Jean-Francois Millet Charity 1859
Just Married – Mr. Fish
Kipling
https://twitter.com/i/status/1881016884046471388
Security
Hopkins in DC: Word on the street – inauguration pulled to keep the President alive & get him in the White House.
Planned perfectly. Late switch. Enemies thwarted. Beautifully done. pic.twitter.com/sf4F9u3NT5
— Katie Hopkins (@KTHopkins) January 19, 2025
Reagan
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 19, 2025
Sortor
https://twitter.com/i/status/1880789728594674040
Craig Murray
The U.S. is building a MASSIVE embassy in tiny Lebanon—the second largest embassy in the world.
Why?
To run secret prisons, spy on Lebanon and the region, and use it as a hub for flights to Cyprus.
This is not an embassy.
It’s a fortified CIA base. pic.twitter.com/FV9ONbIsQI
— sarah (@sahouraxo) January 18, 2025
“I lost count on how many impeachments, how many prosecutions, how many assassination attempts to come back and to win the popular vote and to be the voice of the people.”
• Promises of Security, Prosperity, Accountability … And Fairness (JTN)
Donald Trump’s arduous journey back to the White House — which slogged through four indictments, two impeachments and two assassination attempts – ends Monday on a frosty afternoon in Washington D.C. with the oath of office and then quickly transitions to the job of governing again. The policies that the soon-to-be 47th American president promised would restore security, accountability, affordability and prosperity will be roaring into action on Inauguration Day with scores of executive orders, and even a few raids to round up dangerous illegal aliens. But the billionaire businessman who relentlessly vowed to “Make America Great Again” also signaled he is navigating to make America fair again. Fair to the working and middle Americans who voted him into office after four years of insufferable inflation. Fair to American businesses suffering from decades of lopsided advantages to China.
Fair to vaccine-resisting soldiers, female athletes, non-violent Jan. 6 protesters and pro-life activists whose lives were turned upside down by the Biden years’ failed experiment with far-left policies and lawfare. Fair even to lawful immigrants who watched illegal aliens jump the line to American entry. Over the weekend, Trump signaled his push to return America to a new “golden age” of greatness will also focus sharp attention on a new issue. “You have to be treating people fairly,” Trump said in a far-reaching interview with NBC News that surveyed his vision for his second stint in Washington. “You can’t just say, ‘Oh, everything’s going to be wonderful.’ You know, we went through hell for four years with these people. And so, you know, something has to be done about it. … You can’t have that happen, and we shouldn’t have that happen.”
Expect fairness, along with unity, to be offered as central themes in Trump’s inauguration speech and to be embedded as justifications for the record number of first-day executive actions Trump will sign Monday. The returning chief executive will be greeted with a different dynamic than his first term. His team is far more seasoned in the ways of Washington that tripped him up as an outsider starting in 2017. Voters have soured on the far-left extremism exhibited during the Biden years with such policies as DEI and CRT to ESG and transgenderism. And Americans at large are putting far more wind behind Trump’s back this time. A poll over the weekend found 60% are optimistic about Trump’s second term, a major shift from the gloomy sentiments that ended the Biden presidency.
“This team, this is a different Donald Trump that is being sworn in than in 2017, and there’s a whole lot of experience that has come,” Sen. Ted Cruz told The Hill on Sunday. “I think the first term, there were some mistakes in Cabinet nominees and some nominees that he came to regret because they were people that were not fighting with him to accomplish his agenda,” he added. “I think this, the current team of nominees, I think is really strong.” Before the hard work launches in full, political experts reflected on just how improbable Trump’s return to power was. Written off for political death after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot fiasco, with two impeachments in his rear view mirror and four indictments on his horizon, the New York-grizzled politician launched his return to Washington in 2021 with little public support.
But he relentlessly fought his detractors in court, vanquished an impressive field of GOP challenges in the 2024 primaries and then sailed to a historic victory that Democrats couldn’t stop with lawfare or even a switcheroo atop their presidential ticket. “I think he has inherited the ‘Comeback Kid’ moniker from Bill Clinton,” pollster and former Clinton adviser Mark Penn told the “John Solomon Reports” podcast. “We thought that that Bill Clinton came back. But Trump came back to him, I mean, from, I lost count on how many impeachments, how many prosecutions, how many assassination attempts to come back and to win the popular vote and to be the voice of the people. “It is an incredible comeback. I would have bet you 100 to one against it four years ago,” Penn added.
“By the time the sun sets tomorrow, the invasion of our country will have come to a halt..”
• Trump Vows To Repeal Biden’s ‘Foolish’ Orders (RT)
US President-elect Donald Trump has announced sweeping plans to repeal outgoing President Joe Biden’s final executive actions. Speaking to a rally crowd in Washington DC on Sunday, Trump reiterated his key reelection campaign promises, vowing once more to launch a massive crackdown on illegal immigration in the US, stop the Ukraine conflict, and “prevent World War III.” “Every radical, foolish executive order of the Biden administration will be repealed within hours of when I take the oath of office,” Trump stated. “By the time the sun sets tomorrow, the invasion of our country will have come to a halt,” he added. “The border security measures I will outline in my inaugural address tomorrow will be the most aggressive, sweeping effort to restore our borders that the world has ever seen.”
Trump echoed his campaign promise to launch an unprecedented deportation of illegal immigrants, while pledging to take immediate action on education and military policies. “We will get radical woke ideologies the hell out of our military,” he stated. “We will get critical race theory and transgender insanity the hell out of schools… We will keep men out of women’s sports.” Additionally, Trump hinted at an upcoming announcement regarding individuals detained for their roles in the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots. His supporters “will be very happy with my decision on the J6 hostages,” he told the crowd. The president-elect further promised to stop the Ukraine conflict, which he has long criticized for claiming too many lives and costing US taxpayers billions in perpetual military aid to Kiev.
“I will end the war in Ukraine, I will stop the chaos in the Middle East and I will prevent WWIII from happening,” Trump said. Biden has signed dozens of executive orders in the last months of his presidency, in what Time Magazine has described as an effort to polish his legacy. These have included providing clemency to death row inmates, barring offshore drilling, providing deportation protection to nearly 1 million migrants, and fast-tracking military aid to Ukraine. Trump has promised to sign a slew of his own executive orders upon taking office on Monday afternoon. He plans to take more than 200 executive actions the day he’s sworn in, according to a source familiar with the planning efforts cited by Reuters. Despite objections from his team about the time frame, “we’re doing them tomorrow,” Trump told the cheering crowd on Sunday.
Little thing I didn’t realize: He wants people to be able to watch the inauguration on TikTok.
• TikTok Restores US Service, Thanks Trump For Executive Order (JTN)
TikTok on Sunday restored service to users in the United States after a brief shutdown after President-elect Donald Trump vowed to issue an executive order temporarily allowing the social media app to keep operating despite a law banning it as long as it is Chinese controlled. “We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive,” TikTok said in a statement. “It’s a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship,” it added. “We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States.”
Trump had announced earlier Sunday on Truth Social that he plans to issue an executive order extending the length of time for TikTok to comply with the law that forces its parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app to a U.S. entity or face a ban. TikTok went dark on Saturday night but began roaring back to life around midday Sunday. Trump had said on Saturday he was considering a 90-day extension for TikTok. “I’m asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark! I will issue an executive order on Monday to extend the period of time before the law’s prohibitions take effect, so that we can make a deal to protect our national security,” he wrote on Sunday. “The order will also confirm that there will be no liability for any company that helped keep TikTok from going dark before my order.”
Trump is about to get the biggest bump in popularity we have ever seen.
— Isaac (@IcedViews) January 19, 2025
Trump also said that Americans “deserve to see our exciting inauguration on Monday” as well as other events. “I would like the United States to have a 50% ownership position in a joint venture. By doing this, we save TikTok, keep it in good hands and allow it to stay up. Without U.S. approval, there is no Tik Tok. With our approval, it is worth hundreds of billions of dollars – maybe trillions,” he said.
“..a significant shift from President Joe Biden’s approach, who has not spoken directly with Putin for nearly three years.”
“We are calmly waiting for Trump’s team to take over. After that, let’s see what happens..”
• Trump Team Preparing Early Talks With Putin – CNN (RT)
Donald Trump’s team is preparing a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which could come shortly after the president-elect’s inauguration, CNN reported on Sunday, citing sources. According to people familiar with the matter interviewed by the network, the primary aim of the call would be to discuss a face-to-face meeting in the coming months to explore ways to resolve the Ukraine conflict. Officials within Trump’s national security team reportedly began planning for the call several weeks ago, CNN reported, adding that it remains unclear whether a date for the conversation has been finalized. The network noted that the phone call would be a significant shift from President Joe Biden’s approach, who has not spoken directly with Putin for nearly three years.
Earlier this month, Trump confirmed his intention to speak with Putin, stating that the Russian leader “wants to meet, and we are setting it up.” The president-elect, who has been critical of US aid to Kiev, has repeatedly vowed to swiftly end the Ukraine conflict. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has said that Putin is open to negotiations with the US president without any preconditions. However, he stressed that there have been no substantial preparations for talks, while suggesting waiting until Trump is sworn in. Commenting on the potential Ukraine talks, Putin foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov suggested that the incoming US president would be the one to initiate a dialogue. “We are calmly waiting for Trump’s team to take over. After that, let’s see what happens,” he said.
In recent weeks, US media outlets have reported that Trump’s team is mulling a peace plan for Ukraine which could include a ceasefire along the current front lines and the creation of an 1,300-km (800-mile) demilitarized zone patrolled by European troops. Additionally, Ukraine would agree to delay its aspirations for NATO membership for at least 20 years. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has criticized parts of the reported plan, saying Moscow “is of course not satisfied” with the proposals to postpone Ukraine’s NATO ambitions and deploy a Western peacekeeping contingent to Ukraine. Moscow has also rejected a freezing of the conflict, insisting that it must achieve all of the goals of its military operation, including permanent Ukrainian neutrality, demilitarization, and denazification. Russia has also signaled that it would immediately declare a ceasefire once Kiev begins withdrawing from Russian territory, including the regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye.
Xi will be happy to welcome a worthy opponsent.
• Trump Planning Early China Trip (RT)
US President-elect Donald Trump wants to visit China in his first 100 days in office to improve relations with Xi Jinping, as the prospect of a new trade war looms, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday citing sources. The trip would aim to deepen ties with the Chinese leader in the face of geopolitical tensions between the two countries fueled by the stand-off over the self-governed island of Taiwan and Trump’s promise to impose tariffs on Chinese imports. However, while people familiar with the matter told the paper that Trump has expressed a certain interest in going, no final decision has been made.
On Friday, Trump and Xi spoke on the phone to discuss a range of issues including trade, Taiwan, and the situation with the Chinese-owned Tiktok social media platform, which went dark in the US over an imminent federal ban. It is unclear, however, whether the president-elect raised the idea of a China visit during the call. At the same time, the two delegated discussions about a potential in-person meeting to their aides, the WSJ said. Besides China, Trump also expressed interest in a possible trip to India, the outlet’s sources said. However, it is said his immediate attention will gravitate to domestic issues, including the border crisis and wildfires in California.
During his first term, Trump traveled to Beijing in late 2017, more than nine months after taking office. The four years of the Trump administration have been marred by a tense stand-off with China, with the president-elect imposing tariffs on billions of dollars in Chinese goods. His administration also labeled China “a currency manipulator” and imposed tough restrictions on Chinese tech giants like Huawei and ZTE, citing national security risks. During the election campaign, Trump proposed a 60% tariff on Chinese imports. Responding to a potential hike, Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen warned that the restrictions could backfire, forcing American consumers to pay higher prices. Meanwhile, he added, China would be able to weather the impact of such “external shocks.”
Quite positive for PCR.
“The Democrats are Satanists. They reek of evil. Let us hope that tomorrow the FBI/CIA/NSA doesn’t attack the inauguration with a drone, blame Iran, and rush us off to war for Israel.”
• Can Trump Make A Difference? (Paul Craig Roberts)
I have done my best to alert MAGA Americans to the difficulty of regaining control of the US government. For decades the US government and its policies have been controlled by the organized interest groups that fund political campaigns. Regardless of the candidates voters elect, the legislation enacted and the federal government’s policies are the work of lobby groups. Among the powerful lobbies are the Israel Lobby, the military/security complex, Big Pharma, Wall Street, and agri-business. American voters are repeatedly disappointed that little ever changes regardless of who they elect. Sometimes an administration can achieve changes in a few areas, as Kennedy, Nixon, and Reagan did in reducing tensions with the Soviet Union. But even these achievements were overturned by subsequent administrations in response to the military/security complex’s demand for an enemy to secure their profit and power.
Without an enemy, why does the US need a military budget that exceeds the GDP of most countries on earth? [..] The resistance to change is because the interests of what constitutes the American Establishment is institutionalized. American social and governmental institutions have become homes of The Establishment. It was 64 years ago on January 17, 1961, that President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the five-star general in charge of the Normandy invasion, at the end of his second term warned Americans about the increasing power of the military-security complex. As a congressional staffer in both House and Senate I experienced the power almost daily. I still remember the day when I was on the floor of the US Senate and Strom Thurmond, the fourth longest serving senator in US history, tapped me on the shoulder.
A vote was before the Senate whether to partially pay for a reduction in marginal income tax rates by reducing a military appropriation. Senator Thurmond said to me: “Don’t ever let your senator vote for a reduction in military spending. If he does, he won’t be reelected, and you will be out of a job.” He brought clarity to me that survival as a senator meant accommodating the profits of the armaments corporations, not the living standards of the taxpayers. Thurmond, who served in the Senate for almost half a century, was no novice. He was educating me that whatever the interest of Wall Street and the financial sector in lower tax rates, their power was less than that of the military/security complex. As sometimes there were conflicts between the interests of lobby groups, it was important for a Senate staffer to know the hierarchy of power rankings.
Having experienced all this first hand, I warned readers that the US Senate is an Establishment-owned institution, and that the US Senate has the power to deny federal office to a president’s nominations. I explained that this establishment power over an incoming administration could render it impotent. Tulsi Gabbard is Trump’s nominee for Director of National Intelligence. As a member of the House, she was a strong critic of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, legislation that I am convinced is unconstitutional and the foundation of a police state. Fear of non-existent “Muslim terrorist threat,” hyped by a whore media, made insouciant Americans accept the foundation of a police state. In 2020 together with Rep. Thomas Massie, the only independent member of the House today, she introduced a bill to repeal the entire Patriot Act, a police state measure imposed on us by the Republican regime of Bush/Cheney, the worst in modern American history until Biden.
Clearly, Gabbard had targets painted all over her. Both Democrat and Republican senators have made it clear to her that any repeal or lax enforcement of “national security” legislation must be disavowed if she expects the Senate to confirm her in office. Gabbard got the message and backed off her opposition to the unconstitutional surveillance of Americans without submitting to judges that the surveillance was needed for national security and obtaining a warrant. Commentators unfamiliar with Washington are denouncing Gabbard for “selling out”. A commentator in the Unz Review says Gabbard has betrayed herself and many others, but will have her 30 pieces of silver. It is so much easier to denounce than to understand. I often think that Americans do not want to understand how things really work, because it is so distressing. So they stay in denial, and this renders them useless in bringing change and protecting their liberties.
Tell me before you condemn Tulsi Gabbard, would you rather have her, a person fiercely opposed by the military/security complex, or a person to whom the military/security complex has no opposition? Tulsi can tell the blackmailing bought-and-paid-for US Senate one thing and do another once she is in office. I would bet on her integrity, not denounce it. It is the US Senate that is devoid of integrity. We will get Trump’s measure this Monday, January 20. As I explained last Friday, on the Oval Office desk awaits pardons for all the J6 victims of a totally corrupt Democrat administration and a US Department of Justice (sic) devoid of an ounce of integrity, essentially a collection of criminals. The criminality of the Biden Regime is unrivaled in American History. As an instrument of justice, Biden’s “justice” department ranks with Joseph Stalin’s purge of the Bolsheviks in his show trials of the 1930s when the leaders of the Russian revolution were sentenced to death for being capitalist spies.
In my opinion, Democrats are so corrupt, so anti-American, so anti-normality, so anti-white, so anti-citizen that they are discredited as a political party. Republicans are stupid beyond belief and ignorant of what needs to be done, but Democrats are Satanic. The second party in the American political system belongs to Satan. The Democrats are Satanists. They reek of evil. Let us hope that tomorrow the FBI/CIA/NSA doesn’t attack the inauguration with a drone, blame Iran, and rush us off to war for Israel.
He hesitated in his first term. This time around, RFK Jr. will insist.
• Trump Vows To Release JFK, RFK and MLK Assassination Records (RT)
US President-elect Donald Trump has promised to make public more classified government documents related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King Jr. Speaking at a victory rally at the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC on Sunday, Trump declared his intention to declassify the records. He said his administration will “reverse the overclassification of government documents,” including those related to the historic crimes, as “the first step toward restoring transparency and accountability.” He added: “It’s all going to be released, Uncle Sam.” The murders of President Kennedy in 1963, his brother and political ally Robert in 1968, and King, the leader of the black rights movement, the same year remains the subject of speculation about the potential involvement of rogue elements within the US government.
Trump has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the son of Senator Robert Kennedy, to serve as the health secretary in his administration. The Kennedy scion has campaigned for the full release of government materials pertaining to the tragedies in his family. RFK Jr. has previously suggested that the CIA could have been involved in his uncle’s death. The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) houses over 5 million records related to President Kennedy’s assassination in a single collection. In the 1990s, the federal government mandated its almost-full release by October 2017, although the president has the authority to order exemptions. The declassification process continued during the first Trump presidency and the single term of his successor, Joe Biden, but an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 documents are yet to be disclosed.
During his first term Trump pledged to declassify documents related to President John F. Kennedy’s assassination. While he did authorize the release of several such documents, he ultimately withheld a significant portion, citing national security concerns and yielding to pressures from the CIA and FBI. In his recent announcement, Trump did not specify which documents would be released, nor did he commit to a blanket declassification. Trump’s scheduled inauguration on January 20 coincides with this year’s MLK Day, a federal holiday dedicated to King’s contribution to civil rights reforms in the 1960s, observed on the third Monday of January each year. During his speech on Sunday, the incoming president said he will sign a series of executive orders on a wide range of policies immediately after taking office.
A certified fool is the German ambassador to the US. Crazy.
• German Envoy Believes Trump Plans To ‘Destroy’ America (RT)
The German ambassador to the US, Andreas Michaelis, has warned Berlin that incoming President Donald Trump will likely try to undermine key principles underpinning American democracy, Reuters has claimed, citing a confidential document. The Republican firebrand has repeatedly accused the Biden administration of weaponizing the FBI and Department of Justice, accusing them of launching a “witch hunt” against him. Back in 2022, he denounced both as “vicious monsters, controlled by radical-left scoundrels, lawyers and the media.” In an exclusive report on Saturday, Reuters quoted the confidential cable supposedly signed by Michaelis and dated January 14 as predicting that Trump will seek the “maximum concentration of power… at the expense of Congress and the federal states.”
“Basic democratic principles and checks and balances will be largely undermined, the legislature, law enforcement and media will be robbed of their independence and misused as a political arm, Big Tech will be given co-governing power,” the diplomat allegedly wrote. According to the outlet, the German envoy thinks Trump will not hesitate to deploy the military domestically to make good on his campaign pledges, such as mass deportations of illegal immigrants. Michaelis also is said to have suggested that Trump’s second term in office would likely bring about a “redefinition of the First Amendment,” with the new administration going after its critics. While the German government has not made any hostile remarks about the Republican, Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday lashed out at US-based tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has recently emerged as one of Trump’s closest allies.
He accused the Tesla and SpaceX CEO of attempting to interfere in EU politics by supporting the “extreme right throughout Europe, in Britain, in Germany.” Last month, Musk described Scholz as an “incompetent fool,” stating that the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) was the only party capable of “saving Germany.” Last week, the tech mogul hosted a livestream with AfD co-chair Alice Weidel on X, his social media platform. Several weeks after his victory in the November 5 presidential election, Trump named former adviser and ultra-loyalist Kash Patel as the next FBI director. In a recently published book, the former public defender slammed the agency’s work, calling for its complete overhaul.
While his opponents have routinely accused Trump of posing a threat to US democracy, the real estate kingpin tuned politician charged in December 2023 that President Joe Biden had “been weaponizing government against his political opponents like a Third World political tyrant.” “Biden and his radical left allies like to pose as standing up as allies of democracy,” Trump told his supporters, concluding that the Democrat “is not the defender of American democracy, Joe Biden is the destroyer of American democracy.”
“..the funniest part is that he asked for an invite like three times unofficially, and each time got turned down.”
• ‘Weirdo’ Zelensky Begged For Inauguration Invite – Trump Jr. (RT)
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky asked incoming US President Donald Trump to invite him to the inauguration several times, but was consistently snubbed, his son Donald Trump Jr. has claimed. Writing on Instagram, Trump Jr. mocked the Ukrainian leader’s interview with American podcaster Lex Fridman earlier this month, during which Zelensky stated that he could not attend the inauguration on January 20. “I can’t come especially during the war, unless President Trump invites me personally. I’m not sure it’s proper to come because I know that in general, leaders are for some reason not usually invited to the inauguration of presidents of the United States of America,” he told Fridman. Trump Jr. opined in response that “the funniest part is that he asked for an invite like three times unofficially, and each time got turned down.”
“Now he’s acting like he decided not to go himself,” he added, branding Zelensky “a weirdo.” While incoming US presidents typically do not invite foreign leaders to their inauguration, Trump deviated from tradition and extended offers to Chinese President Xi Jinping, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Argentinian President Javier Milei, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa and Paraguayan President Santiago Pena. While Xi and Orban have excused themselves, the rest have pledged to come.
Trump has been skeptical of the US campaign to help Ukraine and has vowed to quickly end the conflict between Moscow and Kiev, with Ukrainian officials fearing a ceasefire deal proposed by the president-elect will put their country at a disadvantage. Zelensky and Trump met in late September in New York, with the latter saying afterward that the Ukrainian leader “wants [the conflict] to stop,” and that both of them want “a fair deal.” Zelensky’s presidential term expired last May, and he has refused to call new elections, citing martial law. Russia considers him “illegitimate,” and says that the only legal authority now rests with the Ukrainian parliament and its speaker.
“..the Soros network is funded by the EU budget.” “The biggest corruption scandal in politics is that Brussels is in George Soros’s pocket..”
• Soros ‘Lost The Battle In America’ – Orban (RT)
US President-elect Donald Trump’s victory was a major defeat for activist billionaire George Soros and his allies in the Democratic Party, who sought to plunge America into a “gender frenzy,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said. Speaking in an interview with Kossuth Radio on Friday, Orban accused the 94-year-old Hungarian-born philanthropist of maintaining a “large network” intertwined with the Democratic Party, claiming their efforts were focused on imposing globalist ideologies in a bid to further their economic interests. “They believe that it is their duty… to fix humanity. In other words, to impose on the countries what they consider right,” he said, adding that “migration chaos” often follows those efforts.
According to Orban, Democratic dominance also led to an uncontrolled spread of woke politics. “Here come the American Democrats, because then there will be Pride, rainbow flags, and transgender issues,” he said. However, according to Orban, Trump’s victory ushered a significant shift in this regard. “George Soros lost the battle in America. I could say that America was liberated by Donald Trump,” the prime minister said, suggesting that the tycoon’s allies had been forced to withdraw back to Brussels. “We, Europeans, now have to face a very difficult period as they entrench themselves in Brussels… they need to be squeezed out of Brussels,” he said. Orban also expressed outrage at the fact that the Soros network is funded by the EU budget.
“We cannot tolerate this, it is our money too… The biggest corruption scandal in politics is that Brussels is in George Soros’s pocket,” he charged. Orban has long been critical of Soros and his Open Society Foundations (OSF), accusing them of funding pro-migration policies, undermining traditional family values, and promoting a globalist agenda. Critics of Soros have also accused him of fueling several so-called ‘color’ revolutions and having financial ties to hundreds of media outlets, which shield him from any backlash, shape public opinion, and promote what Orban called “LGBT fanaticism.” OSF, however, insists that its sole mission is to support human rights and democracy worldwide.
Interesting view: Maritime empires ruled for centuries, but no more.
• Why The West-Centric World Order Is Doomed (von Hoffmeister)
The unipolar era is collapsing, and in its place rises a new world, shaped by distinct centers of power, each bound to its traditions, values, and histories. Multipolarity rejects the artificial imposition of a single worldview, instead proclaiming the beneficial heterogeneity of human existence. It is a call to rediscover the strength of firmly established identities and to embrace a stabilized global order. For centuries, the world was lorded over by empires that sought to impose their singular, myopic vision upon all peoples. Liberal universalism, with its insistence (like Star Trek’s Borg with their hive mind) on assimilating the world into one model, has failed to create harmony. Multipolarity, on the other hand, recognizes that genuine coexistence depends on respecting the uniqueness of each civilization.
It seeks not to erase differences but to create a world where each culture thrives on its own terms, contributing to a dynamic and unadulterated global reality. A profound transformation is underway. Multipolarity marks a return to the natural state of a world composed of many civilizations, each pursuing its destiny. This revival is seen in the resurgence of ancient powers such as Orthodox Russia, Confucian China, and Hindu India. These nations are not relics of the past but living civilizations, reconnecting with their historical roots to take their proper places in the present. They reject the unipolar dictatorship of the Atlanticist model, which imposes liberal democracy and market capitalism as universal truths.
The conflict between land-based and sea-based powers is central to the unfolding multipolar world. Maritime empires, like Britain and the United States, long preeminent in global trade and geopolitics, are now facing the comeback of continental alliances. The seas, once the lifelines of Western hegemony, are giving way to the strategic establishment of the land as the new focus of commercial and political activity. Tellurocracy, the reign of the land, confronts thalassocracy, the reign of the sea – tipping the geopolitical scale of power. Eurasia exemplifies the triumph of the land. Its vast connectivity through infrastructure and economic corridors, from railroads to energy pipelines, undermines the primacy of maritime trade routes. This contest is not merely about command over resources but reflects a deeper philosophical divide.
The land represents rootedness, tradition, and stability, while the sea symbolizes fluidity, disruption, and the unmoored aspirations of modernity. Multipolarity restores the equilibrium between these forces, defying the centuries-long dominance of oceanic powers and placing the ancient, grounded civilizations of Eurasia at the forefront of global affairs. At the heart of multipolarity lies ethnopluralism – the recognition that distinct peoples cannot be blended into a single identity without destroying what makes them unique. Ethnopluralism opposes the liberal dream of the “melting pot,” viewing it as a forced amalgamation of disparate cultures. Instead, it argues for the coexistence of separate communities, each displaying its characteristics within its own boundaries.
“Thousands of patriots were cast aside by the very nation they swore to defend, stripped of their careers, their benefits, and their dignity ..”
• Bill In Congress To Reinstate 8,400 Troops Forced Out Over Covid Vaccine (JTN)
North Carolina’s freshman congressman, a Green Beret veteran, and Texas’ third-term junior senator, have introduced legislation reversing Biden administration policies in the military tied to the COVID-19 vaccine. U.S. Rep. Pat Harrigan’s AMERICANS Act, filed Thursday morning, would reinstate 8,400 service members he says were wrongfully discharged. It clears their records, restores benefits and “ensures no future administration can weaponize mandates against our armed forces,” a release says. The acronym is short for the formal title of Allowing Military Exemptions, Recognizing Individual Concerns About New Shots Act of 2025. Harrigan’s release said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, would have companion legislation in the upper chamber. At time of publication, more information on his bill was yet to be made available.
Republicans, led by President-elect Donald Trump, have long said throughout the election campaign the action was coming. “This mandate wasn’t about science or readiness – it was about control,” Harrigan said in the release. “Thousands of patriots were cast aside by the very nation they swore to defend, stripped of their careers, their benefits, and their dignity – not because they failed to serve honorably, but because of political overreach.” He emphasized it wasn’t just about restoration; it’s preventative in future administrations. “It ensures,” Harrigan said, “no administration can ever again use its power to undermine the honor and integrity of our armed forces.” Cruz, in the release, said the consequences of President Joe Biden’s actions with vaccine mandates are still impacting readiness for armed forces.
Retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin was secretary of the Defense Department at the time of the Aug. 23, 2021, decision. “Even though I led the successful charge for Congress to repeal that mandate, there is still more work to be done,” Cruz said in the Harrigan release. “The AMERICANS Act would provide remedies for servicemembers whom the Biden Department of Defense punished for standing by their convictions. It’s the right thing to do.” Harrigan is a graduate of West Point twice deployed to Afghanistan. Before Congress, he had been a businessman producing American-made defense products. Cruz, with Ivy League degrees from Princeton (undergrad) and Harvard Law, has worked in the Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission and served as solicitor general of Texas. The worksheet includes nine oral arguments at the U.S. Supreme Court.
“It’s going to be a fun week, eh?”
• Trump To Suspend Security Clearances Of 51 Former Intelligence Officials (ZH)
President-elect Donald Trump will suspend the security clearances of 51 former intelligence officials who were found to have coordinated with the 2020 Biden campaign to discredit credible and serious allegations contained on Hunter Biden’s laptop about his family’s influence peddling operation. According to Fox News, citing a senior administration official, Trump will take action against the so-called “Spies Who Lie,” as one of at least 100 executive orders he’s expected to sign on his first day back in the Oval Office.
Not only did federal investigators eventually confirm that Hunter’s laptop was authentic, a June 2024 report from the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of Federal Government and the Permanent Select Subcommittee on Intelligence found that “The 51 former intelligence officials’ Hunter Biden statement was a blatant political operation from the start. It originated with a call from top Biden campaign official—and now Secretary of State—Antony Blinken to former Deputy Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Michael Morell. “The Committees’ investigation revealed that without this outreach from Blinken, Morell would not have written the statement. Indeed, Morell told the Committees that the Blinken phone call “triggered” his intent to write the statement. The statement’s drafters were open about the goal of the project: “[W]e think Trump will attack Biden on the issue at this week’s debate”6 and “we want to give the [Vice President] a talking point to use in response.”
The Committees also found that:
• High ranking CIA officials, up to and including then-CIA Director Gina Haspel, were made aware of the Hunter Biden statement prior to its approval and publication.
• Some of the statement’s signatories, including Michael Morell, were on active contract with the CIA at the time of the Hunter Biden statement’s publication.
• After publication of the Hunter Biden statement, CIA employees internally expressed concern about the statement’s politicized content, acknowledging it was not “helpful to the Agency in the long run.”It’s going to be a fun week, eh?
Donald Trump’s nominee for CIA Director just called out the “51 spies who lied”
Fifty-one spies blatantly lied to the American people, and the media peddled this lie pic.twitter.com/KqxvFLkvt4
— JOSH DUNLAP (@JDunlap1974) January 19, 2025
Never call him a diplomat again.
• Blinken Overruled America’s Top General On Ukraine Peace Talks – NYT (RT)
Outgoing US State Secretary Antony Blinken urged Ukraine to continue its military efforts against Russia rather than pursue peace negotiations in 2022, the New York Times reported on Saturday. In late 2022, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley advised Kiev to capitalize on its battlefield successes by seeking peace talks with Moscow. However, Blinken insisted that Ukraine should press on with its military campaign, the newspaper wrote. “Less a peacemaker than a war strategist,” the US diplomat frequently argued against more “risk-averse Pentagon officials,” lobbying for advanced American weaponry to be sent to Ukraine, NYT wrote. Washington has spent “approximately $100 billion” on Ukraine since the conflict escalated in February 2022, while allies and partners have contributed an additional $150 billion, Blinken said during a January appearance at the Council on Foreign Relations.
The outgoing Biden administration has expedited arms deliveries to Kiev ahead of the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, who has indicated that he might reduce military aid to Ukraine in favor of addressing domestic priorities. The Biden administration had been covertly arming Ukraine months before the conflict intensified, Blinken admitted in a January interview with the NYT. “Starting in September and then again in December, we quietly got a lot of weapons to Ukraine to make sure that they had in hand what they needed to defend themselves – things like Stingers, Javelins that they could use,” he said. Russia and Ukraine initially engaged in peace negotiations in early 2022 in Istanbul. Both sides provisionally agreed to a truce under which Kiev would renounce its NATO membership ambitions, adopt neutrality, and limit its military size in exchange for international security guarantees.
However, Ukraine later withdrew from the talks at the urging of then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, according to David Arakhamia, a Zelensky-allied MP and chief negotiator for Kiev. Last month, Swiss diplomat Jean-Daniel Ruch similarly accused the US and UK of derailing peace talks between Kiev and Moscow. Speaking to the French-language media outlet Anti-Thèse, Ruch claimed that Johnson acted “on duty for the Americans.” Moscow has reiterated its willingness to resume peace negotiations, provided they are based on the Istanbul draft agreements and reflect the “new territorial realities,” including the accession of four former Ukrainian regions to Russia and recent battlefield developments.
By now, we all know how this works.
• Biden’s Last-Minute Oil Sanctions Target Russia But Will Hurt US (Sp.)
“I’m not going to be out of sight or out of mind,” Joe Biden quipped at one of his final conversations with reporters as president last week. He’s not wrong. If the Treasury sanctions targeting Russian maritime oil exports succeed, Biden will remain in Americans’ minds for a long time to come. But not for the reasons he might like. The outgoing administration’s recent decisions suggest that their overarching goal is to create as many problems as possible for its successor in every area. This applies both to foreign policy, where a policy of maximum escalation has been observed in virtually every conflict zone, as well as the domestic front.
With mere hours now left in Biden’s term, the most effective tool in the waning days of his presidency has been sanctions, which can be quickly imposed but are difficult to revoke, given their political justifications. “Today, the US Department of the Treasury took sweeping action to fulfill the G7 commitment to reduce Russian revenues from energy, including blocking two major Russian oil producers. Today’s actions also impose sanctions on an unprecedented number of oil-carrying vessels, many of which are part of the ‘shadow fleet,’ opaque traders of Russian oil, Russia-based oilfield service providers, and Russian energy officials,” the Treasury said in a press release last week announcing new sanctions against Russia’s oil and gas sector.
“The United States is taking sweeping action against Russia’s key source of revenue for funding its brutal and illegal war against Ukraine,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said. “This action builds on, and strengthens, our focus since the beginning of the war on disrupting the Kremlin’s energy revenues…With today’s actions, we are ratcheting up the sanctions risk associated with Russia’s oil trade, including shipping and financial facilitation in support of Russia’s oil exports,” Yellen added. But Team Biden’s sloganeering about the sanctions’ purpose being ‘continuing support for Ukraine’ is just cynical ideological cover for their true goal: disrupting the president-elect’s plans, primarily in the economic and social sphere. As for hurting Russia, that won’t work, and here’s why.
Russian Maritime Oil Exports: The Math
US sanctions will result in a significant bump in global oil prices, simultaneously offsetting the drop in production volumes by making up revenues into the Russian budget. Russia’s maritime exports of oil and petroleum products amount to about 5.8 million barrels per day, of which 3.5 million barrels per day are crude oil. Currently, global energy agencies and international banks predict a surplus in the oil market in 2025 averaging 0.8 million barrels per day. The consensus forecast for Brent crude prices in 2025 stands at about $71 per barrel, according to major banks.
Maritime Export of Russian Crude Oil by Destination Country (million barrels per day)A complete halt to Russian maritime exports of oil and petroleum products (that is, a reduction in Russian oil production by that volume) would cause one of the largest-ever deficits in the global oil market in history (assuming oil production dynamics in other countries remain consistent with forecasts). According to calculations by the Bank of America, based on historical data, a change in the supply-demand balance by 100,000 barrels per day results in an inverse change in oil prices by $1.50–$2 per barrel. Consequently, the loss of such a significant volume of Russian exports (5.8 million barrels per day) from the global balance would lead to an increase in oil prices by $80–$90 per barrel, to $150–$160 per barrel. The loss of far smaller amounts of Russian oil from the world market has already had devastating and immediate impact.
In 2022, for example, when Russian oil and petroleum product exports dropped by 1.5 million barrels per day, oil prices rose to over $120 per barrel. Crunching the numbers, with Brent crude priced at $158 per barrel, the export price of Russian oil for taxation purposes would be between $147 and $156 per barrel (depending on the size of the discount for Russian oil delivered via pipelines) compared to the roughly $70 per barrel assumed in the 2025 budget plan. That means that under conditions of a full embargo on maritime oil exports, Russia’s state budget revenues would increase (to $88.2 billion, compared to $82.3 billion under the current plan), despite a reduction in production and various associated costs.
Street
She was alone on the street, now she has a warm bed and lots of love in her life. pic.twitter.com/B8J6tBkbgZ
— Enezator (@Enezator) January 18, 2025
X
https://twitter.com/i/status/1880987490246619235
Cries
Dogs' reactions to baby cries.
— The Goddess (@TheGoddessF) January 19, 2025
Secret
Dog moves security camera so he can secretly eat food on the table
— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) January 19, 2025
Donkey
https://twitter.com/i/status/1880864169005638022
Flying
The sound.. pic.twitter.com/4SSo0UMOtY
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) January 19, 2025
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