Nov 022026
 
 November 2, 2026  Posted by at 10:24 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  17 Responses »


Edward Hopper Hotel lobby 1943


• Qatar Signals Talks ‘Breakthrough’ As Khamenei Warns (ZH)
• Iran’s Araghchi Hopes For ‘Rationality’ From US (ZH)
• Polish PM Tusk Says He Won’t Back Down (ZH)
• Finland’s President Defends Calling Putin (RT)
• Macron’s Riot Problem Isn’t the Mystery He Says It Is (Eric Florack)
• Ukraine’s Public Debt Has Surged 130-Fold Since 2006 (RT)
• Millions Embezzled In Fraud Scheme At Ukrainian Defense Firm – Probe (RT)
• European Commission Begins Reevaluating Emissions Trading System (CTH)
• The Ilhan Omar Immigration Fraud Case Is Bigger Than We Thought (Margolis)
• Ilhan Omar’s Marriage Application To ‘Brother’ Surfaces With Bizarre Errors (ZH)
• Alina Habba Says Grenell Blocked $5.6M Of Billionaire Husband’s Donation (ZH)
• “The Pope Doesn’t Take Sides” (Turley)

 

 

https://twitter.com/IngrahamAngle/status/2116518848769974668?a=P5zgeJHc-hIYawJJs6o&s=20

 

 


Iran is still threatening the US:

“..Iran’s Retaliation Will Have ‘No Geographical Limits’ If Attacked..”

Tomorrow’s the US midterms. After that Trump is free to attack Iran. He doesn’t appear to have much choice.

The Iranians attempt to drag him along, as they can do like no other.

Iran puts itself on equal footing withe the US. Trump does not, and never will.

Trump wants to make sure they have no nukes, and no control over Hormuz.

They know this, but still haven’t given in on either point.

The IRGC has murdered at last 40,000 of its own people in the recent past.

They don’t care about thesee lives, onl;y about their own.

Bibi threatened to nuke Iran, and Trump said no, we will take care of this.

And now he has to. He didn’t want them to have nukes, anyway.

• Qatar Signals Talks ‘Breakthrough’ As Khamenei Warns (ZH)

Could this be the actual breakthrough coming after many months of prior claimed negotiation ‘breakthroughs’ and false starts? Just when the prospect of even getting back to the negotiating table seemed as remote as ever, Qatari newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed is reporting that planned direct talks are back on.


Regional sources are indeed calling this a “breakthrough” in hitherto indirect negotiations between Washington and Tehran, with an American delegation soon expected to join Iranian officials for direct talks in Doha.The midterm election in the US is just a handful of days away, and President Trump has strongly signaled he might renew a major bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic.

Picking up on the Saturday Qatari report, Times of Israel writes, “Citing sources close to mediation efforts led by Qatar and Pakistan, the report says the sides have agreed on preliminary measures concerning Iran’s nuclear program, navigation through the Strait of Hormuz and financial incentives for Tehran, with China and Russia set to serve as guarantors of an agreement.”


“The reported progress follows what Axios describes as more than 12 hours of talks between Qatari mediators and Iranian officials in Tehran yesterday, aimed at averting renewed US strikes on Iran after the November 3 midterm elections,” it adds.

Al Arabiya English says it has obtained key points from the preliminary draft framework for restarting US-Iran negotiations and has published the following list:
• Iran could transfer its highly enriched uranium stockpile to an agreed third country or reduce its enrichment level
• The Strait of Hormuz could reopen to international maritime traffic within seven days of an initial understanding
• China could potentially serve as a guarantor of the implementation and sustainability of any agreement
• Direct US-Iran negotiations could be held in Doha instead of Istanbul
• Iranian measures on the nuclear file and maritime security would be matched by clearly defined US measures to ease sanctions, blockades and economic restrictions
• An independent verification mechanism would assess compliance before each subsequent phase of implementation
• Neither side would be required to make substantial concessions without receiving corresponding, independently verifiable commitments
• A dispute-resolution mechanism involving mediators and guarantor parties would address delays or violations to help prevent renewed military escalation

But none of this means that Iranian leadership is going to sit idly by and let the Trump administration dictate the terms, as it continues sticking by its seven conditions for ending the war. By now it should be clear that Tehran does not trust Trump or Netanyahu when it comes to efforts to achieve peace.


Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has on Saturday put his military on heightened alert, ordering military commanders to ensure an immediate and desvastating response to any threat, and notably without geographical limitation. “Any level or type of threat must be met with an immediate, impactful, and geographically unrestricted response,” the Ayatollah – who has not been seen in public since the war began – has stated.

This was reportedly the result of a meeting with senior military commanders – itself a very rare thing if indeed happened, again given that he’s not so much as been seen in public since the assassination of his father. Al Jazeera describes the significance further, writing that “Iranians have been emphasising that if a new wave of war comes, Iran is going to go beyond the locations that it has hit in the previous rounds.”


“Khamenei is also saying that if the war restarts, then it’s going to be up to Iran to determine when it’s going to end and on what terms,” the regional commentary adds. “This is quite a huge thing because it’s saying that the terms of diplomacy will be up to Iran now.” So these planned next Qatari talks could be the last big diplomatic effort at restarting a peace and dialogue track, or else it could be bombs away and runaway escalation.

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He’ll get his rationality.

• Iran’s Araghchi Hopes For ‘Rationality’ From US (ZH)

On Sunday Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi weighed in on current peace discussions which are being mediated via Qatar. He expressed that Tehran is ready to egage in serious diplomacy but hopes to see ‘rationality’ from the US side. We previously featured details of a draft framework being offered and examined.


“We are making our efforts in this direction and hope that there is rationality on the other side to prefer diplomacy to other paths,” Araghchi said. The statement comes amid widespread reports that the Trump White House could order a new major bombing campaign soon after Tuesday’s midterm elections.But he also alluded to the fresh orders that Iran’s supreme commander-in-chief, which is the Ayatollah, conveyed to senior military officials.

“Our armed forces also have a very clear mission and, drawing on the experiences of the past t

wo wars, are much stronger than before,” the FM stated. Iran says Hormuz could be reopened within two days if conditions met… Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei had on Saturday put his military on heightened alert, ordering military commanders to ensure an immediate and desvastating response to any threat, and notably without geographical limitation.

“Any level or type of threat must be met with an immediate, impactful, and geographically unrestricted response,” the Ayatollah – who has not been seen in public since the war began – stated.


This was reportedly the result of a meeting with senior military commanders – itself a very rare thing, given that he’s not so much as been seen in public since the assassination of his father. Al Jazeera described the significance further, writing that “Iranians have been emphasising that if a new wave of war comes, Iran is going to go beyond the locations that it has hit in the previous rounds.” Meanwhile some alarming videos have surfaced over the weekend showing results of some of the latest Iranian attacks on tankers.

https://twitter.com/ATLAS_PULSEe/status/2116886463736651975?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2116886463736651975%7Ctwgr%5E9bcfb66ca012febfb97a1a9002a8db943d049390%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fgeopolitical%2Firans-araghchi-hopes-rationality-us-amid-signs-renewed-war-could-erupt


As for the status of indirect negotiations between Tehran and Washington, Araghchi also said, “Consultations are ongoing but we have not yet reached a definitive conclusion because this conclusion depends on the answers the other side gives to our questions. There was no plan to negotiate with the American side during this trip.” So the talks are still not yet ‘direct’ and it’s unclear on if there are plans to engage in such.

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Coup.

What I did notice is the people protesting in the street all seem to be pro-President.

• Polish PM Tusk Says He Won’t Back Down (ZH)

Pro-EU Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk defended his decision to suspend top court judges and accused the opposition of resorting to violence in an attempt to destroy the rule-of-law. As Bloomberg reports, Tusk said in a TV address on Saturday that the Constitutional Tribunal in its current form isn’t independent and his government’s attempts to fix it have been sabotaged by the Law & Justice party and President Karol Nawrocki.


“We have waited too long to be intimidated and to back down now,” Tusk said. “I’m confident that the Constitutional Tribunal will begin to function as it ought to – independently, autonomously, and in accordance with the Constitution.” Tusk went on to accuse conservative nationalist opposition leaders of wanting to “destroy democracy and rule of law” in a speech addressing the ongoing constitutional crisis.

“Let’s call things by their name,” he said. “For years in Poland there exist organisations and politicians who wish to destroy democracy and rule of law.” As a reminder, the pro-European government said the suspension is necessary to restore judicial independence, while critics from the opposition have likened it to a “coup d’etat.”

~~~~~

It is approaching 24 hours since Poland was dramatically plunged into a Constitutional crisis. Starting Friday night, Prime Minister Donald Tusk staged a forced takeover of one of the country’s top courts, prompting Polish President Karol Nawrocki to abrubtly turn back his plane which was en route to Africa for a scheduled state visit.

“At a moment like this, the President must be in Poland. I am cutting short my flight to Senegal. I am returning,” he wrote on X. The globe’s attention then turned to Warsaw and site of the Constitutional Tribunal, where police had surrounded it, and prevented the independent body’s leaders from entering its grounds.

Protesters also soon descended, after it was revealed that the court’s longest-serving judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska had suspended Bogdan Swieczkowski, the tribunal’s president. The country’s main anti-Tusk opposition decried the blatant judicial power-grab. President Nawrocki, an ally of the previous nationalist and Right-wing government is now in a desperate battle against Tusk’s pro-EU government for ultimate control of the judiciary.

Tusk’s ruling coalition has been trying for weeks to remove judges appointed under the previous PiS government, and now the trigger has been pulled in the most obvious of ways – with the clash literally spilling into the streets amid a stand off with police. After disembarking his plane upon his abrupt return to Warsaw Friday night, President Nawrocki physically attempted to gain entry amid unpredented displays of scuffles breaking out at the top court:


Outside the court the Associated Press observed clashes with police as the crowds grew and security blocked all entrances, even to top court officials:

“Hundreds of anti-government protesters rallied overnight around a top court in Poland to denounce the suspension of the tribunal’s president, for which they blame the country’s pro-European government. Police said they detained three protesters after some threw objects at the officers and tried to break through the security fence around the court.”

The primary responsibility of the tribunal is conducting judicial review to verify that Polish statutes adhere to constitutional standards. The Friday night chaos started when it was the Polish official agency PAP which was the first to report that court chief Bogdan Sierczkowski and his number two, Bartlomiej Sochanski, were suspended for a month by order of Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska.

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Putin is Satan. No talking to him.

“Alexander Stubb has said it was important for him and Norwegian PM Jonas Gahr Store to hear the Russian leader’s stance on Ukraine firsthand..”

• Finland’s President Defends Calling Putin (RT)


Finnish President Alexander Stubb.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb has defended the phone conversation he and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store had with Russian leader Vladimir Putin earlier this week following criticism from some Moscow hawks in Europe.


The two Nordic leaders made the rare phone call on Tuesday, with discussions focusing mainly on the Ukraine conflict, as well as security in Northern Europe and the Baltic Sea. The conversation followed US special envoy Steve Witkoff’s meeting with Putin in St. Petersburg last week and subsequent consultations in Oslo involving Stubb, Store, and Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky.

Both Moscow and Kiev have since agreed to take part in a fourth round of US-mediated trilateral talks that is expected to take place in Abu Dhabi in November, with European countries excluded from the peace process, according to the Kremlin.

Appearing on Yle’s Ykkosaamu (Morning One) program on Saturday, Stubb noted that Tuesday’s call was the first time since becoming Finland’s president that he had spoken with Putin. Stubb emphasized the importance of hearing firsthand the Russian leader’s view of the root causes of the Ukraine conflict, describing the direct exchange of opinions as a “turning point.”

Stubb said he and Store reopened the “channel of communication” with Moscow at Kiev’s request and relayed Zelensky’s messages to Putin after consultations with US and Ukrainian representatives. He emphasized, however, that Helsinki was “not acting as any kind of peace mediator here.” Both Nordic leaders earlier specifically pointed out that they were not speaking on behalf of Europe.

The Finnish president clarified that aside from the Ukraine conflict, he and Store brought up the security of their respective countries, which both share an extensive border with Russia.Among other things, the two Nordic leaders used the opportunity to “clear up some misunderstandings” regarding the Baltic Sea, reaffirming their adherence to international maritime law and the principle of freedom of navigation.

Stubb defended what he described as the “first confidence-building measure” by noting that “Russia is our neighbor now and will remain our neighbor in the future,” with bilateral relations liable to resume at one point. In the wake of their call with Putin, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen accused the two Nordic leaders of breaking European ranks, claiming the conversation had “not been coordinated with the rest of us” – an objection echoed by Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.

Responding to these criticisms, Stubb stressed that he and Store extensively briefed Zelensky and multiple EU leaders afterward. Most Western European leaders shunned direct contact with Moscow after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022 in an attempt to diplomatically isolate Russia. However, in recent weeks they have mounted an effort to secure a seat at the negotiation table as Moscow and Washington ramp up diplomatic work aimed at resolving the conflict.

Commenting on his phone conversation with the two Nordic leaders, Putin stated on Thursday that Russia supported “any steps aimed at restoring full-fledged and comprehensive relations” with European countries.“After all, there are people in Europe who, unlike some others, do not want to inflict a ‘strategic defeat’ on Russia but instead want to establish some kind of constructive dialogue,” the Russian president explained.

He also reiterated that Moscow is not seeking a broader conflict with the EU or NATO.

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How Macron can say with a straight face that there are no invaders.

• Macron’s Riot Problem Isn’t the Mystery He Says It Is (Eric Florack)

The French republican tradition insists on one national identity, so the government largely refuses to sort its citizens by ethnicity, and INSEE, the French statistical agency, operates under real legal restrictions on the subject. A French citizen is French. No hyphens, no ethnic boxes. No worries about who you import and no worries, either, about those who decide they don’t want to be French at all, but foreign invaders.


As ideals go, it’s worthwhile, if you ignore reality. Declaring everyone part of the same national community doesn’t make them participate in it. You can decree national unity. You can’t manufacture social cohesion by pretending the question doesn’t exist. And refusing to count makes the hard questions harder, not easier.

The truly maddening part is that Macron knows this. In the very same speech, he blamed the violence on “far-left groups” that, along with plenty of ordinary criminals, unleashed violence without restraint. So he identified the arsonists by name and then pretended to be baffled about who lit the match. That isn’t leadership. That’s a man reading two different speeches at once.

And if you want to know what those groups stand for, look at what they set on fire tonight: American and Israeli flags. Not even French flags. Ask yourself what American and Israeli flags have to do with French school budgets, or the price of a liter of diesel. Not a blessed thing, of course. But it has everything to do with the worldview of the people throwing the Molotov cocktails. In their eyes, the Judeo-Christian West is the villain. America and Israel are the West at its most confident, so those flags burn first, and the cost-of-living grievances are just the costume.

There are real complaints underneath all this. No question of that. Energy prices in France were 21.3% higher in September than a year earlier, pushing overall inflation to 3.1%. A government that can’t keep schools staffed has earned some anger. But Macron’s answer has been a speech, a “crisis unit,” and a promise that lessons will be learned. He also had to answer for being spotted with his wife at a Céline Dion concert the night the riots broke out. Meanwhile, about 70,000 police and gendarmes had to be deployed nationwide to keep the lid on.

The French voters see it. Far-right presidential hopeful Jordan Bardella called Macron’s speech “lamentable” and “cowardly,” and said the government can no longer even protect its own people. Over on the left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon says the government alone is responsible for the destruction. When the far right and the far left agree you’ve failed, you’ve probably failed. France picks Macron’s successor in May, and from where I sit, the job is going to someone who isn’t confused about who is burning the place down. Assuming France exists as such by that point.

They’re not alone, though. Many countries have succumbed to the demands of Brussels on the matter of citizenship, with Spain, Portugal, Greece, and Belgium, among them. And in every single case, officials in those countries blame living costs, unemployment, extremists, or “inequality.” Immigration never makes the list. Nor does a lack of cultural assimilation. But there again, why would they admit that their own hands were a part of that mess?

Now, before anyone on this side of the Atlantic gets too comfortable sneering at the French, remember that we have our own versions of these people, and some of them are on the ballot Tuesday. (I’m looking at YOU, Michigan).

In last week’s column, I talked about the DSA’s slate of candidates and how far into the Democrat Party they’ve gotten. The ideology that burns American and Israeli flags in Paris is the same one that considers ICE a “rogue” agency and sees our own police as the enemy. The only difference is how far along each country is.

We still have time to do better. That starts Tuesday.

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“The IMF has warned that Kiev’s finances are unsustainable without restructuring and continued foreign assistance..”

Kiev is beyond broke, but Euope wants to fight Putin.

Kiev’s debt is Europe’s debt.

• Ukraine’s Public Debt Has Surged 130-Fold Since 2006 (RT)

Ukraine’s state and state-guaranteed debt has surged roughly 130-fold in national currency terms over the past two decades, according to figures from the country’s Finance Ministry. In recent months, Kiev has been struggling to plug multi-billion-dollar holes in its budget while pleading with its reluctant backers in the EU for more assistance.


The ministry released the updated figure on Tuesday, putting debt at 9.54 trillion hryvnias ($212.61 billion) as of late September, compared with 73.29 billion hryvnias ($14.51 billion) in September 2006.

The staggering increase is partly explained by the hryvnia’s depreciation, with the currency losing nearly 90% of its value against the US dollar over the same period. However, the increase remains substantial even in dollar terms, with the debt expanding 14.6-fold. It has also more than doubled from $97.95 billion at the end of 2021, just before the escalation of Kiev’s conflict with Russia in February 2022.

Foreign governments and international institutions now account for 66.4% of Ukraine’s debt portfolio, much of it on preferential terms, which helps to alleviate the financial burden. Kiev has a debt repayment schedule extending through 2061 and is obliged to pay almost $33 billion to global financial institutions in interest and servicing costs alone, on top of the principal of almost $107 billion. For comparison’s sake, Ukraine’s 2021 GDP was around $200 billion.

Ukraine’s dire financial strain did not escape the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which warned in July that Kiev’s debt “remains unsustainable” without restructuring and further preferential foreign assistance.

Kiev’s financial burden came into the spotlight in late summer when Vladimir Zelensky disclosed an unexpected $27 billion defense funding gap – which emerged after his 40-day PR ‘pressure campaign’ on Russia – and urged Brussels to frontload part of its €90 billion loan earmarked for 2027.

The EU, however, refused to validate the figure and approve further assistance, urging Ukraine to make progress on stalled governance and anti-corruption reforms to unlock funding that was already available. In early October, Kiev managed to plug the gap with austerity measures and by convincing the EU to defer some payments for weapons until the next year.

Still, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas acknowledged on Thursday that European leaders were finding it increasingly difficult to justify continued assistance to Kiev because “everyone is tired of this war,” while urging Western governments to continue supporting Ukraine.

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100 schemes just like it. Corruption like maybe some African nations have seen.

• Millions Embezzled In Fraud Scheme At Ukrainian Defense Firm – Probe (RT)

A former head of a state-owned Ukrainian defense company is suspected of embezzling millions of dollars through fake mediation deals, the country’s anti-corruption bodies have said. Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) announced in a statement on Friday that the scheme had cost the government 1.1 billion hryvnia (around $43 million).


The Western-backed agencies, which frequently target Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky’s inner-circle, didn’t name the suspect, only saying that he used to lead a subsidiary of Ukrspecexport, a state-run company with exclusive rights to export and import military hardware. According to the investigators, the former head of the state-run firm signed a deal with a foreign company in 2015 for it to provide mediation during the sales of Ukrainian military products abroad.

However, it had been established that the Ukrainian firm had conducted all of the negotiations with a customer from a Middle Eastern country on its own, and the foreign company wasn’t involved, they said. Despite this fact, the official signed falsified documents about mediation services being provided by the foreign company and transferred millions to it as payment, the statement read. The actions of the suspect are being qualified as large-scale embezzlement and forgery of government papers, it added.

Ukrainskaya Pravda reported later in the day that, according to its sources, the official in question is Taras Shiyko, who now holds the positions of the deputy director of Ukroboronprom, a state-run conglomerate comprised of Ukraine’s arms makers. The fraud scheme relates to his time as the head of Progress, a state-run export and import company. Shiyko became part of an anti-corruption case earlier this year, involving the suspected embezzlement of 32 million hryvnia (around $700,000).

Zelensky’s government has been rocked by a series of corruption scandals involving people close to him since November 2025, when NABU and SAPO accused Timur Mindich, a longtime associate of the Ukrainian leader, of masterminding a $100 million kickback scheme involving state contracts in the energy sector. Other investigations have implicated former Ukrainian ministers, diplomats, and senior officials.

NABU’s latest high-profile case targeted an alleged protection racket involving scam call centers and officials from the Prosecutor General’s Office. Although he was not personally named as a suspect, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko left Ukraine before being dismissed by parliament last month, according to Ukrainian media.

Critics accuse Zelensky of leading a sprawling corruption network which permeates his government, allegedly helping him maintain power and enriching those involved. A poll issued by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) last month suggested that the Ukrainians consider corruption to be a bigger problem for the country than the conflict with Russia.

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“.,.to Restore EU Oil Refining Capacity

They never replaced what they took away. They ignored they use energy at all.

• European Commission Begins Reevaluating Emissions Trading System (CTH)

,This is an interesting potential shift in energy position for the European Union. There has been zero investment by the EU nations in oil refining capacity. Simultaneously, Europe is now realizing they need diesel and jet fuel. Under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), refineries have an ever-diminishing cap on carbon emissions, and they receive fewer ‘free’ pollution allowances over time.


This means oil refining costs go up steadily, increasing the cost of operating the dirty carbon facilities, while these same refineries must adhere to stricter environmental rules and pollution limits under the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED). The entire regulatory system was created to eliminate gasoline, diesel and eventually jet fuel.

As the EU is now discovering, their climate change policies have been executed but the global and EU drop in demand has not occurred at the same pace. The EU is now in a position where the percentage of their own oil refining production is lower than their needs. More energy dependency has been created.

With the EU energy analysts now saying they don’t have the fuel capacity to support the political demands for a war with Russia, in combination with President Trump continually affirming the U.S. will not get involved in any expanded conflict, the European Union is now reevaluating how to increase domestic fuel production.

EUROPE – Over the past couple of decades, Europe has pursued some of the world’s most ambitious clean energy policies, aiming to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. Hardly surprisingly, Europe is now further along the clean energy transition compared to its western peers, with renewables accounting for roughly half of the continent’s power mix compared to about 26% by the U.S. However, Europe is now being forced to reckon with its decision to ditch some of its fossil fuel assets as yet another global energy crisis unfolds just years after the 2022 energy crisis.

[…] the continent has been forced to rely more heavily on imported refined products, exposing it to geopolitical risks. The Iran and Ukraine wars have led to a spike in oil and gas prices, with EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen terming geopolitical instability and the prolonged diesel squeeze a “wake-up call” for the bloc.

[…] Central European nations like Poland, Czechia, and Slovakia have been pressuring the European Commission to establish a long-term protective strategy for Europe’s oil refineries. They have called for refineries to be protected from carbon leakage and given access to EU funds to upgrade.

[…] now, Brussels is looking to rethink its long-standing approach to the domestic oil-refining industry. On Wednesday, the European Commission launched the first High-Level Dialogue with the European oil refining sector. Co-chaired by Dan Jørgensen (Commissioner for Energy and Housing) and Andrius Kubilius (Commissioner for Defence and Space), the forum discussed Europe’s energy security, industrial competitiveness and defense readiness amid recurring geopolitical disruptions.

Participants mapped out short-term responses to supply disruptions stemming from ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, noting that EU refineries currently supply approximately 70% of jet fuel and 85% of diesel consumed across Europe. (read more)

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I keep asking myself: How did she become worth $25 million?

Did she bring that from Somalia?

• The Ilhan Omar Immigration Fraud Case Is Bigger Than We Thought (Margolis)

When DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin sat down with Fox News on Friday, he delivered some delicious news about the federal investigation into Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).


“This isn’t just a case that’s targeting one individual,” Mullin explained. “This is a large case that we have presented to the DOJ, and the DOJ is leading the investigations.” Mullin credited the Homeland Security Investigations agents who searched Omar’s Washington, D.C., home on October 12 and hauled out boxes of material. Those agents “did a lot of investigation to be able to present the case to them,” he said.

The probe dates back to 2009, when Somalia-born Omar married Ahmed Elmi. Investigators want to know whether that marriage was part of an immigration fraud conspiracy, and whether Omar lied on government paperwork to become a citizen. Elmi is a British citizen who, we recently learned, describes himself as gay, and the evidence points to him being her brother, with the marriage allowing him to remain in the country legally.

Investigators are also scrutinizing her House financial disclosures, which may have padded her net worth by tens of millions of dollars. The New York Post reported Friday that on Omar’s certified 2009 marriage license from Hennepin County, Minn., her surname was crossed out, swapped for “Elmi,” and then switched back to “Omar.” The rest of Omar’s personal history only adds to the mess. She reportedly had her staff change her birth year from 1981 to 1982 so she could appear to have obtained naturalization as a minor through her father in 2000.

The FBI and DHS examined the brother-marriage allegations back in 2016, while Omar was running for the Minnesota legislature. Now that the case is alive again, the usual suspects are crying foul. Former President Barack Obama publicly criticized the probe, apparently forgetting that the investigation first got rolling while he was still in the White House. “I’ve made this very, very, very, very clear: we’re enforcing our nation’s laws across the board equally, and we’re going to continue to do that,” Mullin said in response to Obama.

He added that political standing buys no one a pass. “I don’t care where you’re seated, and I don’t care how you’re registered to vote, I don’t care what your job title is,” he continued. “We use it equally.” Mullin also turned the weaponization charge back on the people making it, arguing that Democrats “came after their political enemies like President Trump, and they know they weaponized our DOJ and FBI.”

Earlier in the interview, he made the same point about the Omar probe specifically. “We’re enforcing our nation’s laws, and we’re going to do that. We’re not weaponizing. We’re not using political theater on this,” Mullin said. “We’re going to let the facts play out, we’re not playing politics with this — I said this from day one, we’re not playing politics with anybody’s lives.”

This is going to be fun.

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“If we’ve had a foreign nationalist occupying a seat in Congress, that’s a problem,” she said, adding that Congress would be “failing to do their job.”

• Ilhan Omar’s Marriage Application To ‘Brother’ Surfaces With Bizarre Errors (ZH)

Rep. Ilhan Omar’s 2009 Minnesota marriage license application to Ahmed Elmi, the man accused of being her brother, shows her surname written as Omar, crossed out and changed to Elmi, then changed back to Omar, according to a certified copy from Hennepin County obtained by the New York Post.


The name changes could matter because the Justice Department is investigating whether the Somalia-born Minnesota Democrat fraudulently obtained U.S. citizenship in 2000 by failing to use her true legal name and birthdate. That case grew out of an earlier probe into whether Omar committed immigration fraud by marrying Elmi, a British citizen.

The document arrives weeks into an escalating federal effort. Homeland Security Investigations agents raided Omar’s Washington, D.C., home on Oct. 12 as part of the immigration fraud probe. In a court filing last week, the Justice Department referred to her as “Congresswoman Ilhan Nur Said Elmi, a/k/a Ilhan Abdullahi Omar.” A source familiar with the investigation told the Post that Omar is not her real name and that her birth surname is Elmi, the same as the man she married.

The application is dated Feb. 12, 2009. One question asks whether the bride and groom are related by blood or adoption, and the couple checked “no.” The first revision on the form reads “Ilhan Omar Elmi,” a version that differs from the name the Justice Department now uses in court. The document does not identify who filled it out, though all the entries appear to share one person’s handwriting.

An image of the application has circulated online for years. Alpha News, a Minnesota outlet, appears to have first published it in August 2016. Major news outlets gave it little attention until this month. Scott W. Johnson, a retired Minneapolis attorney and former Alpha News board member, has spent ten years investigating Omar’s alleged immigration fraud. “Questions should be asked. She’s never answered them,” Johnson said. “The whole thing was a joke. The marriage was a fraudulent marriage, brazenly fraudulent… It was entered into for a fraudulent purpose.”

A Christian minister married Omar and Elmi on Feb. 12, 2009, the same date the application bears. By then, Omar already had two children with Ahmed Hirsi, whom she had married in a 2002 Islamic ceremony that never became a legal marriage. In May 2009, Hirsi listed the address on the Omar-Elmi marriage license as his own home. Omar had a third child with Hirsi in June 2012 and finalized her divorce from Elmi in 2017. She legally married Hirsi in 2018, filed for divorce a year later, and married her current husband, Tim Mynett, in 2020.

The Justice Department first opened an investigation into Omar in 2016, under President Barack Obama, into whether Omar married her brother so he could get a green card. The Biden administration closed that probe in 2021 for two reasons. The five-year statute of limitations had run out, meaning prosecutors would have had to file charges by 2014, and the FBI could not interview Elmi, who had returned to the U.K.

Legal experts told the Post that federal investigators now appear focused on a possible conspiracy involving ongoing acts, such as misstating a birthdate, which the earlier statute of limitations may not bar. Civil denaturalization carries no statute of limitations and could lead to Omar’s deportation.

In an academic paper published in August, Elmi, a doctoral researcher at the University of Bristol, identified himself as a “gay man of the East African diaspora.” Omar has broadly dismissed the allegations as a racist conspiracy theory and a politically motivated smear. Last week, MS NOW anchor Chris Hayes asked her directly whether she married her brother. “Not to my knowledge,” Omar said.


AJ Kern, a former Minnesota congressional candidate who has examined Omar’s immigration records and birthdate discrepancies, told the Post she sees the record as clear. “I think it’s pretty clear she married her brother and committed immigration fraud,” Kern said. Kern said the larger issue is the possibility of a non-citizen holding federal office.

“If we’ve had a foreign nationalist occupying a seat in Congress, that’s a problem,” she said, adding that Congress would be “failing to do their job.”

Read more …

If I got this right,Trump’s personal lawyer Alina Habba is married to a 25-year-old Turkish billionnaire with business interests in Venezuela and Congo?! Do I believe that?

• Alina Habba Says Grenell Blocked $5.6M Of Billionaire Husband’s Donation (ZH)

Alina Habba told President Trump in the Oval Office that Richard Grenell, the Trump ally who ran the Kennedy Center, never delivered roughly $5.6 million of a $17.6 million payment her husband wired at his direction, and White House counsel Will Scharf has been told to look into it. Grenell denies it all. The dispute has since turned toward Habba’s husband, Turkish businessman Turhan Mildon, his Venezuelan and Congolese business ties, and whose money the wire really was.


Richard Grenell and Alina Habba Mildon had once been close friends.


According to the NY Times, Habba brought the accusation to the Oval Office on Oct. 9, after the Times sent Mildon questions about his Venezuela business. She said Mildon made the payment in May 2025 at Grenell’s direction, believing about $5.6 million would be set aside for the Kennedy Center, and that the money never reached it. The wire itself went to TX-AT, a Texas security and defense equipment company, not to the Kennedy Center. Trump called in Scharf to hear her out.

Her account has moved. People familiar with the discussion told the Times she described the sum first as a donation of about $17 million, then as roughly $6 million, and eventually said most of the payment was a business transaction whose details remain unclear, with the remainder meant for the Kennedy Center. The Times said it had not verified her accusations.

The Times then reported on Oct. 17 that the $17.6 million came from a bank account linked to the Congolese government, not from Mildon himself. AllAfrica’s account of that report says the commercial arrangement behind the payment “remains unclear,” and that TX-AT and Congolese officials did not respond to the Times. The first documents sent to the White House on the couple’s behalf blacked out the sender’s name, Rio Times reported.


Turhan Mildon at the iKinshasa Financial Center, December 2023


Mildon, through a spokesman, has acknowledged advising Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi and holding a Congolese diplomatic passport. His company, Milvest, built the Kinshasa Financial Center. None of that establishes that Congolese state money paid for anything in the dispute, and nothing published shows Tshisekedi or his aides knew of the wire. The Justice Department’s foreign-agent registry lists no registration for Mildon, Milvest, TX-AT, Grenell or Habba, according to the Rio Times.

Grenell has told the Times and Axios that he never received any payment from Mildon. “I’ve never asked for one cent to be sent somewhere else pretending it was for the Kennedy Center, and I’ve never received any payment from him at all,” he told Axios. He called the allegations “absurd” and told the Daily Beast, “Make him give proof to what he is saying.” He acknowledged consulting for TX-AT in 2024 but said he had no connection to the company when the wire was sent, and denied soliciting payments for it.


The Kennedy Center’s own records are thin. Mildon pledged $270,000 after a gala concert and paid it only the week the Times asked why he had not. The center says it is examining the relevant pledges and funds and will report to its board. Mildon’s lawyers also gave Scharf a text that allegedly shows Grenell offering to make Mildon the “American face down in V,” a reference to Venezuela. Grenell told the Times he never sent that message or anything like it.

That Venezuela thread is where the scrutiny now falls on Mildon. He has extensive business interests there, and U.S. officials and intelligence officers have examined his relationship with Alex Saab, the Maduro confidant who awarded him a cement contract. Mildon says he is 29, but U.S. documents and British corporate records list him as 25; he declined to explain the difference to the Times. Grenell was at the time Trump’s special envoy for Venezuela.

Scharf is still gathering evidence, Axios reported, and has been slow to receive records from Habba and Mildon’s attorneys. A Trump insider told Axios it is the “ultimate MAGA blood feud.” What would settle it is the wire’s true sender, what the $17.6 million was for, and what Grenell actually said to Mildon. None of those questions has an answer on the public record.

Read more …

“Should a Foreign Head of State Be Able to Vote in United States Elections?”

• “The Pope Doesn’t Take Sides” (Turley)

“So, the Pope doesn’t take sides. Prevost has another opinion, but we won’t do that now.” That funny quip from Pope Leo XIV (born Robert Prevost) referred to the historic game in Rome when the Villanova and Notre Dame basketball teams play each other.


However, a story this week raised a different question of when the Pope, as opposed to Prevost, can “take sides.” This month, American-born Pope Leo XIV became the first pope ever to vote in a U.S. election.

A longtime Chicago native, the Pope mailed an absentee ballot to Will County, and the clerk’s office confirmed to Fox News Digital that “Robert Prevost is on the list of individuals who requested a Vote by Mail ballot.” There is no question that the Pope can vote in the Holy See. Indeed, he is the ultimate and final vote in the Vatican, but can he actually vote in Illinois races (including the governor’s race involving incumbent Democrat J.B. Pritzker)? The answer appears to be yes, but it raises some novel questions.

Now, as a threshold matter, I want to shed some bias. I was raised Catholic in Chicago. No, that is not the bias. There is that lingering conflict with the Pope coming out as a White Sox fan. Many of us on the North Side hoped for a conversion to restore our faith in papal infallibility. However, he has remained entrenched in his South Side allegiance.

This column rises above that historic rivalry and does not suggest that White Sox fans can be challenged at the polls. (Besides, I previously explained that the Pope is a Cubs fan without knowing it.) Rather, what surprised me was that the head of a foreign state could vote in U.S. elections. The Vatican is a distinct nation with a diplomatic corps, a court system, a local government, and even a military in the form of the legendary Swiss Guards.

The Holy See Press Office declared, “Pope Leo XIV has exercised his right to vote as a United States citizen whenever he was eligible to do so. The Holy See Press Office confirms that, in keeping with this long-standing practice of civic participation, he has submitted his mail-in ballot in Chicago.”

The Holy See maintains that Pope Leo retains his status as a U.S. citizen while serving as the head of a foreign nation. There is support for this position. The State Department has maintained that dual citizens do not have to choose between their countries, though it does not expect them to serve as the head of another country.

“U.S. dual nationals owe allegiance to both the United States and the foreign country (or countries, if they are nationals of more than one). They are required to obey the laws of both countries, and either country has the right to enforce its laws. Claims of other countries upon U.S. dual-nationals may result in conflicting obligations under the laws of each country. U.S. dual nationals may also face restrictions in the U.S. consular protections available to U.S. nationals abroad, particularly in the country of their other nationality.”

Notably, the State Department requires dual citizens to use a U.S. passport to enter the country. Does that mean that, when traveling as head of state, Pope Leo has to use a U.S. passport? Unlikely, but intriguing. It strikes me as odd that a person can lead another country and still vote in U.S. elections. With all of those worried about Russian interference in elections, imagine if Putin could actually vote in U.S. elections. Obviously, Pope Leo is greatly loved and represents someone whose values are aligned with this country. Yet, he is also the head of state of a foreign nation.

Under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), military personnel and citizens abroad are allowed to vote in U.S. elections. It is no longer considered an absentee vote requiring an excuse but simply a mail-in ballot. The question is whether this right should be suspended when you assume a position in a foreign nation, let alone the head of such a nation.

Dual citizenship has long been debated over the difficult questions raised by nations with opposing values and interests. However, being the head of a foreign government with potentially opposing interests and actions to the United States creates a curious status. It turns out that when Gov. Pritzker met with the Pope last year, he was actually meeting with a constituent and voter.

I am most surprised that the Vatican does not have a policy against such voting, though this is admittedly unprecedented. I would think that the head of the Catholic faith and the head of a foreign government would have a single national citizenship running to the Holy See. All popes are selected from the global faithful by the College of Cardinals and thus have national citizenship with other countries.

In assuming their positions, the cardinals “pledge and swear, as individuals and as a group, to observe faithfully and scrupulously the prescriptions contained in the Apostolic Constitution.” They also reaffirm that they are not subject to countervailing allegiances or pressures from outside of the College: “And never to lend support or favour to any interference, opposition or any other form of intervention, whereby secular authorities of whatever order and degree or any group of people or individuals might wish to intervene in the election of the Roman Pontiff.”

However, it is fascinating that, once elected, Popes do not shed that status upon assuming the head of the Holy See.

It is an uncomfortable question since it also raises whether the head of a foreign government should have dual citizenship. Most people were legitimately thrilled (including myself) by the first American Pope and can view this as an unlikely “one-off.” However, it could just as easily happen with another nation and a dual citizen.

At the risk of my own excommunication, it seems a worthy question for discussion, even though I doubt any politicians would relish such a debate. For his part, Pope Leo stated before the Villanova-Notre Dame game that the Pope will not take sides in the U.S. elections, but Robert Prevost will.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Nov 012026
 


Edward Hopper Sunday 1926


• Final 2026 Midterm Prediction: It’s Time to Die With Your Boots On! (Pinsker)
• Europe’s Riots are the Bill Coming Due for Socialism and Globalism (Fleitz)
• Queen Ursula Comes To Canada With Velvet Handcuffs (Rachel Marsden)
• Europe Has Blown Its Chance To Mediate Ukraine Conflict – Lavrov (RT)
• Poland Leftist Prime Minister Donald Tusk Leads a Judicial Coup d’Etat (CTH)
• Chaos Erupts At Poland’s Top Court Amid ‘Coup’ Accusations (RT)
• Alarming Update on Coup Effort From Polish Media (CTH)
• Democratic Leaders Call Voter Confusion Tactics Harmless, Humorous (Turley)
• Keir Starmer Says U.S. Will No Longer “Bankroll Europe’s Defense” (CTH)
• Left Party Candidate For Berlin Mayor ‘Fears’ Islamists (RMX)

 

 

https://twitter.com/Mr_J_F_K_Jr/status/2116424226479411701?s=20

 

 


Pollsters need to call 140 people just to get one answer.

“.. if only one out of 140 people is willing to answer a poll, it’s unclear if the “science” of polling is even salvageable.”

• Final 2026 Midterm Prediction: It’s Time to Die With Your Boots On! (Pinsker)

[..] The midterm election is in just three days! And the universe of persuadable undecideds is rapidly dwindling. At this point, there ain’t a ton of ‘em left. Which is why the emphasis is now on turnout — and getting enough likeminded, sympathetic voters off their [BLEEP] and out to vote.


That’s a critical, ride-or-die variable, but notoriously difficult to assess beforehand. Some Get Out the Vote (GOTV) plans look great on paper (and cost a fortune), but collapse on Election Day. Others fly completely under the radar, yet hit a bullseye.I’ll just say this: The GOP has been sitting on a sky-high mountain of money for months now, so there’s simply no excuse for not having a winning GOTV plan.

If we botch this, heads should roll. As for the Democrats’ GOTV plan, who knows? There’s overlap between voter intensity and turnout (which seems to favor the Dems), but it’s also true that DSA candidates have badly underperformed in elections. That seems to indicate holes in their GOTV game.

Probable advantage: Republicans.

(Or, instead of a bad GOTV plan, it could just be bad polls: Maybe the DSA’s popularity is, was, and continues to be wildly overreported. Can’t rule it out, since DSA success has mostly been limited to bright-blue districts and college towns. But we’ll return to polling problems in a sec.)

If you want to terrify your Republican guests at tonight’s Halloween party, the two most under-discussed, under-publicized reasons for GOP pessimism are Fox News’ ratings plummeting, and the near-total absence of mainstream media stories about Democratic operatives throwing each other — and/or the voters — under the bus.

Fox News still dominates the news ratings, but it suffered its largest year-to-year ratings drop in the month before an election in a decade: FNC’s primetime ratings fell by 28%. Meanwhile, CNN and MS NOW both had double-digit gains. That’s partly a commentary on FNC’s current lineup of primetime hosts. It’s partly because of cord-cutting. And it at least partially reflects the Democrats’ edge in enthusiasm.

Probable advantage: Democrats.

The lack of Democratic operatives throwing each other under the bus is awfully revealing, too. Back in 2024, mainstream media outlets were writing about “misogyny” costing Kamala Harris the election, and how the media set her up to fail more than a week before Halloween (!) — because the writing was on the wall. So the Dems got ahead of the story by blaming the American people for being bigoted. They blamed the media, too. And then the campaign staff blamed each other for being unprepared and wasting money.

This article from the Guardian — “Harris Campaign’s Record $1B Funds Fail to Translate Into Swing State Advantage” — from Oct. 10, 2024 (!) is a good example: [T]here are fears that Harris’s fundraising success may lead to cash drying up when it matters most, by dampening the enthusiasm of donors to give the extra funds that strategists believe might be necessary to get her over the line in a tightening race.

“There have never been so many electoral college votes in play so late in the cycle, which means that our strong fundraising and volunteer enthusiasm are not guaranteed to be enough to fully reach voters everywhere they are,” the Washington Post quoted an unnamed Harris campaign staff member as saying. Obama’s appearance on the campaign trail follows evidence that Harris is failing to connect with key components of the Democrats’ constituency, including Black men.

Politico reported that Democratic operatives were worried about apathy among Black men in Detroit, Michigan’s biggest city, even as Harris’s campaign has dispatched several high-profile African American surrogates to the state, including the basketball legend Magic Johnson and the party elder James Clyburn.

“I am worried about turnout in Detroit,” Jamal Simmons, a former communications director for Harris, told the site. “Do they have the machine to turn people out?” “We continue to have this widening apathy in cities like Detroit … [Harris] hasn’t done anything to change that,” added Scott Holiday, executive director of Detroit Action, a voter mobilisation group. That’s five negative leaks in six paragraphs! The good ship Harris was leaking like a sieve!

Yet we’re not seeing these stories in the run-up to the 2026 midterms. (Except in Michigan, where Democratic dysfunction is a legitimate problem.) Instead, CNN is writing puff pieces about the Democrats’ ambitious plans after winning the midterms — and the telltale signs the Dems will win in a landslide. Far-left publications such as the Daily Beast are throwing about the “landslide” word, too.

This doesn’t mean a Republican defeat is inevitable. But it reveals the Democrats’ staggering level of confidence — which is lightyears ahead of where it was in 2024.

And a big reason for their confidence is the polls. Over and over again, the polls have projected a Democratic tsunami so ginormous, it will even swallow ruby-red strongholds such as Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, South Carolina, Texas, and Iowa. Which we see it in the predictive markets: According to Kalshi, there’s now a 94% chance the Dems will win the House; a 72% chance the Dems win the Senate.

Probable advantage: Democrats.

It’s “probable” because the polls have been wrong more than right. According to CNN’s Harry Enten, during the Trump era, polls in swing states have exaggerated Democratic support by an average of 4.1 points. If the polls are off by 4.1 points in 2026, the Republicans will keep the Senate, pick up a few blue seats, and the House will be close.

Of course, there’s a chance the polls have recalibrated, self-corrected, and won’t make the same mistake again. The pollsters, after all, claim they’ve reweighted their polls to ensure greater accuracy. If so, the GOP is in deep, deep doo-doo.

But there’s also a chance that the underlying mechanisms that produce these polling errors still haven’t been addressed — and if anything, they’ve probably accelerated. Hey, when pollsters must call 140 people to get a single response, they’re not getting a realistic snapshot of public sentiment.

Because they’re talking near-exclusively with lonely weirdos with nothing better to do than yak with pollsters. And even without the weirdo-factor, Democrats respond to polls at a much higher rate than Republicans anyway. Polls tell us what people who take polls think. Anything beyond that is a mystery. Furthermore, if only one out of 140 people is willing to answer a poll, it’s unclear if the “science” of polling is even salvageable.

Probable advantage: Republicans.

Read more …

“Europe is in deep trouble because socialist and globalist policies are destroying European civilization.”

• Europe’s Riots are the Bill Coming Due for Socialism and Globalism (Fleitz)

I recently spoke at Chatham House in London, one of Europe’s leading globalist think tanks – and hostile territory for American conservatives. While there, I heard firsthand some of the factors and the stark denialism behind the horrific riots that erupted in France and other European countries this month.


What began in late September as student blockades of overcrowded, understaffed high schools in the Paris suburbs exploded on October 17 and 18 into some of the worst violence France has seen in decades. More than half a million people marched against rising living costs and failing public services.

Rioters, many carrying Palestinian flags, torched cars and a town hall, damaged or looted at least 3,000 businesses, and injured about 1,000 police officers, gendarmes and firefighters, according to the interior ministry. Nearly 2,400 people were arrested, and the government imposed curfews in parts of Paris and other cities. Similar protests spread to Belgium and Italy.

Amid a steady stream of bashing on foreign policy, domestic security, and the president personally, a U.S. academic on one Chatham panel stunned me with her counter-reality view of President Trump’s border policies.

On border security, she claimed that the real goal of last year’s U.S. National Security Strategy and President Trump’s efforts to stop illegal immigration is to promote Christian white nationalism. I replied that this is false: President Trump has never called for any such thing, and it is nowhere in the National Security Strategy. When she insisted that this is what the document “really” means, I pointed out that she had just conceded it does not say this – she was reading her own views into it. I also noted that the Trump administration is fully supportive of immigration as long as immigrants come to our country legally.

She countered that talk by Trump officials of saving Western civilization from uncontrolled immigration amounts to a plan for a white Christian nation. It does not. The strategy warns that Europe faces “civilizational erasure” – a warning about uncontrolled migration and falling birth rates, not race. My final response was that this was a typical liberal distortion: equating conservative efforts to secure borders and protect our nation with racism.

I should add that the audience offered no pushback to the academic’s comments but plenty to mine. Video of the panel is available here.

A panelist made an equally absurd claim at a second closed Chatham House panel, held under the Chatham House Rule, asserting that Europe is far freer and offers a much higher quality of life than America, with far more opportunities for young people. I was dumbfounded, even more so because no one in the room pushed back. These claims are clearly contradicted by America’s lower taxes, greater economic opportunities, easier path to starting businesses, lower unemployment, and numerous other well-documented advantages.

As for freedom, it is Europe, not America, where citizens are arrested and prosecuted for social media posts. The panelist later explained that Europe is better because of all the “free stuff” – free health care, free college, generous social benefits, government pensions, and so on. This explanation wasn’t very convincing. These claims in fact reflect the global elite’s view of Europe as a paradise and of Trump’s America as a primitive backwater.

The reality is that nothing is free. Europeans pay for these benefits through some of the highest taxes in the developed world, and governments that cannot cover the bill borrow the rest. France’s public debt now exceeds 110 percent of GDP, and its borrowing costs have hit their highest level in more than two decades. The recent disastrous and violent demonstrations in France and other European nations made clear that Europe is neither superior to America nor a paradise for most young Europeans.

The core reason is that Europe’s massively expensive socialist welfare state does not work. The French riots began in high schools so overcrowded and understaffed that students blockaded them in protest. A state that spends lavishly on pensions and benefits cannot even keep its classrooms staffed. Meanwhile, European economies and security are under siege from a huge influx of migrants from the Middle East and Africa, which has imposed enormous costs in government benefits while contributing to surges in crime and radical Islam.

The denialism I heard in London is everywhere. Consider a recent New York Times opinion writer who drew the implausible conclusion that the French riots were part of a student revolution to build a better France. Or the BBC calling the Paris riots “mostly peaceful.” Or a panelist on MS NOW who made the absurd claim that although we don’t know who is behind the riots or their motivations, we know Trump is responsible.

What these elites refuse to admit is that Europe is in deep trouble because socialist and globalist policies are destroying European civilization – and that radical change is needed to save it.

Read more …

“Trade, resources and digital ‘cooperation’ sound harmless – until you look at the fine print.”

• Queen Ursula Comes To Canada With Velvet Handcuffs (Rachel Marsden)

I’m trying to spend a few weeks back in Canada for some peace and quiet from the usual European drama. Just my luck that Queen Ursula would follow me here, circus and all.


She hadn’t even landed in Montreal for the EU-Canada Summit, and already everyone around me was saying that Canada’s “associate membership” had been canceled. They’d heard that countries like France and Germany objected to the idea, even as Von der Leyen was saddling up her broom for a trip across the Atlantic.

Someone even asked me if that meant that we’re now kicked out of Eurovision. I had to explain that the title never existed in the first place. EU treaties refer only to association agreements. It’s just the usual sort of branding that von der Leyen, the unelected EU chief executive, likes to roll out, much like her endless riffs about unity, as though dissent weren’t an actual virtue in a functioning democracy.

Or like the way she talks a good game about sticking it to Russia while simultaneously celebrating the €977 million spent this winter alone on gas purchases for Ukraine – much of which comes from Russia via Hungary and Slovakia. The EU writes cheques to Kiev. Kiev pays Hungary and Slovakia, who then pay Moscow.

Those middlemen exist mainly so that Queen Ursula can maintain a certain public image while engaging in more practical considerations behind the scenes, albeit at considerably greater expense to the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney got a taste of the spectacle when Ursula’s marketing campaign became the focus of the event. He was forced to acknowledge that he honestly didn’t give a damn what they called this new cooperation, so long as it was good for Canadians. Meanwhile, other EU leaders, like German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, had started referring to it instead as an “alliance for the future.”

But von der Leyen had already landed in Canada and continued promoting the “associate membership” label, smiling as Carney, sitting beside her, subsequently echoed the term. Of course, all that the mental midgets are going to take away from this whole event is the intrigue over whether or not Canada is joining the EU. Spoiler alert: it isn’t. And never will. It’s not even legally possible. But this idiotic intrigue is distracting from the details of what lurks underneath, which could amount to a whole lot of iron-fisting through velvet gloves.

Turns out someone had already leaked a draft statement on these future relations to Politico, dated September 22, 2026. Cut out the diplomatic fluff and here’s what you’re left with.

Both sides are clearly looking for new markets as they diversify trade away from the US. Great. But it seems rather stupid for the EU to be begging Canada for its natural resources – gas, metals and minerals – while simultaneously slapping on carbon tariffs that get downloaded onto European citizens and companies. What’s the point of trying to bring prices down by increasing supply if you’re just going to top up the cost anyway.

You jokers also killed off your own nuclear industries, only to realize (a bit late) that perhaps it was preferable to having to resort to coal, before subsequently reviving it as the future of clean energy. So maybe you’re not exactly the best people to be doing commie-style central planning.

Technology is already advancing in favor of the environment, with those improvements increasingly built into the conditions for funding and financing. Just let it breathe already. Not every industry needs a Brussels bureaucrat hovering over it.

It also sounds like they’ve roped Canada into their scheme to skim Russian cash from its Western-held assets to pimp themselves out under the pretext of Ukraine’s defence and their own, then just hope that Russia’s ultimately cool with that so they don’t have to stick their own taxpayers either the final bill.

Perhaps the most troubling part is the Orwellian digital cooperation section of the agreement, which aims to “advance cooperation on artificial intelligence security and sovereignty, trusted data flows and digital governance and to align emerging AI and digital regulatory frameworks through associated country status for Canada.”

Does this mean Canadians get to have Queen Ursula block their bank accounts now, too, since we’ll all be connected and harmonized inside one giant digital panopticon? Or worse, some AI bot? It’s hardly reassuring that Carney’s government has just appealed the federal court decision condemning his predecessor Justin Trudeau’s government for unconstitutionally invoking the Emergencies Act, which allowed it to block the bank accounts of Covid-era anti-mandate Freedom Convoy participants without a court order – all for the crime of honking too loudly.

Nor is it reassuring that Canada and the EU have already signed an agreement on digital “trust services” involving things like government-controlled digital identity wallets. One honk too many, one wrong opinion on some social media platform linked to the online ID system that they’re all ushering in – ostensibly under the pretext of adults needing to prove that they aren’t children requiring protection from online pedos – and there goes your whole life with the flip of a switch.

It’s not like Queen Ursula’s European Commission isn’t already doing that with sanctions and asset freezes, in the absence of due process, for those whose views it qualifies as “propaganda.” And if this is what they mean by an alliance for the future, then Canadians – the average citizens of this country – need full and open debate over the fine print before anyone signs us up.

Read more …

“The Russian foreign minister said European governments’ poor track record on previous peace agreements undermines their credibility as negotiators”..

• Europe Has Blown Its Chance To Mediate Ukraine Conflict – Lavrov (RT)


Ukrainian National Guard recruits undergo training near Kharkov

European countries have repeatedly failed to uphold agreements intended to resolve the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, undermining their credibility as potential peace guarantors, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.


Moscow has previously stated that European officials would not participate in the upcoming US-brokered peace talks in Abu Dhabi.Speaking at a press conference on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in Atlanta, US, on Friday, Lavrov said “the Europeans want to insert themselves into the negotiation process.” “What matters is not what the Europeans want, but what added value they can actually bring to the table,” he said.

Lavrov accused European governments of failing to uphold agreements intended to resolve the crisis, beginning with the February 2014 deal between then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich and opposition leaders. France, Germany and Poland helped broker the agreement, which was intended to end months of protests and deadly clashes in Kiev. Yanukovich was ousted shortly afterward, an event Moscow maintains prompted Crimea to secede from Ukraine and join Russia, while also triggering a revolt in the largely Russian-speaking Donbass.

According to Lavrov, France and Germany also failed to ensure Ukraine implemented political reforms and granted special status to Donbass under the 2014–2015 Minsk agreements which they helped broker. Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel and former French President Francois Hollande acknowledged in separate interviews in December 2022 that the agreements had given Ukraine time to strengthen its military. Moscow has cited their remarks as evidence that Western governments never intended to implement the accords in good faith.

Lavrov also cited the December 2019 summit in Paris, where the leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany reaffirmed their commitment to implementing the Minsk agreements. The diplomatic process ultimately failed to produce a lasting settlement. “Over the past 12 years, they have had more than enough opportunities. Through their actions, they have demonstrated that their track record cannot be ignored the next time they seek to act as ‘guarantors,’” Lavrov stated.

His remarks followed a rare telephone conversation on Tuesday between Russian President Vladimir Putin, Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store. The 90-minute call, which focused on the Ukraine conflict and upcoming peace negotiations, drew criticism from several European leaders. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the initiative had not been coordinated with other European countries, while Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said he had not been informed in advance.

Putin, however, welcomed the contact, describing the decision to call as a step towards establishing “some kind of constructive dialogue.” Lavrov attended the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Atlanta at the invitation of the US, despite objections from some European governments to Russia’s participation. President Donald Trump has also invited Putin to the G20 leaders’ summit scheduled for December in Miami.

European opposition to Russia’s participation was evident on Friday when the traditional G20 group photograph was canceled after several European diplomats objected to posing alongside Lavrov.

Read more …

Three entries for the same topic seems a lot. But this is a real Coup d’Etat in the heart of Europe.

The Polish President is a nationalist. Its PM is a globalist, heavily linked to the EU.

The President, Nawrocki, was in a plane on the way to Senegal when he turned around upon hearing what was going on in Warsaw (a coup). The plane could not get permission to land (with the President, in his own country). It landed regardless. Nawrocki went to the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw where he got involved in a physical tussle to keep him out. He managed to get in.

Where does that leave the PM? And the EU? Ursula?

• Poland Leftist Prime Minister Donald Tusk Leads a Judicial Coup d’Etat (CTH)

Things were simmering just below the surface due to pro-EU globalist Prime Minister Donald Tusk and a pro-nationalist President Karol Nawrocki both occupying leading roles in government, with a conflicted judiciary stuck between them making decisions about efforts to change the Polish constitution.


Tusk supports globalism, Nawrocki supports nationalism, the constitutional judiciary, a tribunal assembly essentially equivalent to the U.S. supreme court, held more nationalist judges than globalist judges – including the tribunal court president Bogdan Swieczkowski (essentially the Chief Justice).

LAST NIGHT – Prime Minister Tusk waited until President Nawrocki left the country, then together with aligned ideological judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, they declared the court President, Bogdan Swieczkowski, as null and void, while presenting herself as the replacement. Judge Korwin-Piotrowska attempted to become the self-appointed judicial president with the support of Tusk.

As best it can be determined, Prime Minister Tusk simultaneously ordered the police to surround the judicial court complex and block any attempts to stop what was happening inside the tribunal area. Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek, who is also the attorney general, told journalists he requested the lifting of legal immunity for Judicial President Swieczkowski and his deputy Bartlomiej Sochanski in order to carry out their replacement.

This was, by all reasonable interpretations, a stunning and planned judicial coup d’etat carried out by globalist Donald Tusk, an aligned judge Korwin-Piotrowska and an internal network of leftist government allies. However, President Karol Nawrocki, a close ally of Donald Trump, turned his plane around en route to Senegal and quickly returned to Warsaw so that he could intervene and stop the judicial overthrow.

Via Daily Mail – Riot police have been deployed to Poland‘s top court amid claims of a ‘coup’ after its chief judge was suspended in an escalating battle between Donald Tusk’s government and the nationalist right. Dozens of officers guarded the entrance to the Constitutional Court in Warsaw on Friday as protesters gathered outside, with some chanting ‘Tusk traitor’.

The extraordinary stand-off prompted President Karol Nawrocki to abandon an official trip to Senegal mid-flight and order his plane back to the Polish capital. Three people were arrested after trying to enter the court complex, police said, as supporters of the opposition Law and Justice party (PiS) protested the ousting of court president Bogdan Swieczkowski.

Some said prayers while holding Roman Catholic rosaries and religious images. The court’s official X account denounced the intervention as a ‘coup d’etat’ and insisted Swieczkowski remained in office.The confrontation marks a dramatic escalation in the struggle between Tusk’s centrist government and the nationalist opposition over control of Poland’s judiciary.

Swieczkowski’s suspension was announced by fellow judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, who said the move was needed to restore the rule of law. Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek, who is also the attorney general, told journalists he had requested the lifting of the legal immunity of Swieczkowski and his deputy Bartlomiej Sochanski. https://twitter.com/RyanAFournier/status/2116321111935709340?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2116321111935709340%7Ctwgr%5E0d78265c8de2004c7391c5d5ce6c9aeb2956e088%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconservativetreehouse.com%2Fblog%2F2026%2F10%2F31%2Fpoland-leftist-prime-minister-donald-tusk-leads-a-judicial-coup-detat%2F


Statement of the President of the Republic of Poland Karol Nawrocki

“This night, a violation of the constitutional order of the Republic of Poland occurred, along with the forcible takeover of a constitutional state organ. I have held consultations with the First President of the Supreme Court, Zbigniew Kapinski, who also does not recognize as legal the actions taken by individuals usurping power in the Constitutional Tribunal.

I call for the restoration of legal order and the departure from the Tribunal premises by the enforcement forces dispatched to the site by the government. To the Constitutional Tribunal, I have enabled the entry of the legally serving Vice-President of the Constitutional Tribunal, Judge Bartolomiej Sochanski.

In connection with the threat to the internal security of the Republic of Poland, I am convening urgent consultations today with the participation of representatives of parliamentary forces in order to achieve stabilization of the political situation and restoration of the constitutional order.

I thank all those who are at the Constitutional Tribunal, standing in defense of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. ”

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“The power struggle between the president and government escalated as riot police surrounded the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw..”

• Chaos Erupts At Poland’s Top Court Amid ‘Coup’ Accusations (RT)

The longstanding struggle between Poland’s right-wing president and centrist government over control of the country’s top court dramatically escalated on Friday night as riot police surrounded the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw.


Police were deployed as an announcement appeared on the court’s website stating that its president, Bogdan Swieczkowski, and vice-president, Bartlomiej Sochanski, had been suspended from their duties. Their profiles were reportedly removed from the website.

Shortly afterward, the tribunal’s official X account claimed that its website had been subjected to an “unlawful takeover” and insisted that both officials remained in their posts. “All persons participating in these actions are committing the crime of a coup d’état,” the account stated.

Protesters gathered outside the court building. According to the Polish Press Agency (PAP), Swieczkowski entered the tribunal’s grounds after his supporters cut through a gate lock with a circular saw. He subsequently left the grounds and called for calm, PAP reported.

Police said their deployment followed a warning from Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, whose status as a Constitutional Tribunal judge is disputed by the court’s existing leadership, about possible threats to judges and staff and the risk of public disorder. Officers denied entering the court building.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk defended what he described as efforts to restore the rule of law following the previous government led by the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party. “After years of lawlessness under PiS, this is a difficult, sometimes painful process that requires decisive action. There is no other way,” he wrote on X.

President Karol Nawrocki cut short a planned trip to Senegal and turned his plane around to return to Poland amid the escalating crisis.

Tusk has been locked in a prolonged battle with Nawrocki and the PiS over judicial appointments. Nawrocki has refused to administer the oath to five judges elected by parliament, while the tribunal’s existing leadership has challenged their authority to take up their posts.

Tusk’s liberal Civic Coalition leads Poland’s governing coalition, while Nawrocki holds the presidency. The Constitutional Tribunal remains dominated by judges appointed by PiS before Tusk took power in 2023. During PiS’s eight years in power, the EU repeatedly criticized the party’s judicial reforms, accusing it of undermining judicial independence.

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“..military pilots of the airplane carrying President Nawrocki refused to follow the orders from the air traffic controllers and landed the President back in Warsaw. ”

• Alarming Update on Coup Effort From Polish Media (CTH)

In the update to the attempted judicial coup d’etat carried out by globalist Prime Minister Donald Tusk last night, Polish media are now reporting the plane carrying Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki was denied landing permission as the President was urgently returning to deal with the leftist government effort.


The media are reporting that military pilots of the airplane carrying President Nawrocki refused to follow the orders from the air traffic controllers and landed the President back in Warsaw.

If these reports are accurate, Prime Minister Donald Tusk has no plausible deniability to distance himself from the grossly unconstitutional effort. Calls are now being made to cancel the Parliamentary assembly and hold new elections to restabilize the government.

Marcin Przydacz – “Poland is facing a serious constitutional crisis following events at the Constitutional Tribunal in Warsaw on Friday, 30 October, and during the following night.

For those unfamiliar with the Polish legal system, the Constitutional Tribunal is an independent constitutional body responsible for reviewing the constitutionality of legislation, but it also has other very important competences concerning the constitutional status of the President of the Republic and the President of the National Bank of Poland. Its independence and the legal status of its judges are protected by the Polish Constitution.

Since this spring, Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government has been taking steps aimed at gaining control over the Tribunal, most recently by attempting to install a former minister from his own cabinet as a new “judge” of the Tribunal. The government presents these actions as an effort to restore the rule of law. However, the methods employed raise fundamental questions about respect for the Constitution itself.

On Friday, 30 October, approximately 3,000 police officers were reportedly deployed in connection with the situation at the Constitutional Tribunal, following a notification from Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, who claimed the authority to assume the Tribunal’s leadership. Claiming that the President and Vice-President of the Tribunal were absent, she issued decisions announcing their suspension from official duties. The legal basis for these decisions is strongly disputed, including by the First President of Poland’s Supreme Court, Zbigniew Kapinski, and the Constitutional Tribunal’s President, Bogdan Swiegzkowski.

During the night, President Nawrocki travelled to the Constitutional Tribunal together with the First President of the Supreme Court. Despite the police presence and attempts by Anna Korwin-Piotrowska and other individuals at the entrance to physically prevent the President from entering the building, he entered the Tribunal and challenged the authority of those claiming to have assumed its leadership.

The confrontation at the entrance was physical, with individuals blocking the President’s passage. The Presidential Chancellery rejects allegations that the President was the aggressor. President Nawrocki subsequently stated that the constitutional order of the Republic of Poland had been violated and that a constitutional state institution had been taken over by force.

He called for the withdrawal of police forces from the Tribunal’s premises and the restoration of the legal order. He also enabled the Tribunal’s lawfully serving Vice-President, Judge Bartlomiej Sochanski, to enter the building and convened urgent consultations with representatives of parliamentary parties to stabilise the political situation and restore constitutional order.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk, meanwhile, defended the government’s decisive action as necessary to “restore the rule of law”. The President’s position is that restoring the rule of law cannot justify disregarding constitutional safeguards, bypassing statutory procedures or using police forces in a dispute over the leadership of an independent constitutional institution.

The European Commission, which was highly active in commenting on disputes concerning judicial independence under previous Polish governments, has so far not issued a comparable public assessment of these events. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has likewise remained silent.

The question is whether the same standards of constitutional legality, separation of powers and judicial independence will be applied to the current Polish government as were demanded of its predecessors. The rule of law cannot depend on which political party is in power. Nor can the independence of constitutional institutions be protected by disregarding the constitutional rules that guarantee it.”

https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/2116560468454051899?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E2116560468454051899%7Ctwgr%5E606cf56871ec54ec24aeaf86f383e9bb9337bcb5%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheconservativetreehouse.com%2Fblog%2F2026%2F10%2F31%2Falarming-update-on-coup-effort-from-polish-media%2F

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“That’s Part of the Process”

“Notably, the decoy, when asked by the Division of Elections how his name should appear on the ballot, reportedly asked to use “S” as a middle initial (like the senator) as opposed to his own initial of “J.”

• Democratic Leaders Call Voter Confusion Tactics Harmless, Humorous (Turley)

In his work “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell explains that “In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.” If so, the news this week took a truly Orwellian turn as Democrats rationalized or even praised the effort in Alaska to put a decoy “Dan Sullivan” on the ballot to confuse Alaskans and cause mistaken votes.


Other Democratic politicians are entirely silent on the allegation that the campaign of Democratic candidate Mary Peltola engineered this grossly unethical tactic. The very same people running on “saving Democracy” are, once again, defending ballot manipulation designed to negate the votes of citizens. It is the ultimate expression of rage politics, excusing any act needed to achieve power.

On NewsNation Now, Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA) went beyond many of his colleagues in saying that the Alaskan scandal shows precisely where all states, including Virginia, should go. When asked about the scandal, Subramanyam insisted that it showed how all states should embrace the widely criticized ranked-choice voting system. (Alaskans may finally reject the system this year). While asked about the use of a decoy candidate, Subramanyam bizarrely spun the question as third-party candidates — a bizarre claim since the fake Dan Sullivan has not campaigned, has never run for office, and is obviously on the ballot solely to confuse voters.

Nevertheless, Subramanyam insisted, while he would not run a decoy, “I also don’t have a ranked-choice voting system in Virginia. I wish I did, honestly. But, in Alaska, they have ranked-choice voting, and third-party candidates are very relevant. And so, if you recruited a third-party candidate who can take votes away from your opponent, that’s part of the process, and that’s just how it works in Alaska.” Previously, Subramanyam also supported the most radical gerrymandering effort in the nation (which was later struck down as unlawful).

Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.) seemed to snowball as he tried to rationalize the move. He first attempted to blame it on one woman who was a “disgruntled former employee.” When CNN host Kaitlan Collins noted that The New York Times was relying on a large number of sources in the Peltola campaign, Murphy said it wouldn’t bother him at all to have decoys on his ballot because no one would be confused when voting. Of course, the entire reason you put another Dan Sullivan on the ballot is to confuse voters and cause citizens to throw away their votes on the wrong man. In a close election, that can easily make the difference in the outcome of the election.

Murphy also praised the Peltola campaign and said he “trusts” them, despite the New York Times saying they actively sought to cause such voting errors. In 2025, Murphy appeared on any cable show that would have him to declare that “those of us who believe that the threat to democracy is urgent” need to “act like it.” Most Democratic leaders refused to say anything at all in the face of an open effort to nullify votes through candidate confusion.

Pundits and party officials have dismissed the scandal as brass-knuckles politics or even as humorous. The head of Alaska’s Democratic Party, Eric Croft, insisted that the sole consideration is whether it is a crime, not whether it is unethical: “I reread all of Alaska’s statutes. I’m kind of a recovering attorney up here. And there is nothing, there’s no legal issue to it. On your, you know, sort of dirty tricks thing, I think Alaskans have a different take there too.” When pressed whether it is a good thing to try to confuse Alaskan voters and nullify their votes, Croft responded “No, I think it’s funny.”

That knee-slapper involves a politician and campaign that allegedly lied to the public about their involvement. It involves a decoy who is also accused of lying when he said he had no interaction with third parties and did not enter the race to confuse voters. (Notably, the decoy, when asked by the Division of Elections how his name should appear on the ballot, reportedly asked to use “S” as a middle initial (like the senator) as opposed to his own initial of “J.” ).

One would think that this would be an easy question for candidates who insist that they are defenders of democracy. However, in 2024, Democrats moved to remove Trump and other Republicans from ballots while claiming to be protecting voters by denying them the choice of candidates. The fact that the voters gave Trump the popular vote and swept every swing state only magnified the hypocrisy of these Democratic leaders. Yet, some of the same figures are back at it again with efforts to manipulate balloting to confuse or nullify votes in the name of protecting democracy.

Some of the same figures, such as Marc Elias, have reappeared in yet another election scandal. The Elias Law Group was named by the New York Times as involved in the controversy. Elias was a central figure in the Russian hoax as the campaign lawyer for Hillary Clinton. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) fined the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign for violating election rules in hiding the funding for the infamous Steele dossier. Before the election, Clinton officials denied any such involvement.

In an age of rage, consistency, like decency, is a stranger to politics. We are left again in that moment with lawyer Joseph Welch in the Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954: “Have you no shame, sir, at long last? Have you no shame?” The answer today is clear: No, but I have the votes.

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UK and EU cannot afford their own defense. Whether Trump is in office or not.

“Where are they going to come up with the funds to pay for a military investment they have declined to make for the past 50+ years?”

• Keir Starmer Says U.S. Will No Longer “Bankroll Europe’s Defense” (CTH)

Remember when former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told President Trump the Canadian government could not continue its economic policy if the United States demanded they become self-sufficient.


One of the key reasons cited by Trudeau was the Canadian dependence on the USA for defense. Canada simply could not spend the amount of money needed to create their own military at a level required for independent defense and simultaneously follow their govt spending plan. Canada relied on the U.S. military as their defense strategy.

Yesterday, former British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the same thing; only this time Starmer was saying the United States is no longer willing to “bankroll” Europe’s defense and both the U.K and European Union were going to need to find money to build their own military.

(VIA BBC) – Sir Keir Starmer has said Europe should build a common security framework, warning the change in its defence relationship with the US is permanent rather than “an aberration of the Trump presidency”.The former prime minister was speaking at a British Irish Chamber of Commerce (BICC) dinner in Dublin on Friday evening. Sir Keir said a “common security framework” for Europe was needed as much as a common market, with the UK at its centre.

He warned that “things will not go back to the way they were,” adding that the US had made clear it will no longer “bankroll” its European allies. (read more) This public statement and admission by Keir Starmer follow remarks by current Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to Politico on the heels of the Canadian-EU summit, also yesterday.

“If you’re connected to a satellite system that a billionaire, almost trillionaire, decides to turn off at one moment or not, that’s not a good idea,” Carney said. Think about this for a few moments. Canada, the U.K and Europe are all facing the same problem…. MONEY! Where are they going to come up with the funds to pay for a military investment they have declined to make for the past 50+ years?

It’s not just an issue of finding funds for a standing military, hardware, ships, submarines, aircraft, tanks, heavy and light artillery, missiles and drones etc., they also have to fund the technological capabilities to use and deploy modern weapons. They also need advanced manufacturing, steel works, technological guidance systems, large numbers of strategically placed satellites, a space program that includes rockets to put them into orbit, and much, much more.

At scale this is multiple trillions, and that doesn’t include the baseline manufacturing systems needed to create all this independent infrastructure. It’s one thing to say, ‘we will build out our military capacity‘, and it’s another thing entirely to actually build it. Does Canada or Europe even have the human resources within the engineering sector to create all this infrastructure? Think about it.

When you really stand back and look at the required level of investment needed, in addition to the time it takes to build all of the ancillary processes that are required to meet such an expressed objective, it really puts the context of the Canadian, British and European opposition to President Trump into context.

What is more feasible? Doing what is required to build-out your own military defense systems; or is it simply easier to get rid of the person who stops you from using the USA as your standing army?…

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Scandal after Left Party candidate for mayor admits she ‘fears’ Islamists and Hamas-linked milieu.

“If even a top politician no longer feels safe, what are ordinary Berliners supposed to say, who in an emergency have no personal protection standing by?”

• Left Party Candidate For Berlin Mayor ‘Fears’ Islamists (RMX)


Elif Eralp speaks at the Extraordinary party congress of The Left Party in Berlin.

Berlin’s Left Party lead candidate for governing mayor, Elif Eralp, privately expressed fear of Hamas-linked figures tied to her party’s orbit in internal notes accidentally returned to Der Spiegel, raising sharp questions about her ability to lead the capital’s security structure.


The notes, part of an authorized interview draft sent back with visible internal comments this week, show Eralp writing that she and her husband have “fear of these people.” She asked her team to strike a question and her own answer about the activist Ibrahim Ibrahim, explaining: “I cannot put myself and my family in danger for Der Spiegel. What do we do now? Can we cancel the whole interview?” She added that she “should never have agreed to this interview.”

Eralp cited past advice from Berlin’s State Criminal Police Office (LKA) not to name specific individuals, noting that earlier guidance concerned organized crime and “now it’s about people with contacts to Hamas.” Ibrahim, a longtime activist linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) — a group designated as a terrorist organization by the EU and United States — appeared at the Left Party’s election victory party in Berlin-Neukölln after the Sept. 20 state election.

He has been described as praising Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar as a “martyr hero” and has roles in the United Palestinian National Committee, which Berlin’s domestic intelligence service has classified as extremist for supporting Hamas. Parts of the Left Party’s Neukölln base and some politicians have maintained contacts with this milieu; Ibrahim later traveled to Turkey for a gathering involving Hamas-linked figures.

The Left Party emerged as the strongest force with 25.7 percent of the vote in the latest Berlin election. Eralp has sought a coalition with the Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens. Her office has said she faces daily threats and insults, and security authorities advised against naming specific individuals in certain contexts.

Opposition parties seized on the disclosure. Kristin Brinker, chair of the AfD’s Berlin parliamentary group and the party’s lead candidate, said: “That Elif Eralp, albeit involuntarily, admits her fear of the criminal clans throws a glaring light on the state of internal security in our city. If even a top politician no longer feels safe, what are ordinary Berliners supposed to say, who in an emergency have no personal protection standing by?”

She added that the notes from Erlap illuminate the party’s condition, linking it to clan connections beyond known cases involving a Bundestag member and “rampant antisemitism.” Brinker concluded that the Left is “far from any governing capability.”

Brinker urged the Greens and SPD to end talks immediately with the Left to form a ruling government in Berlin. “This party and this woman must under no circumstances be entrusted with our city,” warned Brinker.

At a press appearance Thursday, Eralp declined to address the Spiegel notes directly, calling them private and internal. She stated she would not be intimidated and pledged to ensure both social and individual security for all Berliners, declaring she would act “with all means against organized crime, against terror, against everything,” including those who glorify violence.

In an interview with German newspaper Junge Freiheit, deputy chairman of the AfD parliamentary group, Sebastian Münzenmaier, said: “The revolution is devouring its children. For years, the left has defamed criticism of clan crime, mass migration, and Islamic glorification of terror as racist. Now, she is suddenly afraid of the ghosts she summoned.”

CDU Berlin leader Stefan Evers asked: “How is Elif Eralp supposed to ensure the security of millions of people as governing mayor if she herself is afraid of the Islamist environment of her party?”

He said the revelations heighten concern about a Left-led government and urged “the reasonable ones among the Greens and SPD” to “finally pull the emergency brake,” warning that fear of Islamists must not influence political decisions. Referring to clans and organized crime, outgoing Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) stated that a government “must never make its actions dependent on these structures — certainly it must not fear them.”

SPD figures also responded critically. Neukölln district mayor Martin Hikel said the episode shows “how strongly these terror-glorifying, antisemitic forces are anchored in the Left and want to come to power with the help of the Left.” SPD lead candidate Steffen Krach described the situation as shocking and stated there must be no Hamas sympathizers free to move in the city.

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https://twitter.com/AsFoundX/status/2116206046729424904?s=20

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Apr 232024
 


Gustav Klimt The Park 1909

 

• Alina Habba Rages As Judge Approves Trump’s $175 Million Bond (ET)
• Will Trump Testify? (Victoria Taft)
• Trump Urges “Peaceful Protest” As Day 1 In Hush-Money Case Ends (ZH)
• Trump Sold-Out His Base to Shovel $95 Billion to Ukraine and Israel (Whitney)
• Supreme Court Denies Bid to Expand No-Excuse Mail-In Ballots in Texas (ET)
• Biden Targets Radical IDF Unit With Sanctions to Placate His Voters (Sp.)
• US Forced Israel To Abandon Larger Attack On Iran – NYT (RT)
• Will Zionism Self-Destruct? (Alastair Crooke)
• US Goes ‘Slippery Slide’ With Sending Its Military Personnel to Ukraine (Sp.)
• The Bad Faith Olympics (Kunstler)
• Polish President Rejects Own PM’s ‘Pre-war’ Warning (RT)
• Biden Fears RFK Jr. as He Gets on Another Ballot (Sp.)
• Michael Brenner: The Moral Depravity of Western Imperialism (Sch.)
• No, It Does Not Matter Why the Man Lit Himself on Fire (Turley)

 

 

Still trying to understand this.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1782508137582608427

 

 

Bannon
https://twitter.com/i/status/1782461540442263664

 

 

Something Amazing is Developing with this Presidential Immunity SCOTUS Case…

Mike Davis:
— Can the Trump 47 Justice Department charge Obama for Capital Murder for murdering 2 Americans in a drone strike?
— Can the Trump 47 Justice Department charge Biden for the illegals pouring into the US, and their resulting crimes?

What to do? What to do? Trump says he should have “ABSOLUTE Immunity” . “Absolute” is the key word here… As it stands, the Constitution does say a President has Absolute Immunity from many lawsuits (not all)… BUT…. Trumps case is under legal dispute to determine whether or not a President has immunity from CRIMINAL Liability or Prosecution. No President in history has ever been charged for a crime, as the Constitution currently stands. A major precedent will be set with this SCOTUS ruling this Thursday… I believe this ruling may be closing some loopholes to go after others.. The wordage is going to be very very important.

 

 

Tulsi Kamala 2019

 

 

Tucker Ukr

 

 

Zel

Zel 2006

 

 

Founding Fathers

 

 

 

 

“…in one hour, that judge and the attorney general realized they had no idea what they were talking about… and we came to an agreement that everything would be the same…”

• Alina Habba Rages As Judge Approves Trump’s $175 Million Bond (ET)

Former President Donald Trump and New York Attorney General Letitia James reached an agreement on April 22 regarding his $175 million bond in his New York civil case, imposing additional restrictions while resolving concerns about the funds’ security. The attorney general argued that Knight Specialty Insurance Company (KSIC) lacked a “certificate of qualification” and that President Trump still had access to the Charles Schwab account pledged to the insurer as collateral. Judge Arthur Engoron accepted the April 22 agreement, which gave KSIC exclusive control over the account. The state made the offer after Chris Kise, President Trump’s attorney, provided oral argument. The attorney general established five bond conditions this morning that allow President Trump to use a non-New York company as a traditional license surety to cover the $175 million he was ordered to pay.

KSIC is unauthorized by the New York Department of Financial Services, which bond experts have said is a victory for President Trump. “[The company] is probably charging Trump less and they accepted a pledge rather than actually receiving $175 million in cash,” Bruce Lederman, a commercial and real estate litigator who has dealt in bonds for more than 40 years, said. All of President Trump’s attorneys agreed to the settlement stipulations, which are expected to be memorialized by the end of the week. The five bond conditions include retaining the collateral in a Schwab account and restricting KSIC from trading or withdrawing any of the funds for anything other than payment of the bond. “The state was not looking to be vindictive,” Mr. Lederman told The Epoch Times. “They are looking simply to be guaranteed that they are geting paid if they win the appeal, and they were sufficiently satisfied that if these five conditions were met, they would get paid.”

[..] President Trump defended the bond outside the courtroom at his criminal trial. “We put up cash and the number is 175,” President Trump said. “She shouldn’t be complaining about the bonding company. The bonding company would be good for it because I put up the money. I have plenty of money to put up.” After the hearing, President Trump’s lawyer in the case, Alina Habba, fumed at the judge’s incompetence, “he doesn’t even understand basic principles of finance,” and at AG James’ “this is where your taxpayer dollars are going America…witch hunt after witch hunt after witch hunt…” Habba continued to excoriate the whole farce: “…in one hour, that judge and the attorney general realized they had no idea what they were talking about… and we came to an agreement that everything would be the same…”

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“The media have called this case a “hush money” case, but one of our crafty commenters called it the Hush Trump case. Touche’.

• Will Trump Testify? (Victoria Taft)

Will Donald Trump testify at his New York City at the Hush Trump bookkeeping trial? Testimony is underway in the trial of former President Trump, who is charged with a bookkeeping issue of misreporting payments in 2017 as legal fees instead of campaign expenses. His overarching crime, by the Manhattan district attorney’s lights, is a federal election crime, which boils down to Trump stealing the 2016 election. Hillary Clinton won New York in 2016 by a nearly two-to-one margin, so clearly this trial is on the up-and-up. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg dredged up this trial from the dead after federal elections officials and the previous DA as well as Bragg himself declined to bring this case years before. But after Biden’s DOJ parachuted in a Trump specialist attack dog to go after the former president, the Democrats decided to throw everything against the wall to prevent him from being reelected.

Former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr, who can’t stand the former president, calls this case an “abomination… obviously political …and a real threat to liberty.” Better late than never, Bill. He’ll be out with his 2020 observations by, hmmm, let’s say next year. The witness list is out, and the first person to take the stand in this non-televised drama will be the former publisher of the National Enquirer, who paid porn performer Stormy Daniels money for exclusive rights to her story and then killed it. That’s not a crime, but it will dovetail nicely with the prosecution’s index horribilis that they will use as distractive chaff from this “abomination.” The Enquirer paid Daniels $150,000 while Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, who will also testify, paid her $130,000. Trump personally paid Cohen for his legal activities by more than doubling the amount and giving him a $60K spiff for his legal services.

This is the “crime” for which Trump is dragged through the courts. Since it has been, as the lawyers like to say, “bootstrapped” to an unspecified federal elections crime (which the feds said wasn’t a federal elections crime) it has suddenly gone from a civil case to a criminal case. Robert Costello, Cohen’s former attorney, will testify for the defense, according to the witness list. Trump is not on the witness list, but a defendant can always decide if he wants to testify during the trial. Trump has told the world he will testify. “I don’t know, I’m testifying. I tell the truth. I mean, all I can do is tell the truth,” he said recently. “And the truth is,” he continued, “that there’s no case, they have no case.” Last week he answered “yes” when a reporter yelled the question as he entered the Manhattan courthouse. One of Trump’s appellate attorneys, Will Scharf, told CNN recently that he thinks if he decided to testify Trump would do well. “If the jury decides based on the facts and the law, there’s no way President Trump can be convicted,” he said. Scharf says Trump “would be a compelling witness” if he chooses to testify.

In the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial, Trump testified for less than four minutes. One can imagine the cross-examination of Trump by prosecutors using the list of bad acts that have nothing to do with his case, getting him flustered and angry and showing the jury what a bad guy he is. Trump can be cool and calm, but they’ll do everything they can to rattle him on the stand, obviously. The media have called this case a “hush money” case, but one of our crafty commenters called it the Hush Trump case. Touche’. When a judge shuts up the defendant but not the other trial participants you can’t help but wonder if the fix is in. Where else will you read that in this censorious media world that we’re living in?

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“His entire financial livelihood depends on President Trump’s destruction,” he said of Mr. Cohen. “You cannot make a serious decision about President Trump relying on the words of Michael Cohen.”

• Trump Urges “Peaceful Protest” As Day 1 In Hush-Money Case Ends (ZH)

Day one of former President Donald Trump’s so-called “hush-money” trial concluded early on Monday after Judge Juan Merchan said that an alternate juror can visit a dentist appointment (despite previously telling Trump he would have attend every day without fail – missing his son’s graduation – or face jail). Judge Merchan had previously planned to adjourn the trial at 2 p.m. ET due to the Passover holiday. But he said Monday that it would adjourn at 12:30 p.m. He previously said he would end at 2 p.m. on Tuesday for the holiday. Jack Phillips reports, via The Epoch Times, that the early adjournment came after prosecutors and defense lawyers make their respective cases for why the former president should be convicted or acquitted. In the case, President Trump is accused of falsifying business payments during the 2016 campaign by allegedly paying a former lawyer, Michael Cohen, to bury negative stories.

At issue were claims from an adult film performer, Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, that she was engaged in a relationship with the former president. President Trump has denied her claims and has pled not guilty. An attorney for the former president spoke to the jury, asking them to “use your common sense” when they assess the case. “We’re New Yorkers. It’s why we’re here,” Todd Blanche said. “There will be a very swift not guilty verdict” if they decide based on the evidence involved, he said. “You told all of us, you told the court, you told me, you will put aside whatever views you have of President Trump,” Mr. Blanche told the jury as he wrapped up his arguments. “The 34 counts, ladies and gentlemen, are really just pieces of paper,” Mr. Blanche said of the indictment. “None of this was a crime.”

Mr. Blanche was critical of Ms. Clifford, saying that she has earned income and fame from her allegations about an alleged affair that occurred in 2006. “She also wrote a book. She was paid for a documentary,” Mr. Blanche says of Ms. Clifford, adding that courts have sided with President Trump’s legal disputes with Ms. Clifford. As for Mr. Cohen, Mr. Blanche accused him of profiting off his criticism of President Trump. “His entire financial livelihood depends on President Trump’s destruction,” he said of Mr. Cohen. “You cannot make a serious decision about President Trump relying on the words of Michael Cohen.” “He has a goal, an obsession with getting President Trump,” Mr. Blanche said of Mr. Cohen, who is expected to be a witness. “I submit to you that he cannot be trusted.”

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Mike Whitney. A different view.

• Trump Sold-Out His Base to Shovel $95 Billion to Ukraine and Israel (Whitney)

The man who is most responsible for the $95 billion giveaway to Ukraine and Israel, is the same guy who pretends to oppose America’s “wasteful” foreign wars. Donald Trump. It was Trump who consulted with Speaker Mike Johnson about the contents of the Ukraine aid package, just as it was Trump who concocted the idea of issuing loans instead of dispersing the standard welfare handout. It was also Trump who said: “I stand with the Speaker, (Mike Johnson)” after which he added that Johnson is doing “a very good job.” A “good job”?? So, secretly collaborating with the Democrat leadership to push through a bill that “reauthorizes FISA to spy on the American people without a warrant, (bans Tik Tok) fully funds Joe Biden’s DOJ that has indicted President Trump 91 times, and giving Biden’s political gestapo a brand new FBI building bigger than the Pentagon,” while not providing a dime to protect the southern border from the swarms of people entering the country illegally, is doing a “good job”?

The question we should all be asking ourselves is why has Trump decided to participate in this scam? He keeps saying that if he was president, he’d end the war in Ukraine in a day. If he’s sincere about that, then why did he collaborate on a bill that will drag the war out for another year or two? This is from a Twitter post by political analyst Michael Tracey: “Mission Accomplished. It is done: Donald Trump and the House GOP just completed one of the most epic swindles in political history, with Trump personally effectuating the largest-ever dispersement of Ukraine funding through his emissary, “MAGA Mike Johnson” (as Trump lovingly calls him) The $61 billion passed this afternoon is likely enough to underwrite the brutal, pointless trench warfare for at least another year or two. This after the same old endless media screeching that Trump and MAGA Republicans were being brainwashed by Putin and would never fund Ukraine. That fundamental hoax continues — only this time Trump was in on it…. Michael Tracey, Twitter.

And the response from Luca Cabrilo: “Michael you’re 100% spot on. Trump could have at any point killed this monstrous bill if he wanted to, but he didn’t. He even let MAGA Mike go on TV and say that he and Trump are “100% agreed” on the Ukraine funding Trump screwed his base on this one, no other way about it.” Michael Tracey again: “He didn’t just “not kill it,” he personally facilitated its passage..” Here’s more background from Tracey: “The bill, designed after consultations between Mike Johnson and Trump, mysteriously gives the President the ability to forgive the purported “loan” to Ukraine — immediately after the November election…

And if that’s not brazen enough for you, here’s the catch: The funds eligible for “loan forgiveness” are the direct budgetary infusions to Ukraine — meaning the money that pays for the salaries of Ukrainian government workers and so forth — NOT the military “aid,” which comprises the vast majority of the package. So, only $8 billion of the $61 billion allocated to Ukraine is even *eligible* for “loan forgiveness” under the terms of this gargantuan bill. And even that was a fake “loan” to begin with — it never had to be paid back at all!

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“..in the long run, we need the French model: Everybody votes on the same day, everybody has a photo ID, everybody’s accounted as a person..”

• Supreme Court Denies Bid to Expand No-Excuse Mail-In Ballots in Texas (ET)

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a legal challenge to a Texas law that requires voters under the age of 65 to provide justification to vote by mail, meaning that the Democrat-aligned attempt to sharply expand “no-excuse” mail-in ballots in the Lone Star state has failed, with implications for other states. According to an April 22 order list, the high court denied petition for a writ of cetriorari in a case that stems from a federal lawsuit filed in 2020 on behalf of the Texas Democratic Party and several voters who requested that Texas lift its age-based limitations on no-excuse mail-in voting. Texas law only allows individuals to vote by mail without a qualifying excuse, like sickness, if they are 65 years or older. In their original complaint, which made its way through a number of lower courts before ending up before the Supreme Court, the petitioners alleged that the Texas voting law violates the 26th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits denying the right to vote due to age.

The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the appeal means that the Texas law stays in place, delivering a win to election integrity advocates who argue that no-excuse mail-in voting is prone to fraud and makes elections less secure. At the same time, the high court’s decision to deny certiorari is a setback for groups who see laws like Texas’s age-based limits on no-excuse mail-in ballots as “voter suppression” or an unfair attempt to impose barriers to voting for certain groups, in this case younger voters. The high court’s decision not to hear the appeal has broader implications, however, since six other states–Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee–have similar laws on the books that let older voters to request absentee ballot without having to provide any justification. Public opinion in Texas over the issue of no-excuse mail-in voting is split, according to some polls.

In their initial petition filed in 2020 on behalf of the Texas Democratic Party and a group of voters amids the COVID-19 pandemic, the plaintiffs requested that Texas lift its age-based restrictions to no-excuse mail-in voting, citing public health risks related to the outbreak. A district court judge sided with the plaintiffs in May 2020, temporarily blocking the Texas law. Led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, Texas officials then filed an appeal with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which paused the district court’s ruling while the appeal played out. The plaintiffs then asked the U.S. Supreme Court to reimpose the district court’s decision to freeze enforcement of the age-based limits to no-excuse mail-in voting, or to take the case up for review, but the high court rejected both requests.

Ultimately, the 5th Circuit voided the lower court’s May 2020 order in full. This led the plaintiffs to file an amended complaint in the district court, this time asserting other claims, including ones of racial discrimination under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and arguing that the age limitations on mail-in ballots violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th and 26th Amendments. In a July 2022 order, the district court judge dismissed all of the plaintiffs’ claims, leading to another appeal before the 5th Circuit, which ultimately affirmed the district court’s decision to dismiss. The plaintiffs filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court in December 2023, asking the high court to declare Texas’s age-based voting law unconstitutional.

[..] The Supreme Court ruling comes amid a broader fight between those who see election integrity efforts as “voter suppression” and those who believe that the security of U.S. elections is too lax and should be tightened. According to a running tally by the left-leaning Brennan Center for Justice, expansive voting laws far outpaced restrictive ones in 2023. At least 53 expansive voting laws were introduced last year in at least 23 states, compared to 17 restrictive laws being passed in 14 states, suggesting that the election integrity movement is falling behind. Amid concerns over voter fraud, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich recently suggested that to win the presidential election in November, Republicans need to outvote Democrats by a significant margin. “Everybody who wants an honest election should know that in the long run, we need the French model: Everybody votes on the same day, everybody has a photo ID, everybody’s accounted as a person,” Mr. Gingrich said in a February interview on Fox News.

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All else remaining equal…

• Biden Targets Radical IDF Unit With Sanctions to Placate His Voters (Sp.)

Axios reported Saturday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken is planning to imminently announce sanctions against the IDF’s Netzah Yehuda battalion, with the measures expected to stop the battalion’s fighters from being able to receive US military assistance and training. Officials confirmed the looming sanctions to the Times of Israel, indicating on Monday that other Israeli military and police units accused of human rights abuses may also be targeted. However, one of Axios’s sources said others will not be affected after being probed and deemed to have “remedied their behavior” in unspecified ways. The US investigation into Netzah Yehuda goes back to before the current Palestinian-Israeli escalation, with the State Department starting a probe of the unit in December 2022 after troops were caught engaging in violence against Palestinian civilians. One such incident led to the death of a 78-year-old Palestinian-American man.

“Sanctions must not be imposed on the Israel Defense Forces,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Saturday, assuring that his government would “act by all means against these moves.” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant echoed Netanyahu’s sentiments, heaping praise on Netzah Yehuda and assuring that its soldiers operate “in accordance with the values of the IDF and in accordance with international law.” Gallant warned that even if the infantry unit was the only one targeted by sanctions, it would cast “a heavy shadow on the actions of the IDF” and affect “the entire defense establishment.” The Israeli military moved the Netzah Yehuda battalion – which consists mostly of ultra-Orthodox and hardcore Zionist forces, out of the West Bank and away from contact with the Palestinians in late 2022, but no actions were taken to punish members suspected of human rights abuses. Gallant said the unit has been used in Israel’s operation “to dismantle Hamas brigades in Gaza” after last fall’s escalation.

It’s not clear what impact the sanctions will have. The US has donated tens of billions of dollars in military equipment to Israel (including $26 billion in a tranche approved by the House of Representatives on Saturday), and it’s unclear how Washington plans to keep track of weaponry to assure that it doesn’t fall into the Netzah Yehuda battalion’s hands. Netzah Yehuda is a distinct unit within Israel’s armed forces in that it’s made up almost entirely by radical Zionists, Dr. Simon Tsipis, a Tel Aviv-based international relations expert, told Sputnik, commenting on the US plans These forces have “an aggressive attitude toward the Palestinians, and there have been many cases of the violation of the rules of war, aggression toward civilians who live around these Jewish settlements” in the West Bank, the observer explained, noting that this aggression stems from the fighters’ Zionist perspective that all Palestinians are “direct enemies.”

As far as the US administration’s sanctions plans, “this is an attempt to kill two birds with one stone,” Tsipas believes. In the first place, sanctions are designed “to create the appearance of punishing Israel,” he said, with Biden and the Democrats seeking desperately to regain “at least part of the Arab and Muslim vote” in the upcoming election amid the president’s plunge in the polls. The restrictions are not meant to weaken Israel’s military capabilities overall, Tsipis stressed, suggesting the decision to target Netzah Yehuda signals the Democrats’ displeasure with Netanyahu’s hard-right Zionist and religious right coalition. “This is a blow to Zionism as an ideology, not an attempt to influence Israel so that it stops, suspends or is otherwise unable to continue its military operations in the Gaza Strip, or even the [potential] upcoming war with Iran,” the observer said.

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“Israeli and American officials stressed that Washington wanted West Jerusalem to avoid provoking Iran into an escalating series of tit-for-tat strikes and counterstrikes..”

• US Forced Israel To Abandon Larger Attack On Iran – NYT (RT)

Israeli leaders planned a “much more extensive counterstrike on Iran” after Tehran launched a drone and missile barrage on Israel last weekend, but were pressured to pare down the operation by the US and its allies, the New York Times reported on Monday. Israel targeted Iran with a handful of drones and air-launched missiles on Friday, according to US officials and anonymous Israeli sources who spoke to the newspaper. While Western officials believe that an Israeli missile hit an Iranian airbase, Tehran has only acknowledged being attacked with small quadcopter drones, with Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian describing the aircraft as “children’s toys” that were easily shot down. West Jerusalem initially intended a much wider wave of strikes targeting military sites across the country, including near Tehran, anonymous Israeli officials told the outlet.

However, the US, UK, and Germany exerted “concerted diplomatic pressure” on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and forced him to settle for a more limited response, the officials said. Such a response “avoided significant damage, diminishing the likelihood of an escalation,” the New York Times reported. The Israeli military has not commented on the report, and has stuck to its usual policy of refusing to confirm or deny strikes on foreign soil. The latest round of escalation between Israel and Iran began on April 1, when an Israeli airstrike allegedly hit the Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital of Damascus. The strike killed seven officers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force, including two high-ranking generals. Tehran warned that it would retaliate, and two weeks later launched multiple waves of missiles and kamikaze drones at Israel. Most of the Iranian projectiles were intercepted, but with more than 300 drones fired, air defenses were overwhelmed and multiple missiles reached their target, damaging an Israeli air base.

Netanyahu initially planned immediate retaliatory strikes, but was talked out of it during a phone call with US President Joe Biden, the New York Times reported last week. In both last week’s report and Monday’s, Israeli and American officials stressed that Washington wanted West Jerusalem to avoid provoking Iran into an escalating series of tit-for-tat strikes and counterstrikes. The plan appears to have succeeded. “As long as there is no new adventurism by Israel against our interests, then we are not going to have any new reactions,” Amirabdollahian stated on Saturday. With some of Netanyahu’s hardline political allies criticizing the supposedly “lame” response, the officials who spoke to the New York Times insisted that the strikes demonstrated “the breadth and sophistication of Israel’s military arsenal,” the paper paraphrased.

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“Iran’s missiles were able to penetrate directly into Israel’s two most sensitive and highly defended air bases and sites. Behind the whooping western rhetoric lies Israeli shock and fear. Their bases are no longer ‘untouchable’. ”

• Will Zionism Self-Destruct? (Alastair Crooke)

In the summer following Israel’s 2006 (unsuccessful) war on Hizbullah, Dick Cheney sat in his office loudly bemoaning Hizbullah’s continuing strength; and worse still, that it seemed to him that Iran had been the primary beneficiary from the U.S. 2003 Iraq war. Cheney’s guest – the then Saudi Intelligence Chief, Prince Bandar – vigorously concurred (as chronicled by John Hannah, who participated in the meeting) and, to general surprise, Prince Bandar proclaimed that Iran yet could be cut to size: Syria was the ‘weak’ link between Iran and Hizbullah that could be collapsed via an Islamist insurgency, Bandar proposed. Cheney’s initial scepticism turned to elation as Bandar said that U.S. involvement would be unnecessary: He, Prince Bandar, would orchestrate and manage the project. ‘Leave it to me’, he said. Bandar separately told John Hannah: “The King knows that other than the collapse of the Islamic Republic itself, nothing would weaken Iran more than losing Syria”.

Thus began a new phase of attrition on Iran. The regional balance of power was to be decisively shifted towards Sunni Islam – and the region’s monarchies. That old balance from the Shah’s time in which Persia enjoyed regional primacy was to be ended: conclusively, the U.S., Israel and the Saudi King hoped. Iran – already badly bruised by the ‘imposed’ Iran-Iraq war – resolved never again to be so vulnerable. Iran aimed to find a path to strategic deterrence in the context of a region dominated by the overwhelming air dominance enjoyed by its adversaries. What occurred this Saturday 14 April – some 18 years later – therefore was of utmost importance. Despite the bruhaha and distraction following Iran’s attack, Israel and the U.S. know the truth: Iran’s missiles were able to penetrate directly into Israel’s two most sensitive and highly defended air bases and sites. Behind the whooping western rhetoric lies Israeli shock and fear. Their bases are no longer ‘untouchable’.

Israel also knows – but cannot admit – that the so-called ‘assault’ was no assault but an Iranian message to assert the new strategic equation: That any Israeli attack on Iran or its personnel will result in retribution from Iran into Israel. This act of setting the new ‘balance of power equation’ unites the diverse Fronts against the U.S.’ “connivance with Israeli actions in the Middle East, that are at the core of Washington’s policy – and in many ways the root-cause of new tragedies” – in the words of Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Ryabkov. The equation represents a key ‘Front’ – together with Russia’s war against NATO in Ukraine – for persuading the West that its exceptionalist and redemptive myth has proved to be a fatal conceit; that it must be discarded; and that deep cultural change in the West needs to happen. The roots to this wider cultural conflict are deep – but finally have been made explicit. Prince Bandar’s post-2006 playing of the Sunni ‘card’ was a flop (in no small part thanks to Russia’s intervention in Syria).

AndIran, has come in from the cold and is firmly anchored as a primary regional power. It is the strategic partner to Russia and China. And Gulf States today have switched focus instead to money, ‘business’ and Tech, rather than Salafist jurisprudence. Syria, then targeted by the West and ostracised, has not only survived all that the West could ‘throw at it’ but has been warmly embraced by the Arab League and rehabilitated. And Syria is now slowly finding its way to being itself again. Yet even during the Syrian crisis, unforeseen dynamics to Prince Bandar’s playing of Islamist identity versus Arab socialist secular identity were playing out:

I wrote then in 2012: “Over recent years we have heard the Israelis emphasise their demand for recognition of a specifically Jewish nation-state, rather than for an Israeli State, per se”; – a state that would enshrine Jewish political, legal, and military exceptional rights. “[At that time] … Muslim nations [were] seeking the ‘undoing’ of the last remnants of the colonial era. Will we see the struggle increasingly epitomised as a primordial struggle between Jewish and Islamic religious symbols – between al-Aqsa and the Temple Mount?” To be plain, what was apparent even then – in 2012 – was “that both Israel and its surrounding terrain are marching in step toward language which takes them far away from the underlying, largely secular concepts by which this conflict traditionally has been conceptualised. What [would] be the consequence – as the conflict, by its own logic, becomes a clash of religious poles?”

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“I’m not quite sure how big the US embassy is in Kiev, but I doubt it’s enough to set up a maintenance workshop for, I don’t know, Abrams tanks or something like that..”

• US Goes ‘Slippery Slide’ With Sending Its Military Personnel to Ukraine (Sp.)

Troops from the US and other NATO countries will be in Ukraine fighting Russian troops within a year, security and international relations expert Mark Sleboda predicted on Sputnik’s The Critical Hour on Monday. “We (The United States) were at trainers and advisers and CIA and special forces [in Ukraine], and now already, we’re at logistics and maintenance personnel. It’s quite clear where this is going,” Sleboda began. “US troops and [troops] from several other NATO member states will most likely be on the ground in Ukraine fighting the Russians within a year.” On Saturday, the US House of Representatives passed a bill that includes $61 billion earmarked to support Ukraine, however, Sleboda explains that it will not have a major effect on the battlefield. “It will, maybe, slow Russian forces down a little bit. That’s the extent of what the $61 billion [will do].

And, in another six months or perhaps a year, they’ll be back, demanding more from the US taxpayer to try to prop up the Kiev regime a little longer.” One underreported aspect of the bill is that a large portion of it is going towards replenishing US weapon stockpiles and not weapons that will end up on the battlefield in Ukraine. “I would say, that of the $61 billion, actually only $14 billion of that is going to go to Ukraine for direct military aid and weapons,” Sleboda explained. “It sounds like a lot of money, it’s really not considering that just one Patriot battery of 6 to 8 launchers costs more than $1 billion, and they’ve already lost several of them.” The Patriot surface-to-air missile system is considered the most advanced anti-aircraft system in Ukraine’s arsenal. However, the first confirmed Russian destruction of a Patriot system occurred back in May 2023. Since then, several more have been taken out, including two last month.

The reports of an increased US presence in Ukraine were presented as “they’re going to be working out of the US embassy,” in Kiev, Sleboda said, but that assertion is far from reality, he argued. “I’m not quite sure how big the US embassy is in Kiev, but I doubt it’s enough to set up a maintenance workshop for, I don’t know, Abrams tanks or something like that,” Sleboda jokes. “So it almost certainly means that these US troops will be out and about in Ukraine, probably not too far from the front line. And you can certainly see the slippery slide. While the aid shows that, despite some hype in the media, the US is not “giving up on Ukraine,” Sleboda notes that it doesn’t change the calculus for the Russian government, who expected the aid to pass last year after US President Joe Biden requested it in August. “You already have Ukrainian military commanders speaking anonymously, of course, to the Financial Times, saying that this isn’t actually going to change much,” Sleboda recounted.

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“Very soon, Ukraine will be reduced to medieval living conditions — no lights, no phones, no Internet, no shopping, no ability to conduct modern warfare. End. . . of. . . story.”

• The Bad Faith Olympics (Kunstler)

Did it warm your heart to see all those blue and yellow Ukrainian flags waved by our elected officials in Congress Saturday night with the passage of the $60-plus-billion aid bill to the Palookaville of Europe? You realize, don’t you, that the tiny fraction of that hypothetical “money” — from our country’s empty treasury — that ever reaches Ukraine will rebound on the instant into Mr. Zelensky’s Cayman Islands bank account. The rest of the dough enters the recursive shell-game between US weapons-makers and the very hometown folks in Congress waving those blue and yellow flags, who will receive great greasy gobs of fresh “campaign donations” from the grateful bomb and missile producers. No wonder they’re cheering. What the $60-plus-billion won’t do is provide any fresh arms and equipment to Ukraine’s sad-sack army soon enough to prevent Russia from bringing this cruel, stupid, and unnecessary war, which we started, to a close.

Yes, we started it, not Russia, in 2014 with our Intel blob overthrowing elected President Viktor Yanukovych in the so-called “Maidan Revolution of Dignity” (what Wikipedia calls it). And for what reason? To jam Ukraine into NATO as a prelude to “weakening” Russia sufficient to bust it up and gain control over Russian oil, ores, and grain. Yes, that was actually the neocon’s game, equal parts megalomania and hubris, a fiasco as strategically ill-fated as Hitler’s push to gain control of Russia’s oil fields via Stalingrad in 1942-3. With failure and humiliation looming in Ukraine, the blob’s objective for now, in theory, is the vain hope of prolonging the hostilities just long enough to get its hologram president, “Joe Biden” re-elected, so that said blob can continue its amoebic digestion of what’s left uneaten by it in our sore-beset republic. You’ve got to wonder, of course, what this blob thinks will remain to rule over when it’s done gobbling up everything and jailing everyone from sea to shining sea who objects.

You tell me what conceivable way Ukraine can prevail in this proxy war now without just tripping off the civilization-ending nuke exchange? America does not have enough tactical missiles and artillery shells at hand to send over there. What we did have is gone. NATO never had much to begin with. Ukraine has run out of available cannon-fodder to conscript from its dwindling population. Despite Mr. Macron’s recent bluster, NATO can’t raise a credible army, or even agree on which country would send what. Nobody is riding to the rescue. Instead, Russia is fortifying its home-grown armaments industry and its military while systematically turning off the electricity all over Ukraine by blowing up the power stations. Very soon, Ukraine will be reduced to medieval living conditions — no lights, no phones, no Internet, no shopping, no ability to conduct modern warfare. End. . . of. . . story.

This is apt to play out much faster than America’s blob-controlled news media will be able to lie about. I’d guess it can be functionally over before mid-summer. The result will be yet another humiliation on the “Joe Biden” scorecard. When it’s over, you can be sure the Russians will abstain from an end-zone dance so as not to provoke America’s genius-losers into some final petty grand act of requital. Russia will just soberly declare what is self-evident: that for centuries Ukraine has been in its sphere-of-influence, as Mexico is in ours, and that they have reestablished the natural order of things in that corner of the world.

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Tusk and Duda don’t belong together.

• Polish President Rejects Own PM’s ‘Pre-war’ Warning (RT)

There is no imminent threat of a military conflict breaking out in Europe, Polish President Andrzej Duda has said, contradicting the country’s prime minister. Late last month, Donald Tusk claimed that the continent was in a “pre-war era.” The prime minister argued at the time that “literally any scenario is possible.” Tusk also warned that “no one in Europe will be able to feel safe” if the West fails to provide Ukraine with enough weapons, allowing Russia to prevail in the conflict. When asked whether he shared the prime minister’s grim outlook during an interview with Poland’s Fakt media outlet on Monday, Duda replied in the negative.

“If we act responsibly, and we are acting responsibly so far, there will never be a war, because we will always be powerful enough to not be worth attacking,” he said. According to the Polish president, credible deterrence helped the West to prevent the Cold War from turning into a military confrontation. He suggested that the West today should emulate this strategy by arming up. He also said his country was ready to host the nuclear weapons of NATO allies as part of a sharing scheme within the bloc if such a decision were made. Earlier this month, UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps echoed Tusk’s assessment, claiming that “we have moved from a post-war to a pre-war world.” He argued that the West needed to beef up its defense spending.

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell also subsequently stated that the “possibility of a high-intensity conventional war in Europe is no longer a fantasy.” Moscow has repeatedly denied having any intention of attacking NATO member states. Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed such claims as “nonsense,” suggesting that Kiev’s backers were using the supposed threat of a Russian attack to “extract additional expenses from people, to make them bear this burden [of funding Ukraine] on their shoulders.”

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“RFK Jr. has been even more of a staunch supporter of Israel than Biden or Trump. In December, he said that Palestinians are arguably “the most pampered people by international aid organizations in the world.”

• Biden Fears RFK Jr. as He Gets on Another Ballot (Sp.)

US President Joe Biden’s campaign and the DNC are upping their efforts to stop the presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., including opening up a department dedicated to stopping the independent’s campaign. On Friday, the Biden campaign released an ad featuring several members of the Kennedy family endorsing the President over their relative who is running for the same spot. Fifteen members of the Kennedy family have also publicly endorsed Biden. Additionally, according to US media, the Biden campaign has been dumping opposition research and claiming in press conferences that a vote for RFK Jr. is a vote for former President Donald Trump. They have also been challenging RFK Jr.’s ballot access, like in Hawaii where their efforts were shot down by a judge on Saturday.

Democrats have long blamed third-party candidates for their election failures. In 2000, Green candidate Ralph Nader was blamed for George W Bush’s victory over former Vice President Al Gore, despite more registered Democrats in Florida voting for Bush than Nader. Then in 2016, Green candidate Jill Stein was blamed by Democrats for Trump’s 2016 victory over Hillary Clinton, despite the Libertarian candidate (and former Republican governor) Gary Johnson far outperforming Stein. Nevertheless, Democrats are worried yet again about third-party candidates, particularly since Kennedy is already on the ballot in four swing states: Michigan, New Hampshire, Nevada and North Carolina. Kennedy has qualified for nine ballots so far. “There will be a clear choice facing voters this November and the more they learn about RFK Jr, the more they will recognize that a vote for him is a vote for Donald Trump,” Matt Corridoni, a spokesperson for the DNC, told US media.

But polling data and Kennedy’s donor list don’t seem to back that up. In a recent national poll, Trump leads Biden by 2% in a two-way race, 46% to 44%. But when the race is expanded to include Kennedy, Green candidate Jill Stein and former Bernie Sanders surrogate Cornel West, Trump’s lead flips, with Joe Biden leading 39% to 37%. Kennedy receives 13%, Stein grabs 3% and West pulls in 2%. The poll also notes that 15% of people who said they would vote for Trump in a two-way race say they would vote for Kennedy, compared to just 7% of Biden supporters who switched to Kennedy when given the chance. Meanwhile, an analysis of Kennedy’s donor list revealed that he has received roughly $224,000 in donations from donors who gave to Trump’s 2020 campaign, compared to $105,000 that came from supporters of Biden’s 2020 campaign.

Despite these metrics, Trump and his campaign have treated Kennedy with a lighter touch. Trump previously said he likes him personally. He also seems to be working on making Democrat fears that Kennedy will siphon off votes from Biden become a reality. In March, Trump called Kennedy the “most Radical Left Candidate by far” in the 2024 race and slammed his support of environmental issues. “I guess that would mean that RFK Jr. is going to be taking away votes from Crooked Joe Biden. And he should because he is actually better than Biden. He’s much better than Biden. If I were a Democrat, I’d vote for RFK Jr. every single time over Biden,” Trump said in the video.

However, one group of disaffected former-Biden voters who will likely not be voting for RFK Jr., are the ones upset with the Biden administration for its support of Israel and its campaign in Gaza Sixty-nine percent of young Democratic voters disapprove of Biden’s handling of the war, and RFK Jr. has had some good polling numbers among young voters in the past. However, RFK Jr. has been even more of a staunch supporter of Israel than Biden or Trump. In December, he said that Palestinians are arguably “the most pampered people by international aid organizations in the world.”

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“..mass psychosis of government leaders who consistently make global decisions through a distorted lens completely detached from reality..”

• Michael Brenner: The Moral Depravity of Western Imperialism (Sch.)

Professor Michael Brenner joins this episode of Journalists for Sale to discuss the moral emptiness of Western empire, most visibly expressed through its unequivocal support of the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza. Brenner details how this depravity manifests not only in the form of mass slaughter and total disregard for human life, but also through mass psychosis of government leaders who consistently make global decisions through a distorted lens completely detached from reality. Only this can explain their escalations in Ukraine at every turn, their “acknowledgement” of Palestinian life yet total complicity in its destruction and the mass censorship being imposed upon dissidents by the ruling class, most recently at the University of Southern California. Brenner’s wealth of knowledge and impressive ability to articulate the philosophical implications of this ongoing lunacy form a unique analysis one can’t quite get anywhere else but from the man himself.

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“..as lay persons, most of us would hazard to say that it is not “normal” or “valid” to set oneself on fire in a protest..”

• No, It Does Not Matter Why the Man Lit Himself on Fire (Turley)

The scene outside of the New York courthouse holding the Trump trial has become a microcosm of our deep political divisions and rage this month. Images of citizens screaming at each other from across security barriers have played out nightly on news programs. But few were prepared for what occurred Friday night, when a man threw flyers in the air, poured a flammable liquid on himself and lit himself on fire. Some immediately rushed to use the incident to fuel their own rage. On the far left, postings and comments declared MAGA supporters were lighting themselves and “MAGA Terrorist just set himself on fire.” For many, it seemed a fact too good to check. Even after the police and fire officials explained that the material distributed by the man did not seem to relate to the trial, journalists pushed for a connection to the pro-Trump protesters. Officials reported that the flyers concerned wacky conspiracy theories related to schools and other matters.

Max Azzarello, 37, of Florida worked briefly for Rep. Tom Suozzi (D., N.Y.), but has a criminal record of property offenses that included throwing a glass of wine on a photo of Bill Clinton. We know little of his political views beyond his conspiracy obsessions. However, does it really matter? What should be clear is that he was a deeply disturbed individual. Yet even self-immolation may no longer be treated as per se evidence of mental illness. In today’s politics, even setting yourself on fire can be rationalized. An event was held recently at UCLA in which two psychiatrists appeared to rationalize self-immolation in the cause of people in Gaza. Ragda Izar and Afaf Moustafa were reportedly discussing the self-immolation in front of Israel’s embassy of airman Aaron Bushnell in February to protest Israeli policies. It was referred to as a “revolutionary suicide” on the panel on “Depathologizing Resistance.”

UCLA’s Izar stated that Bushnell “carried a lot of distress…but does that mean that the actions he engaged in are any less valid?” She suggested that it is “normal to be distressed when you’re seeing this level of carnage [in Gaza].
Moustafa is quoted as saying that “Psychiatry pathologizes non-pathological…reactions to a pathological environment or pathological society. It’s considered illness to choose to die in protest of the violence of war but perfectly sane to choose to die in service of the violence of war.” There have been a few prominent historical self-immolations in protest, including the famous case of Thich Quang Duc, who burned himself alive to protest the Vietnam War in 1963. However, as lay persons, most of us would hazard to say that it is not “normal” or “valid” to set oneself on fire in a protest.

The dividing line between rage and reason has always been contextual. In my forthcoming book, “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage,” I discuss how we have faced regular periods of rage in our history. How one views rage depends largely on the underlying viewpoint. This country was born in rage with the Boston Tea Party, where a riot with massive property damage is celebrated as a moment of liberation. Yet even self-immolation may now be viewed as somehow valid when used to oppose Israeli policies or other “distressful” realities. If Azzarello was motivated by his view of a conspiracy among educators or Trump’s trial, would his self-immolation also be viewed as valid?

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Trump SNL

 

 

RFK Autism
https://twitter.com/i/status/1782611008713806295

 

 

David Martin

 

 

Wind

 

 

Kate
https://twitter.com/i/status/1782425377094455494

 

 

Dog is not impressed
https://twitter.com/i/status/1782645630227173683

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Mar 102024
 


Pierre-Auguste Renoir Parisiennes in Algerian Costume 1872 1834

 

• Europe Is Living In A “Pre-War Era”: Polish PM Tusk (RT)
• EU Must Develop ‘Battle-Winning’ Weapons – Von der Leyen (RT)
• Biden Thrills the Media with an Attack on his Political Foes in the SOTU (Turley)
• Biden Swaps SOTU Address for Campaign Speech (Manley)
• Biden Tries To Change Balance Of Power With Immigration Policy – Musk (TASS)
• The Fate of the Union (Jim Kunstler)
• Trump’s Return Would Be Better For The World – Orban (RT)
• Trump To Get National Security Briefings Again Once He Secures Nomination (PM)
• Congress Is Facing Drag-Out Fight Over Second Part of Government Spending (Sp.)
• Russia Requests UN Security Council Meeting On Ukraine For March 22 (TASS)
• ‘Cut a Deal’: Sacks Calls for Russia-America Detente to Prevent WWIII (Sp.)
• Pope Francis Urges Zelensky to Find ‘Courage of the White Flag’ (Miles)
• We Are Witnessing The Bittersweet Birth Of A New Russia (Scott Ritter)
• Biden’s Offer for a 6-Week Pause in the Genocide in Gaza (Sahiounie)
• What the Western Press Didn’t Say About the Leaked German Conversation (Vasco)

 

 

 

 

Tucker Invasion

 

 

Biden CNN

 

 

Two hours, 23 minutes, 8 seconds

 

 

Walks just like Joe Biden

 

 

 

 

True the Vote
https://twitter.com/i/status/1766280452627898799

 

 

Dershowitz

 

 

 

 

MLK RFK

 

 

 

 

What a insane thing to say. Like it’s pre-ordained. No, Tusk wants war.

• Europe Is Living In A “Pre-War Era”: Polish PM Tusk (RT)

Europe’s peaceful era has ended, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has said, painting a grim picture of the future arising from tensions with Russia. “The times of peace are over. The post-war era is over,” Tusk said at a meeting of the European People’s Party (EPP) in Bucharest, Romania on Thursday. “We are living through new times – the pre-war era.” “The fight against totalitarian trends, corruption, and lies is taking place on many fronts. The most dramatic illustration of this is, of course, what is happening in the war in Ukraine,” the prime minister continued. “We are facing a simple choice: either we fight to protect our borders, territory and values, and defend our citizens and future generations, or [accept] the alternative that is defeat.” Tusk made his comments as the Russia-Ukraine conflict entered its third year last month, with many EU heads of state renewing their pledges to continue military and financial aid to Kiev.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in February that the US-led alliance should brace for “a confrontation that could last decades.” US President Joe Biden vowed during his State of the Union address on Thursday to continue backing Ukraine and accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of “sowing chaos around Europe and beyond.”Moscow has blamed the West for instigating current tensions, arguing that NATO’s expansion eastward is one of the key causes of Russia’s conflict with Ukraine. Putin stated last year that the West’s true goal is “the breakup” of Russia. The Russian leader, however, stressed that Moscow has no intention of attacking NATO member states unless it is attacked first.

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Tusk and von der Leyen are warmongers. Europe better get rid of them.

• EU Must Develop ‘Battle-Winning’ Weapons – Von der Leyen (RT)

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has called on EU member states to invest heavily in the defense industry. These efforts should see the creation of weapons that will ensure the dominance of their armies on the battlefield, she said. Von der Leyen also equated European security with continued support for Ukraine, which she said Brussels will keep providing “for as long as it takes.” Addressing a congress of the European People’s Party in Bucharest, Romania on Thursday, von der Leyen said that the bloc needs to “turbo charge our defense industrial capacity in the next five years.” She added that this push would “help us fill the urgent need to rebuild, replenish and modernize Member States’ armed forces.”

“In doing so, Europe should strive to develop and manufacture the next generation of battle-winning operational capabilities,” she said. The Commission president’s remarks came after the EU’s executive body presented its strategy for improving the bloc’s defense industry on Tuesday. The document calls, among other things, for the streamlining of arms procurement among member states and reducing dependence on the US defense industry. Speaking the following day to Politico’s Playbook, EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell also urged member states to step up their game in terms of cooperation. He noted that the bloc does not need a unified army, but should rather strive to ensure that the armed forces of constituent nations “work better together.”

During the Munich Security Conference last month, outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who is being billed as a potential candidate to replace Jens Stoltenberg as NATO secretary general this fall, urged European states to spend more on defense and ramp up ammunition production. Last December, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag that “we, Europeans, must increase our engagement to ensure security on our continent,” predicting that the US would shift its focus to the Asia-Pacific region regardless of who wins the presidential election. Concerns over Washington’s role in Europe have been further exacerbated by Republican frontrunner Donald Trump’s recent comments, suggesting that the US should not be expected to defend European allies who refuse to fulfill their military spending commitments to NATO.

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“In some ways, the SOTU may have died when former Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripped up the address of former President Donald Trump..”

• Biden Thrills the Media with an Attack on his Political Foes in the SOTU (Turley)

President Biden gave what could be his final State of the Union address Thursday. While many presidents have used such moments to focus on the “union” of all Americans in our shared values and interests, Biden spoke to our disunion and seemed, again, to push the nation further apart. Much of the rhetoric was familiar, if delivered as in a higher volume. Biden raised the same demons he’s raised before, as he painted his opponents as threatening democracy itself. As with the speech in Philadelphia and Valley Forge, Biden selected a backdrop of unity to highlight and play on our divisions. And many in the media were thrilled by the display. The president attacked Trump and the Supreme Court, and compared political opponents to those presenting the same threat as Hitler in World War II. After the speech, MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace gushed that it “was like a punch in the face to every Republican in the room.”

After repeating again that it “was a punch in the nose,” she added, “everybody knows this is a great speech.” I beg to differ. It was certainly a powerful delivery for Biden, but it was a rather poor State of the Union speech because there was little unifying in it. Biden attacked his political opponents over a dozen times and even seemed to lash out at the Supreme Court justices sitting before him. He returned to the themes of his infamous Philadelphia speech with the portrayal of his opponents (including millions of Americans) as representing an existential threat to the nation, like the Nazis or the Confederacy. The hellish red backdrop was gone but in some ways it was more chilling precisely because this was a different setting. This was supposed to be the State of the Union, where a president lays out what he views as the national interest, not just his political interests. There is a difference.

Some Republicans showed the same lack of appreciation for this moment in heckling and shouting at the president. I have written that such conduct should not be tolerated at the SOTU. While a guest was removed from the chamber and arrested for yelling at the president, some members continued to treat the SOTU like a cathartic primal-scream session. The media also showed the ecstatic response to the rage and recriminations. They praised Biden’s speech while largely ignoring the over-the-top partisanship and dubious factual claims. What was lost is what we once had in these moments. I can remember as a young page standing in awe of this chamber and its occupants. Presidents and the members were every bit as partisan and bitterly divided. However, at the SOTU they could still transcend the politics. It was a moment that reminded the nation that we are still capable of reaching these moments of civility and decorum.

In some ways, the SOTU may have died when former Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripped up the address of former President Donald Trump. Her drop-the-mic moment will have a lasting impact on the House. While many in the media celebrated her lack of decorum and respect, she tore up something far more important than a speech. She shredded decades of tradition of civility and any remaining residue of restraint in our politics. Now media figures like Wallace are praising a president for giving a speech that is “a punch in the face to every Republican in the room . . . a punch in the nose . . . Everybody knows this is the message going into the next eight months, but the polls will soon reflect that, in this will be a real fight.”

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“The question is, can he be this ‘Dark Brandon’ through November?”

• Biden Swaps SOTU Address for Campaign Speech (Manley)

On Friday, Sputnik’s Fault Lines was joined by TV radio show host Edward Woodson, and John Jackson who is the former chairman of the Dekalb Democratic Party. The hosts and their guests discussed US President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address. The address was less like the annual state of the nation speech that it is meant to be, as Biden leaned into politics in preparation for this year’s presidential election. Without saying his name, Biden derided Trump and those who stormed the Capitol on January 6, as well as criticized conservatives who are unable to see Russia as a threat. “Well, it wasn’t a State of the Union, it was a highly partisan speech. It was a campaign speech, is what it was. So, it wasn’t a State of Union. I’ve never actually seen a State of the Union like that because it was a kickoff to the campaign,” said Woodson.

Jackson agreed that over time, the State of the Union speech has become a “partisan affair” but acknowledged that Biden seemed less like his usual “Sleepy Joe” self, and seemed more alert during his speech. “You know, I think that it was a pretty good State of the Union. He hit all the points he needed to, he came alive. He was not ‘Sleepy Joe.’ Like, everybody was worried about him being ‘Sleepy Joe.’ That nickname that Trump has given him, he’s lived up to it, but he didn’t live up to it last night. The question is, can he be this ‘Dark Brandon’ through November? The reality is that it’s ‘Dark Brandon,’ until he needs to be to motivate the Democratic base to turn out,” Jackson countered. “If he’s not this alive person who can snap back, who can speak coherently, he won’t win. So, I think that, honestly, the State of the Union has become a partisan affair, it’s not what it used to be. It is very much a partisan affair, is not an objective government speech. It’s always going to be politicized no matter who is doing it. It’s the nature. It’s the polarized America that we’re in,” he added.

The hosts and their guests then discussed the bipartisan border security bill that Republicans, encouraged by former President Donald Trump, killed. Now a bipartisan group of House lawmakers are calling on House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to stage a vote on similar legislation in an effort to give Ukraine continued military funding in exchange for funding for the US-Mexico border. “If Republicans really want immigration reform, they really want that border bill, then don’t sink a bill because Trump told you to,” said Jackson. “The president was right, that deal had bipartisan support, and Trump calls members of Congress to tell them to vote it down because he wants this to be his issue,” he continued. “That’s stuff you can’t pull if you want to be serious. This is why Republicans are going to lose the House, and I think Democrats will retain the Senate. And I will be honest, Joe Biden’s a weak candidate, but his only hope of getting reelected is the down ballot success of Democrats puts him over the top.”

But Jackson also maintained that a majority of Americans no longer see the justification for funding a proxy war while inflation, job creation, homelessness, healthcare, and affordable housing are primary concerns for them. “A lot of people who are employed are struggling to make ends meet because the cost of living is so high. And I think that a lot of people can empathize with Republicans when they block foreign aid, and there’s all these people in America in need,” he added. “Now, the gaslighting of this is that, it’s not like Republicans would send stimulus to Americans or they would cut taxes for the rich – that’s the gaslight, but the reality is they are right when questioning the sending of money all over the world where we have people struggling in America.”

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“..the US census currently counts, for purposes of voting power, all people in a district, regardless of citizenship..”

• Biden Tries To Change Balance Of Power With Immigration Policy – Musk (TASS)

Decisions by the administration of US President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party on immigration policy are designed to change the balance of power in the upcoming presidential election, US entrepreneur Elon Musk believes. “Most Americans do not know that the US census currently counts, for purposes of voting power, all people in a district, regardless of citizenship! Senate Democrats just voted unanimously to defeat an amendment that would have stopped counting illegals for congressional seat apportionment and electoral college (presidential) votes.

Since illegals are mostly in Democrat states, both the House and the Presidential vote are shifted ~5% to the left, which is enough to change the entire balance of power! “This is a major reason why the Biden administration is ushering in record levels of illegals and doing so few deportations,” he wrote on X. For years, the southern states and the federal government have been at odds over the issue of illegal migration. The most heated scenario has emerged in the state of Texas, where officials support severe measures to combat illegal migration and speak out against the present US administration’s policies on the subject. Musk has earlier expressed support for the Texas authorities.

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“..our pharma-driven experts prefer to mummify not the body but the personality with a cocktail of adderal, clonazepam, and prednisone..”

• The Fate of the Union (Jim Kunstler)

Let’s face it: as pure theater, the president’s annual address to Congress has become a disconcertingly shabby affair, bursts of gloatish barking wedged into an hour of nearly continuous hand-clapping, as if drowning public utterances in applause might divert the audience from the empty, vicious bluster “Joe Biden” served up Thursday night. You couldn’t help but be reminded of the old Supreme Soviet in the twilight hours of Konstantin Chernenko, whose country’s renowned mortuary experts managed to embalm a year or so before his actual decease and interment. The Ruskies back in the day had a secret recipe for premature mummification of their leadership; our pharma-driven experts prefer to mummify not the body but the personality with a cocktail of adderal, clonazepam, and prednisone — the latter responsible for the ‘roid rage on view whenever “Joe Biden” is hauled out of his catacomb for public performances.

The Kid from Scranton’s most memorably mendacious line got front-loaded, so as not to be lost on the watching millions already nauseated by “JB’s” pre-speech triumphal journey from the entrance down the aisle through the mob of his elected admirers clamoring for selfies: “Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and democracy been under assault here at home as they are today,” the president squawked. True dat. The part he left out was that said assault emanates entirely from the very government he pretends to head. It’s reported (in The Epoch Times today) that since the start of this year the FBI has rounded up 93 new suspects in the event of 1-6-21 touted as “the insurrection” — most of the years-old charges related to trespassing, disorderly conduct, and parading, conduct now regarded as nation-threatening. He also left out the prodigious three-year-long campaign of his inter-agency flunkies to abolish the First Amendment by capturing all the transmitters of free speech. And never mind the regime’s banana republic style lawfare op to jail “JB’s” chief political opponent on spurious charges before the November election — rank, in-your-face election interference.

Also up front in the show: the regime’s lust to start World War Three by asserting falsely that Russia intends to invade and overrun Europe at any moment, in order to continue justifying our insane proxy war in Ukraine, now on its last legs. Putin Putin Putin is “sowing chaos throughout Europe and beyond,” the president barked to hearty applause, as if anyone in the chamber really believes it. The truth is that our country, now effectively the Intel States of America, has sown all that chaos. The feckless Ukraine project has failed. The end of the Zelensky fake-out is near. The CIA announced it in last week’s Sunday New York Times, and all that’s left to do is cover-up the Biden family’s private racketeering activities in that notorious money-laundry and then somehow escape the massive national humiliation that will ensue when this fiasco is concluded, finalizing America’s loss-of-standing in the world. It’s all on “Joe Biden” and everybody knows it.

Now, the catch to the adoring hoo-rah ginned up on the left side of the chamber last night is that all the wildly applauding ninnies are plotting desperately to find some way to ditch “Joe Biden” before the party’s August convention, to avoid the embarrassment of having to toss him overboard at the last minute in a smoke-filled back room there — which would be an admission that his entire reelection campaign has been a ruse all along. As of this week, they’ve lost on the simple expedient to get Mr. Trump erased from blue state ballots. The biggest court actions against Mr. Trump are collapsing spectacularly. Fulton County DA Fani Willis has so wrecked herself that she’ll certainly be dropped from the case, could be kicked out of her job altogether, and stands to lose her law license for committing crimes ranging from perjury to conspiracy with White House lawyers to interfere with the coming election — and then lying about it under oath.

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“..there will be peace if there will be world leaders who want peace.”

• Trump’s Return Would Be Better For The World – Orban (RT)

Donald Trump will be able to stop the conflict between Russia and Ukraine if he wins the election in November and returns to the White House, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said. Orban, who has a good long-standing relationship with Trump, made the comment in a video message on his Facebook page on Saturday dedicated to his meeting with the 45th US president at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida the previous day. While he was in office between 2017 and 2021, Trump was “the president of peace, he enjoyed respect all over the world and thus created the conditions for peace,” the Hungarian leader said, stressing that there was no conflict in Ukraine or the Middle East at that time. “Today, there would’ve been no war if he was the US president,” the PM insisted. According to Orban, Trump and him agreed that “there will be peace if there will be world leaders who want peace.” The Hungarian PM added that he was “proud” that his country was one of those that are striving for peace.

Since the start of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022, Hungary has been consistently calling for a diplomatic solution to the crisis. Unlike its EU neighbors, Budapest has refused to provide weapons to Kiev, maintained economic ties with Moscow and criticized the bloc’s sanctions against Russia as “counterproductive.” Russia has repeatedly said that it is ready for dialogue, but stressed that it hasn’t been getting any reasonable proposals that would account for the actual situation on the ground from Kiev or its backers in the US and the EU. According to Moscow, in such conditions it has no other choice but to keep pursuing its goals in Ukraine via military means. Orban explained that the aim of his visit to Florida was “to say frankly” that Trump’s second presidency “will be better for the whole world,” not just for ties between Budapest and Washington. The Hungarian PM added that it would, of course, be up to the American people to decide who will be their next head of state.

Earlier this week, Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee in the election as his last renaming rival, Nikki Haley, suspended her campaign after losing primaries in 14 out of 15 states. US President Joe Biden lashed out at both Trump and Orban during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania on Friday. “You know who he [Trump] is meeting with today down in Mar-a-Lago? Orban of Hungary, who’s stated flatly that he doesn’t think democracy works, he’s looking for dictatorship.” Biden claimed that he himself was looking for a future “where we defend democracy, not diminish it.” During his campaign, Trump has repeatedly vowed to settle the Ukraine conflict “within 24 hours” if he returns to the Oval Office, claiming he would sit down with both Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. In the fall of 2022, Zelensky signed a decree banning Kiev from negotiating with Putin.

De Niro

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“Biden barred Trump from receiving classified intelligence briefings shortly after he took over the White House in 2021.”

• Trump To Get National Security Briefings Again Once He Secures Nomination (PM)

Former President Donald J. Trump will be receiving briefings on classified national security matters once he secures the GOP presidential nomination, US intelligence officials say. The Biden administration intends to share intelligence with Trump, a senior intelligence official told Politico, despite the DOJ having indicted Trump in two federal cases, one alleging that he kept classified documents after leaving the White House, which all presidents do, and another alleging that Trump attempted to overthrow the government while he was the head of that government. Biden barred Trump from receiving classified intelligence briefings shortly after he took over the White House in 2021, citing that Trump had “erratic” behavior. Sharing classified intelligence related to national security matters is standard practice between current and former US presidents.

While there is no constitutional requirement for sit-down briefings, incumbent administrations have used intelligence agencies to brief candidates from both major political parties on some of the most critical national security issues and this has been standard practice for 72 years. The briefings typically occur in the late summer, following the national conventions. They are overseen by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and authorized by the White House. Douglas London, a former CIA case officer, told the outlet that if the Biden administration refuses to share intel with Trump it could backfire on the intelligence community. He said that the decision could “taint them in the eyes of somebody who might very well be their boss again in a few months.”

Trump has taken aim at intelligence agencies throughout his time on the campaign trail. He has accused President Biden of weaponizing the Department of Justice against him in an effort to prosecute his top political rival. A senior US intelligence official told Politico that regaining Trump’s trust is among the greatest concerns of intelligence agencies.According to the official, Trump will be briefed by the intelligence community primarily in the same way that previous presidential candidates have been briefed.

Brennan

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“..by helping the Dems avert a shutdown, Johnson has “surrendered Republican leverage..”

• Congress Is Facing Drag-Out Fight Over Second Part of Government Spending (Sp.)

After averting a government shutdown on Friday, US lawmakers face another deadline on 22 March and another battle over funding. The Democratic-led upper chamber voted 75-22 on March 8th to pass six appropriations bills covering agriculture, housing, transportation and energy. The House passed the measure, which accounts for less than half of government funding and is worth $460 billion, on March 6.Axios expects the upcoming negotiations to be a “tougher lift”: “thornier fights over funding for things like the Pentagon and the Department of Homeland Security are on the horizon,” the media outlet warns. The House Freedom Caucus, made up of hardline conservatives, lobbied hard to kill the funding package and did not hide their disappointment when House Speaker Mike Johnson gave the bill the green light on Wednesday.

Johnson worked with Democrats on two occasions. First, the lower chamber passed a stopgap measure on February 29 to extend funding on a short-term basis, setting two deadlines for March 8 and March 22. Second, the Speaker relied on Democrats to pass the spending bill on March 8. Freedom Caucus Republicans argue that by helping the Dems avert a shutdown, Johnson has “surrendered Republican leverage” to pressure the administration to resolve the burning issues of border security and immigration. Conservative Republican voters are upset and angry at what they see as the GOP’s unwillingness to take a stand on the unfolding border crisis.

“The $460 billion spending package advanced (339-85) by the GOP-controlled House on Wednesday partially funds Democrats’ authoritarian regime for the remainder of Joe Biden’s first term,” wrote the Federalist, a US conservative media outlet. “Equally infuriating is Johnson and House Republicans insisting they care about stopping Biden’s border invasion — at the same time they’re handing away their only leverage to end it. It seems that the March 22 vote could become a litmus test for Johnson in the eyes of his fellow conservatives. Likewise, the GOP base is wondering if the Republicans have the guts to challenge Team Biden and the Democrats. The stakes are high for the GOP, and left-leaning Axios warns that “there are just two weeks left before [US lawmakers] could be back up against the wall of a government shutdown”. “The debate over funding of the Department of Homeland Security is sure to be a knockdown, drag-out fight, with immigration and border security emerging as a top election year issue,” the media outlet predicted.

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“..you are making the image of Russia as of an enemy and aggressor, avoiding the facts that your aggression against Russia with Ukraine’s involvement started at least ten years ago..”

• Russia Requests UN Security Council Meeting On Ukraine For March 22 (TASS)

Russia has requested a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine for March 22, Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyansky said. “It would have been nice if NATO’s representatives in the [UN] Security Council explained to us the alliance’s devious logic,” Polyansky said speaking at the UN Security Council’s session. “Its leaders initially told us that NATO should expand into Ukraine because Russia would never attack a NATO member state. However, we hear today that Russia cannot be allowed to win in Ukraine, because after that it will move further and attack NATO.” “Is there any common sense in your statements, any consistency? However, it is expressively displayed in the way you are making the image of Russia as of an enemy and aggressor, avoiding the facts that your aggression against Russia with Ukraine’s involvement started at least ten years ago,” he continued.

“We will discuss in detail all these moments, which are unpleasant for our Western colleagues, at the requested by us separate meeting of the [UN] Security Council on March 22,” Polyansky added. The Russian diplomat pointed out that French Permanent Representative to the UN Nicolas de Riviere did not say anything during his speech at the session about the initiative of French President Emmanuel Macron to send troops of Western countries to Ukraine.Polyansky added that Robert Wood, deputy US envoy to the United Nations, was “modest and said nothing” about the network of secret bases that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) set up on Ukrainian territory over the past eight years. “It is also a pity that we do not hear the usually very active German envoy among those, who requested to address today’s meeting,” the Russian diplomat noted. “It would have been interesting to hear commentaries from him regarding the conversation leaked to the media by senior German military officials, who discussed how to help the Ukrainians destroy the Crimean Bridge and deliver more strikes deeper into the territory of Russia.”

On March 1, RT TV editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan said that on the day when German Chancellor Olaf Scholz vowed that NATO was not and would not be involved in the Ukrainian conflict, high-ranking German army officers were discussing the possibility of attacking the Crimean bridge without repercussions for the German authorities. Simonyan referred to the existence of an authentic audio recording and later published a transcript of the conversation. The officers discussed the extent to which Taurus missiles could destroy the Crimean Bridge and also the details of preparations for such an attack. The German Defense Ministry confirmed later that the conversation among top-ranking Bundeswehr (armed forces) officers had been intercepted. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged to sort things out promptly. On March 4, the Russian Foreign Ministry summoned German Ambassador to Moscow Alexander Lambsdorff to deliver a formal demarche and demand clarifications over the leaked conversation.

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“The idea that sanctions are working is totally delusional. The Russian economy stabilized and even outperformed G7 economies in 2023..”

• ‘Cut a Deal’: Sacks Calls for Russia-America Detente to Prevent WWIII (Sp.)

The US should “cut a deal” and seek detente with Russia to prevent a Third World War, which would provide a baseline for world peace, American billionaire investor David Sacks told a gala for the Republican think-tank American Moment in Washington. During the speech, the 51-year-old also made the case that the US’s involvement in the Ukraine conflict has finally proved to be a failure. He blamed Washington for prolonging the standoff and slapping sanctions on Russia. “The idea that sanctions are working is totally delusional. The Russian economy stabilized and even outperformed G7 economies in 2023,” the venture capitalist stressed. Sacks insisted that a “real victim” of the sanctions was Europe, adding that the population of the continent “has realized that this [NATO’s proxy] war [with Russia] is not in their interests.”

Citing the asymmetric cost of artillery shell production, the size of the Russian military versus that of Ukraine, and the big gap in “war enthusiasm” in the two countries, the entrepreneur concluded that “while seeking to weaken Russia we [the West] only weaken ourselves.” As far as “a baseline” for peace is concerned, Russia has repeatedly signaled readiness for talks, but the Kiev regime introduced a legislative ban on them after torpedoing the 2022 Russian-Ukrainian negotiations in Istanbul at then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s behest. The West turns a blind eye to Ukraine’s constant refusals to engage in dialogue, he continued. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russian President Vladimir Putin “has stated numerous times that Russia was, is and will continue to be open for negotiations on Ukraine.”

“We are determined to reach our goals. And would prefer to complete it by diplomatic means. If not, the special military operation will be continued till we reach our goals,” Peskov emphasized. Putin, for his part, has said that if Ukraine wants a negotiation process, performative gestures are not the way and that it is necessary to scrap Kiev’s decree prohibiting negotiations with Russia. Moscow has never been against the settlement of the Ukraine conflict by peaceful means, but insists on the observance of Russia’s security guarantees, according to the Russian president.

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“..the strongest one is the one who looks at the situation, thinks about the people and has the courage of the white flag, and negotiates..”

• Pope Francis Urges Zelensky to Find ‘Courage of the White Flag’ (Miles)

Pope Francis added his name to the long list of international critics of Volodymyr Zelensky recently in comments urging the Ukrainian president to find the “courage” to negotiate with Russia for an end to the Donbass conflict. “The word negotiate is a courageous word,” said Francis in an excerpt from an interview recorded last month. “When you see that you are defeated, that things are not going well, you have to have the courage to negotiate. Negotiations are never a surrender.”= The interview, filmed last month by Swiss public broadcaster RSI, took place before recent mediation proposals, including Friday’s from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan offered to host a summit between Ukraine and Russia, a prospect that’s undermined by a decree issued by Zelensky in late 2022 forbidding negotiations with Russia while the country is led by President Vladimir Putin.

The development took place after at least two attempts by Putin to negotiate an end to hostilities early in the conflict. Both rounds of negotiations were scuttled by the United States, which intervened to end separate diplomatic efforts involving then UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in 2022. The US role came to light in media reports emerging shortly after. Pope Francis made clear he believes the best option for Zelensky as well as the Russian and Ukrainian people is for the embattled leader to admit defeat. The Pope made the comment in response to a question by the interviewer, who discussed the possibility of Ukraine raising the “white flag.” “I think that the strongest one is the one who looks at the situation, thinks about the people and has the courage of the white flag, and negotiates,” the cleric insisted. “Today, for example, in the war in Ukraine, there are many who want to mediate.”

Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, perhaps perceiving the potential controversy of Pope Francis’ blunt language, noted the Pope picked up on the interviewer’s use of the term “white flag.” Bruni explained the cleric intended “to indicate a stop to hostilities [and] a truce achieved with the courage of negotiations.” “One may feel shame, but how many dead will it [the conflict in the Donbass] end up with?” the Pope asked. “[Zelensky should] negotiate in time, find a country that can be a mediator. Do not be ashamed of negotiating, before things get worse.” The interview likely represents the first time Pope Francis has so openly acknowledged Zelensky’s defeat after 2023’s vaunted Ukrainian counter offensive failed to turn the tide of the conflict. In recent weeks Russian forces have made gains on the battlefield as Zelensky mulls conscripting more Ukrainians to fight, recently liberating the city of Avdeyevka from the Kiev regime. In response to the interviewer’s question if Pope Francis himself would be willing to help mediate negotiations, the Pope reiterated, “I am here.”

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“They call it decommunization. You want decommunization? Very well, this suits us just fine. But why stop halfway? We are ready to show what real decommunizations would mean for Ukraine.”

• We Are Witnessing The Bittersweet Birth Of A New Russia (Scott Ritter)

On February 21, 2022, Putin delivered a lengthy address to the Russian nation on the eve of his decision to send Russian troops into Ukraine as part of what he termed a Special Military Operation. Those who watched Tucker Carlson’s February 9, 2024, interview with Putin would have been struck by the similarity between the two presentations. While he did not make a direct reference to Novorossiya, the president did outline fundamental historic and cultural linkages which serve as the foundation for any discussion about the viability and legitimacy of Novorossiya in the context of Russian-Ukrainian relations. “I would like to emphasize,” Putin said, “once again that Ukraine is not just a neighboring country for us. It is an integral part of our own history, culture, and spiritual space. It is our friends, our relatives, not only colleagues, friends, and former work colleagues, but also our relatives and close family members.

Since the oldest times,” Putin continued, “the inhabitants of the south-western historical territories of ancient Russia have called themselves Russians and Orthodox Christians. It was the same in the 17th century, when a part of these territories [i.e., Novorossiya] was reunited with the Russian state, and even after that.” The Russian president set forth his contention that the modern state of Ukraine was an invention of Vladimir Lenin, the founding father of the Soviet Union. “Soviet Ukraine is the result of the Bolsheviks’ policy,” Putin stated, “and can be rightfully called ‘Vladimir Lenin’s Ukraine’. He was its creator and architect. This is fully and comprehensively corroborated by archival documents.” Putin went on to issue a threat which, when seen in the context of the present, proved ominously prescient. “And today the ’grateful progeny’ has overturned monuments to Lenin in Ukraine. They call it decommunization. You want decommunization? Very well, this suits us just fine. But why stop halfway? We are ready to show what real decommunizations would mean for Ukraine.”

In September 2022 Putin followed through on this, ordering referendums in four territories (Kherson and Zaporozhye, and the newly independent Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics) to determine whether the populations residing there wished to join the Russian Federation. All four did so. Putin has since then referred to these new Russian territories as Novorossiya, perhaps nowhere more poignantly that in June 2023, when he praised the Russian soldiers “who fought and gave their lives to Novorossiya and for the unity of the Russian world.” The story of those who fought and gave their lives to Novorossiya is one that I have wanted to tell for some time now. I have borne witness here in the United States to the extremely one-sided coverage of the military aspects of Russia’s military operation. Like many of my fellow analysts, I had to undertake the extremely difficult task of trying to parse out fact from an overwhelmingly fictional narrative. Nor was I helped in any way in this regard by the Russian side, which was parsimonious in the release of information that reflected its side of reality.

In preparing for my December 2023 visit to Russia, I had hoped to be able to visit the four new Russian territories to see for myself what the truth was when it came to the fighting between Russia and Ukraine. I also wanted to interview the Russian military and civilian leadership to get a broader perspective of the conflict. I had reached out to the Russian Foreign and Defense ministries through the Russian Embassy in the US, bending the ear of both the Ambassador, Anatoly Antonov, and the Defense Attache, Major-General Evgeny Bobkin, about my plans. While both men supported my project and wrote recommendations back to their respective ministries in this regard, the Russian Defense Ministry, which had the final say over what happened in the four new territories, vetoed the idea. This veto was not because they didn’t like the idea of me writing an in-depth analysis of the conflict from the Russian perspective, but rather that the project as I outlined it, which would have required sustained access to frontline units and personnel, was deemed too dangerous. In short, the Russian Defense Ministry did not relish the idea of me being killed on its watch.

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“They want a permanent end to Israeli attacks and the withdrawal of Israeli forces to allow the people to return to their homes. He stressed that a prisoner swap could only occur after a ceasefire.”

• Biden’s Offer for a 6-Week Pause in the Genocide in Gaza (Sahiounie)

The Hamas delegation left Cairo on Thursday and will resume negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza next week. Time is running out before the Holy month of Ramadan begins. Hamas wants an end to the war, but the U.S. is looking only for a 6-week pause, and Israel is willing to allow a pause but resume the genocide afterward. UN experts, many world leaders, humanitarian organizations, and millions of civilians across the U.S., UK, Europe, Africa, and Asia agree on one point: the only way to prevent or end famine in Gaza is an immediate and permanent ceasefire. Israel’s unrelenting attack on 2.3 million people in Gaza, day and night for almost five months, has killed over 30,700. If the bombs and bullets don’t kill them all, then starvation will. U.S. President Joe Biden, the one man in the world who holds the keys to a ceasefire in Gaza, refuses to demand the Israelis end the war. Biden has finally come up with a weak deal to offer Hamas to stop the slaughtering, but just for six weeks, not permanently.

Hamas representatives have been meeting in Cairo with Egyptian and Qatari negotiators. On Wednesday, March 6, Hamas said they were continuing their efforts to secure a ceasefire in Gaza even though Israel refused to participate in the negotiations. Osama Hamdan, in Beirut, voiced the demands of the resistance group. They want a permanent end to Israeli attacks and the withdrawal of Israeli forces to allow the people to return to their homes. He stressed that a prisoner swap could only occur after a ceasefire. Senior Hamas official Bassem Naim said Hamas had presented its draft deal and was awaiting a response from Israel, and that “the ball now is in the Americans’ court”. On March 5, Biden said a ceasefire deal was in the hands of Hamas. He was referring to the U.S. deal offered to Hamas, and he never mentioned or referred to the deal Hamas offered to Israel. Biden’s deal offered a six-week ceasefire in exchange for the release of all Israeli hostages in Gaza.

Israel is willing to pause the slaughter and genocide in Gaza for a few weeks, but Netanyahu and his radical right-wing partners insist they will never stop the bombardment until Hamas is exterminated. “It’s in the hands of Hamas right now. Israelis have been cooperating. There’s been a rational offer,” Biden told reporters. Getting the Israeli hostages out has never been a priority for Netanyahu, but it has been for the families and friends of the hostages. They have been holding protests and marches ever since the conflict began. The families of the hostages expected their government to negotiate for their release, but Netanyahu’s war room ignored their pleas, in favor of revenge killings in Gaza. From the very beginning of the conflict which broke out October 7, 2023, He is willing to use the phrase ‘humanitarian pause’, and his current deal offered to Hamas is only a pause, with an exact timetable attached to resume the butchery which has killed mainly women and children.

The U.S. is promoting its ‘pause’ deal at the UN, even though the U.S. has vetoed every UN resolution aimed at peace in Gaza, with the most recent U.S. veto on February 20. The Times of Israel reported recently that Netanyahu has planned for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to remain in a military occupation of Gaza for at least 10 years. This is opposed by the U.S., EU, UN, and most world leaders. Israel may agree to a pause, but a ceasefire and withdrawal is out of the question. This means the Palestinian people and their supporters will remain resisting occupation, which is guaranteed by the Geneva Convention.

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“Kremlin is using Taurus leaks to threaten war against Germany”. Of course, it was the Russians who considered blowing up a bridge in German territory, right?”

• What the Western Press Didn’t Say About the Leaked German Conversation (Vasco)

On March 1, the editor-in-chief of the Rossiya Segodnya group, journalist Margarita Simonyan, revealed, on her Telegram channel, a 38-minute audio in which officers from the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) discussed the possibility of sending missiles long-range Taurus to Ukraine and whether they would be able to reach the Crimean bridge in the Kerch Strait, which connects the peninsula to the mainland and is Russian territory. The Russian press, naturally, made much of the revelation. This forced the mainstream Western media – especially German ones – to report the leak. But whoever thought that a miracle would happen, that is, that the Western press would finally raise the issue of NATO’s military threats against Russia… well, those people are simply very naive. The Western mass media, as always, tried to manipulate the news and hide the main issue. The New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC, The Guardian, Die Welt and Der Spiegel published 39 articles on the topic on their respective websites between the time the news was revealed and the evening of March 6th (when I write these lines).

The two North American newspapers did not want to highlight the matter. The Post published two reports and the Times only one. The three expressed concern about the fragility of German intelligence security systems in the face of Russian espionage. The Europeans, as has been the case for some time, carried much more propaganda against Russia. The BBC published four articles, all referring to the failure to protect Luftwaffe communications. The Guardian published five articles. The majority warns of the Germans’ failure and treats the Russians as great, threatening villains. However, it is necessary to make an honorable mention of Simon Jenkins’ column, the only one who was allowed to say that the leaked conversations demonstrate that NATO is threatening Russia with an escalation in the conflict. As we all know, this drop of water in the middle of the ocean has no chance of counterbalancing the flood of war propaganda and fake news from the British press against Russia.

Newspaper owners only allow freedom of expression when it is harmless – and try to isolate minimally independent opinions. Now let’s talk about German newspaper coverage. Die Welt published 18 pieces about the leak scandal, and treated it as such. Of course, the main reason for the scandal was – for German war propagandists – the interception and dissemination of the conversation, not its content. The entire repercussion of Die Welt revolves around failures in the security system of the German armed forces and Russian espionage. The possibility of Olaf Scholz sending the Taurus to Zelensky is briefly discussed and it is even stated that Germany is putting its Western allies in danger by allowing the interception of conversations that may mention confidential and compromising information – such as the participation of British soldiers in Ukraine, as mentioned in the conversation in question.

A single Die Welt report presents a “dissident” opinion, which is not “Russian propaganda”: the brief speech of a member of the AfD – who, however, is branded a Russian agent by the German state and its agents, such as the press. Article signed by Pavel Lokshin has the following title: “Kremlin is using Taurus leaks to threaten war against Germany”. Of course, it was the Russians who considered blowing up a bridge in German territory, right? In turn, Der Spiegel, in its nine articles on the case, reproduces the same speech as Die Welt about the failures in German security and the danger of Russian espionage. It also disqualifies the Kremlin’s claims that the conversation is clear proof of NATO’s direct involvement in the war in Ukraine and how much this threatens Russian national security. Christina Hebel’s analysis is the only piece in these two German outlets that takes the accusations of the Russian government and German involvement in the war more seriously, but it would be an exaggeration to say that this publication would be in the sphere of journalism.

In short, the coverage of these newspapers – and the coverage of other mass media outlets in the West is no different – is absolutely biased and manipulated. In fact, as always happens, they reverse roles: Germany, which threatened to blow up a bridge in Russia, is the victim, while Russia is the villain! If at least one of these newspapers really were a journalistic tool, and not a propaganda tool, it should publish an article with a title like “German officers considered blowing up bridge in Russia” or “Audios reveal discussion of attack on Russia with German weapons”. After all, which is more serious: the leak of the audio by Russian intelligence or the discussion among senior German officials about a military attack on Russia? No honest person would choose the first option. But we are not dealing with honest people when we talk about “journalism” in Europe and the United States.

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Scratches

 

 

Sheep dog
https://twitter.com/i/status/1766549010943275183

 

 

 

 

Puma

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Oct 022023
 
 October 2, 2023  Posted by at 8:47 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  23 Responses »


Rembrandt van Rijn The Descent from the Cross 1634

 

• The Western World Is Now a Tyranny (Paul Craig Roberts)
• One Year Lying About US-Led NATO’s Nord Stream Terrorism Breeds More War (SCF)
• Western ‘Idiots’ Want World War III – Medvedev (RT)
• PM Sunak Backtracks On Sending British Troops To Ukraine (ZH)
• Ukraine Must Mobilize Youths – Ex-UK Defense Chief (RT)
• EU Will Back Ukraine Without The US – Borrell (RT)
• ‘My People Have Bigger Problems Than Ukraine’ – Fico (RT)
• Russia’s Military Budget Set To Rise By 70% (RMX)
• ‘Camouflage’ for Zelensky to ‘Steal More Money From West’ (Sp.)
• Blinken’s ‘History Lesson’ Gets Corrected By X Users (RT)
• Nagorno-Karabakh Is No More (Pepe Escobar)
• The Proper Way to Impeach: Steve Bannon was Right for the Wrong Reason (Turley)
• Federal Prosecutors Want Gag Order Against Trump After His Recent Remarks (ET)
• Trump Sues Christopher Steele Over Hoax Dossier (ZH)

 

 

 

 

Scott Ritter About Ukraine since 1945

 

 

 

 

TDS

 

 

 

 

Vandersteel

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s all been said before..

“..a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all..”

• The Western World Is Now a Tyranny (Paul Craig Roberts)

America’s reputation as “the land of the free” is rooted in the Anglo-Saxon legal and political tradition, not in diversity and multiculturalism. Law as a shield of the people instead of a weapon in the hands of rulers is a British achievement that Britain’s American colonies inherited. It was the accomplishment of a specific ethnicity known as Anglo-Saxon. Bringing rulers to the same accountability to law as the lowest peasant was a centuries-long process beginning with Alfred the Great in the 9th century and culminating in the Glorious Revolution of 1680. In this legal tradition law is based in the customs and mores of the people, not on edicts issued from rulers, government bureaucrats, regulatory agencies, and activist judges. Obviously, this conveys an ethnic basis to law. A Tower of Babel–the fate of all diminishing white countries today–has no common customs and mores and no basis for law other than rulers’ edicts enforced by power.

Throughout the Western World today the people have lost the protection of law as a shield and suffer under rulers who wield law as a weapon. In the United States today demonstrators and rally attendees are turned into “insurrectionists” and sentenced to prison. Even US President Donald Trump is being subjected to four fake felony prosecutions in order to prevent him from being elected president. During my youth law was seen as a shield of our rights, not as a weapon to be used against us. US Supreme Court Justice George Sutherland explained in 1934 that the purpose of law was to discover innocence or guilt, not to dispose of an enemy:

“The United States Attorney is the representative not of an ordinary party to a controversy, but of a sovereignty whose obligation to govern impartially is as compelling as its obligation to govern at all; and whose interest, therefore, in a criminal prosecution is not that it shall win a case, but that justice shall be done. As such, he is in a peculiar and very definite sense the servant of the law, the twofold aim of which is that guilt shall not escape or innocent suffer. He may prosecute with earnestness and vigor–and indeed, he should do so. But, while he may strike hard blows, he is not at liberty to strike foul ones. It is as much his duty to refrain from improper methods calculated to produce a wrongful conviction as it is to use every legitimate means to bring about a just one.”

US Attorney General and Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson saw it the same way: “Any prosecutor who risks his day-to-day professional name for fair dealing to build up statistics for success has a perverted sense of practical values, as well as defects of character… A sensitiveness to fair play is perhaps the best protection against the abuse of power, and the citizen’s safety lies in the prosecutor who tempers zeal with human kindness, who seeks truth and not victims, who serves the law and not factional purposes, and who approaches his task with humility.” In 1940 Jackson said that unethical prosecutors are a threat to justice because of the danger that the prosecutor..

..“will pick people that he thinks he should get, rather than pick cases that need to be prosecuted. With the law books filled with a great assortment of crimes, a prosecutor stands a fair chance of finding at least a technical violation of some act on the part of almost anyone. In such a case, it is not a question of discovering the commission of a crime and then looking for the man who has committed it, it is a question of picking the man and then searching the law books, or putting investigators to work, to pin some offense on him. It is in this realm–in which the prosecutor picks some person whom he dislikes or desires to embarrass, or selects some group of unpopular persons and then looks for an offense, that the greatest danger of abuse of prosecuting power lies. It is here that law enforcement becomes personal, and the real crime becomes that of being unpopular with the predominant or governing group, being attached to the wrong political view, or being personally obnoxious, or in the way of the prosecutor himself.”

Robert Jackson’s 83-year old description of unethical prosecution precisely describes all of the “investigations,” impeachments, and indictments of President Trump that have been ongoing since 2016 for 8 years and show no sign of abating. The prosecutions of Trump are clearly prosecutions for the purpose of getting rid of a leader who presumes to challenge the ruling establishment. The prosecutions of Trump underline the termination in the US of the impartial rule of law.

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“The reality is fascism, imperialist lawlessness and barbarity are already well-ensconced in this White House.”

• One Year Lying About US-Led NATO’s Nord Stream Terrorism Breeds More War (SCF)

Washington’s imperialist interests of dominating Europe and displacing Russia as an energy supplier are central to the reason for the war in Ukraine. This selfish and criminal agenda becomes evident if the Nord Stream act of terrorism is acknowledged and properly understood. The Western public would be up in arms over the false propaganda about the Ukraine war and the supposed “defense of democracy”. Not only that but the European and NATO states would be seen as the criminal accomplices and pathetic vassals that they are. The United States sabotages European civilian infrastructure and the economies of its supposed allies – and yet those allies utter not a word of protest. Indeed, they have willingly and meekly participated in their self-harm.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other European leaders should be prosecuted for complicity in international terrorism and treason against their national interests. Ironically, this week, Joe Biden while in Arizona dared to tell American voters that they face a stark choice in the presidential elections coming next year. Biden said the choice would be for U.S. citizens to either “support democracy” under his continued leadership or “elect extremism” under Donald Trump or some other Republican candidate. What could be more extreme than Biden ordering his military agencies to blow up gas pipelines owned by Russia and other European states?The fact that Biden and the United States have been permitted to get away with the outrage of Nord Stream terrorism is why Washington and its NATO acolytes have continually escalated the proxy war in Ukraine against Russia over the past year.

The astounding impunity afforded to the U.S. and its NATO accomplices over the Nord Stream incident is consistent with the way these same imperialist powers have gotten away with mass murder and waging criminal wars for decades without any prosecutions. The U.S. establishment and its clandestine agencies are a criminal syndicate that also suffers from delusions of virtue. Impunity breeds more criminality. The United States and its Western partners have rarely, if ever, been held to account for their historic crimes against the rest of the world. When such a transparent, brazen act of terrorism is perpetrated as in the Nord Stream sabotage and it is ignored then the world has shifted to an even more perilous situation where crimes have no punishment and even greater, more nefarious crimes can be engaged in.

The U.S. and its NATO henchmen, in particular Britain, are arming a Nazi regime in Kiev with tanks, cluster bombs, depleted uranium shells and longer-range missiles to strike Russia. The impunity that the Americans and their partners believe that they have acquired is shocking and hideous. There is no restraint. For years, the NATO axis has been arming and training Nazi battalions in Ukraine to cynically take an imperialist war to Russia’s doorstep. Canada’s scandalous adulation of a Nazi war criminal in its parliament last week is a sign of the depraved times we live in. But we have reached this degeneration because, as the Nord Stream incident illustrates, the Western powers, primarily the executive American power, feel they are not just above the law but entitled to smash the law for whatever objective they deem desirable.

When those who profess to uphold the law, break the law, then there is no law. That is the frighteningly barbaric world we live in today. Biden warned this week of fascism creeping up on the United States in the form of domestic political rivals. The reality is fascism, imperialist lawlessness and barbarity are already well-ensconced in this White House.

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“..a “freshly minted cretin”..

“..the [Russian] strikes on German factories where those missiles are being made would also be in full compliance with international law..”

• Western ‘Idiots’ Want World War III – Medvedev (RT)

The conflict in Ukraine may lead to World War III because of the “idiots” occupying leading roles in the West, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev has warned. “The number of high-ranking morons is rising in NATO member states,” he wrote on Telegram on Sunday. Medvedev, who currently serves as the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, was responding to statements from London and Berlin the previous day. The former president labeled the UK’s newly appointed Defense Secretary Grant Shapps a “freshly minted cretin” over his idea of sending British military instructors to Ukraine to train local troops for the conflict with Russia. If this happens, the UK servicemen would become a “legitimate target” for Russian forces, Medvedev warned.

Shapps has proposed deploying instructors to Ukraine, “knowing fully well that they’ll be mercilessly destroyed, and no longer as mercenaries, but precisely as British NATO specialists,” the Russian official wrote. Medvedev also described the head of the German parliament’s defense committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, as “another fool” after she urged Berlin to supply long-range Taurus cruise missiles to Kiev. She also claimed that Ukrainian attacks on targets inside Russia using those German-made munitions would be in full compliance with international law. “In this case, the [Russian] strikes on German factories where those missiles are being made would also be in full compliance with international law,” he said.

“Still, those idiots are actively pushing us towards World War III,”the former president concluded. In a previous post on Saturday, Medvedev insisted that Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine would continue until the current regime in Kiev is “destroyed and the historic Russian territories are liberated from the enemy.” Moscow has repeatedly warned that deliveries of weapons to Ukraine by Western countries only prolong the fighting and increase the risk of a direct military confrontation between Russia and NATO. Russian officials have also argued that the provision of arms, intelligence-sharing and the training of Kiev’s troops already means that Western nations have de facto become parties to the conflict.

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Are they just flying trial balloons over there?

• PM Sunak Backtracks On Sending British Troops To Ukraine (ZH)

On Sunday, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev who currently serves as the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, suggested that British soldiers training Ukrainian troops in Ukraine would be legitimate targets for Russian forces, as would German factories producing Taurus missiles should they supply Kyiv. Medvedev, who is deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, and has become one of the most hawkish and anti-Western figures in Russian politics, said such steps by the West were bringing World War Three closer. In a post on Telegram, Medvedev first slammed Shapps’s proposal to deploy military instructors to Ukraine, in addition to training Ukrainian armed forces in Britain or other Western countries as at present. “(This will) turn their instructors into a legitimate target for our armed forces,” Medvedev wrote on Telegram. “Understanding perfectly well that they will be ruthlessly destroyed. And not as mercenaries, but namely as British NATO specialists.”

Medvedev then turned his focus to Germany, vilifying those who want Berlin to supply Ukraine with Taurus cruise missiles that could strike Russian territory and try to limit Moscow’s supply to its army. “They say this is in accordance with international law. Well, in that case, strikes on German factories where these missiles are made would also be in full compliance with international law,” Medvedev said. “These morons are actively pushing us towards World War Three,” Medvedev said. Realizing that he probably does not want his government to end in a mushroom cloud, British PM Rishi Sunak quickly backtracked and during a visit to Burnley on Sunday, said he wanted to make the situation “absolutely clear,” explaining that Shapps did not mean British soldiers would be deployed in Ukraine during the conflict with Russia, claiming there was “some misreporting” of comments by Defense Secretary Shapps, who floated the idea; he did however say that the UK has been training Ukrainian soldiers on British soil for “for a long time.”

According to the PM, the defense secretary actually meant that “it might well be possible one day in the future for us to do some of that training in Ukraine.” “But that’s something for the long term, not the here and now, there are no British soldiers that will be sent to fight in the current conflict. That’s not what’s happening,” he insisted. London continues to provide military training to the Ukrainians, but it’s “doing that here in the UK,” Sunak assured. US Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene also voiced alarm over Britain’s apparent plans to send troops to Ukraine, writing on X (formerly Twitter): “They’re going to start World War III” and that “the US cannot participate” in such a deployment, stressing: “No American troops” in Ukraine.

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Come get killed at 16!

• Ukraine Must Mobilize Youths – Ex-UK Defense Chief (RT)

Former UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace has claimed that Kiev is succeeding in its counteroffensive but to maintain the momentum and “finish the job,” President Vladimir Zelensky must throw more and younger Ukrainians into battle, while the West provides them with weapons to defeat Russia. Throughout the summer, Kiev’s forces have ultimately failed to make any notable territorial gains and have suffered heavy casualties as they tried to break through Russia’s defenses consisting of vast minefields, as well as heavy artillery and swarms of drones. According to Russia’s Defense Ministry, the number of Ukrainian servicemen killed since the start of the counteroffensive has surpassed 83,000.

Wallace, however, believes that “slowly but surely” Ukrainian forces have been “adapting tactics, absorbing lessons, and making the best of the equipment we have all gifted them,” and that Kiev’s victory is imminent as long as the government “plays its part.” “The average age of the soldiers at the front is over 40. I understand President Zelensky’s desire to preserve the young for the future, but… just as Britain did in 1939 and 1941, perhaps it is time to reassess the scale of Ukraine’s mobilization,” Wallace wrote in an opinion piece published by The Telegraph on Sunday. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said that such heavy casualties were the result of Kiev throwing untrained soldiers into “senseless assaults and slaughter.”He added that these “cynical actions by the West and their henchmen in Kiev are only pushing Ukraine towards self-destruction.”

Back in July, Wallace called Ukraine a “battle lab” for the British military during a report to the parliament. “Let us not pause for one day,” he stated on Sunday. “The world is watching to see if the West has the resolve to stand up for our values and the rules-based system. What we do now for Ukraine will set the direction for all of our security for years to come.” Mobilization in Ukraine has been ongoing since the start of the conflict and had some bumps recently. The country has been hit by scandals involving conscription chiefs, prompting President Vladimir Zelensky to announce in August that he was firing all regional draft heads in the country.

The Ukrainian government has relaxed eligibility standards for recruits, declaring people with certain mental and physical conditions fit for duty. After the launch of Russia’s military operation, Kiev barred men aged between 18 and 60 from leaving the country. Kiev also recently ordered female medics and pharmacists to register for possible enrolment, reportedly causing an exodus of women in those professions. The Russian military leadership in the meantime has no plans to conduct mobilization as its current needs are fulfilled by career military service members, including those who volunteered to fight in Ukraine, according to a senior official. The Russian president reported earlier this month that some 300,000 people had enrolled in the Russian army this year alone.

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Europe’s already sinking into a black hole. Forget it.

• EU Will Back Ukraine Without The US – Borrell (RT)

The EU’s military aid to Ukraine will not depend on the decisions taken by the US, the bloc’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, told journalists during his visit to Kiev on Sunday. Brussels plans to continue and further increase its military assistance to the Ukrainian forces, he added. “We have not waited for the [US] decision to be taken to increase our propositions to support Ukraine,” the official said when asked about the EU’s reaction to the US Congress removing military aid for Kiev from its short-time spending bill passed over the weekend. Brussels still regretted the American lawmakers’ decision “deeply and thoroughly,” Borrell said, expressing his hope that “this will not be a definitive decision, and Ukraine will continue having the support of the US.”

The EU Commission had earlier proposed creating a fund for Ukraine worth €50 billion ($52.8 billion), the bloc’s top diplomat said, adding that he also suggested creating a similar fund amounting to €20 billion ($21.13 billion) within the European Peace Facility at an EU foreign ministers meeting in August. “Let’s see what’ll be happening in the US but from our side, we will continue supporting and increasing our support,” the official said. The EU’s top diplomat also maintained that the bloc’s military aid for Kiev is “permanent structured” and does not depend on the decisions of other nations or the results of the Ukrainian operations. His comments came amid the continued Ukrainian offensive, which has failed to bring about any major changes to the frontlines over some four months since its launch, despite massive Western military aid before its start and heavy Ukrainian losses over its course.

“We are facing an existential threat for Europe,” Borrell claimed, adding that if Brussels wants the Ukrainian troops to be “more successful, we have to provide them with better arms and quicker.” He still hinted that Kiev should be more grateful for the bloc’s efforts. In some cases, “our support is not being perceived as important as it is,” the EU top diplomat said, insisting that “it is.” He then said that the total military aid from Brussels and the EU member states to Ukraine amounted to €25 billion ($26.4 billion). The bloc’s cumulative military, financial and humanitarian support reached €85 billion ($89.8 billion), he added.

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I said yesterday that he campaigned on “Not a single penny” more, but it was “Not a single round..”

Meanwhile, Donald Tusk held a mass pro-globalist rally in Warsaw on Sunday. We’re not done yet.

• ‘My People Have Bigger Problems Than Ukraine’ – Fico (RT)

The Slovak Social Democracy (SMER-SD) party will not support further military aid for Ukraine, its leader, Robert Fico, told journalists on Sunday. Fico’s party took the lead in the parliamentary elections held over the weekend and is now poised to start talks about forming a government. “Slovakia and the people of Slovakia have bigger problems than Ukraine,” he said at a press conference following the announcement of the election results. The SMER-SD won around 23% of the vote, with its closest competitor, Progressive Slovakia (PS), receiving some 18%. When asked about his party’s stance on helping Kiev, Fico said that, if his party successfully forms a government, it would still be ready to help, but only in a humanitarian way.

“We are prepared to help with the reconstruction of the state, but you know our opinion on arming Ukraine,” he said. The SMER-SD conducted an election campaign under the slogan “Not a single round,” suggesting that it would end military assistance to Kiev. An EU and NATO member state with a population of around 5.5 million, Slovakia has already supplied Ukrainian forces with armored personnel carriers, howitzers, and its entire fleet of Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jets. Last week, Fico vowed at one of his campaign rallies that his party would not “send a single round [of ammunition] to Ukraine” if it won the election. On Sunday, the politician, who is a former prime minister, described the ongoing conflict as a great tragedy, adding that prolonging the standoff would only make things worse.

“We will do everything we can to start peace negotiations as quickly as possible,” he said, referring to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev. “Further killing does not benefit anyone,” Fico added. Slovakian President Zuzana Caputova said on Sunday that she would formally ask Fico to form a new government on Monday. With no party set to win a majority, Slovakia will need to form a coalition government. The pro-European HLAS (Voice) party, which took third place with 14.7%, did not rule out a possible alliance with SMER-SD. Fico also received congratulations on his election victory from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who said it would “always [be] good to work together with a patriot.” A victory by Fico and his party has reportedly sparked concerns in the US. According to Russian foreign intelligence, Washington had sought to keep the previous Slovakian government in power.

Read more …

Poorly write-up.

• Russia’s Military Budget Set To Rise By 70% (RMX)

Russian military spending is set to rise by almost 70 percent — to €106 billion — by 2024, according to a Russian Finance Ministry document published Thursday, an increase that illustrates Moscow’s determination to continue its military intervention in Ukraine despite the human and economic costs. According to the document, Russian defense spending will increase by 68 percent in 2024 compared to this year and will reach 10.8 trillion rubles (€106 billion). As a result, the amount allocated to defense will represent about 30 percent of total federal spending in 2024 and 6 percent of GDP — a first in Russia’s modern history. The budget for internal security is set to rise to 3.4 trillion rubles (€33 billion), almost 10 percent of annual federal spending.

The priorities for this budget are outlined as “strengthening the country’s defense capacity” and “integrating the new regions” of Ukraine whose annexation Moscow has demanded, as well as “social aid for the most vulnerable citizens,” just months ahead of the Russian presidential elections in spring 2024. Conversely, total spending on education, healthcare and environmental protection accounts for barely a third of the defense budget, according to ministry figures. Overall, federal spending will total 36.7 trillion rubles (€359 billion), a dramatic 20 percent increase over 2023. The government, however, has explained little about how it will finance this large increase, as Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Musustin said last Friday that revenues from the sale of hydrocarbons will be down sharply and will account for “a third of next year’s budget” in 2024, whereas before the invasion of Ukraine, they accounted for half the budget.

The sector used to drive Russia’s growth, hydrocarbon sales are declining due to international sanctions and the European Union’s determination to move away from energy dependence on Moscow. One indication that the government expects a delicate month ahead for the Russian economy is that it has announced that it has based its budget forecast on the assumption of a dollar worth around 90 rubles, thus betting on a weakening of the national currency in the medium term. The draft budget law for 2024-2026 is due to be sent to the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, on Friday.

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“Ukraine’s Possible New Counteroffensive..”

• ‘Camouflage’ for Zelensky to ‘Steal More Money From West’ (Sp.)

Kiev’s alleged push for another counteroffensive, this time in the autumn, can be perceived as the West’s red herring, Scott Bennett, a former US Army psychological warfare officer and State Department counter-terrorism analyst, told Sputnik. The Zelensky regime had elaborated a plan for a major offensive in the Kherson and Zaporozhye region in early October, securing the approval of Ukraine’s sponsors in Washington and London, an informed source told Sputnik earlier this week. According to the source, Kiev’s special forces intend to seize control of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) as part of the blueprint. All this could be Western countries’ red herring, Scott Bennett suggested, pointing to the Ukrainian Army’s futile attempts to break through Russian defensive lines.

“As a result of the resounding defeat of Ukraine, the West is frantically searching for an opportunity to try and escape the coming judgement and potential crimes against humanity charges for the death and destruction the Biden Administration has recklessly unleashed. And the nearest opportunity for distraction may be the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant,” Bennett argued. He recalled that many perceive this facility as “a target for destruction in a kind of ‘doomsday’ button that the US might try and push, in an attempt to generate sufficient chaos and destruction to distract the world away from the small scale battles of Ukraine, to the global implications of a nuclear disaster.” According to the former psychological warfare officer, the potential destruction of the Zaporozhye NPP would be the “ultimate expression” of this chaos.

He warned that if the facility is destroyed, “the resulting tsunami of social, political, economic disruption would disorganize opposition parties and protests against the current political elites in Europe and America, and justify a lockdown or martial law and police state mentality which could be endlessly extended.” Bennett didn’t rule out that “the West will combine its best liars in the CIA, the Mossad, the MI6 to blame the event on Russia, and perhaps also simultaneously initiate some self-inflicted false flag attacks at the same time—such as assassinate Joe Biden and Zelensky at the same time and blame this on Russia in order to justify ‘police action’ and a drafting of Americans into the military for conflict with Russia.”

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Trying to blame the holocaust on Russia. Through insinuation.

• Blinken’s ‘History Lesson’ Gets Corrected By X Users (RT)

Users of the social media network X (formerly Twitter) have fact-checked a statement made by United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken in which he said Vladimir Putin’s government “manipulates” the details of massacres in Kiev in 1941 “to provide cover for Russia’s abuses in Ukraine.” “Eighty-two years ago, Nazis murdered 34,000 Jews at Babyn Yar,” Blinken wrote in a Friday post. “Soviets buried this history, which today Putin’s government manipulates to provide cover for Russia’s abuses in Ukraine.” He added that “the US is committed to justice for Holocaust survivors and accountability for atrocities.” Blinken was referring to massacres in the Babyn Yar ravine in present-day Kiev, perpetrated by Nazi Germany’s forces and their local Ukrainian collaborators in late September and October 1941 during its campaign against the Soviet Union.

The first such massacre, which took place on September 29 and 30, saw some 33,771 Jews killed. Other victims of mass killings at the site include Soviet prisoners of war (POWs), communists and Romani. It is estimated that between 100,000 and 150,000 people were murdered at Babyn Yar during the German occupation. The atrocities, which were considered to be extreme even by Nazi Germany’s standards, have been a source of debate in Ukraine over reports of local collaborators being involved. Estimates by historians put at one million the number of Jews killed in what is now Ukraine during the Second World War. As such, X users were quick to point out what they suggested was Blinken’s rather short-sighted recollection of historical events.

“Soviet prisoners of war were among the people massacred at Babyn Yar,” reads a contextual fact-box added by X users to Blinken’s post. “The Soviets liberated Babyn Yar and Kiev in 1943. The Soviets held a trial in 1946 in Kiev for 15 German policemen involved in the Babyn Yar massacres.” In response to Blinken’s statement, Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, wrote on X: “I was brought up in the USSR and we all knew about Babyn Yar. Nazi crimes were never ‘buried’ in my country, unlike yours. Writing such a sacrilegious post is beyond any basic notions of decency.” On Friday’s 82nd anniversary of the first Babyn Yar massacre, the Ukrainian foreign ministry issued a statement saying that the event should serve as a reminder to oppose “aggressive-chauvinistic ideologies, in particular, Russian aggression against Ukraine.”

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“..unlike the West which has become quite skilled in organising color revolutions, Moscow does not engage in such activities.”

• Nagorno-Karabakh Is No More (Pepe Escobar)

In the end, Nagorno-Karabakh – or the Artsakh Republic – is no more. It will cease to exist on 1 January 2024 – also the first day of the Russian presidency of BRICS 11. All autonomous state structures will be dissolved – according to a decree signed by the head of the Republic, Samvel Shahramanyan. The population – roughly 147,000, 99% of them Armenian Christians – has a choice that’s not really a choice: “familiarize themselves with the conditions of reintegration presented by the Republic of Azerbaijan” and stay, or leave to Armenia for good. Predictably, the exodus is on: an interminable serpent of vehicles congesting the mountain roads of a beautiful landscape where generations of Armenians lived for centuries. As of Thursday night, over 70,000 Armenians had left towards the Syunik region.

The Azeri government in Baku sent police/security forces to Stepanakert. Former Foreign Minister Ruben Vardanyan, an oligarch, was detained by Azeri security while trying to leave for Armenia, mingling with refugees. He had renounced Russian citizenship last year when he moved to work in Artsakh. He’ll probably be freed. Others won’t be so lucky. Everyone leaving is being exhaustively searched. Baku has warned that every Artsakh notable – political and military – will be captured. This is how it sadly ends: the story of how a bunch of crooks – Team Pashinyan in Yerevan – profited personally from a geopolitical pretext. Armenian PM Pashinyan announced that in a few days he’ll consider there are no more Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh. Translation: those that decided to stay will be considered to be Azerbaijanis. Yet for Baku, Armenians from Artsakh will always remain Armenians – and thus an object of suspicion.

[..] As corridors go, Zangezur is the proverbial Chinese win-win. Azerbaijan links with its Nakhitchevan enclave and Turkiye. Russia gets a road that goes through Baku and Yerevan. Armenia opens itself to international trade. And Iran is satisfied that the manager will be the former owner of the place: Russia. Ay, there’s the rub. The usual suspects were not happy that Russian guards would be back in Armenia. So they sabotaged this clause via their agent Pashinyan. The record shows how Team Pashinyan behaved these past few months: Armenia’s First Lady visited Kiev; Yerevan transferred “humanitarian aid” to Ukraine; there were joint military exercises with the U.S.; frantic back and forth by U.S. and EU politicos and NGOs. Relations with Moscow are deteriorating fast. Yerevan – a juicy strategic target – is being taken over by the Hegemon and its vassals. It’s not an accident that Yerevan hosts the second largest American embassy in the world. So only one thing is certain: the Transcaucasus will continue to be on fire.

It’s not clear what will happen to Zangezur – and if and when Pashinyan will act on it. There’s always a – remote – possibility that Pashinyan, egged on by his Western handlers, may try to strike a deal with Aliyev to leave Russia out. The Russian Foreign Ministry has not minced its words, noting how Yerevan “flip flopped on policy and sought Western support over working closely with Russia and Azerbaijan”. And how in meetings in Prague and Brussels under the EU, Pashynian “acknowledged Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity, but failed to address the rights and safety of the Karabakh Armenians.” The Foreign Ministry all but warns Pashynian that “unlike the West which has become quite skilled in organising color revolutions, Moscow does not engage in such activities.”

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People are confused about impeachment. It’s not a one time, one off thing, it’s a process in which truth finding is central. An impeachment inquiry provides more tools for that.

• The Proper Way to Impeach: Steve Bannon was Right for the Wrong Reason (Turley)

Yesterday, I spent a very long day testifying in the first hearing of the House impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden. Not unexpectedly, my testimony angered many on both the left and the right. As I mentioned in my testimony, there is little tolerance for opposing views in this age of rage. Today, caution is considered cowardice and impartiality is viewed as chicanery. Yet our Constitution demands more of each of us at these moments. We can rise to that challenge, as the Framers hoped we would, or we can continue our national descent into rage and ruin. It is the difference between laying the groundwork for a real impeachment or for just another political hit-job.

I was asked to testify on whether the threshold had been met for an impeachment inquiry and what the best practices would be in the investigation of President Biden. I testified that the existing evidence was more than ample to warrant an impeachment inquiry and that these allegations, if proven, would constitute impeachable conduct. That was not enough for many. One of those was Steve Bannon, who went on social media to criticize House Republicans for not selecting someone who would testify, at the very start of an inquiry, that the case already was made for actual articles of impeachment. Bannon suggested that I should have been placed on the “maybe list” if I was not willing to say that the committee had the basis to vote out articles of impeachment on the first day of inquiry.

That, however, would be akin to calling a special grand jury and demanding an indictment before any witnesses or evidence are presented. Bannon’s criticism is emblematic of much of what I cautioned against in my testimony. I implored the Republicans not to replicate the last two impeachments, which I believe did considerable damage to this constitutional process. In the first Trump impeachment, I appeared as the only Republican witness in the only hearing held by the House Judiciary Committee. House Democrats then just cut to the chase and impeached Donald Trump on a thin, undeveloped record.In the second impeachment, they skipped the formalities entirely and went straight to the articles of impeachment in what I called a “snap impeachment.”

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“..He also suggested that Mr. Milley should be executed for his alleged conduct..”

No he did not. He said that: “..in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!”. Not that it should be now.

• Federal Prosecutors Want Gag Order Against Trump After His Recent Remarks (ET)

Federal prosecutors have urged the federal judge to impose a gag order on former President Donald Trump in the 2020 election interference case, citing the “prejudicial extrajudicial statements” he made on social media. The special counsel team filed the request for a gag order against Mr. Trump on Sept. 15 to restrict him from making “intimidating” comments about witnesses, lawyers, and other people involved in the criminal case. Prosecutors said on Sept. 25 that Mr. Trump continued to wage “a sustained campaign of prejudicial public statements regarding witnesses, the court, the district, and prosecutors” even after the proposed order.

“The defendant should not be permitted to obtain the benefits of his incendiary public statements and then avoid accountability by having others—whose messages he knows will receive markedly less attention than his own—feign retraction,” they said in a court filing. “No other criminal defendant would be permitted to issue public statements insinuating that a known witness in his case should be executed; this defendant should not be, either,” it added. They referred to recent posts on his social media platform, Truth Social, including one on Sept. 22 in which Mr. Trump accused departing Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley of committing treason. In the post, Mr. Trump said that Mr. Milley’s alleged “treasonous act” could have led to “a war between China and the United States.” He also suggested that Mr. Milley should be executed for his alleged conduct.

Prosecutors also mentioned a video posted by Mr. Trump’s spokesman claiming that Mr. Trump had bought a Glock gun in South Carolina. The post was later removed, and the spokesman retracted his remarks, saying that Mr. Trump had only indicated his interest in buying the gun. Despite the spokesman’s retraction, prosecutors said that Mr. Trump “re-posted a video of the incident” posted by one of his followers with a caption that suggested he had indeed bought the weapon. “The defendant either purchased a gun in violation of the law and his conditions of release, or seeks to benefit from his supporters’ mistaken belief that he did so,” the prosecutors stated. Mr. Trump’s lawyers have objected to the request, and U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan on Friday set courtroom arguments for Oct. 16.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers have previously denounced the gag order request as an attempt to “unconstitutionally silence” his political speech. They called the request a “desperate attempt at censorship.” “The prosecution would silence President Trump, amid a political campaign where his right to criticize the government is at its zenith, all to avoid a public rebuke of this prosecution,” his lawyers wrote on Sept. 25. “However, above all else, the First Amendment means that government has no power to restrict expression because of its message, its ideas, its subject matter, or its content. “The prosecution may not like President’s Trump’s entirely valid criticisms, but neither it nor this Court are the filter for what the public may hear,” they added.

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Why just Steele? And not Clinesmith, Sussman, Adam Schiff, Jerry Nadler, Comey, Hillary Clinton etc etc?!

• Trump Sues Christopher Steele Over Hoax Dossier (ZH)

The Steele dossier was used by the Obama DOJ and the intelligence community to smear Trump as a Russian asset. Its various fabrications were legitimized under the guise of a legitimate DOJ investigation, and featured frequent strategic media leaks, ‘expert’ opinions, and manipulated evidence such as an email altered by former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith, which was used to renew a wiretap warrant on Trump Campaign adviser Carter Page. Then there was the fraudulent ‘Alfa Bank Server’ allegation made by Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussman, who pleaded guilty to not telling the FBI that he was Hillary’s employee when he alleged that Trump was directly communicating with the Kremlin via a covert server.

Steele peddled the dossier to the State Department – which then passed it along to former FBI deputy assistant director of counterintelligence Peter ‘We’ll stop Trump’ Strzok. Steele also met with the DOJ’s Bruce Ohr (whose wife, as we noted above, Fusion GPS employee), who he told that Russia had Trump “over a barrel.” (Bruce Ohr was consequentially demoted for making “consequential errors in judgement” for failing to inform his supervisors for his role in Russiagate, and retired on Sept. of 2020 “after his counsel was informed that a final decision on a disciplinary review being conducted by Department senior career officials was imminent”). Then there was the infamous ‘pee tape’ allegation that Trump paid prostitutes to urinate in a bed in Moscow where Barack and Michelle Obama had stayed, and that the Kremlin had a tape of the whole thing.

The 35-page dossier was publicly disavowed by high ranking FBI officials, including the bureau’s former deputy director Andrew McCabe, who told lawmakers in November 2020 that he would have never approved the Carter Page wiretap if he’d known the dossier was inaccurate. And now, Trump is suing Steele…

According to the Independent, the 77-year-old former president is bringing a data protection claim against Steele, and his consulting firm Orbis Business Intelligence, in the UK. “Proceedings have been issued on behalf of President Donald J. Trump against Orbis Business Intelligence Limited. The claim relates to breaches of UK Data Protection law arising from the inaccurate processing of the President’s personal data by Orbis following the publication of the false ‘Steele Dossier,’” said Trump attorney Tim Lowles. “The President’s claim seeks remedies including that the inaccurate data contained within the Steele Dossier be erased or rectified together with the payment of damages,” the statement continues.

On October 16, a two-day hearing will commence according to the report, citing a High Court order published Thursday. Steele has defended his work, telling the Oxford Union in March 2022: “What is being called the dossier was actually a series of single-source intelligence reports over a period of time, if you like, almost a running commentary on the election campaign and Russia’s perspective on it — and it comes from the Russian perspective of the telescope if you like,” adding “The sources were Russian, they were reporting on how Russia saw it, and of course, that may in some cases be rather different than how it was viewed in America at the other end of the telescope.”

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

Soccer dog
https://twitter.com/i/status/1708198778174345445

 

 

Ink

 

 

Turkey
https://twitter.com/i/status/1708441860228751683

 

 

Bless you
https://twitter.com/i/status/1708396893607465463

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Feb 072019
 


René Magritte The Pleasure Principle (Portrait of Edward James) 1937

 

• Led By Donkeys (G.)
• Tusk: Special Place In Hell For Brexiteers Without Even Sketch Of A Plan (Ind.)
• Corbyn Lays Out Labour’s Terms For Backing May On Brexit (G.)
• Not Opposing Brexit Could Lose Labour 45 Seats (G.)
• Yellen: Next Fed Move May Be A Rate Cut (CNBC)
• Fed’s Quarles Sees 2019 As An ‘Interim’ Year For Bank Stress Tests (R.)
• Press Needs More Than Super Bowl Ad To Fix Its Plunging Credibility (ZH)
• Homo Credulus (Bowman)
• French, German Farmers Must Destroy Crops After GMOs Found In Monsanto Seeds (RT)
• The Killing Of Large Species Is Pushing Them Towards Extinction (G.)
• Global Warming Could Exceed 1.5ºC Within Five Years (G.)

 

 

50 days to Brexit. Don’t be surprised if that whole country dissolves before our eyes.

Perfect name, good actions.

• Led By Donkeys (G.)

At 5.55am, Talgarth Road, one of the major arteries into west London, is just beginning to clog up with early rush-hour traffic. A man named Dave, his white van pulled over into a loading bay, is putting up a billboard poster by the side of the carriageway. The previous one was an advert for Calvin Klein featuring the model Lara Stone. Over the course of 20 minutes, Dave covers Stone up, expertly pasting rectangles of paper over her, using a ladder for the high ones, then sweeping over with his brush. The first rectangle, in the top left corner, contains a headshot of Jacob Rees-Mogg and the beginning of his Twitter handle. As Dave lines up edges, pastes and brushes, and Stone disappears, a quote emerges from Rees-Mogg.

This one wasn’t a tweet; he said it in parliament. “We could have two referendums. As it happens, it might make more sense to have a second referendum after the renegotiation is completed.” There are three other men here, dressed in hoodies, lumberjack shirts and beanies, lurking around and admiring the work. Their work – because Richard, Adam and Chris are three of the four key people behind Led By Donkeys, the remainer guerrilla activists highlighting the hypocrisy and lies of politicians by posting their damning quotes on billboards around the country. Less guerrilla now, actually: they’ve gone legit, this hoarding is paid for. Before, they just took them over.

[..] It all began, as most good ideas do, in the pub. They were talking about the infamous David Cameron tweet – “Britain faces a simple and inescapable choice – stability and strong government with me or chaos with Ed Miliband” – which was doing the rounds again after Theresa May cancelled the vote on her deal in December. And someone said: why don’t they slap it on a billboard, make it the tweet you can’t delete? The next day, on the WhatsApp group, one of them said they had found someone who would print it out for them. They all agreed: “Let’s just fucking do it.” It was cheaper to do five, so they cobbled together four more tweets – from Michael Gove, David Davies, John Redwood and Liam Fox – not really thinking they’d ever put them up. Initial outlay was about 200 quid, plus £90 on a ladder from B&Q.

Read more …

Tusk is an idiot, but he was right when he said thet as both May and Corbyn want to Leave, there is no political leadership for Remain. But the majority of Britons by now want to Remain. Don’t underestimate the danger of this.

• Tusk: Special Place In Hell For Brexiteers Without Even Sketch Of A Plan (Ind.)

A war of words has further undermined Theresa May’s mission to Brussels to rescue her Brexit deal, after the EU warned of a “special place in hell” for politicians who botched the project. Downing Street and Tory politicians hit back angrily after the extraordinary attack by Donald Tusk on those who triumphed in the referendum “without even a sketch of a plan how to carry it safely”. The prime minister’s spokesman urged people to ask whether such language was “helpful” – before noting, sarcastically, that was impossible “because he didn’t take any questions”. Andrea Leadsom, the Commons leader, condemned the comments by Mr Tusk, the European Council president, as “disgraceful” and “spiteful”, saying such behaviour “demeans him”.

Sammy Wilson, Brexit spokesman of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which props up the Tories in power, went further – branding him a “devilish, trident-wielding, Euro maniac”. But pro-EU Tory Anna Soubry backed him and named Boris Johnson, David Davis and Nigel Farage as among his likely targets, for having “abdicated all responsibility”. The fury overshadowed the tough message for Ms May before she lands in Brussels on Thursday morning – that the EU will never agree to reopening the divorce deal, as she has vowed to do. The prime minister will again demand either an end date for the Irish backstop or an exit mechanism from it for there to be any hope of the Commons passing the deal. Ms May appeared to drop her third option – replacing the backstop with ill-defined “alternative arrangements”, based on unproven technology – to the anger of some Brexiteer Tories.

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Vote Corbyn, get May.

• Corbyn Lays Out Labour’s Terms For Backing May On Brexit (G.)

Jeremy Corbyn has written to the prime minister, offering to throw Labour’s support behind her Brexit deal if she makes five legally binding commitments – including joining a customs union. The Labour leader held private talks with Theresa May last week for the first time since her deal was rejected by a historic margin of 230 votes in January. In a follow-up letter sent on Wednesday, he laid out in the clearest terms yet what commitments he is seeking in exchange for offering Labour support. His intervention will dismay backbench Labour MPs and grassroots activists still hoping he will switch the party’s policy towards demanding a second Brexit referendum – which is not mentioned in the letter.

And it comes as No 10 prepares to publish legislation underpinning workers’ rights, perhaps as early as next week, in an attempt to win support from Labour backbenchers. In his letter, Corbyn calls for the government to rework the political declaration setting the framework for Britain’s future relationship with the EU – and then enshrine these new negotiating objectives in UK law, so that a future Tory leader could not sweep them away after Brexit. He says the changes to the political declaration must include:

• A “permanent and comprehensive UK-wide customs union”, including a say in future trade deals.
• Close alignment with the single market, underpinned by “shared institutions”.
• “Dynamic alignment on rights and protections”, so that UK standards do not fall behind those of the EU.
• Clear commitments on future UK participation in EU agencies and funding programmes.
• Unambiguous agreements on future security arrangements, such as use of the European arrest warrant.

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Britain can no longer manage with two parties. Same as so many countries.

• Not Opposing Brexit Could Lose Labour 45 Seats (G.)

A trade union affiliated with the Labour party has claimed that Jeremy Corbyn’s party could lose an additional 45 seats in a snap election if it fails to take an anti-Brexit position, in a leaked report. The report, drawn up by the transport union TSSA and including extensive polling, was sent to the leftwing pressure group Momentum. It appears to be an attempt to pile pressure on the Labour leader over Brexit. It claims that “Brexit energises Labour remain voters” disproportionately, and warns: “There is no middle way policy which gets support from both sides of the debate.” The Guardian understands that while the report was sent to Momentum, it was not commissioned or requested by the group.

Sources inside the party stressed that there were risks from turning either way on Brexit – and other polls showed a different picture. The document – marked strictly confidential – says: “There can be no disguising the sense of disappointment and disillusionment with Labour if it fails to oppose Brexit and there is every indication that it will be far more damaging to the party’s electoral fortunes than the Iraq war. “Labour would especially lose the support of people below the age of 35, which could make this issue comparable to the impact the tuition fees and involvement in the coalition had on Lib Dem support.” The document starts by pointing out that the TSSA has “supported Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership from the very beginning”.

It says that the party’s supporters view Brexit as a “Tory project”. It adds that four-fifths of them believe the current deal will hurt the British economy and 91.4% of Labour voters do not trust the government to deliver a good Brexit for people such as them.

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Only in hindsight will Americans see the damage done by these people.

• Yellen: Next Fed Move May Be A Rate Cut (CNBC)

The Federal Reserve’s next move may well be an interest rate cut if weakening growth around the world starts infecting the U.S. economy, former central bank Chair Janet Yellen said Wednesday. Weakening economies in China and Europe are posing danger to an otherwise strong U.S. economy, Yellen told CNBC’s Steve Liesman during a “Power Lunch” interview. “Of course it’s possible. If global growth really weakens and that spills over to the United States where financial conditions tighten more and we do see a weakening in the U.S. economy, it’s certainly possible that the next move is a cut,” she said. “But both outcomes are possible.” The former central bank head cited “slowing global growth” as the biggest threat to the economy she once watched over. “The data from China has been recently weak, the European data has also come in weaker than expected,” she said.

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The very last people who should conduct such tests.

• Fed’s Quarles Sees 2019 As An ‘Interim’ Year For Bank Stress Tests (R.)

U.S. bank stress tests conducted during an “interim” period this year will help the Federal Reserve decide what permanent changes to make to the closely followed examinations, the Fed’s point person on financial supervision Randal Quarles said on Wednesday. On Tuesday the Fed said it would make its stress testing of large banks more transparent in 2019, providing financial firms significantly more information about how their portfolios would perform under potential economic shocks. The changes respond to long-running bank complaints that the current stress-testing process is cumbersome and opaque. Less complex banks with assets between $100 billion and $250 billion, such as SunTrust Banks and Fifth Third Bancorp, do not have to face 2019 stress tests, as the Fed is moving to a two-year cycle for testing those firms.

“Our challenge now is to preserve the strength of the test, while improving its efficiency, transparency, and integration into the post-crisis regulatory framework,” Federal Reserve Vice Chairman of Supervision Randal Quarles said in remarks prepared for delivery at a Council for Economic Education event in New York. “Our experience with this ‘interim’ year will inform the move to a permanently longer testing cycle – a change that would, of course, be subject to a full notice and comment process.” The 2019 tests also include factoring in a jump to 10 percent unemployment from the current 4 percent rate, as well as elevated stress in corporate loan and commercial real estate markets in the most severe scenario.

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The press, including WaPo, have changed tactics. They no longer try for a larger audience, they make their existing readers more faithful. More subscribers, much ‘better’ targeted ads.

• Press Needs More Than Super Bowl Ad To Fix Its Plunging Credibility (ZH)

Media Bias: While journalists are getting pink slips across the country, the Washington Post decided to dump a boatload of cash for a Super Bowl image ad that tried to portray the news media as national heroes. Here’s a better, and much cheaper, idea to restore the industry’s shattered reputation: Be less blatantly partisan. In the 60-second ad, Tom Hanks intones about the importance of journalists against the backdrop of historic events. Thankfully, during these times, the ad says, “There’s someone to gather the facts. To bring you the story. No matter the cost. Because knowing empowers us. Knowing helps us decide. Knowing keeps us free.” The problem with journalists today, however, is that they aren’t interested in gathering facts or empowering the public with knowledge.

Instead, they are interested mainly in pushing their agenda — a basic failing of the profession brought into high relief over the past two years. The latest IBD/TIPP Poll makes this abundantly clear. The poll asked several questions to gauge the public’s perception of the mainstream news media. What did it find? First, that fully half the country says its trust in the media decreased over the past two years. A tiny 8% say it’s increased. That includes a plurality of independents (49%). Even among Republicans, who’ve long grown accustomed to media bias, 81% say their trust in the press has dropped over the past two years. Geographically, those in the Midwest and the South are mostly likely to say their trust in the press has declined (52% and 57%, respectively) since Trump took office.

Men are far more likely than women (54% vs. 47%). And those with incomes over $75,000 (51% of home distrust the media more) more than lower-income households. These findings alone should be alarming. After all, as any corporate executive knows, you can’t run a successful business when a vast and increasing share of your customer base doesn’t trust the product you are selling. It gets worse. The poll found that more than two-thirds of the public (69%) think the news media “is more concerned with advancing its points of view rather than reporting all the facts.” Only 29% of the public disagrees with that statement. In other words, nearly seven out of 10 adults in the country think the Post ad’s blather about “gathering the facts” is bull. That includes 72% of independents, 95% of Republicans, and — surprisingly enough — 43% of Democrats.

Read more …

And how can the press pull off its tricks? Easy as pie. Edward Bernays and Goebbels.

• Homo Credulus (Bowman)

Given the right circumstances… a little programing… and enough time for it all to marinate in his soft, mammalian brain… there is almost nothing Homo Credulus will not learn to embrace. Don’t believe us? Take a look at the historical record; you’ll soon wonder how we ever got this far. Sure, you’ll discover gizmos and flying contraptions… art and agriculture… music and mathematics. You’ll witness spectacular scientific breakthroughs, the number “0” and a man’s footprint on the moon. You’ll also find automobiles with so many cup holders, you won’t know where to holster your oversized 7/11 Big Gulp. But you’ll also scratch you head. Perhaps you’ll even weep. And if you think hard enough, you’ll put a few things to serious question…

“Central banks?” “Modern democracy?” “The Rosie O’Donnell Show?” How has mankind survived such atrocities? Self inflicted, no less! And why, moreover, does he rush so earnestly to repeat and replay his worst mistakes? Don’t be too hard on yourself, Dear Reader. After all, repetition is nothing new… You’ll recall that it was the Greeks who first gave the world democracy – from the Greek, demokratia, literally “Rule by ‘People’”. (And yes, it was those very same Greeks who put their own beloved Socrates to death… by a majority vote of 140-361.) Today, democracy is a cherished tenet of “the West.” It is woven into the civic religion, sewn into the social fabric. Men march off eagerly to fight for it, to proselytize it … and to die in forgotten ditches defending it. At least, that’s what they believe they’re doing. As usual, the poor saps have been duped.

The phrase “Making the world safe for democracy” was actually a marketing slogan, coined back in the 1910s, as a way to sell “The Great War” to America. Weary from their own disastrous Civil War just a few decades earlier, in which hundreds of thousands gave up the ghost, Americans were mostly inward looking at the time. That is to say, they wanted little to do with what they largely saw as a “European affair.” Polls might have indicated no appetite for battle… but the nation’s politicians were nonetheless starved for military misadventure. They sensed big profits abroad, both in manufacturing armaments and making onerous bank loans to foreign lands. Sure, “the nation” would have to fill tank and trench with warm young bodies… but very few soldiers would carry senatorial surnames along with their rifles.

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Too late already. A deliberate Monsanto policy.

• French, German Farmers Must Destroy Crops After GMOs Found In Monsanto Seeds (RT)

French and German farmers have been forced to dig up thousands of hectares of rapeseed fields after authorities found an illegal GMO strain mixed in with the natural seeds they’d bought from Bayer-Monsanto. Authorities discovered the illicit seeds in three separate batches of rapeseed seeds last fall, but the public has only just been notified. While Bayer issued a recall, by the time the farmers learned of it some of the seeds had already been planted, covering 8,000 ha in France and 3,000 ha in Germany. Bayer-Monsanto estimated the number of rogue seeds at just about .005 percent of the total volume of rapeseed seeds sold to both nations under the brand name Dekalb, but each country has a ban on GMO cultivation, with strict penalties for “accidental” contamination of standard crops.

The agrochemical giant refused to estimate the total cost of the GMO contamination, which knocks out not only this season’s crop but also the next season’s, as farmers will be barred from growing rapeseed next year “to avoid re-emergence of the GMO strain,” according to Bayer-Monsanto’s French COO Catherine Lamboley. They offered to compensate farmers €2,000 per hectare, which would work out to about €20 million between both countries. The cause of the contamination is unknown, Lamboley said, claiming the seeds were produced in Argentina “in a GMO-free area” and declaring that the company “has decided to immediately stop all rapeseed production in Argentina.” The rogue GMO seeds were of a variety grown in Canada that is banned in Europe, although imported food made with the modified rapeseed is permitted for human and animal consumption as long as it is adequately labeled.

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Except those farmed.

• The Killing Of Large Species Is Pushing Them Towards Extinction (G.)

The vast majority of the world’s largest species are being pushed towards extinction, with the killing of the heftiest animals for meat and body parts the leading cause of decline, according to a new study. While habitat loss, pollution and other threats pose a significant menace to large species, also known as megafauna, intentional and unintentional trapping, poaching and slaughter is the single biggest factor in their decline, researchers found. An analysis of 362 megafauna species found that 70% of them are in decline, with 59% classed as threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Direct killing by humans is the leading cause across all classes of animals, the study states.

A range of maladies including intensive agriculture, toxins and invasive competitors are also helping to trigger these declines. This situation adds to the “mounting evidence that humans are poised to cause a sixth mass extinction event”, according to the research, published in Conservation Letters. It adds that “minimizing the direct killing of the world’s largest vertebrates is a priority conservation strategy that might save many of these iconic species and the functions and services they provide.” Humans cause the deaths of large creatures in a variety of ways, from snares that entangle mountain gorillas and the poaching of elephants for ivory to the killing of the Chinese giant salamander, which can grow up to 6ft long and is considered a delicacy in Asia.

Read more …

So what are you going to do about it? Appeal to your politicians?

• Global Warming Could Exceed 1.5ºC Within Five Years (G.)

Global warming could temporarily hit 1.5C above pre-industrial levels for the first time between now and 2023, according to a long-term forecast by the Met Office. Meteorologists said there was a 10% chance of a year in which the average temperature rise exceeds 1.5C, which is the lowest of the two Paris agreement targets set for the end of the century. Until now, the hottest year on record was 2016, when the planet warmed 1.11C above pre-industrial levels, but the long-term trend is upward. Man-made greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are adding 0.2C of warming each decade but the incline of temperature charts is jagged due to natural variation: hotter El Niño years zig above the average, while cooler La Ninã years zag below.

In the five-year forecast released on Wednesday, the Met Office highlights the first possibility of a natural El Niño combining with global warming to exceed the 1.5C mark. Dr Doug Smith, Met Office research fellow, said: “A run of temperatures of 1C or above would increase the risk of a temporary excursion above the threshold of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Predictions now suggest around a 10% chance of at least one year between 2019 and 2023 temporarily exceeding 1.5C.” Climatologists stressed this did not mean the world had broken the Paris agreement 80 years ahead of schedule because international temperature targets are based on 30-year averages.

“Exceeding 1.5C in one given year does not mean that the 1.5C goal has been breached and can be redirected towards the bin,” said Joeri Rogelj, a lecturer at the Grantham Institute. “The noise in the annual temperatures should not distract from the long-term trend.”

Read more …

May 202018
 
 May 20, 2018  Posted by at 2:20 pm Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  4 Responses »


Vittorio Matteo Corcos Conversation in the Jardin du Luxembourg 1892

 

Obviously, there are tensions between Europe and the US. Just as obviously, these tensions are blamed on, who else, Donald Trump. European Council President Donald Tusk recently said: “With friends like Trump, who needs enemies?” EU Commission chair Jean-Claude Juncker even proclaimed that “Europe must take America’s place as global leader”.

These European ‘leaders’ love the big words. They think they make them look good, strong. In reality, they are merely messenger boys for Berlin and Paris. Who have infinitely more say than Brussels. Problem is, Berlin and Paris are not united at all. Macron wants more Europe, especially in finance, but Merkel knows she can’t sell that at home.

So what are those big words worth when the whip comes down? It’s amusing to see how different people reach wholly different conclusions about that. Instructive and entertaining. First, Alex Gorka at The Strategic Culture Foundation, who likes the big words too: “..a landmark event that will go down in history as the day Europe united to openly defy the US.” and “May 17 is the day the revolt started and there is no going back. Europe has said goodbye to trans-Atlantic unity. It looks like it has had enough.

 

Brussels Rises In Revolt Against Washington: A Turning Point In US-European Relations

The May 16-17 EU-Western Balkans summit did address the problems of integration, but it was eclipsed by another issue. The meeting turned out to be a landmark event that will go down in history as the day Europe united to openly defy the US. The EU will neither review the Iran nuclear deal (JPCOA) nor join the sanctions against Tehran that have been reintroduced and even intensified by America.

Washington’s unilateral withdrawal from the JPCOA was the last straw, forcing the collapse of Western unity. The Europeans found themselves up against a wall. There is no point in discussing further integration or any other matter if the EU cannot protect its own members. But now it can.

[..] As European Council President Donald Tusk put it, “With friends like Trump, who needs enemies?” According to him, the US president has “rid Europe of all illusions.” Mr. Tusk wants Europe to “stick to our guns” against new US policies. Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the EU Commission, believes that “Europe must take America’s place as global leader” because Washington has turned its back on its allies.

Washington “no longer wants to cooperate.” It is turning away from friendly relations “with ferocity.” Mr. Juncker thinks the time is ripe for Europe “to replace the United States, which as an international actor has lost vigor.” It would have been unthinkable not long ago for a top EU official to say such things and challenge the US global leadership. Now the unthinkable has become reality.

[..] Sandra Oudkirk, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Energy, has just threatened to sanction the Europeans if they continue with the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project to bring gas in from Russia across the Baltic Sea.

[..] President Donald Trump has just instructed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to prepare a list of new sanctions against the Russian Federation for its alleged violations of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. [..] But nobody in Europe has announced that they want US nuclear-tipped intermediate- range weapons on their territory that will be a target for a potential retaliatory strike by Russia.

[..] The time is ripe for Brussels to stop this sanctions-counter-sanctions mayhem and stake out its own independent policies on Russia, Iran, defense, and other issues, that will protect European, not US, national interests. May 17 is the day the revolt started and there is no going back. Europe has said goodbye to trans-Atlantic unity. It looks like it has had enough.

As for placing new nukes in Europe, that will be a hard sell. But the US will probably find countries that say yes, provided they are compensated well. Just don’t try it in Holland, Germany or France. But also don’t forget the amount of nukes already on the continent: just call it an upgrade.

Nord Stream 2 is tricky, but mostly an economic issue: Trump wants to sell American gas to Europe, and uses the bad bad Putin narrative to make that happen. Still, the pipeline has been in the pipeline for a long time, and a lot of time and money has been spent on it. It’ll be hard for the US to cut it off at this late stage.

When it comes to claiming the EU will not review the Iran nuclear deal, isn’t that exactly what they are indeed doing? Reuters:

 

Europe, China, Russia Discussing New Deal For Iran

Under the 2015 deal, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program in return for the lifting of most Western sanctions. One of the main complaints of the Trump administration was that the accord did not cover Iran’s missile program or its support for armed groups in the Middle East which the West considers terrorists.

Concluding a new agreement that would maintain the nuclear provisions and curb ballistic missile development efforts and Tehran’s activities in the region could help convince Trump to lift sanctions against Iran, the paper said. “We have to get away from the name ‘Vienna nuclear agreement’ and add in a few additional elements. Only that will convince President Trump to agree and lift sanctions again,” the paper quoted a senior EU diplomat as saying.

All in all, Mr. Gorka doesn’t convince me. Europe doesn’t speak with one voice, and we wouldn’t even know which voice speaks for it. Just that it isn’t Juncker or Tusk, they’re handpuppets. Moreover, Europe has so many internal issues to deal with that it has a hard time speaking at all. A landmark event in US-EU relations may happen one day, but May 17 wasn’t it.

What I find more interesting is the account of academic John Laughland, ‘a historian and specialist in international affairs’, at RT:

 

With Iran Sanctions Trump Made Europeans Look Like The Fools They Are

Donald Tusk may say “Europe must be united economically, politically and also militarily like never before … either we are together or we are not at all” but Europe is indeed not “together” at all. The Brussels commission is hounding Poland and Hungary on what are clearly internal political matters beyond the Commission’s remit; the EU is about to lose one of its most important member states; and a new government is going to take power in Rome whose economic policies (a flat tax at 15%) will blow the eurozone’s borrowing rules out of the water and perhaps cause Italy to leave the euro.

The Italian 5-Star/League government also wants an end to the EU sanctions against Russia; these are voted by a unanimity which, although fragile, has held until now but which, if the new power in Rome keeps its word, will shortly collapse. In other words, what Trump has done is to make the Europeans look like the fools they are. In circumstances in which the EU has placed all its eggs in one basket, a basket which Trump has now overturned, it will be impossible for it to come together. On the contrary, it is falling apart.

[..] the EU draws its entire legitimacy from the belief that by pooling sovereignty and by merging its states into one entity, it has advanced beyond the age when international relations were decided by force. It believes that it embodies instead a new international system based on rules and agreements, and that any other system leads to war. It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of this belief for European leaders; yet Donald Trump has just driven a coach and horses through it.

The angry statements by European leaders might lead one to think that we are on the cusp of a major reappraisal of trans-Atlantic relations. However, the reality is that the EU and its leaders have painted themselves into a corner from which it will be very difficult, perhaps impossible, to extricate themselves.

Like I said, completely different conclusions based on the exact same events. The EU risks what might turn into an existential crisis with Beppe Grillo effectively holding the reins of power in Rome. The new government may have dropped the demand for a €260 billion debt relief, but the basic income plan is still there, and so is dropping Russian sanctions.

The new guys can’t divert from their election promises much further, they need to maintain their credibility. But for a lot of their promises it is not at all clear how they could possible fit into the present EU structure. Try their demand for a mechanism to leave the EU.

Italy is so large that Brussels cannot be too aggressive against it. The ECB cannot stop buying Italian bonds, as it did with Greek ones. And at some point the debt relief demand will return too.

But Laughland has a lot more cold water to pour on the alleged but toothless European revolt. In the shape of NATO. This is scary for every European:

 

[..] the links between the EU and the US are not only very long-standing, they are also set in stone. NATO and the EU are in reality Siamese twins, two bodies born at the same time which are joined at the hip. The first European community was created with overt and covert US support in 1950 in order to militarize Western Europe and to prepare it to fight a land war against the Soviet Union; NATO acquired its integrated command structure a few months later and its Supreme Commander is always an American.

Today the two organizations are legally inseparable because the consolidated Treaty on European Union, in the form adopted at Lisbon in 2009, states that EU foreign policy “shall respect” the obligations of NATO member states and that it shall “be compatible” with NATO policy. In other words, the constitutional charter of the EU subordinates it to NATO, which the USA dominates legally and structurally. In such circumstances, European states can only liberate themselves from US hegemony, as Donald Tusk said they should, by leaving the EU. It is obvious that they are not prepared to do that.

Anything else about those dreams of standing up to Trump? Have the past and present leaders in Brussels, and in Berlin and Paris and Rome, betrayed their own citizens? Sold them out? How far removed is this from treason? And does this perhaps indicate that it’s high time for a complete and utter overhaul of the European Union?

It sure sounds a lot more realistic than Europe replacing America as the global leader.

Who needs enemies? NATO does.

 

 

Mar 122018
 
 March 12, 2018  Posted by at 10:17 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  5 Responses »


Lewis Wickes Hine Labourer on connector, Empire State Building, New York 1930-31

 

• On The Bull Market’s Ninth Birthday (CNBC)
• ‘No Response’ Yet From North Korea On Trump Talks (BBC)
• Kim Jong Un Wants a Peace Treaty From Trump (BBG)
• China Banking Crisis Warning Signal Still Flashing – BIS (BBG)
• Don’t Count On Beijing To Resolve Fallout From Any Debt Blowup (CNBC)
• Asia’s Big Developers ‘More Vulnerable’ to Shocks – BIS (BBG)
• Japan PM Shinzo Abe’s Political Future On Cronyism Scandal (G.)
• Trade Wars, Diminished Credibility and Gary Cohn (Nomi Prins)
• London Property Prices Fall 15% (G.)
• European Commissioner Tusk Double-Crossed Poland (GEFIRA)
• Half Of US Arms Exports Go To The Middle East (G.)
• Tim Berners-Lee: Regulate Tech Firms To Prevent ‘Weaponised’ Web (G.)
• America’s Troll Farm Media (CP)
• Winston Churchill, Mass Murderer (WaPo)

 

 

John Rubino’s comment: “Emigrate while you still can..”

• On The Bull Market’s Ninth Birthday (CNBC)

The bullish run in the Dow Jones industrial average — which celebrates its ninth birthday Friday — is the longest ever and the greatest percentage gain since World War II, according to Leuthold Group. The corresponding run by the S&P 500, notes LPL Financial, is that benchmark’s second-largest and second-longest bull market ever, with only the 1990s stock market run led by technology stocks in the way. Despite a more than 10% correction in equities last month following a burst of bullish activity, Leuthold’s Doug Ramsey doesn’t think the bull is done yet. “Assuming the Dow Jones industrial average can exceed its late-January high on March 9th or thereafter, this cyclical bull market will become the first one ever to last nine years,” said Ramsey, his firm’s chief investment officer.

“Historically, cycle momentum highs are usually followed by a push to even higher price highs over the next several months.” The Dow hit an all-time high of 26,616.71 on Jan. 26, the same day the S&P 500 clinched its own record of 2,872.87. The major indexes are off their record highs 6.4% and 4.6% respectively. This chart from Leuthold Group shows where the Dow bull market stacks up since 1900. It’s far and away the longest in modern financial times. In terms of percentage gains, it’s third behind two bull markets pre-WWII.

Read more …

I’d guess Kim didn’t expect the answer he got, as fast as he got it, and now isn’t quite sure what to say.

• ‘No Response’ Yet From North Korea On Trump Talks (BBC)

South Korea says it has not received a response from Pyongyang on a summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump. In a surprise development, Mr Trump on Friday accepted North Korea’s invitation to direct talks. South Korean officials said Mr Kim was prepared to give up his nuclear weapons. Details on the planned talks remain vague, with no agreement yet on the location or agenda. Analysts are sceptical about what can be achieved through talks given the complexity of the issues involved. “We have not seen nor received an official response from the North Korean regime regarding the North Korea-US summit,” a spokesman for the South Korean Ministry of Unification said on Monday. “I feel they’re approaching this matter with caution and they need time to organise their stance.” South Korean officials who spoke to Trump are now on the way to China and Japan to brief the leaders of each country on the upcoming talks.

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He’s telling his people that’s what his father wanted. They also want to reunite with the south.

• Kim Jong Un Wants a Peace Treaty From Trump (BBG)

Kim Jong Un wants to sign a peace treaty after meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, South Korean media reported, reviving a long-held goal of the North Korean regime. Kim is likely to raise the possibility of a peace treaty, along with establishing diplomatic relations and nuclear disarmament, during a meeting with the U.S. leader, the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper said Monday, citing an unidentified senior official in South Korea’s presidential office. Trump last week agreed to meet Kim, although key details of the summit have yet to be decided. Koh Yu-hwan, who teaches North Korean studies at Dongguk University in Seoul, said the regime has long sought a peace treaty to end the more than 60-year-old ceasefire between the two sides and help guarantee its safety.

“There were agreements between the U.S. and North Korea to open up discussion on a peace treaty, but they never materialized,” Koh said, saying the conditions were key. “The U.S. wants a peace treaty at the end of the denuclearization process, while for the North, it’s the precondition for its denuclearization.” Signing a peace treaty would require addressing issues regarding the U.S. military’s presence in South Korea and its transfer of wartime operational control to South Korea and United Nations forces in South Korea, Koh said.

Read more …

China, Canada and Hong Kong are among the economies most at risk of a banking crisis, according to BIS

• China Banking Crisis Warning Signal Still Flashing – BIS (BBG)

China, Canada and Hong Kong are among the economies most at risk of a banking crisis, according to early-warning indicators compiled by the Bank for International Settlements. Canada – whose economy grew last year at the fastest pace since 2011 – was flagged thanks to its households’ maxed-out credit cards and high debt levels in the wider economy. Household borrowing is also seen as a risk factor for China and Hong Kong, according to the study. “The indicators currently point to the build-up of risks in several economies,” analysts Inaki Aldasoro, Claudio Borio and Mathias Drehmann wrote in the BIS’s latest Quarterly Review published on Sunday. The study offered some surprising results: for example, Italy wasn’t shown as being at risk, despite its struggles with a slow-growing economy and banks that are mired in bad debts.

While China was flagged, a key warning indicator known as the credit-to-gross domestic product “gap” showed an improvement, said the BIS, known as the central bank for central banks. This may suggest the government is making progress in its push to reduce financial-sector risk. The gap is the difference between the credit-to-GDP ratio and its long-term trend. A blow-out in the number can signal that credit growth is excessive and a financial bust may be looming. In China, the gap fell to 16.7% in the third quarter of 2017, down from a peak of 28.9% in March 2016 and the lowest since 2012, the study showed.

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How does Xi tell his people he doesn’t have their backs? Oh well, he’s president for life.

• Don’t Count On Beijing To Resolve Fallout From Any Debt Blowup (CNBC)

The belief in an “implicit guarantee” from the Chinese government on debt is a big problem, said a finance professor on Monday. “I’m concerned with what a lot of people believe, [that] the government is going to take care of investment losses. Under that impression, they are going to take up lot of leverage because they believe they will be bailed out if something does not work out,” said Zhu Ning, a professor of finance at Tsinghua University in Beijing. China has been battling high debt levels for years, but debt-to-GDP ratio is still about 260%, according to the Bank of International Settlements. While that absolute number is not alarming in itself, it is eyebrow-raising for the speed in rising to such levels, particularly in the last five years, Zhu said.

Since China’s economy is far bigger than two decades ago, the country has the size and resilience to overcome issues in the financial system, but Beijing is concerned about systemic risks that may roil the world’s second-largest economy. The key to solving any potential fallout from the ballooning debt is to remove the perception that Beijing will help solve any problems from a debt blowup, said Zhu. “This is a mentality that has taken decades to form so the government would have to do something aggressive and persistent to gradually remove this sense of implicit guarantee,” Zhu said. The Chinese government has been coming down hard on reining in systemic risks, using strong-arm tactics such as the recent state takeover of Anbang Insurance, which was aggressively expanding internationally.

Read more …

There’s the shadow banks again.

• Asia’s Big Developers ‘More Vulnerable’ to Shocks – BIS (BBG)

Asia’s big developers are “more vulnerable” to shocks after their profitability waned from the boom years at the start of the decade, the Bank for International Settlements warned. The “sector’s deteriorating fundamentals give reason for concern,” said the Basel, Switzerland-based institution, which watches over global financial stability. Many firms’ returns on assets are below their costs of debt, the BIS said in a quarterly review, citing a study of developers in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

Higher interest rates, sinking property prices or falling currencies are shocks that could worsen developers’ financial health, with the potential for significant economic repercussions, according to the organization known as the central banks’ central bank. Even without external jolts, falling returns on assets and declining interest coverage ratios “could pose problems” for the firms, it said. While easy money drove property booms worldwide after the global financial crisis, the BIS argues a tightening in the years ahead could force developers to sell off inventory – driving down prices – and lay off workers.

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“Shinzo Abe has previously said he would resign if he or his wife were shown to be involved in heavily cutting the price of public land sold to a right-wing school operator in Osaka..”

• Japan PM Shinzo Abe’s Political Future On Cronyism Scandal (G.)

A spiralling cronyism scandal linked to the Japanese prime minister and his wife has reached fever pitch after the finance ministry admitted to tampering with records to remove references to the first lady. Shinzo Abe has previously said he would resign if he or his wife were shown to be involved in heavily cutting the price of public land sold to a right-wing school operator in Osaka. The finance ministry admitted on Monday that it had altered official documents surrounding the decision to provide an 85% discount on the appraised value of the land. One document originally quoted the educational group Moritomo Gakuen as saying that Abe’s wife Akie had recommended the primary school project “move forward because it is a good plot of land”. However, this was removed in a version submitted to lawmakers investigating the sale. Kyodo News reported that the submitted papers also omitted an article in which Akie described being “moved to tears by the school’s education policy”.

Moritomo Gakuen’s existing kindergarten attracted attention for requiring its young pupils to bow before portraits of the imperial family, sing the national anthem daily, and learn the 1890 imperial rescript on education, which emphasises sacrifice for country. Akie was set to serve as honorary principal for the new primary school, but stepped down in February last year when questions were raised over the land deal. The government has previously denied claims that the first lady gave the school operator an envelope containing 1m yen (£6,775) on behalf of the prime minister during a visit she made to the existing kindergarten. The controversy fuelled a steep decline in Abe’s popularity last year but heappeared to ride out the scandal and won a snap lower house election in October. However, the forgery revelations have intensified political pressure on Abe and his long-serving finance minister, Taro Aso.

Read more …

Excellent piece by Nomi, which has two topics: Gary Cohn and steel tariffs. The latter a bit much on short term effects, but good read.

• Trade Wars, Diminished Credibility and Gary Cohn (Nomi Prins)

[..] my former boss from my Goldman Sachs days—Gary Cohn—just resigned from his White House post as chief economic adviser to the Chaos Producer in Chief. This was ostensibly in protest against the president’s announcement about imposing steel and aluminum tariffs. The next day, Trump signed the order sealing that deal, citing his actions as a “matter of necessity for our security.” Along the way, he said there would be no exemptions to the tariffs, then said there would be—for Canada and Mexico. Trump glowed in the light of his new-found power grab over trade agreements, leaving himself room to decide which countries would be “in” and “out” with respect to these and other tariffs in the future. And that was the week that was in Trump World.

The timing of Cohn’s departure certainly put a wrench in his plans to convene executives dependent on steel and present their case against steel tariffs to Trump. Instead, Trump signed the tariffs order flanked by steel and aluminum workers supporting it. Speaking of steel, Cohn’s nerves were seemingly made of that metal. At Goldman, he was the man who regularly waded through deals without losing his cool (unlike Trump). On 9/11, I witnessed him directing traders to keep trading oil as shreds of debris and billows of smoke engulfed the windows of the Goldman trading floor, only a few blocks away from the World Trade Center. He became president (or number two) at Goldman, continually handling the less “cool” behavior of chairman and CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who remained above him in the pecking order for decades.

Cohn commanded daily activities at Goldman that led to the firm’s creation of shady financial instruments that were later at the core of the financial crisis. Under Cohn, Goldman was bailed out by U.S. taxpayers. The firm morphed, for government subsidy purposes, into a bank holding company, though it handled scant deposits from regular people. It did this to retain access to Federal Reserve support, as it has done, over the past decade. Cohn was also at Goldman when it reached a $5 billion settlement with the Department of Justice over its consistent misconduct regarding mortgage-related securities from 2005 to 2007. That type of conflict-meets-crisis readied him for his government service. When Cohn came up against Trump, the president’s flavor-of-the-minute trade policy hawk, Peter Navarro, met “Globalist Gary” head on. Then Cohn’s Trump administration career was over.

Read more …

Just peeping over the edge for now.

• London Property Prices Fall 15% (G.)

House prices in parts of London that were once at the epicentre of the UK property boom have fallen as much as 15% over the past year in fresh evidence of the impact of the EU referendum. Figures from Your Move, one of the UK’s biggest estate agency chains, reveal that the average home in Wandsworth – which includes much of Clapham, Balham and Putney – fell by more than £100,000 in value over the last 12 months. But property prices have surged in the north-west of England, with Blackburn recording the highest growth rates in the UK. Homes in the London borough of Wandsworth were fetching an average of £805,000 in January 2017 but this has now fallen to £685,000.

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Selling out his country and Putin bashing. That’s Tusk. That’s how he got his EU job.

• European Commissioner Tusk Double-Crossed Poland (GEFIRA)

The current President of the EU Council has a good reputation in the EU circles, but not in Poland: he had to flee from his home country to Brussels, completely compromised. After all, his government was a catastrophe: mass emigration of young Poles, tampering with the coffers of future pensioners, corruption and benefit scandals, the Amber Gold affair, the all-pervasive nepotism in his Civic Platform (PO) party, numerous sins of omission crowned by Nord Stream. Young unemployed people can light the torch of a revolution. If you want to secure your position in politics, you leave salaries low and open the borders. The discontented young unemployed emigrate and only those who have less motivation to take to the streets remain. In 2005 Donald Tusk made this trick, this intervention on his nation. He threw Poland into the arms of the EU: since then the population has fallen significantly due to the emigration of many young Poles.

Nigel Farage aptly commented on this when he turned to Tusk in the European Parliament: “Your debate is about emigration, and time and again you’ve promised the Polish voters that young poles would return to Poland, and at the same time Mr Cameron has promised the British people that fewer Poles would come to us. Well, it turns out that you’ve both been wrong and your country has been depopulated by 2 million people since you joined the European Union and the reason is obvious: it’s money, isn’t it? And you yourself prove the point. You are the newest Polish emigre and you’ve gone from a salary of 6,000 euros a year to a salary of 30,000 euros a year. So congratulations! You’ve hit the EU jackpot!”

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A picture of the world’s sickest people. Many of them are in your governments.

• Half Of US Arms Exports Go To The Middle East (G.)

Nearly half of US arms exports over the past five years have gone to the war-stricken Middle East, with Saudi Arabia consolidating its place as the world’s second biggest importer, a report has shown. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) said on Monday that global transfer of major weapons systems between 2013 and 2017 rose by 10% compared with the five-year period before that, in a continuation of an upward trend that began two decades ago. The US, which is the world’s biggest exporter, increased its sales between those two periods by 25%. It supplied arms to as many as 98 states worldwide, accounting for more than a third of global exports. Russia, the world’s second biggest exporter, saw a decrease of 7.1% in its overall volume of arms exports; US exports were 58% higher than those of Russia. France, Germany and China were also among the top five exporters. The UK is the sixth biggest weapons exporter.

“Based on deals signed during the Obama administration, US arms deliveries in 2013–17 reached their highest level since the late 1990s,” said Dr Aude Fleurant, the director of the Sipri’s arms and military expenditure programme. “These deals and further major contracts signed in 2017 will ensure that the USA remains the largest arms exporter in the coming years.” The Middle East, a region where in the past five years most countries have been involved in conflict, accounted for 32% of global imports of weapons. Arms imports to the region doubled between 2013 and 2017 and in the five-year period before that. The US, the UK, and France were the main supplier of arms to the region, while Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE were the main recipient countries.

The UK, which rolled out a red carpet for the Saudi crown prince on his visit to London last week, exported nearly half of its arms to the Saudi Arabia, which has increased its imports by 225%. Sipri’s report noted that Saudi Arabia uses its imported weapons in large-scale combat operations, particularly in Yemen. The Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen, which has cost hundreds of civilian lives, was launched in 2015, aiming to counter the advances of Iran-backed Houthi rebels controlling the capital, Sana’a. Saudi Arabia’s shopping list included 78 combat aircraft, 72 combat helicopters and 328 tanks. “Widespread violent conflict in the Middle East and concerns about human rights have led to political debate in western Europe and North America about restricting arms sales,” said Pieter Wezeman, senior researcher at Sipri. Yet the USA and European states remain the main arms exporters to the region and supplied over 98% of weapons imported by Saudi Arabia.”

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How do you regulate global forces? That are part of secret intelligence services?

• Tim Berners-Lee: Regulate Tech Firms To Prevent ‘Weaponised’ Web (G.)

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the world wide web, has called for large technology firms to be regulated to prevent the web from being “weaponised at scale”. “In recent years, we’ve seen conspiracy theories trend on social media platforms, fake Twitter and Facebook accounts stoke social tensions, external actors interfere in elections, and criminals steal troves of personal data,” Berners-Lee wrote in an open letter marking the 29th anniversary of his invention. These problems have proliferated because of the concentration of power in the hands of a few platforms – including Facebook, Google, and Twitter – which “control which ideas and opinions are seen and shared”. “What was once a rich selection of blogs and websites has been compressed under the powerful weight of a few dominant platforms,” said the 62-year-old British computer scientist.

These online gatekeepers can lock in their power by acquiring smaller rivals, buying up new innovations and hiring the industry’s top talent, making it harder for others to compete, he said. Google now accounts for about 87% of online searches worldwide. Facebook has more than 2.2 billion monthly active users – more than 20 times more than MySpace at its peak. Together, the two companies (including their subsidiaries Instagram and YouTube) slurp up more than 60% of digital advertising spend worldwide. Although the companies are aware of the problems and have made efforts to fix them – developing systems to tackle fake news, bots and influence operations – they have been built to “maximise profit more than maximise social good”. “A legal or regulatory framework that accounts for social objectives may help ease those tensions,” he said.

Aligning the incentives of the technology sector with those of users and society at large, he argued, will require consulting a diverse group of people from business, government, civil society, academia and the arts. Berners-Lee warned of “two myths” that “limit our collective imagination” when looking for solutions to the problems facing the web: “The myth that advertising is the only possible business model for online companies, and the myth that it’s too late to change the way platforms operate. On both points we need to be a little more creative,” he said. “I want the web to reflect our hopes and fulfil our dreams, rather than magnify our fears and deepen our divisions,” he said.

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Too many people still believe far too much of what they read and watch.

• America’s Troll Farm Media (CP)

Despite all the smoke and mirrors, most Americans seem to see where the stenographers of corporate capitalism are taking us. A recent Gallup poll found that while 84% of Americans see media as “critical” or “very important” to democracy, only 28% see the corporatist mainstream news media (MSM) as actually supporting democracy. They’re right on both counts of course. The quality of a democracy is only as good as the information people have to make informed judgements about public policy and politicians. Even as the mainstream news media continue to lose street cred, they persist in a rumor-saturated full court press against the “Trump-Putin presidency,” which only further exposes their lack of professionalism and increasing vulgarity.

MSM management and their boardroom bosses have long understood that as long as they spice up their “nothing burger” news, ratings and advertising rates will keep them in business and please their commercial and government clients. Tabloid journalism, which can describe most American mainstream media these days, even when wrapped up as “all the news that’s fit to print,” is in constant search of sensation, scandal, gossip, and profit – and only occasionally in public-oriented investigative integrity. [..] 65% of Americans consider the so-called “free press” biased, obsessed with scandal, and full of “fake news” and therefore cannot be trusted. [..] trust in American institutions in general, that is, the government, business, NGOs, and the MSM, is going through the worst crisis in recorded history, according to the marketing firm Edelman in 2018.

[..] On January 27, 2018, the Washington Post editorial board issued this statement: “A foreign power interfered in the 2016 presidential election. U.S. law enforcement is trying to get to the bottom of that story. Congress should be doing everything possible to make sure the investigation can take place.” Obviously referring to Russia, the Post’s declaration, as the late investigative journalist Robert Parry and many other independent and respected writers have pointed out, was and remains without a shred of evidence. It’s WMD time all over again, only this time the propaganda is being trumpeted mainly by the Democrats. It would better serve the cause of democracy to investigate the Post for its covert coalition and collusion with the deep state and the Clinton (right) wing of the Democratic Party. The Post and the rest of their pack have constructed a wicked Russia foil in order to undermine Moscow’s presumed ally Trump and boost bigger Pentagon budgets.

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Britain is not strong on history. Surprising that this comes from the WaPo.

• Winston Churchill, Mass Murderer (WaPo)

“History,” Winston Churchill said, “will be kind to me, for I intend to write it myself.” He needn’t have bothered. He was one of the great mass murderers of the 20th century, yet is the only one, unlike Hitler and Stalin, to have escaped historical odium in the West. He has been crowned with a Nobel Prize (for literature, no less), and now, an actor portraying him (Gary Oldman) has been awarded an Oscar. As Hollywood confirms, Churchill’s reputation (as what Harold Evans has called “the British Lionheart on the ramparts of civilization”) rests almost entirely on his stirring rhetoric and his talent for a fine phrase during World War II. “We shall not flag nor fail. We shall go on to the end. … We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets. … We shall never surrender.” (The revisionist British historian John Charmley dismissed this as “sublime nonsense.”)

Words, in the end, are all that Churchill admirers can point to. His actions are another matter altogether. During World War II, Churchill declared himself in favor of “terror bombing.” He wrote that he wanted “absolutely devastating, exterminating attacks by very heavy bombers.” Horrors such as the firebombing of Dresden were the result. In the fight for Irish independence, Churchill, in his capacity as secretary of state for war and air, was one of the few British officials in favor of bombing Irish protesters, suggesting in 1920 that airplanes should use “machine-gun fire or bombs” to scatter them. Dealing with unrest in Mesopotamia in 1921, as secretary of state for the colonies, Churchill acted as a war criminal: “I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against the uncivilised tribes; it would spread a lively terror.” He ordered large-scale bombing of Mesopotamia, with an entire village wiped out in 45 minutes.

In Afghanistan, Churchill declared that the Pashtuns “needed to recognise the superiority of [the British] race” and that “all who resist will be killed without quarter.” He wrote: “We proceeded systematically, village by village, and we destroyed the houses, filled up the wells, blew down the towers, cut down the great shady trees, burned the crops and broke the reservoirs in punitive devastation. … Every tribesman caught was speared or cut down at once.” In Kenya, Churchill either directed or was complicit in policies involving the forced relocation of local people from the fertile highlands to make way for white colonial settlers and the forcing of more than 150,000 people into concentration camps. Rape, castration, lit cigarettes on tender spots, and electric shocks were all used by the British authorities to torture Kenyans under Churchill’s rule.

But the principal victims of Winston Churchill were the Indians — “a beastly people with a beastly religion,” as he charmingly called them. He wanted to use chemical weapons in India but was shot down by his cabinet colleagues, whom he criticized for their “squeamishness,” declaring that “the objections of the India Office to the use of gas against natives are unreasonable.” [..] Thanks to Churchill, some 4 million Bengalis starved to death in a 1943 famine. Churchill ordered the diversion of food from starving Indian civilians to well-supplied British soldiers and even to top up European stockpiles in Greece and elsewhere. When reminded of the suffering of his Indian victims, his response was that the famine was their own fault, he said, for “breeding like rabbits.”

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Mar 102017
 
 March 10, 2017  Posted by at 9:47 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  1 Response »


Marjory Collins “Italian girls watching US Army parade on Mott Street, New York” 1942

 

• Janet Yellen Is Busy Preparing America For A New Economic Era (G.)
• Albert Edwards: Next Week The Fed Will Unleash “A Bond Market Bloodbath” (ZH)
• Bill Gross: Don’t Be Fooled By ‘Trump Mirage’ (Forbes)
• Why Do Politicians Continue To Push The Zombie Creed Of Austerity? (G.)
• New WikiLeaks Reveal Proof Of Slippery Slope Toward Totalitarianism (Kucinich)
• Assange Says Leaks Show CIA’s ‘Devastating Incompetence’ (AFP)
• China Concerned At Revelations In Wikileaks Dump Of Hacked CIA Data (R.)
• Truman Was Right About the CIA (Deist)
• Don’t Forget JFK’s Fight With The CIA (LR)
• China Rails Against US For Human Rights Violations (R.)
• China As A Superpower (Tavares)
• Germany’s ‘Powerhouse’ Economy Is Cracking (CNBC)
• 1/8th Of QE Money, Given To The Public, Would Have Had The Same Effect (MK)
• One in Three U.K. Homeowners Earn More From Property Than Work (BBG)
• Poland Reacts With Fury To Re-Election Of Donald Tusk (G.)
• 80% of Greek Households Struggle To Make Ends Meet (BBG)

 

 

“The old rule of thumb is that recessions come around every seven years..” But the old rule said nothing about QE. It talked about functioning markets, not what we see now.

• Janet Yellen Is Busy Preparing America For A New Economic Era (G.)

The head of the US central bank is busy preparing America, its new president, and indeed the world, for rising interest rates – and for a new economic era. The story of US interest rates this decade is simple to the point of tedium. The key fed funds rate has been dragging along just above zero ever since the banking crash. In December 2015, it was nudged up by a quarter of a%age point by Ms Yellen and her colleagues at the Federal Reserve. A whole year later, they nudged it up again, which means that seven years after the notional end of the US recession it stands at mere 0.75%. That is set to change. Over the past few weeks, rate setters at the Fed have dropped broader and broader hints that interest rates will go up as soon as next Wednesday – and will keep going up.

Last Friday was the turn of Ms Yellen. Speaking in Chicago, she said: “We currently judge that it will be appropriate to gradually increase the federal funds rate if the economic data continue to come in about as we expect.” That is about as straightforward as you get in central-bank speak. Nor is that likely to be the end of the rises: according to the Fed’s charts, committee members now forecast three interest-rate rises this year alone, and more in 2018. There are geopolitical reasons to hold off making too early a move. Next month, France’s presidential election, in which rightwing, anti-euro candidate Marine Le Pen is leading the polls, kicks off. Last year, the Fed held off in June before the Brexit vote. While the timing is still moot, there are few betting that rates won’t rise.

Considering this, three observations can be made. First, even while all this briefing has been going on, US asset markets have remained remarkably buoyant. That is very different from the nerves exhibited by investors in US Treasury bonds in 2013, when Ms Yellen’s predecessor, Ben Bernanke, dared to suggest he might turn off the tap marked “easy money”. Even with a much more volatile figure in the White House, financial markets seem far more confident on the prospects for the US. Second, by raising rates now the Fed is giving itself vital room for manoeuvre ahead of the next downturn. The old rule of thumb is that recessions come around every seven years – which would mean, going by the National Bureau of Economic Research, that the next bust is not far away.

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“All that is needed now is for the Fed to sprinkle life-giving rate hikes onto these, as yet dormant, seeds of destruction.”

• Albert Edwards: Next Week The Fed Will Unleash “A Bond Market Bloodbath” (ZH)

Make no mistake. Unlike most in the markets, I remain a secular bond bull and do not think this 35 year long bull bond market is over. I believe the US Fed has created another massive credit bubble that will, when it bursts, lay the global economy very low indeed. Combine this with the problems of a Chinese economy dependent on increasingly ineffective injections of credit to produce increasingly pedestrian GDP growth and you have a right global mess. The 2007/8 Global Financial Crisis will look like a soft-landing when the Fed blows this sucker sky high. The seeds for that debacle have already been sown with the Fed having presided over one of the biggest corporate credit bubbles in US history. All that is needed now is for the Fed to sprinkle life-giving rate hikes onto these, as yet dormant, seeds of destruction.

Accelerated Fed rate hikes will cause tremors in the Treasury bond markets, forcing rates up, most especially in the 2 year – just like 1994. But as yet another central bank-inspired global recession unfolds, I believe US 10y bond yields will ultimately converge with Japanese and European yields well below zero – in other words, buy 10y bonds on weakness! [..] For those few of us in the markets of a certain age, Orange County conjures up only one thing: 1994 goes down in infamy as one of the biggest ever bond market bloodbaths in history culminating at the end of the year with Orange County in California going bankrupt (younger clients in their late 20s will only know the OC as the mid-2000s teen programme based in Newport Beach, which I watched religiously with my then teenage son and daughter).

I remember the 1994 period as if it were yesterday (unlike yesterday itself). Despite the Fed telegraphing the series of rate hikes and market participants forecasting multiple hikes, it was most curious how the market went into total convulsion. I was chatting to my ‘similarly young’ colleague Kit Juckes about this and he reminded me that the whole yield curve gapped up some 50bp immediately! It was a bloodbath, especially for 2y paper.

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Remember Nicole talking about multiple claims to underlying real wealth: “Our highly levered financial system is like a truckload of nitro glycerin on a bumpy road,” Gross says. “One mistake can set off a credit implosion where holders of stocks, high yield bonds, and yes, subprime mortgages all rush to the bank to claim its one and only dollar in the vault.”

• Bill Gross: Don’t Be Fooled By ‘Trump Mirage’ (Forbes)

Bill Gross has never been one to mince words – and his March investment outlook is no anomaly in his oeuvre of outspoken manifestos. In his latest investor letter, out Thursday morning, Janus Capital’s billionaire bond guru warns against putting too much faith in the market exuberance inspired by President Trump and his agenda. “‘Don’t lose it’ is my first and most important conceptual lesson for [my kids] despite the Trump bull market and the current ‘animal spirits’ that encourage risk, as opposed to the preservation of capital,” Gross writes. (Though more a matter of coincidence, the reference to animal spirits is a canny turn of phrase: JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon said in an interview Thursday morning that business and consumer confidence has “skyrocketed” because Trump has “woken up the animal spirits.”)

Gross goes on: “Don’t be allured by the Trump mirage of 3-4% growth and the magical benefits of tax cuts and deregulation. The U.S. and indeed the global economy is walking a fine line due to increasing leverage and the potential for too high (or too low) interest rates to wreak havoc on an increasingly stressed financial system. Be more concerned about the return of your money than the return on your money in 2017 and beyond.” This not the first time Gross has gone after Trump: he levied criticism in November (“I write in amazed, almost amused bewilderment at what American voters have done to themselves,” he said at the time) and again in December (“investors must consider the negatives of Trump’s anti-globalization ideas”). But the rationale in his latest investor letter is different from his prior notes, centering less on Trump’s policies and more on the global credit situation.

The world economy, Gross says, currently holds more credit relative to GDP than it did at the beginning of the 2008 financial crisis. In the U.S., credit is 350% of annual GDP, “and the ratio is rising,” he says. In China, that ratio sits close to 300%. Gross acknowledges that capitalism depends on credit expansion, but says that credit creation has its limits, and interest rates must be carefully monitored so that borrowers can repay their debts. But if rates are too low, “the system breaks down,” because savers and pension funds can’t earn a high enough rate of return to service those debts. “Our highly levered financial system is like a truckload of nitro glycerin on a bumpy road,” Gross says. “One mistake can set off a credit implosion where holders of stocks, high yield bonds, and yes, subprime mortgages all rush to the bank to claim its one and only dollar in the vault.”

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“We are being schooled in an extraordinary cognitive dissonance..”

• Why Do Politicians Continue To Push The Zombie Creed Of Austerity? (G.)

The US cognitive linguist George Lakoff characterises politics as a clash between two opposing models of parenting. Rightwingers subscribe to the strict, responsible parent with a firm grip on the purse strings, while leftwingers prefer the nurturing, providing version. Everyone is currently in thrall to the strict-parent model. Politicians and supposedly impartial broadcasters are constantly noting that, of course, “times are tight”. The beneficent state is a luxury we can no longer afford. “We can’t go back to 1945,” government ministers intone wearily, as if explaining to a child, before blithely announcing a return to other mid-century relics – such as grammar schools. Despite being thoroughly discredited by economists, and despite Theresa May’s promised investment programme, the zombie creed of austerity staggers on.

On what basis, exactly, do we live in straitened times? Yes, there’s the cost and uncertainty of Brexit. But a year or two ago, it was something else – the fallout from the recession, or turbulence in the eurozone. This is opportunistic shock doctrine stuff, where any bungling failure or general sense of global adversity can lend partisan political choices the air of necessity. The annual ritual of the budget reanimates the pernicious myth that the economy is like a household budget. Since we have our own currency, we actually enjoy capacious fiscal elasticity. The “strict” parent is really a mean parent. The “fairer funding formula”, by which the government is proposing to take money from some schools to give to supposedly more deserving ones, is a pointless zero-sum game. Instead of making children fight over measly slivers of cake, why not just bake a bigger one?

There are extraordinary funds in private hands, if only we conceived of them as part of our common wealth. A report last week by property consultants Knight Frank predicted that the number of UK-based ultra-high-net-worth individuals (those with more than £24m in assets) will rise by 30% over the next decade. There is more than £10trn squirrelled away in the UK. The NHS costs £110bn a year; total government spending on education is £85bn a year. We are being schooled in an extraordinary cognitive dissonance, with luxury housing developments springing up in plain sight across the capital. If you question the basis on which we deem these evident riches untouchable, you are dismissed as hopelessly naive. There’s something doubly infantilising about this reaction: aren’t you aware that belts need to be tightened? And don’t you know the difference between public and private money?

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“We have crossed the threshold of a cowardly new world..”

• New WikiLeaks Reveal Proof Of Slippery Slope Toward Totalitarianism (Kucinich)

The U.S. government must get a grip on the massive opening that the CIA, through its misfeasance, nonfeasance and malfeasance, has created. If Tuesday’s WikiLeaks document dump is authentic, as it appears to be, then the agency left open electronic gateways that make all Americans vulnerable to spying, eavesdropping and technological manipulation that could bring genuine harm. That the CIA has reached into the lives of all Americans through its wholesale gathering of the nation’s “haystack” of information has already been reported. It is bad enough that the government spies on its own people. It is equally bad that the CIA, through its incompetence, has opened the cyberdoor to anyone with the technological skills and connections to spy on anyone else.

The constant erosion of privacy at the hands of the government and corporations has annihilated the concept of a “right to privacy,” which is embedded in the rationale of the First, Third, Fourth, Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. It is becoming increasingly clear that we are sliding down the slippery slope toward totalitarianism, where private lives do not exist. We have entered a condition of constitutional crisis that requires a full-throated response from the American people. I have repeatedly warned about the dangers of the Patriot Act and its successive iterations, the execrable national security letters that turn every FBI agent into a star chamberlain, the dangers of fear-based security policies eroding our republic. We have crossed the threshold of a cowardly new world, and it’s time we tell the government and the corporations who have intruded to stop it.

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The CIA should have shared its info with Apple et al, to make phones etc safe. It did not.

• Assange Says Leaks Show CIA’s ‘Devastating Incompetence’ (AFP)

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Thursday accused the CIA of “devastating incompetence” for failing to protect its hacking secrets and said he would work with tech companies to develop fixes for them. “This is a historic act of devastating incompetence, to have created such an arsenal and then stored it all in one place,” Assange said. “It is impossible to keep effective control of cyber weapons… If you build them, eventually you will lose them,” Assange said. Assange was speaking in a press conference streamed live from Ecuador’s embassy in London, where he has been living as a fugitive from justice since 2012. He said his anti-secrecy website had “a lot more information” about the Central Intelligence Agency’s hacking operation but would hold off on publishing it until WikiLeaks had spoken to tech manufacturers.

“We have decided to work with them to give them some exclusive access to the additional technical details we have so fixes can be developed and then pushed out. “Once this material is effectively disarmed by us we will publish additional details about what has been occurring,” he added. [..] WikiLeaks itself said the documents, hacking tools and code came from an archive that had circulated among US government hackers and private contractors. “The CIA has been so careless to produce this material. So do various cyber mafia already have it? Do foreign intelligence agencies already have it? It’s quite possible numerous people already might have it,” Assange said.

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is WikiLeaks going to share info with China tech as well?

• China Concerned At Revelations In Wikileaks Dump Of Hacked CIA Data (R.)

China expressed concern on Thursday over revelations in a trove of data released by Wikileaks purporting to show that the CIA can hack all manner of devices, including those made by Chinese companies. Dozens of firms rushed to contain the damage from possible security weak points following the anti-secrecy organization’s revelations, although some said they needed more details of what the U.S. intelligence agency was up to. Widely-used routers from Silicon Valley-based Cisco were listed as targets, as were those supplied by Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE and Taiwan supplier Zyxel for their devices used in China and Pakistan.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China expressed concern about the reports and reiterated its opposition to all forms of hacking. “We urge the U.S. side to stop listening in, monitoring, stealing secrets and internet hacking against China and other countries,” Geng told a daily news briefing. China is frequently accused by the United States and other countries of hacking attacks, which it always denies. The Chinese government has its own sophisticated domestic surveillance program and keeps tight control of the internet at home, saying such measures are needed to protect national security and maintain stability.

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“They spend billions of dollars on stirring up trouble so they’ll have something to report on.”

• Truman Was Right About the CIA (Deist)

Unfortunately it was only in hindsight that Truman came to see the “Iron Law of Oligarchy” at work, which posits that all organizations – particularly government bureaucracies – eventually fall under the control of an elite few. That elite, he came to understand, did not include the president or his cabinet:

Truman: I think [creation of the CIA] was a mistake. And if I’d know what was going to happen, I never would have done it. [..] But it got out of hand. The fella … the one that was in the White House after me never paid any attention to it, and it got out of hand. Why, they’ve got an organization over there in Virginia now that is practically the equal of the Pentagon in many ways. And I think I’ve told you, one Pentagon is one too many. Now, as nearly as I can make out, those fellows in the CIA don’t just report on wars and the like, they go out and make their own, and there’s nobody to keep track of what they’re up to. They spend billions of dollars on stirring up trouble so they’ll have something to report on. They’ve become … it’s become a government all of its own and all secret. They don’t have to account to anybody.

That’s a very dangerous thing in a democratic society, and it’s got to be put a stop to. The people have got a right to know what those birds are up to. And if I was back in the White House, people would know. You see, the way a free government works, there’s got to be a housecleaning every now and again, and I don’t care what branch of the government is involved. Somebody has to keep an eye on things. And when you can’t do any housecleaning because everything that goes on is a damn secret, why, then we’re on our way to something the Founding Fathers didn’t have in mind. Secrecy and a free, democratic government don’t mix. And if what happened at the Bay of Pigs doesn’t prove that, I don’t know what does. You have got to keep an eye on the military at all times, and it doesn’t matter whether it’s the birds in the Pentagon or the birds in the CIA.

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“..by the time he was assassinated, Kennedy was at full war against the U.S. national-security establishment. He was challenging all of their Cold War assumptions. He was proposing peaceful coexistence with what the CIA and the military had said was an implacable foe that was determined to take over America. And he was doing the unthinkable — making friends with the Soviet Union (i.e., Russia), Cuba, and the communist world.”

• Don’t Forget JFK’s Fight With The CIA (LR)

Kennedy came into office as a standard cold warrior. That is, like most Americans in the 1950s and 1960s, he had bought into the notion that had been inculcated into the American people since the end of World War II — that America’s wartime partner and ally, the Soviet Union (i.e., Russia), was coming to get us and subject the American people to communism. To combat what was billed as an international communist conspiracy based in Moscow, Americans were told, it would be necessary to adopt the same type of governmental structure that existed in Russia — a national-security apparatus grafted onto America’s original limited-government structure that had been established by the Constitution. That apparatus included a giant, permanent, and ever-growing military establishment, or what President Eisenhower would later call “the military-industrial complex.”

It also consisted of a secretive agency called the CIA, which would come to wield omnipotent powers within what continued to be billed as a “limited government.” Such powers would include assassination, regime-change operations, foreign coups, kidnapping, torture, rendition, involuntary medical experimentation (e.g., MKULTRA), spying and surveillance of Americans — the types of things that characterized the KGB and even the Hitler’s Gestapo. Kennedy believed in this apparatus. Even though it had been adopted without a constitutional amendment, he believed it was necessary to keep America free and safe from the Reds, who, it was said, were coming to get us. He experienced his first dose of reality a few months after being sworn into office, when the CIA presented its secret plan to invade Cuba and effect regime change there.

The plan called for using CIA-trained Cuban exiles to do the invading, with the U.S. government denying any role in the operation. Kennedy’s job, under the CIA plan, would be to lie about U.S. involvement in the invasion, thereby making him America’s liar-in-chief (and indirectly subjecting him to blackmail by the CIA). The CIA assured Kennedy that the invasion could succeed without U.S. air support, and JFK made it clear that no air support would be furnished. The CIA lied. In fact, they knew that there was no way that the operation could succeed without air support. But they figured that once the invasion got underway, Kennedy would have no effective choice but to change his mind and provide the needed air support. It was a classic CIA set up of a newly elected president.

When the invasion started to fail, the CIA urged the president to change his mind. He refused to do so, and the invasion force was easily defeated. The CIA considered Kennedy’s action to be a grave betrayal of America and the CIA’s Cuban “freedom fighters.” Kennedy publicly took responsibility for the debacle but privately he was outraged. He knew that the CIA had set him up, with the aim of maneuvering him into intervening with air support. He fired the much-revered and much-respected CIA Director Allen Dulles (who, in a classic conflict of interest, would later be appointed to the Warren Commission). Reflecting his disdain for the CIA, Kennedy promised to “splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds.”

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Yes, it’s come to this. That door is now wide open.

• China Rails Against US For Human Rights Violations (R.)

China lashed out at the United States for its “terrible human rights problems” in a report on Thursday, adding to recent international criticism of Washington on issues ranging from violence inflicted on minorities to U.S. immigration policies. The U.S. State Department’s annual report on rights in nearly 200 countries last week accused China of torture, executions without due process, repression of political rights and persecution of ethnic minorities, among other issues. In an annual Chinese response to the U.S. report, China’s State Council, or cabinet, said the United States suffered from rampant gun violence and high levels of incarceration. U.S. airstrikes in Iraq and Syria had caused thousands of civilian deaths, according to the report, which was carried by the state-run Xinhua news agency.

“With the gunshots lingering in people’s ears behind the Statue of Liberty, worsening racial discrimination and the election farce dominated by money politics, the self-proclaimed human rights defender has exposed its human rights ‘myth’ with its own deeds,” the State Council said. “The United States repeatedly trampled on human rights in other countries and wilfully slaughtered innocent victims,” it said, referring to deaths in U.S. drone strikes. On Wednesday, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, said U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments about migrants, Mexicans and Muslims were “harmful and fuel xenophobic abuses” and that his immigration policies could lead to breaches of international law. Trump’s derogatory campaign rhetoric against Muslims and Mexican immigrants won enthusiastic backing from prominent white supremacists who embrace anti-Jewish, anti-black and anti-Muslim ideologies, though the president has disavowed their support.

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“President Xi Jinping offers some hints. He has discussed the prospects for “democratizing” the international system..”

• China As A Superpower (Tavares)

One way to gauge China’s longer term intentions is to assess what Chinese leaders are saying today. President Xi Jinping has articulated a vision for China over the next few decades. This vision has been termed the “Chinese Dream” or the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.” These slogans capture goals, milestones, and timelines. In terms of timeframe, the Chinese refer to the “two one hundreds”: i) the centenary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party in 2021; and ii) the centenary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 2049. By 2021 China hopes to become what the Chinese call a “moderately well-off society.” By mid-century China hopes to be on par with other developed countries.

Most measures for tracking China’s progress are socio-economic in nature: disposable income, socioeconomic equality, access to higher education, access to healthcare and so forth. To achieve these objectives, China still hews to the basic principle laid out by paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, namely, peace and development. The concept of peace and development derives from the notion that China needs a peaceful external environment to develop economically. But there are also external components to China’s long term goals, particularly China’s relations with the rest of the world. President Xi Jinping offers some hints. He has discussed the prospects for “democratizing” the international system. This is code for a transition from a unipolar world dominated by the United States to a multipolar world.

As China rises, China envisions the emergence of a new global configuration in which China is a great power among other coequal great powers, including the European Union, India, and Russia, in the international system. This aligns with the “rise of the rest” hypothesis. As China gets very strong, it would also seek to amend the rules that have governed the current international order in ways that accommodates China’s interests as a great power. China’s rise thus raises a series of important questions about the implications for Asia. What does China want in East Asia as it rises? Would China seek to become the dominant power in East Asia? Would it seek a dramatically reduced role for the United States? More troubling, would China seek a Sino-centric regional order in which many of its neighbors, including Japan, must acquiesce to its strategic prerogatives?

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“..German industrial new orders dropping by 7.4% on the month in January – the biggest monthly fall since 2009 [..] January figures showed a drop of 10.5% in domestic demand and a contraction of 4.9% in foreign orders.”

• Germany’s ‘Powerhouse’ Economy Is Cracking (CNBC)

Germany is often described as the “powerhouse” of Europe, but the health of the world’s fourth largest economy is not as rosy as most people think, according to one economist. “The crack in Germany’s economy has become most evident in consumer spending. Retail sales volumes have slowed consistently since growth rates peaked in mid-2015. They have crashed in the last six monthly reports,” Carl Weinberg, chief economist at High Frequency Economics, said in a note earlier this week. Hard data shows that Germany’s economy has been facing problems for at least the past six months, despite an uptick in growth at the end of last year. At the same time, income has been slowing dramatically and the reasons behind this are far from clear.

“As domestic demand is imploding, so is foreign demand,” Weinberg added. “Exports are flat year-on-year. This is not to say that net exports are not rising. However, the flat gross exports mean industrial output to make goods for export is not growing.” “Without growth of either exports or domestic consumer spending, industrial production has stalled,” Weinberg said. On Tuesday, data showed German industrial new orders dropping by 7.4% on the month in January – the biggest monthly fall since 2009. According to Reuters, a breakdown of the January figures showed a drop of 10.5% in domestic demand and a contraction of 4.9% in foreign orders.

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Second part of the show. Last week, Steve ‘submittied evidence’ on QE to a Treasury Committee in the UK.

“If these conventional theories of economics actually worked, you and I wouldn’t have an audience.”

• 1/8th Of QE Money, Given To The Public, Would Have Had The Same Effect (MK)

In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max and Stacy discuss why neoliberalism didn’t make us richer. In the second half, Max interviews professor Steve Keen about Quantitative easing (QE) and its role in financial crisis.

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But they will tell you this is normal.

• One in Three U.K. Homeowners Earn More From Property Than Work (BBG)

Home prices in 31% of the U.K.’s local authority districts have risen more than the total average take-home pay of workers in the area over the past two years, according to Halifax. While homeowners would have to sell their houses to realize those gains, it illustrates how quickly prices have risen, as well as how hard it is for new buyers to get on the property ladder. Rising house prices have helped underpin consumption, the backbone of Britain’s economy, even as wage increases have been more modest. Still, the distribution of gains highlight regional disparities. More than 90% of the areas were in London, the South and East of England, the report published Friday said.

The biggest gap was in Haringey, a borough in the north of the capital city, where house prices increased by an average of 139,803 pounds ($169,805), exceeding average take-home earnings by 91,450 pounds or 3,810 pounds per month. “While it’s no longer unusual for houses to ‘earn’ more than the people living in them in some places, there are clearly local impacts,” said economist Martin Ellis. “Homeowners in these areas can build up large levels of equity quickly, but for potential buyers whose wages have failed to keep pace, the cost of buying a home has become more unaffordable.” The only areas where earnings exceeded house price increases were the North East, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

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The peak AND the bottom of EU democracy. Tusk is in Brussels to represent Poland. But Poland doesn’t want him to do that. The EU doesn’t care.

• Poland Reacts With Fury To Re-Election Of Donald Tusk (G.)

Donald Tusk has won a second term as European council president, overcoming bitter opposition from Poland that has left the country isolated in Europe. Tusk, a former Polish prime minister, was re-elected on Thursday with overwhelming support to lead the council, the body that organises EU leaders’ meetings, for a second term lasting two and a half years. His reappointment until the end of 2019 means he will play a crucial role in Britain’s negotiations to leave the EU. The Pole, from the pro-European centre-right Civic Platform party, overcame strong resistance from his own government, led by the Eurosceptic Law and Justice party (PiS). The outcome was never in doubt, but is a blow for the Warsaw government, which responded with fury. “We know now that it [the EU] is a union under Berlin’s diktat,” the Polish foreign minister, Witold Waszczykowski, told Polish media, echoing persistent claims by PiS that the EU is controlled by Berlin.

Despite its anger, however, Poland was left isolated as other countries including traditional central European allies lined up to back Tusk, a popular choice to guide the EU through difficult Brexit talks and tense debates on migration. News of his re-election was broken by Belgium’s prime minister, Charles Michel, who tweeted his congratulations less than two hours after the meeting had started. In a rare formal vote, 27 of the EU’s 28 governments supported Tusk. The Polish prime minister, Beata Szydlo, confirmed that Poland would retaliate by blocking the EU summit communique, a statement summarising EU policy on economic growth, migration and the western Balkans. But the document can still be approved in a different procedure, a manoeuvre likely to deepen the wedge between Warsaw and other EU capitals.

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For some reason the text with the graph is about the UK, though that’s obviously not where the problem is.

• 80% of Greek Households Struggle To Make Ends Meet (BBG)

Around one in six U.K. households had “great difficulty” or “difficulty” in making ends meet in 2015, according to Eurostat. While that’s below the estimated average of 26% across the European Union, it’s more than triple the proportion of struggling Swedes and about double the%age in Germany. With inflation forecast to accelerate this year and grocers such as Wm Morrison Supermarkets Plc warning price increases will soon hit, British consumers look set to face a further squeeze on living standards this year.

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Feb 012017
 
 February 1, 2017  Posted by at 10:37 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  2 Responses »


William Henry Jackson North from Brink Wood, Pen Mar Park, Maryland 1906

• Trump Trade Chief Navarro Accuses Germany Of Abusing Euro For Own Gain (Tel.)
• ECB Has An Inflation Problem … Called Germany (Pol.)
• Japan Rejects Trump Accusation Of Devaluing Yen In Currency War (G.)
• EU Chair Tusk Labels Trump A ‘Threat’ As Europeans Debate US Ties (R.)
• Donald Trump Has a Goldman Sachs Problem: Derivatives (Martens)
• Theresa May to Trigger Brexit on March 9 (DM)
• UK MPs Set For Vote On Triggering Brexit Talks With EU (BBC)
• UK Faces Return To Inequality Of Thatcher Years (G.)
• Trump Wants Assad to Stay in Power (AHT)
• Germany Sends Tanks To Lithuania For NATO Mission (R.)
• We Need The State Now More Than Ever. But Our Belief In It Has Gone (G.)
• The UK and Greece after Brexit (Kate Smith)

 

 

“The German structural imbalance in trade with the rest of the EU and the US underscores the economic heterogeneity within the EU — ergo, this is a multilateral deal in bilateral dress.”

• Trump Trade Chief Navarro Accuses Germany Of Abusing Euro For Own Gain (Tel.)

Sterling completed its best January against the dollar in six years after Donald Trump and a key adviser renewed an attack on countries that “exploit” their weak currencies. The value of the pound climbed as high as $1.2593 against the dollar after the US president heavily criticised China and Japan for “play[ing] the money market”. His comments followed a meeting with pharmaceutical executives in which he pledged to bring back drug manufacturing to the US. The rise in sterling’s value on Tuesday rounded off its best January performance against the dollar since 2011 and its first positive start to the year in half a decade. It came as Mr Trump’s trade chief put the US on a collision course with Germany after he accused Berlin of using a “grossly undervalued” euro to “exploit” the US and the rest of the EU.

Peter Navarro, who heads the US president’s new National Trade Council, described the single currency as an “implicit Deutsche Mark” that gave Germany a competitive advantage over its trade partners. The economics professor also said Germany was the main obstacle to a trade deal between the US and European bloc as he dismissed a revival of TTIP talks. “A big obstacle to viewing TTIP as a bilateral deal is Germany, which continues to exploit other countries in the EU as well as the US with an ‘implicit Deutsche Mark’ that is grossly undervalued,” Mr Navarro said. “The German structural imbalance in trade with the rest of the EU and the US underscores the economic heterogeneity within the EU — ergo, this is a multilateral deal in bilateral dress.”

Mr Trump has highlighted a preference for “one-on-one” trade deals. He pulled the US out of the TPP with 11 Pacific Rim nations on his first full day in office. Mr Navarro told the Financial Times the UK’s decision to leave the EU had “killed” a similar trade deal between the US and Europe. Mr Trump has signalled that the US will engage in trade talks with the UK. Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor, said the country had no influence over the euro exchange rate. “I neither want to nor can I do something to change the situation,” she told reporters in Stockholm. Mario Draghi, the ECB’s president, has warned that the country’s persistent current account surplus has contributed to imbalances and hindered growth in the eurozone. Analysis by the OECD suggests the euro is trading below its “fair value”. Data published by the think-tank shows the the euro is the most undervalued currency among the dollar’s major peers.

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To repeat for a 1000th time: inflation numbers are meaningless unless money velocity is considered. And velocity is certainly not rising in southern Europe. That in turn would mean if it is rising in Germany – something I haven’t seen any proof of but let’s say it is -, what we see here is a huge threat to the eurozone. Because what is good for Germany is not good for others, and the others will have had enough of it.

• ECB Has An Inflation Problem … Called Germany (Pol.)

The eurozone has reached its inflation target for the first time in four years, but ECB chief Mario Draghi has no time to rest on his laurels: He must now brace for renewed attacks on his easy-money policy in Germany. Overall inflation for the 19 countries that use the euro in January came in at a preliminary 1.8% – within a whisper of the ECB’s official target of “below, but close to, 2%,” but core inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy prices, was unchanged from December at 0.9%, making any immediate change in policy unlikely. However, with German elections looming this September, and top-selling tabloid Bild featuring a “horror curve” showing that despite the spike in inflation –which was even higher in Germany, at 1.9% in January – savers are still earning nothing thanks to the policy of negative rates to spur spending elsewhere in the eurozone, Draghi’s problems are more political than economic.

“Someone has to put a stop to Draghi,” said Jörg Meuthen from the far-right, Euroskeptic Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has high hopes of entering the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) for the first time in September. The party is keen to play on the collective German memory of hyperinflation in the first decades of the 20th century. Other inflation hawks, including mainstream figure like Bavarian Finance Minister Markus Söder, are frustrated with Draghi’s insistence that he cannot tailor monetary policy for the eurozone to the needs of the Germany economy, which is growing much more robustly than neighboring countries who still need the ECB’s support.

With Euroskeptic populists challenging the established order in elections this year in Germany, France and the Netherlands, the ECB will come under increasing pressure to explain why it is doing what it’s doing, said Anatoli Annenkov, economist at Société Générale. While he assumes a slow recovery in core inflation, “we had years and years of downside surprises and now that it is going up, we might also see upside surprises,” he said. Beyond Brexit and fears of protectionist policies from the new U.S. administration, the ECB is bracing for internal pressure from the largest economy in the eurozone. In his most recent press conference, Draghi attempted to project unity among the ECB’s governing council in support of the €2.3 trillion bond-buying program designed to stimulate the eurozone economy.

But that façade crumbled just days later when German executive board member Sabine Lautenschläger suggested it might be time to bring the policy to an end. “All preconditions for a stable rise in inflation exist. I am thus optimistic that we can soon turn to the question of an exit,” she said in a speech last week. Her former boss, Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann, has also signaled that the ECB should let economic data — rather than its previous commitment to keeping quantitative easing running until the end of 2017 — dictate its policy in the coming months.

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Really? Japan would try and deny this?

• Japan Rejects Trump Accusation Of Devaluing Yen In Currency War (G.)

Japan has rejected Donald Trump’s claims that Tokyo was deliberately weakening the yen to gain an unfair trade advantage over the US. Trump told a meeting of pharmaceutical companies on Tuesday that Japan, along with China and Germany, were guilty of “global freeloading” for using regulation and currency devaluation in their trade dealings with the US. The president’s trade adviser, Peter Navarro, also accused Germany of using a “grossly undervalued” euro to gain an unfair advantage over the US and other EU countries. In unusually frank comments, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yoshihide Suga, said Trump’s criticism “completely misses the mark”. Suga added that the Bank of Japan’s pursuit of monetary easing was intended to boost inflation, not weaken the yen against the dollar.

Japan’s policy was in line with G7 and G20 agreements, he said, adding that Tokyo would continue to respond to “one-sided” currency moves by other countries. Vowing to end the emasculation of US trade, Trump’s said: “You look at what China’s doing, you look at what Japan has done over the years. … they play the money market, they play the devaluation market and we sit there like a bunch of dummies.” According to a transcript of Tuesday’s meeting, Trump said other countries “live on devaluation”. Trump’s outburst, which suggests he could backtrack on his wish to see higher US interest rates, came at the end of the worst January for the dollar for three decades. But that follows a huge rise in the dollar on the back of his election win in November when promises of a huge stimulus for the US economy sent the greenback to 14-year highs.

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Said many times before: Tusk got his job solely because of his Putin-bashing as PM of Poland.

• EU Chair Tusk Labels Trump A ‘Threat’ As Europeans Debate US Ties (R.)

Donald Trump has joined Russia, China and radical Islam as a threat to the European Union, EU leaders were told on Tuesday by the man chairing a summit where they will debate relations with the United States. European Council President Donald Tusk, a conservative former premier of Poland, wrote to EU national leaders to lay out themes for discussion when they meet in Malta on Friday to discuss the future of their Union as Britain prepares to leave. In vivid language that reflects deep concern in Europe at the new U.S. president’s support for Brexit, as well as his ban on refugees and people from several Muslim countries, Tusk called on Europeans to rally against eurosceptic nationalists at home and take “spectacular steps” to deepen the continent’s integration.

Saying the EU faced the biggest challenges of its 60-year history, Tusk named an “assertive China”, “Russia’s aggressive policy” toward its neighbors and “radical Islam” fuelling anarchy in the Middle East and Africa as key external threats. These, “as well as worrying declarations by the new American administration, all make our future highly unpredictable,” he said. Laying out issues leaders may address in a 60th anniversary declaration at Rome in March, Tusk said the EU unity built after World War Two and the Cold War was needed “to avoid another historic catastrophe”. He also said Americans should not weaken Transatlantic ties fundamental to “global order and peace”.

“The disintegration of the EU will not lead to the restoration of some mythical, full sovereignty of its member states, but to their real and factual dependence on the great superpowers: the United States, Russia and China,” Tusk wrote to the EU leaders. “Only together can we be fully independent.” Senior officials discussed a possible EU response to Trump at a meeting in Brussels on Monday where some governments stressed that Europeans should not be hasty to alienate a key ally, diplomats said. “We don’t want to get fired,” one senior EU diplomat said in reference to Trump’s reality TV catchphrase. Another said that because the full U.S. administration was not yet in place, Europeans should be cautious: “No government in Europe can respond in a coherent manner to this series of orders and tweets,” the diplomat said.

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“Goldman Sachs has a unique vested interest in repealing chunks of Dodd-Frank while making sure that the Glass-Steagall Act is not reinstated.”

• Donald Trump Has a Goldman Sachs Problem: Derivatives (Martens)

Following a plunge of over 200 points in the Dow Jones Industrial Average yesterday, Trump pivoted to something he thought would please his financial backers on Wall Street. He called the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation passed in 2010 by the Obama administration a “disaster” and promised to “do a big number” on it soon. The Dow closed down 122 points — now wary of Trump’s fire-ready-aim leadership on complex matters. The legitimate fear across Wall Street right now is that Trump’s zero-vetting approach to rule-by-Executive-Order could leave Wall Street in the same chaotic state as the airports experienced from his ham-fisted approach to immigration. But it’s not just Trump that Wall Street needs to fear: it’s Goldman Sachs as well. Trump has stuffed his administration with so many Goldman Sachs progeny that his administration is now regularly referred to as Government Sachs.

Goldman Sachs has a unique vested interest in repealing chunks of Dodd-Frank while making sure that the Glass-Steagall Act is not reinstated. That’s because when it comes to derivatives, Goldman Sachs is keeping a lot of secrets. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) is the regulator of national banks. Each quarter it publishes a report on the derivative holdings of the biggest Wall Street banks and their holding companies. Its most recent report shows that as of September 30, 2016 Goldman Sachs Bank USA (a taxpayer-backstopped, FDIC insured bank where it holds its derivatives) had “credit exposure to risk-based capital” of 433%. That figure was more than double that of JPMorgan Chase (216%) and six times that of Bank of America (68%).

There’s another big problem with Goldman Sachs: it has a miniscule asset base compared to the big guns on Wall Street but it’s attempting to play in the big leagues in terms of derivatives. As the chart above shows, Goldman Sachs is the third largest holder of derivatives on Wall Street with $45.48 trillion in notionals (face amount). (As of 2015, the entire GDP of the United States was only $18 trillion.) But Goldman only has $880 billion in assets. That ratio compares to JPMorgan Chase with $2.5 trillion in assets and $50.6 trillion in derivatives and Citigroup with $1.8 trillion in assets and $51.78 trillion in derivatives. The amount of these derivatives is insane on all levels but, clearly, Goldman stands out starkly in its ratios.

There’s another highly disturbing aspect of Goldman’s derivatives. Dodd-Frank legislation mandated that derivatives at the big Wall Street banks move into the sunshine by moving out of over-the-counter contracts whose details are known only to the buyer and seller and onto some type of centrally cleared platform. Dodd-Frank was signed into law on July 21, 2010. It’s almost six years later and yet the OCC’s report of September 30, 2016 shows that of the total derivatives held by Goldman Sachs only 24% are centrally cleared versus 76% at Goldman that remain over-the-counter. Again, that’s a far higher %age of over-the-counter contracts than at its peer banks on Wall Street.

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5 weeks.

• Theresa May to Trigger Brexit on March 9 (DM)

Theresa May has set a target date of launching the formal Brexit process on March 9. The Government is aiming to push through its EU Bill through Parliament by March 7, which would allow the Prime Minister to trigger Article 50 at a summit of European leaders on March 9 and 10. MPs will start debating the crucial Brexit legislation today and fiery clashes are expected in the commons chamber as the SNP, Lib Dems and dozens of Labour MPs say they will defy June’s vote to leave the EU and vote against triggering Article 50. Ministers told the House of Lords yesterday that it hopes to have the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill approved by March 7. The following day – March 8 – is the Budget, before Mrs May travels to Brussels for the long-awaited Brexit showdown with her EU counterparts.

The PM has promised to trigger Article 50, the formal mechanism for quitting the EU, by the end of March. But she does not want to get off on the wrong foot with EU leaders by clashing with the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, which effectively gave birth to the EU. She could tell her European counterparts of her timetable at a meeting in Malta on Friday. The timetable could be knocked off course if the Lords initiate what is known as parliamentary ‘ping-pong’ by sending the bill back to the Commons with a series of amendments. And in a sign of the trouble ahead for Mrs May, a senior Tory told the Independent: ‘What we are seeing now is a huge raft of amendments being tabled. ‘There are cross party talks going on about this. It’s not going to be plain sailing for the Prime Minster.’

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How much chaos is Britain capable of?

• UK MPs Set For Vote On Triggering Brexit Talks With EU (BBC)

MPs are to vote later on whether to give Theresa May the power to get Brexit negotiations under way. The government is expected to win, with most Conservative and Labour MPs set to back its European Union Bill. But Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn faces a rebellion by some on his side, while the SNP and Liberal Democrats are also promising to oppose ministers. The vote, which will follow two days of parliamentary debate, is expected at about 19:00 GMT. On Monday, politicians made impassioned speeches for and against the bill, which, if passed, will allow Mrs May to trigger Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty by her own deadline of 31 March. This would get formal Brexit negotiations with the EU started, with the UK expected to leave the 28-member group in 2019.

Brexit Secretary David Davis said MPs had to implement a decision made by the people in last June’s referendum, which the Leave campaign won by 51.9% to 48.1%. Doing otherwise would be viewed “dimly”, he warned. Mr Corbyn has imposed a three-line whip – the strongest possible sanction – on his MPs to back the bill, which is only two lines long. Shadow Brexit secretary Sir Keir Starmer called the vote a “difficult decision” for Labour – most of whose MPs supported Remain in the referendum – but it had to “accept the result”. Two shadow ministers have quit Labour’s front bench in order to oppose the bill, while MPs Stephen Timms and Lyn Brown told the Commons they would also vote against it. A government source said up to 30 Labour MPs were expected to defy Mr Corbyn.

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Cameron and Osborne worked on this for years.

• UK Faces Return To Inequality Of Thatcher Years (G.)

Pressure on the government to help struggling Britons has intensified after a leading thinktank warned that falling living standards for the poor threatened the biggest rise in inequality since Margaret Thatcher was prime minister. The Resolution Foundation said Theresa May would need to make good on her pledge to support “just about managing” households as it released a report showing that rising inflation and an end to recent strong jobs growth would hit the least well-off hardest. Its warnings chime with other forecasts for a squeeze on family budgets on the back of sluggish wage growth, welfare cuts, rising global oil prices and the pound’s sharp fall since the Brexit vote. The drop in sterling has made imports more expensive and there are already signs that is being passed on to consumers, with inflation hitting its highest level for more than two years in December.

The Resolution Foundation’s study found that the current parliament would be the worst for living standards for the poorest half of households since comparable records began in the mid-1960s and the worst since the early years of Thatcher’s 1979-90 premiership for inequality. Since its sharp increase in the early 1980s – a period of high unemployment, factory closures and a cut in the top rate of tax from 83% to 60% – inequality has broadly remained flat. But the Resolution Foundation forecast that between 2015 and the next general election in 2020 incomes for the poorest half of households will fall by 2%. That compares with a rise of 4% during the last parliament and 1% between 2005 and 2010 – the five-year period that included the deepest recession since the 1930s.

Torsten Bell, director of the Resolution Foundation, said: “Britain has enjoyed a welcome mini-boom in living standards in recent years. But that boom is slowing rapidly as inflation rises, productivity flatlines and employment growth slows. “The squeeze in the wake of the financial crisis tended to hit richer households the most. But this time around it’s low- and middle-income families with kids who are set to be worst affected. “This could leave Britain with the worst of both worlds on living standards – the weak income growth of the last parliament and rising inequality from the time Margaret Thatcher was in Downing Street.

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Curious piece, sources ‘a tad‘ shaky, but it could still well be right.

• Trump Wants Assad to Stay in Power (AHT)

A Syrian diplomatic source underlined that the visit by 130 US figures, including three former secretaries and congresspersons, is a “good omen” in the relations between Damascus and Washington. According to the source, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard who had last week said that she met with Syrian President Bashar Assad during a recent trip to the war-torn country, stressed during the meeting that “affairs are going on in a way that an unprecedented opening is seen in the relations between the two sides in different fields”. Referring to three existing scenarios on Syria, she said that the first option is continued war which doesn’t benefit any sides and the US administration will likely oppose it; the second option is the victory of dissidents which is opposed by Trump and he even dismisses interactions with them.

The third option is Assad’s continued ruling over Syria as the best person to manage the country provided that certain considerations will receive attention in the formation of the government, the Syrian source said. According to the source, Gabbard has indirectly spoken about a US plan to pave the ground for Trump’s showoff by annihilation of the ISIS in Raqqa like what was done by former US President Barack Obama. “Raqqa city is a political card important for the world since it is considered as the ISIS’s first base; meantime, ending the war is Raqqa militarily is easy since there are no tunnels and tall buildings in there which facilitates any military measure to annihilate terrorism,” the Syrian diplomatic source said. Back from a weeklong trip to Syria [she] defended her meeting with the war-torn country’s president, saying there’s no possibility of a viable peace agreement unless Bashar Assad is part of the conversation.

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii said she originally had no intention of sitting down with Assad, according to a statement issued by her office detailing her travels. But she changed her mind when the opportunity arose. “I think we should be ready to meet with anyone if there’s a chance it can help bring about an end to this war, which is causing the Syrian people so much suffering,” Gabbard said. Gabbard said that the U.S. has “waged wars of regime change” in Iraq, Libya and Syria. Yet each has resulted “in unimaginable suffering, devastating loss of life, and the strengthening of groups like al-Qaeda” and the Islamic State group, she said. “My visit to Syria has made it abundantly clear,” Gabbard said. “Our counterproductive regime change war does not serve America’s interest, and it certainly isn’t in the interest of the Syrian people.”

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Germany moving soldiers and equipment through Europe is scary enough. The purpose makes it worse.

• Germany Sends Tanks To Lithuania For NATO Mission (R.)

Germany began sending tanks and other equipment to Lithuania on Tuesday as part of a NATO mission to beef up the defense of eastern Europe and send a signal of resolve to Russia, which has denounced the build-up as an act of aggression. The German army command said it was sending about 200 vehicles, including 30 tanks, by train to Lithuania along with 450 troops, the first of whom arrived last week. The transports would continue until late February. Seven decades after the end of World War Two, the movement of German troops to eastern Europe, even on a NATO mission, remains a sensitive issue both in Germany and the region. On Monday the U.S. military deployed thousands of soldiers and heavy weaponry to Poland, the Baltic states and southeastern Europe in its biggest build-up since the Cold War.

The movements are part of a strategy agreed by NATO leaders last July to reassure member states that were once part of the Soviet bloc and have been alarmed by Russia’s seizure of the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014. The 28-nation Western alliance decided to move four battalions totaling 3,000 to 4,000 troops into northeastern Europe on a rotating basis to display its readiness to defend eastern members against any Russian aggression. The deployments focus on Poland and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which fear Moscow could try to destabilize them by cyber attacks, territorial incursions or other means. Russia denies such intentions and has described NATO’s behavior as aggressive and threatening.

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Good luck with that. A state may be beneficial, but not the ones we see around us.

“Ronald Reagan claimed the nine most terrifying in the English language were: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” He said it was a joke; it turned out to be a prophecy.”

• We Need The State Now More Than Ever. But Our Belief In It Has Gone (G.)

We’re often told that the state and the market have entirely different roles. But meet any number of the people paying the price for Britain’s crash, and you’ll see that they play almost identical parts using similar language and similar bureaucracy. And far from protecting low-paid workers from the depredations of the market, the state wants to hurl more people into it under the pretence that they are shirkers. None of this fits with how social democrats view the state. Having attended my fair share of Labour and other leftwing political meetings, I know that a staple feature is that some grey-haired man in a jumper will leap up towards the end and launch into a good-hearted defence of the state. Public investment, social security, industrial strategy: all will circle back to the state; all will be met with murmurs of approval. And all are a million miles away from the experiences I regularly hear while reporting.

[..] At the end of 2015, a team of academics held a series of two-day discussions with small groups of members of the public across Europe. They were asked only one big question: what should the government do for your children’s generation? Of all the countries, the British were easily the most pessimistic about what could be done – behind even Slovenia. The British liked the NHS and pensions, but thought both would be gone in a generation. They didn’t talk about the good things that could be done by government. Trade unions came up just once in the entire two days. “I found it quite shocking,” recalls Peter Taylor-Gooby, of the University of Kent. “Of all the groups we interviewed, the British had this mood of resigned, reluctant individualism.”

Thirty years ago, Ronald Reagan claimed the nine most terrifying in the English language were: “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” He said it was a joke; it turned out to be a prophecy. Three decades of both right and left privatising, outsourcing and deregulating have shrunk the public imagination about what their representatives in government can achieve. Put that alongside the shattering of the working class, the smashing of trade unions, and the diminishment of so many other social institutions. The need for the state and collective action hasn’t diminished, but the public belief in it has gone. The state is now either invisible or hostile. This has happened without the pundits and politicians noticing, but its consequences could shape politics for decades.

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Editorial in Kathemerini bytThe new British ambassador in Athens, who wastes not one word on what has happened to Greece courtesy of the EU. Not one word! No compassion for the people of Greece, no understanding, not consolation, no hope. Not one word on what Britain intends to do to help Greece. No, the UK wants Greek help. She either doesn’t know what’s going on, or she chooses to blindly ignore it. In both cases, she should not be where she is. She talks about Britain only, as if Britain is the main victim here. Me, me, me. Well, f**king stay home then. Athens now has this dimwit and Victoria Nuland lackey Geoffrey Platt as US ambassador.

• The UK and Greece after Brexit (Kate Smith)

As the new British ambassador in Athens, I begin my mission in Greece at a challenging time. I’ve been struck by the anxiety and even sadness expressed by many Greeks about Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union. Much of that is based in uncertainty about what this means for the future of Europe, and for the relationship between the United Kingdom and Greece. That’s understandable. And that was why Prime Minister Theresa May’s speech last week sought to provide as much clarity as possible for our partners about what the United Kingdom is seeking from the forthcoming negotiations and beyond. Above all, we intend to remain the best friend and neighbor possible to our European partners. We are not seeking to undermine the European Union. Indeed it is in the best interests of the UK that the EU should succeed.

A prosperous, stable Greece is a critical element in that, and I believe Greece has a strong interest in the specific outcomes to which the prime minister committed the UK government to pursue on 23 January. First – the prime minister said repeatedly in her speech that our cooperation with all European partners on defense, security and foreign policy, including intelligence sharing, will continue. The security of our citizens is not negotiable. With Greece, that means the highly valued collaboration we have with partners in the Greek armed forces, police, coast guard and customs on migration, counterterrorism, and organized crime will remain a priority. Second, our aim of a bold and ambitious free-trade agreement, which gives British and European companies the maximum freedom to trade across our markets, can only be of benefit to Greece.

The United Kingdom is the second biggest export market for Greece’s pharmaceutical products, and third largest for agricultural products; while the freedom for the British financial and professional services to continue to trade across borders will benefit both the City of London and the Greek shipping sector, one of its most important customers. Third: There is much concern about the status of EU nationals in the UK after Brexit. Britain values very highly the contribution of Greeks who live and work and study in the UK – for example the hugely talented Greek clinical staff in, for example, the National Health Service – as well as the 10,000 Greek students in our universities. The rights and benefits of current students, and those starting in academic year 17/18, are secure to the end of their courses. And we want to guarantee the rights of all EU citizens already living in Britain, as well as the rights of British nationals in other member-states, as early as we can. Greece’s support on this would be very welcome.

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