afghanistan? It’s delusional!”

US aid programs are a mechanism to “write off large sums of money that finance shady systems under the Democratic Party’s control,” he alleged. The incoming Trump administration could review government finances and discover the truth that “Ukraine got very little” compared to the amounts mentioned in public statements, Kulpa claimed. “But they will also find something else: that a huge portion of the funds was stolen in Ukraine. From 30% to 50%, regardless of the nature of the aid,” he added. If Kiev were to recover all the embezzled money for the Ukrainian budget, the country would have enough for a year, Kulpa said. He denounced senior Ukrainian officials, whose regular salaries and bonuses he believes are outrageously high.

“It’s a spit in the face of every Ukrainian,” the former minister asserted. “To every European and American taxpayer. This system is criminal from start to finish.” Trump and his allies have been highly critical of the amount of assistance that the Biden administration has sent to Kiev. The president-elect has argued that EU nations should assume the burden of propping up Ukraine, while the American government should focus on its own priorities. US concerns about graft in Kiev have been reflected in some government documents, such as a report that Pentagon Inspector General Robert Storch’s office released last week. It said corruption “continues to complicate Ukraine’s efforts to achieve its EU and NATO aspirations.”

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“..he has advocated for the creation of “autonomous zones” in the conflict area..”

Trump Eyes Richard Grenell As Special Envoy For Ukraine (RT)

US President-elect Donald Trump is considering Richard Grenell, a veteran of his previous administration, for the position of special envoy for the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Reuters reported on Friday, citing sources. Grenell served as Washington’s ambassador to Germany and acting director of national intelligence. Trump’s plans to appoint a high-ranking diplomat tasked with “find[ing] a resolution, to get to a peace settlement” were first reported by Fox News last week, with its source saying the person in the position will have “a lot of credibility.” Four Reuters sources confirmed that Trump is thinking about creating the position of special envoy, with Grenell considered as a potential candidate. However, there is no guarantee that the position will be created, though the president-elect is strongly leaning toward doing so, the article said.

Grenell, a seasoned diplomat and political operative, served as the US ambassador to Germany from 2018 to 2020, and as acting director of national intelligence for several months in 2020. Days after his appointment as envoy to Berlin, Grenell faced criticism for what many EU leaders saw as his crude disregard for diplomatic finesse and nonchalant attempts to influence the domestic political landscape, as he urged European capitals to cut business ties with Iran while openly voicing support for local right-wing parties. As for Grenell’s stance on the Ukraine conflict, he has advocated for the creation of “autonomous zones” in the conflict area and insisted that Ukraine should not be brought into NATO anytime soon, a stance shared by many on the Trump team.

Supporters of Grenell point to his long diplomatic career and deep knowledge of European affairs, according to Reuters. He served as special presidential envoy for Serbia-Kosovo peace negotiations from 2019 to 2021. In September 2020, he brokered an agreement between the country and its breakaway region, which paved the way for economic normalization and helped defuse tensions at the time. Trump has vowed to swiftly put an end to the Ukraine conflict. One of the reported plans includes Kiev suspending its NATO ambitions and agreeing to a freeze along the current front line. Russia has ruled out a freeze of the conflict, insisting that all of the goals of the military operation, including Ukrainian neutrality, demilitarization, and denazification, should be fulfilled.

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“..ground down” Kiev’s best military units..”

Ukrainian Military Plans For 2025 ‘Derailed’ – Moscow (RT)

Russian forces involved in repelling a Ukrainian incursion in Kursk Region have “ground down” Kiev’s best military units and have effectively “derailed [its] entire campaign of 2025,” Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov has claimed. Kiev sent some of its best-armed and most experienced troops across the northern border in August, claiming that securing control of Russian territory in Kursk would be of great benefit. Ukrainian officials said the move would slow down Russian advancement elsewhere on the front line and give their country an important bargaining chip in eventual peace talks. Belousov has visited a command and control site operated by the ‘North’ group of forces, responsible for Russia’s response to the Ukrainian operation, the Defense Ministry reported on Friday. The ministry released footage in which the minister praised soldiers and officers for thwarting Kiev’s plans for next year after hearing a report by General Aleksandr Lapin, the commander of the ‘North’ battlegroup.

Belousov was also given a tour of an exhibition of NATO weapons captured during the fighting, including communications equipment, drones, small arms, and man-portable heavy arms. He was told that much of the hardware was inferior to its Russian equivalent. The minister personally awarded military decorations to several service members who had shown valor on the battlefield. Moscow has described the Ukrainian incursion as a major turning point in the armed conflict. No peace talks can happen before all of Kiev’s troops are pushed out of Kursk Region, senior Russian officials have said. Ukrainian forces have suffered more than 34,500 casualties and lost hundreds of tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and other pieces of heavy weaponry in the operation, the Russian military has claimed.

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“He is dangerous to the health and well being of every American..”

RFK Jr.’s Plans for Reshaping HHS Draw Strong Reactions (ET)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has vowed to “make America healthy again” through his platform as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The possibility of that happening has drawn praise from many Republican lawmakers and vaccine and food safety advocates. Multiple Democratic legislators and public health officials have criticized President-Elect Donald Trump’s nomination, calling Kennedy a “danger” to public health. Fighting chronic disease, improving children’s health, and addressing corporate influence on government agencies were vital parts of Kennedy’s campaign platform when he ran for president as a Democrat and then an independent. Kennedy suspended his presidential campaign and backed Trump in August. He previously told The Epoch Times that it was a “heart-wrenching decision” and a necessary step toward achieving his mission of saving Americans from the chronic disease epidemic.

Under the “Make America Healthy Again” campaign, Kennedy aims to curtail what he calls the chronic disease epidemic by addressing the so-called “corporate capture” of federal health agencies and removing toxic chemicals from the nation’s food supply, among other objectives. Trump’s naming Kennedy as his HHS secretary has drawn strong reactions. Donna Shalala, who was HHS secretary under former President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001, said Kennedy is not qualified for the position. “The nomination of RFK Jr. for HHS by President-elect Trump is shocking. … He is dangerous to the health and well being of every American,” Shalala wrote on X. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said on X that Kennedy would be the person to “detox the place after the Fauci era,” in reference to former NIH director Dr. Anthony Fauci. Kennedy and Paul have both been outspoken critics of Fauci’s policies related to vaccines and the public health response to COVID-19.

[..] Kennedy has said that he will urge Trump on day one to declare a national emergency for chronic disease. Kennedy said he believes little will change until the influence of giant or private corporations on the FDA, the CDC, and the Department of Agriculture is addressed. At a roundtable organized by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) in September, Kennedy said these agencies “advance the mercantile and commercial interests of the pharmaceutical industry that has transformed them and the food industry into sock puppets for the industry they’re supposed to regulate. Kennedy has vowed to dismiss the officials who lead those agencies and appoint replacements. “FDA’s war on public health is about to end,” he wrote on X on Oct. 25, adding his support for raw milk, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, foods with healing properties, and natural remedies such as sunshine.

In September, Kennedy told The Epoch Times that he would revamp the NIH to focus on the causes of autism, autoimmune diseases, and neurodevelopment diseases instead of developing drugs and serving as an incubator for pharmaceutical products. He has also vowed to lead efforts to address the issue of chemicals in ultra-processed foods. He told Fox News he would “get processed food out of school lunch immediately” and said federal food assistance such as food stamps should not go toward junk food.

RFK

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“..work to create an economy that places growth at the forefront, especially through our coming world energy dominance..”

Trump Names Billionaire Scott Bessent As Treasury Secretary (ZH)

After Trump appointed Howard Lutnick as Commerce Secretary and Kevin Warsh was clearly being groomed as Powell’s replacement at the Fed, it was just a matter of time before the most important appointment in the Trump admin was made. That happened late on Friday when president-elect Donald Trump nominated Scott Bessent to lead the Department of the Treasury, ending days of speculation after other names emerged as competitors to the reported favorite. “Scott is widely respected as one of the world’s foremost international investors and geopolitical and economic strategists. Scott’s story is that of the American Dream,” Trump said in a statement on the nomination. Bessent, 62, is a Wall Street veteran who once worked for George Soros, and founder of international macro investment company Key Square Group. He served as a key economic adviser to Trump’s 2024 campaign.

Others contenders for the role included Howard Lutnick, the chairman and CEO of Cantor Fitzgerald and BGC Partners. He co-chairs the Trump–Vance transition team, which is in charge of selecting administration candidates, vetting personnel, and crafting policy. Lutnick was ultimately chosen on Nov. 19 to lead the Department of Commerce. Kevin Warsh, 54, a former Morgan Stanley banker and former Federal Reserve Board governor, likewise entered the conversation. He became the leading candidate for treasury secretary on the betting website Polymarket after reports emerged that the president-elect was expanding his search to fill the position. In his statement on Bessent’s nomination, Trump said that economic policy under his administration would maintain the U.S. dollar’s reserve currency status, fortify the United States’s position as the world’s strongest economy, and invigorate the private sector.

“As a lifelong champion of Main Street America and American industry, Scott will support my policies that will drive U.S. competitiveness, and stop unfair trade imbalances, work to create an economy that places growth at the forefront, especially through our coming world energy dominance,” Trump said. The president-elect also noted Bessent’s deep family roots in South Carolina, saying that he belongs to a historic French Huguenot Church, which members of his family founded in the 1680s, in the port city of Charleston. Like his predecessors, Bessent will now oversee a vast portfolio to employ the president’s economic agenda. As the Epoch Times notes, the two immediate issues Bessent will grapple with will be averting a default as the national debt ceiling limit will expire on Jan. 1, 2025, and extending the Trump-era Tax Cuts and Jobs Act due to expire at the end of next year.

More importantly, Bessent will also be tasked with the delicate, if not conflicting, job of championing Trump’s trade proposals, including across-the-board tariffs, on one hand, while keeping the debt and deficit in check and preventing bond yields and the dollar from rising too high, too fast, as an even more rapid tightening in financial conditions will surely tip the US economy into recession.

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“We Are Faced with the Extraordinary Event that..”

Washington Chose to Go to War with Russia (Paul Craig Roberts)

This interview from two days ago explains the dangerous situation into which the Biden Regime has placed life on earth by Washington’s conscious decision to go to war with Russia. The Russian government made it completely clear that a decision to fire missiles into Russia means the West is at war with Russia. Nevertheless, the insane West fired missiles into Russia. Putin responded with a demonstration of a new hypersonic missile that completely destroyed a Ukrainian armaments production facility. The missile travels at speed that the West has no capability to intercept and was designed to carry nuclear warheads. The message to the West is clear: If you persist in your war with Russia, you can expect widespread destruction. What will the insane West do? Will it come to its senses, or is it more important to widen the war in order to lock Trump in and prevent him from reaching a peaceful end to the conflict?

The Russian-hating Jew that Washington installed as its agent in Ukraine is demanding a “strong response” from the West. In other words, Zelensky is demanding Europe and the US put themselves at risk of destruction simply because Russia responded to a missile attack by the West from Ukrainian soil with a missile attack on a Ukrainian military facility. What sense does this make? None. It is unclear that the American people and those of Europe will survive their acceptance of the theft by the Democrats of the 2020 US presidential election. The consequence of the theft of the presidential election was an insane regime in Washington that has consistently step-by-step widened a local conflict into a war of the West with Russia. The British have not helped the situation by electing a prime minister as unhinged as Biden. In the West it seems that only Hungary’s Viktor Orban understands the seriousness of the situation.

I will briefly review the situation as Putin has stated it to the Russian people and to the dumbshits ruling in the West. Putin said the West’s missile attack on Russia drastically changed the nature of the conflict in Ukraine. The conflict has been transformed into a war of the West against Russia. This intentional decision by the West to go to war with Russia was taken despite Russia’s clear warning. Putin reminded everyone that the conflict in Ukraine was provoked by Washington which refused Russia’s peaceful approach of the Minsk Agreement and refused Russia’s request for a mutual security agreement. Putin made the point that Washington and NATO have deliberately escalated the conflict and are making it into global war. Putin pointed out that Washington has deliberately “destroyed the system on international security” and is “pushing the whole world toward a global conflict.”

Putin made the point that although the West has no defense against Russian missiles, Russia prefers diplomacy to war, but if the West persists in war, the West will suffer the consequences Certainly, Ukraine’s retention of Donbas, formerly a part of Russia herself that Soviet leaders attached to the Soviet Union’s Ukrainian province, is not worth a devastating, perhaps final, war. What madness is driving the West’s irresponsible attitude toward life? It appears to be the neoconservatives’ agenda of US and Israeli hegemony, egged on by profit and power for the US military/security complex and the unrealistic belief of Americans in their invincibility. The question before us is: Will the hubris of the West destroy the World?

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“They are ‘Trump proofing’ NATO, Ukraine and the deep state..”

World ‘Very Close To Point Of No Return’ – Scott Ritter (RT)

Russia’s strike on a Ukrainian defense industrial facility using a new hypersonic ballistic missile system has shown the West that a policy of further escalation will lead to devastating consequences, former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter has said. America’s recklessness in dealing with Russia, as well as underestimating Moscow’s readiness to respond, has already brought the world dangerously close to an all-out nuclear war, the former US marine officer claimed on the ‘Judging Freedom’ YouTube show on Thursday. Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the country’s military successfully hit a Ukrainian target with a new intermediate-range ballistic missile called the Oreshnik. The strike was a response to Kiev using US-made ATACMS and HIMARS systems, as well as British-made Storm Shadow missiles in strikes on internationally-recognized Russian territory earlier this week, he added.

The missile launch is a clear signal to the West that Moscow was not bluffing when it said the US and its allies would not get away with aiding Kiev in striking Russia with Western-made weapons, Ritter argued. “The missile that they used is a nuclear-capable system. It had a conventional warhead but could be used for nuclear purposes. Putin basically said that this missile can cover all of Europe and that in the future, he will mirror every action by Ukraine and the West; that any escalation will immediately be responded to,” Ritter told the host of Judging Freedom, Andrew Napolitano. The former UN weapons inspector also called the development a “qualitative advancement” that brought a completely new type of weapon to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev. Everyone who believed that Russia was bluffing “has now been put on notice” that it is not, he added.

A continuation of the current Western policy towards the Ukraine conflict and Russia would be dangerous and irresponsible under such circumstances, Ritter believes. “We are very, very close to reaching the point of no return when it comes to a nuclear war,” he warned. He particularly slammed remarks by US Strategic Command (STRATCOM) spokesman Rear Admiral Thomas Buchanan, who said on Thursday that Washington was ready to launch nuclear strikes but would only do so “on terms that are most acceptable to the US.” Such statements sound as if the US is ready for a “pre-emptive strike” against Russia, Ritter said, adding that taking out Russia’s nuclear capabilities first was “the only way an exchange works that you can walk away from.” Such rhetoric is bound to put Moscow on edge, according to the former UN weapons inspector.

The “lame duck” administration of President Joe Biden might have made a U-turn on allowing Kiev to use Western long-range weapons for strikes on undisputed Russian territory to make life difficult for their successors, opined Ritter, a former RT contributor. “They are ‘Trump proofing’ NATO, Ukraine and the deep state” in order to make the Ukraine conflict problem “so hard” that President-elect Donald Trump will not be able to resolve it as he intends, he said. Trump has vowed to swiftly end the Ukraine conflict upon assuming office. One possibility would be to force Ukraine to drop its NATO ambitions and agree to freeze the conflict, according to reports. Moscow has ruled out the latter, insisting that all the goals of its military operation – including Ukraine’s demilitarization and denazification – must be fulfilled.

Read more …

Much of it was financed by Gazprom. They won’t sell.. You gonna seize control?

US Investor Eyes Nord Stream 2 Purchase, Citing Strategic Value for US (Sp.)

American investor Stephen P. Lynch has expressed an interest in buying the Nord Stream 2 pipeline if it is put up for auction as part of the bankruptcy proceedings in Switzerland, The Wall Street Journal reports. “An American investor with a history of dealmaking in Russia has asked the U.S. government to allow him to bid on the sabotaged Nord Stream Pipeline 2 if it comes up for auction in a Swiss bankruptcy proceeding,” the report said. According to sources cited by the newspaper, Lynch expressed determination to buy the $11 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline and applied to the US Treasury in February for a license to negotiate its construction with entities under US sanctions, noting that many investors might avoid the auction due to the difficult geopolitical situation. Lynch has advocated to US officials and lawmakers that owning the pipeline would give the United States a powerful tool in negotiating peace with Russia to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, while also supporting broader American strategic objectives.

“The bottom line is this: This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for American and European control over European energy supply for the rest of the fossil-fuel era,” the newspaper quotes Lynch as saying. The Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines, built to deliver gas under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Europe, were hit by explosions on September 26, 2022. Germany, Denmark, and Sweden have not ruled out deliberate sabotage. The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has opened an investigation into it as an act of international terrorism. Russia has repeatedly requested information on other countries’ investigations into the explosions, but never received it, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

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“Every step of escalation comes from Russia. They are the ones who are escalating it..”

White House Refuses to Recognize Responsibility for Escalation in Ukraine (Sp.)

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday declined to acknowledge that US President Joe Biden’s authorization of long-range strikes on Russia with ATACMS missiles had contributed to escalating the conflict, instead placing the blame on Russia. “Every step of escalation comes from Russia. They are the ones who are escalating it,” she alleged when asked whether Biden’s decision to authorize strikes using long-range ATACMS missiles deep into Russian territory was a factor in escalating the conflict in Ukraine. Jean-Pierre claimed that neither Ukraine nor the United States bears responsibility for the escalation. The launch of a Russian missile will not deter US policy towards Ukraine, the press secretary added. The United States will continue to provide new weapons packages to Ukraine and work to expedite their delivery, she said.

Washington has not seen any signs of Russia preparing to use a nuclear weapon in Ukraine, the White House spokesperson admitted. Washington is not seeking war with Moscow but will continue to send weapons to Ukraine, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh added. Russia notified the US briefly before launching an intermediate-range ballistic missile against Ukraine, the Pentagon spokesperson acknowledged. Earlier in the day, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia fired a non-nuclear hypersonic version of a ballistic missile, striking a Ukrainian arms manufacturer in the city of Dnepropetrovsk in response to Kiev’s use of US and UK longer-range weapons to strike Russian territory.

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“I am trying to make life multiplanetary to maximize the probable lifespan of consciousness..”

Musk on His ‘To-Do List’ on Time Cover: We Need to Colonize Other Planets (Sp.)

US entrepreneur Elon Musk, commenting on his “to-do list” on the cover of Time magazine, has said that it is not really his checklist, but that some items are needed to achieve a global goal of human colonization of other planets. Earlier in the week, Time released the cover of its December issue featuring the entrepreneur and his alleged tasks or accomplishments, including two items that have not yet been completed, including reducing US government spending by $2 trillion and flying to Mars. “To be clear, I have not done any media interviews and this is not actually my checklist. I am trying to make life multiplanetary to maximize the probable lifespan of consciousness. Some of the items below are needed for that,” Musk said on X.

Last month, Musk said that if Trump won the US presidential election, the entrepreneur would reduce state budget spending by $2 trillion. The presidential election took place in the United States on November 5. Republican candidate Donald Trump, who served as the US president from 2017-2021, was declared the winner by all leading race callers and networks. Democratic candidate Kamala Harris conceded defeat in an address to supporters. The Electoral College will vote in accordance with the will of the voters on December 17, and the new Congress will approve the results of the vote on January 6. The presidential inauguration will take place on January 20.

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Even Merchan folds. Alvin Bragg: Bye!

NY ‘Hush Money’ Judge Grants Trump Request To File For Dismissal (ZH)

Liberals will be tearing what’s left of their hair out even more this morning as Judge Juan Merchan just granted President-elect Trump’s request to file a motion to dismiss the charges in the Stormy Daniels’ ‘hush money’ case and removed the sentencing date for the president-elect from the schedule. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) is opposing that request. Instead, Bragg floated that Merchan could freeze the proceedings while Trump is in office, meaning the conviction would remain on the books but sentencing wouldn’t occur until 2029, at the earliest. Merchan ordered Trump to file his formal motion asking for dismissal by Dec. 2 and Bragg to respond by Dec. 9. Merchan also confirmed the stay in sentencing for Trump, which was requested by both Trump and Bragg attorneys.

The sentencing was scheduled for Nov. 26, but on Friday, Merchan said that date “is adjourned.” The judge will then decide how to proceed. In a letter to Merchan on Wednesday, Trump defense attorney and now-nominee for Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche demanded the case against President-elect Donald Trump be tossed. “On November 5, 2024, the Nation’s People issued a mandate that supersedes the political motivations of DANY’s ‘People,’” Blanche wrote. “This case must be immediately dismissed.” Blanche said that “immediate dismissal of this case is mandated by the federal Constitution, the Presidential Transition Act of 1963, and the interests of justice, in order to facilitate the orderly transition of Executive power following President Trump’s overwhelming victory in the 2024 Presidential Election.” Trump’s imminent return to the White House has already pumped the brakes on his other criminal prosecutions.

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Russia guards Iran.

Israel Preparing to Attack Iranian Nuclear Facilities (Sp.)

The Israeli authorities reached a consensus at all levels of the security system and political echelon on the need to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, Israeli news portal Walla reported, citing a high-ranking source. Israel also allegedly has the technological capability to carry out such an attack, the report said on Thursday. Israel will not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons, the source noted. Economic sanctions against Tehran serve only as a deterrent and are not intended to eliminate Iran’s nuclear project, the source added.

Last week, the Axios news portal reported that Israel’s attack on Iran that took place in late October destroyed an active top secret nuclear weapons research facility of the Parchin military complex and affected the country’s capability to resume nuclear arms research. The destroyed facility reportedly was a part of Iran’s Amad nuclear weapons program, which Tehran is believed to have halted in 2003. In late October, the Israel Defense Forces said that they struck military targets in Iran in response to the October 1 attacks on the Jewish state. Media reported that the Israeli attack on Iran was limited to military assets and did not target nuclear or oil facilities.

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Britain joined in.

European States Vow To Arrest Netanyahu (RT)

Several Western states have pledged to execute an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC). The Hague-based court on Thursday issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu along with former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and Hamas commander Ibrahim al-Masri. West Jerusalem claims that al-Masri is already dead. The warrants are for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity linked to the Gaza conflict. The decision has elicited mixed reactions in the West. Several nations emphasized their respect for the independence of the court, while others voiced support for Israel. The Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, and Norway all claimed they would meet their commitments and obligations under the Rome Statute and international law.

However, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto stressed that the ICC was “wrong” to put Netanyahu and Gallant on the same level as Hamas. Austria also said that it would obey the decision, but its foreign minister, Alexander Schallenberg, added that the warrant was “utterly incomprehensible.” Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp assured the country’s parliament that the authorities would act on the warrants and avoid non-essential contacts with those named. Geert Wilders, the head of the Netherlands’ Party for Freedom, a member of the ruling coalition, condemned the decision, saying that the Israeli authorities are being confronted with arrest warrants instead of receiving international understanding and support.

Earlier this month, the Dutch capital saw rioting between Israeli soccer fans, who chanted anti-Palestinian slogans, and pro-Palestinian locals. In France, Foreign Ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine said that potentially acting on the warrants was a “complex legal issue” while admitting the importance of acting in line with ICC statutes. At the same time, Lemoine declined to say whether France would arrest Netanyahu or Gallant if they came to the country. Meanwhile, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban denounced the ICC’s decision, telling a state radio station that he would invite the Israeli leader to Hungary.

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ICC.

US Senator Threatens Invasion of Netherlands (RT)

US Senator Tom Cotton has lashed out at the International Criminal Court (ICC) over its decision to issue an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He invoked a US law which greenlights the use of military force against the Netherlands-based court. The Republican senator threatened the ICC by referring to the American Service-Members’ Protection Act, informally referred to as the ‘Hague Invasion Act’, which permits the US president to use “all means necessary and appropriate” to free Americans or allied individuals detained at the request of the court. The ICC on Thursday issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, accusing them of war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with the Gaza conflict. Chief prosecutor Karim Khan also announced similar charges against Hamas military leader Mohammed Deif.

Cotton condemned the ICC in a post on X on Thursday, branding it a “kangaroo court” and labeling its chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, a “deranged fanatic.” “Woe to him and anyone who tries to enforce these outlaw warrants. Let me give them all a friendly reminder: the American law on the ICC is known as The Hague Invasion Act for a reason. Think about it,” Cotton warned. Passed by Congress in 2002, the ‘Hague Invasion Act’ was designed to shield US personnel from the court’s jurisdiction. It authorizes military action to rescue any American or allied citizen held by the court in The Hague. Civil rights groups argued the law aims to intimidate nations that support the ICC treaty. Washington, Israel’s main ally, has opposed the court’s decision, and a number of US politicians have called for the White House to impose sanctions on the ICC for issuing warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant.

The EU, however, has taken a different stance. Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland, and Norway are among the countries that have said they will comply with the ICC’s request. While Israel is not a party to the Rome Statute, under the treaty that established the court, Netanyahu and Gallant could be detained in any of 124 countries that recognize the its authority. The ICC has accused Netanyahu and Gallant of using starvation as a method of warfare in Gaza, and deliberately depriving the enclave’s civilian population of essential supplies such as food, water, and medicine without any “obvious military necessity.” The charges are part of a broader ICC investigation that includes alleged crimes Hamas committed during its October 7 attacks on Israel.

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JK Rowling should be celebrated. She created an entire world of her own. How many people can say that?

HBO Delivers Blow Against the Anti-Rowling, Anti-Free Speech Movement (Turley)

This week, HBO delivered the corporate version of the Expelliarmus or disarming curse for the long-standing cancel campaign targeting “Harry Potter” creator J.K. Rowling. We have been discussing this campaign against Rowling, a feminist who has opposed transgender policies that she views as inimical to the rights of women. The cancel campaign against Rowling has been extreme and unhinged from blacklisting her books to even barring the playing of Harry Potter games in pubs. Even authors who support Rowling’s free speech have been targeted. Nevertheless, HBO, which has also been targeted in the past, is now saying enough. Rowling’s work will continue to be featured and developed by the company.

HBO has enraged the anti-Rowling movement by announcing that it will not yield and will continue to work with the author: “J.K. Rowling has a right to express her personal views. We will remain focused on the development of the new series, which will only benefit from her involvement.” It added that “her contribution has been invaluable.” HBO has a new upcoming Potter series set to premiere on HBO’s Max streaming platform in 2026. Both Harry Potter stars, Daniel Radcliffe, who played Harry Potter, and Emma Watson, who played Hermine Granger, have joined the criticism of Rowling. However, the criticism itself is not the primary problem, even if they unfairly characterize Rowlings’ actual statements. That is a use of their own free speech rights.

However, the cancel campaigns are far more damaging for free speech, as I discuss in my book, The Indispensable Right. The issue of cancel campaigns came up in my recent debate at Harvard Law School on free speech with Professor Randall Kennedy. Kennedy defended cancel campaigns as the exercise of free speech. There is no question that such campaigns involve the act of free speech as people rallying for or against viewpoints. However, the impact of such campaigns, particularly in higher education, is to limit the diversity of viewpoints and reinforce an orthodoxy on our campuses. It is not to express a view but to seek to silence an opposing view. It is the antithesis of free speech values in higher education.

It also has a damaging effect on an academic community. When students see faculty supporting the canceling of conservative, libertarian, or dissenting speakers, it is hardly an invitation to speak freely yourself in class. The same is true for publishers. We have discussed companies discontinuing publication of Rowling’s work and both editors and writers joining blacklisting campaigns against her and others. We have even seen the embracing of book burning. For the activists behind this massive cancel campaign, HBO’s announcement is nothing short of a corporate Cruciatus (torture) Curse. However, both the arts and free speech are the winners in Rowling’s continuing to produce and expand her legendary body of work.

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Motive: “..they believed Sergei Skripal was planning to return home to Russia, and that the GRU was planning an exfiltration operation..”

British Operation KISS – “Kill Instantly Skripals” – Has Failed (Helmer)

This is the comic book version of what really happened, as revealed by the clumsiest judge in England – Anthony Hughes (titled Lord Hughes of Ombersley, lead image, right). Even if all the evidence presented to Hughes and already endorsed by him is true – on the record of six and half years of British Government investigations and twenty-one days of hearings with concealed witness faces, censored documents, missing CCTV — there remains no direct evidence that the Russians attacked the Skripals by poisoning their front-door handle when they were inside their home, four hours before their collapse. Instead, Hughes and his lawyers have directed the police and other witnesses to stretch their circumstantial evidence and dictated their inferences of Russian guilt. In New York, the legal textbook difference between direct and circumstantial evidence is this.

To stretch the circumstantial evidence and inferences beyond the criminal standard of reasonable doubt, Hughes has prevented direct evidence from being presented, stopping the Skripals from testifying themselves. Their Home Office lawyer purportedly representing the Skripals in the hearings has said nothing at all; Hughes’s lawyers have manipulated witnesses with leading questions; alternative explanations for the circumstantial evidence have been blocked by Hughes from the hospital doctors and independent experts. The way in which this has been done is comic book jurisprudence. The judges of the former British empire aren’t laughing; this is how they say the means and opportunity of a capital crime must be prosecuted, then judged.

The CCTV and other evidence presented at the Hughes hearings shows the Russians knew they had been marked by MI6 from the minute they booked their flights and landed at Gatwick Airport; and they then encouraged the video recording which took place, often mugging in front of the CCTV cameras for that purpose. There is no evidence of their coming close enough to the Skripal house, or to Sergei and Yulia Skripal in person, in order to attack them. Ergo, the evidence of the murder act is missing; the evidence of the murder weapon is missing; the evidence of the murder attempt at the bench is missing. Means, opportunity, motive are all missing from the British prosecution of the Russians for the crime. Yulia Skripal has testified that the poison attack took place when she and her father were sprayed as they were eating lunch inside Zizzi’s Restaurant. They then walked outside, felt ill, sat down on a city bench, and collapsed. Yulia Skripal’s evidence indicates the attackers were British.

The refusal of the British chemical warfare laboratory to name the weapon by its organophosphate name, and reveal its molecular composition and mass conceals the origin of the weapon. In police, forensic or courtroom practice, this is the equivalent of concealing ballistic evidence determining whether a fatal bullet was fired from the gun in the alleged shooter’s hand. The evidence, collected by the police and Porton Down agents, then analysed by Porton Down, then announced publicly by then-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson days before he told Prime Minister May’s meeting of Cabinet, is as likely to be of a British-made organophosphate nerve agent subsequently called Novichok as of a Russian-made nerve agent. What motive: why would the British attack the Skripals?

Their reason was that they believed Sergei Skripal was planning to return home to Russia, and that the GRU was planning an exfiltration operation on March 4, 2018. The Russians knew that MI6 would be suspicious, so they prepared decoys. These are the two men, Alexander Petrov (Alexander Mishkin) and Ruslan Boshirov (Anatoly Chepiga), now accused of the Novichok attack. The British planned to kill the Skripals but camouflage the operation, as they have done. Motive was pressing for the British if Sergei Skripal had returned to Russia, revealing himself in Moscow to be one of the first successful triple agents in modern espionage history. The Russian exfiltration failed; the British failed to execute the Skripals on the spot; for a few minutes from her hospital bed on March 8, Yulia Skripal revealed what had happened before she was put into an artificial coma, then silenced with a tracheostomy on March 21, and kept incommunicado ever since.

The British camouflage for their operation – Operation KISS, “Kill Instantly the Skripals” — relied on the door-handle as “ground zero” – the original source of the Novichok – and on Porton Down to replace the inconclusive or negative tests conducted by doctors treating the Skripals at Salisbury District Hospital. A corpse had to be found, dead enough not to be able to testify otherwise as Yulia Skripal had done. That turned out to be Dawn Sturgess, who died at her home on June 30, 2018, of cardiac arrest and brain hypoxia after consuming a combination of sleeping and anti-anxiety medications, cocaine, and fentanyl. The Novichok weapon, fabricated in a perfume atomiser by MI6 and Porton Down, was then placed on Sturgess’s kitchen table for the police to discover eleven days after her drug binge and collapse; and after medics and police had failed to find it through multiple and repeated searches

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“..trade with the US represents only 2.4 percent of Chinese GDP..”

G20 Knocks Out G7 Agendas (Pepe Escobar)

The G20 summit in Rio earlier this week offered the quite intriguing spectacle of a deeply divided world, geopolitically and geoeconomically, trying to put on a brave ‘holiday in the sun’ face. There was plenty of fluff to amuse attentive audiences. French President Emmanuel Macron surrounded by a beefy security detail strolling on Copacabana beach near midnight; European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen barefoot in the sand, stunned by the lapping waves; the White House lodger, US President Joe Biden – with his expiry date in less than two months – missing the G20 family pic because he was talking to a palm tree. Right before the summit, Biden posed on a soundstage in the rainforest, complete with two giant teleprompters, pledging to save the Amazon just as his handlers in Washington let leak the “authorization” for Ukraine to attack targets inside the Russian Federation with ATACMS; a qualified preamble for a possible WWIII.

With Rio providing the ultimately gorgeous set, at the very least, tempers at the renovated Museum of Modern Art, the G20 venue with the Sugarloaf in the background, were bound to mellow out. This even allowed for a short, tense handshake between Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a true leader of the Global South, and Argentina’s President Javier Milei, a US asset who hates Lula’s guts. The populist Brazilian head of state, whose political capital transcends all barriers, was, of course, an impeccable master of ceremonies, but the real star of the show was Chinese President Xi Jinping – fresh from his previous triumph, when he was for all practical purposes coronated King of Peru during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Lima – complete with the inauguration of the $1.3 billion port of Chancay, the new South American node of the Pacific Maritime Silk Road. As China is all about global connectivity corridors, Chancay-Shanghai became an instant new motto ringing all across the Global South.

Beijing’s prime role as an engine and cooperation propeller across Asia–Pacific also applies to most of the G20 members. China is the largest trading partner of the 13 APEC economies, and is responsible for 64.2 percent of Asia-Pacific’s economic growth. This prime role extrapolates to China’s BRICS colleagues among the G20, as well as brand-new BRICS partner-nations such as Indonesia and Turkiye. Compare that with the G7/NATOstan contingent of the G20, starting with the United States, whose main global offerings range from Forever Wars and color revolutions to weaponizing of news and culture, trade wars, a tsunami of sanctions, and confiscation/theft of assets. So, predictably, there was some serious underlying tension permeating the G20, especially when it came to the face-off between the G7 and the Russia-China strategic partnership. Russian President Vladimir Putin didn’t even bother to attend, sending his uber-competent Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov instead.

As for Beijing, after 7 years of combined Trump-Biden trade and tech war, the Chinese economy continues to grow by 5.2 percent a year. Exports now account for only 16 percent of China’s GDP, so the economic powerhouse is far less vulnerable to foreign trade machinations. And the US share of that 16 percent is now only 15 percent; that is, trade with the US represents only 2.4 percent of Chinese GDP. Even under what can be described as NATOstan’s all-out tech sanctions, Chinese tech firms are growing at warp speed. As a result, all western tech companies are in deep trouble: massive retrenchment, factory downsizes, and shutdowns. Meanwhile, China’s trade surplus with the rest of the world has expanded to a record one trillion US dollars. That’s what horrified Western economists qualify as China on a “collision course” with some of the world’s biggest – yet dwindling – economies.

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Carvey
https://twitter.com/i/status/1859790685542482146

 

 

Volvo

 

 

Goat
https://twitter.com/i/status/1859924986032447632

 

 

Fright

 

 

Henson
https://twitter.com/i/status/1859646855803801928

 

 

Quarry

 

 

Street food

 

 

 

 

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