Pablo Picasso Tête de femme 1926
Bloodbath
NEW – Fact Checking the Top Lies Told by President Biden During DNC Address in Under 5 Minutes 🧵 |
1. "Bloodbath" Hoax
Amidst his address, Biden doubled down on the bloodbath hoax, claiming that President Trump promised to ignite a 'bloodbath' in the country if he loses the… pic.twitter.com/QctnHZf4Yx
— Overton (@overton_news) August 20, 2024
NEW: President Biden has arguably one of his worst speeches to date, lies and slurs his way through the entire speech.
Recap:
1. Biden says women are without electrical [power?]
2. Biden says border crossings are down under his administration compared to Trump (??)
3. Biden… pic.twitter.com/WPlE1Do3yU
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 20, 2024
Dore Chicago
Since Biden was kicked out the media's tried to convince us everyone loves Kamala. Yet as @jimmy_dore shows, she's "so popular" they needed to lockdown Chicago to prevent mass protests against her.
This is eerily reminiscent of a Communist dystopia where we're told at gunpoint… pic.twitter.com/ZbR8kA1jfo
— A Midwestern Doctor (@MidwesternDoc) August 20, 2024
Medhurst
I was arrested at Heathrow Airport under the Terrorism Act, Sec 12 because of my reporting.
6 police officers were waiting for me at the entrance of the aircraft.
I was held for almost 24 hours and questioned.
I believe I'm the first journalist to be arrested under this… pic.twitter.com/pbf6q5dXIf
— Richard Medhurst (@richimedhurst) August 19, 2024
“Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)”
• Musk Responds To Trump’s Job Offer (RT)
Billionaire Elon Musk has expressed a willingness to take a position with the US government should Republican nominee Donald Trump be elected president. The GOP nominee recently suggested that he could give Musk an advisory role in his administration. In the wake of the assassination attempt on Trump last month, Musk publicly backed his candidacy, writing on X: “I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery.” The businessman has adopted an increasingly critical stance toward the Democratic President Joe Biden in recent months. In a post on X on Tuesday, Musk signaled to Trump: “I am willing to serve.” One user suggested naming a department that Musk could head in the US government as the “Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)” – an apparent reference to the ‘Doge meme’ and the eponymous Dogecoin cryptocurrency.
Commenting on the idea, the billionaire jokingly replied that this is the “perfect name.” Speaking to Reuters on Monday, Trump described the tech tycoon as a “very smart guy.” “I certainly would [appoint Musk to an advisory role], if he would do it, I certainly would,” the Republican nominee said. Last week, Musk staged a live interview with Trump on the X platform, which he owns. At one point during the conversation, Musk called on the presidential hopeful to establish a “government efficiency commission” to ensure that taxpayer money is better spent. He also offered to help out with such an endeavor, to which Trump replied that Musk would be ideal for the role.
“..Because We ‘Run The Risk Of Enabling A Harris/Walz Presidency'”
“…the DNC made it impossible for us… …they have banned us, shadow-banned us. kept us off stages. manipulated polls. used lawfare against us. sued us in every possible State.”
“..I believed in the America that I a little girl pledged an allegiance to…”
• RFK Jr Campaign Mulling “Joining Forces With Trump” (ZH)
Just days after refuting reports that RFK Jr approached Harris for a cabinet position, his running mate, Nicole Shanahan just dropped a bombshell during a podcast that could change the race considerably. Appearing on the ‘Impact Theory’ podcast (that was filmed yesterday), Shanahan said they are debating whether to stay in the race or drop out and join forces with Trump: “There’s two options that we’re looking at… …and one is staying in, forming that new party, but we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and Waltz presidency because we draw more votes from Trump. Or we walk away right now and join forces with with Donald Trump and explain to our base why we’re making this decision.”
RFK’s VP Nicole Shanahan says they are debating whether to stay in the race or drop out and join forces with Trump:
“There’s two options that we're looking at and one is staying in, forming that new party, but we run the risk of a Kamala Harris and Waltz presidency because we… pic.twitter.com/O3HrLbbCLO
— End Tribalism in Politics (@EndTribalism) August 20, 2024
Shanahan is clearly disillusioned at the anti-democratic methods that the Democratic Party have pulled to stall RFK Jr’s progress: “…the DNC made it impossible for us… …they have banned us, shadow-banned us. kept us off stages. manipulated polls. used lawfare against us. sued us in every possible State. They’ve even planted insiders into our campaign to disrupt it, and to create actual legal issues for us. I mean the extent by which the sabotage they’ve unleashed upon us is mindblowing. I mean we’re still learning new ways that they have sabotaged us. I really wanted a fair shot at this election and I believed in the America that I a little girl pledged an allegiance to…”
“We have more of the real energy, the energy that works..”
• Trump Vows to Slash Energy Costs by Half if Elected (OP)
GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump has promised to reduce energy costs by half by reversing current federal government policies in his first year in office if he gets elected. Trump was speaking at an event at a defense manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania and said that if he enters the White House, during his first year he would remove future mandates for electric cars and cancel “green energy” policies, according to a report by UPI. Trump went on to warn those in attendance that if Harris wins the presidential vote, energy costs would triple and quadruple, and the U.S. “won’t be producing a drop of oil.” He also accused the Biden administration of a “regulatory jihad to shut down power plants.” The Biden administration indeed has a very different energy policies agenda than Trump and Harris has indicated she would stay in the transition lane if she enters the White House as president.
Trump, on the other hand, has remained a staunch supporter of what he calls U.S. energy dominance, encouraging as much oil and gas production as possible to turn the country into a self-sufficient one in terms of energy and extend its international influence through energy exports. Last month, in an interview with Bloomberg, Trump said that if he wins he would boost U.S. oil production, calling the commodity liquid gold. “We have more liquid gold than anybody,” Trump told the publication, adding “We need energy at low prices. The advantage we have all over almost every country including the very large ones is that we have more energy than anybody. We have more of the real energy, the energy that works,” the former president vying for another term in office said. “Wind does not work. It’s too expensive,” said Trump, claiming that solar and wind farms are neither too good for the environment, nor too suitable to provide energy at low costs and prices.
“..it is very difficult, at best, for her to defend her record setting Flip-Flopping on absolutely everything she once believed in.”
• Harris Refuses to Participate in Televised Debate on September 4 – Trump (Sp.)
Former US President and Republican candidate for the upcoming presidential election Donald Trump said that his Democratic opponent, current US Vice President Kamala Harris, informed his team that she would not participate in the debates on the Fox News channel on September 4. “Comrade Kamala Harris has just informed us that she will NOT do the FoxNews Debate on September 4th,” Trump said on social media. “I am not surprised by this development because I feel that she knows it is very difficult, at best, for her to defend her record setting Flip-Flopping on absolutely everything she once believed in.”
Trump noted that instead of the debate on that day, Fox will host a televised meeting with him in Pennsylvania. The former president promised to provide details later. Earlier in August, Trump said that he would hold three rounds of televised debates with Harris in the coming month, which are planned to be organized on the platforms of three different US television channels. However, he did not specify whether Harris herself had confirmed her readiness to participate in all three rounds of televised debates with him.
Until recently, nobody knew her. Those in the DNC who did, refused to vote for her. And just like that, she’s more popular than Trump? Sure thing.
• Harris Polls “Much Less Rosy” Than Reported, SuperPAC Admits (ZH)
The founder of the main outside spending group backing Kamala Harris for president says their own internal opinion polling is “much less rosy” than public polls – and has warned Democrats that they face much closer races in key states. “Our numbers are much less rosy than what you’re seeing in the public,” said Future Forward super PAC president Chauncey McLean said during a Monday event hosted by the University of Chicago Institute of Politics. According to public polls – which, as you’ll see below, are largely bullshit – Harris is leading Donald Trump in several national polls by FiveThirtyEight; 46.6% to 43.8%, and has allegedly pulled ahead in several battleground states, Reuters reports. Except that’s not what Future Forward is seeing…
The PAC has created a ‘massive polling operation’ and tested some 500 digital television ads for Biden and 200 for Harris, along with polling some 375,000 Americans in the weeks after Biden was forced out of the 2024 race and Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee on July 22. According to McLean, the majority of Harris’ momentum after she took over for Biden was from young voters of color – opening up Sunbelt states such as Nevada, Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina. That said, Pennsylvania – the most consequential state in the group’s analysis, is a ‘coin flip’ based on Future Forward polls. He says Harris must win one of three states – Pennsylvania, North Carolina or Georgia – to win the White House. He warned that Harris has yet to fully rebuild the Biden coalition of Blacks, Hispanics and young voters that brought him the White House in 2020.
McLean said polling shows the public wants more detailed policy positions from Harris. He says they don’t want “white papers,” but they also don’t want platitudes. He says they need more concrete examples of how she may differ from Biden and make their lives easier economically. Trump allies have called on Harris to do the same in recent days, hoping to pin her down on controversial issues. -Reuters. According to McLean, the race is tight as ever.
“We have it tight as a tick, and pretty much across the board,” he said. About those bullshit polls… Mark Davin Harris of political consulting firm ColdSpark says they’re seeing a “historic response bias on surveys that is setting the table for a large polling miss this fall.” Diving right in, Harris says pollsters are essentially injecting unreported bias into polls by targeting subgroups more likely to answer the way they want. For example, “In the meta data from the call centers college educated Dems are 3-4x more likely to answer than non-college. While weighting can help minimize the bias if done correctly it won’t totally eliminate the problem. For example even if you quota’ed for party (something I have very mixed feelings about) AND for education at the topline you can have the college Dems consume such a big chunk of Democrats that you miss the downscale Dems that are MUCH less partisan loyal.”
Harris is set to release an analysis that show “historically liberal” bias even when they “weight back to party.” According to Harris, one possible solution would be to focus on a person’s past voting history – as those who ‘always’ vote are being oversampled vs. the ‘low turnout’ voters, who are more likely to vote for Trump. “We’re seeing a lot of surveys WAY oversampling the ‘always voters’ and not getting enough of the infrequent voters that are so important in a Presidential race and Trump does better with low turnout folks,” he said.
Who in America truly wants this?
• DNC Platform Calls For ‘Radical’ Mass Amnesty For Millions Of Illegals (ZH)
The official Democratic party platform calls for the passage of the US Citizenship Act – which the Trump campaign on Monday called ‘a radical amnesty bill that would give automatic citizenship and social security numbers to the millions of illegal aliens that invaded our country, including criminals, human traffickers, and gang members.’ According to the DNC platform: America is a nation of immigrants. The legal immigration framework was last updated in 1990 and does not reflect the needs of our country in the 21st century. Many immigrants today are forced to wait years, and often decades, to immigrate lawfully to the United States. A robust immigration system with accessible lawful pathways and penalties for illegal immigration alleviates pressure at the border and upholds our values. The U.S. Citizenship Act would permanently increase family-sponsored and employment-based immigration. This is in sharp contrast to Trump’s platform, which calls for sealing the border and carrying out the largest deportation operation in US history.
“This was the plan all along”. Some are suggesting that the Biden-Harris administration allowed the country to be flooded with illegal immigrants in order to eventually grant mass amnesty.
This is exactly why Kamala Harris and the Democrats permitted our country to be overrun with illegal migrants, this was the plan all along.
There is no denying this fact any longer.
This is why for the sake of all Americans we can not let her win in November. https://t.co/6EHCO4aYak
— Old School Eddie (@Old_SchoolEddie) August 19, 2024
“The 91-page document was compiled in July and published on Sunday..” “The platform refers to Biden as the Democratic Party’s candidate at least 20 times..”
• All Trump, no Harris: The Democratic Party’s Puzzling New Platform (RT)
Democratic delegates have voted to approve the party’s 2024 platform. The 94-page document still states that President Joe Biden is running for office, mentions Donald Trump more than Kamala Harris, and includes multiple false and misleading claims. The 91-page document was compiled in July and published on Sunday. In a largely symbolic vote at the Democratic National Convention on Monday, it was approved as the party’s official platform for the next four years.
A woke introduction. The platform opens with a so-called “land acknowledgement,” declaring that the US is made up of “lands that have been stewarded through many centuries by the ancestors and descendants of Tribal Nations who have been here since time immemorial.” “While we meet in Chicago, we also recognize and honor the traditional homelands of the Anishinaabe, also known as the Council of the Three Fires: the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi Nations,” it continues, before listing off other Native American tribes hailing from the Chicago region. Originating on university campuses, ‘Land acknowledgements’ have been embraced by progressive politicians and nonprofits in recent years. Conservatives have mocked the practice as overly politically correct, while some leftists have argued that land acknowledgements don’t go far enough, and should be backed by cash reparations.
Biden still in the race? The platform refers to Biden as the Democratic Party’s candidate at least 20 times, despite the 81-year-old suspending his campaign and endorsing Vice President Harris to run in his place last month. “President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Democrats are running to finish the job,” the platform’s second page declares, before listing a host of the president’s priorities for his “second term in office,” which include nominating more “diverse” judges and offering a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. Regina Romero, the co-chair of the convention’s platform committee, told delegates that the document was written “prior to the president passing the torch in an act of love and patriotism,” and despite its mistakes remains a “forward-looking vision for our party that echoes the voice of all.” These references to Biden are “an open admission that Kamala has no policies of her own. She has no plan to fix the litany of crises she’s created,” Trump campaign spokesman Dylan Johnson said in a statement on Monday.
All about Trump. Throughout the platform, Biden’s record is repeatedly contrasted with Trump’s. Lines such as “while President Biden has stood up to the gun lobby, Trump is proud of doing their bidding” and “while President Biden has sought to appoint judges who look like America, three-quarters of Trump’s judicial appointees were men and 84 percent were white” appear on almost every page of the document. In total, Trump is mentioned 150 times in the platform, while Harris’ name appears only 32 times. Biden is named 287 times.
No Harris policies. All of the platform’s post-election promises are attributed to Biden, with the document omitting Harris’ recent economic proposals, which include financial assistance for first-time home buyers, a $6,000-per-child tax credit, and price controls on groceries. In the month since Biden ended his campaign, these economic proposals are the only policies Harris has announced. By contrast, Biden, Trump, and Hillary Clinton had all published extensive policy documents by this stage of the 2020 and 2016 election cycles.
Hoaxes and falsehoods. The document contains numerous mistruths and outright falsehoods, particularly about Trump. It claims, as Biden has in his speeches, that Trump called members of the military who died in war “suckers” and “losers,” and that he called neo-Nazi protesters “very fine people.” Neither anecdote is true. Biden and Harris’ accomplishments are similarly embellished. For example, the document claims that the president and vice president are “finally rebuilding” broadband infrastructure in the US, despite the fact that zero new connections have been built since Harris was appointed to lead the $42 billion initiative in 2021, according to Federal Communications Commission chief Brendan Carr.
Peronism.
• Kamala Harris’ Radical Left Plan to Ruin America (Lacalle)
Price controls, higher taxes, government intervention, and subsidies paid for by printing a constantly devalued currency. These are the essential pillars of “21st century socialism” and the radical left Peronism that obliterated Argentina. These are also the main elements of the economic plan presented by Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party. Undoubtedly, this is the most radical socialist economic plan ever announced by the Democrats. According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), Harris’s proposals will cost $1.95 trillion over 10 years. However, it emphasizes that if certain measures become permanent, this figure could increase to $2.25 trillion. The Harris campaign has stated that these costs will be offset by a classic excuse of socialism in any election: “higher taxes on corporations and high earners.”
This is, obviously, ludicrous, because there is no revenue measure that will cover the already bloated $2 trillion annual deficit and an added $2 trillion. The mantra of “higher taxes for the rich” always means higher taxes and more inflation, a hidden tax, for you. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has already warned of the fiscal disaster of the United States, with an annual deficit of 6% of GDP. Despite not accounting for a recession and projecting record tax revenues from 2024 to 2034, the CBO predicts an explosion in the budget deficit from $1.9 trillion to $2.8 trillion by 2034, even before factoring in Harris’s new spending plan. This means that the adjusted deficit will rise above 6.9 percent of GDP by 2034, almost twice the average of 3.7 percent over the previous 50 years.
Following the Harris plan, the United States public debt will likely increase by $24 trillion in a decade. As I have explained, there is no set of revenue measures that can bring $2 trillion per year in additional tax receipts, and tax hikes will harm both investment and growth. An economy that generates an annual deficit of 6 percent of GDP to achieve a mere 2 percent annual growth is already on a dangerous path, and Harris’ plan would make it even worse. Kamala Harris promises to cut inflation by spending and printing more money, reducing competition, and attacking businesses. It has never worked and never will because it is upside-down economics. Welcome to the U.S. “Peronism.”. Imagine all those United States citizens who have escaped Latin American or European economies impoverished by interventionism to find a better opportunity in the United States only to find that the same policies will be implemented by Harris.
The narrative of price gouging and greedflation is simply false. In 2023, profit margins in the grocery industry hit the lowest level since 2019, at 1.6%, according to the IMF. Corporations, even if they were stupid and reckless, cannot make all prices rise constantly. Competition would eat away at their market share; newcomers would eliminate them, and aggregate prices would fall. Furthermore, stores and businesses cannot make aggregate prices soar, maintain the increase, and consolidate it, which is the measure of inflation (CPI) we read every month. The only thing that can make all prices rise and continue increasing at a slower pace is printing money and eroding the purchasing power of the currency.
“..a plan that won’t just be negative for the country, it could very well be the hill that our country’s economy dies on..”
• Harris’ Unrealized Gains Tax Would Obliterate The US Economy (QTR)
On Tuesday, it was announced that Presidential candidate Kamala Harris would be supporting President Joe Biden’s tax proposals for 2025, which include a 44.6% capital gains rate and a 25% tax on unrealized gains. Having used up all of the rest of the batshit, insane, counterintuitive economic dirty tricks left in the “we’ll literally do anything but cut spending” bag, the Biden administration began pushing this tax idea in April 2024 when I first wrote about it. Unrealized gains taxation could be the most destructive idea for our country since prohibition, I joked at the time. As part of its budget proposal for the 2025 fiscal year, the Biden administration was trying to raise an addition $4.3 trillion over 10 years in the worst way possible: imposing a minimum tax equal to 25 percent of a taxpayer’s taxable income and unrealized capital gains less the sum of their regular tax, for taxpayers with wealth over $100 million.
Putting aside the fact that this high-risk idea only amounts to a pittance, $430 billion per year, the introduction of taxing unrealized gains could be one of the worst slippery slopes we ever dare to roll our country’s economy down. I mean, shit, we could save $1 trillion just by not sending $100 billion a year to other nations for starters. But I digress. For an outline of exactly what an unrealized gains tax is, here’s the American Institute on Economic Research: A tax on unrealized capital gains means that individuals are penalized for owning appreciating assets, regardless of whether they have realized any actual income from selling them. If you purchased a stock for $100 this year, for example, and it increased to $110 next year, you would pay the assigned tax rate on the $10 capital gain. You didn’t sell the asset, so you don’t realize the $10 appreciation, but must pay the tax regardless.
Taxing unrealized capital gains contradicts the basic principles of fairness and property rights essential for a free and prosperous society. Taxation, if we’re going to have it on income, should be based on actual income earned, not on paper gains that may never materialize. AIER notes that implementing such a tax not only deeply infringes upon personal liberty and private property rights — but I can’t help but think about how it also sets a destructive wrecking ball rolling down a slippery slope for the first time in our nation’s history. And, given the precarious state of our nation’s finances, it doesn’t seem like the best time to start spitballing about new risky ideas that may or may not catch on only because they sound like they are addressing the problem of a widening wealth gap that Federal Reserve policies created and continue to exacerbate to begin with.
If the administration really wanted to address the problem of wealth inequality, it would be setting its sights on the central bank that sacrificed price stability so it could spray trillions of dollars in “stimulus” toward financial assets, while cutting American families paltry checks of just $600, during COVID. When I did the math during COVID, the total amount spent to bail out the country when we decided to shut down the economy and have the Federal Reserve replace it with a fiat house of cards amounted to something like $17,500 per every citizen in the United States. Except, again, only $600 of that went to each individual. The rest went to the financial sector, in turn widening the inequality gap further as billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos saw tens of billions of dollars added to their net worth in a matter of months. And so now, rather than take tangible, decisive action to actually address the problem, the Harris administration is putting forth a plan that won’t just be negative for the country, it could very well be the hill that our country’s economy dies on. And to be honest, I’m not being hyperbolic.
One last go for Joe. Let’s dig up a golden oldie. Nobody remembers Robert Mueller anyway. From another article:
“50 to 70 million Americans suffer from some sort of sleep disorder, and a midnight Joe Biden speech could be the perfect remedy.”
• Trump Bows Down To Putin – Biden (RT)
US President Joe Biden has accused his predecessor, Donald Trump, of being unfit for the role of commander-in-chief, claiming he ‘bows down to dictators’. The outgoing president spoke at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday to urge voters to support the candidacy of Vice President Kamala Harris in the November election. Last month, he was pressured by party heavyweights to drop out of the race after a disastrous debate against Trump. Biden brought up the story about Trump allegedly calling World War I soldiers buried in Europe “suckers and losers” to attack the former president, saying someone like this cannot lead the US military.
”No commander-in-chief should ever bow down to a dictator the way Trump bows down to Putin. I never have, and I promise you, Kamala Haris will never do it,” he said. Trump broke from the policy of his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, by greenlighting the delivery of military aid to Ukraine, fueling tensions with Russia over NATO’s intention to make Ukraine a member of the US-led bloc. In 2021, Moscow proposed freezing NATO expansion to address its concerns, but was told by Washington that it cannot dictate who joins the organization.
The Republican nominee now claims he can end the ongoing hostilities between Russia and Ukraine, which broke out in February 2022 under Biden’s watch. Presumably, Trump intends to leverage US aid to Kiev to force concessions on its part. Biden has vowed to prop up Ukraine against Russia “for as long as it takes” to defeat it. During his speech in Chicago, Biden took credit for getting European members of NATO to unite in support of Ukraine. He claimed that Europeans have been looking at Russia “with dread” since the times of Napoleon. Trump has argued that getting along with foreign leaders, including those that some may call dictators, is a good thing for a president, as this helps cool tensions and prevent unnecessary conflicts.
Where illegal turns into unauthorized… What’s in a word?
Only 4% come from South America?!
• Where Unauthorized Migrants In The US Come From (SCF)
“How would that look for the United States, when the United States is going to fight the war on behalf of a genocidal regime and then bring down the world economy?”
• War With Iran Would Bring Global Economic Collapse, Isolate US (Sp.)
On July 30, a senior leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, Fouad Shukur, was assassinated in Beirut, a few hours later the political leader of the Palestinian movement Hamas and the chief negotiator for the movement in ceasefire talks with Israel, Ismail Haniyeh, was assassinated in Tehran. Nearly three weeks after the assassination of Shukur and Haniyeh, the world is still waiting for Iran’s retaliation against Israel for the attacks. It inevitably will, but the more pertinent question is what comes next. “The real question is not what Iran does, the question is what does the United States do?” asked Mohammad Marandi, a professor of English Literature and Orientalism at the University of Tehran on Sputnik’s Fault Lines on Monday. “If the United States gets involved in the war, then I think it’s the United States [that] will lose more than anyone else.”
Marandi explained that a war between the US and Israel on one side and Iran on the other would expand regionally and include the US-allied dictators who would be seen as complicit with the United States. “So there will no longer be any gas or oil installations in the Persian Gulf region and beyond that will be able to export anything. So, that would lead to a global economic collapse,” Marandi continued. “It won’t lead to a recession or a depression, it will lead to a deep depression – something that we haven’t experienced before in recent centuries, even in the 1930s.” Iran has no choice but to respond more forcefully than it did after an Israeli airstrike struck the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria. That attack, in which Iran utilized hundreds of drones to overwhelm Israeli air defenses and then hit military targets with missiles, was described as restrained outside of Western and Israeli media. Still, less than four months later, Israel struck Iran again.
“By definition, [that] means it was inadequate for a permanent solution. So, the Iranians are going to have to hit harder,” explained Marandi. Despite a letter signed by the US and a few European countries telling Iran to stand down, most of the world understands that Iran has been restrained and reasonable compared to their Israeli counterparts. That will further isolate the United States if it joins Israel in a war with Iran, which will exacerbate its economic issues if there is a global collapse. “How would that look for the United States, when the United States is going to fight the war on behalf of a genocidal regime and then bring down the world economy? It will be devastating to the United States because no one will sympathize with it,” Marandi added. “The point is that they are dragging the world towards a catastrophe. This genocide will have consequences. And an expanded war will have enormous consequences,” he concluded.
“Zelensky can’t force God to fight.”
• Ukrainian MPs Pave Way For Ban On Largest Christian Church (RT)
The Ukrainian parliament has approved a law that would allow authorities to ban the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), which Kiev has repeatedly accused of having ties to Russia, according to an MP. The legislation also outright bans the Russian Orthodox Church and all affiliated religious institutions. In a series of Telegram posts on Tuesday, lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak said the parliament had passed a law banning certain religious organizations on the territory of Ukraine, particularly those linked to Russia. “Among the people, it [is called] the law banning the Moscow Church,” he said. The law was approved by 265 deputies, with 29 voting against, and four abstaining. The law, which will take effect in 30 days, bans the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and all affiliated religious organizations. However, it contains a caveat that gives the UOC nine months to sever all ties with the ROC.
While the UOC declared full autonomy from the Moscow Patriarchate several weeks after the Ukraine conflict broke out in 2022, Kiev continued to accuse its clergy of having ties to Russia, often raiding churches and making arrests. Parliament Speaker Ruslan Stephanchuk acknowledged last week that the law would certainly result in “the Russian church in Ukraine” being banned, presumably referring to the UOC. Around the same time, Vladimir Zelensky appeared to refer to the imminent move, which he said would “reinforce Ukraine’s spiritual independence.” Last week, the initiative was endorsed by the All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations (AUCCRO), which represents all denominations in the country. It claimed that Russia remains the main “threat” to religious freedom in Ukraine.
The Russian Orthodox Church, however, has dismissed AUCCRO’s decision as illegitimate, noting that UOC delegates had not been invited to take part in the meeting to discuss the matter. Ukraine has long experienced religious tensions, with a number of entities claiming to be the true Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The two main rival factions are the Ukrainian Orthodox Church and the Kiev-backed Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), which is considered by the Russian Orthodox Church to be schismatic. The UOC remains the largest Orthodox church in Ukraine, with more than 8,000 parishes across the country. However, some of these parishes are choosing to transfer to the jurisdiction of the OCU under pressure from authorities in Kiev.
Motorwoke.
• Harley-Davidson Hits Brakes On Diversity (RT)
American motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson has ended its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiative, becoming the latest major US company to distance itself from ‘woke’ policies. DEI refers to measures aimed at ensuring equal representation for people of all backgrounds, regardless of their race, gender, or disability status. The iconic motorbike brand, known for its robustly masculine image, said it would instead focus on “retaining our loyal riding community.” Harley-Davidson was targeted last month by conservative influencer Robby Starbuck, who has pledged to “expose” companies for their “woke policies” and to “bring sanity back to corporate America.” In a statement on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday, Harley-Davidson said it would review all sponsorships and outside organizations with which it affiliates.
The bike manufacturer said it would be moving forward focusing “exclusively on growing the sport of motorcycling.” It also stated that it was “saddened by the negativity on social media over the last few weeks.” The company suggested that it would drop some sponsorships, which could include LGBTQ Pride festivals, and end its relationship with the Human Rights Campaign, a leading LGBTQ advocacy group. Harley-Davidson has been a corporate member of the Wisconsin LBGT Chamber of Commerce, and has reportedly funded Pride-themed events. The company has come under fire from many US bikers for taking part in various LGBTQ initiatives, and had reportedly lost some of its fanbase.
In July, Starbuck claimed that the brand had been “one of the most beloved brands in America but recently on CEO Jochen Zeitz’s watch, they’ve gone totally woke,” as he launched his campaign against the motorcycle maker’s policies. In its statement, the Milwaukee-based firm also said it had not “operated a DEI function since April 2024,” and that it does not have “hiring quotas” or “supplier diversity spend goals.” Starbuck welcomed the company’s move on X, praising it as “another win for our movement.” Earlier, American rural retailer Tractor Supply and farm equipment maker John Deere also backtracked on their corporate diversity policy following pressure campaigns led by the activist. Critics of DEI have questioned the efficacy of initiatives aimed at making organizations more diverse and inclusive, leading to pressure on companies to scale back certain programs.
Said it before: the rot is everywhere. How can you undo that?
• Boeing Halts 777 Test Flights (RT)
US aircraft manufacturer Boeing has halted test-flights of its 777X twin-engine jetliner after post-flight inspections identified failures of crucial parts on three out of four test aircraft, industry outlet the Air Current reported on Monday, citing sources. According to the aviation news service, a titanium thrust link, part of the structure that mounts the engine to the aircraft, was found severed on one jet following a test-flight in Hawaii. Further inspections found similar faults on two more aircraft, the Air Current cited two people familiar with the matter as saying. “Our team is replacing the part and capturing any learnings from the component and will resume flight testing when ready,” Boeing confirmed to Air Current in an emailed statement. The 777X’s engines are the largest and most powerful ever built, measuring nearly 3.5 meters in diameter and weighing 11 tons each.
Also on Monday, the US Federal Aviation Administration ordered inspections of another Boeing aircraft, the 787 Dreamliner. In an incident in March, a 787 jet went into a sudden mid-air dive, leaving more than 50 passengers injured. A number of flaws have been discovered in Boeing aircraft in recent months, leading to safety concerns and investigations. In July, the company agreed to pay a fine of $243.6 million and plead guilty to fraud for its attempts to conceal faults with the stability system responsible for 2018 and 2019 crashes that killed nearly 350 people. Under the plea deal, the manufacturer has agreed to invest at least $455 million over the next three years to improve its safety and compliance programs and submit to a three-year probation by a special monitor appointed by the US government.
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