voter ID Archives - The Automatic Earth

Scam scam scam scam scam

Democrats found ways to cheat from the graves https://t.co/A7U3eHoB9U
— 🌋🌋 Deep₿lueCrypto 🌋🌋 (@DeepBlueCrypto) February 9, 2026

🚨 TRUMP DECLARES WAR ON THE DEEP STATE

Donald Trump has laid out the most aggressive plan ever proposed to dismantle Washington’s permanent power structure — and it targets the system at its roots.

This isn’t rhetoric. It’s a blueprint.

Trump says he will:

• Purge rogue… pic.twitter.com/WgmunVve5e
— Jim Ferguson (@JimFergusonUK) February 9, 2026

Elon Musk says he is willing to cover the legal defense costs for Epstein victims who choose to speak publicly and tell the truth

He says that if these victims are sued for naming their abusers (Epstein clients), he will pay their legal fees, ensuring they can defend themselves… pic.twitter.com/PRtlVky549
— SMX 🇺🇸 (@iam_smx) February 8, 2026

The more we read about Epstein, the less it is about sex. Like that was just a sideshow. Jim Kunstler smells a rat.

“,,,why don’t the dozens of so-called “Epstein Survivors,” grown women supposedly raped and abused by celebrities years ago as children, name their abusers publicly? What’s stopping them as they grandstand around the country?

Why not one single one?

• Who’s Next. . . What’s Next. . . ? (James Howard Kunstler)

It’s all backstage now. This fraught moment, the power centers locked in the coldest cold of the year, the Spanish language lessons of Bad Bunny behind us, all the real action in the battle to save the country is out of sight, moiling and churning in the deep background. Everybody’s on edge waiting for shoes to drop, praying they don’t drop on their heads. You should have seen Senator Mark Warner (D-VA; Vice-chair of the Senate Intel Committee) on Face the Nation Sunday, frothing at the mouth over Tulsi Gabbard, Director of National Intelligence (DNI). He cannot believe she turned up at the Fulton County, GA, election warehouse last month, where the FBI extracted 700 boxes of ballots and other evidence for what happened there in the 2020 election.

Senator Warner doesn’t want you to find out. Senator Warner, you understand, is one of the darkest creatures slithering through the cypress knobs of the DC swamp, and his lair, the Senate Intel Committee, is a fetid backwater of seditious intrigue. Senator Warner is setting the stage for yet another hoax against the country. He’s got a “whistleblower,” ID unknown, who supposedly imputes that last spring “an individual associated with foreign intelligence” made a phone call to “a person close to President Trump” and DNI Gabbard failed to report it to his committee. DNI Gabbard simply called Sen. Warner a liar, which is exactly and succinctly correct.
Senator Warner is wetting his pants because the Georgia 2020 election tally looks sketchy to an extreme and he knows the case is beyond his control now. Pulling on that thread will unravel the whole fake tapestry of “Joe Biden’s” election and will reveal the Democratic Party to be a criminal enterprise. The nation itself has to face some unappetizing reality. Four years were stolen from the people and political devices were aligned to destroy the nation. They almost succeeded.
Over in Minnesota the major players are laying low now. Governor Tim Walz, a creep of the thirty-second degree, surrendered his career weeks ago but nervously awaits indictment for presiding over massive social service fraud. ICE is still extracting psychopathic alien mutts out of Minneapolis, while the Cluster-B ladies and their mentally-ill Antifa spear-carriers remain out in the streets banging on sauce-pans. But somewhere in an office, away from the deafening whistles, the money trails are getting tracked from taxpayers to the Learing Centers to the state’s politicians and the DNC and then off forever into the Horn of Africa. You just can’t see it now.
The giant poisonous amoeba that Jeffrey Epstein became has not yielded all of its secrets. Everybody knows that there are darker scenes lurking behind the curtain. The rumors are outlandishly horrifying, worse than anything out of Hollywood’s scare factory, a slaughter of the innocents. Who knows if they are true — well, possibly somebody knows, but these would be things you cannot want to know. One thing I’d like to know: why don’t the dozens of so-called “Epstein Survivors,” grown women supposedly raped and abused by celebrities years ago as children, name their abusers publicly? What’s stopping them as they grandstand around the country? Or is it just another grift?
It’s seven o’clock in the morning as I write (and fifteen-below zero), and World War Three has not started yet, though it seems like the whole US Navy and half the Air Force has deployed in the vicinity of Iran: the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, accompanied by guided-missile destroyers USS Frank E. Petersen Jr., USS Spruance and USS Michael Murphy. . . destroyers USS McFaul and USS Mitscher in the Straits of Hormuz. . . littoral combat ships USS Canberra, USS Tulsa, and USS Santa Barbara in the Persian Gulf. . . at least a dozen F-15E Strike Eagles relocated to Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan (from RAF base Lakenheath, UK). Additional aircraft like A-10C Thunderbolts noted at regional bases. . . support aircraft, KC-135 Stratotankers for refueling (active at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar), P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol, MQ-9 Reaper drones, and transport/refueling planes (C-17s, etc., deployed around the region.
You have to wonder whether the regime running Iran has already selected martyrdom rather than yielding anything to forces who are sick of them, including many Iranians. Iranian missiles are targeted for Tel Aviv, US bases in the Emirates, and possibly even Saudi Arabia. Could be all bluff. The truth of the situation remains hidden, like everything else right now in the global arena.

“Nikolic was later named as executor in Epstein’s will, signed two days before his death, officially by suicide, in August 2019. (As I’m writing this, a friend points out to me that according to Fortnite Tracker, a player with Epstein’s username, littlestjeff1, was still playing, from Israel, in 2024…)”

“..Whitney Webb has stated in conversation with James Corbett: “Jeffrey Epstein was as much a financial criminal as a sex criminal.”

• Epstein’s Gates to Pandemonium (Jordi Pigem)

“We are going to have fun,” writes Jeffrey Epstein on December 7, 2009. This phrase is his reply to an email by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Science Advisor (and Scientific Advisor to Bill Gates), Boris Nikolic, who is making a list of “raising stars,” many of them scientists, that they “should visit together.”

By then, everyone must have known that Epstein was a notorious, convicted sex offender. He had been released from jail only a few months before, on July 22. He had been under investigation since 2005: federal officials had identified three dozen girls whom Epstein had allegedly sexually abused (after a controversial plea deal agreed by the US Department of Justice, he was only convicted of two crimes). Why would a high ranking official of Gates’ Foundation want to organize meetings between Epstein and prominent scientists? If it was about money, surely they could find better-looking investors. What, eventually, were they “going to have fun” with?
One of the revelations of the latest batch of Epstein files is his strong interest in viruses, vaccines, pandemics, and mRNA. Two months after getting out of jail, he is writing about viruses, infectious diseases, and something he calls “My BIG idea.”

Or, for instance, in January 2010, he was discussing mRNA and codons.
The latest batch documents of the investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, released on January 30, consists of over 3 million pages, with many names redacted. A helpful simulation of Epstein’s inbox has been created, fully searchable and giving access to the contents of over 7,000 emails. With keywords and patience the original documents can then be located on the DOJ website.
The trio Epstein-Nikolic-Gates also features prominently in a long agreement letter sent by Epstein to Gates. According to this 2013 document, Gates “specifically requested” Epstein to “personally serve as the representative” of Nikolic in negotiations over the termination of his work with Gates. The first section of this six-page letter states: “Mr. Gates acknowledges that Mr. Epstein has an existing collegial relationship with Mr. Gates in which Mr. Epstein received confidential and/or proprietary information from Mr. Gates.” An analysis of its contents and wider implications can be found in a detailed article by Sayer Ji on Epstein, Gates, and “Pandemics as a Business Model.”
In March 2017, two and a half years before Event 201, three years before Covid-19 was officially declared a pandemic by the WHO, an email thread involving Gates and bgC3 (Bill Gates Catalyst 3, now Gates Ventures) speaks of “pandemic simulation.”

[..] Epstein was a node in a large network of darkness, and the release of the files may be a threshold into it. In a video interview included in the release, Epstein tells Steve Bannon that he is only “tier-one,” “the lowest level” of sexual predator. As researcher Whitney Webb has stated in conversation with James Corbett: “Jeffrey Epstein was as much a financial criminal as a sex criminal. There’s a very particular reason why mainstream media only wants to talk about his sex crimes between 2000 and 2006. Jeffrey Epstein was also not an anomaly in the network in which he operated. Numerous people engage in sex blackmail and sex trafficking. If you think these issues died with Jeffrey Epstein, you are sorely mistaken. […] And if you were to pull on the Epstein thread, I guess you could say, you start to unravel a lot of the bigger picture.”
In early 2020, not everyone knew the word pandemic. Much less familiar still was the word (more common until 1900) pandemonium. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary defines pandemonium, in its first sense, as “the abode of all demons” and, later on, as “a place or state of utter confusion and uproar.” Covid was a pandemonium: it did generate a “state of utter confusion.” The word was coined by John Milton in Paradise Lost (1667), where Pandemonium is “the palace of Satan,” “the high capital of Satan and his peers,” and “city and proud seat of Lucifer.” Other than the prefix pan- (Greek for “all”), these words are unrelated.
It seems Gates and Epstein were much closer than it had been assumed. Gates brings to mind, among other things, pandemic preparedness (as in CEPI, the “Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations,” and Event 201, both of which had the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as key funder). Epstein brings to mind a darkness that involved horrible violence to children and, most likely, explicit invocation of powerful evil forces — as is increasingly common in the highest tiers of political, economic, and technological power. Gates and Epstein, pandemic and pandemonium, may be closer than we thought.

“..photos and electronics seized failed to connect outside people to trafficking acts.”

• The Epstein Files and the Gap Between Suspicion and Proof (David Manney)

If I gave you two guesses to guess the nation’s biggest conspiracy, you wouldn’t hesitate: Jeffrey Epstein’s name carried an implication far larger than the crimes he committed. He sounded like the perfect Bond villain: a wealthy financier, private jets, a secluded island, and a guest list filled with famous figures. That combination led the public to assume that something vast and protected operated behind closed doors. Many people believed there was a hidden network and waited for proof to finally surface. In what can only be described as a shock, federal investigators reached a different conclusion. While one Epstein victim made highly public claims that he “lent her” to his rich friends, agents couldn’t confirm that and found no other victims telling a similar story, the records said.

Summarizing the investigation in an email last July, agents said “four or five” Epstein accusers claimed other men or women had sexually abused them. But, the agents said, there “was not enough evidence to federally charge these individuals, so the cases were referred to local law enforcement.” Epstein’s finances, communications, properties, and travel records were examined for years, and agents reviewed emails, bank transactions, flight logs, photographs, and video footage. They interviewed victims repeatedly and tracked claims involving well-known figures. The abuse of underage girls appeared undeniable; evidence tying others to a coordinated sex trafficking ring did not.

What Investigators Found and Didn’t Find
Records released by the Justice Department describe a lengthy investigation that produced extensive documentation, but few claims involving others were corroborated. Video footage from Epstein’s home showed no criminal conduct involving third parties; photos and electronics seized failed to connect outside people to trafficking acts. Despite allegations repeatedly surfacing, verification never followed. No named individuals were suspects, and each denied wrongdoing. FBI Director Kash Patel directly addressed the issue during testimony before the Senate.

Patel’s remarks cut against the grain of speculation that grew after Epstein’s 2019 arrest and death while in federal custody. As we all know, Epstein died before the trial. Still, his longtime associate, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, was later convicted for recruiting and grooming underage girls, a verdict that confirmed the facilitation of abuse. Given the evidence that came to light, there wasn’t anything to establish a client network. It wasn’t hard to immediately reject the findings, because Epstein’s lifestyle and access fueled suspicions for decades. This quiet conclusion felt unsatisfying, even offensive, to those expecting a reckoning. Victims described patterns of abuse that suggested coordinated patterns.
Palm Beach attorney Spener Kuvin, who represents several Epstein victims, maintains that sealed material may still expose wrongdoing by influential figures. Kuvin continues pressing for broader disclosure. After years of anticipation, the conclusion—if it’s indeed the end—landed softly, like a 4-ton boulder landing on a memory foam mattress, sticking the landing. The disappointment of a lack of drama during the reveal contrasts with an administrative close. When transparency feels incomplete, suspicion thrives. Proof operates differently. Epstein was a monster who committed evil crimes, inflicting lasting harm. Those facts are supported by evidence, but evidence supporting a vast trafficking ring never materialized.

Holding both truths at once proves difficult in a culture conditioned to expect cinematic endings. Questions will remain, along with calls for full release of the files. When documentation and belief diverge, public confidence erodes. Justice relies on proof, not implication. It’s a standard that frustrates people, especially when the rich and powerful are sitting in director chairs nearby. For me, there are three possibilities: the conclusion is correct, more evidence is hidden that confirms suspicions, or this is simply the rich taking care of their own. Acceptance may take time, but for some, it may never arrive.

” If you are the leader of a sovereign country and you are invited somewhere, you do not take six, eight, or ten other leaders with you..”

• Western Leaders Following Zelensky Around Like ‘Nannies’ – Hungary FM (RT)

Western heads of state have been acting like “nannies” to Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky during his talks with the US, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said. In an interview with Georgia’s Rustavi 2 channel which aired on Sunday, Szijjarto said Ukraine’s European backers had rallied to prevent US President Donald Trump from pressuring Zelensky to agree to a peace deal with Russia. “European leaders accompanied him like ‘nannies.’ It was humiliating for President Zelensky. This was obvious to outside observers because the ‘caregivers’ would not let the patient go alone. If you are the leader of a sovereign country and you are invited somewhere, you do not take six, eight, or ten other leaders with you,” Szijjarto said. He added that the entourage of leaders traveling with Zelensky was “a very bad look.”

Multiple media outlets said UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron “coached” Zelensky on how to repair relations with Trump following their explosive argument at the White House in February 2025. The leaders of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, and Finland accompanied Zelensky during his subsequent visit to the US in August. Szijjarto argued that Ukraine’s European backers had convinced Zelensky to walk away from the first peace talks with Russia nearly four years ago. “And if an agreement is made now, it will clearly be worse for Ukraine and also worse for Europe compared to April 2022,” he said.
Last year, EU officials denounced Trump’s peace plan, which called for Ukraine to withdraw troops from Donbass and make territorial concessions to Russia.

“As long as Ukraine demands that Hungary be cut off from cheap Russian energy, Ukraine is not simply our opponent, Ukraine is our enemy…”

• Ukraine Is Our Enemy – Orban (RT)

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has branded Ukraine an “enemy” over its demands that Hungary stop buying Russian oil and gas. Budapest has resisted the EU’s attempts to phase out Russian energy supplies as part of sanctions imposed on Russia over the Ukraine conflict, which escalated in February 2022. Speaking at a campaign rally in the western city of Szombathely on Saturday, Orban acc zused Ukraine of undermining Hungary’s security.

“The Ukrainians must stop their constant demands in Brussels to disconnect Hungary from cheap Russian energy,” Orban said. “As long as Ukraine demands that Hungary be cut off from cheap Russian energy, Ukraine is not simply our opponent, Ukraine is our enemy,” he said, warning that households would face dramatic spikes in utility bills.Orban reiterated his opposition to Ukraine joining the EU, arguing that a “military or economic alliance” with Kiev “will lead to trouble.” On Monday, Hungary announced that it would file a lawsuit against the bloc over what it called a “suicidal” ban on Russian energy.
The European Commission is currently debating the 20th sanctions package, which includes a ban on maritime services for Russian oil. Last month, the European Council approved a roadmap to end all remaining Russian gas supplies by the end of 2027. Unlike many other EU members, Hungary has refused to send weapons to Ukraine and has urged the bloc to prioritize a diplomatic resolution of the conflict. Orban has also warned that further escalation could trigger an all-out war between NATO and Russia.

“…whenever the diplomatic door cracks open, someone try to slam it shut with explosives, drones, or bullets..”

• Zelensky Tried To Kill The Chance For Russia-Ukraine Peace, Again (Romanenko)

The assassination attempt on Lieutenant General Vladimir Alekseyev, first deputy chief of Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) is clearly the Zelensky regime’s latest desperate bid to sabotage the emerging Russia-Ukraine-US negotiations channel in Abu Dhabi and prolong the war. When negotiations gain traction, spoilers surface. That’s Negotiations 101. And this week’s second round in Abu Dhabi was precisely the kind of movement that unnerves actors who fear ballots, reforms, and accountability more than inevitable defeat on the battlefield. The target choice reinforces the point. Alekseyev is the second-in-command of GRU chief Igor Kostyukov – who sits on the Russian delegation in Abu Dhabi.

Striking the No. 2 as the No. 1 shuttles between sessions is both a very deliberate message and an attempt to rattle Russia’s delegation, inject chaos into its decision loop, force security overdrive, and ultimately, provoke Moscow’s withdrawal from the talks. Nor is this the first time kinetic theater has tracked with diplomatic motion. Recall the attempted drone strike on President Vladimir Putin’s Valdai residence in late 2025, which coincided with particularly intense US-Russia exchanges. You don’t have to be a cynic to see a pattern: whenever the diplomatic door cracks open, someone try to slam it shut with explosives, drones, or bullets – then retreats behind a smokescreen of denials and proxies. Call it plausible deniability as policy.
Why would Kiev’s leadership gamble like this? Start with raw political incentives. Vladimir Zelensky extended his tenure beyond the intended March 2024 election under martial law. If hostilities wind down and emergency powers lift, the ballot box looms. His standing has eroded amid war fatigue, unmet expectations, and a massive corruption scandal swirling around the presidential administration that has infuriated many Ukrainians and dealt his image a blow. End the war without a narrative of total victory, and he risks owning a messy peace, grueling reconstruction, and a reckoning at the polls. Facing voters at a stadium famously worked well during Zelensky’s initial presidential campaign, but now endlessly moving the goalposts is his only hope of clinging to power.

“The foreign minister said Moscow would retaliate with full force against a potential aggression from the West ..”

• Russia Will Not Attack Europe Unless Struck First – Lavrov (RT)

Russia will not attack EU or NATO member states unless it is attacked first, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said. Western officials have justified increased military spending by citing the need to defend NATO’s eastern flank. Germany’s top military commander, General Carsten Breuer, said in December 2025 that the country must be ready for a potential war with Russia by 2029. Moscow has accused the West of warmongering. “We have no intention of attacking Europe. There is no reason to do so,” Lavrov told NTV in an interview aired on Sunday.

“If Europe acts on its threats to prepare for war against us and initiates an attack on the Russian Federation, it will face a full-fledged military response from our side, with all available military capabilities,” he said. At a year-end press conference in December, President Vladimir Putin dismissed claims that Russia was planning to attack NATO as “nonsense.” Russian officials have said, however, that Western military aid to Ukraine, including the delivery of long-range and advanced weapons, increases the risk of a broader conflict. Moscow has also accused the EU of seeking to derail US-brokered peace talks with Ukraine and prolong the fighting.

Ukrainian nationalism is a recent invention.

• Torture, Murder, Ethnic Cleansing. Meet Ukraine’s ‘National Heroes’ (RT)

In early February 1929, 97 years ago, a group of Ukrainian political émigrés gathered in Vienna to formalize what they believed was a movement of national liberation. What emerged from that congress, however, was not merely a campaign for statehood, but a radical organization that rejected democratic norms and embraced political violence. Members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) took part in Nazi Germany’s aggression against Poland and the USSR, carried out mass killings on ethnic and political grounds, and conducted sabotage operations first for the Third Reich and later for Western powers. Those members of the OUN who survived and could not flee to the West faced criminal charges in the USSR; however, many were granted amnesty by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in an effort to promote internal reconciliation in Ukraine. In this article, we examine how the OUN developed into a militant movement whose actions during and after World War II left a lasting and controversial historical legacy.

The roots of Ukrainian nationalism
The history of Ukrainian nationalism is rather brief. The term ‘Ukrainians’ was not used as an ethnonym until the late 19th century. According to historians, the idea that Ukrainians are a separate nation from Russians was quickly seized upon by the Austro-Hungarian authorities, who recognized its ‘anti-Russia’ potential. In contrast, Galician Russophiles who advocated for unity between the Carpathian region’s population and Russians faced severe repression from the Austro-Hungarians. During World War I, Austrians actively promoted Ukrainian nationalism to recruit volunteers for their army.
Historians note that amid the revolutionary events of 1917 in Russia, Ukrainian nationalism became a “political elevator” for various public figures. The nationalists argued for the necessity of creating an autonomous political space within what is now Ukraine, formed the ‘Central Rada’ and tried to persuade Russia’s Provisional Government to grant them authority. Following the October Revolution, they proclaimed the establishment of the Ukrainian People’s Republic (UPR). UPR leaders liberated and armed Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war in order to suppress uprisings by local residents who supported leftist movements; however, the nationalists fled Kiev when Bolshevik forces approached the city.
Later, the German command engaged representatives of the UPR for negotiations in Brest, formally recognizing their control over Ukraine’s territory before occupying it. However, the German authorities considered UPR representatives unreliable, ineffective, and linked to criminal activities. One day, a German patrol entered the Central Rada’s meeting hall, arrested suspects, and dispersed the others. The new appointee of the German administration was former tsarist general, hetman Pavel Skoropadsky. However, following Germany’s defeat in WWI, his regime collapsed. Former political figures of the UPR headed by Simon Petliura then tried to seize control of the UPR.
After suffering a swift defeat at the hands of the Red Army, Petliura’s followers fled to Poland, promising to cede western Ukraine in exchange for assistance against the Bolsheviks. However, as a result of the Polish-Soviet War, much of modern Ukraine remained under the control of the Ukrainian SSR, while Poland took Galicia and Volhynia without granting any concessions to Petliura’s faction.

She got Trump written all over her.

• Massive Win for Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (CTH)

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took a calculated risk only three months after her October 2025 election victory when she dissolved the Japanese Parliament and called for a snap election. The high-stakes gamble paid off, with Japanese voters handing her ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) a big super-majority Sunday.Takaichi said in a January press conference, calling for the snap election was a “profoundly weighty decision,” adding that “by doing so, I am also putting my position as prime minister on the line.” The voters responded with great enthusiasm for her leadership. Sanae Takaichi was also a protege’ of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a close personal friend of President Donald Trump.

President Trump who heartedly endorsed Takaichi also celebrated the outcome on Truth Social: “Congratulations to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and her Coalition on a LANDSLIDE Victory in today’s very important Vote. She is a highly respected and very popular Leader. Sanae’s bold and wise decision to call for an Election paid off big time. Her Party now runs the Legislature, holding a HISTORIC TWO THIRDS SUPERMAJORITY — The first time since World War Il. Sanae: It was my Honor to Endorse you and your Coalition. I wish you Great Success in passing your Conservative, Peace Through Strength Agenda. The wonderful people of Japan, who voted with such enthusiasm, will always have my strong support.”
Yahoo: […] After an election framed as a referendum on Takaichi herself, the LDP party won more than 310 of the 465 seats in Japan’s lower house, marking the first time since World War II that a single party has secured a two-thirds majority. The broader ruling coalition won more than 340 seats. In an interview with NHK, Takaichi thanked the voters who “braved the cold and walked through the snowy roads to cast their votes.” “I wanted the voters to give me a mandate because I advocated for responsible, proactive fiscal policy that would significantly shift economic and fiscal policy,” she added. The hardline conservative, who enjoys US President Donald Trump’s endorsement, has seen high approval ratings since she was elected less than four months ago, making history as the first woman to lead Japan. She has won over the public with her strong work ethic, savvy social media game and charisma. [..]
Mrs Takaichi, like Shinzo Abe, is a strong Japanese conservative with a deep nationalist perspective. This Japanese election outcome is the opposite of what China would like to see happen in the region. Writing on X Sunday, Takaichi thanked President Trump for his endorsement earlier this month and said the potential of the US-Japan alliance was “LIMITLESS.” From a North American perspective, the alignment of Takaichi and Trump will provide further bolstering to the upcoming dissolution of the USMCA, as Japan will not want to be on the wrong side of the new bilateral agreements likely to happen as an outcome. Japan will be cautious with any investment positioning in Canada.

Take it away.

• President Trump Superbowl Day Interview (CTH)

In what has become an annual tradition, here’s the full Superbowl Day interview with NBC News’ Tom Llamas and President Donald Trump. President Trump addresses the ongoing immigration enforcement, the state of the American economy, U.S. tensions with Iran and other topics from the oval office in the White House. The interview was conducted on Wednesday, February 4 and broadcast today. The interview is an hour long.

Nope. I still don’t get it. I can’t be the only one.

• Dems Melting Down Over Voter ID As DHS Shutdown Talks Hit Wall (ZH)

Update on the latest negotiations to keep the Department of Homeland Security funded beyond next Friday, which requires at least 60 votes to pass unless the filibuster is done away with. Recall: Congress passed five out of six appropriations packages on Feb. 3, ending a brief partial government shutdown that began on Jan. 31 – while giving DHS, which controls ICE, a lifeline until Feb. 13 as Democrats and Republicans hash out reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) after two white knight protesters were shot while interfering with lawful ICE operations.’ Democrats have a list of 10 ‘non-negotiable’ reforms that they insist must be included in any DHS funding bill, including;

• Requiring judicial warrants signed by a judge before agents can make arrests in homes or private spaces.
• Mandating body-worn cameras for all enforcement actions – though serious pushback has emerged from the left over fears that facial recognition technology will be used to catalogue and track protesters.
• Democratic lawmakers are now seeking to ban ICE and CBP from using facial recognition and other biometric ID technologies altogether. [ZH: Things are always interesting when the shoe is on the other foot, but why stop at DHS / CBP? Maybe protect all of us from this shit?]
• Prohibiting agents from wearing masks or face coverings during operations to ensure identification.
• Implementing new use-of-force standards to prevent excessive violence.
• Ending racial profiling in enforcement activities.
• Requiring clear identification of DHS officers (e.g., visible badges and agency markings).
• Other provisions for “real accountability,” such as oversight mechanisms and restrictions on certain tactics.

Republicans are pushing to attach their own priorities to the DHS bill – primarily the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which would require proof of citizenship to register to vote and presentation of ID to cast ballots. The SAVE Act, which was passed by the House in April and is currently stalled in the Senate – would require voters to present an eligible photo ID, while also requiring proof of citizenship be presented in person when registering to vote, such as a passport or birth certificate. It would also require states to remove non-citizens from existing voter rolls.
GOP leaders like Speaker Johnson and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna arguing it’s necessary for election integrity. Some Republicans also want restrictions on “sanctuary cities” that limit cooperation with federal immigration enforcement, and broader measures to crack down on illegal immigration. For some strange reason, Democrats are vehemently opposed to election integrity – and have brought back the well worn trope that voter ID disenfranchises people who are somehow able to produce ID to open a bank account, buy alcohol or tobacco, and obtain welfare (in states that require it!), despite scant calls to reform those activities over disenfranchisement.

🚨 WOW. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries has now ADMITTED he’s refusing to pass a law ensuring only citizens can vote in elections

“That’s NOT happening.”

Democrats ADMIT they rely on voter fraud. PASS THE SAVE AMERICA ACT! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/C3uQFz0lRX
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) January 31, 2026

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) last week called the SAVE Act ‘Jim Crow 2.0 across the country,’ and says that the Democrats are “going to do everything we can to stop it.” “It’s really important for us to be clear that we should be making it easier, more accessible for Americans, for U.S. citizens, to vote,” said Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ). “The SAVE Act is far from a bill that’s actually making it more possible for people to vote, and when you’re suppressing so many people, especially because of their last name, because of women, because of many reasons, I think that it makes it really difficult for us to want to support a bill like that.”
Yet, there is broad support for voter ID, including among blacks and hispanics. Democrats in both chambers struggled to reconcile their diehard opposition when 82% of Hispanic voters and 76% of Black voters support a photo ID requirement at the polls, according to a Pew Research Center survey last year. The survey also found that 85% of White voters and 77% of Asian American voters support requiring a government-issued photo ID to vote. While a photo ID requirement is more popular among Republican voters, 95%, Democratic voters also widely support it, at 71%. -Washington Times Even CNN noticed.

POLL: Support for Voter ID:

Black Voters: 76%
White voters: 85%
Latino voters: 82%

Pass the SAVE Act.

pic.twitter.com/ftkKQflZu2
— America (@america) February 3, 2026

If we can train it to do the backflip (most people can’t do one), what else can it learn to do?

• Humanoid Robot Nails Perfect Backflip As Mobility Progress Accelerates (ZH)

Boston Dynamics has released new footage of its flagship humanoid robot program, “Atlas,” showcasing next-level mobility and reinforcing our greatest fears that when these bots are paired with “brains,” adoption can quickly move from factory floors to offensive defense missions.n”Now that the Atlas enterprise platform is getting to work, the research version gets one last run in the sun. Our engineers made one final push to test the limits of full-body control and mobility, with help from the RAI Institute,” Boston Dynamics, which is owned by Hyundai Motor Group, wrote in the description of a video titled “Atlas Airborne.”

The video shows Atlas pulling off an impressive cartwheel, capped by a near-perfect backflip landing, at the Robotics & AI Institute testing facility. The institute is a research organization focused on solving fundamental challenges in robotics and AI. The video also highlights several other mobility accomplishments. What’s clear to us is that these humanoid robots are set to march en masse onto assembly lines, warehouses, and other factory floors this year.mAs we noted earlier, “robot brains” are already here, accelerating the shift from promotional stunts to real-world use cases and, ultimately, mass commercial adoption across manufacturing settings.
We think there is a rising probability here, frankly high enough that someone should start a Polymarket bet, that humanoid robots for dual use could show up at testing grounds in Ukraine as soon as this year. We have warned about the dual-use risk even as leading companies, including Boston Dynamics, Agility Robotics, ANYbotics, Clearpath Robotics, Open Robotics, Unitree, and Figure AI, publicly state they will not weaponize their bots. To our knowledge, Foundation is the only U.S. humanoid robotics developer with an offensive contract with the Department of Defense.
These bots have gone from clunky machines that could barely walk in a straight line to running and doing flips in just several years. Our reporting should give readers a framework for the 2030s that makes dual-use humanoid robots unavoidable.

Not fit for the Debt Rattle format, because much too long, but I want to point you to it.

• The Myth of the American Free Press: A History – Part I of II (Wilson)

Something odd happens to the human brain when we watch a smooth presenter on television. Fluency reads as intelligence. Comfort reads as authority. Tone communicates confidence, sympathy, or righteous anger before a single claim is evaluated. A person at ease on camera appears to possess a wisdom beyond that of ordinary people. But turn the set around. Behind that presenter is an army: writers, editors, producers, lighting specialists, camera operators, and teleprompter technicians, all working to deliver not just information but mood. The authority we perceive is produced, not discovered.

Print journalism is no different, only quieter. Editors, publishers, advertisers, political actors, and persistent complainants all exert pressure on what gets covered and how. This does not mean journalists are dishonest. It means authority is structural. The modern tendency to treat journalism as a secular oracle did not arise naturally. It was built, reinforced by technology, culture, and myth. To understand why that authority now feels unstable, it helps to look backward, back to when the press was a critical element in the birth of the United States.
Pamphlets, Papers, and the Birth of the Republic
American journalism began as argument. Before the United States existed, pamphlets and newspapers circulated openly partisan claims. The most consequential example is The Federalist Papers, published in newspapers as a public argument for ratifying the Constitution. These essays did not pretend to neutrality. They explained power, acknowledged tradeoffs, and trusted readers to reason. Without them, ratification would almost certainly have failed. Instead of one united nation, we would have remained a collection of squabbling states subject to absorption by the next strong power that came along.
Journalism earned early prestige not by being impartial, but by being useful. It treated citizens as adults capable of judging competing claims. Benjamin Franklin understood this instinctively. As printer, editor, and satirist, he grasped both persuasion and commerce. A press that could not survive could not matter. bEarly newspapers were openly partisan. Bias was visible. Authority was contestable. Trust arose not from neutrality, but from pluralism, from rivalry that constrained exaggeration and error That origin story still shapes how journalists see themselves. The press helped build the nation, and unlike many institutions, it has never fully disowned that legacy. But embedded in that self-image was an irony: journalism learned to criticize everything except itself.
In the nineteenth century, journalism discovered that story moves people more reliably than argument alone.Industrialization expanded readership. Newspapers became mass products. Charles Dickens pioneered the use of serialized reporting and fiction to expose poverty and institutional cruelty, and American papers followed his lucrative model. Dickens’s techniques made readers feel conditions, not just understand them. Advocacy and readership reinforced one another. Mark Twain reached similar conclusions through satire. Humor, timing, and voice mattered. Journalism did not need to be neutral to be effective. It needed to land.
The abolitionist press took this further. Its journalism was unapologetically partisan and morally urgent, relying on vivid personal narratives. Much of it was true. Some of it was exaggerated. The cause was just, and the methods worked. The lesson endured: once a cause is framed as morally existential, emotional narrative outranks verification. Truth without force can be ignored. Truth delivered through story cannot.

“In the end, Vance and his mother have overcome far greater challenges than this vicious columnist or the hatefest at Bluesky..”.

• NY Times Columnist Says Vance’s Mother Should Have Sold Him (Turley)

In an age of rage, it is often difficult to stand out in the mob as so many pander to the perpetually irate. However, New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie has found a way to win the race to the bottom. In a posting on Bluesky, Bouie mocked the account of the addiction of the mother of Vice President J.D. Vance, saying that she should have sold her son for drugs.nBouie used Bluesky (the digital safe zone for the viewpoint intolerant on the left) to post one of the most reprehensible attacks on Vance. Bouie wrote that “this is a wicked man who knows he is being wicked and does it anyway.” That is hardly notable on today’s rage scale. However, he then decided to use the painful addiction history of Beverly Aikins against her son:

“No wonder his mom tried to sell him for Percocets. [I] can’t imagine a parent who wouldn’t sell little JD for percocet if they knew he would turn out like this.’ Vance wrote a celebrated bestseller, “Hillbilly Elegy,” about his difficult childhood with a mother who became addicted to pain medication and eventually found herself stealing drugs from her patients. It was a tragic account of how addiction tore their family apart, but also a tale of redemption: “I knew that a mother could love her son despite the grip of addiction. I knew that my family loved me, even when they struggled to take care of themselves.” In April of last year, Vance celebrated his mother’s decade of sobriety.
As I discuss in my new book “Rage and the Republic,” a common element to past radical movements has been the dehumanization of political opponents. In calling others “Gestapo,” “fascists,” and “Nazis,” you achieve a certain license to say and do things that you would ordinarily never say or do. By stripping them of any humanity or right to empathy, you are free to discard the limitations of decency and civility. Rage is itself a type of drug. It is addictive and, while they never admit it, they like it. Bouie shows the lack of self-awareness in his hateful posts, objecting that “this is a wicked man who knows he is being wicked and does it anyway.”
It is the ultimate example of transference; a self-description ascribed to those you hate. On his New York Times bio, Bouie insists that “I come from a left-leaning, social democratic perspective, but I strive for honesty, fairness and good faith in my writing.” He adds that “I abide by the same rigorous ethical standards as all Times journalists.” If using Vance’s tragic childhood and his mother’s addiction is an example of the “fairness and good faith” of the New York Times, it is a chilling prospect. In his book, Vance observes that the children of broken and impoverished homes often give up hope, as he did:
“Psychologists call it “learned helplessness” when a person believes, as I did during my youth, that the choices I made had no effect on the outcomes in my life.” He found that choices do matter in shaping your life. We all make such choices, as did Bouie in becoming another voice of rage and the New York Times in giving him a platform to amplify his views. It is the same choice that the Times makes in barring a U.S. senator and firing editors for exposing readers to alternative viewpoints while publishing those who advocate repression or rationalize political violence. To the obvious appeal of its readers, the paper now peddles in hate to feed a national addiction.
In the end, Vance and his mother have overcome far greater challenges than this vicious columnist or the hatefest at Bluesky. From adversity, they found a strength and a bond that has inspired many who are struggling with such addictions and poverty. It is clear who is “wicked” in these postings. Perhaps it is even strangely edifying and self-condemning. As Victor Hugo observed, “the wicked envy and hate; it is their way of admiring.”

“Trump previously questioned Machado’s suitability for office, saying she “doesn’t have the support or the respect within the country.”

• Trump Officials Slam Venezuelan Nobel Winner As ‘Spoiler’ (RT)

White House officials have grown “frustrated” with anti-Maduro Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado over her remarks on the timing of elections in Venezuela, Politico reported on Friday, citing sources. Earlier this week, Machado, an opposition leader who backed the US intervention in Venezuela and the abduction of President Nicolas Maduro in early January, told Politico that voting could be implemented fairly quickly, suggesting nine to ten months as a possible timeframe.

According to a White House adviser who spoke to the outlet on condition of anonymity, Machado’s comments “rubbed some people the wrong way,” with the official accusing her of “undermining the president’s policy success,” including the release of political prisoners, joint law-enforcement operations between the two countries, and other areas of cooperation.m“All Maria Corina Machado does is try to negate all of this… she’s selfish,” the adviser said. “None of this is ‘Operation Maria Corina Machado.’ It’s ‘Operation US national security,’ which is not tied to her in any way. She’s a spoiler and she’s working against US national security goals.”
Another person close to the White House said the former congresswoman “shouldn’t be opining on a time frame,” adding that “[24] months is a more realistic time frame.” In a statement to Politico, the White House stressed that elections cannot happen “overnight” and would be held “at the right time,” adding that US President Donald Trump’s top priority is rebuilding the country before an election takes place.n Machado’s office dismissed the criticism as “media noise” and rumors, insisting that the opposition is “closely aligned” with the US government “in our approach.”
Trump previously questioned Machado’s suitability for office, saying she “doesn’t have the support or the respect within the country.” Machado, a former congresswoman with longstanding ties to Washington who has led anti-government protests, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in December for what the committee described as her struggle for a peaceful democratic transition. She later gifted the medal to Trump, though the Nobel Committee has insisted that the prize “cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others.”

ALERT: 🚨 Former Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor warns of catastrophic BOND MARKET collapse if China DUMPS all US Treasury bonds.

"We're in a very fragile position right now with regard to our bond market.. looming debt and our inability to service it."

"The Chinese can do a… pic.twitter.com/OpFjOuJx7w
— TRENDING ➞ 911 (@911NewsBreaks) February 6, 2026

The oceans hold roughly 50 times more carbon than the atmosphere. Through Henry’s Law, the atmosphere and the ocean are constantly seeking equilibrium. When the oceans warm, even slightly, they release CO₂ via outgassing. When they cool, they absorb it. Because the ocean is so… pic.twitter.com/zZTqyD3gvq
— Peter Clack (@PeterDClack) February 7, 2026

🚨 It’s a political earthquake 🚨

Two of the most powerful medical institutions in the United States just blew up one of the Left’s most protected sacred cows. pic.twitter.com/ia2mR7t21a
— Scott Jennings (@ScottJenningsKY) February 8, 2026

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Debt Rattle September 1 2025

Sep 012025

September 1, 2025 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:40 am Finance Tagged with: end times, fertility rate, Gavin Newsom, Germany, Lisa Cook, mission creep, Moldova, voter ID, War Party 59 Responses »

Elaine de Kooning Fairfield Porter #1 1954

• Are the End Times Upon Us? (Paul Craig Robets)

• Europe Could ‘Die Out’ – Musk (RT)

• Zelensky Threatens ‘New Deep Strikes’ Into Russia (RT)

• European ‘War Party’ Hindering Ukraine Peace Process – Kremlin (RT)

• Germany Gives Up On Idea Of Sending Troops To Ukraine – Bild (RT)

• The Assassination of One of The Founders Of Zelensky’s Ukraine (Romanenko)

• Someone Killed Victoria Nulands’ Former 2014 Maidan Point of Contact (CTH)

• EU Elites Hijacked Moldova’s Independence (Ibragimov)

• French PM Admits Debt Will Devastate Next Generation (RT)

• Germany Blocks EU Sanctions On Israel (RT)

• Germany Reveals Most Popular Names Among Welfare Recipients (RT)

• Lisa Cook and the Fed’s Mission Creep Into Wokeness (Gasparino)

• Gavin Newsom Comes for Sen. Kennedy in Crime Debate (RS)

• Newsom Is Copying Trump So He Can Run for President (Margolis)

• Intel Chiefs Behind Russiagate Should Be Arrested – Trump (RT)

• Trump Says He Will Issue Executive Order to Require Voter ID (ET)

https://twitter.com/GuntherEagleman/status/1961963545593061825

https://twitter.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1962186488298537147

Moon

New information is coming out about the, "moon landing." pic.twitter.com/2OXKAbTVkh

— Girl patriot (@Girlpatriot1974) August 30, 2025

$2B
https://twitter.com/mcafeenew/status/1961921378354909588

CDC

The real reason for the recent CDC resignations is that the ACIP Subcommittee on COVID 19 vaccines got approval to investigate the safety and efficacy of COVID vaccines, and they knew the gig was up, the truth was about to come out, and they would have to account for their…

— Robert W Malone, MD (@RWMaloneMD) August 31, 2025

Gates

A major purge is underway at the White House, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. firing dozens of Bill Gates-connected officials from CDC, HHS, and NIH to dismantle a corrupt biomedical regime influenced by Gates. CDC Director Susan Monarez was dismissed for insubordination after… pic.twitter.com/qxmuTsezcL

— ꪻꫝể ꪻꫝể (@TheThe1776) August 30, 2025

Ladapo

Dr. Ladapo is brilliantly articulate – as usual. https://t.co/6UN7d3wXuh

— Robert W Malone, MD (@RWMaloneMD) August 30, 2025

A bit over the top, perhaps?

• Are the End Times Upon Us? (Paul Craig Robets)

A 23 year old transgender freak fired into a church killing two children and wounding many. The concern expressed by Jacob Frey, mayor of Minneapolis? “The shooting should not be an excuse for people to direct hate at our trans community.” The unexamined question is why did random shootings of strangers appear for the first time in 1966? There was no such thing in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. At Georgia Tech students had guns in their dorm rooms and fraternity houses. At UVa students had guns and whiskey in their dorm rooms. No one was shot. Today guns are prohibited on campuses, and there are constant shootings that have spread to work places, shopping malls, and churches.

Clearly, something has changed to cause behavior, which my generation never would have considered, to become increasingly common. What is the cause? Is it the endless number of vaccinations? The antidepressants needed? My generation did not have the vaccinations and antidepressants and did not need them. Is it the distancing from God caused by endless liberal attacks on Christianity? Is it the milieu of hatred created by endless denunciations? Is it the lack of restraint and self-control that modern child raising produces? It doesn’t help to understand what has happened to blame guns. Karl Marx would scoff at the reification of inanimate objects by liberals. As long as causes, such as gun control, use the shootings for their agenda, we will not obtain insight into what has produced a 23 year old person who can fire away at children in a church.

The replacement of moral and responsible behavior with irrational murder for no visible purpose desperately needs explanation. Has Satan taken over, thereby removing morality as a constraint on imperfect humans? This is an interesting question. Is it a question of pills, vaccinations, broken homes, the 2nd Amendment, or any other stock explanation, or are we, weakened as we are by the decline in religious belief, faced with the triumph of evil over good? Watching the world’s indifference to the Israeli extermination of the Palestinian people, has Satan decided that now is his time? Has Satan made a good decision? Is there any moral strength anywhere in the world capable of resisting Evil? Where is the effort to abolish nuclear weapons which can abolish Earth? Is the traditional alliance of Israel with Satan taking us into The End Times?

“The replacement fertility rate is generally set at 2.1 children per woman [..] ..this level may be insufficient, pointing to a long-term survival threshold closer to 2.7 children per woman.

• Europe Could ‘Die Out’ – Musk (RT)

Europe could “die out” unless it fixes its demographic problems by boosting birth rates, tech billionaire Elon Musk has warned. In a post on X on Saturday, Musk was responding to statistics from Scotland showing 34% more deaths than births in the first half of 2025. “Unless the birth rate at least gets back to replacement rate, Europe will die out,” he wrote, referring to the average number of children needed per couple for a population to replace itself. The replacement fertility rate is generally set at 2.1 children per woman, accounting for child mortality and near-equal gender ratios at birth. Recent studies, however, suggest that this level may be insufficient, pointing to a long-term survival threshold closer to 2.7 children per woman.

Unless the birth rate at least gets back to replacement rate, Europe will die out https://t.co/0COU5Zj9QM

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 30, 2025

According to the UK’s Office for National Statistics, the fertility rate in England and Wales fell to 1.4 in 2024, while Scotland’s stood at 1.3 – both far below replacement levels. In the EU, fertility has been declining for years, reaching a record low of 1.4 live births per woman in 2023. Musk, a vocal advocate for higher birth rates who has fathered at least 14 children and donated millions to fertility research, has often raised the alarm over the demographic decline in Europe. His warnings, however, extend beyond Europe. Musk has cited global demographic data, claiming that civilization “is going to crumble” unless birth rates rise. He previously argued that population collapse due to low fertility “is a much bigger risk to civilization” than climate change.

Either Europe starts having large families or it will keep dying https://t.co/UNX72ZRn98

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 14, 2025

Worldwide, fertility has been falling for over 50 years. UN data shows it stood at around 2.2 births per woman in 2024, down from 5 in the 1970s and 3.3 in the 1990s. Only 45% of countries and areas – home to roughly a third of the global population – reported fertility levels at or above 2.1 last year. Just 13% had fertility rates of 4.0 or higher, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, Afghanistan, Sudan, and Yemen. Falling birth rates and population decline have also become a pressing issue for Russia, with Rosstat recording just 1.2 million births in 2024 – the lowest since 1999 – reflecting a fertility rate of 1.4.

“Ukraine has long turned into a testing ground for Western weapons. There are more than enough examples.”

• Zelensky Threatens ‘New Deep Strikes’ Into Russia (RT)

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has threatened new strikes into Russia, days after claiming that Kiev possessed a brand-new long-range missile capable of reaching Moscow. Zelensky wrote on Telegram that he had been briefed by Ukraine’s commander-in-chief, Aleksandr Syrsky, on the current battlefield situation. “We will continue our active actions exactly as needed to protect Ukraine. Forces and means are prepared. New deep strikes have also been planned,” he said on Sunday, without providing further details. Earlier this month, Zelensky claimed Ukraine had developed the long-range Flamingo missile with a reported range of 3,000 kilometers – which would be enough to reach not only Moscow but also Russian cities beyond the Ural mountains. The Ukrainian leader, however, said that mass production is not expected for the next several months.

British media outlets cast doubts on whether the Flamingo was developed in Ukraine, noting similarities with the FP-5 cruise missile produced by the UK-based Milanion Group and unveiled at an arms expo in Abu Dhabi this year. The UK has also been supportive of Kiev’s long-range strikes, having provided it with Storm Shadow missiles in the past. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted that there is “nothing surprising” in the similarities, adding that “Ukraine has long turned into a testing ground for Western weapons. There are more than enough examples.” On Friday, the Kyiv Independent also reported that Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau has launched an investigation into Fire Point, the defense firm linked to the development of the Flamingo missile, after reports it misled the government on pricing and deliveries.

Earlier this month the Wall Street Journal reported that the US had blocked Ukraine from carrying out strikes deep inside Russian territory. Throughout the conflict, some of Kiev’s Western backers have been wary of authorizing unrestricted strikes into Russia using Western-supplied weapons, citing concerns over escalation with Moscow. Ukraine has regularly carried out long-range attacks inside Russia, which Moscow says frequently hit civilian areas and critical infrastructure. Russia has retaliated with strikes on Ukrainian military-related facilities and defense enterprises but maintains that it never targets civilians.

“..in stark contrast to the approach pursued” by Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.”

• European ‘War Party’ Hindering Ukraine Peace Process – Kremlin (RT)

The European “war party” is trying to sabotage the diplomatic process launched by the US and Russia to end the Ukraine conflict, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. He added that this approach contradicts the efforts of US President Donald Trump. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have for months floated the idea of sending a joint military contingent to Ukraine in a so-called peacekeeping capacity if Kiev and Moscow reach a truce or peace deal. Moscow has strongly opposed the presence of NATO troops in Ukraine in any role. On Sunday, Peskov said the stance of the “European war party” is “in stark contrast to the approach pursued” by Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“The Europeans are hindering the [peace] efforts,” as part of their strategy to “contain” Russia, the Kremlin spokesperson told journalists. He added that certain NATO member states have been encouraging Ukraine to refuse to negotiate with Russia in good faith – a strategy that “will do no good to the Kiev regime.” “Russia is still ready to settle the [conflict] by political-diplomatic means,” Peskov said, but Kiev has to show reciprocity for the hostilities to end. Last weekend, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov argued that European nations “don’t want peace” in Ukraine, citing their reaction to the Putin-Trump summit in Alaska earlier this month.

Last week, speaking to reporters after a follow-up meeting between the US president and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky, as well as several European leaders at the White House, Macron insisted that Europe “will need to help Ukraine with boots on the ground.” Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain, Romania, and Croatia have ruled out taking part in the mission. On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that a significant proportion of the EU population is “opposed to any deployment that places troops in harm’s way.”

“..Trump’s stance put a halt to Berlin’s discussions about deployment “until further notice.”

• Germany Gives Up On Idea Of Sending Troops To Ukraine – Bild (RT)

Berlin has shelved plans to possibly deploy German soldiers to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire, Bild reported on Sunday, citing government sources. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had earlier signaled openness to Berlin joining a possible peacekeeping mission in Ukraine. The idea had been floated by the so-called “coalition of the willing” – a group of Western states pushing for continued aid to Kiev. The group has proposed deploying NATO troops to monitor a potential future ceasefire with Russia as part of security guarantees for Ukraine, despite Moscow’s consistent rejection of any Western military presence in Ukraine under any guise. Trump, however, said last week that American troops would not be deployed to Ukraine, insisting that the EU should “front load” security guarantees for Kiev, not the US, including with regard to peacekeepers.

According to Bild, Trump’s stance put a halt to Berlin’s discussions about deployment “until further notice.” Sources told the outlet the idea could return “should Trump take action” or once Moscow and Kiev reach a settlement. In an interview with ZDF on Sunday, Merz confirmed the U-turn, saying “nobody is talking about ground troops at this point” and indicating discussions could resume once a ceasefire is in place. Instead, Germany reportedly plans to provide financial security guarantees to Ukraine. Sources claimed Berlin intends for the Bundeswehr to continue training Ukrainian soldiers, expand weapons production in Ukraine with German arms firms, and potentially cover part of Ukrainian soldiers’ salaries after a ceasefire to ensure Kiev maintains sufficient forces.

Kiev has demanded security guarantees from Western backers as a precondition for a peace deal. Moscow has not ruled out such guarantees in principle but rejects efforts made without its participation. It has also opposed any Western troop presence in Ukraine, stressing that NATO’s expansion toward its borders was one of the key causes of the conflict. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Friday that guarantees must be the result of a settlement, not a precondition, and must take into account Russia’s security. She added that any deal should ensure Ukraine’s demilitarization, denazification, neutral and non-nuclear status, and recognition of territorial realities.

“He knew the true sponsors and curators. He knew which political figures, which structures, which financial backers prepared and paid for the bloody upheaval.”

• The Assassination of One of The Founders Of Zelensky’s Ukraine (Romanenko)

All of Ukraine’s political elite will loudly point to Moscow as the hand behind the murder of former parliamentary speaker Andrey Parubiy. They will cry out in public that Russia is to blame, repeating the same narrative of the “Russian trace.” But in private, they all know the truth: it was his own people that came for him.

The idea that Parubiy was eliminated by the authorities themselves, while sounding outrageous to some, is a version that carries weight, even if many prefer not to believe it. Why? Because Parubiy was one of the few men in Ukraine who truly knew how to build a Maidan. He had organized the barricades in 2014, commanded the Maidan “self-defense,” and knew every method of bringing people into the streets and holding them there against state power. His reputation came from exactly this talent. And in today’s Ukraine, the possibility of another Maidan is very real. For those in power, such a possibility is dangerous, and removing the man who could light the match makes a grim kind of sense.

But there is another explanation, one far darker and one in which almost everyone believes, even if few Ukrainians will say so out loud. Parubiy carried too many secrets – and in Ukraine, secrets can be fatal. He knew far too much about the real shooters on the Maidan in February 2014. As “commandant,” he oversaw the units who guarded the square, and he was positioned to see what others could not. He knew what really happened when the snipers opened fire, when the bloodbath claimed lives and forced Yanukovich to flee. He knew names, structures, and the chain of command. That knowledge made him dangerous.

He also knew the truth about Odessa, May 2, 2014 – the day the Trade Union House went up in flames and dozens of anti-Maidan activists died. International monitors called it a massacre, but the state buried accountability. Parubiy, as head of the National Security and Defense Council at the time, was in the middle of it all. He saw who gave the orders, who turned away, who allowed the fire to consume the building. Those responsible never faced justice, and Parubiy carried the story inside his head. He knew the full picture of the early days in Donbass, when provocations, manipulations, and engineered violence pushed Ukraine into a war against its own people. He knew the true sponsors and curators. He knew which political figures, which structures, which financial backers prepared and paid for the bloody upheaval. All of this knowledge made him a threat not to Russia, but to those much closer: the networks who had built their power in those years and who now sit on fragile foundations.

For them, Parubiy, – a close ally of former President Pyotr Poroshenko, beaten by Vladimir Zelensky in 2019 – was no longer an asset. He was a liability. And in the brutal logic of power, liabilities are erased. This is why his assassination looks less like an act of foreign aggression and more like an act of internal housecleaning. It was a calculated decision to tidy up loose ends, to remove a man who could, at any moment, destabilize the whole system by speaking truths that were never meant to surface. His silence was demanded, and silence was achieved.

“Andriy Parubiy knew a lot about western intelligence operations in Ukraine. Andriy Parubiy is dead now. Volodymyr Zelenskyy knows a lot about western intelligence operations in Ukraine.”

• Someone Killed Victoria Nulands’ Former 2014 Maidan Point of Contact (CTH)

Previously Chairman, now serving as a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, Andriy Parubiy was shot several times with a short-barreled firearm, police said. Parubiy died on the spot. The perpetrator, who fled the scene and has not yet been identified, was “thoroughly prepared” according to local authorities. Andriy Parubiy was the primary Ukrainian political activist during Victoria Nuland’s organized Maidan revolution. In common parlance, this assassination might be considered throwing a bag over a potential risk. Remember, CNN is to the State Dept as the Washington Post is to the CIA.

(VIA CNN) – […] Parubiy participated in 2004’s Orange Revolution, where hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians joined in peaceful protest following disputed elections. He was also a prominent figure in the Maidan Revolution, a movement which began in November 2013 after then-President Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign a trade pact with the European Union that had been years in the making, opting instead for closer ties with neighboring Russia. During the revolution, which lasted three months, Parubiy was the head of an enormous tent city established by thousands of protesters in Kyiv’s central Independence Square, known as the Maidan.

He was later the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council during 2014. In 2019, Parubiy signed a bill to make the use of the Ukrainian language mandatory in certain public sectors, calling it a “historic day.” Long ago, the opposition elements in eastern Ukraine labeled Parubiy a ‘nazi’ and accused him of working in collaboration with U.S. intelligence (CIA).

Andriy Parubiy knew a lot about western intelligence operations in Ukraine. Andriy Parubiy is dead now. Volodymyr Zelenskyy knows a lot about western intelligence operations in Ukraine.

“..it was the Moldovan diaspora in Western Europe that tipped the balance. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Moldovans living in Russia were effectively sidelined..”

• EU Elites Hijacked Moldova’s Independence (Ibragimov)

On August 27, Chisinau turned into a stage for a geopolitical spectacle. To mark the country’s 34th Independence Day, Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz, and Donald Tusk flew in for the celebrations. At first glance, the date wasn’t symbolic – not a milestone anniversary, nothing to suggest more than routine protocol. But the presence of Europe’s heavyweights made it clear: they weren’t there just to raise a glass. Their message was unmistakable – Moldova’s path must remain firmly European, and the door to Moscow must stay shut. The timing was no accident either. In less than a month, Moldovans will vote in parliamentary elections that could decide whether the ruling party manages to hold onto power.

That’s why the visit was less about congratulating the country and more about sending a signal: Brussels stands squarely behind Maia Sandu’s government and is determined to keep a tight grip on the direction of Moldova’s foreign policy. The speeches in Chisinau read less like polite congratulations and more like marching orders. Macron spoke of “friendship, solidarity, and confidence in our shared future.” Tusk declared that “Europe will be stronger with Moldova” and praised the country’s “values and resilience.” Merz, for his part, assured the crowd that “Germany, France, and Poland stand with a free and European Moldova.” Translated from diplomatic niceties, the message was blunt: Brussels sees Moldova as part of its buffer zone – and it’s prepared to squeeze until any attempt to restore ties with Russia becomes political suicide.

All of this is happening against the backdrop of a decisive vote. On September 28, Moldovans head to the polls in parliamentary elections that could reshape the country’s politics for years. The ruling Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) is at real risk of losing its majority. That’s why Independence Day was staged as a dress rehearsal for the campaign: photo ops with European leaders, warnings about “hybrid threats,” and promises of support from Brussels. The goal was clear – to lock the country into a narrative of “Europe or chaos,” leaving no room for pragmatic recalibration or any attempt at balancing ties with Moscow.

Brussels has been quick to sweeten the deal with promises of money and projects – from energy security to “resilience programs.” The sums and instruments are already being touted publicly. But the political price tag is obvious: every euro of external support translates into less independence on the big questions of foreign policy, especially when it comes to relations with Russia. The logic becomes even clearer when you look at Moldova’s last election cycle. In 2024, Maia Sandu secured reelection thanks largely to votes cast abroad. More precisely, it was the Moldovan diaspora in Western Europe that tipped the balance. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Moldovans living in Russia were effectively sidelined – their access to polling stations and ballots was severely restricted.

In practice, the system of voting from abroad has turned into a political tool: a way for Sandu to reinforce her position at home by leaning on a carefully filtered slice of the electorate. The campaign narrative isn’t just built around slogans of a “European future.” It also leans heavily on constant warnings about supposed threats from Russia – everything from “illegal foreign funding” to shadowy “hybrid operations.” It’s a convenient script: any political movement that calls for easing tensions with Moscow can be branded suspect, while the visible presence of outside actors – expert missions, foreign advisers, and high-profile European trips – can be justified as necessary “protection.” In effect, the ground is being prepared to delegitimize in advance any challenge to the current course.

He’s up for a confidence vote in a week. That works like a truth serum.

• French PM Admits Debt Will Devastate Next Generation (RT)

France has saddled the younger generations with debts they’ll be paying off their entire lives, French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou has said. Paris continuously borrows in the interest of “boomers” and “certain political parties,” he added. On Monday, Bayrou said he urged President Emmanuel Macron to reconvene parliament by September 8 for a confidence vote to gauge support for his €43.8 billion ($50.9 billion) austerity measures plan. The prime minister has long sounded the alarm over the country’s spiraling budget deficit, which hit 5.8% of GDP last year – almost double the EU 3% ceiling. The primary victims of the government debt will be the “youngest French people,” Bayrou said in an interview with French broadcaster TF1 on Wednesday.

“They’re the victims; they’re the ones who will have to pay the debt for the rest of their lives,” he said, adding that Paris is trying to convince them that more borrowing is needed. “All this for the comfort of certain political parties and for the comfort of the so-called boomers.” His proposals to battle France’s $3.98 billion government debt have included scrapping public holidays, slashing public sector jobs, as well as welfare and pensions cuts. The program has been criticized by left-wing parties, who have accused Paris of prioritizing military spending over social welfare. Macron has promised to increase France’s military budget to €64 billion by 2027, citing external threats.

Paris has warned of a potential war scenario within the next five years, naming Russia as one of the principal threats – claims which Moscow has dismissed. Bayrou’s proposed budget has not been well received by the French public, polls suggest. While most French people agree with the prime minister’s alarmism about the national debt, 76% believe his budget will not help, and 82% see it as socially unfair, according to an Elabe survey from Tuesday. Around 81% want a new prime minister to be elected, and 67% called for Macron’s resignation, according to Elabe’s poll. Nearly three-quarters say they want Bayrou to fail in the vote on September 8, which is to be his ninth no-confidence motion.

“.. the bloc has not imposed “a single measure” against Israel, contrasting it with the bloc’s unity in sanctioning Russia..”

• Germany Blocks EU Sanctions On Israel (RT)

Germany has blocked the European Commission’s latest proposal to sanction Israel over the war in Gaza, Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has said. Israel has faced growing backlash over its conduct in the conflict, accused of allowing almost no aid into the enclave. Several Western states have announced plans to recognize a Palestinian state, and in some cases, scale back military and trade cooperation with Israel. The European Commission last week proposed suspending Israel’s participation in the Horizon Europe research program, cutting off funding for Israeli start-ups in drone technology, cybersecurity, and AI. This was intended to pressure Israel to improve humanitarian aid deliveries, according to a draft resolution.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an EU meeting in Copenhagen on Saturday, Wadephul said Germany rejected the plan, as it was “not convinced” that curbing Israel’s access to EU research funds would influence its military action. Instead, he noted that Berlin has already restricted the delivery of weapons that can be used in Gaza, suggesting Brussels should focus on similar steps. “I believe this is a very targeted measure, one that is very important and very necessary,” he said. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas acknowledged on Saturday that the bloc is divided on the issue, and that she is “not very optimistic” that ministers will reach an agreement soon, even though it does not require full unanimity. She added that some states want stronger economic pressure.

Denmark, which holds the EU’s rotating presidency, recently signaled support for tougher sanctions, such as suspending trade with Israel. Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares and his Slovenian counterpart, Tanja Fajon, have condemned the EU’s inaction over Gaza. Fajon told Bloomberg this week that the bloc has not imposed “a single measure” against Israel, contrasting it with the bloc’s unity in sanctioning Russia over the Ukraine conflict. The Gaza conflict began in 2023 when Hamas militants attacked Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages. Since then, Israeli forces have killed more than 61,000 people in the enclave. A UN-backed panel earlier this month declared that there is a famine in northern Gaza, with over half a million people on the brink of starvation.

We know in advance.

• Germany Reveals Most Popular Names Among Welfare Recipients (RT)

‘Mohammed’ and ‘Ahmad’ are among the most common names of welfare recipients in Germany, according to newly revised figures released by the federal government. ‘Olena’, a Ukrainian variant of Helen, is the only female name in the top ten. Germany’s unemployment rate reached 6.4% in August, with the total number of jobless people exceeding 3 million for the first time in a decade. According to Federal Employment Agency data, 5.42 million people were receiving welfare benefits at the end of 2024 – of which 48% were foreigners, compared to 19.6% in 2010. The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party had requested information on the most common first names of recipients to support its argument about the failure of integration.

In June, the Labor Ministry replied that the leading names were ‘Michael’, ‘Andreas’, and ‘Thomas’, followed by ‘Daniel’, ‘Olena’, and ‘Alexander’ – prompting media ridicule of the AfD. However, the initial list did not combine different spellings of names, such as ‘Thomas’ and ‘Tomas’, ‘Mohammed’ and ‘Mohamed’, listing them separately. The revised data placed ‘Mohammed’ – spread across 19 spellings – in first place with nearly 40,000 entries, followed by ‘Michael’ with around 24,600 and ‘Ahmad’ with more than 20,600. ‘Olena’ remained the only female name among the top ten, with around 14,200 entries. Germany is the EU’s top migrant destination and the world’s third-largest refugee-hosting country, according to UN data.

Under former Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open-border policies, more than a million people arrived from Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq during the 2015 migrant influx. In recent years, the country has granted temporary protection to 1.2 million Ukrainians and received 334,000 asylum applications in 2023, nearly a third of the EU total. The migrant crisis has strained housing, public services and finances, contributing to the rise of the AfD, which has recently led national polls as Germany’s most popular political party. The AfD came in second in February’s federal election with 152 seats in the 630-seat Bundestag, but was excluded from coalition talks. Germany’s domestic intelligence agency (BfV) has designated the AfD a “confirmed extremist entity.” While that classification was temporarily suspended, senior officials have continued to seek legal grounds to pursue a formal ban of the party.

“Go back a few years to her messy confirmation battle and you will see how Cook is anything but apolitical.”

• Lisa Cook and the Fed’s Mission Creep Into Wokeness (Gasparino)

Fed Governor Lisa Cook is standing up to Donald Trump, suing to keep her job because she says the president is trumping up a scandal and she’s fighting for Fed independence. Trump has called for Cook’s head for allegedly committing mortgage fraud by signing documents that she had two primary residences. We should let the courts decide that one. But Cook’s notion that she’s standing up for the sanctity of the Fed should be taken with a grain of salt. The Fed has long been distracted by side hustles to its “dual mandate” of price stability within the context of maximum employment. It’s far from an apolitical agency. Even more, Cook’s own appointment by Joe Biden in 2022 is an example of how politics, particularly of the left-wing variety, has been infused into the Fed’s plumbing. In getting rid of Cook, you can make the case that Trump — in his own messy way — is righting the ship.

The markets may be signaling this — despite media talking heads and those of some Fed watchers exploding over Trump’s latest alleged apostasy. The establishment commentariat is arguing that not being able to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell or even Cook except for some on-the-job crime, aka cause — is why people keep buying our debt. The nation’s central bank created by Congress to manage the money supply doesn’t report to the president. It’s not subject to his political whims to juice economic growth at the expense of “King Dollar.” OK, all good points. But stocks and bond yields have barely budged. The stated reasons in a recent Wall Street Journal piece: Traders believe Trump will appoint seasoned pros to fill the jobs of both Cook and his main Fed nemesis, Powell. Yes, but my sources provide a more prescient analysis of the market’s insouciance: Trump is merely putting his MAGA stamp on the independence charade.

Many big investors are unfazed by Trump’s power grab because for years the Fed has been straying from its mandate — constantly intervening in the economy by playing with the money supply when it isn’t needed and most recently becoming woke. Lisa Cook’s nomination in 2022, subsequent confirmation by the then Democrat-controlled and woke-obsessed Senate is part of the proof. Don’t believe me? Here’s what Larry Summers, Bill Clinton s former treasury secretary, former Harvard president and one of the most important economic minds on monetary policy said in 2021 about the Fed’s mission-creep: “We have a generation of central bankers who are defining themselves by their wokeness. They’re defining themselves by how socially concerned they are. They re defining themselves how concerned they are about the environment… business ethics.

In 2022, the Fed developed a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategic Plan to reflect the Federal Reserve Boar’s strategic initiative on diversity, equity, and inclusion, which is a shared responsibility of all Board employees. Now tell me exactly how DEI, which the Supreme Court says is discriminatory and common sense tells you erodes the nation’s meritocracy, helps the Fed figure out if it’s stoking inflation as it did just a few years ago during Joe Biden’s reign of error? Or maybe I should be directing that question to Lisa Cook. Her lawyer argued Friday before a federal judge that her firing by Trump is “unprecedented and illegal” in that it exceeds the president’s authority over an independent, nonpolitical agency. Go back a few years to her messy confirmation battle and you will see how Cook is anything but apolitical.

Yes, she has a Ph.D. in econ, from Berkeley no less, and was a longtime academic. She is the first African-American woman to serve as a Fed governor, which should be celebrated. But during the hearings we discovered that her areas of interest in economics, based on her publishing record, are dominated by stuff like how lynchings hindered the economic growth of black Americans. There is a place for such research at the university — though you gotta ask yourself why we need an economist to explain something so fundamentally obvious. Look into Cook’s résumé and you see this is an economist who seems more obsessed with being a social-justice warrior than weighing the vicissitudes of M2 and how it impacts price stability.

“..he’s put the funk into dysfunction.”

• Gavin Newsom Comes for Sen. Kennedy in Crime Debate (RS)

One of the tactics Gavin Newsom has used over the last several weeks to try and get the upper hand in the crime debate is using misleading and, in some cases, false crime data impressions in an attempt to make the case that red states have bigger crime issues than California, while proclaiming crime in California’s biggest blue cities is allegedly down by double digits. A frequent target for Newsom and his Baghdad Bob School of Communications graduates has been Louisiana, not just because it’s a red state but also because it’s home to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). In a recent interview with left-wing YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen, for instance, Newsom said, “I think [President Trump] should start with Shreveport, Louisiana, and Speaker Johnson’s district, that has six-plus times the per capita murder rate of Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco. What about the carnage, Mr. President, in Shreveport? Why aren’t you protecting the folks there?”

As usual, however, Newsom – and his handlers – were way off the mark. The vast majority of Shreveport is in Rep. Cleo Fields’ district. He’s a Democrat. As we’ve also reported, Sen John Kennedy (R-LA) has had a lot to say about Newsom’s seeming “conversion” to crimefighter, something Kennedy instinctively understands has everything to do with the Trump Effect, where Newsom has been shamed at the national level by the POTUS into taking action. “Now you don’t have to be a senior at Caltech to know that [Newsom’s law enforcement surge is] in response to the Trump administration’s threat to send in federal law enforcement officials,” Kennedy stated Friday during a Fox News segment. “But look, I’ll take it, if that’s what it takes to get Gov. Newsom to stop being a princess, I’ll take that, too.”

Sen John Kennedy: Newsom Put The Funk Into Dysfunction

"I've watched Governor Newsom for years and to quote one of my favorite columnists, he's put the funk into dysfunction. Every year that he's been governor, crime and violence has gotten worse in California. Why? Because… pic.twitter.com/pUFbamtRcd

— Mr Producer (@RichSementa) August 29, 2025

Newsom, in turn, filed a hurt feelings report over being called a princess, responding to a tweet from Kennedy by claiming without evidence that, “We’ve been doing this work for years. Perhaps you should take a page out of our book. Your state’s homicide rate is 380% higher than California’s.” Naturally, Kennedy – who has previously referred to Newsom as a “weenie” – has responded accordingly to Newsom’s attacks on his state as only he can: ‘I welcome help. I welcome federal help. I welcome more state help. I welcome local help. Come on down. Look, I’ve watched Gov. Newsom for years, and to quote one of my favorite columnists, he’s put the funk into dysfunction. Every year that he’s been governor, crime and violence has gotten worse in California. Why? Because Gov. Newsom is a member of the socialist wing of his party. Because Gov. Newsom has refused to get up off his ice-cold, lazy butt and do something about it.

Because Gov. Newsom thinks that talking about crime – he’s only doing it under pressure – is racist, because he thinks that cops are a bigger problem than criminals. But I wanna give him credit, maybe he’s had a conversion, but he’s doing the right thing by sending in California state police. And, you know, even a blind chicken finds a mealworm now and then.”

“..he’s thrown at least $24 billion at homelessness programs with nothing to show for it..”

• Newsom Is Copying Trump So He Can Run for President (Margolis)

California Governor Gavin Newsom clearly has his eye on a 2028 presidential run, and apparently he thinks the way to get there is by copying former President Donald Trump’s tough-on-crime playbook. His latest move? Deploying California Highway Patrol crime-suppression teams across major cities including Los Angeles, Sacramento, and San Diego, as well as the Bay Area. These teams are meant to back up local law enforcement in high-crime neighborhoods, targeting repeat offenders, illegal guns, and narcotics. Last year, similar teams racked up over 9,000 arrests, recovered nearly 6,000 stolen vehicles, and seized hundreds of firearms—so on paper, it looks like results. At the same time, Newsom is trying to sell himself as the more “people-focused” alternative to Trump, whom he is accusing of “militarizing American cities” by sending in National Guard troops without state approval.

He’s ridiculed Trump’s so-called “authoritarian tendencies,” and even challenged him to deploy troops in Republican-led states such as Louisiana and Mississippi, where, Newsom claims, homicide rates are far higher than in California. The hypocrisy is obvious, and the White House didn’t let Newsom off easy, mocking him for copying Trump’s crime agenda after previously blasting similar tactics. Spokeswoman Abigail Jackson called it “making crime a partisan issue,” but added, “the more Democrats follow Trump’s lead on cracking down on crime, the better it is for Americans”. Democrats are soft on crime by instinct. It’s their default mode—coddling criminals, ignoring law-abiding citizens, and pretending the problem doesn’t exist. But when political ambition requires it, suddenly they’re “tough on crime,” putting on a performance to save their own skin, rather than actually protecting communities.

That’s what Newsom is doing now. He’s trying to clean up his own backyard before his planned presidential run. I guess we’re just supposed to ignore the fact that he’s done nothing to reduce crime or fix the homeless problem in his state. In fact, he’s thrown at least $24 billion at homelessness programs with nothing to show for it, and violent crime remains stubbornly high in cities such as Oakland and San Bernardino. Poverty, drugs, and understaffed police departments continue to plague the state, yet Newsom points to flashy statistics and temporary crackdowns as proof he’s taking action on behalf of his constituents; in reality, he’s just trying to position himself better to seek higher office. The crime-suppression teams are reactive, not strategic. They’re an attempt to mimic Trump’s methods without actually addressing California’s systemic failures.

And while Newsom lectures Trump on federal troops, his own record shows massive public funds disappearing into bureaucratic black holes without fixing the underlying problems. Meanwhile, he clings to political theater—highlighting crime in GOP-led states to distract from California’s own mess and painting Trump as an overbearing authoritarian. It’s a tough sell when your own state’s cities are in trouble and your solutions are superficial, and meant to help himself, not his state. Newsom wants to run on law and order, but his tenure is marked by fiscal recklessness and half-measures. If he were serious about fighting crime, he would have acted sooner and smarter. At the end of the day, Newsom’s crime teams are just a showpiece, a way to borrow Trump’s playbook while pretending to oppose him. For voters paying attention, the question is simple: can a governor who can’t account for billions spent on homelessness—or fix his state’s crime problems—seriously claim he’s ready to lead the country? The stunt is in motion, but Newsom can’t cover up California’s failures with a gimmick.

“I didn’t want to see that. I didn’t want the, you know, the wife of a president, to go to jail, but she was stone cold guilty of things..,”

• Intel Chiefs Behind Russiagate Should Be Arrested – Trump (RT)

US President Donald Trump has said he would not mind seeing ex-FBI Director James Comey and ex-CIA Director John Brennan handcuffed and arrested live on TV due to their alleged role in the Russiagate hoax. Trump made the remarks in an interview with the Daily Caller published on Saturday, stating that it would “not bother [him] at all” if the two former intel chiefs end up in custody. “What they did is a disgrace. They cheated, they lied, they did so many bad things, evil things that were so bad for the country, and because they did something to me that should have never been done, nobody thought they’d ever do that,” Trump stated. “They should be [arrested] because they’re crooked and they got caught,” he added.

The situation with Brennan and Comey is different from what the US administration had on its hands with Hillary Clinton, Trump suggested, apparently referring to the email controversy dating back to her tenure as the US secretary of state. “Hillary’s a good example. We had Hillary cold. I didn’t want to see that. I didn’t want the, you know, the wife of a president, to go to jail, but she was stone cold guilty of things,” Trump stated. The Trump administration launched a probe into the Russiagate hoax shortly after the US president assumed the post for the second time early this year. The investigation has been spearheaded by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who has repeatedly pledged to get to the bottom of what she described as a “treasonous conspiracy” to delegitimize Trump’s 2016 election victory and a “years-long coup.”

Since mid-July, Gabbard has released multiple documents that allegedly expose a coordinated effort by senior Obama-era officials, as well as structures linked to billionaire George Soros, to falsely accuse Trump of colluding with Russia. Moscow has consistently denied any interference in the 2016 election, with Russian officials describing the allegations as a product of partisan infighting. The Russiagate scandal heavily damaged relations between Moscow and Washington, resulting in sanctions, asset seizures, and a further erosion of diplomatic engagement.

“The Executive has interpreted the law for centuries—this is nothing new, and certainly nothing constitutionally objectionable.”

• Trump Says He Will Issue Executive Order to Require Voter ID (ET)

President Donald Trump said on Aug. 30 that he has decided to issue an executive order to request that federal elections require the presentation of voter ID in order to cast a ballot. “Voter I.D. Must Be Part of Every Single Vote. No exceptions!” Trump wrote on a post on Truth Social. “I Will Be Doing An Executive Order To That End!!!” The president did not give a timeline for his order. The midterm elections will be held on Nov. 3, 2026. States have authority over how to hold their elections as long as they comply with federal prohibitions. The president also repeated his opposition to the widespread adoption of mail-in ballots and the use of electronic voting systems, although this time he didn’t say they would be the subject of any executive action. “Also, No Mail-In Voting, Except For Those That Are Very Ill, And The Far Away Military. Use paper ballots only!!!” he said.

Earlier this month, Trump had pledged to issue an executive order ahead of the 2026 midterm elections to end the use of mail-in ballots and return to the use of paper ballots instead of voting machines. In March, Trump issued an executive order to require documentary proof of U.S. citizenship for registering to vote in federal elections. The order was to enforce that states meet the citizenship requirement for federal elections for requiring government-issued ID in their voter registration forms. The order also sought to overhaul election rules related to other aspects of election law enforcement, such as voting deadlines, electronic voting machine security, and foreign interference in U.S. elections. The president said the changes were intended to safeguard the vote against what he describes as “fraud, errors, or suspicion.”

Legal groups filed suit, claiming that the order exceeded presidential authority, and a federal judge agreed in part with the plaintiffs, blocking implementation of much of the executive order while allowing a directive to tighten mail-in ballot deadlines around the country to remain in forceAfter the Supreme Court issued a judgment in late June in an unrelated case, limiting the judicial branch from granting nationwide injunctions, the federal judge in the elections case amended her injunction in mid-July in the case to apply only to the 19 Democratic-led states that filed the complaint. The Trump administration has appealed the ruling with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, arguing that the enforcement sought in the executive order doesn’t alter existing federal statutes or violate the Constitution. “The Executive has interpreted the law for centuries—this is nothing new, and certainly nothing constitutionally objectionable.”

But, in any event, the President’s interpretation of those laws accords with their text, purpose, and history, and he has the authority to interpret for the Executive Branch what they require,” government lawyers argued. Trump also pushed for the passage of the SAVE Act, a major overhaul of federal election law that was passed by the House but floundered in the Senate, where it would have required support from Democratic lawmakers to pass. At the state level, Texas Republicans, at Trump’s urging, recently passed legislation to redraw their state’s congressional maps to increase Republicans’ hold on the U.S. House delegation by five seats. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill into law on Aug. 29. California lawmakers have responded with a push to increase Democrats’ hold over California’s U.S. House delegation.

Inosculation

‘The thinner tree was cut years ago and the big one has been holding and feeding it since then. They "wake up" together in the spring and "go to sleep" together in the autumn’

Inosculation is a natural phenomenon in which parts of two different trees, commonly but not… pic.twitter.com/eB1lv7GGcT

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) August 31, 2025

Cinema
https://twitter.com/DudespostingWs/status/1962010458795508091

Time

The Paradox of Time according to Aristotlepic.twitter.com/u8IBV77izo

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) August 31, 2025

Michelangelo

Michelangelo was 33 years old when he started painting the Sistine Chapel ceiling in 1508

It took him 4 years to complete

pic.twitter.com/IjSz8drm9F

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) August 31, 2025

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Debt Rattle October 27 2024

Oct 272024

October 27, 2024 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:17 am Finance Tagged with: Atlantic Council, Beyoncé, Blue Wall State, Elon Musk, Joe Rogan, John Kelly, Kamala, NYC Trump rally, Trump, voter ID 56 Responses »

Joseph Mallord William Turner Sunrise over Plain, with Figures 1830

• Fever Dream (James Howard Kunstler)

• Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson, RFK Jr. To Speak At Trump Rally At MSG in NYC (JTN)

• Kamala Rally Descends Into Complete Chaos As Beyoncé Doesn’t Perform (MN)

• Scott Rasmussen Says Trump Needs To Win A ‘Blue Wall’ State (JTN)

• Over 80% of Americans Support Voter ID and Proof of Citizenship Laws (Turley)

• Appeals Court: Mississippi Law Allowing Ballots After Election Day Illegal (ET)

• Trump Discussed A Wide Range Of Topics For 3 Hours On The Joe Rogan Show (JTN)

• Bravo, WaPo: Ending Media Endorsements Could Help Restore Trust (Turley)

• Trump Reveals His ‘Biggest Mistake’ (RT)

• Trump, Former White House Staffers Reject John Kelly’s ‘Fascist’ Claims (ET)

• Judge Throws Out Vote Payment Allegations Against Elon Musk (ET)

• BRICS Banknotes’ Hidden Meaning Revealed by Creator (Sp.)

• Iranian Media & Pundits Mock ‘Nothingburger’ Israeli Attack (ZH)

• Boeing Could Offload Space Business – WSJ (RT)

• Zelensky Knows The Game Is Up (Shumov)

• The Atlantic Council Has Big Plans For A War Between The US And Iran (Smith)

This is the best 2 minutes of the Rogan-Trump podcast.

TRUMP: "I don't know why the media are so obsessed with me"

ROGAN: "I do. Because you say crazy shit"

The rest is pure comedy gold. Amazing. Just amazing. pic.twitter.com/zx9bl5xv6t

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 26, 2024

President Trump and Joe Rogan talk about the MAGA MAHA alliance and teaming up with Robert Kennedy. Trump confirms that Kennedy will 100% be a part of his administration, noting that while disagree on fossil fuels, they both want to end the poisoning of America. pic.twitter.com/IRnsilGGzp

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) October 26, 2024

Joe Rogan and Donald Trump call out the corporate media propagandists' "very fine people," Russiagate, and "bloodbath" hoaxes.

TRUMP: "It's a lot easier if you are a Democrat."

ROGAN: "The media, to a large extent, acts as a propaganda arm of the Democrat Party… Most young… pic.twitter.com/smljYR0zxL

— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) October 26, 2024

Donald Trump: Elon Musk told me that, unless you have paper ballots, it can never be an honest election.

“Elon Musk is a really smart guy, and he's a very good guy with computers.

He told me that, unless you have paper ballots, it can never be an honest election.

That's a… pic.twitter.com/ymmcpxK4XT

— ELON DOCS (@elon_docs) October 26, 2024

Rogan Kamala

This cannot be posted enough. pic.twitter.com/bHldaXfc4a

— Joe Rogan Podcast (@joeroganhq) October 26, 2024

JFK files

Joe Rogan asks Trump about the JFK files. He says “they” didn’t want him to open them up, but he says that he will do so almost immediately during his next administration. He says it will be a “cleansing.” pic.twitter.com/GEDwYzH53o

— Andrew Torba (@BasedTorba) October 26, 2024

Shanahan The Big Cheat
https://twitter.com/i/status/1849970454963925408

Elon Freedom

Elon Musk: The larger government gets, the less freedom you have.

“The larger government gets, the less individual freedom you have. I think that's really the core thing.

Your freedoms have just been eroded year after year with more and more government, laws and regulations… pic.twitter.com/KtbAb7wZCR

— ELON DOCS (@elon_docs) October 26, 2024

DOGE

“Elon Musk being able to streamline the government could be an incredible gift for us as well as our children and our children's children.”

— @chamath on D.O.G.E pic.twitter.com/ubLJ1bOrJk

— ALEX (@ajtourville) October 26, 2024

Taxes

"The rich are getting richer, the poor, poorer, and the wealthy don't pay their fair share."

We hear this ad nauseam from Kamala, Bernie, et al.

But their data is a mirage! It doesn't include govt benefits or taxes.

AO episode 99 with economist & former TX Sen. Phil Gramm! pic.twitter.com/3Zbt1LqYQO

— Joe Lonsdale (@JTLonsdale) October 26, 2024

Trans

It is getting easier and easier to publicly say that gender ideology is nonsense – “trans insanity” @megynkelly – and it will continue to get easier as more people realize that validating men as women and cutting body parts off young people just simply isn’t a good idea. pic.twitter.com/TKXvcgz8Kq

— Sall Grover (@salltweets) October 26, 2024

“The army, under Department of Defense directive 5240.01 has just been licensed to gun you down.”

And Uncle Sam sleeps in a drainage ditch on the ragged edge of Palookaville…

• Fever Dream (James Howard Kunstler)

“The American ‘Left’ is fully exposed now as a demented, vicious, abusive animal of traumatizing narcissism.” — Celia Farber

Do you hear that lonesome whistle blow? Wooooo-wooooo! It’s the last train to Palookaville pulling into the station. At this late hour, two passengers get on: Kamala Harris, mom jeans and blazer, rheumy red eyes, half-gone on chardonnay. . . and an elderly gentleman with a goatee in a colorful but shabby red-white-and-blue suit, famous long ago as “Uncle Sam.” There’s an election on, in case you haven’t noticed, imminent even. Kamala, everyone seems to agree, has blown it. Can’t answer simple questions pitched by friendly ringers in the “news” business. Hiding somebody else’s agenda is a tough assignment, you see. All she can really do is cackle or simper and, let’s face it, that gets humiliating fast. Joy has turned to despair. Her punched ticket says “one way.” Whose idea was it, anyway, over at party HQ, to put her up to this contest?

She wishes she knew, as she gazes out the window at the sad lights of the little towns streaking by — East Chugwater, Erehwon, Tanktown, Loserville, onward into the night to the end of the line. How’d they manage to yank her out of the Naval Observatory, where she was comfy and cozy watching Netflix rom-coms with Doug, chardonnay refills on-demand, all the Doritos a gal could munch? She was a lover, not a fighter, she repeats to herself, but the self-consolation doesn’t quite avail. Uncle Sam sits stoically five seats behind her. He is resigned, knowing very well why he is on that train, too. His own country is sending him into exile after swindling him out of his history and his posterity. He doesn’t even recognize the place anymore. What happened to Sandburg’s city of big shoulders? Who turned the fruited plain into a hellscape of muffler shops?

How did the heroes of Iwo Jima transition into a legion of TikTok influencers with pierced faces and scrambled brains? When the train gets in, he has no place to go. Perhaps he’ll sleep in a ditch. You entertain these drear hallucinatory conceits despite the giddiness about Donald Trump’s seeming triumph over adversity — botched assassinations, court cases hatched by malice-crazed ninnies, blob-generated calumnies, conspiracies, ops, and hoaxes galore. And for Halloween, they painted a Hitler mustache on him, just for fun. It remains to be seen what marvels of ballot legerdemain have been concocted by Marc Elias, Esq, lawfare artist supreme, destroyer of the nation’s faith in itself. But say Mr. Trump overcomes even the planned epic voter fraud to capture the prize. What then? You’re entitled to feel nervous. The army, under Department of Defense directive 5240.01 has just been licensed to gun you down.

This is a new thing. Now isn’t it a queer moment in history for a move like that? What are they expecting, anyway? And, by the way, who exactly is the varlet in the chain-of-command who issued that directive? (Or did it just bubble-up out of the ruling blob like some sulfurous gas from a Yellowstone fumarole?) People of good faith have reason to believe that the country is about to be blown apart. By another odd coincidence, an outfit called the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association International (AFCEA) has scheduled an “exercise simulating a cyber-attack on critical infrastructure” for November 5 in Atlanta, Georgia. That’s election day. In a big swing state. Whose idea was that? Is there already not enough that might go wrong that some treasonous moron had to kick the risk of fiasco up another notch? Or might it be cover for another Three Card Monte caper with the Georgia votes?

This is the sort of thing that will dog poor old Uncle Sam’s mind as he tries to fall asleep in that drainage ditch on the ragged edge of Palookaville.

All together now.

• Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson, RFK Jr. To Speak At Trump Rally At MSG in NYC (JTN)

GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s upcoming rally at Madison Square Garden will feature, among others, speakers Elon Musk, Tucker Carlson and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Trump is planning to hold the rally in New York City on Sunday at 5 p.m. ET. Other speakers include former Democratic Hawaii Congresswoman turned Republican Tulsi Gabbard, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla. and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The total list provided by the campaign includes 30 names. As Election Day gets closer, both Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and Trump have been ramping up their campaign stops. Harris held a rally in Houston, Texas, Friday with music star Beyonce, while Trump recently got the endorsement of country singer Jason Aldean in Georgia. Trump went on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast Friday and the episode already has over 10 million views.

Not even 1 in 100 were there for Kamala.

• Kamala Rally Descends Into Complete Chaos As Beyoncé Doesn’t Perform (MN)

The Kamala Harris rally in Houston last night was billed as a Beyoncé concert. Everyone, including the media, believed the singer would perform after the announcement was made earlier in the week, but all she did was walk out and make a barely audible speech for a few minutes. Then the rally descended into complete chaos.This is the extent of her appearance:

Beyoncé showed her support for Vice President Kamala Harris at a campaign rally focused on abortion rights in Houston on Friday. https://t.co/0AX0WPM4as pic.twitter.com/BnNMlJLcB8

— ABC News (@ABC) October 26, 2024

Firstly, you can’t hear a word she’s saying. What’s so difficult about taking a direct feed from the microphones? It seems some outlets got the feed but others didn’t. What a mess. Secondly, 30,000 people showed up and waited in line because they believed it was a Beyoncé concert. A million people tried to get tickets because they thought it was a Beyoncé concert.

They were promised a Beyoncé concert. They got two minutes to hear her speak. Imagine their disappointment. pic.twitter.com/8AFYllP5Eq

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) October 26, 2024

So when it wasn’t, people were pissed. The rally then descended into absolute chaos as some people left, while others kicked up a fuss about Beyonce not singing. The media spun this as Trump supporters ‘protesting’, and Harris repeated a line about showing them the way to the “smaller rally down the road,” referring to Trump’s event. But the fact is, they weren’t Trump supporters, they were just pissed off that they’d been misled. Perhaps the most hilarious aspect of this was that the performance they actually got was 91 year old Willie Nelson.

JUST IN: Kamala Harris’ rally in Houston, Texas descends into chaos as she fails to control the rally attendees.

Boos and yelling were heard at the rally as Harris failed to calm down the rowdy crowd.

It’s unclear at the moment what exactly is going on. pic.twitter.com/9RIg7QIkf5

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 26, 2024

Polymarket suggests that won’t be a problem.

• Scott Rasmussen Says Trump Needs To Win A ‘Blue Wall’ State (JTN)

Pollster Scott Rasmussen on Friday said current polls show former President Donald Trump having “the edge” in Georgia, North Carolina, and Arizona, but that he would need one of the “blue wall” states in order to secure victory in November. The election is considered too close to call this far out, with the election coming down to seven critical swing states. Those states consist of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The three “blue wall states” are Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.

“Looking at the latest data… If the election were held today, [Donald Trump] would likely win,” Rasmussen said in a post to X. “Trump has edge in key swing states of GA, NC, [and] AZ. That would get him to 262 Electoral College votes. He would then need to win just one of the three Blue Wall states.” Rasmussen said Vice President Kamala Harris would need to “pull the political equivalent of an inside straight,” which means a clean sweep of the blue wall states, in order to win the election.

The Napolitan Institute warned on Friday that one of Trump’s biggest threats is voter turnout, especially in swing states like North Carolina, where voters could be impacted by the remnants of Hurricane Helene. Bad weather, such as blizzards in Northern states, could also negatively impact voter turnout, which would likely hurt Trump more than Harris. The group also warned that some polls might underestimate Harris’ appeal, which could bring more voters to the polls than expected.

“In the meantime, the Biden Administration is continuing to oppose and legally challenge efforts of states like Virginia to remove alleged non-citizens from their voting rolls.”

• Over 80% of Americans Support Voter ID and Proof of Citizenship Laws (Turley)

This week, I wrote about polls that show the public is not buying the apocalyptic predictions of the imminent death of democracy unless Kamala Harris is elected president. Now, a new poll shatters another main talking point of pundits and the press. Democratic candidates, including Vice President Harris, have denounced voter identification laws as “Jim Crow 2.0” attacks on voters. A majority of voters have long supported these laws. According to a new Gallup poll, that majority is now a supermajority. Despite unrelenting attacks on these laws in the media, eight in ten Americans now support both laws:

With less than two weeks to go in the presidential campaign and voting already underway in many states, 76% of U.S. adults favor the concept of early voting. Two other election law policies are supported by even more Americans — requiring photo identification to vote (84%) and providing proof of citizenship when registering to vote for the first time (83%). … Majorities of Americans favor a range of election law policies that expand voters’ access to the ballot box, including early voting, automatic voter registration, and sending absentee ballot applications to all eligible voters.

They also broadly support measures to limit fraud and ensure election integrity, including requiring photo identification to vote and providing proof of citizenship when first registering to vote. There are few major political issues today that could show this type of overwhelming support, including from Democrats. Yet, both the Democratic politicians and pundits continue to denounce these laws. Indeed, the campaign against Georgia resulted in their losing the All-Star Game and its economic benefits. Yet, under these laws, Georgia is setting records in the turnout of voters. In the meantime, the Biden Administration is continuing to oppose and legally challenge efforts of states like Virginia to remove alleged non-citizens from their voting rolls.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1850082849246019854

It’s all only designed to cheat.

• Appeals Court: Mississippi Law Allowing Ballots After Election Day Illegal (ET)

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit released an opinion on Oct. 25 stating that federal law requires mail-in ballots be counted no later than election day. In doing so, it ruled against a Mississippi law allowing ballots to be counted if they arrived no more than five days after the election and if they were postmarked on or before the date of the election. The opinion, which came less than two weeks before the 2024 elections, redirected the case back to the lower court while refraining from issuing an injunction that would halt Mississippi’s law. The policy was adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the state kept it after the pandemic ended. “Because Mississippi’s statute allows ballot receipt up to five days after the federal election day, it is preempted by federal law,” Judge Andrew Oldham, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, wrote in his opinion for the court.

RNC Chairman Michael Whatley called the decision on the social media platform X a “seismic win for fair, accurate, secure, and transparent elections.” Justifying the decision to throw the decision back to the lower court, rather than block Mississippi’s law, Oldham referenced a Supreme Court precedent that cautions against last-minute changes to election procedures. “Today’s decision says nothing about remedies,” he said. “We decline to grant plaintiffs’ initial request for a permanent injunction. … Instead, we remand to the district court for further proceedings to fashion appropriate relief, giving due consideration to ’the value of preserving the status quo in a voting case on the eve of an election.’” He was quoting another fifth circuit case but also referenced the Supreme Court’s 2006 decision in Purcell v. Gonzalez. Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson had told the Fifth Circuit that an election was voters’ “conclusive choice of an officeholder,” which took place on election day.

“That is so even if election officials do not receive those ballots until after election day,” his brief to the court read. “An election does not itself require ballot receipt.” Oldham and two other Trump appointees, Judge James Ho and Judge Kyle Duncan, heard oral arguments over the issue in September. The Republican National Committee (RNC) had appealed the decision of a lower court that ruled in favor of Mississippi. Oldham reasoned that the Constitution granted Congress authority over elections through two provisions, including one that allows Congress to alter the timing of federal elections hosted by states. Oldham drew a distinction between the timing of ballot counting and ballot casting. “Even if the ballots have not been counted, the result is fixed when all of the ballots are received and the proverbial ballot box is closed,” he wrote. “The selections are done and final.”

Virginia

It's stunning that, just 11 days before the presidential election, a federal judge is ordering Virginia to reinstate individuals who have self-identified as noncitizens on the voter rolls. Virginia is prepared to take this to the U.S. Supreme Court if needed! pic.twitter.com/fyjlWBUlnQ

— Glenn Youngkin (@GlennYoungkin) October 25, 2024

“Trump praised former independent presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr., saying that Big Pharma wasn’t thrilled about their partnership.”

• Trump Discussed A Wide Range Of Topics For 3 Hours On The Joe Rogan Show (JTN)

GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump covered a wide range of topics on the hugely popular “Joe Rogan Experience” Friday during a nearly three-hour interview. Rogan has an audience of about 14.5 million on Spotify and 17.6 million on YouTube, according to Fox News. He is the most-listened-to podcast host, and is considered very influential with young male voters, a demographic that Trump is attempting to reach during the remaining days of the presidential campaign. The episode already has over 10 million views. Among the topics they discussed were his opponent, Kamala Harris, in the race for the White House. They discussed his relationship with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan by the Biden administration, his former National Security Advisor John Bolton, how liberals became pro-censorship of online speech, and his relationship with Robert Kennedy Jr.

Rogan asked Trump if Kennedy Jr. would definitely be a part of his next administration. He showed Trump charts that he said showed “there are chemicals and ingredients in our food that are illegal in other countries because they’ve been shown to be toxic.” He asked Trump if he was pressured not to work with Kennedy Jr. Trump praised former independent presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr., saying that Big Pharma wasn’t thrilled about their partnership. After Kennedy Jr. dropped out and endorsed him, Trump said that if he got another term, Kennedy Jr. would be a part of the administration and would be focused on reforming government agencies like the Food and Drug Administration. “But I would say that the Big Pharma wasn’t thrilled when they heard that,” Trump answered, according to Fox News. “I’ve actually always gotten along very well with him. I’ve known him a long time.

He’s a different kind of a guy. He’s very smart, great guy, and he’s very sincere about this. I mean, he really is. You know, he thinks we spend a fortune on pesticides and all this stuff, and then you end up at that chart…” Kennedy Jr. has been focused on Big Food and getting toxic chemicals out of what Americans eat. He recently coined the term “Make America Healthy Again.” “There’s pesticides and herbicides, and there’s a lot of sh– that’s been sprayed on our food that really is unnecessary,” Rogan said. “And there’s a lot of health consequences.” He added that Kennedy recently told him that “more than 70% of young men are ineligible for the military because of their health.” On another topic, Rogan asked Trump about referring to Kim Jong Un as “Little Rocket Man.”

“I said, ‘Little Rocket Man, you’re going to burn in hell.’ And it was rough,” Trump said. “I got to know him better than anybody, anybody. And I said, ‘Do you ever do anything else? Why don’t you go take it easy and relax? Go to the beach?’ You know, kiddingly, I said, ‘You’re always building nuclear. Just relax. You don’t have to do it. Let’s build some condos.'” And regarding his opponent in the upcoming election, Kamala Harris, Trump described her as a “very low IQ person.” “There’s the rhetoric is also that you’re Hitler and that in order to stop Hitler, you have to do whatever,” Rogan said. “I mean, you’re hearing this now, Kamala compared you, said you love Hitler yesterday.” “Kamala is a very low IQ person. She’s a very low IQ. You know, I’m for taking tests too. I think anybody that runs for president should take, they should give them a test,” Trump said.

True, but not why he did it. Bezos is simply afraid of being caught on the wrong end of a landslide.

“Let’s not sugarcoat it…We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. Right? I can’t sugarcoat it anymore.”

• Bravo, WaPo: Ending Media Endorsements Could Help Restore Trust (Turley)

As someone who used to write regularly for the newspaper, it has been a long time since I have had an occasion to say this but . . . Bravo, Washington Post. This week, the Post announced that not only would it not endorse a candidate this year, but it would not do so in the future. Over two decades ago, I wrote a column calling for newspapers to end the practice of all election endorsements. (Yes, before all things seemed to turn on how you feel about Donald Trump). I have continued to push the press to abandon this pernicious practice. When I first came out against political endorsements, the media had not taken the plunge into advocacy journalism, which is now strangling the life out of this industry. As former New York Times writer (and now Howard University journalism professor) Nikole Hannah-Jones has declared that “all journalism is activism.”

After a series of interviews with over 75 media leaders, Leonard Downie Jr., former Washington Post executive editor, and Andrew Heyward, former CBS News president, reaffirmed this shift. As Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, editor-in-chief at the San Francisco Chronicle, stated: “Objectivity has got to go.” The result has been the plummeting of trust in the media to an all-time low. Revenues and readership are falling as outlets struggle to survive. Yet, reporters are still refusing to reconsider the abandonment of neutrality and objectivity. Recently, Post owner Jeff Bezos brought in Washington Post publisher and CEO William Lewis, who promptly delivered a truth bomb in the middle of the newsroom by telling the staff, “Let’s not sugarcoat it…We are losing large amounts of money. Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. Right? I can’t sugarcoat it anymore.”

The response was calls for Lewis and other editors to be canned. These reporters would rather give up their very jobs than their bias. Now Lewis is under fire again after announcing, “We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates.” The Washington Post Guild immediately went ballistic at the thought of not openly supporting Kamala Harris, though many would point out that the Post has hardly been subtle in its coverage on that point. The Guild expressed alarm at the thought of leaving readers to reach their own conclusions “a mere 11 days ahead of an immensely consequential election.” According to the staff, the Post needs “to help guide readers,” and “according to our own reporters and Guild members, an endorsement for Harris was already drafted, and the decision not to publish was made by The Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos.”

“The biggest mistake I made, was I picked… a few people that I should not have picked..”

He needs to ask for advice on his picks. RFK and Musk are good for that.

• Trump Reveals His ‘Biggest Mistake’ (RT)

Former US president and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has told podcaster Joe Rogan that his “biggest mistake” was making a number of wrong personnel decisions during his time in the White House between 2017 and 2021. Speaking on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast on Saturday, Trump insisted that his was a “great presidency” but pointed out that it could have been even better if he had surrounded himself with different people. “The biggest mistake I made, was I picked… a few people that I should not have picked,” he said. When asked by Rogan if he was talking about the neocons (neoconservatives), the former president said: “Yes, neocons, or bad people, or disloyal people.” “You are reading about them a little bit today. A guy like Kelly, who is a bully, but a weak person,” he said.

Trump’s former chief of staff John Kelly recently gave several interviews in which he claimed that, during his time in office, his 78-year-old commander-in-chief had praised Hitler in private and said “more than once” that the infamous leader of Nazi Germany “did some good things.” While the Trump team has denied the claims outright, Democratic nominee Kamala Harris took the opportunity to brand her Republican rival a “fascist” and a would-be dictator. His other questionable choice, Trump recalled on the podcast, was appointing arch-hawk John Bolton as his National Security Advisor, Trump acknowledged. “Bolton was an idiot, but he was great for me,” he said. “He is a nutjob, and every time I had to deal with a country – when they saw this whack job standing behind me – they said: ‘Oh man, Trump is going to go to war with him,” the former president said.

Bolton “was with [US president George HW] Bush when they went stupidly into the Middle East [in 1990]. They should have never done it. I used to say it as a civilian,” he added. Trump fired Bolton in September 2019 after 18 months in the job, saying that he “disagreed strongly with many of [the adviser’s] suggestions.” Speaking about claims by former chief of staff Kelly with CNN earlier this week, Bolton warned that a Trump victory in next month’s election would be “dangerous” for America. However, he rejected accusations of the former president being a “fascist.” According to the hawk, in order to be one “you have to have a philosophy. Trump’s not capable of that.”

“This is the kind of inflammatory poison that divides our nation and inspires assassins.”

• Trump, Former White House Staffers Reject John Kelly’s ‘Fascist’ Claims (ET)

Former President Donald Trump and previous members of his administration say that claims made by former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly are “patently false.” Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, worked for the Trump administration from 2017 to 2019. He has spoken out multiple times against Trump during the election—most recently in interviews with The New York Times and The Atlantic. In those interviews, Kelly said Trump fitted the general definition of a fascist and alleged that the former president said he wanted “German generals,” like Nazi leader Adolph Hitler had. Several members of the Trump administration, including former Vice President Mike Pence’s former chief of staff, Mike Ayers, have sharply disputed the claims. “I’ve avoided commenting on intra-staff leaks or rumors or even lies as it relates to my time at the White House but General Kelly’s comments regarding President Trump are too egregious to ignore,” Ayers said on X.

“I was with each of them more than most, and his commentary is *patently false.*” Mark Paoletta, general counsel of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), also spoke out against Kelly, writing on X: “I don’t believe a word he says. He was a terrible chief of staff who dishonestly kept information from the President to pursue his own agenda.” Trump himself denounced the stories on Oct. 23, saying Kelly “made up a story out of pure Trump Derangement Syndrome Hatred.” “Even though I shouldn’t be wasting my time with him, I always feel it’s necessary to hit back in pursuit of THE TRUTH,” Trump said on Truth Social and X. Both of Kelly’s interviews came out less than two weeks before Election Day, at a time when early voting is underway across several states, and Trump is starting to take the lead in battleground state polls. Vice President Kamala Harris followed Kelly’s two stories by stating at a CNN town hall that she believed Trump to be a fascist.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. responded directly to these comments on X, saying, “This is the kind of inflammatory poison that divides our nation and inspires assassins.” The Atlantic also claimed Trump made disparaging remarks about a dead military servicemember and balked over her funeral expenses. At a news conference in Austin, Texas, on Oct. 25, the former president also strongly denied making those claims. “If they didn’t get the military funding, I was going to fund it myself,” Trump said about the funeral for Vanessa Guillen, 20, who was murdered in 2020 while stationed at an Army base in Texas that was then called Fort Hood. Guillen’s slaying and dismemberment led to an outcry over sexual harassment at U.S. military bases, resulting in changes to laws and discipline of 21 Army personnel; some were faulted for allowing the prime suspect in her killing to escape and commit suicide.

On Friday, Trump thanked Guillen’s family for publicly denouncing The Atlantic’s allegations. The family came to show support for Trump as he addressed reporters at Million Air Austin, a private airplane service. “The beautiful thing is that these people [Guillen’s relatives] were willing to come out and say it didn’t happen… they didn’t have to do this,” Trump said. Guillen’s sister, Maya Guillen, and the family’s attorney, Natalie Khawam, made social media posts and TV appearances asserting that the article contained inaccuracies and misrepresentations. Trump pointed out that the Atlantic’s article was timed to appear just before the Nov. 5 election, increasing the likelihood that a certain percentage of readers would believe what the magazine reported and hold it against his candidacy. “So I talk about it because it was a terrible thing,” Trump said about the article after touching on multiple other topics, including illegal immigration and election integrity.

“Here, the injury claimed is unrelated to the conduct alleged in the complaint and the relief sought therein..”

• Judge Throws Out Vote Payment Allegations Against Elon Musk (ET)

A federal judge has turned away allegations that billionaire Elon Musk violated the law when he started giving $1 million away to registered voters. California resident Aaron Greenspan in a lawsuit filed over the summer accused Musk of violating state laws and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. In a recent emergency motion, Greenspan, who founded the company PlainSite, said Musk’s newly announced million-dollar giveaways to voters in swing states violated federal law that prohibits paying or offering to pay people to either register to vote or vote. Greenspan said that Musk, who has endorsed former President Donald Trump, should not be “permitted to continually violate federal law and swing the election.” He asked the court to order Musk to stop violating the law.

U.S. District Judge Maxine M. Chesney on Oct. 22 denied the motion. She pointed to a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that concluded there must be a relationship between an injury claimed in a motion for injunctive relief and the conduct asserted in the underlying lawsuit. “Here, the injury claimed is unrelated to the conduct alleged in the complaint and the relief sought therein,” Chesney said. Musk’s lawyers noted that the giveaways were only open to people who signed a petition in favor of free speech and the right to bear arms and that the petition itself says it is only open to registered voters in swing states such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. “Plaintiff’s motion fails for numerous reasons, including that Plaintiff has no standing, the requested relief bears no relationship to Plaintiff’s complaint, and Plaintiff fails to meet his burden to establish a private right of action under Section 10307(c),” the lawyers said.

“Even if the Court were inclined to consider the merits, Plaintiff does not establish any of the elements required to obtain emergency relief. He fails to show he is likely to prevail on his claims; he does not establish a likelihood of imminent, particularized harm; and, rather than show that the balance of equities and public interest favor his position, he seeks a prohibited prior restraint on Musk’s political speech, including through a vague demand to enjoin ‘interfering with the voting preferences of any individual.‘ Musk’s political action committee on Thursday gave away $1 million to a Wisconsin man, and $1 million more to a Michigan man.

100% symbolic. But there will be an “overarching” digital currency, to accomodate trade.

• BRICS Banknotes’ Hidden Meaning Revealed by Creator (Sp.)

The main motif of the symbolic BRICS banknotes that were unveiled at the summit in Kazan is equality and multipolarity, says Evgeny Fedorov, CEO of ARM-Registr – the company that designed the notes. He tells Sputnik that the very way a banknote’s value is denoted four times is meant to display multipolarity because “BRICS is literally a multiverse.” “It is a multipolar banknote by itself,” Fedorov explains. “This associative meaning is ingrained in the note. This is what BRICS original members are talking about, what the world is concerned with today.”

The depiction of BRICS member states’ totem animals on the 200 BRICS banknotes also holds a greater meaning, he points out. “I believe that BRICS is a Noah’s Ark of sorts, meant to save humanity from something terrible that rapidly approaches,” Fedorov says. “These totem animals are protective charms that symbolize the idea of salvation. The idea of a communal ark in which we all are sailing, that we are responsible not just for the people of Earth but for the environment and the animals as well, for everything. This is a huge metaphor and BRICS members, political leaders, journalists and regular folks may find new meanings in it.”

The banknotes also feature depictions of the “most popular symbols” of BRICS countries such as the Moscow Kremlin or the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro. The banknotes will also feature depictions of BRICS members flags, Fedorov adds: one side will feature images of the BRICS founding members’ flags (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) while the reverse will be subject to change as flags of all the new BRICS members, whenever they may join the group, will be added there.

Israel declaring the response “concluded” looks like the same that Iran did.

• Iranian Media & Pundits Mock ‘Nothingburger’ Israeli Attack (ZH)

The Israeli ‘retaliation’ attack against Iran, which occurred in the overnight and early morning hours, appears to be complete, with Israel’s military (IDF) having declared the response “concluded” after locations in three provinces of the Islamic Republic were hit. Some 100 Israeli warplanes were sent, primarily across Jordanian airspace, for the unprecedented attack which reportedly included strikes on key missile, drone, and other military sites – including air defense installations. However, Iranians are mocking it as if it didn’t even happen, and there’s an emerging consensus among Western pundits that this was remarkably limited in scale. The attack did not involve Iranian nuclear or oil sites, according to Israeli military officials. IDF Spokesman, Daniel Hagari, said overnight – following at least two or three waves of attacks –

“I can now confirm that we have concluded the Israeli response to Iran’s attack against Israel. We conducted targeted and precise strikes on military targets in Iran, thwarting immediate threats to the State of Israel.” And Hagari’s words concluded with the threat of new major escalation if Iran decides to respond militarily, “If the regime in Iran were to make the mistake of beginning a new round of escalation, we will be obligated to respond. All those who threaten the State of Israel and seek to drag the region into wider escalation will pay a heavy price.” Local reports of explosions near Tehran emerged at around 2:15 local time, with strikes later being reported also in the Karaj, Isfahan and Shiraz areas. Israel’s military said it hit around 20 sites over the several hours across the three provinces. ”

If the regime in Iran were to make the mistake of beginning a new round of escalation, we will be obligated to respond,” the Israeli military said. Israeli media indicated that while the first wave of warplanes took out anti-air defense sites, follow-up waves targeted ballistic missile and drone manufacturing facilities, as well as launch sites. Israeli officials say the operation sought to degrade Iran’s capability to launch another attack such as occurred on April 14 and October 1. The operation was declared complete within a few hours of reports of initial explosions:

The Israeli military said at 6 a.m. that the assault had been completed, with “all goals achieved” and all aircraft returning safely home. It dubbed the campaign “Days of Repentance,” a reference to the recent Yom Kippur holiday. It said dozens of IAF aircraft, including fighter jets, refuelers and spy planes, participated in the “complex” operation some 1,600 kilometers from Israel. Iran has only confirmed that “limited damage” resulted at some bases and asserted that its air defenses countered many of the attacks, a narrative which has been rejected by Israel. Israel’s air force touted that it gave it pilots “wider freedom of aerial action in Iran” – and yet still the whole operation looked significantly less intense than Iran’s Oct. 1st attack on Israel.

“Boeing had been in contact with potential buyers, including the Blue Origin company owned by Jeff Bezos..”

• Boeing Could Offload Space Business – WSJ (RT)

Boeing is considering the sale of its NASA business, including the troubled Starliner program and the support operations to the International Space Station (ISS), The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter. The corporation is expected to retain its position in some of the space-related programs, namely the Space Launch System (SLS), a super-heavy expendable launch vehicle used by NASA, the sources told the WSJ. The SLS, the key component of the agency’s Moon exploration plans, successfully performed its first flight two years ago. However, production of the rocket has faced assorted troubles and quality control issues. The less successful programs, including the ill-fated Starliner ship, designed to transport crews of up to seven to and from the ISS, could end up sold off, the sources claimed.

The spacecraft was originally planned to become operational in 2017 but has been repeatedly delayed over assorted engineering and management problems. The latest crew flight test, launched in June, resulted in partial failure after the spacecraft’s thrusters malfunctioned on approach to the ISS, and it was deemed too risky to return its astronauts aboard the ship, which ultimately returned to Earth uncrewed in September. The potential sale of its space-related assets comes as a part of the strategy of Boeing’s new CEO, Kelly Ortberg, who is seeking to streamline the corporation and cut its financial losses. However, Boeing had been in contact with potential buyers, including the Blue Origin company owned by Jeff Bezos, even before Ortberg took over in August.

The new CEO signaled the corporation was due for a major overhaul, during a call with analysts and investors earlier this week. While the production of military and commercial aircraft will remain at the company’s core, it could ditch “some things on the fringe,” Ortberg stated. “It’s going to take a lot of work. We’re not going to be able to just wave a wand and clean up these troubled contracts. We signed up to some things that are problematic,” he warned, stating that Boeing would be “better off doing less and doing it better than doing more and not doing it well.” The corporation has been experiencing an enduring financial crisis, with its defense and space projects troubled by repeated cost overruns and delays, while airliner production has effectively ground to a halt in a weeks-long machinists’ strike.

“Western countries are doing everything they can to avoid a direct confrontation with Russia..”

• Zelensky Knows The Game Is Up (Shumov)

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has finally unveiled his ‘victory plan’ which is supposed to help Kiev win the war against Russia. Ukrainians themselves were the last to learn the details, but now it has been completely disclosed, except for a few classified points. And it’s probably not going to go down in history as a substantial document. Zelensky demanded that Western powers endorse his plan within three months. However, the ‘victory plan’ seems too far fetched for his backers to approve.

Point one: NATO membership
The first point states that Ukraine must receive an immediate invitation to join NATO, even as the conflict continues. While the bloc’s new Secretary General Mark Rutte insists that Kiev is likely to join at some point in the future, he has been more restrained about commenting on Zelensky’s proposals. “That doesn’t mean that I here can say I support the whole plan […] there are many issues,” he said. In fact, two issues stand out. Firstly, Ukraine is currently engaged in active combat on its own territory. This would present a significant dilemma for NATO if it were to be admitted. Strangely enough, the bloc’s own charter doesn’t contain an obligation to immediately attack the adversary of one of its members. Article 5 states that it “will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force.”

In other words, NATO would not be immediately obliged to fight for Ukraine should Kiev accede. However, if a NATO member can be attacked without consequences, it’s going to look like a paper tiger. This is where the real problem lies: Western countries are doing everything they can to avoid a direct confrontation with Russia, and admitting Kiev dramatically increases the risk of such a clash – or, at the very least, severely damages their credibility. Meanwhile, the West is already providing military aid, financial support, and training to Ukrainian troops without directly involving NATO. As for Russia, it will not tolerate Ukraine’s membership of any Western military bloc. In fact, one of the initial reasons for the February 2022 military offensive was because Moscow feared that Kiev could join such an alliance. Thus, accepting the first point of Zelensky’s plan would symbolize the end of any potential diplomatic solution, forcing all parties to recognize that negotiations are not a possibility.

JD Ukr
https://twitter.com/i/status/1850151846628692169

“To be clear, the council is not only interested in Ukraine and Russia. They’re happy to embroil Americans in a larger war wherever they can.”

• The Atlantic Council Has Big Plans For A War Between The US And Iran (Smith)

Globalists as an organized entity have a habit of shifting their efforts between various false-front institutions in order to avoid significant scrutiny. For example, in 2020 they ramped up the fear machine on the covid pandemic and the World Economic Forum took a lead role in that effort. Klaus Schwab was all over the media using covid as an excuse to promote every authoritarian measure imaginable. When that agenda failed (lockdowns blocked, mask mandates ignored, vaccine passports defeated and the CDC caught inflating vaccination numbers), the WEF and Klaus Schwab conveniently disappeared from the media radar. When globalists tried to permanently establish ESG as a way of life for corporations, they introduced the Council For Inclusive Capitalism, run by Lynn de Rothschild and partnered with the Vatican. When ESG was exposed for what it really is (a bridge to full bore communism in which corporations enforce far left social engineering), the CIC vanished from the limelight as quickly as they appeared.

That said, there is one globalist group that has consistently been in the background during most of these operations – The Atlantic Council. Whenever there’s a propaganda push in play to misdirect the western public, whenever there’s a policy initiative to take away your freedoms, whenever there’s a regional war that might explode into a world war, I always end up finding the fingerprints of the Atlantic Council. The council was deeply involved in covid propaganda from 2020 onward and they also have their hands in climate change propaganda, but their bread and butter is regional proxy wars. In my recent article ‘Globalists Are Trying To Escalate The Ukraine War Into WWIII Before The US Election’, I outlined how the council is deeply interwoven into the escalation of the Ukraine war through their Eurasia Center and their Scowcroft Center. They have been stoking conflict in the region for at least a decade with the intention of drawing NATO forces into a direct confrontation with Russia. In a report published by the Atlantic Council in 2014 titled ‘A Roadmap for Ukraine: Delivering on the Promise of the Maidan’, the group notes:

“Last fall, as Ukrainians massed on the Maidan to demand a better government and closer ties to Europe, the Atlantic Council began to mobilize on Ukraine. An Atlantic Council delegation visited Warsaw and Kyiv in March to map out our strategy, and during the visit of Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk to the Council that same month, we launched a one hundred- day campaign to galvanize the transatlantic community behind Ukraine’s democratic future in Europe. As the crisis worsened, we convened at the highest levels, making vital connections between Ukrainian, American, and European policymakers and thought leaders. We deployed our substantial expertise to launch “red team” exercises that anticipated Russia’s actions and outlined strategies to respond to likely scenarios. Our rapid response working groups (“tiger teams”) made recommendations on issues fundamental to Ukraine’s success. An Atlantic Council delegation delivered this report, which brings all of these findings together, to Prime Minister Yatsenyuk and other leaders in Kyiv the first week of July. The findings are also being shared with American and European policymakers…”

On Ukraine’s security policy, the Council advised both NATO and Ukraine officials. The document goes on to outline how NATO could covertly and overtly engage with Ukraine to strengthen their chances of joining with the EU over time; a move which Vladimir Putin claims was one of the very reasons for his invasion of the Donbas. Finally, the paper described how NATO could foster a proxy war against Russia through Ukraine without directly declaring war on Russia. As the Council states: “Russia’s aggression provides an opportunity of strategic clarity and urgency that should be used to expedite building a robust, modern, and capable Ukrainian defense and security establishment…” I believe the Atlantic Council is a root instigator behind every globalist scheme to trigger a larger war between the East and the West. Their ideal scenario seems to be the creation of a proxy conflict that acts as a first domino in a chain that leads to world war, a bit like DARPA’s “Linchpin Theory” which I have written about in the past. To be clear, the council is not only interested in Ukraine and Russia. They’re happy to embroil Americans in a larger war wherever they can.

NEW: Donald Trump says he wants to be a Whale Psychiatrist so he can help save the whales from windmills.

"They say that the wind drives 'em crazy. You know it's a vibration because you have those things that 50-story building."

"The wind is rushing. The things are blowing.… pic.twitter.com/xBibggpdcZ

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 26, 2024

The media say Trump lied when he told Joe Rogan that industrial wind turbines are killing whales, but he didn't. In fact, it's worse than Trump said. If the wind industry continues with its boats, noise, and vibrations, it will make the North Atlantic right whale extinct. pic.twitter.com/6nZHThMnQ6

— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) October 26, 2024

Blacks

White Female Democrats explain how it’s harder for Black Americans to vote

It’s “Harder for black people to go online”

“I feel like they don't have the knowledge of how of, like, how it works”

Spoiler: It’s not Republicans who are racist, it’s the brainwashed Democrats: pic.twitter.com/DtFaUxqIMQ

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) October 25, 2024

Pharma lawyers

What sets Brianne Dressen apart from nearly every other COVID jab-injured person out there?

She has a signed contract with AstraZeneca saying that they would pay for any harm their product caused her during the COVID shot clinical trial she signed up for.

Brianne says she… pic.twitter.com/7AlIczBPDp

— Children’s Health Defense (@ChildrensHD) October 26, 2024

Graphic
https://twitter.com/i/status/1850153250319638731

Mobility

A man who makes mobility devices for dogs that can’t walk

pic.twitter.com/ZM496QLKvD

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) October 26, 2024

Strength

The strength this takes
pic.twitter.com/DckLbca9QY

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) October 26, 2024

Play date

This is what a whale/dolphin play date looks like.

Nature is amazing. Protect it.#ActOnClimate #climate #biodiversity #NatureNeedsHalf #SDGS pic.twitter.com/nL1AU7G5iF

— Mike Hudema (@MikeHudema) October 26, 2024

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

Debt Rattle October 13 2024

Oct 132024

October 13, 2024 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 8:31 am Finance Tagged with: AEA, Aurora, Boeing, CBS, huge margin, Kamala, Marc Elias, NATO, Trump, voter ID, voter rolls 64 Responses »

Max Ernst Ubu Imperator 1923

• Kamala Unwinding (Kunstler)

• US Election ‘Too Close To Call’ In Swing States – WSJ Poll (RT)

• The Scent of a Harris Panic in the Air (Victor Davis Hanson)

• Shills For Harris (Michael Tracey)

• Dems Won’t Certify Election if Trump Wins (HUSA)

• Trump’s Toughest Foe Could Be Harris Lawyer Marc Elias (Sperry)

• Alien Enemies Act is Not a Viable Legal Basis for “Operation Aurora” (Turley)

• Jon Stewart: Americans Don’t Need Guns To Protect Constitutional Rights (ZH)

• Biden, Netanyahu Closer to Consensus on Attacking Iran (Antiwar)

• Biden Warns Iran Against Going After Trump – WaPo (RT)

• CBS News Faces Integrity Crisis Amid Bias Concerns, Missteps (JTN)

• 3 Million Non-Citizens Have Texas Driver’s Licenses Allowed As Voter ID (JTN)

• DOJ Sues Virginia Over Removing Non-Citizens From Voter Rolls (JTN)

• NATO Could Have Prevented Ukraine Conflict – Hungary FM (RT)

• NATO Planning New Russia Strategy – Politico (RT)

• Boeing To Fire 17,000 Employees (RT)

https://twitter.com/i/status/1844891735018573869

Trump ad

pic.twitter.com/l50rLCJwhY

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2024

Vance

JD Vance shuts up New York Times reporter Lulu Garcia-Navarro after she asked him if Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.

Brilliant.

Garcia-Navarro: "Senator, yes or no. Did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election?"

Vance: "Let me ask you a question: Is it okay that big… pic.twitter.com/OkpMxNLu6F

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 12, 2024

Jan 6

OUTRAGE: FBI Director Wray essentially ADMITS over 100 FBI assets posed as Trump supporters at the Capitol on Jan 6th. The Biden-HARRIS administration is STALLING the release of the Inspector General's report until AFTER the election!pic.twitter.com/GhDobtdO64

— Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) October 10, 2024

Kirk

This young man asked me why he should vote for Trump when his border policies are "xenophobic."

So I asked him what he would do if a homeless man broke into his dorm room?

Watch what happens next… pic.twitter.com/21wLojAyRd

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) October 11, 2024

Tucker Dhillon
https://twitter.com/i/status/1844809672911679769

Harmeet Dhillon is a San Francisco lawyer who’s known Kamala Harris for more than 20 years. Her verdict: Kamala Harris is a criminal. Here are the details.

(0:43) Who Really Is Kamala Harris?
(2:41) Kamala and Willie Brown
(22:17) How Does Kamala Pronounce Her Name?
(32:23)… pic.twitter.com/Gt0qP939DJ

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) October 11, 2024

Hawley Wray

FBI's Wray Literally SHAKING When Sen. Hawley Catches Him LYING About FBI's "Church Arrests Memo" pic.twitter.com/s5zspQoHGr

— 1776 (@TheWakeninq) October 11, 2024

Judge Thomas

Thirty-three years ago today, Clarence Thomas delivered one of the most remarkable statements ever made in Congress.

(If you have developed a soft spot for Joe Biden in recent weeks, the first few seconds of this clip will quickly dispel that sentiment.) pic.twitter.com/9uQz5gbAxf

— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) October 11, 2024

Appellate

Appellate court grilling Letitia James.

Can Letitia be criminally charged? pic.twitter.com/ORLvVzNMSY

— Sheri™ (@FFT1776) October 11, 2024

“She ends as an historical prank on her own country. It must be deeply demoralizing to be used like that in front of the whole world.”

• Kamala Unwinding (Kunstler)

The outstanding question: will the Democratic Party actually go ahead and attempt to execute an election steal despite growing evidence of a developing Trump landslide that might obviate it? The works are already in motion. The mail-in ballots went out long ago and early votes are getting cast by the day. The overseas ballots that require no US address or voter verification are flooding in by the millions and four years of open borders has 10-million illegal aliens (at a minimum) dispersed around the nation, great gobs of them planted in swing states, processed through the DMVs and social services — with the requisite automatic voter registration — their ballots already pre-bundled for harvest.

It could go a few ways. One is, just let’er rip, harvest all those fake votes, stuff the drop-boxes, flood the zone, and do it all right in America’s face as if to say: we can do whatever we want. . . to get whatever we want. . . and you can’t stop us. That is probably the point where blue America finds out exactly what the Second Amendment was designed for. You might also expect a whole lot of state-organized resistance, especially in the populous red ones, Texas, Florida, real court cases over fraud this time, contested certification.

Or, the election could come out a hopeless unresolvable muddle. There’s no precedent for this and no provision in the Constitution, but you can imagine the Supreme Court having to decide a necessary do-over minus all recent gimmicks, paper ballots only, voters with proof of citizenship only, all voting on one re-scheduled election day before January 1. This novelty would be something apart from the clunky Congressional machinery established for settling electoral college disputes, since it is predicated on various states’ inability to determine their electoral college vote in the first place, based on patent irregularity and fraud. You could also imagine a period of disorder so deep and grave that the regime behind “Joe Biden” declares martial law. . . or, alternately the military — the martial institution — has to take matters into its own hands, shoving aside even “Joe Biden” and his filthy retinue. Appalling to consider, I’m sure, but these things happen in history, and the Party of Chaos has set enough mischief in motion to wreck the election and wreck the country. Call it catastrophizing, if you will. There it is.

But to step back from that abyss, it appears that Mr. Trump’s momentum accelerates by the day, that he is becoming, at last, an implacable, irresistible juggernaut who will, perforce, overcome all the gimmicks, traps, and frauds arrayed against him. Kamala seems to think so. Have you ever seen such resignation, such loserdom-in-action as her recent performance on CBS’s 60-Minutes, or her pitiful admission on ABC’s The View that she couldn’t think of anything she would do differently beyond the excellent management of national affairs under “Joe Biden” (and herself as veep). Surely that said it all. She has nothing, brings nothing. Long ago, she was a pretty girl with a law degree and an infectious laugh on the fringes of local politics in San Francisco. The winds of fortune blew her this way and that way until she ended up way over her head, used by the reprobates around her as a mere device to stay out of jail. She ends as an historical prank on her own country. It must be deeply demoralizing to be used like that in front of the whole world.

With all the shenanigans going on, Trump needs to win by a huge margin. Another reason not to believe these polls.

• US Election ‘Too Close To Call’ In Swing States – WSJ Poll (RT)

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are locked into a dead heat in all seven of the battleground states that will decide the outcome of next month’s US presidential election, according to a poll published on Friday by the Wall Street Journal. Sampling 4,200 voters, the poll found Harris with a razor-thin lead over Trump in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and Trump holding a slim advantage in Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. However, the newspaper noted that no lead is wider than two percentage points, except for in Nevada, where Trump leads by five points. All of these results are within the newspaper’s margin of error. Across all seven swing states, Trump leads Harris by 46% to 45%, the poll found. Some 93% of Republicans are backing Trump, while 93% of Democrats are supporting Harris, the WSJ noted, adding that independents prefer Harris by a slim 40% to 39%.

“This thing is a dead heat and is going to come down to the wire. These last three weeks matter,” Republican pollster David Lee, who worked on the survey, told the newspaper. “It really could not be closer,” Democrat pollster Michael Bocian said. “It’s an even-steven, tight, tight race.” A slew of recent polls have shown Trump and Harris within the low single digits of each other in these key states, with Trump gaining the upper hand in every state but Wisconsin in an average compiled by RealClearPolitics. Voters surveyed by the Wall Street Journal ranked the economy and immigration as their top two issues of concern, respectively.

They favored Trump over Harris on economic issues by ten points, and on immigration and border security by 16 points. Harris beat Trump on the issue of abortion by 16 points. By this time in the 2020 campaign, President Joe Biden was leading Trump by five points in the states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Trump won all three of these post-industrial northern battlegrounds in 2016, and lost them to Biden in 2020. Winning all three would likely guarantee the presidency to either Trump or Harris this year.

Baris

"IF YOU WANT A RACE TO BREAK YOUR WAY, THIS IS THE PERFECT TIME" – @peoples_pundit says groups are moving in @realdonaldtrump direction at just the right time. @jsolomonreports @amandahead pic.twitter.com/JNEQnyT6VV

— Real America's Voice (RAV) (@RealAmVoice) October 11, 2024

“..so far, the cures for the Harris slide are far worse than the malady itself..”

• The Scent of a Harris Panic in the Air (Victor Davis Hanson)

The 2024 race is still close. But then so was the 1980 Carter-Reagan race at this same juncture. Indeed, incumbent president Carter was then comfortably up in the last two October Gallup polls—before utterly and suddenly evaporating on Election Day. But in the last seven days, there seems a sense of panic in the Harris campaign. How do we know that? Why are Democratic pundits—from Axelrod to Carville—blasting the Harris campaign and otherwise warning of bad things to come? Why are some of the once Democrat sure-thing senate races—e.g., in Ohio, Wisconsin, and even Michigan—tightening up? Pundit poll-watchers are suggesting that Trump is close, even, or slightly ahead in the swing-state polls, suggesting that he is nearing a margin that could cancel out anticipated “ballot irregularities”.

The expected October Harris-Biden surprises—the opportune Fed interest rate cut, the transparently desperate Jack Smith beefed-up re-indictment, the current new Hollywood Trump-hit movie, the desperate Zelensky fly-in to Pennsylvania, the election-cycle customary Bob Woodward unsourced gossip book—seemed so far to have had no effect. Why would any campaign send out the bumbling Tim Walz to a Fox Sunday interview after his disastrous debate? Why is a suddenly smiling Biden so eager to claim candidate and VP Harris as a co-conspirator to his disastrous four years? Why would Harris pivot and now agree to (admittedly mostly softball) interviews, thus confirming to the voting public why she wisely had previously avoided all press conferences, interviews, and town halls? Why—after the last two moderator-rigged ABC and CBS debates—would Harris desperately want another and possibly believe that Trump would ever agree to any such warped forum?

The last 4-5 Harris scripted interviews, but especially on CBS’s 60 Minutes, have been train wrecks. Everyone expected (and was not disappointed) the on-spec word salads, predictable sappy retreats to her misleading bio, the now accustomed deer-in-the-headlights confusion about her prior three years with Biden, and the general mush in lieu of any policy prescriptions. Why would CBS think it worth ruining its already debased reputation by doctoring the transcript of the Harris disastrous interview in a vain attempt at Orwellian repair? Why is a rusty but still narcissistic Barack Obama at last hitting the campaign trail? And is he still effective—or reduced to becoming an Oprah-like caricature? After all, is it wise for the elite Obama (in his now accustomed snarky “clingers” style) to venture out of his mansions (Kalorama? the Hawaii beachfront? or the Martha Vineyard estate?) to talk down to black males struggling under years of a hyperinflationary economy, a flood of illegal immigrants from an open border, and a four-year-spiking crime rate?

Does the Netflix grandee berating black men as victims of false consciousness, misled, and brainwashed into voting for the Trump agenda really win them over to Harris? Does the hundred-million-dollar-plus man Obama persuade anyone by reverting for a few moments to his old community-organizing, fake black patois and his pseudo-racial intimacy of “brothers”? And does it work for Obama (remember “when they go low, we go high”) to blast Trump as racist and crude, when Obama jokes that Trump wears diapers— this after previously suggesting at the Democratic convention that Trump suffered from small genitalia? If this should continue, soon the July 21st coup that removed Biden, along with the Harris pick of Tim Walz, will go down as days of Democrat infamy. Anything can happen in the next three weeks. But so far, the cures for the Harris slide are far worse than the malady itself.

“These aforementioned attendees were essentially just “seat fillers” — they were not the audience members who were called on to ask pre-selected questions..”

• Shills For Harris (Michael Tracey)

Last night’s Univision “town hall” with Kamala Harris was billed as an exciting opportunity for “undecided Latino voters” to question and evaluate the potential next President of the United States. The corporate press release from Univision advertises it explicitly as such. But viewers at home would have been wholly unaware that this billing was false. As I discovered, having been granted the sacred opportunity to view the event from an adjacent room on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus, the carefully curated “town hall” audience was actually comprised of avowed Harris supporters. “I already knew I was going to go for Kamala,” one town hall participant told me. “Part of the reason why I wanted to go was just, like, to also fully support her.” “So you were already decided, before you came?” I asked another. “Yes,” she replied, declaring her support for Kamala.

The audience members I spoke to were selected with the help of a company called FansOnQ, according to the company’s founder, Conny Quintanilla, whose title for yesterday’s event was “Audience Manager.” The company puts out “casting calls” for events like the Latin Grammy Awards, which have been previously held in Las Vegas. It’s a type of company that you might not be consciously aware exists, but once you’re told of its existence, it makes perfect intuitive sense: people who want to dance at award shows are “vetted” by this particular company, perhaps for good looks and rhythmic skills. That’s the same company which filled the seats at Kamala’s town hall. Another person told me he was able to attend because he “knows people” at an unnamed “progressive organization,” which somehow granted him the ability to get in the town hall audience. The person said he works as an intern for Rep. Steven Horsford, Democrat of Nevada. I’m not naming the person because he was wary of attribution. Others quoted here also didn’t want to be identified.

These aforementioned attendees were essentially just “seat fillers” — they were not the audience members who were called on to ask pre-selected questions. Those audience members were flown in from around the country at Univision’s expense. Which is a bit odd, because there would certainly have been plenty of genuine “undecided Latino voters” in Clark County, Nevada who I’m sure would’ve been more than happy to ask Kamala Harris a question. NOTE: The non-question-asking attendees were still integral to the televisual production of the event, hence their recruitment. Uninformed viewers at home were under the false impression that the people they were watching react to Kamala’s answers were “undecided voters,” when numerous of them were in fact pre-committed Harris voters who sought to attend for the specific purpose of demonstrating their support for Kamala.

Naturally, I wanted to interview the actual question-asking attendees. However, a corporate dictate apparently came down prohibiting this. “We won’t be making them available,” Anna Negron, Director of Corporate Communications at TelevisaUnivision, told me when I asked if there would be an opportunity to interview said audience members. She would not elaborate on the reason for this strange secrecy. Reporter Mark Kellner of the New York Post asked Negron the same question, and was similarly dismissed. So the sum total of the authorized journalistic acts that we were permitted to carry out at this event was to sit in a side room and politely view a generously provided video feed of the “town hall,” which was taped several hours before it aired yesterday. For the record, I don’t think she actually used a teleprompter, despite social media allegations to that effect. I can verify that the event was already contrived enough as it is — no need to embellish any phony stories.

Of course, most journalists covering the event simply repeated the conceit that Kamala was empathetically taking questions from “undecided Latino voters.” In other words, they simply regurgitated the corporate press release. Her actual remarks were bereft of any real substance. The only amusing part was when she name-dropped Alberto Gonzales, the former Attorney General under George W. Bush, as one of her cherished Republican endorsements — adding him to the esteemed roster of Dick and Liz Cheney and myriad “national security officials” affiliated with Mitt Romney and John McCain. Perhaps Kamala calculated that the surname “Gonzales” would be extraordinarily appealing to these allegedly “undecided Latino voters.”

It’s worth briefly reminiscing about what the purpose of a “town hall” has traditionally been: for ‘townspeople’ to gather and air their concerns about issues that most affect them. (“Town halls” are actually how some small New England towns are governed — the town halls effectively become temporary citizen-led legislatures to decide questions around zoning and so forth.) Now, though, they’re just glitzy TV productions that accomplish the polar opposite of the free-flowing dialogue and debate with which the term was once associated. Indeed, these events now more resemble the production values of the Latin Grammy Awards — literally — than a forum to scrutinize candidates for public office.

‘I’ve been told this type of rhetoric is “dangerous to our democracy” or something…’

• Dems Won’t Certify Election if Trump Wins (HUSA)

Despite their constant whining about the Jan. 6, 2021, “insurrection,” the Democrats recently admitted that they won’t certify the 2024 election results if Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is elected. Axios reported that the Democrats would certify the election results only if Trump used “free, fair and honest means to secure a victory,” which, according to Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., is not what Trump would do. This statement implies that he would be declared a winner only if he cheats. “[Trump] is doing whatever he can to try to interfere with the process, whether we’re talking about manipulating electoral college counts in Nebraska or manipulating the vote count in Georgia or imposing other kinds of impediments,” the politician told the news source. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., also questioned whether Trump would win the election fair and square, telling Axios that she doesn’t know “what kind of shenanigans he is planning.”

Conservatives on Twitter pointed out the hypocrisy after the article was published. “I’ve been told this type of rhetoric is “dangerous to our democracy” or something,” @Patriot_Vibes wrote. Co-owner of Trending Politics, Colin Rugg, also mocked the Democrats who have been talking non-stop about Republicans and Trump’s alleged attempt to overthrow the government at the beginning of 2021. “The ‘democracy defenders’ won’t commit to certifying an election?” he wrote. Others wrote that the recent news is a warning from Democrats about their own insurrection, this time it being real and violent. Some conservatives noted that hearing about the recent news was not surprising after the Democrats replaced Joe Biden, who was elected by leftists during the primaries, with the current Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, who nobody cared about before the disastrous debate between Trump and Biden.

“No surprise there. They threw democracy out the window when they put Kamala in w/o a single vote. Why wouldn’t they pull some more shenanigans? We’ll get SCOTUS involved if we have to, but they need to do their job or GTFO,” an anonymous person wrote. The Democrats’ recent comments are also unsurprising because Raskin said he would never allow Trump to be in the White House again. “I’ve been warning of this for months. Here is Rep Jamie Raskin confirming what I’ve been predicting. Even if President Trump wins the 2024 election, Democrats will not accept the results and refuse to leave the White House, creating a civil war scenario,” investigative reporter and commentator Drew Hernandez said.

Elias makes a lot of money. But I think the Steele dossier has tainted him too much to be effective.

“According to court records, Elias acted as a cutout for more than $1 million in campaign payments for the dossier..”

• Trump’s Toughest Foe Could Be Harris Lawyer Marc Elias (Sperry)

Elias later testified that he was worried – then as now – that Trump was a threat to democracy: “I received information that was troubling as someone who cares about democracy.” That “information” turned out to be a fictitious “dossier” linking Trump to the Kremlin crafted by former British spook and FBI informant Christopher Steele, who huddled with Elias in his Washington office. “Some of the information that was in it I think has actually proved true. It was accurate and important,” Elias testified in a closed-door hearing on Capitol Hill in December 2017, according to a declassified transcript. Actually, Steele’s allegations proved to be a collection of improbable rumors and fabricated allegations invented by Steele’s top researcher and a Clinton campaign adviser. Nonetheless, the disinformation was fed to the FBI and media, igniting criminal investigations (including illegal electronic surveillance), congressional probes, and a media frenzy that crippled Trump’s presidency with bad press for years.

In a parallel operation against Trump, Elias worked with his then-law partner Michael Sussmann and Clinton campaign officials – including Jake Sullivan, who is now President Biden’s national security adviser – to develop misleading evidence of a “secret hotline” between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that allegedly used a “back channel” connection between email servers at Trump Tower and Russian-owned Alfa Bank. These false allegations were posted on social media and brought to the attention of the FBI, triggering a separate criminal investigation targeting Trump and his campaign. Like other Russiagate probes, it was eventually discredited. But the damage was done. By spreading fake Russian dirt on Trump, Elias was able to create scandals that dogged Trump for years, tarnishing his electability. The Democratic lawyer’s machinations, however, drew scrutiny from other investigators and hurt his own reputation – albeit temporarily.

During his probe of Russiagate, Special Counsel John Durham found Elias intentionally sought to conceal Clinton’s role in the dossier. According to court records, Elias acted as a cutout for more than $1 million in campaign payments for the dossier. By laundering its payments through a law firm, the Clinton campaign and Elias were able to claim attorney-client confidentiality when Durham sought their internal emails (the assertion of that privilege also blocked investigators from accessing communications between Elias and Steele’s immediate employer, the Washington-based opposition research firm, FusionGPS). But their shell game got the Clinton campaign in trouble with the Federal Election Commission, which later fined it and the Democratic National Committee $113,000 for misreporting the purpose of the payments as “legal expenses,” rather than opposition research, in violation of FEC laws.

The Durham probe, which Elias insists was “politically motivated,” nonetheless raised ethical issues with the D.C. Bar and Elias’ former law firm, Perkins Coie, reportedly leading to their breakup in August 2021, when Elias suddenly left the powerhouse after almost 30 years. The firm, which Elias had joined fresh out of law school in 1993, grew “increasingly uncomfortable” with the unwanted scrutiny the Durham probe invited on it, according to published reports. The veteran prosecutor exposed questionable billing practices by the firm. Durham also revealed the Democratic firm had set up an FBI workspace within its Washington offices, further calling into question the FBI’s impartiality in investigating Trump. In late 2021, Elias opened his own firm, the Elias Law Group, but soon lost major clients who reportedly grew weary of his aggressive tactics and go-it-alone style.

Last year, the DNC severed its 15-year relationship with Elias; then more recently, the Biden campaign parted company with him. In 2020, Elias had quarterbacked Biden’s legal team that fought Trump’s claims in court that the election had been stolen. He also beat back GOP measures to ensure election integrity after Democrats took advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to dramatically loosen rules for voting – including allowing ballot harvesting, drop boxes, and ballots arriving up to four days after Election Day to still be counted. Top Democratic Party officials were said to sour on Elias after he filed election-related lawsuits without consulting with them, some of which backfired with unfavorable – and lasting – rulings. Biden’s team reportedly also became frustrated with his fees. Elias billed the DNC and Biden campaign more than $20 million during the 2020 election cycle.

But Elias has since taken on other clients – including Kamala Harris – who have more than made up for the loss in revenue. So far in this election cycle, the latest FEC filings show the Elias Law Group has received a total of more than $22 million in disbursements from a host of major Democratic and anti-Trump clients.

It’s a war act. But there’s no war.

• Alien Enemies Act is Not a Viable Legal Basis for “Operation Aurora” (Turley)

In announcing his “Operation Aurora,” former President Donald Trump has suggested that he may use the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) of 1798 to crackdown on “every illegal migrant criminal network operating on American soil.” The plan to begin mass deportations is certainly popular with the public, according to polling. However, without a declaration of war, he will likely have to look to alternative statutory vehicles for a peacetime operation. This is not the first time that the Trump campaign has invoked the AEA. Last year, the campaign cited the law as giving it the power to “remove all known or suspected gang Members, drug dealers, or Cartel Members from the U.S.” The AEA has only been used three times and each time we were in a declared war: the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II. It is a law that became infamous in its use to put Japanese, German, and Italian civilians in internment camps during World War II. In DeLacey v. United States in 1918, the Ninth Circuit wrote that:

“The first reported case arising under the [AEA] is [by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in] Lockington’s Case [in 1814] … Lockington … had refused to comply with the executive order of February 23, 1813, requiring alien enemies who were within 40 miles of tidewater to retire to such places beyond that distance from tidewater as should be designated by the marshals. He was arrested, and on petition for habeas corpus attempted to test the legality of his imprisonment. Chief Justice Tilghman said of the [AEA]: “It is a provision for the public safety, which may require that the alien should not be removed, but kept in the country under proper restraints. … It is never to be forgotten that the main object of the law is to provide for the safety of the country from enemies who are suffered to remain within it. In order to effect this safety, it might be necessary to act on sudden emergencies. … The President, being best acquainted with the danger to be apprehended, is best able to judge of the emergency which might render such measures necessary. Accordingly, we find that the powers vested in him are expressed in the most comprehensive terms.”

The laws sweeping language makes it ripe for abuse. Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Brackenridge in Lockington’s Case (1814) observed that under the AEA “the President would seem to be constituted, as to this description of persons, with the power of a Roman dictator or consul, in extraordinary cases, when the Republic was in danger, that it sustain no damage: ne quid detrimenti respublica capiat.” However, the AEA’s only limiting language is found in the triggering language for those powers: “Whenever there is a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government, or any invasion or predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States by any foreign nation or government, and the President makes public proclamation of the event…” In Ludecke v. Watkins, 335 U.S. 160 (1948), the Supreme Court held Justice Felix Frankfurter wrote a supportive decision of the presidential authority under the AEA on when the powers expired, but not when the powers begin:

“And so we reach the claim that, while the President had summary power under the Act, it did not survive cessation of actual hostilities. This claim in effect nullifies the power to deport alien enemies, for such deportations are hardly practicable during the pendency of what is colloquially known as the shooting war. Nor does law lag behind common sense. War does not cease with a cease-fire order, and power to be exercised by the President such as that conferred by the Act of 1798 is a process which begins when war is declared but is not exhausted when the shooting stops.” This broad granting of authority under the AEA is obviously a great attraction for presidents who have rarely hesitated to use the maximal levels of their powers. However, the threshold requirement of a declared war has proven the limiting element and it is telling that the law been used only three times by presidents.

“Once a government has a monopoly on violence, the concept of public consent is meaningless..”

• Jon Stewart: Americans Don’t Need Guns To Protect Constitutional Rights (ZH)

Donald Trump’s recent return to Butler, PA where he was nearly assassinated due to Secret Service incompetence (or deliberate failure) has got the political left all worked up. Perhaps in part because Thomas Crooks failed to complete his task despite being given every conceivable opportunity to succeed, but also because Elon Musk was there to support the rally. Nothing Musk said was particularly shocking to normal Americans, but his comments on the necessity of the 2nd Amendment as a means to keep the 1st Amendment have outraged Democrats. Coastal progressives in particular have sought to disarm the rest of the nation for decades. Gun control and ultimately gun confiscation are foundational policies that their movement revolves around. The question is, why? Why are they so desperate to violate the Bill of Rights and take firearms away?

They certainly don’t care about people’s safety. If they did, they wouldn’t have cheered on the baseless and violent BLM and Antifa riots. Social media is replete with woke activists calling for the deaths of conservatives. These are not peaceful people seeking nirvana, they are happy to use violence if they think it will get them more power. This is a problem that old-school Democrats like Jon Stewart continue to enable while pretending it doesn’t exist. Stewart, clinging to cultural relevancy on his newly rebooted Daily Show, attempted to lampoon Elon Musk over his assertions on the 2A in Butler, but his strange diatribe about representative democracy is a retro callback to the 1990s and comes off as rather naive. Does Stewart really believe this nonsense? It’s hard to say, but the past few years have made his arguments obsolete.

The 1st Amendment is not protected by the “consent of the governed.” Americans just experienced a three year period of active censorship under the Biden Administration working closely with Big Tech and social media companies. Stewart shrugs off such censorship as if it’s overblown and doesn’t matter, but even Mark Zuckerberg admitted that Facebook was under pressure from the establishment to silence dissent on a number of issues from covid mandates to Hunter Biden’s laptop. Contrary to Stewart’s delusions about democracy, the reality is that the Constitution does not defend itself. According to polls a large number of Democrats desired the erasure of numerous rights during the covid scare. They don’t represent the majority, but there is more than enough of them to add weight to any authoritarian effort. And, the only thing stopping them from getting everything they want is the existence of millions of American gun owners.

It’s not as if the progressive/globalist establishment intends to give up, either. As John Kerry noted during a climate conference held by the WEF in September, their open intent is to shut down free speech rights regardless of the democratic process. If they could get rid of the 1st Amendment, they would. The only reason they haven’t is because the US government doesn’t have a monopoly on force. In Stewart’s fantasy land, a free Republic is a self perpetuating entity that continues on for eternity once it is set in motion, driven only by the goodness and purity of ideology and the voting process. But elections can be subverted by top-down corruption and the system has clearly been broken for some time. One only need to look at the malicious government crackdown on speech happening in the UK to see what happens when a population is disarmed.

There are examples of this across the globe, yet in the world of The Daily Show there is some kind of magical force embedded in “democracy” that protects the populace from abuse. To be sure, the act of violent rebellion is generally a last resort after all other measures have been exhausted. It’s just important to recognize that there’s always a breaking point and America is very close now. Stewart ironically contradicts his own premise when he claims guns “only protect the speech of the people holding the guns.” Yes Jon, that’s why the 2A exists, so that everyone’s speech is protected. Because a representative government can become a tyrannical government as easily as any other government. All it takes is time. The 2A ensures that the “consent of the governed” is never manufactured or forced without the threat of rebellion. Once a government has a monopoly on violence, the concept of public consent is meaningless and the elites will do as they please.

As Thomas Jefferson once wisely stated in reference to the potential for future citizen rebellion: “…What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

WWIII as their legacy for Trump.

• Biden, Netanyahu Closer to Consensus on Attacking Iran (Antiwar)

President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moved closer to an understanding on Israel’s plans to attack Iran during their phone call on Wednesday, Axios reported on Thursday. The report, which cited US and Israeli officials, said that the US had accepted Israel is going to launch a major attack on Iran soon and is only concerned that striking certain types of targets could dramatically escalate things. However, Iran has vowed it will respond to any type of Israeli attack, and the situation could easily turn into a full-blown war that would involve the US. An Israeli official told Axios that the Israeli plans are still a bit more aggressive than the US would like. The US has been warning against striking nuclear facilities or oil infrastructure, and recent media reports have said Israel will likely target military infrastructure.

Netanyahu convened his security cabinet on Thursday to brief them on the situation with the US and is expected to get approval for him and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to set a timeline for the Israeli attack. The Times of Israel reported that the US and Israel will continue conversations on the plans in the coming days, signaling the attack is not imminent. NBC News reported on Tuesday that the US was considering supporting Israel’s attack with direct airstrikes of its own, although US officials said intelligence support was more likely. The Jerusalem Post reported that the US was offering Israel a “compensation package” of military aid and full diplomatic support if it only hits US-approved targets in Iran. The US has also committed to defending Israel from any Iranian response.

Iran fired nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel last week in response to a string of Israeli escalations, including the assassination of Hamas’s political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran. Immediately after the attack, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the US would work with Israel to ensure Iran suffers “severe consequences.”

So noble.

• Biden Warns Iran Against Going After Trump – WaPo (RT)

US president Joe Biden has told the White House National Security Council to warn Iran against trying to assassinate Donald Trump, the Washington Post has reported. The message that the US president wanted to be relayed to Tehran was that Washington would treat any attempt on the life of his predecessor, or on that of any other former American official, as an act of war, the paper wrote on Friday. WaPo cited National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett, who insisted that Biden has directed “every resource” to make sure that the Republican Party nominee is well protected and that his security detail receives intelligence data in a timely manner about any dangers he might face. “We consider this a national and homeland security matter of the highest priority, and we strongly condemn Iran for these brazen threats,” Savett stated.

Tehran will face “severe consequences” if it attacks any American citizen, including people who “continue to serve the US or those who formerly served,” he stressed. Late last month, Trump claimed that there were “big threats” on his life, coming from Iran. He said that the two assassination attempts against him in recent months, at a rally in Pennsylvania in July then, in September, at his golf club in Florida, “may or may not involve” Tehran. WaPo, citing sources familiar with the matter, wrote that currently there is no evidence tying Tehran to either of the incidents. The former president’s statement came a day after his team announced that they had a meeting with representatives of US intelligence, who warned them about Tehran’s alleged plans to kill Trump and to “sow chaos” in the country.

Politico said on Friday that it had talked to dozens of officials, who claimed that Iran’s efforts to kill Trump, as well as persons involved in the assassination of top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani, were “even more extensive and aggressive than previously reported.” Soleimani died in a US drone strike outside an airport in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, in January 2020, during Trump’s period in office, and Iran has promised that he would be avenged. However, after Trump was wounded in the ear in an assassination attempt on July 13, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani stressed that Tehran “strongly rejects” any suggestion that it was involved. “Iran is determined to pursue legal action against Trump for his direct role in the crime of assassinating Martyr General Qassem Soleimani,” Kanaani said.

“About the notion that broadcast licenses should be up for bidding anew, Collins said: “If it causes a conversation in the halls of New York, and panic, maybe I’m all for it.”

• CBS News Faces Integrity Crisis Amid Bias Concerns, Missteps (JTN)

CBS News was once home to giants in the journalism industry. Walter Cronkite – known as “the most trusted man in America” – broadcast from a bomber in WWII on a mission over Germany. Edward R. Murrow changed investigative reporting forever with a 1960 documentary that is still taught in journalism schools today. And Mike Wallace could stir fear in the hearts of interview subjects with a simple phone call from his “60 Minutes” office. But today the news giant once heralded as the “Tiffany network” is blinking with crisis as the neutrality of its anchors is challenged and the integrity of editing at its most famous news magazine has been questioned. Many believe the storm of credibility was born two decades ago when then-Anchor Dan Rather’s supposed scoop on George W. Bush’s Vietnam war service factually crumbled, a miscue so embarrassing it sunk the 60 Minutes II franchise for good.

But a steady run of miscues and clashes in the era of Donald Trump and Middle East war has only inflamed the distrust – at least among conservatives – to scandalous levels and left a cloud lingering over the entire CBS News franchise. The most recent accusations of liberal bias exploded when CBS announced ahead of the vice presidential debate between Republican Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic nominee, that its moderators would not “fact-check” the candidates’ answers. Instead, CBS moderators Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan pulled a fast one, and several times argued with him about assertions. At one point when Vance answered their questions pushing back, they interrupted him and cut his mic off. In another event, The Free Press reported that a memo from Mark Memmott, the network’s director of standards and practices, told CBS reporters not to refer to Jerusalem as being in Israel, though it is the nation’s capital city and home to the U.S. embassy.

But perhaps the most politically incendiary incident, and the one that has Trump calling for CBS to lose its broadcast license, involved “60 Minutes” on Monday, when the network’s flagship news show was caught subbing one rambling answer from Vice President Kamala Harris for a more coherent one. “60 Minutes is a major part of the News Organization of CBS, which has just created the Greatest Fraud in Broadcast History,” Trump posted on social media after the Monday night show aired. “CBS should lose its license, and it should be bid out to the Highest Bidder, as should all other Broadcast Licenses, because they are just as corrupt as CBS — and maybe even WORSE!” The Harris interview was conducted by Bill Whitaker at the Naval Observatory over the weekend and an edited portion aired on “Face the Nation,” also a CBS show.

When Whittaker asked about U.S. diplomacy in Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reaction to the Biden administration’s desire to scale down the war against Hamas, Harris responded with: “Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by or a result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region.” But when the question aired later on “60 Minutes,” the response by Harris was different. “We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end,” the presidential nominee said. In an additional social-media post by Trump, he said: “With me, 60 Minutes does the exact opposite! They take everything I say, realize how totally BRILLIANT it is, and take it out. So, with Kamala they add, with ‘TRUMP’ they delete. Like the Democrat Party, THEY ARE A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY!”

While progressive pundits quickly came to the defense of CBS, saying that edits for the sake of time and “concision” are common in news media, Trump’s assertion that broadcast licenses ought to be in play due to media bias is gaining traction among conservatives. “I want to hold these people responsible. We’re giving them FCC licenses. They don’t deserve them,” Arizona senatorial candidate Kari Lake said Thursday on the “Just the News, No Noise,” TV show with host John Solomon. Broadcast licenses are considered a shared “public common” after the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation, an obscenity case, that the federal government had jurisdiction to manage the airwaves.

Similarly, former Congressman Doug Collins, who has served as legal counsel for Trump, told co-host Amanda Head that some of Trump’s lawyers will be filing an FEC complaint claiming that CBS has been making in-kind political contributions to the Harris-Walz campaign. About the notion that broadcast licenses should be up for bidding anew, Collins said: “If it causes a conversation in the halls of New York, and panic, maybe I’m all for it.” Michael Whatley, the chair of the Republican National Committee, called the behavior of CBS “appalling” during the “John Solomon Reports” podcast Thursday. “CBS and 60 Minutes are lying to the American people about what was said and what was done in that interview,” Whatley said. “This is just the latest example that the media is absolutely not going to play it straight.” Noting the rise of alternative media and falling ratings for broadcast news shows, he added: “There is a reckoning that is taking place with the mainstream, traditional media outlets that’s long overdue.”

Falling ratings are a long-term problem and has caused layoffs – and O’Donnell took a pay cut in 2022 to $3.8 million annually, down from $8 million previously – but as recently as four years ago the vice presidential debate between Harris and then-Vice President Mike Pence, scored 25 percent more viewers than did last month’s Vance-Walz debate. Another problem faced by CBS is its decision in February to lay off senior investigative correspondent Catherine Herridge after she reported stories that irritated progressive activists, including some involving the Hunter Biden laptop scandal. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, has launched an investigation into Herridge’s termination.

Herridge went on to say that when she interviewed then-President Trump in 2020, CBS News posted the entire interview transcript. And on Wednesday, Herridge weighed in on the “60 Minutes” fiasco, posting on the X social-media platform: “As Trump campaign calls on @60Minutes to release ‘full, unedited transcript’ of Kamala Harris interview … there is precedent.” The New York Post quoted unnamed sources as saying that “Herridge had pushed for the publication of her full transcript at the time and that it was a “special case.” “It’s about transparency and standing behind the integrity of the final edit,” Herridge posted Wednesday.

How on earth can you hold a free and fair election under such rules?

• 3 Million Non-Citizens Have Texas Driver’s Licenses Allowed As Voter ID (JTN)

Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy and state Rep. Brian Harrison, R, said that the Texas Department of Public Safety has confirmed there are nearly 3 million non-citizens with driver’s licenses in the state that secretary of state has allowed for use as voter ID. The announcement on Thursday came after an Tuesday advisory by the Texas secretary of state’s elections director, Christina Worrell Adkins, which states that while non-citizen driver’s licenses are not acceptable as voter ID, they can be used if the person is already a registered voter. “BREAKING: according to [Texas Department of Public Safety] – 2,824,613 non-citizens have DL’s, CDL’s, or ID – after working with my friend [Brian Harrison] to run this to ground. That’s why this matters – a lot,” Roy posted on X on Thursday as he shared his earlier post with a Texas Scorecard article about non-citizens using driver’s licenses as voter ID.

“Almost 3 million non-citizens have been issued driver licenses, CDLs, or IDs in Texas,” Harrison wrote Thursday as he shared Roy’s post on X. “The Secretary of State’s office is instructing poll workers to give ballots to people with non-citizen driver licenses. [Chip Roy] is right: ‘this matters a lot.’ Developing..” The secretary of state’s advisory explains that only U.S. citizens are permitted to register to vote and cast ballots in Texas. However, the guidance also states that a person with a non-citizen driver’s license or identification card can vote if they are listed on the voter rolls. If the person is not on the voter rolls and has a non-citizen driver’s license or ID, then they may still vote by provisional ballot.

Fill up the voter rolls with illegals well in advance and no-one can take them off less than 90 days before the election.

• DOJ Sues Virginia Over Removing Non-Citizens From Voter Rolls (JTN)

The Department of Justice has sued Virginia over removing non-citizens from its voter rolls ahead of the November election. The DOJ announced the suit Friday against the Commonwealth of Virginia, the Virginia State Board of Elections, and the Virginia Commissioner of Elections for allegedly violating the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. The NVRA prevents states from using systematic programs to remove ineligible voters from voter rolls within 90 days of a federal election, according to the DOJ. “As the National Voter Registration Act mandates, officials across the country should take heed of the law’s crystal clear and unequivocal restrictions on systematic list maintenance efforts that fall within 90 days of an election,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement. “By cancelling voter registrations within 90 days of Election Day, Virginia places qualified voters in jeopardy of being removed from the rolls and creates the risk of confusion for the electorate.

Congress adopted the National Voter Registration Act’s quiet period restriction to prevent error-prone, eleventh hour efforts that all too often disenfranchise qualified voters,” she added. “The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy and the Justice Department will continue to ensure that the rights of qualified voters are protected.” Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) slammed the DOJ over the litigation. “With less than 30 days until the election, the Biden-Harris Department of Justice is filing an unprecedented lawsuit against me and the Commonwealth of Virginia, for appropriately enforcing a 2006 law signed by Democrat Tim Kaine that requires Virginia to remove noncitizens from the voter rolls – a process that starts with someone declaring themselves a non-citizen and then registering to vote,” Youngkin said in a statement Friday.

“Virginians – and Americans – will see this for exactly what it is: a desperate attempt to attack the legitimacy of the elections in the Commonwealth, the very crucible of American Democracy. With the support of our Attorney General, we will defend these commonsense steps, that we are legally required to take, with every resource available to us. Virginia’s election will be secure and fair, and I will not stand idly by as this politically motivated action tries to interfere in our elections, period.” The DOJ lawsuit come two weeks after the department sued Alabama for removing ineligible voters from its voter rolls.

“..the main goal of Russian diplomacy is now “crisis management and the prevention of… a truly large-scale conflict.”

• NATO Could Have Prevented Ukraine Conflict – Hungary FM (RT)

The current standoff between Russia and the West could have been avoided if NATO and the US had engaged in serious talks on Moscow’s demand for security guarantees, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has argued. In December 2021, two months before Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine, it submitted a list of security proposals to NATO and the US, insisting that the bloc withdraw its military infrastructure to the 1997 borders. The key point of the document was to halt NATO’s expansion, particularly regarding Ukraine, which has long sought to join the military bloc. However, the bloc rejected the proposal, citing its “open-door policy” on new members. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that one of the key reasons for the conflict was the threat of Kiev’s potential NATO membership.

In an interview with RIA Novosti on Saturday, Szijjarto suggested that the Russian terms could have served as a basis for avoiding the Ukraine conflict. “I remember those times. I think that what was missing there was a serious discussion… I do believe that if someone has an issue… then it should be discussed. And these discussions have not taken place, unfortunately,” the diplomat said. Szijjarto acknowledged that any debate on what might have happened is now moot, but stressed that he wishes “those dialogues had taken place. Because if they had taken place, we might not be in the situation we are right now.” In May, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Moscow’s proposal on security guarantees was no longer on the table, and that the main goal of Russian diplomacy is now “crisis management and the prevention of… a truly large-scale conflict.”

Szijjarto, along with other top Hungarian officials, have repeatedly criticized the West’s approach to the Ukraine crisis, calling on both sides to reach a ceasefire and start peace talks. He has also blasted Western sanctions against Moscow as ineffective and crippling the EU economy. Russia has never ruled out talks on Ukraine, and Putin said in June that Moscow would immediately agree to a ceasefire and start peace talks if Kiev were to withdraw troops from the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions and commit to neutrality. Later, he said that any engagement was out of the question as long as Ukrainian troops occupy part of Russia’s Kursk Region.

“..options for fighting Russia are being continuously worked out within the bloc, military budgets of member states are being boosted, and Western economies are being militarized..”

• NATO Planning New Russia Strategy – Politico (RT)

NATO’s defense ministers will meet in Brussels next week to start rethinking the bloc’s decades-old strategy on relations with Russia, Politico has reported Despite ties between NATO and Russia hitting “rock bottom” after the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, the ‘Founding Act’ with Moscow remains in force within the US-led alliance, the outlet noted in an article on Friday. The 1997 document, which states that NATO and Russia share a common goal to “build a stable, peaceful and undivided Europe,” does not reflect the current situation, Politico wrote. During its summit in Washington in July, NATO labeled Moscow the “most significant and direct threat to Allies’ security,” while Russia continues to insist that the bloc’s eastward expansion is an “existential danger” for the country.

NATO countries are now trying to “map out different elements of [the Russia] strategy and advance the debates inside the alliance that takes us to subjects like the future of the NATO-Russia Founding Act,” a senior US official was quoted by Politico as saying. “It is time to now craft a new strategy in terms of specific positions” of the member states, the official added. Lower-level discussions on the new Russia policy have been underway for months within the bloc, and next week the issue will be addressed at the ministerial level, the report said. NATO previously announced that it planned to formulate a new strategy before its summit in The Hague, to be held next summer. “Right now we have to have an understanding across the alliance… that the [Founding Act] and the NATO-Russia Council were built for a different era, and I think the allies are prepared to say that was a different era in our relationship with Russia, and therefore something new is merited,” the US official explained.

The official described the strategy as a “political exercise,” adding that its military implications are expected to be “limited.” According to Politico, there are differences among members when it comes to the new policy towards Moscow, as some are concerned that an overly aggressive “signal” could “destabilize” Russia. There are also questions over Hungary and Slovakia, which see “strategic value” in engaging with Moscow, despite being NATO members, it added. Earlier this week, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Grushko said NATO is no longer hiding the fact that it is bracing for a potential military conflict with Moscow. Possible options for fighting Russia are being continuously worked out within the bloc, military budgets of member states are being boosted, and Western economies are being militarized, he said. It was not Russia but NATO that took “the path of confrontation” by refusing to engage in dialogue, Grushko insisted. Because of this, the US-led bloc bears full responsibility for a “major European security crisis” caused by the Ukraine conflict, he added.

“We reset our workforce levels to align with our financial reality and to a more focused set of priorities..”

• Boeing To Fire 17,000 Employees (RT)

The US manufacturer Boeing has announced plans to eliminate around 10% of its workforce over the coming months, as the aerospace giant’s losses continue to mount and a strike undercuts the production of its best-selling planes. The job cuts will include executives and managers in addition to ordinary employees, according to a memo shared by the company’s new president and CEO Kelly Ortberg on Friday. The corporation employs nearly 170,000 people worldwide. “Our business is in a difficult position, and it is hard to overstate the challenges we face together,” said Ortberg, who became CEO of the troubled aircraft maker two months ago. A month after he took the helm, 33,000 hourly workers went on strike. “We reset our workforce levels to align with our financial reality and to a more focused set of priorities,” he added.

The “tough” decision is aimed at completing structural changes that will ensure the company’s ability to stay competitive and execute the customers’ orders over the long term, the CEO emphasized. Ortberg added that Boeing is also delaying its program to develop the 777X airplane until 2026 and halting production of its commercial 767 freighters in 2027 after fulfilling remaining orders. Earlier this week, Boeing said it had filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board against the union that represents its striking West Coast factory workers. The company emphasized that the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers had failed to bargain in good faith during the four-week work stoppage, adding that it was “issuing misinformation to its members about the status of negotiations.”

The company earlier withdrew a contract offer it had made to the striking machinists, saying that further negotiations “do not make sense at this point.” The union had previously stated that Boeing had refused to improve wages, retirement plans and vacation or sick leave. In a preliminary report on the financial results issued on Friday, the corporation said it expects to have an operating cash outflow of $1.3 billion in the third quarter, and that it will report a loss of $9.97 per share.

Maher

NOW – Bill Maher sounds the alarm on Kamala's crashing campaign; "It's 25 days before the election, and I got to say, it's not looking that great for the Democrats. This is not a good sign——" pic.twitter.com/xI46LckicK

— Overton (@overton_news) October 12, 2024

Phone frogs
https://twitter.com/i/status/1845086252820811853

Material girl

No way, how? pic.twitter.com/S0pe98Ll8u

— The World Of Funny (@TheWorldOfFunny) October 12, 2024

Voila
https://twitter.com/i/status/1844929481615790263

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Debt Rattle September 3 2024

Sep 032024

September 3, 2024 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 8:09 am Finance Tagged with: Belarus, CNN, COVID criminality, Hungary, Kamala, Kyle Bass, Mongolia, Nazi banners, tyranny, voter ID 43 Responses »

René Magritte Memory of a voyage 1955

• A Vote for Kamala Is a Vote for Tyranny (Paul Craig Roberts)

• Kamala Harris is ‘Clear Underdog’: Campaign Chief (Sp.)

• With Friends Like CNN, Kamala Harris Can’t Fail (Bridge)

• Is Kamala Very Very Afraid? (Jim Kunstler)

• California Bill Banning Voter ID Laws Passes Legislature (ET)

• On a Highway to Hell (Scott Ritter)

• Russia Says Relations With US At All-Time Low (RT)

• 50 Countries United Against Russia Under ‘Nazi Banners’ – Lavrov (RT)

• Lukashenko Prepares His Weapons: Could Belarus Be Drawn Into The War? (Oncan)

• Hungary Can’t Survive Without Russian Oil – FM (RT)

• Soros-Bankrolled Human Rights Watch Tells Mongolia To Arrest Putin (RT)

• US Seizes Maduro’s Plane – CNN (RT)

• RFK Jr: “A Reckoning” For “Immoral, Homicidal” COVID Criminality Needed (MN)

• Why Musk’s Lawsuit Against Media Matters . . . Matters (Turley)

• Kyle Bass Says ‘Green’ War To Blackball Oil Was Doomed To Fail (ZH)

RFK Vietnam

RFK Jr: “My uncle spent the 1,000 days of his administration battling his military apparatus and intelligence agencies to keep the country out of war”

“On October 22, 1963 … he signed National Security Order 263 ordering all military personnel home from Vietnam.

30 days after… pic.twitter.com/wQllbH1VI9

— Holden Culotta (@Holden_Culotta) September 1, 2024

Trump Crooks

Trump calls the investigation of his assassination attempt 'very suspicious', asks how Thomas Crooks' father can afford to hire 'the most expensive lawyer'

In an interview with Monica Crowley, Trump asked who is paying for the high end lawyer hired by Thomas Crooks' father.… pic.twitter.com/jaNMeBpfhz

— Owen Gregorian (@OwenGregorian) September 1, 2024

Day one

“he says “you’re not going to be a dictator, are ya’?”, I said “no no no, other than day one!” we’re closing the border, and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator”.

All the left does is lie. https://t.co/xMdWR6Kcqe pic.twitter.com/CAimw4l95M

— Viva Frei (@thevivafrei) September 2, 2024

Cotton

Senator @TomCottonAR SHUTS DOWN the Fake News Arlington hoax: "He didn't take campaign photos there. These families — Gold Star families — whose children died due to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's incompetence, invited him to the cemetery, and they asked him to take those… pic.twitter.com/H1jvKt0XQ2

— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 1, 2024

Tulsi
https://twitter.com/i/status/1830557403848511566

Elon
https://twitter.com/i/status/1830527091126702437

Reagan
https://twitter.com/i/status/1830240891266564449

GlennG

“When We Lose the Constitution, We Lose America”

“Probably few heard Kamala Harris say [..] that free speech, guaranteed by the First Amendment of the US Constitution, is impermissible without oversight and regulation and has to stop..”

“How can Kamala possibly take the oath of office and promise to uphold the Constitution?”

• A Vote for Kamala Is a Vote for Tyranny (Paul Craig Roberts)

It is clear that large numbers of Americans have no conception of what is at stake in the November presidential election. Insouciance, being an American trait, is especially high this Labor Day Weekend. Probably few heard Kamala Harris say on August 30 in this video in what seems to be an interview at a CNN event that free speech, guaranteed by the First Amendment of the US Constitution, is impermissible without oversight and regulation and has to stop. Yes, she said that, and in the same 28 seconds said a number of other unbelievably stupid things that demonstrate her incapacity to serve in any political office even at the lowest level. For example, Kamala said “he (Musk) has lost his privileges and it (X) must be taken down.” Kamala is saying that free speech, the bedrock foundation of American freedom is a privilege granted by government, and by refusing to accept government censorship of free speech, Musk has lost his “privilege” to operate a social media company, which “must be taken down.”

https://twitter.com/i/status/1829652525315944693

For example, “the bottom line is that you can’t say you have one rule for Facebook and a different rule for Twitter” (she means X). There is no such rule. What she is saying is that Facebook’s cowardly or woke management has agreed to censor in order to protect the lies that constitute the official narratives, and Elon Musk, being a person of character and integrity, has not. Kamala Harris is so totally ignorant and so totally uneducated that she is unaware that the US Constitution governs the US government. She thinks our Constitutional rights are subject to regulation by government in order to conform us to official narratives. Kamala says that social media sites “are directly speaking to millions and millions of people without any oversight or regulation,” but so is she. So is CNN. So is NPR. So is NBC. So is CBS. So is ABC. [..] So is the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Treasury, the Secretary of Homeland security. So is the Supreme Court. So is Congress. So is the President of the United States.

Kamala is so utterly stupid — indeed, she is so stupid as to be unbelievable — that she does not realize that she is sticking the gag into her own mouth. Kamala is so dumb that she does not understand that social media does not speak to millions of people. Instead, millions of people on social media speak to whoever cares to hear, usually a small number. How can a person as stupid as Kamala and as hostile to free speech be a candidate for president of the United States? How can Kamala possibly take the oath of office and promise to uphold the Constitution? The woke progressives don’t care. They hate the Constitution as much as Kamala is ignorant of it. I have often reported that law schools long ago abandoned the US Constitution as an obstacle to a woke society of DEI. Hardly a day passes that a law school dean doesn’t prove the truthfulness of my statement. [..]

On August 30, 2024, Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley, called for a new constitution, claiming that failing to make changes would cause the U.S. to “drift toward authoritarianism.” If Chemerinsky were competent to be a law school dean, he would understand that the United States is the Constitution. Chemerinsky’s call for a new constitution is a call for the overthrow of the United States. Will he be arrested as a threat to democracy? Without the Constitution, we would be some other country–which is what they want. The goal is a compliant population with no rights, only privileges that can be revoked for non-compliant behavior. They oppose the idea that government is accountable to people. Their goal is a people who are accountable to the government. Once Kamala is in office, the transformation will be complete.

Dear insouciant American, try to pay attention, try to understand, that the Dean of one of America’s largest law schools is claiming that the US Constitution, the embodiment of the rights of free people, is an oppressive document and stands in the way of “justice and equity.” The Berkeley Law School dean has actually written a book about How the Constitution Threatens the United States. When the Constitution is destroyed, America is destroyed. When law schools have deans too stupid to understand this, it indicates that America has been lost. Dear insouciant American, try to understand that the November election is not about abortion rights. It is not about “inclusion.” It is not about any of the issues about which you are being indoctrinated. It is about whether you have any prospect of continuing life in freedom.

“The New York Times suggests the memo is “an artful attempt to lower expectations” and boost fundraising..”

• Kamala Harris is ‘Clear Underdog’: Campaign Chief (Sp.)

The Democrats enter the final phase of the election as “the clear underdogs”, Harris-Walz campaign chief, Jen O’Malley Dillon, wrote in a memo titled “The State of the Race 65 Days Out.” Dillon, previously confident in Joe Biden’s victory despite poor poll results, had never made such a statement before. The US mainstream media cites Harris’ rising approval numbers, while questioning Dillon’s newfound caution. What’s troubling the Harris-Walz campaign chief?

• Despite record fundraising, increased volunteer interest, and a spike in voter enthusiasm, Dillon cautions that “Donald Trump has a motivated base of support, with more backing and higher favorability than he has had at any point since 2020.” • The upcoming debate between Vice President Harris and Trump, with the latter described in the memo as “a formidable opponent”, is another note of concern. • Dillon observes, “In 2020, the election came down to about 40,000 votes across the battleground states. This November, we anticipate similarly razor-thin margins.” • Additionally, Trump is “a heavily defined candidate”, whereas American voters are less familiar with Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. Dillon urges “aggressive campaigning” to “introduce and define [the Harris-Walz] ticket to the voters.”

The New York Times suggests the memo is “an artful attempt to lower expectations” and boost fundraising, while reinvigorating the base. However, Republicans argue that Harris is the underdog, claiming her poll lead results from deliberate oversampling of Democratic voters. They criticize her as economically “illiterate” and point to her controversial record as Joe Biden’s vice president.

Nobody watches CNN. Ironically, that’s what they count on.

• With Friends Like CNN, Kamala Harris Can’t Fail (Bridge)

How pathetic, how lacking in confidence is this woman, that she is running for president of the United States, the highest office of the land, but won’t agree to an interview with a friendly network without Tim Walz accompanying her. On top of that, the Harris campaign picked the lowest-rated news channel (CNN) to do the interview, hours before a holiday weekend, and on the same night college football season kicked off. In other words, Harris’ handlers were desperately seeking to keep this interview as low key as possible. While CNN’s Dana Bash did ask several substantive questions in this closely watched interview, there was scant critical follow up to Harris’ answers although the vice president has flip-flopped on numerous occasions in the past, most notably on the question of America’s energy resources.

“When you were in Congress, you supported the green New Deal, and in 2019 you said, quote, ‘There is no question, I’m in favor of banning fracking.’ Do you still want to ban fracking?” Bash asked. Harris responded that she no longer wanted to ban fracking and that she had emphasized that position in 2020. Bash reminded that Harris had previously said in a 2019 town hall that she did in fact want to prohibit fracking. When the CNN host went on to ask the vice president why she wanted to change her 2019 position, Harris made vague references to “scientific studies” on climate change, when the real reason for the flip-flop was to secure votes in the swing state of Pennsylvania where fracking is an important part of the economy. In other words, politics as usual.

Bash also questioned Harris for her role as ‘Border Czar’ in the Biden administration. The vice president was asked if she is still of the opinion that border crossings should be decriminalized, a position she took during her 2019 campaign. Harris managed to largely evade the question, simply answering that she believes in “consequence” and that “we have laws that have to be followed and enforced.” The problem is, the Biden administration has done very little to enforce those laws. Conservative estimates report that under President Biden’s watch, there have been over 8.5 million migrant encounters nationwide, 6.7 million of which have been at the Southwest border. Worse yet, 1.7 million known ‘getaways’—illegal immigrants who have evaded Border Patrol— are now living in the interior of the United States without documentation and without having undergone any vetting by immigration officials.

The number of illegal immigrants in the country has roughly doubled under President Biden. The United States had some 10.2 million illegal immigrants in 2020, and another 10 million have entered during Biden’s presidency. In light of this escalating situation, Harris had a lot of answering to do in the interview, which regrettably never happened. Meanwhile, many political commentators fear that a cloud of foul play surrounded the Harris-Walz sit down, and for good reason. Indeed, there is no reason to believe that CNN, a fiercely pro-liberal news channel, did not provide Kamala Harris with the questions prior to the interview.

Suffice it to recall that in the run up to the 2016 presidential showdown between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, former Democratic National Committee interim chair and CNN contributor Donna Brazile was caught sending town hall topics to Hillary Clinton’s campaign. News of the incident was discovered courtesy of leaked emails – a “hack job” conveniently blamed on the Russians, and despite the fact that a DNC employee, Seth Rich, 27, was murdered in cold blood on the streets of Washington, DC shortly after the revelations went public. Police say the young man was the victim of a robbery, although none of his private possessions were taken. Bash also questioned Harris over Biden’s disastrous debate performance that set in motion the effort to remove the president and replace him with Harris.

After Biden stumbled through the June 27 debate against Trump, Harris took to CNN to defend the 81-year-old president’s health and mental acuity. “Do you have any regrets about what you told the American people [about Biden’s health]?” Bash asked. “Not at all,” Harris responded, with a hint of conspiracy. Given Harris’ known inability for articulating complex ideas without the help of a teleprompter, many observers are of the opinion that Biden’s departure at the 11th hour was a deliberate move that protected Harris from having to spend too much time in the public eye before November. We already know from past experience that Harris’ political shelf life is extremely short.

Just four years ago, Harris was forced to withdraw early from the presidential nomination process with poll numbers in the low single digits, yet today she has managed to advance one step from the White House without winning a single vote. All things considered, some might call that very suspicious fortune. The only thing that can explain this surge in popularity is a media industrial complex that is willing to celebrate Kamala Harris as she prepares for her first and possibly last debate against The Donald on September 10. After that it’s anybody’s guess, but given the fact that almost the entire media complex has thrown its hefty support behind Harris, Trump is facing a formidable challenge.

“Mr. Obama. Voila and fait accompli! If he finds himself appointed rather than elected, he would not be in defiance of the 22nd Amendment..”

• Is Kamala Very Very Afraid? (Jim Kunstler)

Lurking behind her is not only the American intel blob of dark forces and sinister figures, but an international blob made up of malevolent groups within and throughout Western Civ, clearly working to bring it down — the Eurocrats wrecking their own countries’ agriculture and their industrial economies while jailing their opponents for thought crimes; the WEFers pushing the demented climate change agenda and ruinous migrant invasions; the bankers looking to seize the “collateral” (property, chattels, investment portfolios) of a billion everyday citizens when the bond Ponzi scheme blows up, as it must; the WHO steered by Bill Gates seeking to inject unsafe vaccines into everybody in order to greatly and quickly reduce the population; the Soros NGO legions working to subvert the public interest here, there, and everywhere; the NATO warmongers trying like hell to start World War Three. . . . Kamala Harris surely understands — if she understands anything — that she has become their chosen pawn, and is at their mercy (they have none).

She should be afraid especially of the American blob. That combine of higher-ups in the CIA, the DOD, the FBI, the DHS, the State Department, and Gawd knows how many lesser-known agencies and “black op” back offices, knows that it is in great danger if Mr. Trump happens to get elected (despite their best efforts to rig things). After all the trips laid on him, all the way up to attempted assassination, you can be sure that Mr. Trump will be coming after the cabal for committing real and serious crimes. They are running scared now. Despite all the power seemingly at their command, nothing has availed so far — not lawfare, not bullets — to stop Mr. Trump’s implacable march back into the Oval Office, where he could possibly succeed in turning the USA back into a functioning republic

Poor Kamala Harris is the blob’s wholly inadequate instrument to fend off this fate. If she continues to perform badly, the blob might not hesitate to try getting rid of her. That may be the blob’s last chance of stopping the election from happening altogether. The nation has never been in the predicament of having the head of a ticket resign or die in the homestretch of an election campaign. There is no provision in the Constitution for it because there are no provisions in the Constitution for political parties per se. It would all be a kind of improv.

And then, of course, America would be stuck with the unfit and incapable “Joe Biden,” heading the government, at least until something else can be worked out. Maybe that working out would just be the final stage of the coup that has been in motion, really, since 2016 when John Brennan, Barack Obama, and James Comey attempted to oust Mr. Trump with RussiaGate. Some kind of “interim commission” might be formed to “solve” the problem of the cancelled election. They’ll look for someone with “proven ability” to serve as provisional president — maybe, someone who has already been president. . . say, Mr. Obama. Voila and fait accompli! If he finds himself appointed rather than elected, he would not be in defiance of the 22nd Amendment. Okay, now try re-thinking how scared Kamala Harris must be.

“California is one of 15 states that doesn’t ask for photo ID at the ballot box..”

At what point does this become election interference?

• California Bill Banning Voter ID Laws Passes Legislature (ET)

A California bill that would ban local governments from requiring voter identification in their elections passed the state assembly, and now awaits the governor’s approval or veto. The measure would ban local governments such as Huntington Beach—where voters recently gave the City Council the go-ahead to impose such a requirement—from enacting voter ID laws and makes clear the state has exclusive jurisdiction when it comes to the voter verification process. Senate Bill 1174, authored by Sen. Dave Min, passed the Assembly in a 57 to 16 vote on Aug. 27. “I have repeatedly told the Huntington Beach City Council members pushing this issue that if they were to produce any evidence of widespread voter fraud, I would lead efforts to change California’s voter eligibility rules. They have not produced any such evidence,” the Irvine Democrat said in an Aug. 30 press release following the Assembly vote.

In May the Senate approved the bill 30–8. Min said his bill would protect against a “patchwork of varying election requirements” throughout the state, blocking all cities from requiring voters to present a government-issued identification to vote. The ban would include charter cities, which have more authority than general-law cities over such things as regulating local police and elections. “We cannot have 100 different charter cities making up 100 different sets of voting rules, based on fringe conspiracy theories,” Min said, referring to questions of election integrity in the 2020 presidential election. In a May 21 Senate floor hearing, Min said SB 1174 would create a statewide standard that prevents cities from enacting their own policies, which he said could disenfranchise voters.

In a recent Assembly Local Government bill analysis, Min argued that voter ID requirements only create barriers for voters but don’t protect against fraud, as voters already must verify their identity when they register. He said the state already automatically recounts some ballots, does signature verification checks, and allows voters to track their ballots. “We will not concede to ploys of voter fraud while an overwhelming body of evidence proves our elections are safe, secure, and above board,” he said. Voters in California are required to show identification only if they didn’t provide a driver’s license number or the last four digits of their Social Security number when registering, but the secretary of state also accepts credit or debit cards, student IDs, or an ID from a commercial establishment.

[..] Huntington Beach City Attorney Michael Gates told The Epoch Times in a recent interview that Min’s bill is “pure political symbolism” in response to the city’s recently passed measure. He said as a charter city, under Article XI, Section 5 (b) of the California Constitution, Huntington Beach has a right to have voter ID, and the state will lose any legal challenges it brings. “The state is running headlong into another legal clash, which it will lose miserably. Huntington Beach has it right, the state has it completely wrong. And all Californians want election integrity. It’s common sense,” he said in a text message to The Epoch Times.

“..all we guarantee is that eventually there will be a warfighting scenario where the U.S. will end up using nuclear weapons. And then we all die.”

• On a Highway to Hell (Scott Ritter)

[..] the Biden administration is now confronted with the possibility and or probability of a much larger, capable Chinese strategic nuclear force capable of surviving a limited U.S. first-strike and delivering a nation-killing nuclear payload to U.S. soil in retaliation. To adjust to this new reality, the U.S. would need to allocate nuclear warheads currently targeted against Russia onto China. This would require that the U.S. not only develop revised target lists for both Russia and China, but also rethink targeting strategies in general, looking to maximum physical destruction over political impact. More dangerously, the U.S. would have to look at employment strategies that maximized the element of surprise to ensure all targets were hit by their designated weapons. This would require a change in the readiness posture and operational deployment areas of U.S. nuclear forces.

With increased readiness comes the need for vigilance against any preemption efforts by a potential nuclear adversary, meaning that U.S. nuclear forces will be placed on a higher alert status. In short, the risk of nuclear war, inadvertent or otherwise, has become exponentially greater. In March the Biden administration reportedly issued a new Nuclear Employment Guidance document reflecting this reality. Nowhere in this guidance is there consideration for using arms control as a means of managing the nuclear equation, either by extending the New START treaty, or working with China to prevent a Chinese nuclear breakout. Instead, the U.S. appears to be concerned about the erosion of nuclear deterrence that will be brought about by diverting weapons dedicated to non-Chinese contingencies. When seen in this light, the answer to the problem is more, not fewer, nuclear weapons.

This is why the U.S. is going to let the New START treaty lapse in February 2026 — once the treaty goes away, so, too, does the cap on the number of deployed warheads, and the U.S. nuclear establishment will be able to build up the U.S. operational nuclear arsenal so that there are enough weapons for every designated target. The world is becoming a very dangerous place. Nuclear weapons offer the illusion of security. By allowing the U.S. nuclear posture to shift away from deterrence toward warfighting, all we guarantee is that eventually there will be a warfighting scenario where the U.S. will end up using nuclear weapons. And then we all die. We are, literally, on a Highway to Hell.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1830702703678472650

“Bilateral relations are now at probably their historical low point with no prospects for entering a growth trajectory to be seen..”

• Russia Says Relations With US At All-Time Low (RT)

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that Russia-US relations are at a historic low, dismissing the idea that the two sides could gradually improve them in the foreseeable future. In an interview with national broadcaster, Russia 1, the top official emphasized that Washington has been consistently trampling on Moscow’s interests and exerting pressure for several decades. Ties between the two states have reached “a cracking-up point” during Joe Biden’s presidency, according to Peskov, who stressed that the US administration is demonstrating an openly hostile position towards Russia by supporting Ukraine. “Right in the middle of Mr. Biden’s presidency all these processes have culminated […] Bilateral relations are now at probably their historical low point with no prospects for entering a growth trajectory to be seen,” he said.

“The US, despite many statements to the contrary, is directly involved in the Ukraine conflict,” Peskov concluded. Bilateral ties between Russia and the US took a nose-dive in 2022 when Washington and its allies attacked Moscow with a barrage of economic sanctions following the escalation of the Ukrainian conflict. Moreover, the White House has been providing Kiev with substantial economic and military aid, drawing reprobation from Russian officials, who have accused Washington of playing a direct role in the conflict. In addition, the US withdrew from two security treaties, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty and the Open Skies treaty, under the administration of Donald Trump. While the White House under President Joe Biden has extended the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) through 2026, last year Moscow suspended its participation, citing the US role in the Ukraine conflict.

Peskov also cast doubt on statements made by former US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly pledged to resolve the Ukraine conflict within 24 hours if elected a second time. The Republican presidential frontrunner has also claimed that he had an excellent relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin while in office, adding that the conflict would have never started on his watch. “I don’t think there is a magic wand, it is impossible to do anything in a day,” Peskov said. “Although, if we assume that the next US president will make a statement during his inauguration speech that the US stands for peace and is therefore ending its support for Ukraine […], then something in someone’s brain will change.”

Mearsheimer

University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer: "It's very important to understand that when a superpower like Russia believes it faces an existential threat, it will go to great lengths to deal with it. So if the Russians were losing on the battlefield in Ukraine, I'm sure… pic.twitter.com/ypxoOsBA6j

— Victor vicktop55 (@vicktop55) September 1, 2024

For decades, the Americans and their allies “sought total control over Ukraine. They funded nationalist and anti-Russian organizations there; they persistently worked to convince Ukraine that Russia was its eternal enemy..”

• 50 Countries United Against Russia Under ‘Nazi Banners’ – Lavrov (RT)

The West has always wanted to dismantle Russia and has gone as far as joining forces with the Nazis in Ukraine in an attempt to achieve this goal, Moscow’s top diplomat Sergey Lavrov has said. The foreign minister made the statement during a meeting with students and educators at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations on Monday, the first day of the new academic year in Russia. The West has always been concerned that Russia is “too strong, too independent,” and has wanted to do something about it, “preferably breaking it up,” said Lavrov. “A very indicative story is repeating itself because today, 50 countries have gathered against Russia under Nazi banners, considering the essence of the [Ukrainian leader Vladimir] Zelensky regime,” he continued, referring to the military assistance provided by the US and its allies to Kiev amid the conflict with Russia.

The foreign minister noted that Ukrainian troops have on numerous occasions been filmed wearing Nazi patches or carrying banners similar to those used by Adolf Hitler’s forces during the World War II. The “denazification” of Ukraine was identified by Russian President Vladimir Putin as one of the main goals of Moscow’s military operation against Kiev when it was launched in late February 2022. Lavrov asserted that Moscow was not going to play by Western rules and will not “embed itself into various schemes created without our participation and without taking Russia’s interests into account.” However, he said Putin had made it clear that Moscow remains “open to contacts with the countries of the ‘collective West,’ with the understanding, of course, that they will abandon their openly hostile policies towards our country.”

If the US and its allies do not change their ways, “we will continue to respond resolutely to any unfriendly steps,” Lavrov added. Elsewhere on Monday, Putin said the conflict between Moscow and Kiev had broken out because of “the destructive strategy of the West” regarding Ukraine. For decades, the Americans and their allies “sought total control over Ukraine. They funded nationalist and anti-Russian organizations there; they persistently worked to convince Ukraine that Russia was its eternal enemy and the main threat to its existence,” the Russian leader said. Washington and its “satellites” orchestrated the 2014 Maidan coup in Kiev, which was driven by “radical neo-Nazi groups” that continue to determine Ukraine’s policies to this day, he added.

“A nuclear disaster that could occur in the region would be most beneficial to Washington..”

• Lukashenko Prepares His Weapons: Could Belarus Be Drawn Into The War? (Oncan)

The operation by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region was not just a tactical move by Ukraine, but also a step that revealed the West’s intentions in the ongoing war. The acceptance of this demand raises the possibility that the attacks within Russia, beginning with Kursk, will be designated as the “main offensive line” from the perspective of Ukraine and the West. Before the peace negotiations, which are now expected by everyone to take place “someday,” the West intends to sit at the table as strongly as possible, in exchange for Donbass, which is connected to Russia. Recently, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for the removal of restrictions on the use of long-range missiles in attacks on Russian soil, and it was learned that “some NATO countries” have also prepared a statement with the same demand. While developments on the Kursk front remain tense, significant events have occurred in another important country involved in the Russia-Ukraine confrontation: Belarus.

In recent days, some critical developments have taken place in Belarus that have not received much attention in the media. The Kyiv administration recently violated Belarusian airspace with attack drones, and Belarus’s ready air defense system quickly announced that it had destroyed these drones. This marks the largest military engagement Belarus has had with Ukraine in recent times, despite Belarus’s efforts to avoid becoming directly involved in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. For Ukraine and the West, Kursk, with its nuclear power plant in the region, is a significant leverage against Russia. A nuclear disaster that could occur in the region would be most beneficial to Washington. What about Belarus? The strategic minds in the West will do everything possible to drag Russia’s closest ally into the hot war. This could include a potential leak at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, located just 16 kilometers from the Belarusian border.

Among the various methods of attacking Russia and Belarus, it is no coincidence that the first thought is of a nuclear leak. The easiest way to overcome the “obstacles” to deploying NATO weapons, or even NATO troops, in Ukraine is through a nuclear leak in the region and the creation of a perception that Russia and Belarus are “unable to control the disaster.” Therefore, in military developments like the attack on Kursk, the most critical point to monitor is not which town is controlled by whom, but how close they are to nuclear power plants.In light of the recent developments on the Kursk front, the Belarusian army has decided to strengthen the units in the Gomel and Mazyr regions. Mazyr is a Belarusian region close to the Dniester River and Kyiv, while Gomel is near Kursk via Bryansk. Special operations forces, ground forces, and missile units, including Polonez and Iskander missile systems, have begun new training and exercises in the designated regions.

Similarly, the Ukrainian Armed Forces continue to improve border security systems and defense elements, while also amassing troops along the Belarusian border. Meanwhile, plans to drag Belarus into the Russia-Ukraine conflict are still being pursued in the West and Ukraine. Recently, former commander of the Polish Army’s Ground Forces, General W. Skrzypczak, accused Belarus of conducting a “military campaign” against Poland and called for the establishment of a “Belarusian legion” in his country.

“..It affects about a third of our imports from Russia.

In Slovakia, the situation is even worse, these supplies account for about 40% there..”

• Hungary Can’t Survive Without Russian Oil – FM (RT)

Hungary cannot survive without Russian oil, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has warned, stressing that Ukraine’s decision to suspend transit poses a serious challenge for Budapest. Kiev halted the transit of crude supplied by Russian energy giant Lukoil via the Druzhba pipeline in June, citing sanctions. The measure has directly hit landlocked Hungary and Slovakia, depriving them of oil previously exported by Lukoil through Ukrainian territory. In an interview with Russian business daily RBK on Monday, Szijjarto said Hungary will be completely deprived of oil without supplies from Russia. “We will not be able to feed the country in a broad sense. We simply will not be able to meet the demand for fuel… because we do not have sufficient alternative infrastructure,” the diplomat said. “You just have to look at the numbers… We do not want to take such risks,” Szijjarto added. “Therefore, the fact that Ukraine has made such a decision is a very serious challenge for us. It affects about a third of our imports from Russia.

In Slovakia, the situation is even worse, these supplies account for about 40% there,” he stressed. Kiev imposed sanctions on Lukoil in 2018, having banned the company from divesting its business in the country, as well as prohibiting trade operations and participation in the privatization or leasing of state property. Lukoil still sent crude via the southern arm of the Druzhba pipeline as EU sanctions did not target these flows. The EU prohibited transport of Russian crude oil by sea in December 2022 as part of far-reaching sanctions on Moscow over the Ukraine conflict. Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic have been granted exemptions by Brussels as they source alternative supplies. Slovakia and Hungary are the only EU member states that have rejected the bloc’s policies on supplying Kiev with military aid amid the conflict with Moscow. Both states have repeatedly called for the crisis to be solved through diplomacy.

Last week, Politico reported that Budapest had proposed a solution for the restoration of halted Russian oil flows by rebranding Lukoil products. That way, the crude shipped via Ukraine could be officially sold to Hungarian energy giant MOL before it crosses the border. The arrangement could reportedly mean paying an additional $1.50 per barrel to secure transit outside of previous agreements. Szijjarto told RBK that a temporary solution to the crisis situation could be found, stressing that “in the long term, we need to look for another, legally significant solution.” The Hungarian diplomat traveled to Russia last week to discuss energy security issues. Budapest is “satisfied with Russian energy cooperation, which is one of the guarantees of the country’s food security,” Szijjarto wrote on Facebook after meeting with the head of Russian energy giant Gazprom, Aleksey Miller.

ICC, Ukraine, HRW… And Putin got a welcome with all honors.

• Soros-Bankrolled Human Rights Watch Tells Mongolia To Arrest Putin (RT)

The George Soros-funded organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called on the government of Mongolia to arrest Russian President Vladimir Putin during his trip to the country, which would be in accordance with the Asian state’s obligations as a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC). Putin arrived in Mongolia on Monday at the invitation of the country’s president, Ukhnaa Khurelsukh, to attend a ceremony commemorating the 1939 Battle of Khalkhin Gol, in which Soviet and Mongolian forces defeated the Imperial Japanese Army. Ahead of his visit, HRW, which has received over $100 million from Soros’ Open Society Foundations, issued a statement on its website warning Mongolia against allowing Putin to enter the country.

“Mongolia would be defying its international obligations as an ICC member if it allows Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit without arresting him,” the HRW’s senior international justice counsel, Maria Elena Vignoli said, claiming that welcoming the Russian President would “undermine the crucial principle that no one, no matter how powerful, is above the law.” Last year, the ICC issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest, accusing him of “unlawful deportation of population (children)” and “unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine” to Russia amid the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev. Russia has rejected the ICC’s accusations as absurd, stressing that the evacuation of civilians from a combat zone is not a war crime. Moscow has also pointed out that it has never signed the Rome Statute, on which the ICC is based, meaning that the court has no jurisdiction in the matter.

Meanwhile, Mongolian authorities, despite having signed the Rome Statute on which the ICC is based, have reportedly said that they have no intention of arresting Putin, according to Bloomberg, which cited two sources familiar with the matter. Putin arrived in the Mongolian capital on Monday and was greeted by an honorary guard at Ulaanbaatar Airport. According to presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, he will have a “rich program” on Tuesday as part of his state visit, which will include a meeting with his Mongolian counterpart, negotiations in various formats dedicated to bilateral relations, as well a signing ceremony of Russian-Mongolian intergovernmental documents. Ahead of the trip, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Moscow had “no concerns” about Putin’s visit and the ICC warrant, stating that “we have excellent relations with our friends from Mongolia,” and that all issues concerning the Russian president’s trip had been “worked out” beforehand.

They really want the oil.

• US Seizes Maduro’s Plane – CNN (RT)

The US government has confiscated an airplane reportedly used by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, claiming it violates Washington’s sanctions against Caracas, CNN reported on Monday. The Americans have charged Maduro with drug trafficking and refused to recognize his victories in the last two Venezuelan presidential elections. “Seizing the foreign head of state’s plane is unheard-of for criminal matters. We’re sending a clear message here that no one is above the law, no one is above the reach of US sanctions,” an unnamed Washington official told CNN, which first reported the story on Monday. According to CNN, the plane is worth around $13 million and was seized in cooperation with Dominican authorities. The US outlet did not identify the airplane, saying only it was seized in the Dominican Republic and flown to Miami, Florida. The departments of Homeland Security, Commerce, and Justice were involved in the seizure.

The Miami Herald identified the jet as a Dassault Falcon 900EX, a French-built corporate jet that has previously visited Cuba, Brazil and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, “often with Maduro on board.” It appears to be registered in San Marino. The Herald cited records from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) showing that a Florida-based company sold the plane to a company in St. Vincent, which then resold it to San Marino. The US government alleges that the reseller was a Venezuelan shell company and that the sale violated its sanctions on Venezuela. American officials described the jet as Venezuela’s equivalent of the US “Air Force One,” noting that Maduro has flown it to a number of places. It was unclear how it ended up in the Dominican Republic, as Venezuela suspended commercial air travel with the island after the July 28 presidential election.

According to CNN, the US intends to confiscate the plane through asset forfeiture process. This means Venezuela could theoretically challenge it in court – if it can find a way around the sanctions to do so. This is the second Venezuelan jet to be seized by the US this year. In February, Argentina sent the US a Boeing 747-300M cargo plane confiscated in 2022, because Caracas allegedly bought it from a sanctioned Iranian company. Maduro called the seizure “a blatant theft” on part of Argentinian President Javier Milei’s government. Washington has seized $2 billion worth of Venezuelan bank accounts and assets in recent years, one unnamed official told CNN.

“..Fauci and others used their positions during COVID to enforce “totalitarian controls that were not science-based.”

• RFK Jr: “A Reckoning” For “Immoral, Homicidal” COVID Criminality Needed (MN)

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said that individuals who engaged in “criminal” behaviour during the pandemic still need to be held accountable. Kennedy, who is in line for a health related position in Donald Trump’s administration should he be elected, declared recently that there needs to be a “reckoning” brought upon those responsible. Speaking at the Limitless Expo, Kennedy explicitly referenced Anthony Fauci, noting “I wrote a book about Fauci. It’s a great book. There are 2,200 footnotes in the book… I invited people to find problems with the book… And nobody ever told us any factual error in that book.” He charged that Fauci and others used their positions during COVID to enforce “totalitarian controls that were not science-based.” “It’s a story, really, of people involved in really terrible, immoral, homicidal criminal behavior,” Kennedy urged.

RFK Jr: “There still has to be a reckoning” for Covid

“The mainstream media hasn’t caught up with the science, but the science is out there now and it’s devastating.”

“Yesterday, the chief attorney for FDA admitted, because he lost a case in court against a doctor, that there… pic.twitter.com/dvLRD6tvAx

— Holden Culotta (@Holden_Culotta) August 31, 2024

He noted that effective treatments were repressed, stating “Ivermectin was a very, very devastating cure for COVID. It literally obliterated COVID.”“By depriving people of Ivermectin, many, many people, millions of people around the globe, died, and they didn’t need to,” Kennedy added, charging that Fauci and others pressured the FDA to discourage such treatments in favour of relentlessly pushing unproven and untested vaccines. “There were cures for COVID from day one, very effective cures. But they didn’t want that. They wanted the vaccine only,” Kennedy posited, adding “if they admitted that any of [the treatments] were effective, the whole vaccine project would have fallen apart.”

Kennedy added that after the vaccines, myocarditis cases among young people, particularly athletes, exploded. “On average, it was, I think, 29 a month globally, athletes who died on the field. We’re getting down to hundreds a month now,” Kennedy emphasised. He concluded that “the science is out there now, and it’s devastating.” After endorsing Donald Trump last month, RFK Jr. declared that he is ready to help “make America healthy again.”

“The Media Matters lawsuit directly challenges the ability of media outlets to create false narratives to advance a political agenda..”

• Why Musk’s Lawsuit Against Media Matters . . . Matters (Turley)

[..]But Musk’s lawsuit may be the most defining for our age of advocacy journalism. He is suing Media Matters, the left-wing outlet founded by David Brock, whom Time described as “one of the most influential operatives in the Democratic Party.” Although Brock is no longer with the site, Media Matters has long been accused as being a weaponized media outlet for the left. After Musk dismantled the censorship system at Twitter, he became something of an obsession for Media Matters, which targeted his revenue sources. The outlet ran a report suggesting that advertisements of major corporations were being posted next to pro-Nazi posts or otherwise hateful content on the platform. As I discuss in my new book, this effort mirrored similar moves by the anti-free speech movement against Musk to force him to restore censorship systems. Companies including Apple, IBM, Comcast and Lionsgate Entertainment quickly joined the effective boycott to squeeze Musk.

The problem is that it is hard to squeeze the world’s richest man financially. Musk told the companies to pound sand and told his lawyers to file suit. The allegations in the lawsuit read like a textbook on advocacy journalism. Media Matters is accused of knowingly misrepresenting the real user experience by manipulating the algorithms to produce the pairing alleged in its story. The complaint accuses Media Matters of running its manipulation to produce extremely unlikely pairings, such that one toxic match appeared for “only one viewer (out of more than 500 million) on all of X: Media Matters.” In other words, the organization wanted to write a hit piece connecting X to pro-Nazi material and proceeded to artificially create pairings between that material and corporate advertisements. It then ran the story as news. Indeed, two defendant employees of Media Matters did not deny that they were aware of the alleged manipulation and that they were seeking to poison the well for advertisers in order to drain advertising revenues for X.

Although the media covered another judge blocking an effort by state officials to sue Media Matters over the anti-Musk effort, there has been comparably less coverage of the green light for the lawsuit in Texas. U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas rejected an effort to dismiss the case on jurisdictional and other grounds. Musk will be able to continue his claims of tortious interference with existing contracts, business disparagement and tortious interference with prospective economic advantage. Musk is also suing the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, which also targeted advertisers to choke off targeted sites. Not surprisingly, although the media has heralded lawsuits like the one by Dominion Voting System against Fox News (which led to a large settlement), they are overwhelmingly hostile toward the Musk lawsuits.

It is not hard to see why. The Media Matters lawsuit directly challenges the ability of media outlets to create false narratives to advance a political agenda. As with the CNN and New York Times cases, it can expose how the media first decides on a conclusion and then frames or even invents the facts to support it. While rejecting the longstanding principles of journalism such as objectivity, these media outlets are citing the cases and defenses secured by those now-outdated media organizations. They want to be advocates, but they also want to be protected as journalists. These cases still face tough challenges, including challenging jury polls in places like New York. However, they are exposing the bias that now characterizes much of American journalism. In the age of advocacy journalism, a bill has come due. That is why Musk’s lawsuit against Media Matters . . . well . . . matters.

We don’t need Kyle Bass to tell us that. Moreover, not only does oil “move” our world, at least half of it is built from oil.

• Kyle Bass Says ‘Green’ War To Blackball Oil Was Doomed To Fail (ZH)

Hayman Capital Management founder and CIO Kyle Bass explained in a Bloomberg interview that the mounting backlash against environmental, social, and governance investing in recent years is primarily a response to the extreme demands of radical climate activists, or “green” defenders. Bass argued that these activists were so disconnected from reality that their uncompromising stance on blackballing the fossil fuel industry—without acknowledging that energy transitions can take upwards of half a century—has fueled the backlash. He said plans to moderate fossil fuel usage over decades from the start would’ve possibly prevented the backlash. Bass said the ESG backlash derives from climate activists’ demands that fossil fuels be abandoned immediately. He said the demands were never realistic.

“There were all of these idiots that were just saying, if anyone is doing hydrocarbons, we’re going to blackball them from doing business or from receiving capital,” Bass said, adding, “And so Texas lashed back and said, if you’re going to blackball someone that’s producing hydrocarbons, we’re not going to do business with you either.” He said, “Energy transitions take 40 or 50 years,” pointing out that people “think we can just turn hydrocarbons off and turn on alternative power. But they have no idea how the grid works and no idea how business works.” Bass said the focus should now be on efficiency and electrification. He said the long-term goal should be the energy transition to nuclear. Until then, he noted, fossil fuels and renewable energy sources are “going to coexist for decades and decades to come.”

In a separate interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in 2022, Bass said, “The desire for the world to engage in alternative energy is one that I think we all would love to see happen, but there are certain scientific realities, and there are certain narratives that get pushed by NGOs and teenagers. And I think we’ve been taking policy cues from NGOs and teenagers for a long time.”

Bass pointed out that a proper energy transition takes upwards of a half-century. In the interview with CNBC, he said, “The move from coal to natural gas took forty years. They take a very, very, very long time. We can’t just flip a switch.” In his most recent interview with Bloomberg, Bass said, “Skirting hydrocarbons is like bringing politics into investing,” adding, “If you’re willing to give up returns for that, then so be it. But I think that’s naive and it’s a breach of fiduciary duty.” The latest Bloomberg data shows that about half of the US power grid is powered by natural gas generators. This summer, renewable energy power has slid, with coal now producing more power than wind and solar.

In recent years, ESG policies have discouraged investment by banks, funds, pensions, and other entities in the natural gas and coal industries. The problem with this is that unreliable solar and wind can’t power artificial data centers 24/7. We’ve noted that the financial industry’s initial rush to commit to net zero carbon footprints has hit a reality check in a note titled “ESG Frustration And Backlash In The Banking Sector Continues.” The big takeaway is that anyone who puts their climate crisis or woke religion first ahead of rational decision-making is doomed to fail.

RFK measles
https://twitter.com/i/status/1830264332178907244

RFK seed oils

RFK was just invited to Fox to tell the nation about the dangers of Seed Oils, Food Dyes and Pesticides while exposing the immense corruption behind these products.

I never expected to see this in my lifetime and I now believe there's a real window to Make America Healthy Again pic.twitter.com/ACm3x1pXua

— A Midwestern Doctor (@MidwesternDoc) September 2, 2024

Ozempic
https://twitter.com/i/status/1830688829344489522

Puppies
https://twitter.com/i/status/1830352407928229915

1 month
https://twitter.com/i/status/1830560345557016842

Speeding

Fictional story of a speeding check
pic.twitter.com/KU6YCQI8pt

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) September 2, 2024

Wallace Line
https://twitter.com/i/status/1830574367933112788

SNL 1998
https://twitter.com/i/status/1830470874740441513

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Debt Rattle April 12 2021

Apr 122021

April 12, 2021 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 8:43 am Finance Tagged with: Biden, court packing, COVID, Gaetz, long covid, microchip, Sputnik V, Vitamin D, voter ID, Weimar 57 Responses »

Ernest R. Ashton Evening near the Pyramids 1898

• Pentagon Scientists Reveal A Microchip That Senses Covid-19 In Your Body (DM)

• Report On Addressing Vitamin D Deficiency In Ireland (Oireachtas)

• Vitamin D Insufficiency May Account for Almost 9 of 10 COVID-19 Deaths (MDPI)

• Doubts Raised About Ethics & Efficacy Behind AstraZeneca “Vaccine” (Slog)

• Verdict In Weimar: No More Masks, No Tests And No More Distance For Students (BZ)

• Ardern To New Zealand Border Staff: Get Vaccine Now Or Be Redeployed (G.)

• New Studies Suggest ‘Long Covid’ More Common Than Previously Thought (F.)

• Austria May Buy A Million Russian Vaccine Doses (RT)

• China Considers Mixing Covid-19 Vaccines To Boost Protection Rate (R.)

• Did Joe Biden Pack The Supreme Court Commission To Simply Fail? (Turley)

• Twitter Censors Criticism of BLM Founder Buying $1.4 Million Home (Turley)

• Due Process, Adult Sexual Morality and the Case of Rep. Matt Gaetz (Greenwald)

• Major Corporations Plan To Oppose Election Integrity Measures (DC)

And here’s your microchip!

• Pentagon Scientists Reveal A Microchip That Senses Covid-19 In Your Body (DM)

Pentagon scientists working inside a secretive unit set up at the height of the Cold War have created a microchip to be inserted under the skin, which will detect COVID-19 infection, and a revolutionary filter that can remove the virus from the blood when attached to a dialysis machine. The team at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have been working for years on preventing and ending pandemics. They assess the issues and come up with ingenious solutions, which at times appear more from a science fiction novel than a working laboratory. One of their recent inventions, they told 60 Minutes on Sunday night, was a microchip which detects COVID infection in an individual before it can become an outbreak.

The microchip is sure to spark worries among some about a government agency implanting a microchip in a citizen. Officials who spoke to the 60 Minutes team said the Pentagon isn’t looking to track your every move. A more detailed explanation was not given. Retired Colonel Matt Hepburn, an army infectious disease physician leading DARPA’s response to the pandemic, showed the 60 Minutes team a tissue-like gel, engineered to continuously test your blood. ‘You put it underneath your skin and what that tells you is that there are chemical reactions going on inside the body, and that signal means you are going to have symptoms tomorrow,’ he explained.

He said they were inspired by the struggle to stem the virus’ spread onboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt, where 1,271 crew members tested positive for the coronavirus. ‘It’s like a “check engine” light,’ said Hepburn. ‘Sailors would get the signal, then self-administer a blood draw and test themselves on site. ‘We can have that information in three to five minutes. ‘As you truncate that time, as you diagnose and treat, what you do is you stop the infection in its tracks.’ Troops are likely to be highly skeptical of the new invention.

Yeadon

"It literally keeps me awake at night."

Former Chief Scientist of Pfizer, Dr. Michael Yeadon, reveals his biggest fear concerning the COVID-19 response

Full interview: https://t.co/lXu0AoG3UK pic.twitter.com/Vf85ennnYM

— Taylor Hudak (@_taylorhudak) April 12, 2021

Finally a country’s health board supports vitamin D, but then they recommend a far too low daily dose. Sigh…

• Report On Addressing Vitamin D Deficiency In Ireland (Oireachtas)

The Joint Committee on Health, today launched its Report on addressing Vitamin D deficiency as a public health measure in Ireland. The Committee heard evidence that Vitamin D deficiency is prevalent across the population and the report recommends that public health measures are established to address that deficiency. These public health measures are preventative in nature and are recommended to reduce the risk of respiratory and other illnesses such as osteoporosis. The Committee’s report makes four recommendations:

• That daily Vitamin D supplementation of 20-25µg/day should be recommended to the entire adult population as a public health measure, with higher doses recommended for vulnerable groups under medical supervision.

• That a public health policy, which promotes better knowledge of the benefits of Vitamin D, and which encourages Vitamin D supplementation, should be developed in time for consideration in Budget 2022.

• That reducing the cost of Vitamin D supplementation, in order to promote its uptake, should be considered, through the reduction or indeed the elimination of the current VAT rate; and

• That specific measures need to be put in place for vulnerable groups, and for frontline and healthcare workers, so that Vitamin D supplementation is administered on an opt-out basis, and for the duration of this pandemic, people should be offered Vitamin D supplements when presenting at Covid-19 test centres.

Welcoming the publication of the report, Health Committee Chairman Seán Crowe TD said:“As we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic, international studies, and the experience of Finland in particular, show just how effective daily Vitamin D supplementation can be when it is implemented as part of an enhanced public health policy. This supplementation represents a safe, practical, and effective means of protecting human health. “The State needs to review preventative measures that might have led to fewer mortalities and lower morbidity. In that regard, the role of Vitamin D needs to be addressed as part of an enhanced public health policy to protect the population against respiratory infections and other illnesses. “

And the vitamin D case really is strong.

From November 2020.

• Vitamin D Insufficiency May Account for Almost 9 of 10 COVID-19 Deaths (MDPI)

Evidence from observational studies is accumulating, suggesting that the majority of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 infections are statistically attributable to vitamin D insufficiency and could potentially be prevented by vitamin D supplementation. Given the dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic, rational vitamin D supplementation whose safety has been proven in an extensive body of research should be promoted and initiated to limit the toll of the pandemic even before the final proof of efficacy in preventing COVID-19 deaths by randomized trials.

We read, with great interest, the recent article by Radujkovic et al. that reported associations between vitamin D deficiency (25(OH)D < 12 ng/mL) or insufficiency (25(OH)D < 20 ng/mL) and death in a cohort of 185 consecutive symptomatic SARS-CoV-2-positive patients admitted to the Medical University Hospital Heidelberg, who were diagnosed and treated between 18 March and 18 June 2020 [1]. In this cohort, 118 patients (64%) had vitamin D insufficiency at recruitment (including 41 patients with vitamin D deficiency), and 16 patients died of the infection. With a covariate-adjusted relative risk of death of 11.3, mortality was much higher among vitamin D insufficient patients than among other patients. When translated to the proportion of deaths in the population that is statistically attributable to vitamin D insufficiency (“population attributable risk proportion”), a key measure of public health relevance of risk factors [2], these results imply that 87% of COVID-19 deaths may be statistically attributed to vitamin D insufficiency and could potentially be avoided by eliminating vitamin D insufficiency.

[..] Although final proof of causality and prevention of deaths by vitamin D supplementation would have to come from randomized trials which meanwhile have been initiated (e.g., [5]), the results of such trials will not be available in the short run. Given the dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic and the proven safety of vitamin D supplementation, it therefore appears highly debatable and potentially even unethical to await results of such trials before public health action is taken. Besides other population-wide measures of prevention, widespread vitamin D3 supplementation at least for high-risk groups, such as older adults or people with relevant comorbidity, which has been proven by randomized controlled trials to be beneficial with respect to prevention of other acute respiratory infections and acute acerbation of asthma and chronic pulmonary disease [6,7,8,9,10], should be promoted.

Ran the story of this report a few days ago, but it warrants repeating.

“The explosive statement there is ‘immunisation failures account for more serious illness than unvaccinated individuals’”

• Doubts Raised About Ethics & Efficacy Behind AstraZeneca “Vaccine” (Slog)

SP-I-MO stands for Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling. It reports into the SAGE/Secretary of State Number Ten Group. Almost nobody in the UK has ever heard of it, and its pronouncements online are stored in an unexpected place under the “assets publishing service”. What follows aren’t leaks; they’re representative extracts from the latest SPIMO report, issued on March 31st last, and discussed in Downing Street some ten days ago. As far as can be gleaned the data reports are given sporadically….as in, when SPIMO has something to say. [..]

Unsurprisingly – albeit incomprehensibly, given their track-record – SPIMO gives advice entirely on the basis of models. The document under scrutiny here was almost entirely to do with the effects of Boris Johnson’s “roadmap” for exit from lockdown – allegedly a one-way street, but already showing signs of roadworks delays. Taken as a whole, it is at times contradictory and prone to almost surreal conclusions: my IQ is allegedly 142, but having read all 23 pages three times, I confess that, were I the Secretary of State, I’d be utterly confused about what to do. That aside, however, some of the observations are astonishing. This first one below is bare-faced in its admission of failure:

The explosive statement there is ‘immunisation failures account for more serious illness than unvaccinated individuals’. Five pages later, reference is made to data used to make further modelled projections as follows: ”assuming two doses of AstraZeneca provide only 31% effectiveness against transmission”. So in short, SPIMO is working on the basis of a supposed ‘vaccine’ that fails to stop the spread of infection in more than two out of three cases. This is radically different to the impression government publicity has given us – viz, that “even after vaccination, it may still be possible for you to infect others”. It sounds cautionary and responsible, but asking around a sample of acquaintances yesterday, they imagined a figure of around 80% – not 31%. Under 1 in 3 is, let’s face it, a risible result.

But the initial statement cuts the legs off continuing the vaccination rollout, because it rejects the benefit such might bring with the haunting words, “Immunisation failures account for more serious illnesses than unvaccinated individuals”. So much for “Don’t be selfish, get the jab”. But ever the man obsessed with a bone, Hancock is ploughing forward doggedly with a vaccine programme that simply isn’t justified by the facts. Equally however, it further justifies the claim I made a fortnight ago, that government insistence on a causal relationship between vacination on one hand, and reduced cases and deaths on the other is pure baloney. Fast forward to the “further discussion” promised on this topic, and try to contain your laughter at this gem, referring to an associated chart:

“56. This shows that most deaths and admissions in a post-Roadmap resurgence are in people who have received two vaccine doses, even without vaccine protection waning or a variant emerging that escapes vaccines. This is not the result of vaccines being ineffective, merely uptake being so high.” You couldn’t make this up: even without left-field factors, there’ll be a resurgence after lockdown exit, but this is not Astrazeneca’s fault – the “problem” was high uptake. By vaccinating the vulnerable bigtime, we killed more people, but a drug struggling to demonstrate efficacy had nothing to do with it.

Google translate from Berliner Zeitung.

• Verdict In Weimar: No More Masks, No Tests And No More Distance For Students (BZ)

The Weimar District Court has passed a sensational judgment. The court ruled that the “obligation to wear a mask, to maintain minimum distances and to perform rapid tests in schools pose a threat to the mental, physical or emotional well-being of the child”. And said measures are prohibited. After doubts about the authenticity were initially expressed online, Steffen Dittes, Deputy Chairman of the Left in Thuringia, confirmed the authenticity. The judgment has the file number: 9 F 148/21. In the judgment it is said that the “directors and teachers of the schools” of two children, whose parents went to court, are forbidden to “arrange or prescribe the following for these and all other children and pupils taught at these schools:

In class and on the school premises, to wear face masks of all kinds, in particular mouth and nose covers, so-called qualified masks (OP or FFP2 mask) or others, to maintain minimum distances between each other or to other people that go beyond what was known before 2020, and to take part in rapid tests to determine the Sars-CoV-2 virus ”. The judge justified his decision with, among other things, according to the court, “the lack of use of wearing a mask and the observance of distance regulations for the children themselves and third parties”. In addition, the judge cites the “unsuitability of PCR tests and rapid tests for measuring the incidence of infection” as one of the reasons for his judgment. Steffen Dittes, the deputy chairman of the Left in the Thuringian state parliament, confirmed the authenticity of the judgment on Saturday. Dittes wrote on Twitter: “The decision of the AG Weimar is known.” At the same time, he sharply criticized the judgment.

Can a government or another employer force you to get vaccinated with an unapproved substance when you are perfectly healthy? Where are the legal opinions on this?

• Ardern To New Zealand Border Staff: Get Vaccine Now Or Be Redeployed (G.)

Border workers have until the end of April to be vaccinated before being moved to lower risk roles, the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has said after a third worker from Auckland’s Grand Millenium managed isolation facility tested positive for Covid-19. “We want everyone to be vaccinated on our frontline,” she told TVNZ’s Breakfast on Monday. “From Monday through until the end of April, that becomes the final window where if people are not vaccinated in that period of time then they are redeployed, they are moved on. And that was always the point we had to get to.” Her comments came hours before it was confirmed that the worker, known as case C, had not been vaccinated, adding to concerns raised last week when it was made public that case B had missed two vaccine appointments.

Case C, a close contact of last week’s case, known as case B, was reported to have the virus late on Sunday. The Ministry of Health said that as they had already been isolating at home there was little additional risk to the community and that they and their partner had now been moved to a quarantine facility. Ardern said 79% of those employed by the security company for which cases B and C worked had so far been immunised, adding that the figure was not good enough. “We believe we have a health and safety obligation to people who are at the frontline in managed isolation,” she said. New Zealand began rolling out its vaccine programme in February, with border staff and managed isolation and quarantine workers at the front of the queue for the Pfizer jab.

Thread on this in yesterday’s comments.

• New Studies Suggest ‘Long Covid’ More Common Than Previously Thought (F.)

A survey earlier this month from the Office for National Statistics in Britain polled more than 20,000 participants who’d tested positive for Covid-19 in the last year and found that one in five survivors reported having symptoms after five weeks—and at 12 weeks, the number was still 13.7% (almost one in seven people). The most common symptoms experienced at five weeks were fatigue (11.8%), cough (11%), headache (10%), and muscle pain (7.7%). (Loss of taste and smell followed, each affecting about 6.3% of participants.) At 12 weeks, the prevalence of symptoms was slightly lower, but still distributed similarly and much higher than a control group who hadn’t had Covid-19.

In terms of the big picture, when the authors extrapolated the numbers to the whole of the UK, they suggest that more than a million residents may have experienced long Covid by the beginning of March 2021. Studies have also shown the striking array of acute effects the coronavirus can have on the body and its organ systems, from cardiovascular to pulmonary to neurological-psychological to kidney and more. That Covid-19 is now considered a multi-organ disease may translate to a wider spectrum of long Covid symptoms than previously understood.

In fact, a new study from researchers at hospitals around the country found that long Covid symptoms included fatigue, shortness of breath, brain fog, loss of sense of smell or taste, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, headache/migraine, and non-restorative sleep. The authors offer guidelines on how to treat patients with long Covid, and urge a multidisciplinary approach to support both the physical and the mental health of those living with long Covid. “Covid-19 is the first infectious disease that I’ve come across that has such an effect on a wide variety of organs. It’s changed my clinical practice,” said Columbia University’s Elaine Y. Wan in a statement. “No matter what the patient comes in for, I now ask if they ever had Covid-19. It changes the possible range of diagnoses.”

While it seems that people with more severe Covid-19, especially those who were hospitalized, are at higher risk for long Covid (a study from Wuhan found that after six months, three-quarters of these patients still had at least one symptom), this doesn’t mean that people with mild illness are off the hook. A study out last week from the Karolinska Institute reported that among a group of healthcare workers who’d had mild Covid-19, 10% still had at least one symptom severe enough to impact their work, home, or social lives eight months later (the most common symptoms were loss of smell and taste, fatigue, and respiratory problems). While the study was quite small and the results should be interpreted with some caution, other studies have also suggested that even mild initial illness can lead to long-term effects.

“Despite the shortages of coronavirus jabs in the EU, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) seems to be in no hurry to register Sputnik V..”

• Austria May Buy A Million Russian Vaccine Doses (RT)

Austria may soon be purchasing Russia’s Sputnik V jab to give an “additional turbo boost” to its anti-Covid vaccination drive, Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz told the media in Vienna after negotiations with Moscow concluded. The negotiations on the contract to acquire Sputnik V have “de facto come to an end,” Kurz announced on Saturday. “It’s now possible to purchase it for us in Austria,” he added. A “million” doses of the vaccine from Russia, which boasts an efficacy of more than 91% percent and lacks significant side-effects, would provide an “additional turbo boost” to Austria’s immunization campaign, the Chancellor said, without specifying when those supplies might begin.

Austria, which has a population of almost nine million, has recorded more than 570,000 confirmed Covid-19 cases and over 9,600 deaths since the start of the pandemic. Kurz also promised to ask questions of the European Union regarding the bloc’s inability to be as fast and efficient as the US and UK in acquiring and approving vaccines against the deadly disease. Despite the shortages of coronavirus jabs in the EU, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) seems to be in no hurry to register Sputnik V, despite all the required paperwork being provided earlier this year. EU laws allow member states the emergency use of vaccines even if they haven’t been approved by the EMA. Hungary and Slovakia have already taken advantage of this clause and started giving Sputnik V shots to their citizens, and Austria may well follow their example.

We don’t see much news about China’s vaccination campaigns.

• China Considers Mixing Covid-19 Vaccines To Boost Protection Rate (R.)

China’s top disease control official has said the country is formally considering mixing COVID-19 vaccines as a way of further boosting vaccine efficacy. Available data shows Chinese vaccines lag behind others including Pfizer and Moderna in terms of efficacy, but require less stringent temperature controls during storage. Giving people doses of different vaccines is one way to improve vaccines that “don’t have very high rates of protection”, Gao Fu, the director of the Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Saturday, without specifying whether he was referring to foreign or domestic vaccines “Inoculation using vaccines of different technical lines is being considered,” Gao told a conference in the Chinese city of Chengdu.

Gao said that taking steps to “optimise” the vaccine process including changing the number of doses and the length of time between doses was a “definite” solution to efficacy issues. Two injections of a vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech, when given shorter than three weeks apart, was 49.1% effective based on data from a Phase III trial in Brazil, below the 50% threshold set by World Health Organization, according to a paper published by Brazilian researchers on Sunday ahead of peer review. But data from a small subgroup showed that the efficacy rate increased to 62.3% when the doses were given at intervals of three weeks and longer. The overall efficacy rate for the vaccine was slightly above 50% in the trial.

Ol’ Joe Biden had a farm…

• Did Joe Biden Pack The Supreme Court Commission To Simply Fail? (Turley)

With the establishment of his commission to study the possible packing of the Supreme Court, President Biden has adjoined his name to one of the most inglorious efforts of Franklin Roosevelt. Court packing has long been anathema in the United States, and polls have consistently shown the vast majority of Americans oppose the idea. Biden himself once denounced it as a “boneheaded” idea, but that was back in 1983, when there remained a real space in politics for at least the pretense of principle.

Now Biden and others seem to think the Supreme Court must be canceled for its failure to yield to the demands of our age of rage. Many of us were surprised when he pandered to court packing calls in the 2020 primaries. Some of us have called for expanding the court over a lengthy transitional period, but commentators and some Democrats called for an immediate infusion of new justices to give liberals the controlling majority. Unhappy with conservative rulings, Democrats demanded that the Supreme Court be replaced by a much larger and more reliably liberal body.

Washington already looks like many of our campuses, where opposition of such liberal measures results in isolation and condemnation. Take Justice Stephen Breyer. One would think he would be immune from the mob as one of the most consistently liberal justices in our history. However, this week Breyer warned against any move to expand the Supreme Court. He was swiftly denounced by figures like cable news host Mehdi Hasan who called him “naive” and called for his retirement. Demand Justice, a liberal group calling for court packing, had a billboard truck in Washington the next day telling Breyer to retire. Demand Justice once employed White House press secretary Jen Psaki as a communications consultant, and Psaki was on the advisory board of one of its voting projects.

Corporate Marxism?!

• Twitter Censors Criticism of BLM Founder Buying $1.4 Million Home (Turley)

We have been discussing the expanding censorship on Twitter and social media. The latest example involves the story of Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors, 37, and her purchase of a $1.4 million home in a secluded area of Los Angeles whose population is reputedly less than 2% black. The professed Marxist received considerable criticism for the purchase, including from Jason Whitlock, an African-America sports critic who has also been a critic of BLM. When Whitlock called out Khan-Cullors, Twitter promptly censored the tweet — leaving a notice that it was “no longer available.” Last week, various sites like dirt.com reported, “A secluded mini-compound tucked into L.A.’s rustic and semi-remote Topanga Canyon was recently sold for a tad more than $1.4 million to a corporate entity that public records show is controlled by Patrisse Khan-Cullors, 37-year-old social justice visionary and co-founder of the galvanizing and, for some, controversial Black Lives Matter movement.”

It produced a firestorm of critics who noted that Cullors has long insisted that she and her BLM co-founder “are trained Marxists. We are super versed on, sort of, ideological theories.” Critics like Nick Arama of RedState pointed out: “[I]t’s interesting to note that the demographics of the area are only about 1.4% black people there. So not exactly living up to her creed there.” [..] The controversy is illustrative of the age of Internet censors. Tweets, and in some cases Twitter accounts, vanish without explanation. Twitter is notorious for not responding to media inquiries over such censorship and even less forthcoming on the decisionmaking process behind such decisions. [..] The New York Post and other publications have reported that Cullors is eyeing expensive properties in other locations, including the Bahamas.

However, it is not clear if this money came from BLM which has reportedly raised almost $100 million in donations from corporations and other sources. Indeed, Cullors seems to have ample sources of funds. She is married to Janaya Khan, a leader of BLM in Toronto, and published a best selling memoir of her life and then a follow up book. She also signed a lucrative deal with Warner Bros to develop and produce original programming across all platforms, including broadcast, cable and streaming. She has also been featured in various magazines like her recent collaboration with Jane Fonda. [..] Indeed, the greatest irony may not be the home purchase by the corporate support. A professed Marxist, Cullors has not only been paid handsomely by corporations like Warner but is being actively protected by corporations like Twitter. When it comes to free speech, I support them both. The question is whether both have an equal opportunity to speak on platforms like Twitter.

Innocent until…

• Due Process, Adult Sexual Morality and the Case of Rep. Matt Gaetz (Greenwald)

That Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is a pedophile, a sex trafficker, and an abuser of women who forces them to prostitute themselves and use drugs with him is a widespread assumption in many media and political circles. That is true despite the rather significant fact that not only has he never been charged with (let alone convicted of) such crimes, but also no evidence has been publicly presented that any of it is true. He has also vehemently denied all of it. All or some of these accusations very well may be true and, one day — perhaps imminently — there will be ample publicly available evidence demonstrating this. But that day has not yet arrived.

As of now, we know very little beyond what The New York Times initially reported about all of this on March 30: that “people close to the investigation” told the paper that “a Justice Department investigation into Representative Matt Gaetz and an indicted Florida politician is focusing on their involvement with multiple women who were recruited online for sex and received cash payments.” The article also said the DOJ “inquiry is also examining whether Mr. Gaetz had sex with a 17-year-old girl and whether she received anything of material value.” Both the NYT and, later, The Daily Beast, indicated the existence of financial transactions involving payments by Gaetz to his associate Joel Greenberg, currently charged with multiple felonies. The New York Times article made clear: “No charges have been brought against Mr. Gaetz, and the extent of his criminal exposure is unclear.”

That is still true. But no matter. One is hard-pressed to find people willing to urge that his guilt not be assumed before evidence of it is presented (amazingly, just six months ago, many of the same people now treating these accusations as proven fact had no trouble casually asserting or strongly implying that Gaetz was having sex with a 19-year-old male whom he said he had been parentally raising for years, all without the slightest regard for the impact of such innuendo on that other person). So reckless is the discourse around this case that it is now frequently asserted in major outlets that Rep. Gaetz faces “charges” of sex trafficking and sex with a minor, even though that claim is, at least as of now, blatantly untrue.

Still don’t really get why some are so adamant that people should vote without an ID. And that CEOs want to be part of it is another story altogether.

• Major Corporations Plan To Oppose Election Integrity Measures (DC)

The leaders of over 100 major corporations spoke via Zoom on Saturday about how they could combat election integrity laws similar to the one passed in Georgia, according to multiple reports. The executives on the call reportedly expressed concern about legislation that they view as restricting voting rights. They included the owner of the Atlanta Falcons, who also co-founded Home Depot, the chairwoman of the Starbucks board, and the CEO of AMC Entertainment, the Wall Street Journal reported. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a Yale School of Management professor who helped organize the meeting, told the Washington Post that the corporate leaders on the call “felt very strongly that these voting restrictions are based on a flawed premise and are dangerous.”

“There was a defiance of the threats that businesses should stay out of politics,” he continued. “They were obviously rejecting that even with their presence. But they were there out of concern about voting restrictions not being in the public interest.” Corporations including Citibank, Coca-Cola, Delta, and Microsoft criticized Georgia’s new election integrity bill, SB 202. The law expands early voting opportunities for most counties, while expanding voter ID requirements to include absentee ballots. In response to corporate criticism, Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell slammed the use of “economic blackmail to spread disinformation and push bad ideas that citizens reject at the ballot box.”

Major League Baseball moved its 2021 All-Star Game from Atlanta to Denver in response to pressure from President Joe Biden and corporate leaders over the law. Colorado also requires voters to present identification when they cast in-person and absentee ballots. Prominent Georgia Democrats, including Sen. Jon Ossoff and former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, were skeptical of the boycott efforts. Companies involved on the call are expected to release a statement expressing their opposition to election law changes like Georgia’s in the coming days, according to the Wall Street Journal.

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Fareed with some honesty on China.

An extraordinary moment of truth and honesty on CNN from @FareedZakaria pic.twitter.com/iVy4yxO6Iv

— Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) April 11, 2021