Hunter Biden Archives - The Automatic Earth

WATCH: Legal titan Mike Davis breaks down Hunter pardon; "It's a stunning pardon because as you said, it goes back more than a decade and it covers ANY potential federal crime that Hunter Biden may have committed, including foreign bribery & corruption." pic.twitter.com/5g9WZWbZ4h

— Overton (@overton_news) December 2, 2024

Kindness

Kindness is priceless … pic.twitter.com/PyL8ENcaYV

— Figen (@TheFigen_) December 1, 2024

View from Russia.

“What can we expect from the ‘bromance’ of the two billionaires?”

• Trump And Musk Are Ready To Shake Up America (Ryumshin)

It’s often said that a king is shaped by his entourage. This saying may be as old as time itself, but it applies perfectly to US President-elect Donald Trump. Right now, however, there’s only one person truly pulling the king’s strings – Elon Musk. Since the November 6 election, the Tesla tycoon has become the most influential figure in America – and perhaps even the world. Musk’s road to power took four long years. Before 2022, Trump and the South African billionaire were rivals (in 2020, the Space-X founder even supported Biden). But when Musk bought Twitter, rebranded it as X, and gradually leaned into the Republican fold, the winds shifted. By early 2024, Musk had met Trump, publicly endorsed him in July, and begun campaigning. By the end of the year, the two had become inseparable. Now, Musk is basically joined at the hip with Trump. They attend MMA fights together, watch space launches, and share McDonald’s burgers.

Musk is now a fixture at the Mar-a-Lago estate, advising the future president on appointments, and even apparently speaking to foreign leaders on his behalf – he was allegedly present when Trump spoke to Vladimir Zelensky and is reported to have secretly met the Iranian ambassador. Trump’s old advisers are getting nervous. On November 18, Axios reported that Musk had clashed with Boris Epshteyn, a longtime Trump ally, over Matt Gaetz’s nomination for US Attorney General. After the dispute, Gaetz’s nomination was pulled and CNN claimed that Trump’s team have asked that Epshteyn be investigated for alleged fraud – over alleged bribes to lobby for positions within the new administration. Musk’s influence is undeniable, and the media has already dubbed him the “co-president of the United States” or more cheekily, the “broligarch.” Musk himself embraces the title of “first buddy” (a nod to the first lady).

This isn’t without controversy. Musk’s ruthless business tactics are legendary, and he has Trump’s full trust. The billionaire has promised to audit the entire US government, aiming to cut up to $2 trillion in spending. God only knows what he’ll come up with next. It’s fascinating to watch the American political establishment panic. And let’s be honest – this drama could work to Russia’s advantage. The more chaos in Washington, the better for Moscow. But don’t get too excited just yet. There are differing views on Trump’s leadership. Some see him as a weak head man, easily swayed by flattery, while others view him as a potential autocrat, quick to toss aside anyone who crosses him. The truth, as always, lies somewhere in between. Trump runs his inner circle like a boss, with some figures holding much more sway than others.

Musk certainly falls into this inner circle. But he’s not alone. Trump’s family – especially Donald Trump Jr. – is also a key influence. Trump Jr. has been instrumental in connecting his father with allies like JD Vance, Robert Kennedy Jr., and Tulsi Gabbard, and he’s helping to handpick cabinet members. His influence is on par with Musk’s, even if it’s quieter. The Wall Street tycoons Trump has befriended also play a major role. In fact, for them, Trump has compromised on his conservative values, even proposing Scott Bessent, a former George Soros manager, for treasury secretary. Musk lobbied for Howard Lutnick to join the administration, but he eventually landed at the Commerce Department. These examples show that while Musk’s influence on Trump is substantial, it’s not all-encompassing –his power doesn’t extend beyond Trump’s inner circle.

There are also questions about how long the Trump-Musk partnership will last. Both are unpredictable, volatile personalities. Trump has a history of falling out with his favorites (just look at his rocky relationship with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis). Musk and Trump have plenty of potential points of conflict – from electric cars (Trump’s not a fan) to more serious matters like government spending cuts. But that’s a problem for the future. For now, let’s sit back, grab some popcorn, and watch this unfolding spectacle.

In 2018, when it was first agreed, the pay package was worth $2.6 billion. In January 2024, when the judge first rejected it, it had risen to $56 billion. Today, it is $101 billion.

Why the increase? Well, Elon Musk.

• Delaware Judge Rejects (Again) Musk’s $56 Billion Pay-Package (ZH)

Delaware Judge Kathaleen McCormick has once again sided against Elon Musk… After ruling against the billionaire in July 2022 when he tried to break his $44 billion contract to buy Twitter, and again in January 2024 when she initially rescinded Musk’s record (but “deeply flawed” according to her) $56 billion performance-based compensation package (determining that Tesla deceived shareholders when the all stock compensation was approved in 2018), she has once again ruled [against] that pay package. Musk’s legal team argued that McCormick should reverse her earlier decision because Tesla had conducted a shareholder vote to “ratify” the 2018 pay plan at the company’s annual shareholder meeting in June, per CNBC.

In fact, 72% of Tesla shareholders voted in June to approve the company’s CEO’s pay package. The judge said Musk’s attorneys made an argument with multiple “fatal flaws,” including their argument that the shareholder vote was enough to validate the pay package after the fact. “The large and talented group of defense firms got creative with the ratification argument, but their unprecedented theories go against multiple strains of settled law,” McCormick said in her ruling. McCormick ruled that the vote on the payment package did not have a “ratifying effect” on the current case, because shareholders had not ratified the payment plan prior to her ruling.

“Were the court to condone the practice of allowing defeated parties to create new facts for the purpose of revising judgments, lawsuits would become interminable,” she wrote. In addition to rejecting the revisions, Quartz reports that Monday’s decision granted $345 million in attorney fees to the lawyers who successfully challenged Musk’s pay plan on behalf of Tesla shareholders. The court deemed this amount an “appropriate sum to reward a total victory.” Tesla has the option to pay this fee in either cash or by issuing stock that can be sold on the open market. While Musk could appeal the decision to the Delaware Supreme Court, this ruling could have broader implications for how companies structure executive compensation and the role of shareholder votes in such decisions.

Finally, the judge has some interesting ‘friends’… “Before becoming the head of the Delaware Chancery Court, McCormick worked at a Delaware law firm called Young Conaway. This firm and its employees have been major donors to President Joe Biden for decades. In 2016, Hunter Biden hosted a gubernatorial campaign event for Congressman John Carney, with then-Vice President Joe Biden as the guest speaker. This event took place at the Law Offices of Young Conaway in Wilmington, Delaware. Carney, a close friend of Joe Biden for the last four decades, later became governor and nominated Kathaleen McCormick, a partner at Young Conaway, to her position on the Delaware Chancery Court.

In a March 2018 email, Hunter Biden claimed to personally know every judge on the Delaware Chancery Court while threatening legal action against his Chinese business partners. “I will bring the suit in the Chancery court in Delaware – which as you know is my home state and I am privileged to have worked with and know every judge on the chancery court…. another clear example of the Biden administration and its allies weaponizing the American legal system against their political opponents.”Tesla issued a statement on X shortly after the decision, confirming that it will appeal her decision…. There is also the fact that Musk’s move to relocate his business to Texas (after telling people on X after the original ruling that “companies should get the hell out of Delaware”) which could change things, but it is is unclear how this will proceed for now.

“No objective observer can look at OpenAI today and say it bears any resemblance whatsoever to what it promised to be..”

• Musk Again Asks To Block OpenAI’s “Illegal” Conversion To For-Profit Model (CT)

Elon Musk filed another motion to block ChatGPT-creator OpenAI from converting to a for-profit enterprise, while also alleging that it has been engaging in anti-competitive practices. Musk accused OpenAI, its CEO Sam Altman, president Greg Brockman and stakeholder Microsoft of violating terms of Musk’s “foundational contributions to the charity,” according to his motion for a preliminary injunction filed on Nov. 30. Musk co-founded OpenAI in 2015 and was an early board member until he left the company in 2018. He has since launched xAI — the firm behind AI chatbot Grok — which he said is falling victim to OpenAI’s anti-competitive practices. “OpenAI’s path from a non-profit to for-profit behemoth is replete with per se anticompetitive practices, flagrant breaches of its charitable mission, and rampant self-dealing,” Musk’s lawyers wrote.

Through a “series of exclusive arrangements” with Microsoft, the two companies have engaged in “predatory practices,” enabling them to seize control of almost 70% of the generative AI market, lawyers for Musk said, adding: “Microsoft and OpenAI now seek to cement this dominance by cutting off competitors’ access to investment capital, while continuing to benefit from years’ worth of shared competitively sensitive information during generative AI’s formative years.” Allowing this to continue will hurt xAI and the public, which has become increasingly concerned about “rushed” and “unsafe” AI products, they added. California law allows a nonprofit to convert to a for-profit stock corporation, but not to a limited liability company.

OpenAI said it remains nonprofit at its core but has established a for-profit subsidiary capable of issuing equity to raise capital and hire world-class talent. Still, those tasks would be administered at the direction of the nonprofit. An injunction to preserve what is left of OpenAI’s nonprofit character is the only “appropriate remedy,” Musk’s lawyers said. “No objective observer can look at OpenAI today and say it bears any resemblance whatsoever to what it promised to be. Enough is enough.” An OpenAI spokesperson slammed Musk’s latest attempt in a note to Cointelegraph: “Elon’s fourth attempt, which again recycles the same baseless complaints, continues to be utterly without merit.”

In March, OpenAI leaked emails from Musk in 2015 showing support for the firm to find over $1 billion in funding to compete with the likes of Google and Facebook (now Meta). OpenAI claimed Musk was harassing the firm in a related October filing. “Since launching a competing artificial intelligence company, xAI, Musk has been trying to leverage the judicial system for an edge. The effort should fail; Musk’s complaint does not state a claim and should be dismissed,” OpenAI added. In June, Musk threatened to ban Apple devices at his companies when Apple touted integrating OpenAI’s ChatGPT into its iPhone, iPad and Mac operating systems. Later, Apple launched Apple Intelligence on Oct. 28.

“No court has agreed with the defendant on these baseless claims, and his request to dismiss the indictment finds no support in the law or the practice of this district.”

• Special Counsel Rejects Hunter Biden’s Pardon (ZH)

Last night Hunter Biden’s lawyers filed a motion to dismiss his California tax fraud case after Joe Biden issued a blanket pardon absolving him of all crimes committed over a 10 year period.”The President’s pardon moots Mr. Biden’s pending and yet to occur sentencing and entry of judgment in this case and requires an automatic dismissal of the Indictment with prejudice,” wrote Hunter’s lawyer Abbe Lowell in the filing, adding that “this Court must dismiss the Indictment against Mr. Biden with prejudice and adjourn all future proceedings in this matter. “Special Counsel David Weiss isn’t having it. In a Monday response in opposition, Weiss argued that “The defendant’s motion should be denied since there is no binding authority on this Court which requires dismissal.”

“As a matter of past-practice in this district, courts do not dismiss indictments when pardons are granted,” Weiss wrote – citing cases involving Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn, Joe Arpaio and Ollie North, Above the Law reports. “Instead, it has been the practice of this court that once an Executive Grant of Clemency has been filed on the docket, the docket is marked closed, the disposition entry is updated to reflect the executive grant of clemency, and no further action is taken by the Court.” “Although Weiss purported not to have seen the pardon itself (which Lowell inexplicably failed to docket), he took particular umbrage at the suggestion that the prosecution was politically motivated, huffing that “The court similarly found [Biden’s] vindictive prosecution claims unmoored from any evidence or even a coherent theory as to vindictiveness.”

Judge Mark Scarsi of the Central District of California has taken no action, thus far. But in Delaware, Judge Maryellen Noreika said in a minute order that she intends to terminate the proceedings, and instructing the government to say by tomorrow if it objects to termination by dismissal. Presumably it does, although no objection has hit the docket as of this writing.” -Above the Law. Hunter pleaded guilty to the tax charges earlier this year, after a Delaware jury found him guilty of lying about his drug use on a background check form used to purchase a firearm.

In Weiss’ new filing, he writes: “The defendant did not docket the pardon nor has the government seen it. If media reports are accurate, the Government does not challenge that the defendant has been the recipient of an act of mercy. But that does not mean the grand jury’s decision to charge him, based on a finding of probable cause, should be wiped away as if it never occurred. It also does not mean that his charges should be wiped away because the defendant falsely claimed that the charges were the result of some improper motive. No court has agreed with the defendant on these baseless claims, and his request to dismiss the indictment finds no support in the law or the practice of this district.”

“You can see the pardon as a conservative act as protection of the family is the basis of society. But in our society so is equal standing under the law..”

• The Pardon (Paul Craig Roberts)

Joe Biden said he would not pardon his son, but he did. Pardons reside with presidents and governors and are supposed to be used to correct an injustice or when a service has been done by the pardoned person that offsets the harm of the offense that is pardoned. But pardons are often used for non-legitimate reasons, such as Bill Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich and Clinton’s half brother, Roger Clinton. Bill did not pardon Roger until after Roger had served his sentence. Rich, however, an international fugitive on the FBI’s ten most wanted list, was apparently pardoned in exchange for political donations and donations to the Clinton library. Donations continued for 15 years after the pardon. In other words, the pardon was purchased. Biden’s pardon of his son occurred prior to Hunter’s sentence and before a day was served. No doubt that many a mother and father wish they had the power to grant their son or daughter a pardon.

It is disturbing that Biden pretends that the charges against Hunter were politically motivated and designed to hurt President Biden, as if the FBI and DOJ committed to Biden’s protection would act against him. The charges were protective of Biden and were brought in order to get the focus off the more dangerous information in the laptop. The politically motivated charges were the ones brought against Trump. But I don’t really blame Biden from using his power to save his son from prison. In a way it shows Joe Biden more committed to his son than to his reputation. You can see the pardon as a conservative act as protection of the family is the basis of society. But in our society so is equal standing under the law, which took a hit from the pardon. What we should find more upsetting than the pardon is the protection that the FBI and Department of Justice provided for President Biden and his son from the evidence in Hunter’s laptop.

The FBI put out the story, quickly accepted by the presstitutes, that the laptop was a Russian attempt to discredit the US president. The prosecutions that Hunter has faced are limited to his false statement on his gun purchase application and to failure to pay income taxes on the profits from his and President Biden’s influence peddling ventures to which the FBI and Department of Justice (sic) have turned a blind eye–the same FBI and DOJ that gave Biden clearance on the documents charge for which Trump was indicted and prosecuted. In other words, under the Democrats justice in America was totally corrupted and still 45% of American voters voted for Democrats in the last election.

This tells us that close to half of the voting population either is too insouciant or ignorant to know what is going on, or is indifferent or unconcerned whether law serves justice or political, ideological, and personal agendas. The damning conclusion is that close to half of the American population accepts law as a political weapon. That the personnel in the FBI and DOJ do not resign in protest at the perversion of law and prosecution indicates that they, too, accept the abuse of law by their superiors. Can the transformation of law from a shield of the people into a weapon in the hands of the state be reversed when the entire federal law enforcement system is corrupt to the core? Can such a giant task be accomplished when Trump is simultaneously attempting to restore integrity to all other aspects of government? Is this a bridge too far?

“It’s a beautiful thing to watch the Biden family destroy the Democrat Party.” — @Mazemoore on “X”

• The Blob Has a Migraine (Kunstler)

You can be sure the blobists have seen this coming from years away. The boys and girls in the agencies have behaved more than just a little badly, and they know it. They committed serious crimes against our country and its citizens under color-of-law since 2015, ranging from seditious conspiracy clear up to treason (say, just for instance, the case of Col. Alexander Vindman using his Ukraine connections to lever Mr. Trump out of the Oval Office in the 2019 impeachment scam.)

You have whole C-suites of agencies teed-up on RussiaGate for felonies, misprision of felonies, abuse of power, deprivation of rights, lying under oath, conspiracy to commit fraud, and much more. You have Judge James Boasberg playing games in the FISA Court he presided over; Robert Mueller and Andrew Weissmann running a two-and-a-half-year Chinese fire drill to cover-up years preceding of FBI / DOJ misconduct; John Brennan, James Clapper, and Gina Haspel abusing the “Five Eyes” intel arrangements to turn the CIA on innocent citizens at home; the fifty-one current and former intel agents colluding to bury Hunter’s Laptop to sway the 2020 election; the antics of Judge Emmet Sullivan in the Flynn case. . . .

And then on to a whole new round of frolics under “Joe Biden” including the malicious prosecutions of J-6 protesters; the pipe-bomb caper at the DNC; the use of several agencies to censor speech and manage the news media; the treasonous negligence of Alejandro Mayorkas on the nation’s borders; the DOJ-coordinated lawfare hounding of Mr. Trump and his adjacent lawyers; the Ukraine War project ginned up by the State Department’s Victoria Nuland and cohorts; and the sinkhole of greed, malice, and medical homicide that was the Covid-19 operation, millions killed and disabled, and likely more of that yet to come from the vaccines, trillions in wealth purloined or just plain lost, and businesses destroyed in lockdowns. It’s not a mere “swamp,” it’s a whole forbidden planet of turpitude.

Then there are the floaters and freelancers who move from one blob venue to the next, like lawfare artists Mary McCord, Norm Eisen, Marc Elias, David J. Kramer, or the girl-band of Lisa Monaco, Fiona Hill, Kathryn Ruemmler, Susan Rice, Samantha Power, Nellie Ohr. And finally, there are the real big fishes: Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bill Gates, Anthony Fauci, Chris Wray, Merrick Garland, General Milley, and “Joe Biden.”

Add William Barr to that list for failing to reveal that he was in possession of Hunter’s laptop as early as the fall of 2019. Of course, it was crammed with exculpatory evidence that could have ended impeachment No. 1 on day one of the initial hearings, yet he never alerted President’s lawyers to its existence. Weird, a little bit. And also, for the effrontery of allowing Jeffrey Epstein to be killed in his Manhattan jail, and never offering the public a coherent account of how the cameras on the cellblock failed, or why the guards who fell asleep on-duty were disciplined with only 100 hours of “community service.”

My Gawd, they must be eating Xanax like tic-tacs in their drawing rooms and boudoirs as the name Kash Patel floats across their social media screens. Kash Patel, a real-live exterminating angel, will finally step in to the FBI Director’s office and turn the investigative powers of the FBI on. . . the FBI! And its parent, the DOJ. The poetic justice is sublime. You must wonder: how does Mr. Patel get through the RINO-infested Senate confirmation process? Start with: what have they got on him? Answer: probably not a goshdarn thing, not a hair out of place. More to the point: what has Mr. Patel got on them? (Especially Messers Thune, Barrasso, Cornyn, and let’s just throw in the Democrat Mark Warner, VA, who was up to his eyeballs in RussiaGate as chair of the Senate Intel Committee.)

And were Mr. Patel to land in the FBI Director’s office 49 days from now, what additional info might he uncover about years of weaponized government with assistance from John Ratcliffe at the CIA and Tulsi Gabbard as DNI — who will access a pipeline to the vast national security server farm out in Bluffdale, Utah. So, in case you think that the document-shredding party currently underway in DC will conceal all that criminality, consider what lives forever in the alternate universe of cyberspace.

“They are unlikely to improve themselves by receding further into that safe space to rave about the “f—ing morons” who make up the majority of America..”

• The Democratic Diaspora (Turley)

Democrats who campaigned on the need for “joy” and “saving democracy” are strikingly unjoyful about the results of the democratic process in 2024. Before the election, slips like the one of President Joe Biden calling Trump supporters “garbage” were immediately denied or deflected. But once voters had given the Republicans control of both houses of Congress, the popular vote and the White House, leading Democratic figures and celebrities dropped all pretense of civility. They are now being open about their contempt for voters, calling them “f—-ing morons” and “arrogant, ignorant” adolescents. After calling for Americans to come together for Kamala Harris, MSNBC’s Joy Reid sent out a heart-warming holiday message to those who voted for the GOP to “make your own dinner, MAGA. Make your own sandwiches, wipe your own tears.”

Those not wallowing in Reid’s anger are increasingly voicing themes of isolation, insurrection and secession. For years, the contempt for Trump voters has been open and obvious in much of the media. The “Let’s Go Brandon” movement captured the lunacy of the press and politicians simply denying what citizens could see, hear and experience for themselves. When asked for answers on issues like the economy and immigration, Harris paraded an army of celebrities to tell the public how to vote — shiny objects that they thought would be enough for shallow American voters. They were wrong. Now that the public has made its choice, leading figures are condemning the majority of voters as a mix of misogynists, self-haters and fascists. Whoopi Goldberg, 69, even joined the “4B” sex strike against men. Others seem to be morphing into exactly what they said Trump would become as president: isolationist and insurrectionist.

Some have responded to the losses by retreating further into echo chambers protected from opposing views. Many dumped X in favor of BlueSky, a new social media safe space for liberals who fear being triggered by opposing views. Notably, censorship advocates such as Nina Jankowisz have fled to BlueSky. The site is portrayed as a return to the good old days when liberals controlled all of the social media and maintained a massive censorship and blacklisting system over political discourse. New York Times tech reporter Kevin Roose wrote a column last week that offered the familiar “I can breathe again” account: “After an hour or so of scrolling through Bluesky the other night, I felt something I haven’t felt on social media in a long time: free.” It is the ultimate irony. This election shocked many on the left precisely because they were writing and commenting on each other within their hardened media and political silos.

They are unlikely to improve themselves by receding further into that safe space to rave about the “f—ing morons” who make up the majority of America. Other Democratic politicians have moved beyond the chest-pounding of leaders like Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) to pledges of more direct obstruction or inflammatory rhetoric. Denver mayor Mike Johnson (D) declared that he was preparing the Mile-High City for its “Tiananmen Square moment” to fight the federal government in any attempt to deport unlawful migrants. Johnson warned that he would have not only Denver police “stationed at the county line to keep [ICE] out” but also “50,000 Denverites.” Not long ago, Democrats were calling similar protests an “insurrection.” Johnson later walked back his remarks but insisted that his city would fight federal efforts to enforce the immigration laws. Rather than such trench warfare, most Democratic governors and mayors are simply pledging not to cooperate with federal authorities, which is a lawful choice. The concern, however, is how others will react to the overheated rhetoric for months that this will be “our last election” and that Trump is the new Hitler.
.

Both sides hold frozen assets. Equal amount. An exercise in futility.

• West Won’t Return Russia’s Currency Reserves – Top Banker (RT)

The West will not return any of the Russian sovereign assets frozen as part of sanctions over the Ukraine conflict, the CEO of major Russian lender VTB, Andrey Kostin, has predicted, as cited by Reuters. The US and its allies have immobilized around $300 billion of assets belonging to the Russian central bank since 2022 as part of Ukraine-related sanctions. The funds deposited in Brussels-based clearing house Euroclear have generated billions in interest, which the EU has decided to use to finance Kiev. “In the West, they say, let’s pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine from the reserves. And they will draw up such a bill that even the reserves will not be enough,” Kostin, the CEO of Russia’s second-largest lender, told Reuters in an interview published on Monday.

The new president of the European Council, Antonio Costa, said on Sunday that the EU will continue to provide economic and military aid to Ukraine in the coming year, using the interest accrued on frozen Russian money. “Starting next month, we plan to provide, for a full year, every month, €1.5 billion [$1.58 billion] of assistance. This money comes from the proceeds of Russia’s frozen assets and can also be used for military purposes,” Costa said during a visit to Kiev on day one of his mandate. Earlier this year, the EU decided to give Ukraine a chunk of the interest generated by Russian assets. In July, the European Commission announced it would allocate €1.5 billion to Kiev, mainly for weapons, as the first tranche of aid. The second tranche, expected to amount to €1.9 billion, could reportedly be disbursed next spring. In October, the European Parliament also approved a loan of up to €35 billion to Ukraine to be repaid with future revenues from frozen Russian assets.

The loan is the EU’s part of a package the Group of Seven (G7) agreed in June to provide Kiev with up to $50 billion in financial support. Approximately €210 billion in assets belonging to the Russian central bank is being held in the EU. The US has not yet made public the amount of funds it holds. According to Reuters’s calculations, at the start of 2022, Russia had $67 billion in US dollar assets. Russia has repeatedly accused the West of “stealing” its money. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov warned in October that Moscow would respond in kind to the West’s use of the income generated by its frozen central bank reserves. Last month, he said Russia would use income from the frozen assets of Western investors. While the finance minister did not elaborate on the amount of Western assets currently held in Russia, previous calculations by RIA Novosti put the figure at roughly equal to the size of the Russian funds frozen abroad.

“Kennan’s thesis from 1946 was that the United States needed to work patiently and resolutely to thwart the Soviet threat, and to enhance and aggravate the internal fissures in the Soviet system..”

• The Long War To Reaffirm Western And Israeli Primacy (Alastair Crooke)

The long war to reaffirm western and Israeli primacy is undergoing a shape-shift. On one front, the calculus in respect to Russia and the Ukraine war has shifted. And in the Middle East, the locus and shape of the war is shifting in a distinct way. Georges Kennan’s famed Soviet doctrine has long formed the baseline to U.S. policy, firstly directed toward the Soviet Union, and latterly, towards Russia. Kennan’s thesis from 1946 was that the United States needed to work patiently and resolutely to thwart the Soviet threat, and to enhance and aggravate the internal fissures in the Soviet system, until its contradictions triggered the collapse from within. More recently, the Atlantic Council has drawn on the Kennan doctrine to suggest that his broad outline should serve as the basis of U.S. policy towards Iran.

“The threat that Iran poses to the U.S. resembles the one faced from the Soviet Union after World War II. In this regard, the policy that George Kennan outlined for dealing with the Soviet Union has some applications for Iran”, the Atlantic report states. Over the years, that doctrine has ossified into an entire network of security understandings, based on the archetypal conviction that America is strong, and that Russia was weak. Russia must ‘know that’, and thus, it was argued, there could be no logic for Russian strategists to imagine they had any other option but to submit to the overmatch represented by the combined military strength of NATO versus a ‘weak’ Russia. And should Russian strategists unwisely persevere with challenging the West, it was said, the inherent contrariety simply would cause Russia to fracture. American neocons and western intelligence have not listened to any other view, because they were (and largely still are) convinced by Kennan’s formulation.

The American foreign policy class simply could not accept the possibility that such a core thesis was wrong. The entire approach reflected more a deep-seated culture, rather than any rational analysis – even when visible facts on the ground pointed them to a different reality. So, America has piled the pressure on Russia through the incremental delivery of additional weapons systems to Ukraine; through stationing intermediate range nuclear-capable missiles ever-closer to Russia’s borders; and most recently, by shooting ATACMS into ‘old Russia’. The aim has been to pressure Russia into a situation where it would feel obliged to make concessions to Ukraine, such as a to accept a freezing of the conflict, and to be obliged to negotiate against Ukrainian bargaining ‘cards’ devised to yield a solution acceptable to the U.S. Or, alternatively, for Russia to be cornered into the ‘nuclear corner’.

American strategy ultimately rests on the conviction that the U.S. could engage in a nuclear war with Russia – and prevail; that Russia understands that were it to go nuclear, it would ‘lose the world’. Or, pressured by NATO, the anger amongst Russians likely would sweep Putin from office were he to make significant concessions to Ukraine. It was a ‘win-win’ outcome – from the U.S. perspective. Unexpectedly however, a new weapon appeared on the scene which precisely unshackles President Putin from the ‘all-or-nothing’ choice of having to concede a bargaining ‘hand’ to Ukraine, or resort to nuclear deterrence. Instead, the war can be settled by facts on the ground. Effectively, the George Kennan ‘trap’ imploded.

The Oreshnik missile (that was used to attack the Yuzhmash complex at Dnietropetrovsk) provides Russia with a weapon, such as never before witnessed: An intermediate range missile system that effectively checkmates the western nuclear threat. Russia can now manage western escalation with a credible threat of retaliation that is both hugely destructive – yet conventional. It inverts the paradigm. It is now the West’s escalation that either has to go nuclear, or be limited to providing Ukraine with weapons such as ATACMS or Storm Shadow that will not alter the course of the war. Were NATO to escalate further, it risks an Oreshnik strike in retaliation, either in Ukraine or on some target in Europe, leaving the West with the dilemma of what to do next.

“They expressed “unconditional support” for steps taken by Damascus “to restore constitutional order and territorial integrity of the country.”

Russia has started bombing the “Islamist militants”, whoever they are or who supports them. If Iran follows suit, who knows what happens?

• Moscow and Tehran Discuss Syria – Kremlin (RT)

Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian on Monday, according to a statement issued by the Kremlin. The main focus of the conversation was on the “escalating situation” in the Syria, the statement outlined. The ongoing large-scale attack by Islamist militants around Syria’s second largest city, Aleppo, is aimed at undermining the sovereignty, political and socio-economic stability of the Middle Eastern nation, the two leaders concluded. They expressed “unconditional support” for steps taken by Damascus “to restore constitutional order and territorial integrity of the country.” Putin and Pezeshkian also stressed the importance of coordinating efforts within the framework of the ‘Astana format’ with the participation of Türkiye.

Assorted Syrian ‘rebels’ and terrorists, including Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS), staged a large-scale attack on government forces in northwest Syria last week. Formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, HTS is considered a terrorist organization by Syria, Russia, Iran, the US, and several other countries. The militants claim to have captured considerable chunks of the provinces of Aleppo and Idlib, with some units reaching as far as the center of the city of Aleppo. Damascus has reportedly succeeded in halting the insurgents near the city of Hama in central Syria after receiving reinforcements. Syrian President Bashar Assad has pledged to “eliminate terrorists” and to punish their “sponsors and supporters.” The Syrian military acknowledged that dozens of its troops had been killed during the offensive while estimating terrorist losses at around 1,000.

Government forces were also backed by waves of Russian airstrikes which also targeted terrorist headquarters, weapons, and ammunition depots. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Monday that Russian warplanes stationed in Syria had conducted strikes on militant forces in recent days. Peskov reiterated Russia’s support for the Syrian government, stating that Moscow and Damascus had been in contact and were analyzing ongoing developments. Russia intervened in the Syrian conflict in 2015, helping to inflict heavy defeats on numerous terrorist groups, most notably al-Nusra and the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS). Russia maintains a significant military presence in the country and has bases in Hmeimim and Tartus. Last week’s Islamist attack was the first major clash between Syrian rebels and government forces since March 2020, when Russia and Türkiye brokered a ceasefire in the country.

Russia, Iran and China.

“As Syria’s friend, China is willing to make an active effort to avoid further deterioration of the situation in Syria..”

• China Vows Support For Syria (RT)

China is “deeply concerned” about developments in Syria, where jihadist militants launched a surprise offensive last week, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said on Monday. As Damascus’ “friend,” Beijing is prepared to take steps to prevent a further deterioration of the situation, he said. The Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS) terrorist group, formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, and allied militias launched a large-scale attack on government-controlled territory in northern Syria last Wednesday. The militants took over a number of towns and villages in the Aleppo, Idlib and Hama provinces. Syrian government forces, backed by Russian fighter jets, launched a counteroffensive on Thursday and successfully liberated several settlements over the weekend, reportedly eliminating hundreds of militants and thwarting their advance into central Syria.

However, dozens of Syrian army service members were lost amid the heavy fighting, the Syrian General Command said in an earlier statement. “China is deeply concerned over the situation in northwestern Syria, and supports its effort to uphold national security and stability,” Lin told a press briefing on Monday. “As Syria’s friend, China is willing to make an active effort to avoid further deterioration of the situation in Syria,” the official said. The Chinese embassy in Syria “is closely following the local situation” and has issued a security alert for Chinese citizens residing in the country, advising them to take extra security precautions and, if possible, move to safer areas, Lin said. China’s ties with Syria have been growing closer in recent years.

Last September, Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad inked a “strategic partnership” deal, pledging to work together in order to “jointly safeguard international fairness and justice” in the face of the “unstable and uncertain international situation.” Xi told Assad at the time that Beijing supported Syria in “opposing foreign interference and unilateral bullying, safeguarding national independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.” A number of other nations, including Russia, Iran, Iraq and Egypt, have expressed support for Damascus over the past few days, commending it for fighting against terrorism. Moscow has slammed the militants’ offensive as a “direct violation of Syria’s sovereignty,” and mobilized air force units stationed in the country to aid the Syrian army. Tehran has urged Islamic countries to unite in helping Syria defeat the militants, placing the blame for the escalation on Israel and the US.

“The contemporary European Union is the main factor in dividing Europe and provoking conflicts. [It’s] a union of war..”

• EU Has Turned Into ‘War Union’ – Russian Senator (RT)

The European Union has morphed into an “aggressive political bloc” and a “war union,” the Vice Speaker of the Russian parliament’s upper chamber, Konstantin Kosachev, has said. The senator criticized the EU in a Telegram post on Tuesday, pointing to the bloc’s support for the ongoing turmoil in Georgia, which has been hit by mass anti-government, pro-EU protests. The unrest has been going on since Thursday, when Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced that he would freeze accession talks with the bloc until 2028. He accused Brussels of persistent “blackmail and manipulation” of Georgia’s internal affairs in justifying the decision.

“The first Molotov cocktails were thrown by protesters at Georgian police immediately after the new EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, publicly called the crowd’s protests legitimate and the response of the authorities – illegal,” Kosachev wrote. The vice speaker was apparently referring to remarks made by Kallas during her visit to Kiev, where she threatened Georgia with “consequences” and openly took the protesters’ side. “It is clear that using violence against peaceful protesters is not acceptable, and the Georgian government should respect the will of the Georgian people,” she stated.

Members of the bloc’s foreign service are acting as “instigators” of the unrest, according to the Russian lawmaker. Kosachev recalled the 2020 Capitol Hill rioting in the US, stating that the EU kept silent on it at the time and did not mention any “citizens’ right to protest.” The bloc has grown out of its original economic cooperation framework into an “aggressive political bloc with military inclinations,” acting as the main divisive force in Europe, Kosachev said. “The contemporary European Union is the main factor in dividing Europe and provoking conflicts. [It’s] a union of war,” he stressed.

Kallas is as bad as Ursula. They’re like evil twins. Where do they find these specimens?

• Putin’s Global Influence Increasing – Kallas (RT)

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s influence in global affairs is growing, new EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has said. Speaking to reporters in Kiev during her first official visit on Sunday, Kallas, who stepped down as Estonia’s prime minister to take the EU post, reiterated that the European Union “wants Ukraine to win this war.” She doubled down on support for military aid to Ukraine, insisting that providing the country more weapons is not “charitable aid,” but an investment in the security of the EU, since Russian President Vladimir Putin “shows no signs of abandoning his goals.” Kallas has advocated tougher sanctions on Russia and is known for her strident stance against Moscow. She also stated Sunday that supporting Ukraine is in the interests of the US.

“If America is worried about China, it should be worried about Russia first,” Kallas claimed, according to the outlet Suspilne, adding that Russia, Iran, North Korea and China are working together. She also admitted that despite Western efforts to isolate Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin’s political influence has been amplified. “And we also see what Putin is doing in other countries, really increasing his influence. So, if the United States wants to be the strongest state in the world, they will eventually have to deal with the Russian Federation. And the easiest way to deal with this is to support Ukraine so that it wins the war,” the diplomat concluded. Kallas also did not rule out sending Western troops to Ukraine.

“So far, the discussion has centered on which countries are ready to send soldiers to Ukraine and which are not,” she told reporters. “I believe that nothing can be ruled out.” The remarks come as the UK and France have revived debates about sending forces to Ukraine, according to a recent report in Le Monde. In February, French President Emmanuel Macron caused controversy by refusing to rule out sending ground troops “to prevent Russia from winning this war.” The statement was quickly disavowed by NATO officials, while German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporters that Ukraine’s Western backers were “unanimous” in their opposition to the idea. Russia has long claimed that Western special forces personnel are already active in Ukraine as military advisors and mercenaries. Putin maintains that NATO troop deployments in Ukraine cannot not change the situation on the battlefield.

Ukraine can’t become a NATO member. So they want NATO to occupy the country.

• Zelensky Willing To Cede Territory in Exchange for NATO Protection (Antiwar)

On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he was willing to temporarily cede territory to Russia to bring an end to the war in exchange for NATO protection over Ukraine. “If we want to stop the hot stage of the war, we should take under [the] NATO umbrella the territory of Ukraine that we have under our control,” Zelensky told Sky News. “That’s what we need to do fast, and then Ukraine can get back the other part of its territory diplomatically.” Zelensky’s suggestion is almost certainly a non-starter for Russia since the invasion was launched to keep Ukraine out of NATO, but it does reflect a shift in his position. Zelensky previously maintained that his war goals included driving Russia out of all of the territory it has captured since February 2022, as well as Crimea.

In a recent conversation with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed to a speech he made earlier this year that outlines his conditions for peace, which include a Ukrainian withdrawal from all territory Russia has annexed, Ukrainian neutrality, and the lifting of all Western sanctions on Russia. Ukrainian neutrality was Russia’s main demand during short-lived negotiations that took place in the early days of the invasion. Ukrainian and Russian officials held talks in March and April of 2022, but the negotiations were discouraged by the US and its allies.

In the interview with Sky News, Zelensky said Ukraine wouldn’t agree to a ceasefire without guarantees of NATO protection. “We need [NATO protection] very much, otherwise [Putin] will come back. Otherwise, how are we going to go to a ceasefire? So for us, it’s very dangerous,” he said. While Zelensky and Putin’s terms are extremely far apart, the Ukrainian side could be forced to make more concessions if President-elect Donald Trump follows through with his campaign promise to end the war and pressures Zelensky to negotiate.

“With just such a birth rate and mortality, the Ukrainian nation will be reduced to nothing in 180 years..”

• Ukrainians Could Disappear (RT)

The Ukrainian ethnos could be extinct in less than two centuries, Olga Bogomolets, a renowned Ukrainian medical expert, warned this week. Extremely low birth rates and high mortality could lead to the nationality’s demise in about 180 years, she said. Bogomolets holds a post-doctoral degree in medicine, as well as the title ‘distinguished physician of Ukraine’. According to the expert, the nation is facing an “insane, catastrophic” rise in mortality rates combined with a continued decline in the number of newborns. “If this model persists, without even taking into account the war-associated losses and emigration… With just such a birth rate and mortality, the Ukrainian nation will be reduced to nothing in 180 years,” Bogomolets told the Vechir.Live show, which aired on YouTube.

The country has only six generations’ time to reverse the trend, the health professional warned. Otherwise, “zero [Ukrainians] will remain,” she said, adding that the territory of Ukraine would be inhabited by some other people “who will no longer be Ukrainians.” The conflict with Moscow has taken a heavy toll. Ukrainian military losses alone have amounted to more than half a million since February 2022, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. Around 6.6 million people had fled the country as of July 2024, according to German data aggregator Statista. The Ukrainian media has reported that the country’s population could have fallen by a whopping 10 million over almost three years of fighting, considering both conflict-linked losses and emigration. A quarter of Ukrainians who fled abroad also have no interest in going back, the news outlets said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) currently estimates Ukraine’s population at just over 37.7 million people as of 2023, down from 44.3 million in 2021 and almost 50 million in 2000. The international body says that number was in steady decline even before the conflict with Russia, and is projected to fall further to less than 32 million by 2050. In October, Florence Bauer, the Regional Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia of the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), described the situation in Ukraine as a “demographic crisis,” explaining that “the birth rate plummeted to one child per woman – the lowest fertility rate in Europe and one of the lowest in the world.” She added that the nation’s population had declined by over 10 million since the start of the 2014 crisis following the Maidan coup in Kiev.

“There are moments when you understand your thoughts only when you speak them to others.”

• Shall We Celebrate, the World Being as It Is? (Patrick Lawrence)

Is it all right to be happy over a holiday that has “Happy” in its name? The genocide of a long-suffering people to which our purported leaders have made us accomplices, a senile president who leaves us living with the danger of a nuclear conflict, fear and want and disorder everywhere you look: Can we allow ourselves happiness? Can we permit ourselves merriment in a few short weeks? And the most pressing query of all: What are we supposed to do? We must act, but how? As another holiday season begins, I merely repeat questions many millions among us have asked for more than a year now. I know this because I recently conducted an extensive survey indicating that the world as we have made it leaves us, we Americans and other dwellers in the Western post-democracies, a chronically troubled people.

I made sure the poll covered a wide geographic spread: I surveyed my household; the respondents were two, including myself. So let us not argue: The results are unambiguously representative. I found frustration at a record level, and there must be a record somewhere. I found suggestions of anger and despair. I found that the questions just noted were posed not quite incessantly, but nearly. The survey’s margin of error is zero. We are a perplexed people apart from everything else we are. And our questions are the very most right questions a troubled and perplexed people ought to ask as 2024 draws to a close and year-end holidays are upon us. In mid–December a year ago, we were guests in the home of one of my kindly editors.

This was in the village of South Egremont, at the southern end of the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts. There was a tree at the foot of the stairs, the fire was lit, there were drinks on the coffee table. The kindly editor, the KE, stood before the tree with a glass ornament in her hand. We were about to begin the decorate-the-tree ritual. Then the KE paused and turned. “Should we be doing this?” she asked. I vividly recall the unsettled look on her face. “Should we be celebrating?” Israel was then several months into its sadistic barbarism in Gaza, and the government that is supposed to represent us but no longer does was profligately sustaining the Zionist regime’s terrorizing troops. There was no misunderstanding the KE’s question. “Yes!” I replied with alacrity and not much reflection. There are moments when you understand your thoughts only when you speak them to others.

And so I continued, “We must insist on honoring the feasts that matter to us. Celebration: We can’t surrender it. We owe it to ourselves to refuse the temptation of learned helplessness and despair.” I paused. Then: “But that’s not the most important thing. We owe it most of all to the people of Palestine. It is for them we must demonstrate that the human spirit lives despite all, and that humanity’s shared capacity for joy is not extinguished.” The KE nodded. I seem to have brought her around. The KE’s son, a 30–something with a lightning wit and a quick, acute intelligence, considered the point carefully. His name is Stephen. After a moment Stephen said, “Yes, but a conscious ‘Happy’ and ‘Merry.’ A knowing ‘Happy’ and ‘Merry,’ a ‘Happy’ and ‘Merry’ that are fully aware—that refuse to avert their eyes, refuse to lose sight of anything.”

It was the best thing anyone said that evening. We decorated the tree just as these things always and wonderfully go: Put that silver bulb here. No, up a little. Now to the left. The pine cones should be in the front. The big red one goes on that side…. Stephen’s thought has stayed with me ever since. In a certain way I have lived by it.

“Once a civilization becomes amoral, it succumbs to evil. When a civilization succumbs to evil it becomes impossible to defend.”

• Orwell’s Forecast of a Tyrannical Britain Proven Correct (Paul Craig Roberts)

When George Orwell’s 1984 was published in 1949 everyone believed the dystopia he described was Soviet communism. Orwell said it was a description of Britain in the future. It took 75 years instead of the 35 years that Orwell estimated judging by his book’s title, but tyranny as great as he imagined now has Britain in is grip. If you doubt this, read this very short report–https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/great-reset/silent-prayer-prohibited-in-the-uk/— and watch the short video in which two policemen confront an Englishman who is silently praying in public. The police, both white and British, tell him that he is in violation of an ordinance that protects abortion clinics from anyone praying within 150 feet of the premises. The man says he is praying for his deceased son. It is not revealed whether his son was aborted by the mother or whether the death and prayer are unrelated to abortion.

What strikes me is that two white British policemen think they need to confront a person over a tyrannical ordinance that in the US is unconstitutional as it violates the 14th Amendment by creating special legal privileges for abortion clinics that are denied other service providers. The ordinance violates the requirement of equal protection of law. If Christianity or the right to protest still existed in Britain, the tyrannical ordinance would simply be ignored by police. Indeed, if Christianity existed in Britain the ordinance could not have been introduced, much less passed. Christianity is one of the foundations of Western civilization. Its demise indicates the demise of Western civilization.

In Britain where laws and police take it very easy on criminals as long as they are dark-skinned immigrant-invaders, a white British citizen can get in more trouble for praying silently within a proscribed distance of where abortions, that is, murders, are performed than an immigrant-invader faces for rape, robbery, and assault. Notice that a majority of British Members of Parliament thought that abortion clinics needed protection from prayer. By passing the ordinance the MPs shielded abortionists from ethical and moral protest. What crime will the MPs next shield? It is extraordinary, isn’t it, that the British are willing to take the entire world to nuclear war by firing missiles into Russia and find the danger instead in a person praying outside an abortion clinic. This tells us that the Western world no longer exists in a moral context. Once a civilization becomes amoral, it succumbs to evil. When a civilization succumbs to evil it becomes impossible to defend.

“All we are left with is an assumption covered up and concealed in secret. The scientific name for that is a lie.”

• Sturgess Inquiry Ends In Foreign Office Whimper, Bang Of Novichok Lies (Helmer)

The Novichok show trial ended its public hearings last week in London with the revelation that it will not name the chemical constituents of the poison used in the attempted killing of Sergei and Yulia Skripal on March 4, 2018, and in the cause of death of Dawn Sturgess on June 30, 2018. By doing this, by keeping the chemical formula combination of the poison a state secret, independent British toxicologists say there is no evidence that a Russian-made Novichok was used; and that, instead, a British or US-made Novichok was readily available in 2018, and this was as likely to have been the killer weapon. Revealed earlier in the hearings by a doctor at Yulia Skripal’s bedside four days after the attack, Skripal believed she and her father had been hit by a poison spray as they ate lunch at a restaurant just before they collapsed outside.

Skripal’s evidence pointed to a British operation to assassinate Sergei Skripal before he escaped back to Moscow, and then cover up by planting fabricated Russian clues at the crime scenes, and in the blood test reports of the victims. Weapon, crime scene, victim pathology, killer identification, motive – all faked. The toxicology experts point out that in 2018 scientists working on this type of organophosphate poison had revealed synthesis, production, testing and stocking of A232 and A234 Novichok in the US Army’s chemical warfare centre, known by its location as the Edgewood Arsenal; and at its British counterpart and partner, the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), known as Porton Down. The Iranian military establishment had also done the same by 2016. After the Skripal case in 2018, military chemists in South Korea and the Czech Republic revealed how they had produced and tested their own formulas for Novichok.

By openly publishing their Novichok chemistry, the Americans, Iranians, South Koreans, and Czechs have proved that making, detecting and naming Novichok is a transparent process, not difficult to verify forensically in a criminal investigation or court. This, British scientists now say, means that the refusal of government officials and the Sturgess Inquiry judge, Anthony Hughes, to name the Novichok alleged to have been the Russian murder weapon, is evidence of a scheme of British fabrication and coverup. Mark Allen of the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) was the last witness to testify before Hughes at the Inquiry’s public hearings. As head of defence and intelligence, he was also the official in charge of coordinating the intelligence and military units involved in the attack on the Skripals; and then in the police and media coverup employed to pin the crime on the Russian military intelligence agency GRU, and on President Vladimir Putin.

Allen’s testimony on November 28 identified as his direct superior Sir Mark Sedwill, the national security advisor reporting to then-Prime Minister Theresa May and then-Foreign Minister Boris Johnson. “As SRO [Senior Responsible Owner] for Russia,” Allen said, “when we’re dealing with Russia strategy, the Government strategy towards Russia, I bring together all government departments, including representatives of the agencies as well, to ensure that we’re all essentially using all of our levers, all of our information, all of our understanding is pointing in the same direction and we’re being coherent. Then where there are situations where something unexpected arises, what you might call a crisis of some sort, then I will also chair that sort of grouping to work out what our collective response should be.”

“I act, not as the Foreign Office’s DG [director-general], but as the government’s senior official. Page 17 Asked to substantiate public statements at the time by May, Johnson and Sedwill that only Russia could have made and used the Novichok weapon, Allen was unable. “… it is safe to say that any modern chemical laboratory is capable of synthesising Novichok. In contrast to what you have said about it being a state — really only something that can be done at the state level. Is there anything that you can add to this debate, Mr Allen? A. I don’t think that is a view that is shared in the scientific community, or in the OPCW.” Page 41. This was a lie; Hughes let it go unchallenged. “LORD HUGHES: As far as you know, is it something which has been asserted either by Mr Mirzayanov or by the other publications of American, Czech, Italian, et cetera, researchers?

“A [Allen]: I haven’t read those in detail, sir, so I couldn’t say.“LORD HUGHES: All right, thank you.” Page 41. “What’s in a name like Novichok? Why the coverup?” responds an independent British chemist and expert on organophosphates. “If the full molecular readout was exposed publicly from the blood sampling of the Skripals and Sturgess — also later of [Alexei] Navalny — then it would be obvious that some constituents are missing. And because they are missing from the name or the reported chemical formula, then identification of Novichok cannot be made. All we are left with is an assumption covered up and concealed in secret. The scientific name for that is a lie.”

Masterpiece

all i have to say about this is masterpiece pic.twitter.com/PN7KyxDxyr

— non aesthetic things (@PicturesFoIder) December 1, 2024

Dog ball
https://twitter.com/i/status/1863627051221000445

Happy husband
https://twitter.com/i/status/1863284451158999371

Elephants
https://twitter.com/i/status/1863382783952883864

Motorcycle
https://twitter.com/i/status/1863242158439878695

Trap
https://twitter.com/i/status/1863387612053897620

Crab-rice

Have you heard of Crab-Rice Symbiosis

The Chinese are doing amazing things with Agriculture

The knowledge is too much it's harder to keep up with it pic.twitter.com/NfsvVSp1iU

— NaijaFarmer (@Nig_Farmer) December 2, 2024

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

Debt Rattle December 2 2024

Dec 022024

December 2, 2024 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:35 am Finance Tagged with: arctic warfare, Assange, COP29, desertions, FCC, Gorka, Hunter Biden, Kash Patel, Netanyahu, pardon, Trudeau, Trump 57 Responses »

Rembrandt van Rijn Man with a falcon on his wrist (possibly St. Bavo) 1661

• Joe Biden Pardons His Son Hunter (RT)

• Trump Slams ‘Shocking’ Pardon of Hunter Biden (RT)

• US Reps Urge Biden For Full Pardon Of Julian Assange (Antiwar)

• Who is Kash Patel, Trump’s Pick to Head the FBI? (Sp.)

• Kash Patel’s Prescription For Ailing FBI: Accountability, House Cleaning (JTN)

• Ukraine’s Military Dead ‘Have Already Won’ – Zelensky (RT)

• Ukrainian Military Desertions Skyrocket – FT (RT)

• Norway To Open New Arctic Warfare Base (RT)

• ‘Netanyahu Needs War’, Can’t Be Trusted to Stick to Lebanon Ceasefire (Sp.)

• The Return of Status-based Law (Paul Craig Roberts)

• Trudeau Bends The Knee To Trump At Mar-a-Lago (MN)

• Sebastian Gorka: British Intelligence Asset? (Grayzone)

• Incoming FCC Chairman Brendan Carr Prepares For Censorship Battle (ZH)

• Why Does The West Believe It Occupies The High Moral Ground? (Diesen)

• The Failure of COP29: Does the “Green Agenda” Have A Future? (Machado)

Gingrich

Newt Gingrich: They got together for Thanksgiving and played YMCA and danced to it in terms of Trump and instead of saying young man they were singing Trump man. Now this is the kind of cultural change that you see maybe twice in a century
pic.twitter.com/OES4pXKzwm

— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) December 1, 2024

Lawler

WATCH: Rep. Mike Lawler Schools CNN on Kash Patel’s Stellar Resume for FBI Director |

“Donald Trump campaigned on reforming the FBI and the Department of Justice. So I don't know why any of this is, frankly, surprising to people.”

It wasn’t the response CNN’s Kasie Hunt was… pic.twitter.com/bBkiaEFDoH

— Overton (@overton_news) December 1, 2024

Kash J6
https://twitter.com/i/status/1863208821637722339

Pipe bomber

FLASHBACK: Trump’s FBI Director Kash Patel blasts corrupt DOJ for burying J6 pipe bomber evidence:

“Are we to believe the FBI couldn’t track this guy down?… There is a reason that the government gangsters are hiding this information.”

pic.twitter.com/3nXJ8SzUbM

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) December 1, 2024

Galloway

Senator Lindsey Graham claimed Shia has a 'command' to kill all Jews. The largest Jewish community outside the US and Israel is in Shia Iran, George acidly points out

Follow @MOATStv #MOATS 399 #Shia #Lindsey #Graham #Iran pic.twitter.com/8PnSg5jwUM

— The Mother of All Talk Shows with George Galloway (@MoatsTV) November 30, 2024

Gideon Levy

Israeli journalist Gideon Levy exposes the myth of the “Liberal Left” in Israel who are also backing the brutal ethnic cleansing & genocide of the native Palestinian population… pic.twitter.com/O2s7LJQE3Q

— Patrick Henningsen (@21WIRE) December 1, 2024

“Hunter Biden’s lawyer has moved to dismiss his indictment based on his pardon…”

Without a indictment, there’s no need for a pardon.

The pardon covers all crimes, including possible murder.

• Joe Biden Pardons His Son Hunter (RT)

Outgoing US President Joe Biden has gone back on his word and pardoned his son Hunter Biden, who was convicted earlier this year of breaking federal gun and tax laws. In June, the younger Biden was convicted of three felony charges related to the purchase of a revolver in 2018. According to the prosecutors, he lied on his gun-purchase paperwork that he was not addicted to or using illegal drugs. In a separate case, Hunter pleaded guilty to three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor tax offenses in September. The sentencing for both convictions was supposed to happen this month. In a statement issued on Sunday evening, the president said the “full and unconditional pardon” covers offenses which his son “has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024, including but not limited to all offenses charged or prosecuted.”

The president argued that his son was prosecuted “selectively and unfairly” because of his familial ties. He claimed that “people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form.” “It is clear that Hunter was treated differently,” he said. The president went on to state that the charges against his son were brought “only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election.” He accused Republicans of sabotaging “a carefully negotiated plea deal” that would have been a “reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases.” “No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son – and that is wrong,” the president said. “In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me – and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.”

The decision is a reversal of Biden’s previous position, as he and his team repeatedly said in the past that he would accept the jury verdict and would not pardon his son. Asked by ABC News in June if he would accept the outcome of the trial and if he would rule out pardoning his son, the president replied “yes” to both questions. In his statement on Sunday, Biden confirmed that his opinion on the matter has changed. “I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice,” he claimed. Hunter Biden released his own statement shortly after the pardon was announced. “I have admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction – mistakes that have been exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport,” he said.

“I will never take the clemency I have been given today for granted and will devote the life I have rebuilt to helping those who are still sick and suffering.” Hunter Biden has been the subject of much scrutiny during his father’s term in office, as Republicans have claimed that he acted as the president’s ‘bagman’ in allegedly corrupt dealings with countries such as Ukraine and China. The president has denied the corruption allegations and publicly backed his son, describing him as “the smartest guy I know.”

https://twitter.com/i/status/1863407436306014431

“Does the pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?”

“This pardon is Joe Biden’s admission that Hunter is a criminal..”

• Trump Slams ‘Shocking’ Pardon of Hunter Biden (RT)

US President-elect Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have blasted outgoing President Joe Biden for pardoning his son, Hunter Biden, who was convicted of illegally purchasing a gun and tax evasion. The sentencing in both cases was scheduled for this month. Despite saying publicly that he would not interfere in his son’s cases, the president went back on his word and announced the pardon on Sunday evening. He labelled the convictions “a miscarriage of justice,” arguing that Hunter Biden has been “singled out” because of his ties to the president. According to the statement from the White House, the pardon applies to all offenses that were or may have been committed between January 1, 2014 and December 1, 2024.

This period covers accusations by Republicans that Hunter Biden acted as “a bagman” on behalf of his father during allegedly illicit business dealings in China and Ukraine. The president and his son have denied these allegations. The Republicans, who have long accused the Biden administration of politically motivated prosecutions, condemned the pardon. “The failed witch hunts against President Trump have proven that the Democrat-controlled DOJ and other radical prosecutors are guilty of weaponizing the justice system,” Trump’s spokesman, Steven Cheung, said in a statement. “That system of justice must be fixed and due process must be restored for all Americans, which is exactly what President Trump will do as he returns to the White House with an overwhelming mandate from the American people,” he added.

Trump compared the treatment of the president’s son to the prosecution of his own supporters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, hoping to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. “Does the pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of justice!” he wrote on Truth Social. Many top Republicans in Congress were appalled, with Senator Chuck Grassley saying that he was “shocked” by Biden’s decision. “This pardon is Joe Biden’s admission that Hunter is a criminal,” Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X. Congressman Andy Biggs wrote that “Joe Biden will go down as one of the most corrupt presidents in American history.”

“This is an outrageous abuse of the rule of law – all to protect the Biden family business of selling access and influence,” Senator Josh Hawley wrote on X. The Republican-controlled House Committee on Oversight and Accountability released a statement, saying “Joe Biden’s unprecedented abuse of power has been a stain on the honor of the US presidency.”

https://twitter.com/i/status/1863407192063283560

Letter sent a day or two before the Hunter pardon.

• US Reps Urge Biden For Full Pardon Of Julian Assange (Antiwar)

House Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and James McGovern (D-MA) have sent a letter to President Biden urging him to pardon WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to send a message that Biden will “not target or investigate journalists and media outlets simply for doing their jobs.” “We write, first, to express our appreciation for your administration’s decision last spring to facilitate a resolution of the criminal case against publisher Julian Assange and to withdraw the related extradition request that had been pending in the United Kingdom,” Massie and McGovern wrote in the letter dated November 1, which was first made public earlier this past week. Assange was freed in a plea deal earlier this year after spending more than five years in London’s Belmarsh Prison while battling a US extradition request.

He was indicted by the Trump administration in 2019 for exposing US war crimes by publishing classified documents leaked to WikiLeaks by former Army Private Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning in 2010. Under the indictment, Assange could have faced up to 175 years in prison in the US for publishing the documents, a standard journalistic practice. While the plea deal set him free, it required him to plead guilty to violating the Espionage Act. “The terms of Mr. Assange’s plea agreement have now set a precedent that greatly deepens our concern,” Massie and McGovern said. “A review of prosecutions under the Espionage Act makes clear that Mr. Assange’s case is the first time the Act has been deployed against a publisher.”

The lawmakers pointed to comments from Jodie Ginsberg, the CEO of the Committee to Protect Journalists, who said, “While we welcome the end of his detention, the US’s pursuit of Assange has set a harmful legal precedent by opening the way for journalists to be tried under the Espionage Act if they receive classified material from whistleblowers.” Massie and McGovern concluded the letter by saying, “We therefore urge you to consider issuing a pardon for Mr. Assange. A pardon would remove the precedent set by the plea and send a clear message that the US government under your leadership will not target or investigate journalists and media outlets simply for doing their jobs.” According to Fox News, Assange’s brother, Gabriel Shipton, is heading to Washington in January to push for a pardon before Biden leaves office.

“..accused “the deep state” of being “the most dangerous threat to our democracy.” He applied the term to political leaders, Big Tech tycoons, media, and “members of the unelected bureaucracy.”

• Who is Kash Patel, Trump’s Pick to Head the FBI? (Sp.)

Donald Trump has repeatedly derided the FBI as a “badly broken” agency over the years, saying it had “lost the confidence of America.” Current FBI chief Christopher A. Wray was also the target of Trump’s criticism. President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Kash Patel for the position of director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). As the current chief of the FBI, Christopher A. Wray, still has three years of his 10-year term left, he will either have to resign or Trump will have to fire him for the nomination to happen. Kashyap Patel, a former public defender and federal prosecutor, was a national security aide during Trump’s first term. Patel “played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution,” Trump wrote on Saturday in a social media post.

Since 2016, Democratic Party officials have accused Donald Trump of illegally colluding with the Russian government as part of the discredited “Russiagate” narrative. The Trump-Russia probe turned out as a complete fiasco with no evidence being found to back the allegations. He is an ardent advocate of “housecleaning” in the Justice Department and FBI. The Bureau’s headquarters in Washington, DC, should be dismantled and turned into a “museum of the deep state,” he said in a podcast interview in September. Patel denounced the FBI for its 2022 search warrant of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, which resulted in charges being brought against the former president for retaining classified documents. Kash Patel has accused “the deep state” of being “the most dangerous threat to our democracy.” He applied the term to political leaders, Big Tech tycoons, media, and “members of the unelected bureaucracy.”

Appearing on the “War Room” podcast hosted by Steve Bannon last year, Patel vowed to “go out and find the conspirators not just in government, but in the media” who “helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections” in 2020. Kash Patel’s appointment would be subject to Senate confirmation. The announced pick has already sparked mixed reactions from lawmakers. Patel “needs to prove to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he has the right qualifications and […] will put our nation’s public safety over a political agenda focused on retribution,” Democratic Sen. Chris Coons wrote on X. “He’s been on side against some of the worst abuses of the FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] system. Kash Patel can help clean up all the things that we’ve seen that are wrong,” ex-Congressman Matt Gaetz said in a video message on X, adding that “Kash has guts!”

“..the people at the very top are usually the most immoral, unethical people in the entire agency.”

• Kash Patel’s Prescription For Ailing FBI: Accountability, House Cleaning (JTN)

President-elect Donald Trump’s new pick to lead the FBI, Kash Patel, subscribes to a similar prescription for the nation’s premier law enforcement agency, which has lost significant trust from the American people over a decade of scandal and failure. From his time as chief investigative counsel at the House Intelligence Committee, where he unraveled the FBI’s bogus Russia collusion narrative, to his best-selling book “Government Gangsters” where he chronicled the weaponization of law enforcement against Trump and conservatives, Patel has laid out clear plans on how to re-focus the bureau on its core missions of law enforcement and intelligence gathering and away from politics. That job, he insists, begins by cleaning house throughout the FBI’s several layers of leadership that became infected with ideologies like Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and created a culture where parents and traditional Catholics were viewed as extremist threats and support for Trump and the Second Amendment were deemed reasons to review an employee’s security clearance.

In his book “Government Gangsters: The Deep State, the Truth, and the Battle for Our Democracy,” Patel argues that a thorough “house cleaning” of FBI leadership is the key to resetting the agency and unleashing the skills of its rank-and-file agents. “I regularly used to tell people that the fastest way to move up in the government is to just screw up, and the bigger the screwup, the bigger the promotion,” he wrote. “Every person implicated in your mistakes has an interest in covering up what they did, so they will promote you. That means the people at the very top are usually the most immoral, unethical people in the entire agency.” But he also has made clear that his disdain for the bureau’s current leadership is matched by a similar respect for the capabilities and patriotism of rank-and-file agents, recently shouting them out recently for uncovering an Afghan national’s plot to commit a terror attack on Election Day.

“That’s to the credit of the everyday men and women of the FBI, DOD and DOJ, not the leadership that has corrupted those institutions,” he said in October. Over the last two years in interviews with Just the News, Patel has laid out several ideas for fixing the FBI, including:
• Canceling plans for an expensive new FBI headquarters and turning the current headquarters into a “museum for the Deep State.”
• Moving leaders out of Washington and into the field closer to the people they serve
• Shrinking components of the FBI that have little public benefit; and
• Holding accountable those officials responsible for the politicization of prior investigations, including termination and prosecutions.

“The folks in power at the FBI and the IC (intelligence community) making these leadership decisions are terrified that their corruption. not the Bidens, and certainly not Donald Trump, but their corruption in government in senior positions will be exposed and subject to law enforcement,” he told Just the News earlier this year. Patel’s book and his ideas for ending politicized law enforcement were a major factor in Trump’s decision to name him his the next FBI director. Currently, the job is held by Christopher Wray, whom Trump appointed in 2017, and it includes a 10-year-old term. But it is widely expected Trump will either fire Wray or he will resign. “Kash is a brilliant lawyer, investigator, and America First fighter who has spent his career exposing corruption, defending Justice, and protecting the American People,” the president-elect said in a statement on TruthSocial announcing Patel as the next FBI director. “He played a pivotal role in uncovering the Russia, Russia, Russia Hoax, standing as an advocate for truth, accountability, and the Constitution.”

Conservatives hailed Patel’s pick. “Kash was INSTRUMENTAL in President Trump’s first term and will be EVEN GREATER in his second!” Rep. Ronnie Jackson, R-Texas, a former White House physician, wrote on X. “Time to clean this place up, and Kash is the man to do it!!! MAGA!” Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who presided over the now-discredited Russia collusion probe and later was fired, expressed doom for his former agency and said Patel’s selection was “a plan to disrupt, to dismantle, to distract the FBI.” Many legacy media suggested Patel got the nomination because he was a “loyalist” to Trump. But the 44-year-old son of Indian immigrants has an extensive government resume, including working on both sides of the judicial system as a federal public defender and a national security prosecutor before he joined the House Intelligence Committee.

In the first Trump administration, Patel served as a counterterrorism official on the National Security Council where he helped oversee the drone strike against an Iranian general accused of decades of terrorism and then as chief of staff to the Acting Secretary of the Pentagon.

How cynical does it get?

“[Our] most important weapon is our people,” Zelensky said..”

• Ukraine’s Military Dead ‘Have Already Won’ – Zelensky (RT)

Ukrainians who have died in the conflict between Moscow and Kiev “have already won,” Vladimir Zelensky claimed in an interview with Sky News released this week. Those sacrifices enabled Kiev to secure aid from its Western backers and eventually prevent Moscow from achieving its goals, according to the Ukrainian leader. When asked by Sky News chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay if he believed that those Ukrainians who had died throughout the conflict had given their lives for nothing, Zelensky said “it was wrong” to think so. “They are already winners,” he added. “Our people did not give their lives for nothing,” the Ukrainian leader said, adding that they “performed not only their personal but also constitutional duty to defend their country.”

He then went on to claim that “had Ukrainians not … sacrificed their lives and their comfort” back in February 2022, when Russia launched its military campaign against Ukraine, the country would have quickly yielded to Russia. “No one would have helped us then,” he said, apparently referring to Kiev’s Western backers. The Ukrainian leader also admitted that if Kiev loses the support of the US and its allies, it “will lose everything.” “[Our] most important weapon is our people,” Zelensky said. The Ukrainian leader also slammed those world leaders who are willing to talk to Moscow. He claimed they were only doing it for international fame as they “want to get on the front pages in the media.” Zelensky compared talking to Russian President Vladimir Putin to “opening Pandora’s box,” which could undermine the Western unity behind Kiev’s cause.

According to Zelensky, some world leaders are “afraid” of Putin. “When they are afraid, they start to communicate with their societies and divide their societies,” he said. The Ukrainian leader referred to Russia’s president as “an animal without any human values that we share.” He also claimed that Ukraine should be “at the same level” with Russia in terms of power or even “stronger” for peace talks to start in earnest. Zelensky then also demanded that Kiev’s backers adopt a “one voice policy” spearheaded by Ukraine when it comes to the conflict.

Zelensky also said that Kiev could agree to “end the hot phase of the war” without trying to take back former territories that officially joined Russia following a series of referendums in the fall of 2022. He still maintained that this would only be possible if the territories still under Kiev’s control are “invited” to join NATO and the US-led bloc recognizes Kiev’s territorial claims. Moscow has repeatedly stated throughout the conflict that it is ready for peace talks and would like to resolve all differences diplomatically. It has also consistently warned that it would never agree to Ukraine joining NATO and named the US-led bloc’s expansion eastward as among the root causes of the conflict.

“..these draftees include the blind, the deaf, and the mentally handicapped..”

• Ukrainian Military Desertions Skyrocket – FT (RT)

More than twice as many Ukrainian soldiers have been charged with desertion this year than in 2022 and 2023 combined, the Financial Times has reported. The spike in desertions has hampered Kiev’s ability to replenish its thinned-out ranks. Ukrainian prosecutors opened 60,000 cases against deserters between January and October of this year, the British newspaper reported on Saturday, noting that those convicted face prison terms of up to 12 years. For some of these men, desertion is seen as the only way of getting off the front lines to rest. Ukrainian lawmakers dropped a provision from a bill earlier this year that would have allowed the country’s longest-serving conscripts to be demobilized in the coming months, and service members told the Financial Times that the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF) lacks the manpower to give troops shorter four-week rotations off the front lines for rest and retraining.

”They’re just killing them, instead of letting them rehabilitate and rest,” one officer told the newspaper. Those killed are replaced by ill-trained and unfit draftees. In an earlier article, Ukrainian commanders told the Financial Times that on some busy sectors of the front, 50 to 70% of these new conscripts are killed or wounded within days of starting their first rotation. Those who survive often go AWOL as soon as they can, the newspaper reported. Some choose to desert while at training camps in NATO countries. An anonymous Polish security source told the Financial Times that around 12 Ukrainian men abscond from training centers in Poland every month. Earlier this week, a Ukrainian MP told the Associated Press that as many as 200,000 soldiers may have deserted since the conflict with Russia escalated in 2022.

There are around 350,000 active-duty soldiers in the UAF, although heavy losses – more than half a million since February 2022, according to the Russian Defense Ministry – have seen the country’s longest-serving soldiers replaced first by almost a dozen NATO-trained divisions, and then, after these divisions were chewed up during last year’s disastrous counteroffensive, by unwilling conscripts. Press-ganged off the streets and dragged out of nightclubs to serve, these draftees include the blind, the deaf, and the mentally handicapped, according to recent media reports and testimony from Ukrainian lawmakers.

”Men who are the right age for the military draft are scared to walk freely in the street,” one draft-dodger told The Telegraph earlier this week. A recruiter concurred, telling the newspaper that approaching a potential conscript is often “like dealing with a cornered rat.” The UAF is seeking to recruit around 160,000 new soldiers in the coming months. To reach this target, the US has begun pushing the Ukrainian government to lower the minimum draft age to 18, down from 25, the Associated Press reported on Wednesday.

On Russia’s doorstep.

• Norway To Open New Arctic Warfare Base (RT)

Norway plans to establish a new NATO Arctic and amphibious warfare center where US, British, and Dutch marines will be trained amid heightened tensions with Russia, the Defense Ministry in Oslo announced on Friday. The new hub will be created in the municipality of Sorreisa north of Lofoten in Norway’s Arctic, some several hundred kilometers, as the crow flies, from Russia’s strategic port of Murmansk, which is a key military and naval base. The NATO member’s facility will house several hundred soldiers and is expected to become fully operational in 2026. “We must train together to be able to defend Norway, the Nordic countries and NATO in crisis and war,” Defense Minister Bjorn Arild Gram said, adding that his country is now “in a more serious security policy situation.”

“We want an increased allied presence in Norway. More training and practice is good for Norwegian security. We need allies to be familiar with the Norwegian climate and weather conditions. We also need to practice together in case the need arises. So this is a desirable development,” he stated. The new center will have close links with several nearby military facilities, which the minister claimed will be extremely useful for NATO. The announcement comes after the Norwegian government presented a plan this spring for a historic increase in defense spending, with the aim of spending $54 billion on the military from 2024 to 2036.

As part of the package, Oslo also wants to acquire its first long-range air defense system and expand the army from one to three brigades, while boosting the size of the Home Guard to 45,000 troops. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov signaled this September that Moscow will check NATO’s expansionist ambitions in the region. “We see how NATO is stepping up exercises related to possible crises in the Arctic. Our country is fully prepared to defend its interests in military, political and military-technical terms,” he said at the time.

“..then again, there are people in the Biden regime who dislike Netanyahu personally and may want to see him weakened..”

• ‘Netanyahu Needs War’, Can’t Be Trusted to Stick to Lebanon Ceasefire (Sp.)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced this week that he’s ordered the military to prepare for the resumption of an “intensive war” in Lebanon if Hezbollah violated the freshly-reached ceasefire deal. Sputnik asked one of the Middle East’s most prolific international affairs observers what this could mean for the region. “Netanyahu needs war, and he only accepted a ceasefire under a great deal of pressure. So no one has faith in the Israelis. The Israelis have always violated commitments,” political analyst and Tehran University Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi told Sputnik, commenting on the Israeli PM’s threats to resume the Lebanon conflict. “After all, [Israel] is carrying out a holocaust in Gaza, a regime that carries out the holocaust and continues to do so in front of the eyes of the world after 14 months is not a regime that can be trusted for anything,” Marandi said.

Linking the Lebanon ceasefire to the crisis in neighboring Syria, where jihadist militants attacked the strategic city of Aleppo this week, Marandi characterized Netanyahu’s threats, combined with the terrorist advance, as attempts to pressure the Iranian-led Axis of Resistance anti-US, anti-Israel alliance, but assured that in the end the terrorists will be pushed back in the north and Israel kept at bay in the south. It’s highly likely that the regional forces looking to destabilize Syria “would like to see a breakdown of the ceasefire so that [their] al-Qaeda*-affiliated terrorists in the north could have a better chance of making progress,” Marandi suggested.

“It is a complicated situation and we’ll have to see how things play out. The United States is in a transition period. The Biden regime is escalating in Ukraine obviously, there are definitely elements within the Biden regime that would like to see escalation on the Lebanese border. But then again, there are people in the Biden regime who dislike Netanyahu personally and may want to see him weakened. And Trump himself also wants to see the fighting stopped before he comes to power. So we’ll have to see how things play out,” the veteran observer summed up.

“We are ruled by the interest groups that purchase the government. Until the money is taken out of politics, American democracy will remain a sham, and the Constitution will die the death of a thousand cuts.”

• The Return of Status-based Law (Paul Craig Roberts)

In this episode of On Target, Larry Sparano and I discuss the assault on the Constitution by the Speaker of the House, Majority Leader of the Senate, and president-elect Donald Trump. The assault weapon is the Antisemitism Awareness Act, which has already passed the Republican House. Senator Schumer is attempting to avoid a stand alone vote on the Act by attaching it to the defense appropriations bill. That way the senators can say they voted for the defense bill and not against the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The Antisemitism Awareness Act is the Israel Lobby’s response to the university protests against Israel’s slaughter of the Palestinians. The bill conflates Israel with Jews, defines Jews as “protected persons,” and removes accreditation and federal financial support from universities that fail to prevent student protests against Israel and Jews in general.

In effect it prohibits criticism of Jews. Criticism is undefined. In practice it will include anything to which Jews object. The Act is a violation of the 14th Amendment which requires equal protection of the law. The Antisemitism Awareness Act creates status-based privileges for a specific group that are denied to others. The Act also violates the 1st Amendment’s protection of free speech. So, why did the Republican Speaker of the House have the House of Representatives vote against the US Constitution? Why is the Democrat Senate Majority Leader trying to have the Act passed by attaching it to a defense bill? Why did Trump say that universities that permit protests of Israel’s murderous behavior should lose their accreditation and federal aid? Why is preventing criticism of Jews more important than the US Constitution?

The supporters of the Act have not said why only Jews among the many diverse peoples of the world are to be given the special privilege of immunity from criticism. It will be OK to criticize, Americans, Europeans, Asians, Arabs, Africans, Hispanics, but not Jews. In addition to the obvious unconstitutional content of the Act, there is an unacknowledged problem. What about Jews who criticize Israel? There are many of them. There are Israelis who protest the murderous policies of Netanyahu. Also, many US university presidents are Jews. How can they be punished by an Act that prohibits criticism of Jews? Punishment itself is an act of criticism. What happens when it is Jewish students and faculty who protest against Israel?

The House of Representatives’ vote against the US Constitution demonstrates the power of campaign donations. A member of Congress has to give the Israel Lobby what it wants or the money goes to one’s opponent. The same is true in the case of many other interest groups. Go against the military/security complex, Big Pharma, the financial lobby, and so forth, and the campaign money goes to your opponent. The realities of political campaign finance is the reason the people’s elected representatives cannot represent the people. They have to represent the interest groups that provide the funds that get them elected. American democracy is a sham. We are ruled by the interest groups that purchase the government. Until the money is taken out of politics, American democracy will remain a sham, and the Constitution will die the death of a thousand cuts.

Trump owns Trudy.

• Trudeau Bends The Knee To Trump At Mar-a-Lago (MN)

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau Was pictured meeting with president-elect Trump and his team at Mar-a-Lago over Thanksgiving, as it emerged that he has made an agreement to crack down on drug trafficking. The meeting came following Trump’s announcement of a 25% tariff on all products coming from Mexico and Canada until they agree to secure their borders. In a Truth Social post earlier this week, Trump wrote “On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders.” “This Tariff will remain in effect until such time as Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country!” Trump added.

He continued, “Both Mexico and Canada have the absolute right and power to easily solve this long simmering problem. We hereby demand that they use this power, and until such time that they do, it is time for them to pay a very big price!” Fast forward four days and Trudeau was seen sitting with Trump, Elon Musk, and the rest of his team. In a further post after the meeting, Trump explained, “I just had a very productive meeting with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, where we discussed many important topics that will require both Countries to work together to address, like the Fentanyl and Drug Crisis that has decimated so many lives as a result of Illegal Immigration, Fair Trade Deals that do not jeopardize American Workers, and the massive Trade Deficit the U.S. has with Canada.”

“I made it very clear that the United States will no longer sit idly by as our Citizens become victims to the scourge of this Drug Epidemic, caused mainly by the Drug Cartels, and Fentanyl pouring in from China. Too much death and hardship!” Trump continued. “Prime Minister Trudeau has made a commitment to work with us to end this terrible devastation of U.S. Families,” Trump further added, noting “We also spoke about many other important topics like Energy, Trade, and the Arctic. All are vital issues that I will be addressing on my first days back in Office, and before.”

Certainly looks that way.

• Sebastian Gorka: British Intelligence Asset? (Grayzone)

Sebastian Gorka’s involvement with British intelligence cost him a security clearance in Hungary. His longtime mentor is a UK spook currently engaged in covert operations against Russia. Is the Ukraine hawk and Trump counter-terror appointee operating on London time. After years in the wilderness of right-wing radio, where he flamboyantly proclaimed his loyalty to president-elect Donald Trump for years, Sebastian Gorka has finally found his way back into Trump’s inner circle, earning an appointment as incoming White House counter-terror advisor. Gorka served as Trump’s deputy assistant advisor on national security issues for eight months in 2017, storming out of his job with a petulant resignation letter that blamed “forces” within the administration that did not support Trump’s “MAGA promise.”

During his brief tenure in the White House, Gorka, a London-born immigrant, was credited with masterminding the President’s so-called “Muslim ban,” which refused admission to the US for citizens of countries identified as national security threats. While Democrats have hammered Gorka as “a far-right extremist” and MAGA sycophant, he has stood out as a voice of Biden foreign policy continuity within Trumpworld, pledging further aggression against Russia and even greater military aid to Kiev. During a November 23 interview, for example, Gorka promised that “the aid that we have given to Ukraine thus far will look like peanuts” if “the murderous KGB colonel” Vladimir Putin does not obey Trump’s dictates. Gorka’s full origin story explains why his views on the Ukraine proxy war track more closely with those of the anti-Trump turncoat John Bolton than incoming Vice President J.D. Vance, who has vowed to negotiate an end to the conflict.

As this investigation will demonstrate, the mindset of the Transatlantic policy operative was molded primarily through his intimate involvement in British intelligence circles—not his role within the America First movement. The son of an anti-communist Hungarian exile, Gorka joined a British Army intelligence unit while still in university. When he entered the world of national security studies, he learned at the knee of a notoriously conniving British military intelligence officer named Chris Donnelly, who has dedicated his career to instigating conflict with Russia, and was exposed by The Grayzone as an architect of the notorious Kerch Bridge bombing. Donnelly personally endorsed Gorka’s PhD thesis, granting him the imprimatur of a top intelligence officer in the British Ministry of Defence. The relationship fueled Gorka’s career within the burgeoning Atlanticist military infrastructure, yet ultimately cost him security clearance in his family’s native Hungary, where the country’s National Security Office suspected him of being a UK spy.

Soon after Gorka resigned from the first Trump administration, leaked documents exposed Donnelly as the founder of a secret, UK state-funded influence operation called the Integrity Initiative, which was aimed at drumming up war with Russia through a covert international propaganda network. A 2017 funding proposal submitted by the Integrity Initiative to the British Ministry of Defence promised to deliver a “tougher stance on Russia” by arranging for “more information published in the media on the threat of Russian active measures.” When Donnelly visited Washington in 2018 to expand his secret initiative, the first item on his agenda was breakfast with Gorka. To this day, Gorka refuses to discuss the meeting, or any aspect of his relationship with Donnelly, erupting with rage at reporters who have dared to inquire about the long friendship.

“..Section 230 only confers benefits on Big Tech companies when they operate, in the words of the statute, “in good faith.” “The censorship cartel must be dismantled..”

• Incoming FCC Chairman Brendan Carr Prepares For Censorship Battle (ZH)

Until the internet came along, pumping government propaganda into American homes was like shooting fish in a barrel. As a constellation of alternative media websites such as ZeroHedge emerged, however, the ability to shape narratives and steer the national dialogue quickly eroded. In order to regain control – particularly in the Trump-era, the government has been colluding with Big Tech, partisan ‘fact checkers,’ and an aptly named ‘advertising cartel’ to censor, de-monetize, and otherwise silence divergent opinions – particularly those which shed light on things like government malfeasance, bullshit wars, and cronyism. Incoming FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is getting ready to level the playing field.

Carr, a veteran Republican regulator who has echoed President-elect Trump’s promises to punish political bias within the national media complex, has argued that the agency should also regulate Big Tech – including Apple, Meta, Google and Microsoft. And in a Sunday interview with Fox News, Carr outlined the road ahead… “Combatting tech censorship is going to be one of the top priorities for me,” said Carr, adding “We need to restore Americans’ right to free speech… you mentioned Facebook and other companies. They’ve been part of a censorship cartel that has worked with advertisers, they’ve worked with government officials, to censor the free speech rights of everyday Americans. That’s gotta end.” “America is a country of founders, people who have pushed frontiers. When you silence speech, you silence ideas. Instead, we need to unleash prosperity, again.”

Incoming FCC Chairman @BrendanCarrFCC: "Combatting tech censorship is going to be one of the top priorities for me."

"America is a country of founders, people who have pushed frontiers. When you silence speech, you silence ideas. Instead, we need to unleash prosperity, again." pic.twitter.com/wsXboFEMly

— CAPITAL (@capitalnewshq) December 1, 2024

In a November letter, Carr accused several Big Tech companies of having “participated in a censorship cartel that included not only technology and social media companies but advertising, marketing, and so-called “fact-checking” organizations as well as the Biden-Harris Administration itself.” “The relevant conduct extended from removing or blocking social media posts to suppress their information and viewpoints, including through efforts to delist them, lower their rankings, or harm their profitability.” Carr then suggested that their protection from liability under Section 230 may be on the line. “As you know, Big Tech’s prized liability shield, Section 230, is codified in the Communications Act, which the FCC administers. As relevant here, Section 230 only confers benefits on Big Tech companies when they operate, in the words of the statute, “in good faith.” “The censorship cartel must be dismantled,” Carr said in a November post on X.

“We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.”

• Why Does The West Believe It Occupies The High Moral Ground? (Diesen)

For almost three years, NATO countries have boycotted diplomatic contact with Russia, even as hundreds of thousands of men die on the Ukraine conflict’s battlefield. The decision to reject diplomacy is morally repugnant. Diplomacy could have reduced violence, prevented escalation, and even opened a path to peace. Instead, political and media elites skillfully presented this rejection as a sign of moral righteousness, labeling dialogue as treason and war as virtuous. To exhaust Russia in a long war, the goal was to ensure that the Russians and Ukrainians kill each other for as long as possible. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin outlined the US objective in the Ukraine War as weakening its strategic adversary: “We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.”

In late March 2022, Vladimir Zelensky revealed in an interview with The Economist: “There are those in the West who don’t mind a long war because it would mean exhausting Russia, even if this means the demise of Ukraine and comes at the cost of Ukrainian lives.” The aim has been to exhaust Russia in a protracted conflict, ensuring that Russians and Ukrainians continue killing each other for as long as possible. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin outlined the objective: “We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine.”

Israeli and Turkish mediators confirmed that Russia and Ukraine had agreed to a peace deal in Istanbul, where Russia would withdraw and Ukraine would restore its neutrality. Yet the West rejected this. The goal wasn’t peace — it was to bleed Russia through its proxy army in Ukraine. Both Germany and France have admitted that the Minsk Peace Agreement was never meant to be implemented, but used as a vehicle to build up Ukraine’s military. The Turkish Foreign Minister and former Israeli Prime Minister have both acknowledged that NATO states actively wanted the war to continue. Former NATO figures, such as retired General Harald Kujat, have said the war was deliberately provoked by NATO, with the US and UK blocking peace efforts to weaken Russia politically, economically, and militarily.

US lawmakers, such as Lindsey Graham, have been openly supportive of fighting Russia “to the last Ukrainian.” They argue that assisting Ukraine without risking American lives is a smart investment in weakening Russia. Meanwhile, Mitch McConnell called it an investment in America’s national security, and Mitt Romney called financing the war “the best defense spending ever.” These statements underscore the growing sentiment in the West that the war is a proxy battle where Ukraine is expendable, serving merely as a tool to diminish Russia. NATO’s leadership, including Jens Stoltenberg, has stated that a “victory” for Ukraine would result in a battle-hardened Ukrainian army on the West’s side, with a weakened Russia.

No.

• The Failure of COP29: Does the “Green Agenda” Have A Future? (Machado)

Following the conclusion of the multilateral climate conference COP29, held in Baku, Azerbaijan, the atmosphere is one of defeat. Nearly an entire week of speeches and endless meetings did not suffice to reach a reasonable consensus on a series of practical measures that had been anticipated. Specifically, the debate on funding climate policies sank. The so-called “developing countries” had expected an annual grant policy exceeding $1 trillion for energy transition and climate change mitigation policies, but only $300 billion per year will be allocated—optimistically. Moreover, this sum will not necessarily be in the form of grants but may include loans and other financing mechanisms that bring interest and debt. India denounced the final result of COP29, supported by Bolivia, Cuba, and Nigeria, as a farce and an insult from developed countries to developing nations.

This financing debate will now be deferred to COP30, scheduled to take place in Brazil in 2025. However, the chances of COP30 succeeding where COP29 failed seem very slim. While climate alarmism and eco-globalism are now part of Brazil’s official ideology, in the rest of the world, these postmodern beliefs are losing momentum. Take, for example, the reasons why expanding funding for the “Green Agenda” has been impossible in “developed countries.” Observing European governments’ behavior since the beginning of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, one can see increasing difficulty in advancing energy transition and net-zero carbon policies. Germany, for instance, was once one of the main drivers of climate alarmism worldwide, even closing its nuclear power plants “for the environment” (despite nuclear plants being far less polluting than most other energy sources).

Yet today, facing an energy crisis caused by the NordStream’s destruction, Germany is reopening its coal-fired power plants. Sweden, long a leader in international climate activism, has reversed many of its previous environmental measures. The Ministry of the Environment has been dismantled, and the government now prioritizes ensuring cheap fuel. Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, the previous administration of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak suspended the ban on diesel car sales and decided to stop promoting the replacement of gas heaters. Similar examples can be found in several other countries. Clearly, sanctions and the NordStream’s destruction have made Europe’s energy situation difficult enough to raise living costs, convincing European governments to roll back at least some environmental measures and dampen their enthusiasm for promoting global climate alarmism.

This retreat by European nations will be compounded by the fact that, starting in 2025, the United States will likely be governed by Donald Trump, who holds a critical stance toward climate alarmism and promises to intensify fracking for hydrocarbon extraction in the country. This is corroborated by the nominations of Chris Wright as Secretary of Energy and Lee Zeldin to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Plimer

Geologist Prof. Ian Plimer: The UN's COP climate conferences "are aimed at destroying Western civilisation".

"We cannot change the way the Sun operates, and the Earth orbits, and those are the two factors driving climate. No legislation will change that."

"We are… destroying… pic.twitter.com/wXZmZbzA7q

— Wide Awake Media (@wideawake_media) December 1, 2024

1 million

I wouldn't try this even for $1 million! pic.twitter.com/QRtwkHA2up

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) December 1, 2024

Frens
https://twitter.com/i/status/1862869429555769795

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

Debt Rattle October 26 2024

Oct 262024

October 26, 2024 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 8:42 am Finance Tagged with: Assange, Bezos, extermination, Hillary, Hunter Biden, Jack Smith, Joe Rogan, Kamala, novichok, steal, Trump, WaPo 100 Responses »

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Sun Rising over Water 1825-30

• WaPo Bails On Kamala – Won’t Make Presidential Endorsement (ZH)

• Preparing for the Steal (TON)

• Hillary Clinton: Trump Is Reenacting 1939 Madison Square Garden Nazi Rally (MN)

• Elon Musk Makes Major Donations To Help Republicans Take Back The Senate (JTN)

• ‘Secret Putin-Musk Calls” Claim By WSJ Dismissed By Kremlin (RT)

• Trump Requests Dismissal Of January 6 Case Over Jack Smith’s Appointment (JTN)

• Trump Open To Pardoning Hunter Biden (RT)

• Projected Trump Victory Driving Demand For Dollars – Standard Chartered (RT)

• Arizona Officials: Nearly 2 Weeks to Tabulate 2024 Election in Maricopa (ET)

• Judge Rules Bill Gates Must Face Vaccine-Injured in Dutch Court (Nevradakis)

• West Has Self-Isolated and Condemned Itself to Irrelevance – Doctorow (Sp.)

• BRICS+, What’s Next? (Pacini)

• UK Military ‘Not Ready To Fight’ – Defense Secretary (RT)

• British Government’s Investigation Of Novichok Is Poisoning Itself (Helmer)

• UK Snubs Council of Europe Over Assange Inquiry (DC.UK)

• This Is an Extermination’ (Muaddi)

• Kill Them All: Israel’s Extermination Of Palestinians In Gaza (Cradle)

Kirzhach Typography BRICS banknote design

Beck Rogan

Joe Rogan’s Trump interview could END the mainstream media’s monopoly on campaign coverage this weekend. If it has a big enough effect on the polls, this will be the LAST election with CNN/NBC/ABC/CBS as the gatekeepers. Welcome to the era of independent media. pic.twitter.com/rtktUCD1R6

— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) October 24, 2024

Full 3 hour interview.

O’Leary

Elon Musk is no noise only signal. He would be a profound force if set free to find inefficiencies in government and I would like to see that happen. We don’t know how much Elon will be engaged but you can’t deny what he’s already achieved. I say release the hounds! pic.twitter.com/OKxJLcOUru

— Kevin O'Leary aka Mr. Wonderful (@kevinolearytv) October 25, 2024

Vivek

WATCH: Vivek Ramaswamy Ignites Arizona Crowd With Historic Speech in Support of Trump — '2024 is Our 1776' | Via @VivekGRamaswamy

This could go down as one of the greatest political speeches of all time.

Vivek Ramaswamy's masterful address at Trump's rally in Arizona tonight… pic.twitter.com/RDGSJ43Txr

— Overton (@overton_news) October 25, 2024

Tulsi

TULSI GABBARD: “How can we trust a person to uphold her oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States who does not believe in the First Amendment?

How we can trust a person to upload her oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States who… pic.twitter.com/CDny0NdoY1

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) October 25, 2024

Mika

She looks exhausted.

Spewing the old Democrat tropes all day and praying for Trump’s death all night must be hard pic.twitter.com/gOW9gvkcn2

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) October 24, 2024

Atlantic

I asked Trump about The Atlantic reporting he said “I need the kind of generals that Hitler had.”

Trump: “No, I never said that. I would never say that. It’s a rag that he made up stories. He’s done it before. It’s a failing magazine. Right before the election." pic.twitter.com/ntVB6AJupX

— Kate Sullivan (@KateSullivanDC) October 25, 2024

Hillary
https://twitter.com/i/status/1849679481620865142

Elon nazism

Elon Musk: My grandfather fought to stop the Nazis.

“Think of all the people who fought to destroy Nazism. The vast majority of the West even in those days, opposed Nazism. And fought, and died. My grandfather was in World War II for almost six years.

All his friends got… pic.twitter.com/BX7d9z6voq

— ELON DOCS (@elon_docs) October 24, 2024

Nordstream
https://twitter.com/i/status/1849701546683990305

It’s Bezos of course. Doesn’t want to be on the losing side. “..for the first time in 36 years. “We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates..”

• WaPo Bails On Kamala – Won’t Make Presidential Endorsement (ZH)

Three weeks ago, the Teamsters Union became the second major union to announce that they would not endorse a presidential candidate after internal polling revealed 58% of its members back Trump vs. 31% for Harris. That was understandable – their own members overwhelmingly rejected Harris. This is different. On Friday, the Washington Post announced that it would not endorse a candidate for president either, for the first time in 36 years. “The Washington Post will not be making an endorsement of a presidential candidate in this election. Nor in any future presidential election. We are returning to our roots of not endorsing presidential candidates,” the outlet said in a statement. Colleagues are said to be ‘shocked’ at the decision, according to NPR.

The editorial page editor, David Shipley, told colleagues that the Post’s publisher, Will Lewis, would publish a note to readers online early Friday afternoon. Shipley told colleagues the editorial board was told yesterday by management that there would not be an endorsement. He added that he “owns” this decision. The reason he cited was to create “independent space” where the newspaper does not tell people for whom to vote. Colleagues were said to be “shocked” and uniformly negative. Post corporate spokespeople have not responded to multiple messages left by NPR on the subject. As NPR’s David Folkenflik notes on X, “It is not clear whether Post owner Jeff Bezos or Publisher/CEO Will Lewis made the call.” The move comes after the Los Angeles Times similarly declined to endorse Harris – leading to the resignation of the paper’s opinion editor, Marzel Garza.

“..a hand count of all ballots [..] could create chaos and confusion on Election Day..”

• Preparing for the Steal (TON)

Georgia, the site of massive election misinformation, questionable results, incomplete audits and a mysterious come-from-behind razor-thin win by Joe Biden in 2020, appears to be at it again. Or perhaps we should say Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is at it again. Kylie Jane Kremer brought the matter to our attention through a series of posts on X. As Kremer notes, “Raffensperger sent an email, in a private capacity, that went to a list of trial lawyers across Georgia soliciting $5 million by November 1st to help in his effort for a 501(c)4 called “Election Defense Fund”, asking lawyers to donate or contact him via his private gmail account & personal cell phone number.” In the email, Raffensperger claimed that “Election deniers and conspiracy theorists have taken their anger to new levels, employing a variety of tactics including intimidation, legal challenges, and rule changes.

“In Georgia they have threatened, harassed, and sued election officials. And as you know, most recently the Georgia State Election Board was taken over by three individuals who have pledged to put partisanship over sworn duty.” Raffensperger appears to be referring to (and trying to intimidate) the three Republican members of Georgia’s five -person State Election Board, Dr. Janice Johnston, Rick Jeffares and Janelle King. Raffensperger also appears to be attempting to intimidate and silence anyone who might challenge the outcome of Georgia’s 2024 presidential election. On September 20th, Johnston, Jeffares and King voted in favor of requiring a hand count of all ballots to ensure that the number of physical ballots equaled the machine count total at the precinct level. This new rule was opposed by Georgia state elections officials, including Raffensperger, who said it could create chaos and confusion on Election Day.

In advance of the vote by the State Election Board, Raffensperger issued a formal statement, claiming that “Activists seeking to impose last-minute changes in election procedures outside of the legislative process undermine voter confidence and burden election workers… misguided attempts by the State Election Board will delay election results and undermine chain of custody safeguards. Georgia voters reject this 11th hour chaos, and so should the unelected members of the State Election Board.” If you find it odd that Raffensperger would refer to his three fellow Republicans as “activists” while he worked to thwart common-sense changes that would dramatically increase the security of Georgia’s 2024 election, you’re not alone.

Raffensperger was apparently so concerned that he rushed to CNN-affiliate WSB, breathlessly claiming that “the State Election Board wants to take us back in time. I guess what they want is to see elections take until 3 a.m. like in Detroit, Michigan. We don’t want to do that in Georgia. Not on my watch.” Although the move by the three Georgia Republicans had the support of President Trump, lawsuits were immediately filed – and on October 16th a Georgia court blocked the rule changes, inexplicably declaring that they were “illegal, unconstitutional and void.”

Are they sychronizing these claims?

• Hillary Clinton: Trump Is Reenacting 1939 Madison Square Garden Nazi Rally (MN)

Bitter presidential loser Hillary Clinton has claimed that Donald Trump is purposefully reenacting a 1939 Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden. Appearing on CNN, Hillary stated “One other thing that you‘ll see next week is Trump actually re-enacting the Madison Square Garden rally in 1939.” “I write about this in my book,” she added, hawking her turgid scribe. “President Franklin Roosevelt was appalled that neo-Nazi fascists in America were lining up to essentially pledge their support for the kind of government that they were seeing in Germany,” Hillary declared. So basically she’s saying that everyone who goes to Trump rallies is a nazi because she disagrees with their politics.

JUST IN: Hillary Clinton claims Donald Trump is going to Madison Square Garden in NYC this weekend to re-enact the 1939 N*zi rally at MSG.

Clinton thinks you are a N*zi if you support Trump.

"One other thing that you‘ll see next week is Trump actually re-enacting the Madison… pic.twitter.com/7x74vFAF27

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 25, 2024

This stuff doesn’t work on anyone anymore. It actually just helps Trump now. Every time they say this, it exposes them. As we previously highlighted, a New York State Senator attempted to get the event at Madison Square Garden shut down, also equating it to the infamous Nazi rally. Democrats bravely defending democracy again by attempting to shut down the free speech of a major political party’s presidential nominee. The Senator claimed that the Trump event will “incite violence” and demanded (his actual words) that the venue cancel it to “keep our city safe.”

At Polymarket, the Senate looks in the bag. The House, not so much.

• Elon Musk Makes Major Donations To Help Republicans Take Back The Senate (JTN)

Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk has made multi-million dollar donations to help Republicans win back the Senate in November, according to a report filed with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday. Musk has emerged as a major voice for conservatives this election cycle, having aligned himself closely with former President Donald Trump. Musk, who purchased X (formerly Twitter) in 2022, gave Trump his social media account back shortly after buying it, and endorsed the former president in August. The multi-billionaire donated $10 million to the Senate Leadership Fund on Oct 1, according to Politico, and $2.4 million to The Sentinel Action Fund, which is a super Political Action Committee (PAC) that has been promoting several GOP Senate candidates. The Senate Leadership Fund is connected to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Republicans are hoping to keep control of the House and win back the Senate next month. They only need to flip two Senate seats in order to win the upper chamber. Musk also gave $300,000 to a group connected to the National Republican Congressional Committee in August. The money comes as the tech CEO builds his own super PAC called “America PAC,” which has devoted its resources on canvassing operations for Trump. Musk has poured $75 million into the PAC. Musk is worth an estimated $269 billion as of Thursday, according to Forbes. The bulk of his finances comes from Tesla, where he owns 13% of the shares. But he also owns a good share of SpaceX, which is worth over $200 billion.

Another weird story.

• ‘Secret Putin-Musk Calls” Claim By WSJ Dismissed By Kremlin (RT)

A article in the Wall Street Journal alleging that Elon Musk has secretly made contact with Vladimir Putin and other senior Russian officials is untrue and is most likely linked to the entrepreneur’s involvement in the US presidential election, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday. The American billionaire and the Russian president had a single phone call before the Ukraine conflict escalated into full-blown hostilities in February 2022, Peskov told journalists, repeating what he had told the WSJ. ”Most likely, it’s just disinformation in the extremely confrontational electoral political fight [in the US]. The race is in its final phase, and the opponents do not shy away from anything,” the official suggested. The WSJ piece published on Thursday, mostly detailed Musk’s role as a private contractor for the US military and national security state, his stance on the Ukraine conflict and support for the Trump reelection campaign.

The newspaper claimed that the billionaire’s public statements about resolving the conflict between Moscow and Kiev, which he has been making since late 2022, “mirrored some aspects of the Kremlin’s” position. The article cites “current and former US, European and Russian officials” who allegedly claim the calls, “a closely held secret in government,” have taken place. Several White House officials also reportedly told the outlet they weren’t aware of such contacts. The only Russian source cited in the text is a “former intelligence officer briefed on the situation,” who claimed that late last year Putin asked Musk not to activate the Starlink satellite system in Taiwan as a favor to Beijing. Musk’s SpaceX has no license to provide internet services in Taiwan, the newspaper noted.

In addition to Putin, the report claims that Musk has also been in contact with former Russian Prime Minister Sergey Kirienko, who currently serves as deputy head of the presidential administration. The billionaire declined to comment on the allegations, the WSJ said. Just weeks ago, there were allegations that Trump had been secretly in touch with Putin, and now it is Musk, Peskov told reporters, referring to a book by US journalist Bob Woodward, in which he claims a source told him that since leaving office, the Republican politician has spoken to the Russian leader on multiple occasions. Trump and Putin have both denied the claim.

“Trump’s lawyers claimed that Smith was appointed by Garland as a “private citizen.”

• Trump Requests Dismissal Of January 6 Case Over Jack Smith’s Appointment (JTN)

Attorneys for former President Donald Trump on Thursday asked a judge to dismiss the January 6 case against him, arguing that special counsel Jack Smith was unconstitutionally appointed, according to The Hill. Smith was not confirmed by the Senate but was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland. Smith has been leading two investigations into the former president, including a classified documents case that was dismissed earlier this year. However Smith is appealing the dismissal. The request was made to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, D.C., and centers around the same argument made in the classified documents case. Judge Aileen Cannon ruled that no legal statute gave Garland the authority to give Smith the amount of power he has as special counsel, and that the appointment violated the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution.

Trump’s lawyers claimed that Smith was appointed by Garland as a “private citizen.” “The proposed motion establishes that this unjust case was dead on arrival — unconstitutional even before its inception,” Trump’s attorneys wrote on Thursday. “Everything that Smith did since Attorney General Garland’s appointment, as President Trump continued his leading campaign against President Biden and then Vice President Harris, was unlawful and unconstitutional.” Trump is currently facing four charges in D.C., related to his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Smith has until Oct. 31 to file a response.

Hunter must hope Trump wins: “[Joe Biden] is “not going to do anything” to help his son and has ruled out exonerating him”.

• Trump Open To Pardoning Hunter Biden (RT)

Former US President Donald Trump has stated that he might consider pardoning Hunter Biden if he is reelected in November. Hunter Biden was found guilty in June of three felonies in a federal gun trial, including lying about his use of illicit drugs when applying to purchase a firearm. Biden faces up to 25 years in prison, with his sentencing to be determined in a hearing scheduled for November. Last month, the 53-year-old also pleaded guilty to nine federal tax charges, and potentially faces an additional 17 years in prison. Following the verdict, US President Joe Biden has said that he respected the judicial process and was “satisfied” that his son had received a fair trial. He also noted that he is “not going to do anything” to help his son and has ruled out exonerating him.

Speaking to conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday, Trump was asked if he would pardon Hunter Biden. The former president replied by stating that he “wouldn’t take it off the books,” despite the US Justice Department initiating multiple legal challenges against him, which Trump has described as a form of retribution by his political opponents. Earlier this year, a Manhattan jury found the Republican candidate guilty on 34 felony counts related to alleged hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels and his role in the January 6, 2021 Capitol Hill riots. The former president recalled that unlike his opponents, he had refrained from prosecuting his rival Hillary Clinton following the 2016 election despite his supporters asking him to. “I could have gone after Hillary,” Trump said, noting that he ultimately decided against doing so because he thought it “would look terrible.”

Trump noted, however, that Hunter Biden has been “a bad boy” and that “all you had to do is see the laptop from hell.” At the same time, he pointed out that the whole story revolving around the US President’s son is “very bad for our country.” In 2020, the contents of Hunter Biden’s personal laptop, which he supposedly misplaced in a Delaware repair shop while high on crack, were leaked online, implicating the Biden family in multiple foreign corruption schemes. US intelligence officials have since tried to denounce the scandal as “Russian disinformation” despite the contents of the laptop having been verified as authentic.

“The dollar has strengthened along with the rising probability of a Trump win in betting markets..”

• Projected Trump Victory Driving Demand For Dollars – Standard Chartered (RT)

Increasing belief on the financial markets that Donald Trump will win the US presidential election next month has been strengthening the dollar, Bloomberg has reported, citing British multinational bank Standard Chartered. Recent polls suggest that the Republican and his Democratic rival, Vice-President Kamala Harris, are tied with less than two weeks to go before the election. According to the bank’s calculations however, 60% of the greenback’s gains in October are linked to growing wagers that the former president will win the November 5 vote, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. “The dollar has strengthened along with the rising probability of a Trump win in betting markets,” the outlet reported, citing a note by Steven Englander, head of global G-10 FX research at British multinational bank Standard Chartered.

Markets are pricing a 70% chance of a Trump win, added Englander. The world’s largest prediction platform, Polymarket, is attributing a near 64% probability that Trump will become the next US president. According to market research project PredictIt, Trump has a 58% chance of winning the election. The US national currency has risen by nearly 3% against the Euro in the past month, with Bloomberg reporting earlier that the greenback was on pace for its best month since 2022. While the election race has reportedly been the main driver for the dollar, other factors include the resilience of the US economy and a strong US jobs report from earlier this month, noted Bloomberg. Before the previous presidential election in 2020, markets expected that Joe Biden, rather than Trump, would win and offer fiscal stimulus. The expectations weakened the dollar in October of that year.

Before you know it, people think this is normal.

• Arizona Officials: Nearly 2 Weeks to Tabulate 2024 Election in Maricopa (ET)

Officials in Arizona’s most populous county warned on Oct. 22 that it may take between 10 and 13 days to tabulate the results of the Nov. 5 election. County officials are asking “for the community’s patience,” Maricopa County Deputy Elections Director Jennifer Liewer said in a press conference on Oct. 22. “This year, we do expect that it will take between 10 and 13 days to complete tabulation of all of the ballots that come in,” she said. “We want to make sure that this is a secure process, but we also want to make sure that it is an accurate process.” Assistant Maricopa County Manager Zach Schira said at the press conference, “If I have one message for voters here today, it is this: that the longer ballots and higher interest in this 2024 general election will create longer lines on Election Day, and that’s okay.” Schira said that if people want to avoid the long lines, they are advised to vote by mail or early in person.

Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates said the tabulation may take so long because the ballot is two pages, there are dozens of contests per ballot, and there is heightened interest in the presidential election. He said more than 2.1 million Maricopa voters are expected to cast their ballot for the Nov. 5 contest, noting that 400,000 people so far have voted. The “top message for voters” on Oct. 22 is “if you want to save time and avoid lines, vote early,” the county wrote on social media platform X. Voters have until Oct. 25 to request an early ballot, it noted. Early voting data compiled by the University of Florida show that Republicans have a 38,000-vote advantage in terms of early voting in Arizona. Only mail-in ballots have been returned so far, but the data show that 41.9 percent of early ballots have been submitted by Republicans, compared with 36.3 by Democrats. Independent or third-party voters make up about 21.8 percent of the total.

Arizona, considered a battleground state, is again expected to be a close race during the 2024 election. State election officials in 2020 certified the race in Arizona for Joe Biden over President Donald Trump by a margin of about 11,000 votes. In the aftermath of the 2020 contest, Trump and other Republicans alleged that Arizona’s election was marred by voter fraud, sparking a number of lawsuits against Arizona and Maricopa County officials that were all ultimately dismissed. For that election, county officials certified the results 17 days after Election Day, according to a statement issued on Nov. 20, 2020. A significant number of voters cast ballots early in person or by mail in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated stay-at-home and lockdown orders and rules.

The case includes Bourla, but not Von der Leyen?!

• Judge Rules Bill Gates Must Face Vaccine-Injured in Dutch Court (Nevradakis)

A Netherlands judge last week ruled that Bill Gates must face seven people injured by COVID-19 vaccines in court in the Netherlands. According to Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, the seven “corona skeptics” sued Gates last year, along with former Dutch prime minister and newly appointed NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, and “several members” of the Dutch government’s COVID-19 “Outbreak Management Team.” Other defendants include Albert Bourla, Ph.D., CEO of Pfizer, and the Dutch state. “Because Bill Gates’ foundation was involved in combating the corona pandemic, he has also been summoned,” De Telegraaf reported. According to Dutch independent news outlet Zebra Inspiratie, the plaintiffs allege that Gates, through his representatives, deliberately misled them about the safety of the COVID-19 shots, despite knowing “that these injections were not safe and effective.”

Dutch independent journalist Erica Krikke told The Defender that the seven plaintiffs — whose names are redacted in the lawsuit’s publicly available documents — “are ordinary Dutch people, and they have been jabbed and after the jabs they got sick.” Krikke said that of the seven original plaintiffs, one has since died, leaving the other six plaintiffs to continue the lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed in the District Court of Leeuwarden. According to De Telegraaf, “Gates had objected because, according to him, the judges did not have jurisdiction.” Accordingly, the court first “had to rule in the so-called incident procedure,” De Andere Krant reported. Zebra Inspiratie reported that the hearing in this “incident procedure” took place on Sept. 18 and that Gates’ representatives disputed jurisdiction, but not the claim. According to De Andere Krant, Gates was represented by the Pels Rijcken law firm, based in The Hague, described as “the largest and the premier litigation law firm in the Netherlands.”

Gates did not appear at the Sept. 18 hearing, but attorneys for Gates argued that the court “had no jurisdiction over him because he lives in the United States.” However, in its Oct. 16 ruling, the Leeuwarden court ruled it does have jurisdiction over Gates. De Andere Krant reported that the court found “sufficient evidence” that the claims against Gates and the other defendants are “connected” and based on the same “complex of facts.” Other defendants who reside outside of the Netherlands, including Bourla, did not challenge the court’s jurisdiction. The court ruled Gates must pay attorneys’ fees and additional legal costs totaling 1,406 euros (approximately $1,520). A hearing is scheduled for Nov. 27. ‘Even if … your name is Bill Gates, you still have to go to court’ In remarks shared with De Andere Krant, Arno van Kessel, one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys, welcomed the ruling. “In its verdict, the court has clearly recorded the basis of our conclusions of claim,” van Kessel said.

Dutch attorney Meike Terhorst told The Defender it is “quite interesting” that the plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in Leeuwarden instead of The Hague, where normally, all cases against the government related to COVID-19 are filed. “In general, COVID-19 court cases have been very unsuccessful in the Netherlands,” Terhorst said. “There is a slim chance it will be successful.” She added: “I think most judges support the COVID-19 vaccination agenda and will find it hard to believe the vaccinations have caused injuries. So, we have a long way to go, regardless of the case.” Krikke shared a more optimistic outlook, saying that the court sent a message that “even if you are rich and your name is Bill Gates, you still have to go to court.” New Zealand-based independent journalist Penny Marie, who has closely followed the proceedings in this case, told The Defender she hopes the Oct. 16 ruling “will hopefully set a precedent and help plaintiffs in similar cases around the world regarding jurisdiction,” in cases “where the defendant does not reside in the country of the plaintiff.”

“For parties who make claims against those involved in the implementation of the Great Reset and other international actions, such as the COVID-19 emergency response initiated by the WEF [World Economic Forum] and imposed on all U.N. member nations, I hope that this ruling provides an opportunity for others to follow suit,” Marie added. At the Sept. 18 hearing, plaintiffs also delivered statements. According to Zebra Inspiratie, “One of the victims, who is very ill, was also given the opportunity to make a plea. She was no longer able to speak and was represented by her father. It was an emotional plea.” Krikke said the plaintiff’s father told the court that his daughter, who was previously healthy, fell ill after getting the COVID-19 vaccine and could no longer speak, telling the judge that he “would really like to speak to Bill Gates directly” to ask him what happened to his daughter. “After that, the judge was really quiet,” Krikke said. The Oct. 18 ruling also addressed the plaintiffs’ claims about Gates’ role in the WEF’s “Great Reset” project.

“The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is also affiliated with the World Economic Forum … an international organization whose statutory objective is to unite ‘leaders from business, governments, academia and society at large into a global community committed to improving the state of the world,’” the ruling states, adding: “This is a project aimed at the total reorganization of societies in all countries that are members of the United Nations … as described by [WEF founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab] in his book Covid-19: The Great Reset. … “Characteristic of this political ideology is that this forced and planned change is presented as justified by pretending that the world is suffering from major crises that can only be solved by centralized, hard global intervention. One of these pretended major crises concerns the Covid-19 pandemic.” The ruling also states, “The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is affiliated with ‘Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance‘ … an international partnership in the field of vaccinations between various public and private entities.”

Bill Gates To Face Covid Vax Truth In A Dutch Court

Gates' Foundation’s Pandemic Role Under Fire as Dutch Court Takes on Vaccine Injury Allegations pic.twitter.com/DSj8gLBh0p

— Alex Jones (@RealAlexJones) October 24, 2024

“That day will come very early in 2025 if Trump wins on 5 November; it will come with a slight delay in 2025 if Harris wins..”

• West Has Self-Isolated and Condemned Itself to Irrelevance – Doctorow (Sp.)

International relations analyst Gilbert Doctorow, in an interview with Sputnik, praised Russian President Vladimir Putin’s firm stance at the recent BRICS summit, highlighting Russia’s growing influence on the global stage despite Western efforts to isolate the country. Doctorow pointed out that the success of the summit, which brought together nations representing nearly half of the world’s population, demonstrates Russia’s strong global posture and the failure of anti-Russian sanctions. “Because of the important guests, numbering more than 25 heads of government, it has been impossible for major media in the West to ignore BRICS and Russia,” Doctorow said, noting how this undermines the narrative of Russia’s supposed isolation. The analyst further speculated how Russia leveraged its BRICS presidency to advance innovative goals, such as establishing commodity exchanges and a reinsurance pool, positioning the country as a constructive leader.

Doctorow emphasized that these achievements send a clear message: “Russia is not isolated; on the contrary, the Collective West has self-isolated and condemned itself to irrelevance.” “The BRICS message of a multipolar world, of respect for the sovereignty and unique cultures of each nation will surely have an impact on Europeans’ perception of Russia and of themselves,” Doctorow added, stressing the long-term significance of BRICS in shaping global politics. The analyst also predicted the Ukraine crisis will conclude in 2025, regardless of the outcome of the US presidential election. “This will be all the more the case when the United States puts an end to the Ukraine war by withdrawing its financial and military assistance to Kiev. That day will come very early in 2025 if Trump wins on 5 November; it will come with a slight delay in 2025 if Harris wins because Congress will resist any further appropriations to Kiev,” Doctorow speculated.

Isolated

"Russia is isolated" pic.twitter.com/nOeKcMQPL0

— BRICS News (@BRICSinfo) October 25, 2024

“This is waging information warfare.”

• BRICS+, What’s Next? (Pacini)

The hype created for BRICS during this year has surpassed that for the U.S. elections, the outcome of which now will not be as binding as before. This is a fact. When 2024 opened, many were concerned about the great risks involved, having as many as 76 countries in the world in election session, with the U.S. dominating. The rhetoric of the hegemon, however, no longer works as it used to. Until a few years ago, everything that happened in the U.S. was of global interest, the press was ready to devote front pages and social media was filled with dedicated content, while financial markets went crazy at the slightest sign of instability or danger. Everyone was hanging on Lady USA’s every word. That is no longer the case today. One of the great successes in the infowarfare undertaken by the BRICS countries under Russia’s presidency is to have ousted America from its media centrality. Or, rather, at the center it has remained only in vassal countries, such as Europe or the Commonwealth.

But the rest of the world is no longer so interested, and the rest of the world is the majority of the world. This is a detail that needs more attention. True, the U.S. alone has a great deal of power, certainly greater than a great many other states; but the geometries of power vary cyclically, as History teaches us, and all empires sooner or later must come to terms with their denouement. The strategy undertaken, hand in hand with the geo-economic strategy, meant that the media attention of the “rest of the world” was tuned to facts and events that concerned the rest of the world, no longer the Hegemon. There’s a rest of the world, indeed, there is the world and the United States, and the West. The world is no longer “the West” to which “the rest” is added. The perspective has changed. In the media language it was a small semantic revolution whose echo will be ever greater.

The primary effect was a kind of disorientation, because people were not used to emphasizing news from certain areas of the planet. Nor was there sufficient training to do so. So it was that the BRICS countries first launched a series of national platforms for analysis and dissemination of information, and then started a BRICS-branded information apparatus, which was already very detailed, widespread and accurate, providing for the technical training of professionals. It was a matter of having to teach how to tell the world without being seduced by the mythological sirens of the Atlantic. The side effect is that a new generation of experts is on the horizon of a world to be described with different eyes, and as is well known, the main power of the mass media is to tell the world, that is, to give an image of it, describe it, create thought forms of what the world is and how to imagine it for the future.

The result we can say has been positive: in the countries of the multipolar world there is no longer the “America first” rule, and come the end of October there is no need to talk about the U.S. elections as the event of the year. On the other hand, one is aware that Harris or Trump, the problem of the U.S. remains the same, and in any case, neither competitor has any intention to dethrone Zionism, nor to participate at the Pax Multipolaris table. Still on infowarfare, Russia has played a master game. We had already talked about this months ago: the repeated announcement of the new BRICS currency with partial gold base, then of BRICS Pay, then of UNIT replacing SWIFT, then of the financial operations of the New Development Bank, repeatedly occurred always and only in conjunction with particular moments when the dollar market was to be destabilized, creating difficulties for the U.S.-U.K. and favoring BRICS investment and the process of de-dollarization.

It was very obvious and almost trivial that these new systems would not be activated as early as this year, because they require millimeter planning and transition times that are not immediate, especially since we are dealing with a large number of states with different currencies, different laws, different trade. The important thing to do was to promote the new system, scare the opponent, destabilize the market, persuading more and more countries to leave the orbit of a Western-centric system that is collapsing. This is waging information warfare.

“..very skilled and ready to conduct military operations. What we have not been ready to do is to fight..”

• UK Military ‘Not Ready To Fight’ – Defense Secretary (RT)

The UK military is unprepared to fight in a major conflict and would not be able to deter the enemy if a war breaks out now, British Defense Secretary John Healey has acknowledged. The British army, navy and air force have been “hollowed out” and “underfunded” during the 14 years of the Conservative Party’s rule, Healey said in his appearance on Politico’s Power Play podcast on Thursday. When the UK Labour Party came to power in July, “we expected things to be in a poor state – but the state of the finances, the state of the forces, was far worse than we thought,” he added. “The UK, in keeping with many other nations, has essentially become very skilled and ready to conduct military operations. What we have not been ready to do is to fight. Unless we are ready to fight, we are not in shape to deter,” the defense secretary stressed.

“This is at the heart of the NATO thinking. We have got to not just be capable of defending our NATO nations, but more importantly we have got to be more effective in the deterrence we provide against any future aggression,” he added. Britain and other members of the US-led military bloc need to “innovate” and “take the new technologies and some of the lessons from Ukraine and make what we do more lethal and therefore a stronger deterrence,” Healey said. When asked to comment on the defense secretary’s statement, a spokesman for the Labour government insisted that “this Government will always do what is required to defend the country. The UK’s Armed Forces are amongst the best in the world and offer a 24/7 defense of the UK, operating alongside our allies and partners to prepare for any event.”

“The Strategic Defense Review [which was launched in July] will look at the threats we face and the capabilities we need so that our Armed Forces are better ready to fight, more integrated and more innovative,” he said. On Thursday, The Telegraph reported, citing a senior defense source, that the new UK budget, which will be announced next week, will “almost certainly” not provide more money to the Defense Ministry. According to the government’s figures, Britain’s army, navy, and air force have entered 2024 with just over 138,000 active-duty personnel, the lowest number since the end of the Napoleonic wars. The army alone had seen its headcount shrink from more than 100,000 in 2010 to 75,110 by the start of this year.

“The quality of the evidence of Russian Novichok runs from weak to preposterous; the legal presentation from tendentious to inadmissible.”

• British Government’s Investigation Of Novichok Is Poisoning Itself (Helmer)

The British Government’s investigation of the alleged Novichok attacks against Sergei and Yulia Skripal, which they survived, and Dawn Sturgess, who died, has now run for six and half years. The public presentation of evidence and witnesses has completed its first week; the second week of hearings will begin next Monday, October 28. The hearings will end in the first week of December. A report of the conclusions will follow months later. The judge presiding is a retired Court of Appeal judge named Anthony Hughes – titled Lord Hughes of Omberseley – is also a consultant lawyer. Hughes advertises that he is available for engagement on private cases at his London office, telephone +44 (0)20 7242 3555. His terms of engagement from the Home Office, his job now, is to manage the Government’s two imperatives. The first is to protect the British government narrative to ensure no one disbelieves the Russians did it, as then-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson announced on the BBC on March 17, 2018.

Judge Hughes’s website claims he is presiding in “an independent Inquiry into the circumstances of Dawn Sturgess’ death in Salisbury on 8 July 2018.” Independent of Russia is certain. Hughes opened the proceeding on March 25, 2022 by saying: “The issues raised by the terms of reference include those of the utmost gravity, including the allegation which has been publicly made of Russian state responsibility for the killing of Ms Sturgess indirectly.” In fact, the terms of reference make no such allegation. Hughes then announced he had appointed Emilie Pottle, a London lawyer, to represent three Russian military officers whom the British prosecutor has charged with attempted murder. Married to a “freelance writer” who has worked in the Iraqi and Libyan warzones with UK and US forces, Pottle is being paid by the Home Office to appear. Last week as a Crown prosecutor, she fed leading questions to medical and police witnesses.

The judge’s assisting lawyer, Mark O’Connor QC revealed last week that he has concluded what has to be proved, and expects witnesses to do the same. “I want”, O’Connor asked Wayne Darch, deputy director of the regional ambulance service and supervisor of the medics who attended the Skripals and Sturgess, “to start, if I may, with the question of what understanding or training ambulance staff had of or for nerve agent, organophosphate poisoning before the Skripal poisoning in March 2018, and we will work then forward in the chronology, okay?” Working forward in the chronology means, for the British government, that the Hughes proceeding will work backward to prove retrospectively that the Russian government ordered and carried out the Novichok assassination plot of 2018. So far, not a single British newspaper, television or social medium has reported differently.

The second imperative for Hughes is to protect the British Government from the case for negligence which the Sturgess family lawyer, Michael Mansfield KC, is making to support his claim for a multi-million pound payout for compensation of their loss to the Sturgess family, her boyfriend Charles Rowley, and to Mansfield himself and his associated lawyers. The first attempt at Mansfield’s legal strategy of “dosh for Dawn’s death” did not succeed in the High Court in mid-2020. The Hughes proceeding is Mansfield’s last, big chance.to accuse the British secret services of culpable negligence in failing to anticipate the Russian strike against Sergei Skripal on March 4, 2018, and to protect the British public from the Novichok fallout the alleged Russian assassins left behind.

The contradiction between the first and second imperatives grows obvious with every session. The quality of the evidence of Russian Novichok runs from weak to preposterous; the legal presentation from tendentious to inadmissible. But to earn his ransom Mansfield must accept as true what he cannot prove to be lies. He and his money-shot are motivated by the legal principle known as claim of right – you can’t steal from a thief.

“The UK government is effectively partaking in the cover-up, in a way that only a guilty party would.”

• UK Snubs Council of Europe Over Assange Inquiry (DC.UK)

Britain’s Home Office is making a “grave mistake” by ignoring a call from the Council of Europe to review its treatment of Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder’s wife has warned. The Council’s parliamentary assembly, of which the UK is a member, passed a resolution earlier this month designating Assange as a “political prisoner”. Assange endured five years in Belmarsh maximum security prison in London before being released in June, and flying to his native Australia. The UK government had incarcerated him while the US pursued extradition proceedings in the British courts. His treatment has outraged the Council of Europe, which was created in the aftermath of World War Two with strong backing from Winston Churchill. Its resolution urged the UK authorities to conduct a review “with a view to establishing whether he [Assange] has been exposed to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, pursuant to their international obligations”.

It found the UK authorities “failed to effectively protect Mr Assange’s freedom of expression and right to liberty, exposing him to lengthy detention in a high-security prison despite the political nature of the most severe charges against him.” Declassified asked Britain’s Home Office what its response was to the Council of Europe’s call. The government department deflected the question, replying: “The longstanding extradition request for Julian Assange has been resolved. As is standard practice, all extradition requests are considered on an individual basis by our independent courts and in accordance with UK law.” The demands of the parliamentary assembly are not binding on European governments but they are “obliged to respond”. Stella Assange, Julian’s husband, told Declassified the Home Office is making a “grave mistake” in refusing to heed the Council of Europe’s call.

She said: “We know that the Crown Prosecution Service has disappeared key documents relating to Julian’s imprisonment and refused to provide information, first to a journalist, and now to the court, that might shed a light on the political side of Julian’s persecution in the UK. “It is one thing for rogue elements in the CPS to collude with foreign governments to persecute a publisher and attempt to cover their tracks. It is quite another for the UK government to stonewall in this manner in the wake of an independent report by the Council of Europe and a vote by the overwhelming majority of the chamber calling on the UK to carry out an investigation.” She added: “The UK government is effectively partaking in the cover-up, in a way that only a guilty party would.”

“..with the aim of forcibly expelling the population in service of the Israeli plan to empty the north. This has now come to be called “the Generals’ Plan.”

• This Is an Extermination’ (Muaddi)

Tens of thousands of displaced Palestinians across northern Gaza have been forced on a death march by the Israeli army since Monday, October 21. Northern Gaza is being emptied of its inhabitants, and one of Israel’s strategies in achieving this goal is to take out the area’s few remaining social institutions: hospitals. As part of its ongoing offensive on northern Gaza, the Israeli army has been trying to clear out the entire area north of Gaza City for the past 18 days. At least 200,000 people continue to stay there, many of them fearing, according to local testimonies, that they will be targeted on the way south or in Israeli-designated “safe zones,” which have been consistently bombarded over recent months. The ongoing siege includes a second siege-within-the-siege on the Jabalia refugee camp, accompanied by a massive bombing and shelling campaign that is forcing tens of thousands of people to leave their homes.

Many of them have headed to Beit Lahia, and particularly to Kamal Adwan Hospital. Over the past 18 days, the hospital has been issuing daily calls for help, warning of an imminent humanitarian catastrophe. The Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia is one of three functioning hospitals in the northern Gaza governorate. The hospital is the only fully functional medical center in the north, with a specialized neonatal section for newborns. The two other hospitals in Gaza are barely functional. The Indonesian Hospital in the town of Sheikh Zayed went out of services last week after Israeli troops besieged it and invaded its surroundings. Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, smaller in size, has suspended most of its services and only functions at a limited capacity. On Tuesday, October 22, the al-Awda Hospital’s director, Bakr Abu Safiyeh, told al-Ghad TV that Israeli quadcopter drones were opening fire directly on the hospital.

Dr. Baker said that Israeli quadcopters were also opening fire on anybody moving in the streets, including ambulances. According to the hospital director, an Israeli strike targeted an ambulance carrying a mother who had just given birth. The mother was killed, Dr. Baker said, and the baby was later found alive by rescue teams and was taken to Kamal Adwan Hospital’s neonatal section. Named after Kamal Adwan, a Palestinian resistance leader assassinated by Israel in Beirut in 1973, the hospital has become a central destination for the wounded and the displaced. Like most other hospitals in Gaza over the past year of genocidal war, Kamal Adwan Hospital is the only remaining public space in northern Gaza that offers services and provides shelter, representing the backbone of Gazan civil society and social cohesion. That is why Israel is targeting it, with the aim of forcibly expelling the population in service of the Israeli plan to empty the north. This has now come to be called “the Generals’ Plan.”

Two weeks before Israel began the current siege, Netanyahu told Israeli lawmakers that he was considering the “Generals’ plan,” so named for the proposal put forward by senior Israeli army officials in early September based on the vision of retired Israeli general Giora Eiland, who wrote an Op-Ed a year ago explaining how northern Gaza should be emptied of the entire population through mass starvation and extermination.

“No toddler gets shot twice by mistake by ‘the world’s best snipers.’ And they’re dead-center shots..”

• Kill Them All: Israel’s Extermination Of Palestinians In Gaza (Cradle)

The holocaust engulfing Palestinians in Gaza has reached unimaginable levels of horror, epitomized by a harrowing video that swept across social media of 19-year-old Shaaban al-Dalou, burning to death while still connected to an IV drip. This was no isolated tragedy – it was emblematic of the escalating genocide. On 13 October, an Israeli airstrike ignited the makeshift tents sheltering dozens of displaced Palestinian families in the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. Amidst the inferno, Dalou’s 17-year-old brother Mohammed described his agony: “I can’t describe the feeling. I saw my brother burning in front of me, and my mother was burning.” Mohammed had managed to escape when he heard the strike, but his brother Shaban and their mother did not. His father saved his 10-year-old brother from the flames, only for the child to succumb to his burns days later, according to the New York Times.

The horrifying video was followed a week later by photos showing soldiers expelling Palestinians from half-destroyed residential blocks at gunpoint. Israeli drone footage published by Israel’s public broadcaster Kan captured images of Palestinians rounded up and forced to walk south through Gaza’s post-apocalyptic landscape without any possessions. Many Palestinians who refused to obey evacuation orders, often delivered by announcements made by hovering quadcopter drones, were massacred by Israeli artillery and airstrikes. Rescue workers and civilians attempting to save others have been shot at by Israeli forces or simply rounded up and ‘disappeared.’ There have been reports describing numerous instances where Palestinians were targeted while trying to help injured individuals. This has left the people of Gaza without any medical or emergency services, forcing a complete halt on health and civil defense services.

Even hospitals were not spared. Critically injured patients and the doctors treating them faced the same impossible ultimatum – evacuate or die. After returning home, western doctors who had volunteered in Gaza expressed their shock at how many children arrived at the hospitals, shot not only once but twice, directly in the heart and head. “No toddler gets shot twice by mistake by ‘the world’s best snipers.’ And they’re dead-center shots,” surgeon Mark Perlmutter told CBS News.

BART

BART to pay millions for firing employees who refused COVID vaccine
Six former San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District employees who were fired for refusing to receive COVID-19 vaccinations during the pandemic will be paid more than $1 million each.

The $7.8-million payout… pic.twitter.com/TyDAxGTRC8

— Camus (@newstart_2024) October 25, 2024

Cameras

How to find hidden cameras in rentals
pic.twitter.com/XFJZr7B4mP

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) October 25, 2024

Umbrella

Amazing umbrella illusionpic.twitter.com/NF86OZhnu2

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) October 25, 2024

Scooby
https://twitter.com/i/status/1849867938360345077

Sagan

Carl Sagan on books

"What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years." pic.twitter.com/TsFcxJ78Xw

— Physics In History (@PhysInHistory) October 25, 2024

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

Debt Rattle September 7 2024

Sep 072024

September 7, 2024 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 8:34 am Finance Tagged with: crypto law, endorsement, Hunter Biden, hush money, Merchan, sovereign wealth fund, YouTube 44 Responses »

Paul Gauguin Christ in the garden of olives 1889

• Judge Delays Trump’s Hush Money Sentencing Until After Election (ZH)

• Ghosts in the Machine (Kunstler)

• Hunter Biden Loses Game of Chicken With Himself (Turley)

• Hunter Biden: Plot to Clear Harris of Blot of Biden Family Corruption? (Sp.)

• Russia, Russia, Russia Rerun (Sp.)

• Biden Steals Trump’s Idea To Launch Sovereign Wealth Fund (ZH)

• The Media Lies Add Up (Victor Davis Hanson)

• Kremlin Refuses To Be Drawn On Putin’s ‘Endorsement’ Of Harris (RT)

• YouTube Bans Alleged Russia-linked Right-wing Channels (RT)

• Archaic Crypto Law Charges Reveal French Access to Private Communications (Sp.)

• The Edifying Misadventure of The Chevalier du Rove (Despot)

• Chip Roy Report On Impact Of Biden-Harris Border Policies (ZH)

• FBI Raids Homes of New York Mayor’s Allies, Police Chief (Sp.)

• War In Ukraine Must End ‘This Fall’ – Zelensky (RT)

Will Scharf is good
https://twitter.com/i/status/1832093648613454095

The psychopath admitted LIVE on CNN that her allegations were a fraud, and the judge wouldn’t allow the footage to be used in court. pic.twitter.com/acMBbqCIib https://t.co/b2qn0T90Ge

— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) September 6, 2024

Alina is a treasure
https://twitter.com/i/status/1832091397328875733

RFK
https://twitter.com/i/status/1831881225679859954

.@RobertKennedyJr says he endorsed President @realDonaldTrump for three main reasons: ending censorship, resolving the Ukraine war, and addressing the deteriorating health of American children.

"I had a series of meetings with him where he convinced me that he was absolutely… pic.twitter.com/6oqwzV5tXf

— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) September 6, 2024

JFK peace
https://twitter.com/i/status/1831883090710659336

Vivek
https://twitter.com/i/status/1831881487412547907

Many had their hopes up that Merchan would put him away. But he caved.

“..it would be inappropriate to sentence the former president this month since early voting in the presidential election has already begun..”

• Judge Delays Trump’s Hush Money Sentencing Until After Election (ZH)

The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s Manhattan criminal case has postponed his sentencing for the second time. According to Reuters, the new sentencing date has been pushed to November 26, after the presidential election on November 5. Trump’s lawyers asked Judge Juan M. Merchan, who oversaw Trump’s seven-week trial earlier this year, to postpone the September 18 sentencing. They argued there wouldn’t be enough time for the defense to appeal Merchan’s upcoming ruling on Trump’s request to overturn the conviction, citing the US Supreme Court’s landmark decision on presidential immunity. Judge Juan Merchan wrote in the court filing: “This matter is one that stands alone, in a unique place in this Nation’s history, and this Court has presided over it since its inception – from arraignment to jury verdict and a plenitude of motions and other matters in-between.

Were this Court to decide, after careful consideration of the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump, that this case should proceed, it will be faced with one of the most critical and difficult decisions a trial court judge faces – the sentencing of a defendant found guilty of crimes by a unanimous jury of his peers. “The adjournment request has now been decided in the same way this Court has decided every other issue that has arisen since the origination of this case, applying the facts and the law after carefully considering the issues and respective arguments of the parties to ensure that the integrity of the proceeding, is protected, justice is served, and the independence of this judiciary kept firmly intact.” In May, Trump was convicted by a unanimous jury on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Prosecutors said Trump signed off on the scheme to conceal reimbursements to a lawyer who wired $130,000 “hush money” payment to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Trump pleaded not guilty and denied the encounter.

The charges carry a maximum sentence of four years in jail. Most legal observers expect Trump to avoid jail time, given the alternatives to incarceration, including probation. Trump’s original sentencing was set for July 11, but it was delayed after he filed a motion to overturn his conviction, citing a landmark Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity. Trump attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove’s request for a postponement argued it would be inappropriate to sentence the former president this month since early voting in the presidential election has already begun. “By adjourning the sentencing until after that election … the Court would reduce, even if not eliminate, issues regarding the integrity of any future proceedings,” they wrote.

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told The Hill that there should be no sentencing at all in the case and that, “as mandated by the United States Supreme Court,” Trump’s hush money case and other legal matters should be dismissed. Prosecutors did not oppose the delay, leaving the decision to the judge. They noted, “The People respectfully defer to the Court on the appropriate post-trial schedule.” A Trump win in November indicates he could order the Department of Justice to drop federal election interference charges against him. However, he would not have the authority to end the case in Manhattan or an election interference case in Georgia.

NOW – President Trump delivers remarks from Trump Tower; “They’re using the Department of Justice to rig the campaign. These cases are disgraceful.”pic.twitter.com/Sf1larTcBU

— Overton (@overton_news) September 6, 2024

“Are you comforted to know that the US government is on auto-pilot, a colossal, menacing machine run by ghosts?”

• Ghosts in the Machine (Kunstler)

Russia is about to roll up on what’s left of Ukraine. Our State Department neocon division thought it was wicked-smart to start a little action there in 2014, to provoke Russia into a ruinous war against NATO (the game: “Let’s You and Him Fight”) in order, theoretically, to wreck Russia and depose Mr. Putin. Didn’t work. Do you know why? I will tell you (it’s really simple): Russia’s leadership is more intelligent than ours, and far less psychopathic. They perceived correctly that we were only wrecking ourselves. Ten years later, the Ukraine caper draws to a humiliating end for our neocons, and a ruinous end for NATO and the EU. So far this year, it appears that “Joe Biden’s” party has ceased paying attention to Ukraine. The pretty yellow and blue flags have all but disappeared — except in Massachusetts, we noticed, the most highly “educated” and most deeply insane state in the union. I’ll be interested in how Kamala Harris explains our Ukraine war policy in Tuesday’s presidential debate. Defending democracy, I suppose.

The governments of the major EU nations stupidly followed the bidding of America’s psychopathic neocons and now they ‘ll have to answer for it as their people awake to the destruction of the EU nations’ economies. Early elections will be called and globalist stooges will be swept away. The turmoil will rhyme with the chaos of 1848, a year of revolution. NATO, finding itself not just purposeless but toxic to Europe’s well-being, must dissolve as members on the periphery withdraw, some seeking to join the BRICs economic bloc. Germany, France, and the UK get sucked helplessly into a new great depression and social turmoil as they contend with many millions of hostile migrants.

Here in America, you can already hear the fake anguished cry of “Russia, Russia, Russia” echoing out of Merrick Garland’s fake Justice Department. We’re to understand that the Russians are coming for our election — more gaslight — when it’s actually the Democratic party, led surreptitiously by its lawfare cadres, Norm Eisen, Marc Elias, Andrew Weissmann, Mary McCord, Lisa Monaco, et al. Their many courtroom pranks have failed against Mr. Trump. Judge Chutkan was bloviating in the DC federal court this week to generate a little heat on MSNBC, but her case has a wooden stake through its heart and Xs where its eyes used to be.

Up in New York, Judge Juan Merchan pretends to wrassle with whether or not to start Civil War Two by remanding Mr. Trump to Rikers Island on September 18 (I doubt that happens). In the event, though, I believe Mr. Trump might simply say, “No thank you,” and go about his business running for president. That would be a counter-prank I’d be eager to see. Who gets in the act then? Federal marshals? The FBI (ha!)? The Supreme Court term begins the first Monday in October. They could have something to say about the steaming pile of horseshit that was Alvin Bragg’s and Mathew Colangelo’s case. (Also, Weissmann’s, Eisen’s, Monaco’s, and McCord’s.)

Gawd knows where things might stand after next Tuesday’s great debate. The rules are pretty stringent. No candidates questioning each other. No audience. No confab with staff during commercial breaks. The mute buttons will be on. Without her “I’m speaking” routine, Ms. Harris has. . . zotz. All Mr. Trump really has to do is be polite for 90-minutes. More than a few people, meanwhile, are beginning to ask who is running the country, since “Joe Biden” is mostly off-duty, beaching it, not attending cabinet meetings, and probably not being consulted on any number of matters being carried out in his name. Are you comforted to know that the US government is on auto-pilot, a colossal, menacing machine run by ghosts?

“If Hunter still hopes for a presidential commutation or pardon, the chances of such executive action is dramatically improved after a sentencing.”

• Hunter Biden Loses Game of Chicken With Himself (Turley)

Hunter Biden just showed the perils of playing the game of chicken with yourself. For months, many of us have marveled at the sight of Hunter careening toward a cliff while declaring publicly that he was prepared to go all the way. The Justice Department was never going over the cliff because they had nothing to gain or lose in open-and-shut cases in Delaware and California. There was never a serious question of convicting Hunter of these crimes, just a will of the Justice Department to secure them. Special Counsel David Weiss inexplicably allowed serious felonies to expire, refused to bring obvious crimes as an unregistered foreign agent, and sought to cut an embarrassing sweetheart deal with Hunter to avoid any jail time on a couple of minor crimes. The deal then collapsed in open court when a judge balked at a provision that would give Hunter sweeping immunity for any crime.

When she asked the federal prosecutor if he had ever seen such a plea bargain offered a defendant other than the President’s son, he admitted that he had not. That is when the chest pounding began. Unwilling to accept anything but the sweetheart deal, Hunter’s defense counsel told the prosecutors in court to “just rip it up.” They did and Weiss was forced to actually prosecute Hunter.According to the Justice Department, Weiss continued to try to cut a plea bargain with Hunter but was rebuffed by the defense. They then went to Delaware, the home of the Bidens, and tried to convince a sympathetic jury that Hunter was a drug addict who was not responsible for his action as well as other unsupported claims. It failed in spectacular fashion with a conviction on all counts. Hunter then floored it for the California cliff on the tax charges as the Justice Department and most of us watched confused about how he was trying to intimidate. He hit the brakes as the trial was beginning.

Hunter has succeeded in putting himself in the worst possible position for a plea. He waited until he had little to trade and reportedly did not even inform the prosecutors of his decision. But it gets worse. If he had agreed to a less generous plea deal last year, he could have secured a recommended sentence on both the gun and tax charges. Instead, he will go into this sentencing with a past criminal record, an aggravating factor that could reduce the benefit of the belated plea. In the end, Hunter had nothing to offer, nothing to bargain. He plead guilty to all nine counts. This decision may still be based more on political than legal calculations. Hunter was almost certain to be convicted. But it would have taken time as his father’s administration (and pardon authority) wanes. If Hunter still hopes for a presidential commutation or pardon, the chances of such executive action is dramatically improved after a sentencing.

The White House rarely considers pardons before a trial and sentencing. Indeed, they often wait for appeals to run their course. Moreover, a demand for jail time seems likely from the Justice Department given this history and it is equally likely to be granted. If that sentence is lengthy, it will add pressure on President Biden to take action with a commutation or pardon. If President Biden does violate his promise to not pardon Hunter, it would not be a surprise for many. In 2022, I wrote that the President could resign or withdraw as a candidate and pardon Hunter. I referred to this as “break-the-glass option”: “He would end his political career with an act as a father, which some would condemn but most would understand.”

He counts on his dad if Kamala loses.

• Hunter Biden: Plot to Clear Harris of Blot of Biden Family Corruption? (Sp.)

President Joe Biden’s son Hunter has pleaded guilty to all nine counts against him in a sprawling, $1.4 million tax evasion case highlighting his history of indulgence in drugs and hookers. The surprise resolution of the case came just days before opening statements in his trial were set to begin. If it had proceeded, the trial would have likely run through the remainder of Joe Biden’s presidency, and proven politically damaging for the Biden’s successor – Vice President Kamala Harris, just two months out from the November 5 election. Hunter Biden faces up to 17 years in jail and fines of up to $1.2 million in the tax case, although observers expect leniency for the 54-year-old businessman – whose business allegedly included an elaborate influence-peddling scheme involving the selling of access to his powerful father for cash. Sentencing in the tax case is set for December 16.

The guilty plea adds to Biden’s conviction in a Delaware court in June on three felony counts related to a 2018 handgun purchase, for which he could get up to 25 years in jail. The judge in the case did not set a sentencing date. Hunter Biden has followed his father like a corruption ball and chain since 2020 when, just weeks from the November election, the New York Post began the publication of a series of stories based on information from his recovered lost laptop about his alleged pay-to-play dealings. The stories threatened to derail the Biden campaign, were it not for social media companies’ move to censor them as ‘Russian disinformation’ – claims which tech execs including Mark Zuckerberg later confirmed were bogus. The Harris campaign has already made a push to carefully distance itself from Biden on some issues, from capital gains taxes to the Border wall, and may now hope that Biden’s tax charges guilty plea will conclude the Hunter Biden saga, or at least leave him out of the spotlight until safely after the election.

Hmmm. Still think they accepted a lot of money. Without too many questions.

• Russia, Russia, Russia Rerun (Sp.)

Western media outlets are fervently perpetuating the narrative of “Russian meddling in the US election.” As this fabricated story intensifies, marked by sanctions, indictments, and the seizure of web domains labeled as “influenced by the Kremlin” according to US officials, an increasing number of media sources are jumping on the bandwagon. The New York Times noted that American spy agencies have assessed that the Kremlin “favors” Donald Trump, and warned how the US was “caught flat-footed in 2016” over Russia’s alleged (and unproven) endeavors to ‘influence’ American elections. ABC News said that the US was rushing to “take aim at Russian disinformation” just weeks ahead of the November elections.

The Washington Post dove in for a closer look at what it described as a pro-Trump “supergroup” allegedly bankrolled by Russia. The six right-wing influencers involved are currently engaged in damage control, asserting on social media that if the allegations prove to be true, they should be regarded as “victims” of this supposed “plot.” Forbes also threw its focus on Tenet’s talent roster of six influencers: Tim Pool, Dave Rubin, Benny Johnson, Lauren Southern, Taylor Hansen and Matt Christiansen. Together, the content-creators boasted a cumulative YouTube subscriber count of 7.16 million, noted the outlet. Also, Germany’s Die Welt ran with a headline that warned of “deep fakes being spread by Moscow.”

On Wednesday, the United States imposed sanctions against the Rossiya Segodnya media group, RIA Novosti, RT, Sputnik and Ruptly. The new measures also affected Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of Sputnik’s parent media group Rossiya Segodnya. “Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated ten individuals and two entities as part of a coordinated US government response to Moscow’s malign influence efforts targeting the 2024 US presidential election,” a statement released on Wednesday said.

“..Bloomberg had to make it seem that Biden had been working on their version of Trump’s idea “for months” and that’s precisely what it said..”

• Biden Steals Trump’s Idea To Launch Sovereign Wealth Fund (ZH)

Two days ago when president Trump first floated the idea of a sovereign wealth fund… hard-core Democrats and/or socialist billionaires balked at the idea, mocking it as wannabe Saudi Arabia. Trump, speaking to economic leaders on Thursday, said he envisioned the fund as a way to address persistent debt issues and said it would be funded through his plan to impose tariffs on all imports. “We’ll be able to invest in state-of-the-art manufacturing hubs, advanced defense capabilities, cutting-edge medical research and help save billions of dollars in preventing disease in the first place,” Trump said. “And it is many of the people in this room who will be helping to advise and recommend investments for this fund.”

But expect all the leftist critics to positively love the idea now, just a few hours later, because late on Friday Bloomberg reported that the Kamala/Biden admin has stolen yet another idea from Trump (after eliminating tax on tips, and stimulating new business creation): aides to Joe Biden “have been crafting a proposal to create a sovereign wealth fund” that would allow the US to invest in national security interests including technology, energy, and critical links in the supply chain, a person familiar with the effort, told Bloomberg. As Bloomberg admits, the “behind-the-scenes work” by NSA Jake Sullivan and his deputy, Daleep Singh, mirrors – at least in spirit – a proposal floated Thursday by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who called for a government-owned investment fund to finance “great national endeavors” during a speech to the Economic Club of New York.

Of course, it would look just a little suspicious if the admin of the president in absentia were to float a wealth fund idea just one day after Trump did the same, so Bloomberg had to make it seem that Biden had been working on their version of Trump’s idea “for months” and that’s precisely what it said: “Sullivan and Singh have been working on the project for months across a series of weekly brainstorming efforts, and have met with economic experts on the National Security Council to debate the size, structure, funding, leadership, and potential guardrails for a proposed fund.” It “wasn’t clear if it was the “sources” that clarified on the ongoing duration of the project, or just Bloomberg’s attempt to make the latest policy theft appear a bit more organic. It gets funnier: “The work has progressed to the point where planning documents have been circulated among White House staffers and key agencies, according to the person familiar, who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.”

Sure it has: and Biden waited until 2 months before the end of his presidency to make the push… or rather waht push: “But even as the work has progressed, key details — including, critically, the fund’s structure, funding model, and investment strategy — remain unclear.” And so, just like every aspect in Kamala’s policy agenda, we’ll have to wait for Trump to reveal the details of his own plan before “sources” leak what Biden was working on before he decided to hit Rehoboth beach permanently after Nancy Pelosi’s July putsch. One thing is certain though: whether it its Trump or the puppetmasters who control Kamala, a SWF – especially one of material size in the $1+ trillion range – will lead to another sharp spike in US debt, pushing US debt sharply higher from its latest record daily print just over $35.3 trillion, and making holders of non fiat assets richer as the US careens toward a monetary and fiscal solvency crisis.

“..they have all but destroyed democracy, ruined the reputation of the media, alienated the public—and embarrassed their country before the world.”

• The Media Lies Add Up (Victor Davis Hanson)

On the eve of the first 2020 debate, Biden aide and now Secretary of State Antony Blinken helped to round up “51 former intelligence authorities” to claim falsely that Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop—full of incriminating evidence of felonious Biden family behavior—was fabricated by the Russians. Yet the FBI already had the laptop and had authenticated it as genuine. The FBI was also actively enlisting Silicon Valley social media companies to suppress accurate news accounts of the laptop’s embarrassing contents—ostensibly to aid the Biden campaign. The signees of the false letter included former intelligence kingpins such as Leon Panetta, James Clapper, and John Brennan. None has ever apologized for deliberating lying to the country in a (successful) attempt to help alter an election. During the summer of 2021, top military officials, at least publicly, parroted the Biden administration’s lie that it was safe to abruptly withdraw all troops from Afghanistan.

The Biden plan was to take political credit for ending the two-decade-long war on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and the American invasion of Afghanistan.Yet many intelligence officials in and outside the Pentagon had warned both Biden and the Pentagon top brass that any such reckless and total withdrawal would collapse Afghanistan.They rightly also advised that sudden flight would give terrorists a windfall of equipment and infrastructure. But they were ignored and during the subsequent Biden misadventure, thirteen American Marines were needlessly killed. After the greatest military humiliation in a half-century, Biden and many in the media lied that the mission was nevertheless a successful withdrawal. But that was not all. For the first time in history, a presidential candidate, Donald Trump, was subjected to numerous criminal and civil suits in an election year.

Yet the federal prosecutor, Jack Smith, met with Biden officials. A high-ranking Biden Justice federal attorney joined the New York municipal prosecution. The Georgia prosecutor met stealthily with Biden’s legal counsel. And a major Biden donor funded the civil suit. The once collusion-hungry media ignored all such lawfare and rank collusion. During the 2020 Democratic primaries, the general election, and throughout the first three years of the Biden administration, it was evident that Joe Biden was physically and mentally incapable of serving as president. Yet his aides and the media all misled the American people. They insisted that Biden was vigorous and sharp. Then suddenly in June 2024, within a 24-hour period, Biden was declared by these same insiders as unfit to continue as the Democratic nominee. Their new problem with Biden was not just his long-standing embarrassing dementia.

Rather bad polls increasingly warned that voters no longer believed their lies and thus would likely not reelect Biden but would instead punish most Democrats in the upcoming 2024 election. So, a new media narrative arose: the once-hale Biden was forced to resign as the Democrat nominee. His once widely caricatured vice president, Kamala Harris, just as abruptly was coronated as his replacement candidate by an equally suddenly gushing and colluding media. In sum, for some nine years, the media and the left have successfully fed the country a succession of rank deceptions and conspiracies. They did so because they proclaimed Donald Trump too dangerous to be president and therefore any means they employed to stop him were to be justified. And they are doing so yet a third time in 2024. As they continue, they have all but destroyed democracy, ruined the reputation of the media, alienated the public—and embarrassed their country before the world.

”As for his tone, people abroad who are interested in it should reflect on it. Let’s not steal the opportunity to do so..”

• Kremlin Refuses To Be Drawn On Putin’s ‘Endorsement’ Of Harris (RT)

People are free to interpret the tone of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s remarks about his preferred candidate in the upcoming US presidential election any way they like, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday. He was commenting on the reaction to statements made by the Russian leader the previous day during a panel discussion. Putin said he favored Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee, since she has the backing of President Joe Biden. She also “laughs infectiously,” Putin added, suggesting that Harris would not be as likely to impose new sanctions on Russia. Peskov said American domestic politics is not at the top of the Russian president’s agenda, but that he does comment on international affairs when asked.

”As for his tone, people abroad who are interested in it should reflect on it. Let’s not steal the opportunity to do so,” the official added. Moscow would rather not be dragged into American affairs, but does not expect Russia to stop being used as a foil for US domestic politics anytime soon, Peskov said. Washington routinely accuses the Russian government of “meddling” and “interfering” in American elections, which Moscow denies. The White House on Thursday rebuked Putin’s remark, with John Kirby, its national security spokesman, stating that he “ought to stop talking about our elections, period.” Meanwhile former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, reacted by saying that he was not sure whether to be insulted by Putin’s words or take them as a favor to him.

Officials in Moscow have repeatedly denied having a preference for either candidate, since they believe neither would improve US relations with Russia. Some US media interpreted Putin’s “endorsement” of Harris as a form of trolling, similarly to his previously expressed support for Biden. In February, he described the US leader a predictable old-school politician, unlike Trump. Biden has since dropped out of the race amid unfavorable opinion polls and pressure from donors and party heavyweights.

“..testifies to the irreversible degradation of the democratic state in the United States and its transformation into a totalitarian neoliberal dictatorship.”

• YouTube Bans Alleged Russia-linked Right-wing Channels (RT)

YouTube has removed five right-wing political channels linked to what the US Department of Justice (DOJ) claims is a Russian effort to sow division in America and influence its domestic landscape. In a statement cited by the Washington Post on Thursday, the Google-owned video hosting service said it had “terminated” the accounts of the Tenet Media company and four other entities linked to conservative commentator Lauren Chen in a bid “to combat coordinated influence operations.” The move comes after the DOJ on Wednesday charged two Russians, identified as RT employees, with violating the Foreign Agents Act, money laundering, and illegally funneling millions of dollars to US-based entities to promote Moscow’s narrative on various politically charged issues.

While the DOJ did not directly name the company which was allegedly involved in those activities, saying only that it was based in Tennessee and had posted around 2,000 videos since its launch in November 2023, some observers and social media users suggested that the indictment referred to Tenet Media.The company was founded by Chen and her husband Liam Donovan in early 2022 and often features right-wing influencers that provide commentary on such topics as immigration, inflation, and foreign policy.

Following the indictment, conservative outlet Blaze Media said, as quoted by Semafor, that it had terminated a contact with Chen, whom it described as “an independent contractor,” without providing an explanation for the move. In a separate development, the US Treasury Department on Wednesday sanctioned several Russian nationals, including RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan and three other senior RT employees, over alleged efforts to influence the US election. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has denounced the new restrictions, arguing that the move “testifies to the irreversible degradation of the democratic state in the United States and its transformation into a totalitarian neoliberal dictatorship.”

“..an obscure, never-used twenty-year-old law obliging companies providing cryptography tools to inform the French Cybersecurity Agency..”

• Archaic Crypto Law Charges Reveal French Access to Private Communications (Sp.)

The Durov saga in France and the continued efforts by countries around the world to crack down on his popular cloud-based, end-to-end encrypted private messenger and social media software has divulged a string of embarrassing details about the sorry state of internet privacy and freedom of information. Two of the six charges facing Telegram CEO Pavel Durov in France are grounded in an obscure, never-used twenty-year-old law obliging companies providing cryptography tools to inform the French Cybersecurity Agency (French acronym ANSSI) and grant it access to the software’s source code and “a description of [its] technical characteristics.” The 2004 law – uniquely blunt in its demand that companies divulge info about the tech tools used for private communications, is being used against Durov by accusing him of providing encrypted communications services “without certified declaration.”

The legal requirement also means, if it is applied evenly across the board, that the array of instant messengers available to French users, from WhatsApp and Signal to iMessage and the French-made Olvid ‘secure’ messenger used by the French government, do comply with ANSSI regulations, meaning French intelligence can potentially spy on any or all French users at any time. Adding credence to this idea is the fact that Pavel Durov is reportedly the first-ever tech mogul to be charged under the 2004 law, and the fact that many big-name tech companies have been silent on the Durov case, with the exception of Proton CEO Andy Yen, who characterized the charges against the Russian-born tech mogul as “economic suicide” that’s “rapidly and permanently changing the perception of founders and investors” toward France.

“If sustained, I don’t see how tech founders could possibly travel to France, much less hire in France,” Yen wrote last week. The law is also reminiscent of the case against WikiLeaks cofounder Julian Assange, who was threatened with decades of jail time by the US under the obscure Espionage Act of 1917, even though that he was not an American citizen, and a publisher, not a spy. Former president Donald Trump was charged under the same act in his classified documents case, which got thrown out by a judge in July.

“America is a stage where standing ovations are paid at the price of blood..”

• The Edifying Misadventure of The Chevalier du Rove (Despot)

The owner of Telegram, as far as we know, is still in France. The bird without a nest now lives with a police ankle tag on its foot. It is still unclear why he himself landed in the trap set. But we are beginning to understand how he thinks. The intelligence services too, no doubt. More than thirty years ago, when he was living in Paris, Edward Limonov gave me a very valuable piece of advice: ‘Do whatever you want, but avoid making out with the French police. They are the toughest bastards.’ Limonov had been expelled from the USSR before landing in the New York underground, so he knew a bit about police in many places. Limonov was not only a political punk, but also a very good writer. In his collection of short stories about Russia in decay which we had published in French (La sentinelle assassinée, ed. L’Age d’Homme), he dissected the anatomy of certain Russian illusions about the West.

In a piece named ‘A Tragedy of Ignorance’ he delivered the burlesque and heartbreaking story of the exodus of a family of Soviet musicians who had enjoyed great success playing jazz. Drunk with glory, they had convinced themselves that it was nothing to succeed in Russia if one did not succeed in America. In the homeland of jazz! The unfortunate people did not know where they were setting foot. America is a stage where standing ovations are paid at the price of blood. Fooled by promises without cover, rushed into tours as exhausting as they were low-paying, they had ended up crashing in a poorly maintained plane. Limonov would have done better to address his warning to the founder of Telegram, but would the Chevalier du Rove have listened to it? Anyway, the bird without a nest now lives with a police ankle tag on its foot. Unless otherwise indicated, he has not tried to flee his new homeland where he faces twenty years in prison. Around the world, there is speculation about the reasons and the behind-the-scenes story of his arrest.

His personality interests us in two ways. Both as a product and illustration of a certain mentality specific to the westernized Russian intelligentsia, and as a geopolitical factor because Pavel Durov is the sole owner-at least that’s what he claims-of the most coveted internet messaging service in the world. Last May, Tucker Carlson travelled to Dubai to record a very captivating interview with Durov. That was mainly about the fight against censorship, the independence of ideas and freedom of movement, and the best way to resist the global Leviathan. Perhaps Carlson had oriented the interview according to his own domestic political imperatives, where the fight against Democratic media censorship plays a central role. In any case, this interview undoubtedly contributed to imposing a certain ‘reading’ of the Parisian incident.

After the captive, let’s take a look at the jailer. Since the Gilets Jaunes revolt, the French state has established for itself a solid reputation as an enemy of freedoms. It is from France, in particular, that the largest number of blocking requests to Twitter came before it was taken over by Elon Musk. The Macronian apparatchik Thierry Breton, France’s nominee as European Commissioner, exported this Orwellian craze to the European Union with extravagant high-handedness until he was disavowed by the Eurocrats themselves. Macron and his henchmen had set a trap for the new Julian Assange to gag him and his network. The accusation of complicity in paedophilia or terrorism was just their alibi. It was that simple. Maybe. But there are also less romantic ways of looking at events.

“..the “ultimate goal” of the Democratic party is to grant citizenship to “all 11 million or however many” illegals in the country..”

• Chip Roy Report On Impact Of Biden-Harris Border Policies (ZH)

Democrats have made no secret that they plan to grant blanket amnesty to tens of millions of illegal immigrants who flooded into the country after President Joe Biden shredded President Trump’s sweeping efforts to secure the border – and whose worst elements are committing heinous crimes and taking over apartment complexes in several major Democrat-run cities. The plan appears to be to provide Democrats with a reliable stream of votes, no matter the cost to the country (which, according to the NY Post, was $150 billion last year). That’s not hyperbole – last week Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) openly stated that the Democrat party’s plan is to turn all “undocumented” migrants into “documented” ones, and supported the idea of providing subsidized housing to illegal aliens.

And Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) made it clear in a resurfaced 2022 speech that the “ultimate goal” of the Democratic party is to grant citizenship to “all 11 million or however many” illegals in the country. According to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), the plan is “ALL about getting Democrat votes.” Meanwhile, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) has released a lengthy report detailing how the Biden-Harris immigration allowed a flood of noncitizens to “fundamentally transform” the United States. Roy notably sticks to government statistics (second only to lies and damn lies) for his report, citing just 8.5 million illegal migrants – though the number is far higher according to some estimates. Key points:

• Over 8.5 million illegal aliens have crossed the U.S. southern border since the Biden-Harris administration took office, exceeding the population of 37 states.
• The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released 5.6 million illegal aliens into the U.S., and 1.9 million “got-aways” have evaded capture.
• Border Patrol is overwhelmed, suffering from low morale and recruitment levels, leading to a significant increase in agent suicides.
• Fentanyl, primarily produced by Mexican drug cartels using Chinese chemicals, has led to nearly 75,000 American deaths in 2023.
• Criminal activities committed by illegal aliens, including murders and assaults, have spiked under the Biden-Harris administration.
• At least 169 known or suspected terrorists were arrested at the southern border in FY 2023.
• Mexican cartels have increased their profits to over $13 billion a year through human smuggling and drug trafficking operations.
• States like Texas have spent billions on border security, citing a lack of federal support.
• Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are facilitating illegal immigration, funded by U.S. taxpayers.
• The Biden-Harris administration’s catch-and-release policies have contributed to a surge in crime and human trafficking.
• There has been a significant rise in illegal aliens from non-Western countries, especially China, with record numbers crossing the border in FY 2024.
• The number of illegal aliens involved in crimes has increased, with many committing serious offenses after being released into the U.S.
• Thousands of migrant children have been lost by U.S. authorities, with over 320,000 minors unaccounted for as of 2024.
• Venezuelan gangs, like Tren de Aragua, are committing crimes in major U.S. cities.

Pelosi+

Two prominent Democrats — Schumer and Pelosi — are now on record pushing for immediate citizenship for the untold millions of illegals in the country.

Getting as many across the border as possible in order to convert them to votes was always the plan.

Now they’ve admitted it. pic.twitter.com/1g34AgkP2j

— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) September 5, 2024

Squeaky clean, I’m sure.

• FBI Raids Homes of New York Mayor’s Allies, Police Chief (Sp.)

Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) officers have raided the homes of New York Police Department (NYPD) Commissioner Edward Caban and other senior city officials in Mayor Eric Adams’ administration, according to media reports. The reason for the action against the top New York City officials was not immediately known and the FBI did not comment. Shockwaves rippled across the political and economic elite of the US metropolis as news broke of the raids that occurred early Wednesday at the residences of Caban and New York deputy mayors Phil Banks and Sheena Wright. Cellphones of the implicated officials were seized as well to aid in investigations, reports claim. “I’ve been around a long time and that’s never happened before,” said CNN analyst and former NYPD deputy commissioner for counterterrorism John Miller.

“I would say that this is the first time in history that a sitting New York City Police Commissioner has been visited by his colleagues from federal law enforcement who have said, ‘hand over your electronic devices pursuant to a grand jury subpoena.’”Mayor Adams’ office has distanced itself from the investigations, The New York Times reported.”Investigators have not indicated to us the mayor or his staff are targets of any investigation,” Adams’ Chief Counsel Lisa Zornberg said in a statement made available to the Times. “As a former member of law enforcement, the mayor has repeatedly made clear that all members of the team need to follow the law.” At least two more figures in Adams’ inner circle were also subjected to FBI scrutiny according to reports, with senior Adams aide Timothy Pearson and former Metropolitan Transport Authority official Terence Banks, the brother of the deputy mayor, also being searched.

Reports claimed deputy mayor Banks abruptly resigned as department chief of the NYPD in 2014 amid a federal bribery investigation in which agents allegedly uncovered evidence that he had accepted thousands of dollars in free meals and sports tickets.Additionally, prior to this week the home of Brianna Suggs, the top fundraiser for Adams’s mayoral campaign, was raided in November 2023. The FBI was reportedly investigating whether the campaign “conspired with the Turkish government and others to funnel money into its coffers”. The reports added that since Adams took office in January 2022 his campaign had ignored multiple requests from city regulators to disclose the identities of more than 500 supporters who provided $300,000 in contributions to his campaign.

The controversial mayor has raised eyebrows for appointing many of his close friends to top positions in the city. In addition to Banks and Wright, Adams — himself a former New York police captain — hired longtime friend Lisa White as deputy commissioner for employee relations at the NYPD, with an annual salary of more than $241,000.

Easy. Step 1: you step down.

• War In Ukraine Must End ‘This Fall’ – Zelensky (RT)

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has urged NATO countries to pressure Russia to agree to Kiev’s peace terms this fall. He made his statement during a meeting with US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany. Regular gatherings at Ramstein are designed to coordinate military aid to Kiev. Zelensky urged Western countries to help arrange joint production of weapons on Ukrainian soil, including drones and missiles. “To achieve this, we need funding – we are ready to quickly produce everything that will help us bring this war to an end, namely, by putting decisive pressure on Russia for real peace,” Zelensky said, according to his website. “Let’s make this fall a time for Russian aggression to fall – in a way that will end the war and restore a reliable international security order.”

Austin also stressed the importance of weapons manufacturing, saying that the US was “working with Ukraine to design and build a substitute for the S-300 surface-to-air missile system and the R-27 air-to-air missile.” Washington has set aside more than $200 million to purchase “critical components” to allow Ukraine to make drones and electronic-warfare systems, he said. Kiev has faced several setbacks on the battlefield in recent months, with the Russian troops steadily making gains in the Donbass and advancing towards the city of Pokrovsk. In the hope of forcing Moscow to recall most of its soldiers from the Donbass, Ukraine launched an invasion in Russia’s Kursk Region on August 6, capturing several villages and the border city of Sudzha. The Russian advances have not stopped, however.

By sending its most well-equipped and experienced units in Kursk, the Ukrainian army has “weakened” its positions on other fronts, Russian President Vladimir Putin said this week. He added that the Russian forces have only increased their push in the Donbass. Peace negotiations between Moscow and Kiev broke down in the spring of 2022. Moscow has since stated that Zelensky’s demand to restore Ukraine to its 1991 borders was completely unacceptable. Speaking on Monday, Putin said that Russia was ready to reopen peace negotiations, but only on its own terms. But Moscow needs to neutralize Ukrainian attempts to “destabilize the situation” in Kursk and other border regions first, he stressed.

Questions

I have so many questions pic.twitter.com/lFiqZp0f6N

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) September 6, 2024

Toll road

The elephant toll road
pic.twitter.com/L4ABhSjOcL

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) September 6, 2024

Lion

A lion fell asleep in the wrong territory and got a rude awakening from the lionessespic.twitter.com/5xaUTZd1QI

— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) September 6, 2024

The future of energy
https://twitter.com/i/status/1832068739203821610

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

Debt Rattle August 8 2024

Aug 082024

August 8, 2024 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:34 am Finance Tagged with: Defund Police, Hunter Biden, Kamala Harris, No Kings Act, sanctuary city, Scott Ritter, Taylor Swift, Tim Walz 52 Responses »

Henry Bacon General View of the Acropolis at Sunset 1900(?)

• Stolen Valor: Walz Bailed On Iraq Tour, Then Lied About Combat Deployment (ZH)

• The GOP Plan To Handle Tim Walz, ‘Ideological Soul Mate’ of Harris (RCW)

• Minnesota National Guard Confirms VP Nominee Tim Walz Demoted (JTN)

• Kamala Donated To ‘Defund Police’ Group Pushing For DC Sanctuary City (ZH)

• US Arms Makers Refusing To Invest In Ukraine (RT)

• EU Hails Incursion Into Russia As Ukraine’s Right To ‘Self-defense’ (RT)

• Ukraine Spreading ‘Terrorism’ Around The World – Zakharova (RT)

• Fourth African State Sanctions Ukraine For ‘Supporting Terrorism’ (RT)

• Why Did America Give Away Its Manufacturing Jobs? (Paul Craig Roberts)

• FBI Raids Scott Ritter’s House (RT)

• Vienna Cancels Taylor Swift Concerts Over ISIS Attack Fears (RT)

• Hunter Biden Got ‘Millions’ of Dollars From Romania to Influence US Gov’t (Sp.)

• The “No Kings Act” is a Decapitation of the Constitution (Turley)

• Crazed Authoritarians Demand X Be Shut Down in UK (MN)

BACKFIRE! Team Trump already up with SAVAGE Ad against ‘weird’ Tim Waltz. Holy smokes. This will stick.

Good luck selling this psychotic lunatic to parents and suburban moms.

Kiss 2024 goodbye pic.twitter.com/qsEjqxnUDh

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) August 6, 2024

"As soon as the shots were fired in Iraq, he turned and ran the other way and hung his hat up and quit."

Did You Know: Tim Walz is credibly accused by fellow soldiers of being a "Stolen Valor" Socialist?pic.twitter.com/cjOKVFD37h

— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) August 7, 2024

Shellenberger

Tim Walz insists he's a moderate, but he waited 3 days before deploying the National Guard to quash BLM riots, he created a Covid “snitch line,” and he doubled down drugs and surgeries for kids and teens confused about their gender. https://t.co/ZwhYg66tnw pic.twitter.com/imOEDcUyQn

— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) August 6, 2024

Pelosi

NOW – Nancy Pelosi on Harris choosing Walz; “She’s going to be elected President of the United States. It’s not a question of who can help you win, it’s who can help you lead and guide the country into the future, and the combination has a certain magic.” pic.twitter.com/MI4QtOGr6j

— Overton (@OvertonLive) August 7, 2024

Somalia

So the Dems picked the old white guy who is responsible for turning Minnesota into a Somalian colony?

They aren’t even hiding it anymore. The same thing they did to Minnesota, they plan on doing to the entire country.

Look at the UK right now. That’s what they want for America. pic.twitter.com/SHPcZUWXiS

— Clandestine (@WarClandestine) August 6, 2024

Sinwar
https://twitter.com/i/status/1821017557538590978

Victor Davis Hanson: “Anything That Didn’t Kill [Trump] Made Him Stronger”

Did they vet this guy at all? He bailed on his National Guard battalion when he heard he would be deployed to Iraq, and you want to put him second in line for Commander-in-Chief?

• Stolen Valor: Walz Bailed On Iraq Tour, Then Lied About Combat Deployment (ZH)

Kamala Harris’ VP pick Tim Walz has come under fire over his extreme left-wing policies, from joking about helping illegal immigrants into the country by investing in a ‘ladder company,’ to signing a law that gives them driver’s licenses, to delaying the deployment of the National Guard during the Georger Floyd riots. And while there’s much more to discuss, Walz has come under the most intense scrutiny for embellishing his military record, when in reality he bailed on his National Guard battalion – instead running off to Congress after learning that he would be deployed to Iraq.”On May 16th, 2005, [Walz] quit, betraying his country, leaving the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion and its Soldiers hanging; without its senior Non-Commissioned Officer, as the battalion prepared for war,” wrote retired Command Sergeants Major Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr in a 2018 letter posted to Facebook.

The pair further criticized Walz for abandoning the National Guard for Congress despite being fully aware that he could have requested permission from the Pentagon to seek office while on active duty. And instead of filing the proper paperwork to ensure a smooth transition out of the military, Walz “instead … slithered out the door,” the letter reads, adding that Walz “embellished and selectively omitted facts of his military career for years.” Trump VP pick JD Vance ripped Walz in a press conference, saying “What bothers me about Tim Walz is the stolen valor garbage. Do not pretend to be something you’re not. And if he wants to criticize me for getting an Ivy League education, I’m proud […] I was able to make something of myself and I would be ashamed if I was him and I lied about my military service like he did.” (X via @townhallcom). What’s more, Walz lied – telling a crowd that he was in fact deployed. “I carried weapons of war in war,” he said. Walz insists he has an “honorable record.”

J.D. Vance fires back at Tim Walz after he mocked him for attending Yale:

"What bothers me about Tim Walz is the stolen valor garbage. Do not pretend to be something you’re not. And if he wants to criticize me for getting an Ivy League education, I'm proud […] I was able to… pic.twitter.com/0qt3waifq2

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 7, 2024

“..Democrats have “shifted so far to the left as a whole that candidates as extreme as Kamala Harris, as extreme as Tim Walz, are now considered mainstream.”

• The GOP Plan To Handle Tim Walz, ‘Ideological Soul Mate’ of Harris (RCW)

Democrats are eager to introduce Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to the country. He is a veteran who used the GI Bill to get to college, a former public-school teacher who coached high school football, and a two-term governor of a midwestern state with a record of accomplishments on behalf of working-class families. Republicans are just as excited. Despite his Rust Belt resume, they say Vice President Harris has selected a radical as her running mate. In an interview with RealClearPolitics, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley said, “Tim Walz is really, truly her ideological soulmate.” The emerging Republican plan to beat the Harris-Walz ticket? Just roll the tape, replied Whatley: “Our opposition research is going to be video clips of Tim Walz.” More specifically, Whatley said the GOP would point to Walz’s previous comments about wanting to invest in a “30-foot-ladder factory” to help migrants scale former President Trump’s border wall, his support for giving undocumented individuals healthcare and driver’s licenses in Minnesota, and his handling of the 2020 riots in Minneapolis that followed the death of George Floyd.

Republicans have already been hitting Harris over illegal immigration and the border, inflation and the economy, and crime. Walz just presents a new wrinkle and new video clips. One immediately began circulating online. Conservatives were quick to criticize Walz for not deploying the Minnesota National Guard sooner in the summer of 2020 as rioters looted and burned through Minneapolis. “I could smell the burning tires, and that was a very real thing,” Minnesota first lady Gwen Walz told a local news reporter in an interview making the rounds online Tuesday. “I kept the windows open as long as I could because I felt like that was such a touchstone of what was happening.” According to the GOP, this is more evidence of the weak-on-crime radicalism of Democrats. The race is now on for Democrats to introduce their new folksy anti-Trump champion while Republicans rush to define him as more of the same.

For his part, Walz has a history of spoiling GOP plans. He punched his ticket to Congress in 2006 by flipping a Republican House seat. After more than a decade, Walz ran and won the governor’s mansion by more than 10 points in 2018, a post he easily held a second time four years later. Michael Tyler, a spokesman for the Harris campaign, said that by picking Walz, Harris has “cemented the fundamental contrast in this race between the Harris-Walz ticket which is fighting for working families and the Trump-Vance Project 2025 agenda that would unleash harm on Americans across the country.” The pair will spend the coming months, he added, traveling the country talking about “building up the middle class instead of cutting taxes for the rich, and fighting for our fundamental freedoms, including reproductive freedom.” Walz may be an asset particularly in the Midwest. He talks plainly, and his small-town biography explains his appeal.

When President Biden announced his retirement, Walz was quick to throw his support behind Harris as many others did. He emerged as a sort of pathfinder for Democrats with his broadsides against Sen. J.D. Vance as soon as Trump named the Ohio Republican his running mate. “The golden rule” in rural, small-town America, Walz said during a “Morning Joe” interview last month, was to “mind your own damn business.” And then the governor forged the talking point that the left has used with some immediate success to define the GOP ticket. “We do not like what has happened where we can’t even go to Thanksgiving dinner because you end up in some weird fight that is unnecessary,” he continued. “Well, it’s true. These guys are just weird.” And in this way, the word “weird” became the Democratic byword for the Republican ticket. Trump, Vance, and all their ideas, Democrats have said on repeat for weeks, aren’t just a threat to democracy, they are unusual and out of touch with America itself.

The left now enjoys rare alignment. Everyone from New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to West Virginia independent Sen. Joe Manchin praised the Walz pick. All of it, replied Whatley, is more evidence that Democrats have “shifted so far to the left as a whole that candidates as extreme as Kamala Harris, as extreme as Tim Walz, are now considered mainstream.”

While the party boss said that the GOP playbook remains the same now that Walz has joined the ticket, behind the scenes Republicans expressed giddiness that Walz, instead of a more moderate candidate like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, was selected. One prominent Republican operative accused Walz of “plagiarizing California’s failed far-left liberal agenda for Minnesota.” Republicans hope to compete in that state, despite Donald Trump’s two narrow losses there. The selection of Walz won’t do anything to change that strategy, Whatley told RCP. He said Republicans are looking forward to “a conversation in Minnesota about how, as the governor, Walz allowed riots to basically burn down Minneapolis, and then Kamala Harris came in and bailed out all those people out.” That will continue to be, he said, “a conversation we’re happy to have in Minnesota.”

“He ran away. It’s sad.” “He had the opportunity to serve his country, and said ‘Screw you’ to the United States..”

• Minnesota National Guard Confirms VP Nominee Tim Walz Demoted (JTN)

The Minnesota National Guard confirmed Wednesday that Gov. Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’ vice presidential running mate, was demoted and did not retire as a command sergeant major like he has claimed for years, including on his official gubernatorial biography. While Walz temporarily held the title of command sergeant major he “retired as a master sergeant in 2005 for benefit purposes because he did not complete additional coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy,” Army Lt. Col. Kristen Augé, the Minnesota National Guard’s State Public Affairs Officer, told Just the News. The statement reignited a controversy that began during his 2018 election for governor in which National Guardsman claimed on social media and in a paid ad that Walz declined to deploy to Iraq for combat duty in 2005 and forfeited his title of command sergeant major. Walz chose to run for Congress that year.

The governor’s biography, published on the state’s official website, says that “Command Sergeant Major Walz” retired from the Minnesota National Guard in 2005. At the time he was serving as one of the highest ranking members of the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion. The Minnesota National Guard disputed his description of his final rank,. “Governor Tim Walz served from April 8, 1981, to May 16, 2005. Governor Walz served in the Minnesota National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery after transferring from the Nebraska National Guard in 1996. While serving in Minnesota, his military occupational specialties were 13B – a cannon crewmember who operates and maintains cannons and 13Z -field artillery senior sergeant. In Nebraska, he served as a 11Z – infantry senior sergeant, and a 71L – administrative specialist. He held multiple positions within field artillery such as firing battery chief, operations sergeant, first sergeant, and culminated his career serving as the command sergeant major for the battalion,” Army Lt. Col. Kristen Augé, Minnesota National Guard’s State Public Affairs Officer, told Just the News in a statement Wednesday.

“He retired as a master sergeant in 2005 for benefit purposes because he did not complete additional coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy,” she added. According to Army Regulation 600-8-19, a solider who does not complete the requisite coursework results is automatically demoted. “The Soldier must complete the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Course as a condition of this promotion. Failure to meet the condition will cause demotion per AR 600 – 8 – 19,” the regulation reads. This is not the first time that Walz’s military records have come under scrutiny. During his campaign for governor in 2018, two retired senior officials in the Minnesota National Guard criticized Walz for retiring shortly before his battalion was set for a deployment to Iraq. The two retired Command Sergeants Major in the guard wrote in an open letter posted to Facebook that they felt it was their “duty and responsibility to bring forth the truth as we know it concerning his service record.”

Thomas Behrends, one signer of the letter, was chosen to replace Walz. According to the letter, Minnesota Governor Walz was selected in 2004 to serve as the Command Sergeant Major of the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion and by September of that year Walz was conditionally promoted to the rank. But, by early 2005, Walz’s battalion was ordered to mobilize for an active duty deployment to Iraq. Shortly after, in May 2005, Walz “quit, leaving the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion and its Soldiers hanging; without its senior Non-Commissioned Officer, as the battalion prepared for war,” according to the two Command Sergeants Major. “When your country calls, you are supposed to run into battle — not the other way,” Behrends told the New York Post Tuesday. He ran away. It’s sad.” “He had the opportunity to serve his country, and said ‘Screw you’ to the United States. That’s not who I would pick to run for vice president,” he added.

The office of Governor Walz did not respond to a request for comment from Just the News. Retired U.S. Army Reserve Major General Tim Haake told Just the News that, based on his experience, a Command Sergeant Major resigning shortly before a deployment would likely have a “deleterious” effect on the unit. “The Command Sergeant Major is the highest enlisted rank in a unit and is the key person ensuring the troops are prepared, logistically, emotionally, and any other way, for the mission.” As a result of his abrupt retirement, and breach of his conditional agreement, the authors claimed Walz was demoted to Master Sergeant for his retirement.

#BlackLivesMatter still exists?

• Kamala Donated To ‘Defund Police’ Group Pushing For DC Sanctuary City (ZH)

Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff donated to a progressive legal group last year that pushed to defund the police, and wants to make Washington DC a permanent “sanctuary city” for illegals, the Washington Examiner reports, citing a copy of their joint tax return. Harris and Emhoff donated $1,000 to Legal Aid DC, a nonprofit that works on housing law and represents low-income clients in multiple areas. The pair also donated $1,000 to the nonprofit in 2021, according to the report. “News of the donations, which have not been reported on until now, comes as Harris faces scrutiny on the 2024 campaign trail over her support in 2020 for defunding the police and her handling of the border crisis. Harris has reversed course on a variety of her left-wing policy positions after becoming the Democratic presidential nominee.

“But the vice president’s willingness to fund Legal Aid DC as recently as 2023 could raise questions about her ties to controversial progressive activists — including after Harris selected Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), who has been widely criticized over his response to the 2020 riots in Minnesota, as her running mate.” -Washington Examiner. Legal Aid DC was founded in 1932, and brands itself as “the district’s oldest and largest civil legal services organization” helping to “make justice real in individual and systemic ways.” In 2020, Legal Aid DC published a statement in the wake of George Floyd’s death noting that it “stands in solidarity with those speaking out, demonstrating, and demanding a country and society that will treat every one of its residents with dignity and respect.” Days later, the group’s housing law attorney Amanda Korber was quoted in an article pushing for fewer police officers in DC.

Legal Aid DC shared the article on social media, writing “As Legal Aid’s Amanda Korber noted in the article, we are concerned, especially given the ongoing protest movement, about any solution that involves more police and policing in DC public housing. #BlackLivesMatterDC.” As the Examiner notes further, Legal Aid DC shared an article in 2021 glorifying BLM, and amplifying a quote by Minneapolis City Councilman Jeremiah Ellison declaring “I think the police will view a leftist protester with a gas mask as more dangerous than a right-wing protester with a semiautomatic rifle.” Of note, Ellison – the son of Minnesota AG Keith Ellison, helped lead the charge in 2020 to “dismantle” the Minneapolis Police Department. Legal Aid DC also supported a since-approved law in DC that to make it a “permanent” sanctuary city – legislation which restricts cooperation between US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and local agencies.

Legal Aid’s Adam Jacobs said at the time that the law “could lift some of the terror our immigrant neighbors and their families have faced for many years.” “It also restricts the city’s prisons from functioning as immigration detention centers and amends a loophole used by ICE and the U.S. Marshals to detain immigrants outside of D.C. Superior Court,” reported NBC4 Washington in 2020 upon the City Council’s approval of a permanent version of the then-temporary law. Meanwhile, Harris running mate Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), has supported similar “sanctuary state” policies in the past, as well as a law allowing illegal immigrants to obtain a driver’s license.

Meanwhile, Legal Aid DC also submitted testimony in 2023 in support of a bill to “create a reparations task force and fund to address the impacts of slavery and institutional racism in Washington, D.C.,” according to documents. The organization’s policy counsel, Jen Jenkins, told the DC City Counsel that it’s essential for the district “to acknowledge that slavery, colonialism, and systemic racism have left deep scars in D.C. and to begin rectifying those impacts for black D.C. residents through enacting this bill.” Also, Walz’s wife is ‘weird’…

Here is a bizarre clip from an interview with Gwen Walz stating that she left her windows open during the Minneapolis Riots so she could smell the burning tires.

Her daughter also coordinated with rioters to let them know that the National Guard would not be activated one night. pic.twitter.com/ityW100Z4y

— Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) August 6, 2024

“Making investments into a manufacturing facility that could be obliterated by Russia and may not have sustained demand in the future “has to make sense from a business case..”

• US Arms Makers Refusing To Invest In Ukraine (RT)

American arms manufacturers are reluctant to open workshops in Ukraine despite the Pentagon coaxing them to do so, the military news outlet Defense One reported on Tuesday, citing a US State Department official. The Ukrainian government has touted the build-up of domestic arms manufacturing by foreign firms as an alternative to the long-term supply of military aid by Western sponsors. Germany’s Rheinmetall has so far voiced the most ambitious plans to operate on Ukrainian soil, promising to make not just munitions, but also armored vehicles and tanks in the country. However, other large players, particularly those from the US, have been cautious about making such pledges. Northrop Grumman is an exception, having announced last month that it had finalized an agreement to produce medium-caliber ammunition in Ukraine. The company will provide equipment and training, but has refused to put its own employees on the ground.

Making investments into a manufacturing facility that could be obliterated by Russia and may not have sustained demand in the future “has to make sense from a business case,” a US State Department official told Defense One on the sidelines of the Farnborough air show in the UK. The US industry “is really eager” to profit, but needs the government to hedge their investments for risks, according to the source. ”It has to be a business case for what they’re trying to do, and so looking at maybe starting off with a maintenance, repair, and overhaul type stuff, spare parts production, so kind of starting a crawl-walk-run-type philosophy, before you actually get to the more advanced stuff,” the official said. In addition to the war-related risks, Western firms are also concerned about corruption, the source acknowledged. The US diplomat claimed that Ukraine was making progress in that regard, but was far from where it needed to be to allay the concerns.

Graft has been an endemic problem in the country since it gained independence in the early 1990s. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has reportedly complained about the attention paid to the problem by his Western backers, claiming that it is largely irrelevant at a time when his nation is fighting Russia. Russia has described the Ukraine conflict as a US-triggered proxy war against it, waged for the sake of Washington’s geopolitical interests. The American economy has benefited from it by boosting demand for weapons and tanking the competitiveness of Western European manufacturers, Russian officials have said. European firms have lost access to cheap Russian energy and raw materials due to the breakdown of trade with the country, with some relocating plants to the US as a result.

Where did they find 1,000 extra troops?

• EU Hails Incursion Into Russia As Ukraine’s Right To ‘Self-defense’ (RT)

The European Union fully supports the actions of Ukraine’s forces, including striking Russian territory, European Commission spokesman Peter Stano has said. The statement came a day after Ukraine launched a major cross-border sortie into Russia’s Kursk Region early on Tuesday. At least five civilians were killed in assault as of Wednesday evening, according to the Interim Governor of Kursk, Aleksey Smirnov. Another 31 people – including six children – were injured in the Ukrainian shelling of the town of Sudzha, Russia’s Health Ministry said late on Wednesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the Kursk attack yet another “large-scale provocation” by Kiev, accusing Ukrainian troops of deliberately targeting civilians. Commenting on the raid, Stano said Ukraine has the right to defend itself, “including by striking the aggressor on its territory.”

“The EU continues to fully support Ukraine’s legitimate right to defend itself” and win back its lost territories, the spokesperson told the Ukrainian news network Suspilne on Wednesday. Kiev considers the Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, the Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, as well as the Crimean peninsula to be parts of Ukraine. All five territories formerly joined the Russian Federation after a series of democratic referendums. Ukrainian forces numbering up to a thousand, supported by tanks and artillery, moved across the border in an attempt to take hold of the Sudzhinsky district of Russia’s Kursk Region, the Russian Ministry of Defense said on Wednesday, reporting that the Ukrainian advance had been stopped. In the attack, Kiev’s forces suffered at least 315 casualties, with more than 100 killed and the rest wounded as of Wednesday, the chief of the Russian General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, reported.

Ukraine also lost at least 54 armored vehicles, including seven tanks during the push, he stated. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova slammed the incursion as a “massed terrorist attack.” The “barbaric attack” aimed to “sow panic among the residents of the region and demonstrate at least some semblance of activity, amid the constant failures of the Ukrainian armed forces in the conflict,” she stated. Commenting on Kiev’s incursion, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Washington’s stance on Ukraine’s use of US-supplied weapons in cross-border attacks has not changed, and that “with the actions that they are taking today, they’re not in violation of our policy.” Moscow has repeatedly warned that Western arms supplies to Ukraine will not break the course of the conflict, but only prolong it.

“Things will get worse in terms of Ukrainian terrorism spreading across the planet. It’s not a joke..”

• Ukraine Spreading ‘Terrorism’ Around The World – Zakharova (RT)

The Ukrainian government has become a terrorist organization acting on behalf of Western nations and their “deep state structures,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has claimed. The official condemned Kiev in an interview on Wednesday, after Ukrainian troops launched an incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region one day previously and several civilians were killed by Ukrainian strikes. “This is an act of terrorism. It was obviously directed against peaceful people. There is no doubt about that,” the spokeswoman told Sputnik Radio. Zakharova brought up Mali’s decision earlier this month to cut diplomatic relations with Kiev, after Ukrainian officials claimed credit for an ambush on Russian military contractors by Tuareg militants. A spokesman for the Ukrainian military intelligence called it a “successful military operation” by his agency, but Bamako described it as support for terrorism in the Sahel region of Africa.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has since denied Kiev’s involvement in the incident, while neighboring Niger joined Mali in condemning Ukraine and breaking ties with it. “Things will get worse in terms of Ukrainian terrorism spreading across the planet. It’s not a joke,” Zakharova warned. People in power in Kiev have turned their country into a “terrorist gang” doing the dirty work for Western nations and their “deep state structures,” the diplomat claimed. She also asked what it would take to convince the American people that by bankrolling Ukraine, their government was sponsoring terrorism. Ukrainian troops have been launching attacks against settlements in the border areas of Kursk Region as they try to push their way inside Russian territory.

On Tuesday evening, acting Governor Aleksey Smirnov reported that the civilian death toll from the hostilities had increased, after a Ukrainian kamikaze drone hit an ambulance near the town of Sudzha, one of the primary targets of the attacks. The strike killed the driver and an elderly paramedic, and left a doctor injured, he said. Previous updates confirmed three civilian fatalities. Meanwhile, local health officials reported on Wednesday that at least 28 people had been injured by Ukrainian strikes. Zakharova cited a deep fake video of Smirnov, in which the governor urged all men in Kursk Region to go to conscription centers and take arms, as evidence that Ukraine’s military activities were primarily meant to disturb Russian civilians. The clip was apparently based on an actual video statement made by the governor on Tuesday, which urged citizens to keep calm and prioritize their safety.

Mali, Niger, Senegal and Burkina Faso. What business does Kiev have there?

• Fourth African State Sanctions Ukraine For ‘Supporting Terrorism’ (RT)

Niger has severed diplomatic relations with Ukraine in response to Kiev’s alleged support for militants who killed dozens of Malian soldiers and Russian Wagner Group contractors in an attack last month. The West African state’s decision on Tuesday came just two days after Mali took the same step, accusing Kiev of supporting international terrorism. Ukrainian officials had earlier indicated that Kiev had assisted Tuareg rebels who staged an attack in the village of Tinzaouaten. In an interview following the incident, Ukraine’s spy agency spokesman, Andrey Yusov, indicated on national TV that the insurgents had received intelligence to conduct a “successful military operation against Russian war criminals.” He warned that “there will be more to come.” Ukraine’s embassy in Senegal posted the video – now deleted – on its Facebook page along with a comment from Ambassador Yury Pivovarov, who said “there will certainly be other results.”

Niamey’s military government spokesman, Amadou Abdramane, called the remarks “indecent” and “unacceptable” in an address on state TV late on Tuesday, claiming that they characterize “acts of aggression.” “Niger, in total solidarity with the government and people of Mali, has decided in all sovereignty […] to sever diplomatic relations between the Republic of Niger and Ukraine with immediate effect,” Abdramane said. Kiev has yet to respond to the African state’s move. On Monday, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry denied any involvement in the terrorist attack and described Mali’s decision to break off diplomatic ties as “shortsighted and hasty.” “Ukraine is known in Africa as an important contributor to ensuring regional security,” the ministry stated, arguing that Bamako had acted without providing any evidence of Kiev’s complicity in the ambush near the Algerian border.

On Tuesday, the West African regional bloc ECOWAS condemned the killings in Mali and expressed “strong” opposition to “any foreign interference” that threatens the region’s peace and security. Bamako’s neighbors, including Senegal and Burkina Faso, have all criticized Ukraine over the statements by its officials. Since 2012, Mali has been embroiled in a jihadist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives. A decade-long French military mission failed to quell the violence, which has spilled over to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger. All three former French colonies, led by their militaries, have severed defense ties with Paris and formed the Alliance of Sahel States to combat terrorism. Russia, which Bamako, Niamey, and Ouagadougou regard as a strategic security ally, has agreed to assist the troubled Sahel states in combating long-standing terrorist threats.

“Journalism as an occupation no longer exists. Today the struggle is not to get at the heart of an issue, but to have one’s agenda prevail.”

• Why Did America Give Away Its Manufacturing Jobs? (Paul Craig Roberts)

Not long ago a couple of publishers asked about my memoirs. I told them I had no interest. Memoirs are an enormous undertaking, especially when your files haven’t been organized for the purpose. Moreover, many of mine have been discarded in moves. When you have lived as long as I have and been involved in so many major issues, files are a voluminous collection. Moreover, I have always had a jaundiced eye toward memoirs, being unsure whether they are an exercise in egotism. In past times I think memoirs, even if they were attempts to control the narrative, something done for us today by the CIA and woke media and universities, still made information available that otherwise would have died with the person. I find this a bit sobering as there is a great deal of information that is going to die with me. Despite all the winnowing of my files, I still have 25 crates that if I did nothing else for one year I might get through. To organize the information, I would need at least two assistants.

I have barely touched the crates, and already I have found important matters long forgotten. In 2004 NY Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer and I opened a New Year with a jointly authored column in the New York Times. We raised the offshoring issue. American manufacturing jobs and the tech jobs of American professionals were being sent to Asia. We posed the question that if jobs offshoring was free trade, as economists claimed, was free trade any longer in America’s interest? My position was that jobs offshoring is a contradiction of free trade–more later–and Schumer was still in his idealistic period when he was concerned about the displacement of American labor by foreign labor in the production of goods and services that Americans consumed. Our article caused a firestorm. The Brookings Institution in Washington called a conference and asked us to come and defend our position. C-Span broadcast the conference live and rebroadcast it a number of times. Schumer and I carried the day.

Delighted with the publicity, Schumer suggested a follow-up article. The NY Times was eager. We began a draft, and then it went cold. My explanation is that Wall Street, which was committed to jobs offshoring, got to Schumer and explained campaign contributions to him. I continued on. Conservatives, free market economists, and libertarians, who are indoctrinated with free trade, but who do not comprehend the theory, called me a heretic. Nevertheless, both the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post were intrigued that the “most ardent” of the “Reagan policymakers” had taken a position against the policy that Wall Street was imposing on the country. The Wall Street Journal assigned Timothy Aeppel to arrange a series of debates to be published in the Wall Street Journal between me and Columbia University Professor Jagdish Bhagwati. The question was: Is jobs offshoring really free trade?

Adam Smith and David Ricardo’s theory of free trade rests on the principle of comparative advantage. What this means is that a country’s capital remains employed at home and is employed in areas in which the capital is best used. If all countries do this, there are gains from trade, and all countries will be better off than if they are self-sufficient. I have wondered if the free trade theory was used as a stratagem to repeal the British Corn Laws and reduce the income and power of the landed aristocracy. Both Smith and Ricardo made it completely clear that if a country’s capital left the country, it was pursuing absolute advantage, not comparative advantage, and free trade theory is vitiated. This is the point I made. Without comparative advantage, there is no case for free trade. The Wall Street Journal wasn’t the only media institution interested in the facts. So was the Washington Post.

The Washington Post assigned their economics editor Paul Blustein to interview me and my critics and to do a news report. Blustein interviewed me at least three times prior to writing his story. Keep in mind that Blustein had been a critic during my Treasury days with the Reagan administration. Nevertheless, after giving my critics their say, Blustein wrote:“Still, mainstream economists can’t answer a key question that Roberts raises, which is how the U.S. economy can generate better employment opportunities to replace the white-collar jobs that are suddenly vanishing. “Roberts recently got some support for his argument from a heavyweight academic economist, William J. Baumol . . . a past president of the American Economic Association and a book he published with Ralph E. Gomery, [a distinguished mathematician] that pokes some holes in economic orthodoxy by showing that free trade will not necessarily provide mutual gains to countries.”

Today this exchange of ideas in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post and the honest appraisal of one’s opponents is not possible. I am banned from the Wall Street Journal, a newspaper I used to edit. I am banned from the Washington Post for which I was a contributor. I am banned from the NY Times which used to call me and ask me to write on current issues. I am banned from the newspapers of the Scripps Howard News Service. I am banned from the San Diego Union, the San Francisco Examiner, and the Los Angeles Times for which I was a regular contributor. There is no debate. There are narratives, and the narratives are imposed. Journalism as an occupation no longer exists. Today the struggle is not to get at the heart of an issue, but to have one’s agenda prevail.

“..violations of the Foreign Agent Restriction Act (FARA)”

• FBI Raids Scott Ritter’s House (RT)

Federal agents and state police have searched the house of former US Marine and UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter in New York state on Wednesday. State Police and FBI agents descended on the street of Bethlehem township, south of Albany, around noon, according to the local outlet Times-Union. They carried “more than two dozen boxes” out of the house just before 5pm local time. The law enforcement executed a search warrant “related to concerns apparently the US government has about violations of the Foreign Agent Restriction Act (FARA)” Ritter told reporters gathered outside the house after the agents left. He denied any allegations of wrongdoing and said the federal government was trying to intimidate him. An FBI spokesperson confirmed “law enforcement activity in connection with an ongoing federal investigation,” but would say nothing further.

Ritter is a former US Marine Corps major who served as a UN weapons inspector in Iraq during the 1990s. He opposed the 2003 US invasion, insisting that Saddam Hussein’s government did not have weapons of mass destruction, as Washington claimed at the time. He has also been an RT contributor and saw his passport seized by the US government when he tried to attend the St Petersburg International Economic Forum in June. Jim Hoffman, Ritter’s neighbor across the street for two decades, told the Times-Union that the former inspector has kept a low profile. “When he came out against the Iraq War back in early 2000s, he was vilified everywhere,” Hoffman said. “Honestly, he was right. He said there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.”

Ritter himself has not posted anything about the raid on social media. His most recent post on X was from Tuesday’s meeting with independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The administrators of his Telegram channel posted photos of the raid and said they have not heard from him either.

Burgers with Bobby! pic.twitter.com/J5fF2MepKd

— Scott Ritter (@RealScottRitter) August 7, 2024

Hmmm…

• Vienna Cancels Taylor Swift Concerts Over ISIS Attack Fears (RT)

US pop mega-star Taylor Swift has canceled three upcoming concerts in Vienna, Austria after two suspects were arrested for allegedly planning terrorist attacks on the shows. Swift was supposed to perform at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium on August 8, 9, and 10 as part of her European leg of the Eras Tour. Venues across the continent have been sold out for weeks. “With confirmation from government officials of a planned terrorist attack at Ernst Happel Stadium, we have no choice but to cancel the three scheduled shows for everyone’s safety,” concert promoter Barracuda Music said in an Instagram post. “All tickets will be automatically refunded within the next 10 business days.” Austrian police arrested a 19-year-old who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS) in Ternitz, a town south of Vienna. Another suspect was later detained in the capital

Franz Ruf, director-general for public safety in the Austrian Ministry of the Interior, told reporters that the suspects were allegedly self-radicalized online, planned to attack Vienna, and expressed particular interest in Swift’s concerts. The organizers expected 65,000 concertgoers at each show and an additional 10,000 to 15,000 fans outside the arena, police said. The risk justified raising security precautions, said Vienna police chief Gerhard Purst. The 19-year-old suspect may have been building an explosive device, police said, and the chemical substances found at his home are currently being investigated. The names of the suspects have not been made public. Swift embarked on the Eras Tour in March 2023, aiming to do 152 concerts across five continents, performing hits from her 17-year career. The 34-year-old songstress is expected to make $2 billion from the tour by the time it wraps up in December.

Pardon him while you still can..

• Hunter Biden Got ‘Millions’ of Dollars From Romania to Influence US Gov’t (Sp.)

Hunter Biden, the son of US President Joe Biden, has received millions of dollars from a Romanian entrepreneur in order to influence the US government during his father’s vice presidency, court filings have revealed. US Department of Justice Special Counsel David Weiss’s office found that Biden received “substantial” sums of money from foreign firms and individuals in exchange for acting as a lobbyist, consultant, or legal adviser. “With respect to his first topic, ‘allegations that Mr. Biden (1) acted on behalf of a foreign principal to influence U.S. policy and public opinion,’ the defendant did receive compensation from a foreign principal to attempt to influence U.S. policy and public opinion, as alleged in the indictment, and this evidence is relevant and not unfairly prejudicial,” the Wednesday filing read. Hunter Biden worked for Romanian businessman Gabriel Popoviciu (referred to as G.P. in the document) to help him escape bribery charges in Romania, Weiss’s office also revealed.

“The evidence of what the defendant agreed to do and did do for G.P. demonstrates the defendant’s state of mind and intent during the relevant tax years charged in the indictment. It is also evidence that the defendants actions do not reflect someone with a diminished capacity, given that he agreed to attempt to influence U.S. public policy and receive millions of dollars,” the document said. In November 2023, House Republicans subpoenaed the president’s brother James Biden and Hunter Biden to appear for a deposition before lawmakers. In May, Smith said that Hunter Biden had repeatedly lied to Congress in his February deposition to distance his involvement in what should be considered a “clear scheme to enrich the Biden family.” The House of Representatives is investigating the Biden family for alleged criminal activity, including foreign influence peddling and bribery.

The Supreme Court is the only things they don’t control..

• The “No Kings Act” is a Decapitation of the Constitution (Turley)

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) has introduced the “No Kings Act” with great fanfare and the support of most of his Democratic colleagues. Liberal groups have heralded the measure to legislatively reverse the ruling in Trump v. United States. It is obviously popular with the press and pundits. It is also entirely unconstitutional in my view. The “No Kings Act” is not just a cynical abdication of responsibility by Democrats, but would constitute the virtual decapitation of the Constitution. I have previously written about the false claims made about the Supreme Court’s decision by President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and other leading democrats. The press and pundits have reached a new level of sensationalism and hysteria in the coverage with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow even claiming that it was a “death squad ruling.” The Court actually rejected the most extreme positions of both the Trump team and the lower courts.

As it has in the past, the Court adopted a three-tiered approach to presidential powers based on the source of a presidential action. Chief Justice John Roberts cited Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer, in which the court ruled against President Harry Truman’s takeover of steel mills. In his famous concurrence to Youngstown, Justice Robert Jackson broke down the balance of executive and legislative authority between three types of actions. In the first, a president acts with express or implied authority from Congress. In the second, he acts where Congress is silent (“the zone of twilight” area). In the third, the president acts in defiance of Congress. In this decision, the court adopted a similar sliding scale. It held that presidents enjoy absolute immunity for actions that fall within their “exclusive sphere of constitutional authority” while they enjoy presumptive immunity for other official acts. They do not enjoy immunity for unofficial or private actions.

Where the coverage has been wildly inaccurate, the No Kings Act is cynically dishonest. To his credit, President Joe Biden was at least honest in proposing a constitutional amendment to overturn the decision in Trump. However, that was dead on arrival in Congress since under Article V it would require a two-thirds majority vote in both houses and then ratification by three-fourths of the states. The Democrats are seeking to circumvent that process with simple majority votes with the No Kings Act. The bill is being presented as a jurisdiction-stripping measure, not an effort to dictate outcomes. Congress does have authority to change the jurisdiction of the federal courts. That authority was recognized by the Court itself in Ex parte McCardle (1869). Chief Justice Salmon Chase ruled that it did have the authority “to make exceptions to the appellate jurisdiction of this court.”

However, Chase also emphasized that the law did “not affect the jurisdiction which was previously exercised” so that prior decisions would remain fully enforceable. Moreover, shortly after McCardle, the Court ruled in United States v. Klein (1871), that Congress may not use its authority of court jurisdiction to lay out a “rule of decision” for the Supreme Court, or effectively dictate results in court cases. The No Kings Act does more than just strip jurisdiction and makes no secret of its purpose in dictating the outcome of future cases. It purports in Section 2 to “clarify that a President or Vice President is not entitled to any form of immunity from criminal prosecution for violations of the criminal laws of the United States unless specified by Congress.” That is a rather Orwellian view of “clarification” since it directly contradicts the opinion in declaring in the very next section that “[a] President, former President, Vice President, or former Vice President shall not be entitled to any form of immunity (whether absolute, presumptive, or otherwise) from criminal laws of the United States unless specified by Congress.”

Schumer and most of the Democratic senators actually believe that they can simply instruct lower courts to ignore a Supreme Court ruling on the meaning of the Constitution. It would undermine the basis of Marbury v. Madison after 221 years. To be sure, it is stated in strictly jurisdictional terms. Yet, it crafts the jurisdictional changes to mirror the decision and future immunity claims. The bill declares that federal courts “may not consider whether an alleged violation of any criminal laws of the United States committed by a President or Vice President was within the conclusive or preclusive constitutional authority of a President or Vice President or was related to the official duties of a President or Vice President unless directed by Congress.” But the Democrats are not done yet. Section 4 actually removes the Supreme Court from such questions and makes appellate courts the effective highest courts of the land when it comes to presidential immunity:

“The Supreme Court of the United States shall have no appellate jurisdiction, on the basis that an alleged criminal act was within the conclusive or preclusive constitutional authority of a President or Vice President or on the basis that an alleged criminal act was related to the official duties of a President or Vice President.” Notably, this is one of the wacky ideas put forward by the President’s Supreme Court Commission. After all, why pack the Court if you can just gut it? Of course, some sponsors like Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) want to both pack the Court and strip it of authority. Presumably, once packed, the authority to act as a court would be at least restored with the liberal majority.

Sorry, Two Tier Kier. NASA need Musk to save their ISS astronauts.

• Crazed Authoritarians Demand X Be Shut Down in UK (MN)

Mimicking a policy that the west once condemned Communist China for pursuing, authoritarians are now calling for X to be shut down completely in the UK to stop civil unrest. After the country was rocked by a series of riots over the past week in response to a 17-year-old son of Rwandan immigrants killing three little girls in Southport, the media and the political class blamed the anger on “misinformation” shared on X. In reality, the UK has been a boiling pot of resentment and rage over mass migration for years, with huge numbers continuing to arrive, putting massive strain on the country and making some parts of major towns and cities unrecognizable, despite nobody having ever voted for it. However, the disorder is being exploited to grease the skids for mass censorship. Cambridge professor Sander van der Linden said the government could “geo-restrict access to a platform if the situation got so bad” and Twitter could also be “banned from the app store for violating policies.”

Jessica Simor QC also called for the UK government to “pass a short bill closing down Twitter in the UK.” Entrepreneur Ana Vilhete also called for Twitter to be temporarily banned in the UK to “limit the spread of inflammatory information.” Journalist Paul Mason, a Marxist who once worked for the BBC, demanded the government use the Online Safety Bill (which passed under the excuse of protecting children from harmful content) to “pull the plug” on X. Apparently, it’s horrendous for Middle Eastern dictators to shut down and block social media networks during times of civil unrest, as occurred during the Arab Spring, but when the UK does it, it’s fine. Whenever there are anti-government protests in China, the Communist regime there also blocks and suspends social media networks, something that was once slammed by western governments as a vicious attack on basic freedom, but a tactic which they now emulate.

Although the riots are cited as the primary reason for mass censorship, the calls are also being driven by the fact that Elon Musk has challenged the mainstream narrative on the riots and embarrassed Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Musk branded Starmer ‘Two Tier Kier’ for pursuing a vigorous crackdown on anti-mass migration demonstrators while turning a blind eye to Muslim mobs who have also rioted and physically attacked innocent people. The British political establishment engaged in a collective hissy fit over Musk’s simple question for Starmer and the government when he asked, “Why aren’t all communities protected in Britain?”. The X owner also drew attention to a viral video clip of a man being arrested in his own home by police over a Facebook post, asking if it was “Britain or the Soviet Union”. The regime is deeply fearful that Musk’s intervention is causing them to lose control of the narrative that the unrest is being fueled by mindless, racist thuggery and not legitimate concerns about the impact of mass migration on working class people in the UK.

Hitchens/Starmer

Christopher Hitchens 2009 vs Keir Starmer 2004 pic.twitter.com/qt7y9TZ2Zx

— I,Hypocrite (@lporiginalg) August 6, 2024

All roads…

Mar a lago
https://twitter.com/i/status/1820943581823299921

Starlink

During a fireside chat yesterday, SpaceX President & COO Gwynne Shotwell confirmed that Starlink can provide everybody in rural and semi-rural U.S. with high-speed broadband internet connectivity for a very small fraction of the price of laying down a fiber optic cable. pic.twitter.com/9kwW0fis1l

— ALEX (@ajtourville) August 7, 2024

Sting
https://twitter.com/i/status/1820913480192725080

Rescue
https://twitter.com/i/status/1820900188627857766

Oh no!
https://twitter.com/i/status/1821068771252916646

More friends
https://twitter.com/i/status/1821162344866632041

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

Debt Rattle June 12 2024

Jun 122024

June 12, 2024 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 8:53 am Finance Tagged with: BRICS, Fauci, Hungary, Hunter Biden, neo nazis, New Cold War, NIH, peace conference, Steve Bannon, Third Reich, WWIII 35 Responses »

Vincent van Gogh Bridge in the rain (after Hiroshige) 1887

• Pelosi Admits Fault for the Lack of Jan 6 Security Precautions (Turley)

• Biden Campaign Claims Trump “Has Praised The Third Reich” (MN)

• NIH Scrambled After ZeroHedge Report On Fauci Beagle Experiments (ZH)

• New Jersey Announces Investigation into Trump Liquor Licenses (Turley)

• ‘We Are So Proud’: Bidens React To Hunter Verdict (RT)

• Israel and the Misjudgement of Reality (Alastair Crooke)

• How Russia Can Prevent WW3 (Dmitry Trenin)

• BRICS Must Prevent New ‘Cold War’ – China (RT)

• West ‘Losing Trust’ In Ukraine – FT (RT)

• Eastern NATO Club May Kick Hungary Out For Dissent – FT (RT)

• US ‘Flirting With Neo-Nazis’ – Kremlin (RT)

• Ukraine ‘Peace Conference’ Will Not Urge Withdrawal Of Russian Troops (RT)

I absolutely urge you to watch Steve Bannon talking to Tucker.

Tucker Bannon

If you’re wondering whether you’re living in tyranny, ask yourself how many of his political opponents Joe Biden is sending to prison. Steve Bannon is the latest.

(2:14) Why is Congress going after Steve Bannon?
(7:28) Biden Regime Wants Complete Power
(16:03) The Future of War… pic.twitter.com/21GBKKpMbv

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 11, 2024

Vucic

Serbia's President Vucic:
“We are heading for a MAJOR CATASTROPHE and it seems that the train has already left the station and can no longer be stopped. No one in the West is talking about peace anymore – only more WAR”pic.twitter.com/KVNJUxUU8S

— أبو عمّار (@MaajidNawaz) June 10, 2024

RFK Trump
https://twitter.com/i/status/1800576436731781143

The founder of Telegram, which has nearly a billion users, planned to HQ the company in San Francisco until he got attacked walking its streets pic.twitter.com/QWBxmMewHc

— Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) June 11, 2024

“..a previously-unreleased video..”

The Jan 6 committee decided to hold it back so they could promote false allegations against Trump. They must be investigated.

• Pelosi Admits Fault for the Lack of Jan 6 Security Precautions (Turley)

For years, some of us have asked why the Capitol was so poorly prepared for the January 6th riot. As part of the coverage on that day, I remarked at the start of the protests that I had never seen the Capitol so thinly protected for a major demonstration. Some paths to the Capitol were protected by a handful of bicycle officers and thin barriers. Now, a previously-unreleased video taken on Jan. 6, 2021 shows then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., admitting that she was responsible for the lack of preparedness. The video was disclosed in a posting on X by a House Republican panel. The video shows Pelosi in an exchange with Chief of Staff Terri McCullough on the evacuation.

Pelosi states: “We have responsibility, Terri. We did not have any accountability for what was going on there. And we should have. This is ridiculous. You’re going to ask me in the middle of the thing when they’ve already breached…that, should we call the Capitol Police? I mean the National Guard? Why weren’t the National Guard there to begin with?…They clearly didn’t know, and I take responsibility for not having them just prepared for more.” The video was never released by the J6 Committee, which was criticized for its highly choreographed and scripted hearings with little balance in the presentation of evidence. The lack of emphasis on the security issues was glaring and raised by critics throughout the hearings. While Democrats and the media dismissed the issue and claims that Trump offered to supply the national guard, it was later confirmed that those offers were made to Congress and rejected.

A report from Capitol Police Inspector General Michael Bolton also found that Capitol police were told that they could not use critical riot materials and tactics in preparation for the Jan. 6th protests. What was so curious about the lack of precautions that morning is that the Capitol had just experienced the violence outside of the White House in the Lafayette Park protests. To this day, the media and many members continue to repeat false accounts of the Lafayette Park. Many still have stories posted that claim that Lafayette Park was cleared for Trump to hold a photo op in front of a church. I discussed those accounts in testimony before Congress and in columns on the clearing of the Lafayette Park area. NPR still has a story on its website entitled “Peaceful Protesters Tear-Gassed To Clear Way For Trump Church Photo-Op.” More officers were injured in the Lafayette Park protests than on January 6th.

As previously discussed in repeated columns, the House Democratic leadership refused to hold a single hearing with key witnesses on what occurred before the riot. After using a “snap impeachment,” weeks went by without calling such witnesses before the Trump impeachment trial. Such evidence would have challenged the narrative and raised questions over decisions made by Congress that left the Capitol vulnerable to such an attack.In the Lafayette Park protests, White House officials feared that the compound could be breached by violent protesters who had injured dozens of officers and engaged in arson and attacks around the White House during that weekend. They decided to clear the area to install fencing (which Congress only ordered after the Jan. 6th riot). They also deployed the National Guard and the “heavier, less lethal weapons” that the Inspector General found were denied to the Capitol Police.

Had Pelosi and others accepted National Guard support and installed fencing as was done at the White House, it is doubtful that the riot on January 6th would have occurred or any disruption would have been far more limited in scope. The fact that the J6 Committee downplayed this major factor in the riot further undermines how the investigation was framed by the Democratic leadership. Pelosi barred the GOP members selected for the committee, hand picking two anti-Trump Republican members.

The absence of any balance on the committee was evident from the start. There was little effort to present alternative explanations or defenses to critical issues raised in hearings. No opposing witnesses were called who might contradict the narrative put forward by the Committee, including witnesses who would debunk the much-repeated, false claim that Trump wrestled with his driver to gain control of the presidential limo to drive to the Capitol. With the Speaker admitting on tape that she bore responsibility for the lack of precautions, one would think that the J6 Committee, including then Vice Chair Liz Cheney, would consider that relevant for the public to understand the underlying facts. Instead, it was buried with much other countervailing evidence.

Tucker Jan 6
https://twitter.com/i/status/1800541468051804485

“..the downward trend for Biden means that dropping out of the race is worth discussing, even though it “would be a big risk” for the Democrats..”

• Biden Campaign Claims Trump “Has Praised The Third Reich” (MN)

Biden campaign senior adviser Adrienne Elrod claimed Monday that Donald Trump has “praised the Third Reich” and intends to rule as a racist dictator. During an interview with CNN, Elrod was asked to comment on Republicans who “worship” Trump, and responded “I think that rhetoric speaks for itself.” “Donald Trump and his MAGA allies are focused on seeking revenge and retribution,” Elrod asserted, adding “They are running a negative campaign that is not focused on the American people, but is focused on themselves.” She continued, “Trump has made it very clear that if he steps back into that White House, he will rule as a dictator on day one. He will seek — he will use the White House to seek political revenge and retribution on his political enemies.” Trump actually said he won’t do that, but it doesn’t fit the Biden campaign’s narrative.

While she was at it, Elrod painted up Trump as an admirer of Hitler. “You know, he has said things that — you know, he’s praised the Third Reich. He has used, you know, racist rhetoric at every chance that he has,” she claimed. Praised the Third Reich? Presumably she is referring to this…

The desperation among the Biden campaign is palpable. His approval rating just hit a new all-time low of 37.4 percent. FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver noted that the downward trend for Biden means that dropping out of the race is worth discussing, even though it “would be a big risk” for the Democrats. “But there’s some threshold below which continuing to run is a bigger risk,” Silver commented, adding “Are we there yet? I don’t know. But it’s more than fair to ask.” “If I’d told you 10 years ago a president would seek re-election at 81 despite a supermajority of Americans having concerns about his age, and then we’d hit 8% inflation for 2 years, you wouldn’t be surprised he was an underdog for reelection. You’d be surprised it was even close!” Silver further wrote.

Lock him up. Throw away the key.

• NIH Scrambled After ZeroHedge Report On Fauci Beagle Experiments (ZH)

Last week, Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene took a detour from grilling Anthony Fauci over COVID-19, to confront him with photos of beagles who had been subjected to animal testing experiments widely reported to be funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) under the National Institutes of Health (NIH), following a 2021 investigation series by the group White Coat Waste Project. “We should be recommending you to be prosecuted,” Greene told Fauci. “We should be writing a criminal referral because you should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. You belong in prison,” she continued, adding “That man does not deserve to have a license. As a matter of fact, it should be revoked and he belongs in prison.” This opened up a can of worms which includes a response from White Coat Waste, and triggered the Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler to do a deep dive into ‘Beaglegage’ in an effort to debunk Greene.

“When we first saw Greene hold up the photo, we figured this would be easy to debunk — another in a string of misleading attacks against Fauci, who became the public face of the government’s response to the pandemic.” -Washington Post. Only to discover that the NIH appears to have lied about funding the experiment, which involved beagles between 6 and 8 months old obtained from the kennels of the Pasteur Institute of Tunis. In the study, the beagles were sedated and then exposed to hundreds of sand flies that had been deprived of food for 24 hours. This exposure took place as part of research into zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis (ZVL), a disease carried by sand flies that can affect dogs and humans. After ZeroHedge amplified the White Coat Waste report (archived), there was a full blown panic.

In late October 2021, CNN asked Fauci to appear for an interview, and one of his staff members suggested late on Oct. 24 that Fauci pause any TV interviews “until we get a handle on this.” Early the next morning, Fauci emailed 12 officials and asked them to “tell me what grant or contract they are referring to.” Within two hours, one replied that they might have identified the grant. (Most staff members’ names are redacted.) “Let us find out for sure if it is that grant, and then let us take a look at what the experimental design is, and importantly whether it has received the appropriate ethical and animal care consideration,” Fauci replied in an email. “I want this done right away since we are getting bombarded by protests.”

Within two hours, one of the researchers involved, Abhay Satoskar, a professor of pathology and microbiology at Ohio State University, emailed to say that NIAID had been mistakenly cited as a funder of the study and that he would seek a correction from the journal. One NIAID official wrote in an email that Satoskar “stated that it was mistakenly cited because he was not clear of the true purpose of US funding acknowledgment” and that the program in question had been funded only by the Pasteur Institute. Satoskar, meanwhile asked Shaden Kamhawi, the editor of the journal, to correct the article. Kamhawi initially agreed, but noted internally that she may have a conflict of interest as a NIAID employee. She then sent an email in a panic over the ZeroHedge article potentially inviting “a lot of noise & unwanted attention for [Fauci]. They also called us an “illegitimate blog of no credibility,” which is high praise considering the source.

When the story broke in 2021, the NIH scrubbed it from its database and then fed WaPo disinformation: When The Post reported on the controversy in November 2021, the article noted: “The trapped-beagles study does not appear in a database of NIH-funded projects.” The emails show that, while it was removed before the publication of The Post article, the study had been listed in the database for months and was still listed as of the previous month, when Fauci first asked about the controversy. “We need that to be corrected too, ASAP please,” one NIH staffer wrote on Oct. 27. The anxiety level rose as officials realized it would take several days, until Nov. 1, before the project would be removed from the database — where reporters could not then find it. -WaPo.

“..Platkin’s office has announced that it is “reviewing” whether to pull the liquor licenses for Trump golf clubs since he is now convicted of felonies in New York..”:

• New Jersey Announces Investigation into Trump Liquor Licenses (Turley)

Many of us have expressed alarm at the politicization of the criminal justice system in New York by figures such as Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. It now appears that New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin is angling to get into the lawfare frenzy. The conviction of Trump on 34 felonies has either thrilled or repelled citizens. For many of us, it is a sign of the degradation of our legal system. Even the chief CNN legal analyst has acknowledged that Bragg contorted the law to bring the recent case against former President Donald Trump in an unprecedented prosecution. Yet, the use of the legal system for political purposes is clearly popular in New York where people were literally dancing in the street outside of the courthouse after the recent verdict against Trump.

Now Platkin’s office has announced that it is “reviewing” whether to pull the liquor licenses for Trump golf clubs since he is now convicted of felonies in New York. It appears that lawfare is nothing if not intoxicating for Democratic politicians. According to an article in the Hill, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control is “reviewing the impact of President Trump’s conviction” on his liquor licenses for the Trump National Golf Club in Colts Neck, Lamington Farm Club, and Trump National Golf Club Philadelphia in Pine Hill. The latest effort is based on a vague standard governing crimes of “moral turpitude” under New Jersey law: “No license of any class shall be issued to any person under the age of 18 years or to any person who has been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude. A beneficiary of a trust who is not otherwise disqualified to hold an interest in a license may qualify regardless of age so long as the trustee of the trust qualifies and the trustee shall hold the beneficiary’s interest in trust until the beneficiary is at least the age of majority.”

A “crime of moral turpitude” is a familiar, though dated, standard in American law. I teach the standard in torts as one of the traditional “per se” categories for slander under the common law. It was generally used to denote conduct of immorality or serious offenses to norms of society. New Jersey defines it as including “any offense that carries the possibility of one year in jail and involves acts of baseness, vileness, or depravity in the private and social duties which a man owes to his fellowmen, or to society in general. Even the New Jersey Alcoholic Beverage Control handbook notes that in “some instances, it may be unclear whether a conviction involves an element of moral turpitude.” Yet, Trump has a way to bringing clarity for his critics whenever they must chose between politics and principle.

For most of us, it is hard to see how falsifying business records would constitute “acts of baseness, vileness, or depravity in the private and social duties which a man owes to his fellowmen, or to society in general.” However, for Democrats, it seems that any act by Trump is by definition base, vile, and depraved. The piling on of investigations and charges by Democratic officials has reinforced Trump’s long narrative of a weaponization of the legal system against him and his supporters. Polling shows that most citizens view some of these cases as political prosecutions and that they are having diminishing impact on voter preferences. Yet, they remain thrilling for Democratic voters who lionize prosecutors who come up with novel or unprecedented avenues to hammer Trump or hit his businesses. It does not seem to matter that removing the liquor licenses of these clubs can endanger thousands of jobs of citizens or chill other businesses in considering investments in New York or New Jersey. In the end, the effort is hardly surprising. Lawfare is like binge drinking: the excess is the very measure of its success.

“Crooked Joe Biden’s reign over the Biden Family Criminal Empire is all coming to an end on November 5th, and never again will a Biden sell government access for personal profit..”

• ‘We Are So Proud’: Bidens React To Hunter Verdict (RT)

US President Joe Biden and his wife Jill love their son and intend to respect the judicial process, according to a statement released on Tuesday in response to a Delaware jury finding Hunter Biden guilty of federal gun crimes. Biden’s younger son was charged with three felonies based on a 2018 firearm purchase while being a crack cocaine addict and lying about it on a gun control form. Tuesday’s verdict made him the first son of a sitting president to be convicted in federal court. “Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today,” Biden said in the statement. “I will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal. Jill and I will always be there for Hunter and the rest of our family with our love and support. Nothing will ever change that.”

Joe Biden married Jill Jacobs in 1977, five years after losing his first wife Neilia and their daughter Naomi in a car crash. Hunter and his older brother Beau were seriously injured in the accident. Biden was sworn in as US senator in their hospital room. Beau Biden died of brain cancer in 2015. Hunter later ended up romantically involved with Beau’s widow Hallie. It was Hallie who found the illegally purchased Colt Cobra revolver in Hunter’s truck and threw it in the trash. Believing the gun had been stolen, Hunter set the Secret Service scrambling to recover it. The entire episode was revealed thanks to Hunter Biden’s laptop, which he left in a Delaware repair shop while high on crack and subsequently forgot about it. The laptop’s contents emerged during the 2020 presidential election, but social media companies censored the New York Post for publishing the story while Biden had current and former US intelligence officials denounce it as “Russian disinformation.” The trial confirmed that the laptop and its contents were authentic.

Hunter’s verdict came as his father was scheduled to appear at a gun control event in Washington, DC. At the end of May, a New York jury convicted Biden’s main rival for the presidency, Donald Trump, on 34 counts of “falsifying business records.” The Biden campaign rushed to declare Trump a “convicted felon” and argued no one should vote for him. While some Republicans gloated at the Delaware verdict, many pointed out that Hunter was not brought up on far more serious charges involving foreign bribery or tax evasion. Trump’s campaign called the trial “nothing more than a distraction from the real crimes of the Biden Crime Family, which has raked in tens of millions of dollars from China, Russia and Ukraine.” “Crooked Joe Biden’s reign over the Biden Family Criminal Empire is all coming to an end on November 5th, and never again will a Biden sell government access for personal profit,” Trump campaign spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, said.

“..a ‘New War of Independence’ can be held aloft before the Israeli public as the metaphysical ‘vision’ of the way ahead..”

• Israel and the Misjudgement of Reality (Alastair Crooke)

On all fronts, the Israeli internal paradigm is fracturing; and externally, the West is itself fissuring, and becoming a pariah on the global stage. The western leaderships’ explicit facilitation of a bloody cleansing of Palestinians has incised the old spectre of ‘Orientalism’ and colonialism onto the skyline. And is gyring the West towards being ‘the world’s untouchable’ (along with Israel). Overall, Israel’s government objective looks to be to converge and then channel – multiple tensions into a wide military escalation disgorgement (a big war) – that somehow would bring a restoration of deterrence. Such a course concomitantly implies that Israel would thus turn its back to western pleas that it somehow act ‘reasonably’. The West mostly defines this ‘reasonableness’ as Israel accepting the chimaera of a passage to ‘normality’ arriving through the Saudi Crown Prince bestowing it, in return for a contrite Israel undoing seven decades of Jewish supremacism (i.e. accepting a Palestinian State).

The core tension within the Western-Israeli calculus is that the U.S. and the EU are moving in one direction – back to the failed Oslo approach – whilst polling underscores Jewish electors firmly marching in the other direction. A recent survey conducted by the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs shows that since 7 October, 79% of all Jewish respondents oppose the establishment of a Palestinian State on 1967 lines (68% were opposed prior to 7 Oct); 74% are opposed even in exchange for normalisation with Saudi Arabia. And reflective of the internal Israeli divide, “only 24% of left-wing voters support a [Palestinian] State without conditions”. In short, as the western institutional leadership clings to the shrinking Israeli secular liberal Left, Israelis as whole (including the young) are moving hard Right. A recent Pew poll shows that 73% of the Israeli public support the military response in Gaza – albeit a third of Israelis complained it had not gone far enough. A plurality of Israelis think Israel should govern the Gaza Strip. And Netanyahu, in the aftermath of the ICC arrest threat, is overtaking Gantz (leader of the National Union) in approval ratings.

It seems that the ‘western consensus’ prefers not to notice these uncomfortable dynamics. Additionally, a separate Israeli divide concerns the purpose of the war: Is it about restoring to Jewish citizens the sense of personal, physical security, which was lost in the wake of 7 Oct? That is to say: Is it the sense of Israel as a redoubt, safe space in a hostile world that is being restored? Or alternatively, is the present struggle one of establishing a fully Judaicised Israel on the ‘Land of Israel’ (i.e. all the land between the river and the sea) the prime objective? This constitutes a key divide. Those who see Israel primarily as the safe redoubt to which Jews could flee in the wake of European holocaust, naturally are more circumspect at the risking of a wider war (i.e. with Hizbullah) – a war that could see the civilian ‘rear’ directly attacked by Hizbullah’s vast missile arsenal. For this constituency, safety is a premium.

On the other hand, a majority of Israelis sees the risk of wider war as inevitable – indeed to be welcomed by many, if the Zionist project is to be fully established on the Land of Israel. This reality may be difficult for secular westerners to grasp, but the 7 October has re-energised the Biblical vision in Israel, rather than excite a surfeit of caution about war, or a desire for rapprochement with Arab States. The point here is that a ‘New War of Independence’ can be held aloft before the Israeli public as the metaphysical ‘vision’ of the way ahead, whilst the Israeli government attempts to pursue the more mundane path of playing the long game, leading to the full military matrix control over the land between the river and the sea, and the removal of populations that will not submit to the Smotrich dispensation of ‘acquiesce or leave’.

Sachs hostages
https://twitter.com/i/status/1800314333576196369

“..a long period of confrontation with the West, led by the US, lies ahead of us for about a generation..”

• How Russia Can Prevent WW3 (Dmitry Trenin)

We can say that a new phase in relations between the world’s nuclear powers has begun. Many of us are still psychologically somewhere in the 1970s and 1980s. That is a kind of comfort zone. Back then, relations between the USSR and the US were based on the two superpowers’ strategic and political parity. In the military-strategic sphere, Washington was forced to deal with Moscow on an equal footing. After 1991, this parity disappeared. For the US, since the 1990s, Russia has been a declining power; throwing its weight around, always reminding itself of its former greatness, snapping back, even dangerous at times – but on a downward spiral. The difficult opening phase of the Ukraine conflict gave the Americans hope that the fields of that country would be the grave of the Russian superpower. They have since sobered up a bit, but equal status between Moscow and Washington is out of the question for them.

This is the main difference between the current state of relations and the ‘golden’ period of the Cold War – the 1960s and early 1980s. And Russia has yet to prove the Americans wrong. As they say, it is always difficult to predict anything, especially the future. But today we have to assume that a long period of confrontation with the West, led by the US, lies ahead of us for about a generation. The future of our country, its position and role in the world, and to a large extent the state of the global system as a whole, will depend on the outcome of this confrontation, the main front of which is not in Ukraine, but within Russia: in the economy, in the social sphere, in science and technology, in culture and art. Internally, because the enemy realises the impossibility of defeating Moscow on the battlefield, but remembers that the Russian state has collapsed more than once as a result of internal turmoil.

This may, as in 1917, be the result of an unsuccessful war. Hence the bet on a protracted conflict in which they know they have more resources. During the Cold War there were five nuclear powers, but then the only real poles were the US and the USSR, plus China with its then small nuclear arsenal. Now Beijing is moving towards (at least) parity with America and Russia, while India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel remain independent players (unlike NATO members Britain and France). The classic Cold War notion of strategic stability – i.e. the absence of incentives for the parties to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike – is not only inadequate but sometimes inapplicable when characterising relations between the great powers today.

Look at Ukraine: Washington is increasing arms supplies to Kiev, encouraging and providing for its provocative attacks on Russia’s strategic infrastructure (early warning stations, strategic airfields), while at the same time proposing Moscow resumes dialogue on strategic stability! In the emerging world order, strategic stability will have to mean the absence of reasons for military conflict (even indirect) between the nuclear powers. This, in turn, will be possible if the powers respect each other’s interests and are ready to solve problems on the basis of equality and the indivisibility of security. Ensuring strategic stability between all nine powers will require enormous efforts and the formation of a fundamentally new world order model, but it (strategic stability in the broad, i.e. real sense of the word) is quite realistic between pairs of states (Russia-China, the US-India, etc.). For Russia, only three of the other eight nuclear powers – the US, Britain and France – remain problematic.

“.. the “collective West” is a minority whose worldview is not shared by the global majority..”

• BRICS Must Prevent New ‘Cold War’ – China (RT)

The BRICS countries should work together to promote peace and prevent the onset of a new Cold War, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has said. Speaking at the BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting in the Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod on Monday, Wang stated that some major powers still harbor a “Cold War mentality.” According to the diplomat, this attitude directly contradicts UN Security Council resolutions and undermines the authority of multilateral mechanisms. China is willing to work with Russia to maintain strategic cooperation, respond to external pressures, and promote the sustained progress of bilateral relations, he said. Describing BRICS as an important platform for unity and cooperation among emerging markets and developing countries, Wang said the expanded BRICS mechanism will play a crucial role in creating a more just and reasonable global governance system.

He accused the West of the “politicization and excessive securitization” of economic issues, which has resulted in “rampant” unilateral sanctions and technological barriers for countries such as Russia and China. Wang urged the “big BRICS to “leverage” its political significance and transform the group into a new type of multilateral cooperation mechanism. The BRICS grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa was joined by Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates in early 2024. “By expanding our membership, we have ushered in a new era of joint self-reliance for the Global South, with the influence and appeal of BRICS continually rising,” Wang stated.

He added that in a “contest” where some forces promote global multipolarity while others maintain a “unipolar hegemony,” the BRICS countries should “stand on the side of fairness and justice, and make the right choices.” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova claimed last week at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that Western governments are “obsessed” with the idea of global dominance. She argued that Western leaders continue to adopt “exceptionalism” at the expense of other ethnic and cultural identities. However, the “collective West” is a minority whose worldview is not shared by the global majority, which has already embraced the concept of multipolarity, Zakharova insisted.

“..that Kubrakov’s ouster had been orchestrated by Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, described as the “de facto head of state.”

• West ‘Losing Trust’ In Ukraine – FT (RT)

Vladimir Zelensky’s recent purges of government officials have damaged the confidence of Ukraine’s foreign supporters, the Financial Times has reported, citing multiple sources in Kiev.The head of the State Agency for Restoration and Infrastructure Development, Mustafa Nayyem, tendered his resignation on Monday. He was followed by officials responsible for procurement and anti-corruption policy.Their departure is the latest in a series of personnel changes “that have shaken the confidence of western partners” in Vladimir Zelensky’s government, according to the FT. “The US and other western partners want a normal, predictable relationship with their Ukrainian counterparts,” one concerned Ukrainian official told the outlet on condition of anonymity. “Right now they are losing trust in Ukraine’s government because of personnel decisions that they do not understand.”

A spree of firings, resignations, and reassignments overseen by Zelensky in recent months has “caused tension” between Kiev and the countries financing Ukraine, six Ukrainian and Western officials told the outlet on condition of anonymity. They also said they had warned the Ukrainian leader about the “disruptive and inexplicable” moves. Nayyem’s resignation letter, seen by FT, said he was leaving due to “constant opposition, resistance and the creation of artificial obstacles” by Prime Minister Denis Shmygal. According to the outlet, Nayyem spoke to two dozen USAID and other Western officials two weeks ago, telling them he expected to be fired.

He urged Kiev’s foreign backers to continue working with his replacement, but one USAID representative was perturbed by changes to “ our most important partnership,” according to an audio recording of the meeting. Last month, Zelensky dismissed Ukraine’s infrastructure minister, Alexander Kubrakov. He and Nayyem were in charge of both reconstruction and the building of defensive fortifications. Two Ukrainian officials told FT that Zelensky viewed Kubrakov as “too cozy” with the Americans. Nayyem had warned USAID to expect a government probe into Kubrakov. FT reported last week that Kubrakov’s ouster had been orchestrated by Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andrey Yermak, described as the “de facto head of state.”

“This situation is really bad for [the] perception of the Ukrainian government and Ukraine generally,” Gleb Vishlinsky, the executive director at the Center for Economic Strategy in Kiev, told FT. He added that the firing of Kubrakov and Nayyem’s resignation, “build an image of weak and unpredictable governance.” Kubrakov’s sacking in particular attracted “backlash” from the US and its allies. The US, German, French, and EU ambassadors in Kiev posted messages of support for the minister on May 9 and complained about his departure to Shmygal four days later. A meeting that was supposed to be about the dire condition of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure reportedly turned into an argument about the absence of Kubrakov and Nayyem.

” Hungary is scheduled to take over the presidency in July.”

• Eastern NATO Club May Kick Hungary Out For Dissent – FT (RT)

A club of Eastern European and Baltic NATO nations is considering forcing out Hungary, a member state, for refusing to take the same stance on Ukraine, the Financial Times has reported, citing sources. The Bucharest Nine was founded in 2015 and includes Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Senior officials from the regional group regularly meet to coordinate their foreign and security policy; a gathering of its leaders is scheduled to take place in Riga on Tuesday. Hungary, however, may be expelled from the club over its refusal to endorse joint statements of support for sending military aid to Ukraine and otherwise support Kiev in its confrontation with Moscow, insider sources told The Financial Times.

”We are likely meeting in this format for the last time,” one of the people familiar with the situation told the newspaper, calling the discussions “very serious.” All members of the Bucharest Nine were either Warsaw Pact nations or Soviet republics during the Cold War, and joined NATO during its expansion after the USSR collapsed. Hungary, however, is at odds with the other countries over the Ukraine conflict. Budapest opposes the continued arming of Kiev, saying this only prolongs the hostilities, and advocates for immediate peace talks instead. It is also highly skeptical of Western promises to eventually bring Ukraine into NATO and the EU. Supporters of Kiev have branded the government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban “pro-Russian” over the position, which he says is guided by his nation’s interests.

A similar push to ostracize Hungary is reportedly underway within the EU, where some members have called for suspending its voting rights. Belgium, which holds the rotating presidency in the European Council, believes that the future of the bloc may depend on it, Politico reported last week. ”This is a moment of truth,” Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib told the news outlet, referring to the so-called Article 7 proceedings against Hungary. “If we go all the way with this mechanism, it must work. If it doesn’t work, we have to reform it. That’s the future of the European Union.” Hungary is scheduled to take over the presidency in July.

Because they know what Russia thinks about that.

• US ‘Flirting With Neo-Nazis’ – Kremlin (RT)

Washington will stop at nothing, including the use of neo-Nazis, to damage Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, following a US decision to lift a ban on supplying weapons to Ukraine’s Azov Brigade. The unit has notoriously welcomed into its ranks people who espouse ultranationalist and neo-Nazi ideologies, and has been described by the Western press as a magnet for such individuals from across the world. On Monday, the US Department of State cleared the brigade to receive American military assistance, stating that it found no evidence of human rights violations by the group. “This sudden change of stance by Washington proves that [US officials] would stoop to anything in their attempts to suppress Russia, using the Ukrainian people as a tool. They are even fine with flirting with neo-Nazis,” Peskov told journalists during a media briefing. Azov was founded as a volunteer battalion of Ukrainian nationalists in 2014 by white supremacist Andrey Biletsky.

People who came to power in Kiev following the Western-backed armed coup that year used Azov fighters in an attempt to violently quash a rebellion against the new government in the east. The battalion was incorporated into Ukraine’s National Guard the following year. In 2018, the US Congress banned the delivery of arms to the Azov Brigade, citing its ties to neo-Nazi ideology. Since the outbreak of conflict with Russia, Ukrainian officials and Azov members worked to rebrand the unit. Its insignia, which originally paid homage to Nazi symbology, was replaced with less offensive imagery, and its messaging changed to claim that the unit had distanced itself from its roots. Some former and serving US officials, such as ex-ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul, helped Azov’s efforts by organizing events for them on American soil. However, Moscow insists that the nature of the unit has not significantly changed. It remains an “ultranationalist armed group,” Peskov stated.

Not much left of Zelensky’s plan. Wonder why.

• Ukraine ‘Peace Conference’ Will Not Urge Withdrawal Of Russian Troops (RT)

A draft joint statement prepared for an upcoming ‘peace conference’ on Ukraine in Switzerland will likely fall short of demanding the withdrawal of Russian forces from all territories claimed by Kiev, NHK has reported. The document also omits any mention of restoring Ukraine’s territorial integrity, the Japanese news organization said on Tuesday after reviewing the draft statement. The agenda will reportedly address only three out of the ten points promoted by Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, such as the safety of nuclear power plants, food security, the release of prisoners and the return of children evacuated by Russia from the conflict zone, NHK’s English-language news site said.

Zelensky’s topline demands when they were first floated in late 2022 included a complete withdrawal of Russian forces from all territories that Ukraine considers its own, that Russia pays reparations and submits its officials to war tribunals, all dismissed out of hand by Moscow. The points have been dropped from the draft joint statement because it took into account the stance of some Asian and Middle Eastern states that maintain ties with Russia, diplomatic sources told NHK. The draft also states that all parties should take part in the search for peace, and stresses the importance of Russia’s participation in future discussions, according to article. Russia has not been invited to the international gathering, due to take place on Saturday and Sunday at the Burgenstock Resort near Lucerne. Zelensky opposed the presence of a Russian delegation at the Swiss-hosted conference, saying it would enable Moscow to derail Ukraine’s diplomatic efforts.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told RT earlier that it was “absurd” to hold a meeting on settling the conflict between Russia and Ukraine without Moscow attending. “This conference is completely without prospects,” he stressed.The Russian authorities instantly rejected Zelensky’s ten-point plan as “unacceptable” when it was first presented. According to Moscow, the proposal disregards the actual situation on the ground, and is a sign of Kiev’s unwillingness to engage in negotiations.Last week, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin reiterated that Moscow is ready to seek a diplomatic solution to the crisis, but stressed that “fantasies” cannot be a basis for peace talks. “All negotiations are based on either military defeat, or military victory. Of course, we will win,” Putin said.

Biden still
https://twitter.com/i/status/1800361106520604994

Elon Xmas

The story behind Elon Musk firing 80% of Twitter's staff pic.twitter.com/50KkcDTPYx

— Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) June 10, 2024

Elon AI1

"I have a concern with companies like Google, Gemini, OpenAI & Meta that they are not maximally truth seeking. Their A.I. are pandering to political correctness and are being trained to lie.

The safest thing for AI is to be maximally truth seeking even if the truth is unpopular" pic.twitter.com/XPPdMSntX9

— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) June 11, 2024

Eat

They all patiently wait for their turn to eat! pic.twitter.com/SdwiZJjI6I

— B&S (@_B___S) June 11, 2024

Jaguar

Nature is awesome pic.twitter.com/gvnYVnKyY4

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) June 10, 2024

Kind

There is no bigger
Or more important lesson
To teach our children
Than to be kind. pic.twitter.com/cCVMcPKILf

— Ramblings (@ramblingsloa) June 11, 2024

Friendship
https://twitter.com/i/status/1800223297256489410

Cheetah
https://twitter.com/i/status/1800570165580669162

Blue whale

Blue Whale being chased by Orcas. pic.twitter.com/Vw1nN5M7KC

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) June 11, 2024

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

Debt Rattle April 14 2024

Apr 142024

April 14, 2024 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 8:45 am Finance Tagged with: Assange, desertion, Fiona Hill, Gulf powers, Hunter Biden, Iran, Israel, Jan 6, mobilization, sabotage, Zoom 32 Responses »

Edgar Degas At the Milliner’s 1905-10

• Biden Tells Bibi: US Will Not Support A Counterattack Against Iran (ZH)

• Washington Worried About Potential Israeli Attack – NBC (RT)

• Iran Seizes Israeli-Linked Container Ship (RT)

• Persian Gulf Powers Reportedly Refuse to Give US Access to Bases (Sp.)

• Biden Prolongs Ukraine Crisis To Avoid Admitting Failure – Ron Johnson (RT)

• Mobilization Law Is ‘Point Of No Return’ For Zelensky – Ukrainian MP (RT)

• New Order Reveals Scale of Sabotage and Desertion in Ukrainian Army (Sp.)

• Mobilizing for Defeat (Amar)

• Ukrainian Troops Accuse Command of Treating Them ‘Like Livestock’ (Sp.)

• Ukraine Asks France to Help Hold Positions in 2024 (Sp.)

• Trump Thought Ukraine ‘Must Be Part Of Russia’ – Fiona Hill (RT)

• ‘Do The Right Thing’: Assange Supporters Urge As Biden Mulls Dropping Case (CD)

• The Speech That Got Me Banned From Germany (Varoufakis)

• DC National Guard Say They WERE Ready To Be Deployed On Jan 6 (DM)

• Another Federal Judge Rejects All Hunter Biden Claims for Dismissal (Turley)

She has opened the box tonight. pic.twitter.com/uwPbRMma1g

— Pepe Escobar (@RealPepeEscobar) April 13, 2024

RFK Elon
https://twitter.com/i/status/1778986189678055429

FISA

You cannot have a free and open society with the warrantless spying of Americans. Today, the bipartisan vote to force intelligence communities to get a warrant was lost by one vote. In an effort to stop this, I requested a rare procedural maneuver that will force a second vote on… pic.twitter.com/f4apWu62I6

— Anna Paulina Luna (@realannapaulina) April 12, 2024

DOJ Biden

Extraordinary. The DOJ is not even hiding it.

As of 4/11/24, the DOJ is the personal Defense Firm of the Biden Family.

One Federal Judge did NOT get the memo — and she’s rightly outraged at the DOJ.

She’s threatening to expose them.@OANN pic.twitter.com/RZrWaHNpVC

— Chanel Rion OAN (@ChanelRion) April 13, 2024

Assange

'Encouraging': Julian Assange lawyer Jen Robinson and brother Gabriel Shipton speak as President Biden Says U.S. is 'considering' australian request to drop case against Julian Assange #FreeAssangeNOW pic.twitter.com/i9u9pMuJnO

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 13, 2024

Maher Canada

They say in politics, liberals are the gas pedal, and conservatives are the brakes, and I'm generally with the gas pedal, but not if we're driving off a cliff. pic.twitter.com/hutj3OUVQi

— Bill Maher (@billmaher) April 13, 2024

Carano
https://twitter.com/i/status/1778941618491437198

Crenshaw

HEARTBREAKING: After nearly five years of silence, an ex-SEAL team member describes their experience with Congressman Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) of Texas. Heartbreaking story. WATCH pic.twitter.com/K0Gy2Mjn2Y

— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) April 13, 2024

Things are not what they seem. Iran launched 100s of drones and missiles, almost no damage, and said: that’s one and done. Saved face. Everyone knows they had to respond to the Israeli attack in Damascus. And they wouldn’t even have done this if the UN had condemned that attack. And you bet they gave advance notice. An Israeli response now would threaten regionwide escalation. With surging oil prices in a US election year. No, the US does’t want a wider war. Neither does Iran.

• Biden Tells Bibi: US Will Not Support A Counterattack Against Iran (ZH)

It is just after 7am Israel local time and Israel’s military is reporting the Iranian attack has stopped, several hours after Iran said its ‘limited’ operation has “concluded” – which involved an unprecedented hundreds of suicide drones as as well as ballistic missiles sent against Israel in retaliation for the April 1st Israeli attack on Iran’s embassy in Damascus. Below is the top story from English-language Times of Israel: Hebrew media reports claim that not a single drone or cruise missile managed to infiltrate Israeli airspace. According to the unsourced reports, most ballistic missiles were also knocked down outside of Israeli airspace. A report in Ynet says some 20 cruise missiles were downed short of Israel’s borders. The US, UK and Jordan helped take down many of the drones. Israel is reporting very little damage inside the country (though previously admitting “minor damage” against at least one key airbase in the south).

After the enormous Iranian drone and missile swarm a senior Israeli official has been quoted by Israel’s Channel 12 as saying “Iran’s attack was a strategic failure.” The official added in a threatening manner, “Now they can get ready and not sleep in peace.” Israel’s war cabinet appears to be readying a military response… Crucially, the Biden White House appears to be strongly signaling to the Netanyahu government that the attack is ‘done’ and that the United States will not back any follow-up counterattack operations against Iran: US President Joe Biden told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the US will not aid any Israeli counterattack on Iran, US media report, citing senior administration officials. Axios and CNN report that message was passed during a phone call between the pair. Axios reports that Biden told Netyanyahu the US will oppose any Israeli counterattack. CNN reports that Biden said the US will not take part in any such counteraction.

Israel has called on a United Nations Security Council meeting to condemn the Iranian aggression, which is expected to take place late Sunday. The US administration appears to be lobbying for a status quo and for Israel to not mount a strong response. Below is a portion of the Axios report on the Bibi-Biden late night phone call: Behind the scenes: Biden told Netanyahu the joint defensive efforts by Israel, the U.S. and other countries in the region led to the failure of the Iranian attack, according to the White House official. “You got a win. Take the win,” Biden told Netanyahu, according to the official. The official said that when Biden told Netanyahu that the U.S. will not participate in any offensive operations against Iran and will not support such operations, Netanyahu said he understood. U.S. Secretary of State Lloyd Austin spoke on Saturday with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant and asked that Israel notify the U.S. ahead of any response against Iran, a senior Israeli official said.

“I don’t think they had a strategy… the Israelis don’t always make the best strategic decisions..”

• Washington Worried About Potential Israeli Attack – NBC (RT)

Some officials in Washington are worried that West Jerusalem’s response to Iran’s recent airstrikes could be reckless and escalatory, NBC news wrote on Sunday, citing anonymous White House sources. Iran launched several waves of drone and missile attacks against Israel on Saturday and Sunday. This was in response to an airstrike that damaged Iran’s embassy in Damascus, Syria and killed seven military personnel – including two generals – earlier this month. While Israel has refrained from commenting on the bombing, Tehran has accused West Jerusalem of conducting an extraterritorial assassination and attacking their embassy. Some US officials privately indicated exasperation with Israel’s decision to strike the Iranian consular building in Syria, NBC claimed, citing senior Pentagon officials as calling the strike potentially “catastrophically escalatory.”

Others in the White House have expressed concerns about Israel’s future response to the Iranian attack, given both West Jerusalem’s hardline approach in its conflict with Hamas and the airstrike on the embassy in Damascus, NBC News reports. President Joe Biden has privately expressed concern that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to pull the US into a broader conflict in the Middle East, three people familiar with the comments told the news channel. Another senior administration official said that while the White House does not believe Israel is looking for a direct war with Iran, they cannot be certain of West Jerusalem’s motives. “I don’t think they had a strategy… the Israelis don’t always make the best strategic decisions,” an anonymous senior official told NBC.

Some media reports that followed the bombing of Tehran’s diplomatic compound in Damascus claimed that West Jerusalem was preparing to strike Iranian nuclear facilities in the event of a direct Iranian attack on Israel. According to a Western security official, the Israeli Air Force has been training for long range strikes into sensitive areas of Iran which may be linked to the country’s nuclear program, London-based Arabic outlet Elaph wrote on Tuesday. Israel is prepared for any scenario, “both in defense and offense,” Netanyahu stated on Saturday. “Whoever hurts us, we will hurt them,” he said.

Asymmetric warfare.

• Iran Seizes Israeli-Linked Container Ship (RT)

Iranian commandos have stormed an Israeli-operated container ship in the Persian Gulf and taken control of the vessel. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz condemned the “pirate operation” and called on the West to impose sanctions on Tehran. The MSC Aries was boarded by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy troops as it transited the Strait of Hormuz around noon on Saturday. Once under the IRGC’s control, it was taken to Iranian territorial waters, Iranian state media reported. Video footage shared online showed IRGC commandos rappelling onto the deck of the ship from a helicopter.

The Portuguese-flagged MSC Aries is operated by Zodiac Maritime, a shipping firm owned by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer. At the time of the seizure, it was sailing past the Emirati port of Fujairah with its transponder switched off, the Associated Press reported. With Iran controlling the Strait of Hormuz and Yemen’s Houthi rebels attacking Israeli shipping interests in the Red Sea, it is standard practice for Israeli-linked vessels to disable their tracking data when sailing in the region. Since 2019, Iran has periodically seized Israeli and Western vessels in the Strait of Hormuz during times of increased tension. Tehran typically offers legal justification for these seizures, but gave no such explanation on Saturday. However, Saturday’s seizure came two weeks after an alleged Israeli airstrike on an Iranian consulate in the Syrian capital of Damascus. The strike killed seven officers of the IRGC’s Quds Force, including two generals.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed to deal Israel a “slap in the face” in response, and American officials warned on Friday that Tehran could be gearing up for a massive drone and missile strike on Israeli soil over the weekend. It is unclear whether Iran plans further attacks after seizing the MSC Aries. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz condemned the seizure, accusing Khamenei’s “criminal regime” of “conducting a pirate operation in violation of international law.” “I call on the European Union and the free world to immediately declare the Iranian Revolutionary Guards corps as a terrorist organization and to sanction Iran now,” he wrote on X.

BRICS+.

• Persian Gulf Powers Reportedly Refuse to Give US Access to Bases (Sp.)

Persian Gulf countries have reportedly told the United States not to launch any attacks against Iran from their territory or airspace amid seething regional tensions. Sources, including a senior US official told the Middle East Eye that Gulf monarchies have been “working overtime” on the diplomatic track “to shut down avenues that could link them to a US reprisal against Tehran or its proxies from bases inside their kingdoms.” The countries include regional heavyweights Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, and Kuwait, with their leaderships reportedly “raising questions” on the details of US basing agreements, and taking steps to prevent the use of their Iran-adjacent bases against the Islamic Republic. NATO member Turkiye has also reportedly barred the US from using its airspace for strikes against Iran, but Sputnik has not been able to independently verify this information.

“It’s a mess,” a senior US official said, referring to the headache the Biden administration faces as it prepares for a potential Iranian retaliatory strike against its top regional ally Israel following Tel Aviv’s April 1 attack on the Iranian Embassy compound in Damascus, Syria. The Middle East Eye report follows a report by Axios on Friday citing US officials who said that Iran has privately warned the US that it will target American forces in the Middle East if Washington gets involved in a military confrontation between Iran and Israel. The US has an estimated 40,000+ military personnel at bases dotting the Middle East, including the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, which hosts at least 10,000 troops, and serves as the forward headquarters of United States Central Command – the combatant command responsible for military operations across the Middle East. Nearby Bahrain hosts up to 7,000 troops and the US Fifth Fleet – which operates in the Persian Gulf, the Red and Arabian Seas, and part of the Indian Ocean.

The US also has a 15,000-troop garrison in Kuwait, at least 5,000 troops in the UAE, and about 2,700 troops and fighter jets at the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. Oman hosts a few hundred US troops, and allows the US Air Force to conduct overflights and landings, and warships to make 80 port calls annually. The Gulf powers’ increasingly independent foreign policy is potentially a major setback for Washington, which for many decades after World War II (and especially after the Cold War) was able to rely on the Persian Gulf monarchies for its military operations in the oil-rich region. Regional countries led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE have taken a series of steps recently to wean themselves off of dependence on the US economically, politically and militarily, with Riyadh moving to break the petrodollar monopoly in the oil trade with China, pausing its military campaign against Yemen’s Houthi militia, restoring diplomatic ties with Iran and, together with Abu Dhabi, joining the BRICS Plus bloc.

The Palestinian-Israeli crisis has driven Gulf state leaders and their populations further from the idea of the establishing relations with Israel, and chilled ties with the US thanks to the Biden administration’s full-fledged support for Tel Aviv in the course of the Gaza War.

“It’s just a fantasy, it’s just denying reality, to think that pumping more money, fueling the fire of that bloody stalemate, is going to break this thing open and show that Ukraine can be victorious..”

• Biden Prolongs Ukraine Crisis To Avoid Admitting Failure – Ron Johnson (RT)

US President Joe Biden is dragging out an “obviously” lost cause in Ukraine because his administration will not admit to its policy failures in trying to weaken Russia, Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) has claimed. “At some point in time, you have to recognize reality and you have to base your decisions on reality,” Johnson said on Thursday in an interview with podcast host Glenn Greenwald. “But the Biden administration is not willing to do that, the generals aren’t willing to do that, because they’d have to admit they’ve been wrong all along.” Johnson was the only US lawmaker to attend the inauguration of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky in May 2019. He said Zelensky wanted to make peace with Russia then, realizing that Kiev had no chance of retaking Crimea, and sought to resolve the conflict shortly after Moscow launched its military offensive in February 2022.

“I would like to have been a fly on the wall in Istanbul, when they apparently were negotiating a peace agreement and the Biden administration air-dropped [then-UK Prime Minister] Boris Johnson in there to blow that thing up,” Johnson said. “This was a few weeks after the war started. It’s a tragic, tragic turn of history there.” The third-term lawmaker, who formerly chaired the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said the US government has failed to reflect on its foreign policy failures. For example, he argued, fomenting the overthrow of Ukraine’s elected government in 2014 helped lead to the country’s destruction. He said Americans have been “grossly misserved” by their government’s long history of foreign entanglements and regime-change operations. “The military-industrial complex drives so much of what we’re experiencing here today, the endless wars,” Johnson said. “I can’t tell you how many governments we have, through covert action, we’ve overturned. What’s been the net result of that?”

It’s nonsensical for the US government to stand by its stated goal of helping Ukraine to defeat Russian forces, Johnson said. He added, “Part of the problem is that one of the war aims now has shifted. It’s not necessarily to liberate Ukraine but to utilize the Ukrainian people to fight a proxy war with Russia and degrade their military capability.” Johnson said the proxy-war strategy had failed: “With oil prices higher, with the sanctions not working to cripple the Russian economy, I think they’re just probably building up their military-industrial base, and if anything, they’re getting stronger and smarter militarily.”

Republican lawmakers have held up approval of Biden’s request for over $60 billion in additional Ukraine funding since last fall, but party leaders are reportedly preparing to pass an aid bill in the coming days. Biden is seeking reelection later this year. “It’s just a fantasy, it’s just denying reality, to think that pumping more money, fueling the fire of that bloody stalemate, is going to break this thing open and show that Ukraine can be victorious,” Johnson said
“That’s just not going to happen, so it’s better to recognize reality and realize the only way the bloodshed ends is if we sit down and negotiate with [Russian President] Vladimir Putin.”

“..help Zelensky hold on to power by “forcing everyone into the army.” “That is a very bad basis for a social consensus..”

• Mobilization Law Is ‘Point Of No Return’ For Zelensky – Ukrainian MP (RT)

A new conscription law will drive a wedge between officials in Kiev and ordinary Ukrainians, lawmaker Aleksandr Dubinsky has said. He described the legislation as a point of no return for President Vladimir Zelensky and his government. On Thursday, the Ukrainian parliament passed a long-debated law which simplifies procedures for the draft and forces all men aged 18 to 60 – including those residing abroad – to register with the military authorities. Earlier this month, after several weeks of deliberation, Zelensky signed a law lowering the age of conscription for men from 27 to 25. The new draft rules were approved without a demobilization clause that would have allowed troops to return home after three years on the front lines. As things currently stand, everyone who is drafted will have to serve until the end of the conflict with Russia.

Ukrainian troops feel betrayed by the new rules, Western media outlets reported earlier this week, citing soldiers who say they feel “fooled and used” and are being used as “slaves.” The mobilization law “will be the watershed, after which there will be no turning back,” Dubinsky wrote on Telegram on Thursday. He compared Kiev’s policies to ‘Oprichnina’ – a massive repression campaign launched by Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible in the 16th century and implemented by special troops called ‘Oprichniki’ who enjoyed the monarch’s trust and were spared his wrath. “The presidential administration and its Oprichniki, including MPs, state officials, the police and [security services] are on one side,” while “everyone else is on the other,” Dubinsky said.

According to the MP, the goal of this policy is to help Zelensky hold on to power by “forcing everyone into the army.” “That is a very bad basis for a social consensus,” the lawmaker added. In another post, he noted that MPs, police officers, some state officials, and local authorities are exempted from mobilization under the new draft rules, and “are by no means preparing to go to war.” Dubinsky is currently in custody in Ukraine. He was expelled from Zelensky’s ‘Servant of the People’ party in 2021. He faced treason charges in November 2023 after the Ukrainian domestic security service (SBU) accused him of working for Russia. Dubinsky dismissed the accusations as politically motivated and claimed that he was persecuted for criticizing Zelensky.

“..footage appearing to show Ukrainian troops being shot at and having grenades thrown at them by their own comrades..”

• New Order Reveals Scale of Sabotage and Desertion in Ukrainian Army (Sp.)

The Kiev regime’s soldiers sabotage army orders, threaten their commanders, refuse to fire their weapons, leave the battlefield, and desert. This was revealed in a new order on strengthening discipline signed by Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces Oleksandr Syrsky and seen by Sputnik.The document notes that army commanders, law enforcement, and other government agencies have faced new challenges that require an immediate response. Among the military criminal offenses, the commander-in-chief listed “insubordination,” “failure to comply with an order,” “threat or violence against a superior,” “unauthorized abandonment of a military unit or place of service,” “desertion,” “evasion of military service by inflicting self-harm or in any other way,” and “unauthorized abandonment of the battlefield or refusal to use weapons.”

Syrsky’s order outlines the urgent need for the Armed Forces and representatives of law enforcement agencies to identify and put a stop to these offenses. The document presupposes that Ukrainian soldiers could be offered a chance to return to combat duty even after the abovementioned offenses. The new order comes as the Ukrainian Armed Forces are struggling to replenish their ranks, with men increasingly unwilling to die for the Kiev regime and actively avoiding mobilization or deserting. Following last year’s botched summer counteroffensive, which resulted in huge manpower losses, cases of desertion have soared. The Kiev regime’s army units are rife with cases of insubordination and desertion. Sputnik earlier obtained footage appearing to show Ukrainian troops being shot at and having grenades thrown at them by their own comrades during a Russian advance.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky recently deplored that such a case of desertion by a whole unit had resulted in Ukrainian forces being surrounded, and many soldiers being killed. He also spoke out against declaring a general amnesty for deserters in a video posted on his office’s YouTube channel. On Wednesday, Verkhovna Rada lawmaker Irina Gerashchenko reported that the Ukrainian parliament had backed in the first reading a bill to tighten liability for military offenses, including desertion. The following day, the country’s parliament adopted a bill on mobilization aimed at replenishing Ukrainian forces depleted by two years of NATO’s proxy war against Russia. Zelensky also signed new mobilization measures into law on April 2, lowering the conscription age and authorizing the creation of an electronic database of military-age men as the issue of draft dodgers continues to persist.

“All Ukrainian men between age 18 and 60 will have to register, including those abroad. Failure to do so will count as evading military service..”

• Mobilizing for Defeat (Amar)

Ukraine’s situation is extremely precarious, if you want to put it optimistically. A more realistic term is “catastrophic.” The country faces steady, accelerating advances of Russian forces that are well-motivated and trained and superior in quantity and equipment. Even Ukraine’s commander-in-chief has admitted that “the situation on the eastern front has significantly worsened in recent days.” A massive understatement but still proof that things are even worse. We also know – from Ukrainian polls – that ever more Ukrainians are open to ending the war by making concessions. Yet the Zelensky regime is doubling down. Instead of entering serious negotiations – the kind where you adjust your aims to your losses so as to avoid even greater ones – it is seeking to throw more lives into a war that has become a meatgrinder for Ukrainian troops.

That is the main purpose of a new mobilization law that has just passed the Ukrainian parliament. (In addition, President Zelensky has already signed off on additional measures that will be integrated into the new law once he signs that as well. In essence, though, this is one integrated bundle, which many Ukrainians and outside observers refer to as one and the same law, as will be done here.) The new mobilization law is complex, consisting of a long list of measures, including, for instance, new rules on confiscating private cars for defense purposes. Its core, however, is simple: The minimum age for mobilization is lowered from 27 to 25 years of age. All Ukrainian men between age 18 and 60 will have to register, including those abroad. Failure to do so will count as evading military service. To make sure that compliance can be policed easily, all registered men must have their registration papers on them at all times.

The law, which has been under contentious consideration for months, is not being well-received in Ukrainian society. On a TV show run by Ukrainska Pravda, a very anti-Russian outlet, Maria Berlinska, a Ukrainian activist of equally sterling credentials, called it a fiasco. And she is by no means alone. It is true that some Ukrainian commentators have – once again – tried to dismiss all and any popular discontent as nothing but Russian interference. But this time, that tired old trick from the NATO-Zelensky playbook is not working well. Even Western mainstream media acknowledge the law is “unpopular.”

It is not hard to understand why many Ukrainians are angry. Perhaps the single worst disappointment is that the law does not include a hard rule for demobilization, which is what everyone expected. Think of it as a tacit deal: The government gets to hoover up more young men for cannon fodder, but, at least, it also promises to let go those exhausted soldiers who have already served (and survived) for years (36 months was under discussion). Even the New York Times has noticed that Ukraine’s current soldiers are “battered and exhausted.” Yet opening a way out for at least some of them is what did not happen. Instead, the Zelensky regime has dared come out with a law that only takes but gives nothing back.

“..accused of sabotaging orders, threatening commanders, refusing to fire their weapons, leaving the battlefield and deserting en masse..”

• Ukrainian Troops Accuse Command of Treating Them ‘Like Livestock’ (Sp.)

A leaked order regarding plans to strengthen discipline signed by Ukrainian Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Syrsky has detailed the increasingly difficult situation for Kiev at the front, with troops accused of sabotaging orders, threatening commanders, refusing to fire their weapons, leaving the battlefield and deserting en masse. Russia’s Defense Ministry has published footage of nine servicemen from Ukraine’s elite 25th Separate Airborne Brigade collectively surrendering to Russian forces near the village of Vodyanoye in the Donetsk People’s Republic. In interviews taken after their capture, the troopers pointed to the difficult situation at the front, complained about poor operational planning, poorly trained commanders, large losses in manpower and equipment and panic among the units, and accused command of using them as cannon fodder.

“The commanders leave us to die like waste material, while they are somewhere on the sidelines,” serviceman Valery told his Russian interviewers. “When we were being taken into captivity, our own forces started shelling us, showing that we aren’t needed anymore. I’ve been captured and thanks to that I’m alive and won’t be executed. It’s worse in the Ukrainian military than in the Russian captivity,” he said. “The 25th Brigade’s command is treating us like livestock,” another captured serviceman said. “It’s better to surrender than die in such a ***** manner for who knows for what and why,” a third added. “Our commanders don’t care about us. They didn’t want to come to the positions and evaluate the situation…So ‘thank you’ to our commanders. In your words, we should have gone to our deaths,” another soldier said. Footage shot by Russian forces showed the surrendering servicemen approaching Russian positions, stripping off their gear and being led out of the combat zone by Russian forces after being searched.

Ukraine Armed Forces C-in-C Syrsky confirmed the desperate situation at the front in an order that was issued on April 4 and leaked to Russian media on Saturday, listing issues he said require immediate attention from law enforcement including insubordination, failure to comply with orders, threats or violence against superiors, unauthorized abandonment of positions, desertion, evasion of military service by inflicting self-harm, and refusal to use weapons. In a Telegram post Saturday, Syrsky offered an unusually frank public assessment of the battlefield situation, which he said had “significantly worsened in recent days, primarily due to the significant intensification of the enemy’s offensive actions,” which he said was “facilitated by warm, dry weather, which has made most open areas accessible to tanks.” Syrsky assured that his “personal communication” with servicemen has made him well “aware of the real scale and degree of threat from the enemy.”

“..and we will be able to resume the counteroffensive in 2025..”

• Ukraine Asks France to Help Hold Positions in 2024 (Sp.)

Kiev has asked Paris to help the Ukrainian military hold the positions on the battlefield this year so that it can launch a new counteroffensive in 2025, a French official who took part in the talks with the Ukrainian authorities has told Le Figaro newspaper. “The Ukrainians are telling us: help us make it through 2024, and we will be able to resume the counteroffensive in 2025,” the official said. Ukraine is in need of the SAMP/T air defense system, the official added. However, MBDA, which manufactures the Aster 30 missiles for the platform, will not be able to provide Kiev with more missiles in the near future, as the French military also needs them, Le Figaro reported. On June 4, 2023, Ukraine attempted a counteroffensive against Russia. Kiev deployed brigades trained by NATO instructors and armed with Western equipment, including Leopard and Challenger tanks.

Three months later, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that Kiev’s push had failed, with Ukraine suffering heavy casualties. Several Western officials also admitted that the Ukrainian counteroffensive had not been successful. Western countries have provided hundreds of billions of dollars worth of aid to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s special military operation in February 2022. Aid shipments began in 2022 with artillery munitions and training and have escalated to include tanks, advanced air-defense systems, missiles and cluster munitions. The Kremlin has consistently warned against the West’s continued arms deliveries to Ukraine, saying that they only prolong the conflict, adding that Western military equipment will be eventually destroyed. Moscow also cautioned that NATO countries “are playing with fire” by providing Kiev with arms.

NYT and Fiona Hill team up to make Trump look ignorant. And yes, “Hill served on Trump’s National Security Council between 2017 and 2019”. How did that ever happen?

• Trump Thought Ukraine ‘Must Be Part Of Russia’ – Fiona Hill (RT)

Former US President Donald Trump could not understand “the idea that Ukraine was an independent state” and assumed that it “must be part of Russia,” his former adviser, Fiona Hill, has claimed. “Trump made it very clear that he thought, you know, that Ukraine, and certainly Crimea, must be part of Russia,” Hill told New York Times writer David Sanger in an upcoming book previewed by The Guardian on Friday. “He really could not get his head around the idea that Ukraine was an independent state.” Crimea voted overwhelmingly to join the Russian Federation in 2014, six decades after the historically Russian peninsula was transferred to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in an administrative decision by Soviet Premier Nikita Kruschev. In September 2022, four former Ukrainian regions – the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, Kherson, and Zaporozhye – were also admitted to the Russian Federation after similar referendums.

It is unclear from the excerpt printed by The Guardian whether Trump was referring to Russia’s centuries of sovereignty over Crimea and interests in Ukraine, or whether he simply assumed that post-Soviet Ukraine was a part of Russia. Trump has never publicly suggested that Ukraine is not an independent state. Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee to challenge President Joe Biden in this November’s election. If elected, he has promised to end the conflict in Ukraine “within 24 hours.” “I would get [Russian President Vladimir Putin] into a room. I’d get [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky into a room. Then I’d bring them together. And I’d have a deal worked out,” he told NBC News in September. Trump did not elaborate on how he would achieve this, explaining that “if I tell you exactly, I lose all my bargaining chips.”

Despite accusing Biden of dragging the US toward “World War III” with his policy of open-ended military aid to Ukraine, Trump has said that he could keep money flowing to Kiev under some circumstances, albeit as a loan rather than a gift. An intelligence analyst and specialist on Russian and Eurasian affairs, Hill served on Trump’s National Security Council between 2017 and 2019. She emerged as a key witness during the 2019 impeachment inquiry against her former boss, during which she accused Trump of using American aid to pressure Zelensky into investigating the Biden family’s business dealings in Ukraine.

“..this would be the best decision Biden ever made..”

• ‘Do The Right Thing’: Assange Supporters Urge As Biden Mulls Dropping Case (CD)

President Joe Biden this week for the first time said his administration is weighing the Australian government’s requests to drop charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been deprived of his freedom since 2010 and is currently jailed in London’s notorious Belmarsh Prison while fighting extradition to the United States. Asked by reporters at the White House about requests from Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and members of the country’s Parliament for the U.S. and United Kingdom to drop the extradition effort and charges against Assange – an Australian citizen – Biden said that “we’re considering it.” Stella Assange, Julian’s wife, responded to Biden’s remarks on social media. “Do the right thing,” she wrote. “Drop the charges. #FreeAssangeNOW.”

Srecko Horvat, a Croatian philosopher and co-founder of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 pan-European progressive political party, said that “this would be the best decision Biden ever made.” British journalist Afshin Rattansi asked, “Why has Julian Assange been put through this ordeal in the first place?” Assange – who is 52 years old and suffers from various health problems – faces multiple U.S. charges under the Espionage Act and Computer Fraud and Abuse Act for his role in publishing classified government documents, some of them revealing war crimes and other misdeeds. Among the files published by WikiLeaks are the “Collateral Murder” video – which shows a U.S. Army helicopter crew killing a group of Iraqi civilians – the Afghan and Iraq war logs.

Three U.S. administrations have pursued charges against Assange. During the administration of former President Donald Trump – who is the presumptive 2024 Republican nominee – officials including then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo allegedly plotted to assassinate Assange to avenge WikiLeaks’ publication of the “Vault 7” documents exposing CIA electronic warfare and surveillance activities. In 2010, Trump called for Assange’s execution. The U.K. High Court ruled last month that Assange could not be immediately extradited to the U.S., where he faces up to 175 years behind bars if convicted on all counts. The tribunal gave the Biden administration until April 16 to guarantee that Assange won’t face the death penalty. Absent such assurance, Assange will be allowed to continue appealing his extradition. Last month, Assange’s legal team denied reports that a plea deal with the U.S. government may have been in the works. Assange has been imprisoned in Belmarsh since 2019. Before that, he spent nearly seven years in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, where he had been granted political asylum under the government of leftist former President Rafael Correa.

“..not just a ban from visiting Germany but also from participation in Zoom events hosted in the country..”

• The Speech That Got Me Banned From Germany (Varoufakis)

Today, Yanis Varoufakis was banned not just from visiting Germany but from participating in video conferences about politics hosted in Germany. Here’s the plea for humanity and justice in Palestine that got him banned. Today, Germany’s interior ministry issued a “betätigungsverbot” against me, a ban on any political activity — not just a ban from visiting Germany but also from participation in Zoom events hosted in the country. I can’t even have a recorded video of me played at German events.The trouble started in earnest yesterday, when German police burst into a Berlin venue to disband our Palestine congress, which was hosted by the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25). Judge for yourselves what kind of society Germany is becoming if its police ban the sentiments below.

“Congratulations and heartfelt thanks for being here — despite the threats, despite the ironclad police outside this venue, despite the panoply of the German press, despite the German state, despite the German political system that demonizes you for being here. “Why a Palestinian congress, Mr Varoufakis?” a German journalist asked me recently. Because, as Hanan Ashrawi once said, “we cannot rely on the silenced to tell us about their suffering.”Today, Ashrawi’s reason has grown depressingly stronger, because we cannot rely on the silenced who are also massacred and starved to tell us about the massacres and the starvation. But there is another reason, too: because a proud, decent people, the people of Germany, are led down a perilous road to a heartless society by being made to associate themselves with another genocide carried out in their name, with their complicity.

I am neither Jewish nor Palestinian. But I am incredibly proud to be here among Jews and Palestinians — to blend my voice for peace and universal human rights with Jewish voices for peace and universal human rights, with Palestinian voices for peace and universal human rights. Being together here today is proof that coexistence is not only possible — but that it is here already. “Why not a Jewish congress, Mr Varoufakis?” the same German journalist asked me, imagining that he was being smart. I welcomed his question. For if a single Jew is threatened, anywhere, just because she or he is Jewish, I shall wear the Star of David on my lapel and offer my solidarity — whatever the cost, whatever it takes.

So let’s be clear: if Jews were under attack, anywhere in the world, I would be the first to canvass for a Jewish congress in which to register our solidarity. Similarly, when Palestinians are massacred because they are Palestinians — under a dogma that to be dead and Palestinian, they must have been Hamas — I shall wear my keffiyeh and offer my solidarity whatever the cost, whatever it takes. Universal human rights are either universal or they mean nothing.

Time to hear Pelosi and Liz Cheney under oath?

• DC National Guard Say They WERE Ready To Be Deployed On Jan 6 (DM)

Whistleblowers from the Washington D.C. National Guard will tell Congress that Donald Trump did want them deployed during the Capitol riot and the Army delayed telling them to mobilize in a bombshell hearing next week. DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal that at least three officers will appear Wednesday before a House subcommittee to claim their stories were also ignored by the Democrat-led January 6 committee, because it didn’t fit their narrative. The hearing will aim to further prove that Acting Defense Secretary at the time Christopher Miller did give advance approval of D.C. National Guard deployment at the direction of then-President Donald Trump. A person familiar with the review by the House Administration Committee’s Oversight Subcommittee said the whistleblowers will provide testimony that then-Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy delayed by at least two hours providing official notice to D.C. National Guard Commander William Walker to deploy troops to the Capitol.

Instead of getting to the bottom of the breakdown in communication and focusing on improving Military preparedness for future incidents, the witnesses feel the January 6 panel was solely focused on pinning blame for the events that day on Trump. The officers, who were with Walker the day of the Capitol riot, will detail how they were on buses in full tactical gear for hours waiting for the go-ahead from the Army. McCarthy has stated under oath that he did give a timely order for deployment of the D.C. National Guard – but Walker’s troops said they found out about mobilization during a press conference, which led to a three-hour-and-19-minute delay of forces arriving at the Capitol. Some suggest that McCarthy was vying for a spot in President Joe Biden’s incoming administration and didn’t like the optics of it looking like the Army, under his command, was trying to interfere or inhibit certification of the 2020 presidential election results.

The hearing on Wednesday is titled ‘Three Years Later: D.C. National Guard Whistleblowers Speak Out on January 6 Delay’ and aims to examine whether Trump was at fault for the delay in National Guard deployment. Additionally, the whistleblowers will reveal how the January 6 Committee did not want to hear their testimony because it corroborated Trump and his allies’ claims that the former president did authorize the National Guard days in advance to respond to any violence or unrest on January 6, 2021. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) is chairman of the Oversight Subcommittee, which is tasked with reviewing the January 6 Committee’s investigation into the Capitol riot.

Last month, Loudermilk released a transcript of a never-before-seen interview with Tony Ornato, the man in charge of Trump’s security detail on January 6, 2021. In the interview with the panel, Ornato confirmed that Trump did authorize the National Guard for mobilization and deployment to D.C. that day. The bombshell release of that interview reveals flaws in the January 6 committee’s argument that Trump wanted to stoke chaos that day by not allowing National Guard troops to respond to the scene at the Capitol. Loudermilk’s panel is concerned with making sure that security of the U.S. Capitol complex is nonpartisan and that readiness is not affected by partisan politics.

“..other defendants did not write “a memoir in which they made countless statements proving their crimes and drawing further attention to their criminal conduct.”

• Another Federal Judge Rejects All Hunter Biden Claims for Dismissal (Turley)

While some legal analysts continue to boost Hunter Biden’s legal claims, the reviews in actual courts are far less glowing. Recently, we discussed a federal judge rejecting all eight motions of Hunter Biden to dismiss his tax charges in a stinging opinion citing a conspicuous lack of actual evidence to support their claims. Now, U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika has also rejected those claims in the gun case in Delaware, calling Hunter’s arguments “nonsensical.” Legal experts like MSNBC’s Andew Weissmann have slammed the gun charges as “an abuse.” Hunter Biden’s counsel has argued selective prosecution and a bar on charges (based on the defunct notorious plea deal) in both cases. While these arguments were given great credence on some networks, they were stomped on by actual judges applying the law to the case. Abby Lowell and Hunter’s defense team have insisted that he is the victim of selective prosecution, but Special Counsel David Weiss has eviscerated those claims.

In a recent filing, Weiss dismissed many of Hunter’s claims as “patently false” and noted that he virtually flaunted his violations and engaged in obvious efforts to evade taxes and hide his crimes. Weiss further noted that other defendants did not write “a memoir in which they made countless statements proving their crimes and drawing further attention to their criminal conduct.” It was a devastating take-down of Hunter’s claims, but it did not address the conspicuous omission of charges brought against Menendez, including FARA charges. It also does not address the fact that the Justice Department not only allowed the statute of limitations to run on major crimes, but sought to finalize an obscene plea agreement with no jail time for Hunter. It only fell apart when a judge decided to ask a couple of cursory questions of the prosecutor, who admitted that he had never seen an agreement this generous for a defendant. Weiss noted in his filing that they filed new charges only after Hunter’s legal counsel refused to change the agreement and insisted that it remained fully enforceable.

Judge Noreika is equally unimpressed by the arguments of the Biden team. She almost mockingly noted that “Defendant’s articulated protected class is apparently family members of politically-important persons.” She later added: “Defendant’s claim is effectively that his own father targeted him for being his son, a claim that is nonsensical under the facts here. Regardless of whether Congressional Republicans attempted to influence the Executive Branch, there is no evidence that they were successful in doing so and, in any event, the Executive Branch prosecuting Defendant was at all relevant times (and still is) headed by Defendant’s father.” The court also rejected Hunter Biden’s effort to subpoena Trump, former attorney general Bill Barr, and two other senior officials who served in the Trump Justice Department. Again, she noted that it was the Biden administration that decided to prosecute Hunter Biden on the firearms offenses.

Aristotle time

The Paradox of Time according to Aristotle pic.twitter.com/BPggcDMRW6

— Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) April 13, 2024

Moom!

Moom! Are you kidding me? pic.twitter.com/ZRk8ckvug4

— B&S (@_B___S) April 12, 2024

Wolf size

Please look at how big these wolves are. I always thought they were the size of dogs. I’ve been heavily mistaken. pic.twitter.com/Xi3r5Ngjyw

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) April 13, 2024

Lynx

lynx testing the ice and prefers an airborne route instead
pic.twitter.com/tDrjremTYd

— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) April 13, 2024

Just 10 streams carry 95% of all river-borne plastic into the ocean

Reindeer

These two reindeer entwined their antlers. This man helps them disentangle. They've both stood still & let this man of nerves of steel do his job. Compassion ought to be humanity's initial code. pic.twitter.com/1Kkim81kcC

— Hakan Kapucu (@1hakankapucu) April 13, 2024

Octopus

Man has an Octopus stuck on his back pic.twitter.com/b4dOwHRbtQ

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) April 13, 2024

Skink
https://twitter.com/i/status/1779155873861927286

Baby swans
https://twitter.com/i/status/1779221790038098045

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

Debt Rattle March 23 2024

Mar 232024

March 23, 2024 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:46 am Finance Tagged with: CIA, Gaza, genocide, Hunter Biden, IRS, Macron, SMO, Trump, Truth Social 37 Responses »

Edvard Munch Spring in Johan Karl Street 1891

• Trump: “I Almost Have Five Hundred Million Dollars In Cash” (ZH)

• Trump’s Third Act Has Begun. It’s a Beauty. (Scott Adams)

• Wake-up Call (James Howard Kunstler)

• No Ukraine Talks Because US Threatens Zelensky – Seymour Hersh (Sp.)

• Let NATO Troops Enter Ukraine. The War Will End Much Faster Then – Orban (VV)

• Russia is at War – Kremlin (RT)

• Macron Believes Ukraine Could Fall Soon – Politico (RT)

• La Macronnerie of a Failed French President: Ukraine (Jay)

• France’s Megalomaniac Macron is Gambling With World Peace (SCF)

• EU Eyes ‘Groundbreaking’ Change On Ukraine Arms Funding (RT)

• Ukraine Makes Fresh Move To Draft More Soldiers (RT)

• Washington In Denial Over Putin’s Victory While Gaming Its Own Elections (Cox)

• World Sees Gaza as ‘US Genocide’ Not Just Israel’s (Sp.)

• CIA Told DOJ to Stay Away from Kevin Morris in Hunter Biden Probe (Turley)

• CIA Protecting Biden by Blocking IRS Interviews – Whistleblower (DeMartino)

• Global Population Set To Fall For First Time In 700 Years (MN)

BREAKING: Shareholders have just voted to let Trump’s company, Trump Media & Technology Group, which owns Truth Social, become a public company, which could earn Trump $4 billion. NOTE: However, if Trump wants to use this money to help with his legal issues in a fraud case by Letitia James, he has to get special permission to sell his shares early. NOTE: Trump’s company will start being traded on the stock market under the symbol “DJT” as soon as next week.

Letitia

Letitia James has been caught in the middle of her own fraud scandal, with new allegations emerging that she is using her office to avoid paying a $3 million loan while protecting a group that overly-inflated their property values. Meanwhile, Trump appealed Engoron's $450m order,… pic.twitter.com/KhtL2NUx6v

— Robert Gouveia Esq. (@RobGouveiaEsq) March 21, 2024

Vivek

The 8th Amendment was designed to protect against excessive fines or bail imposed to achieve unjust ends. Letitia James’ crusade against Trump fits that to a tee. She should be disbarred. pic.twitter.com/EaB7W9YcZ7

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) March 21, 2024

Lawfare
https://twitter.com/i/status/1770861500103557197

Cannon

Judge Cannon stunned Jack Smith and lefty lawyers by ordering the parties to agree on jury instructions that seem to seal the prosecution's fate before the trial even begins. pic.twitter.com/Qo1hE5drpm

— Robert Gouveia Esq. (@RobGouveiaEsq) March 21, 2024

There’s plenty of money for enhanced border security in the $1.2 Trillion funding package. Just not the US border.

Stephen Miller

Stephen Miller (@StephenM) on the Democrat scheme to allow illegal aliens into the country so they will be counted in the U.S. Census, giving them more electoral power:

“California would have HALF of the Electoral College votes it has right now but for illegal immigration..” pic.twitter.com/VOxEU8KweU

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) March 21, 2024

Watters

From now until November, this is the four-step plan. First, the media tells you a lie. Second, the politicians run with the lie. Third, the American people believe the lie. Then the prosecutors sink their teeth in and the Deep State cleans it up. Watch the plan on constant loop.… pic.twitter.com/JYJk14POhb

— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) March 22, 2024

Watters Fani

Jesse Waters says, "Fani Willis is having a tough week. Loverboy quit the Trump case, the judge is letting his team appeal his decision to keep her on, and now her star witness in a separate RICO case was too stoned to testify." WATCH pic.twitter.com/9OJEekIXEW

— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) March 21, 2024

Immigration

CNN contributor shocks Anderson Cooper with Biden's historically low support among Hispanic voters:

"If you ask Hispanic voters who do they trust more on border security and immigration, overwhelmingly, they trust Donald Trump more by a tremendous margin, look at that, 49% to… pic.twitter.com/pfUjvbE91R

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) March 21, 2024

Will The Supreme Court Recognize Voter Fraud And Ensure It Doesn’t Happen in 2024?

“Letitia James is about to hand Trump a huge victory…… when she seizes Trump Tower, the case is now federal bc Trumps Atty’s are ready to go into Federal Court, claiming his 8th Amendment rights have been violated. Thus putting an immediate freeze on her. Many are wondering why a federal judge hasn’t stepped in…. well the reason is…. she hasn’t acted on her threats yet…. so Trump’s Constitutional rights have yet to be violated.”

• Trump: “I Almost Have Five Hundred Million Dollars In Cash” (ZH)

Former President Trump on Friday said on Truth Social that “through hard work, talent, and luck, I currently have almost five hundred million dollars in cash.” The announcement comes as a Monday deadline fast approaches for him to come up with roughly $454 million to stay judgement in his civil fraud case while he appeals. According to Trump, he had intended to use a “substantial amount” of his money in his presidential campaign. “THE OFTEN OVERTURNED POLITICAL HACK JUDGE ON THE RIGGED AND CORRUPT A.G. CASE, WHERE I HAVE DONE NOTHING WRONG, KNEW THIS, WANTED TO TAKE IT AWAY FROM ME,” President Trump wrote. “THAT’S WHERE AND WHY HE CAME UP WITH THE SHOCKING NUMBER WHICH, COUPLED WITH HIS CRAZY INTEREST DEMAND, IS APPROXIMATELY $454,000,000,” he continued.

As the Epoch Times notes further: “The judgment total was $363 million, but breaks down with about $355 million of that specifically applying to President Trump, $4 million to be recovered from Eric Trump, $4 million to be recovered from Donald Trump Jr., and $1 million to be recovered from former Trump Organization finance chief Allen Weisselberg. With the applied 9 percent interest, court filings say the bond comes out to more than $464 million, with a little more than $10 million of that attributed to judgment on Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Mr. Weisselberg. Judgment was entered on Feb. 23, kicking off a 30-day clock to post the massive sum, set to expire on March 25. President Trump, in the post, decried the ruling as an example of “communism in America.” Meanwhile, even the AP found that in 70 years of similar cases involving civil fraud, Trump’s stood out as unique.

The Associated Press, no friend of Donald Trump, found that in 70 YEARS of similar cases of civil fraud, Trump's stood out as unique. https://t.co/blNKdZ8nLZ pic.twitter.com/E2HVuuvzKW

— Tom Bevan (@TomBevanRCP) March 21, 2024

President Trump is billions of dollars richer after shareholders in Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC) on Friday approved a merger with Trump’s media startup, Truth Social. The long-delayed merger adds roughly $3.5 billion to Trump’s net worth – however the former president won’t be able to sell any shares for at least six months unless the board waives it (or they can back a loan), raising questions over whether he’ll be able to leverage it to secure a $464 million bond in his New York civil fraud case – which his lawyers say is “impossible” to secure due to a lack of cash on hand. If Trump can’t secure the giant sum by Monday, he risks the seizure of assets – which New York has already begun positioning itself to do. Earlier this week, DWAC sued to force its former CEO, Patrick Orlando, to vote his 14.77% shareholding in favor of the merger, despite an ongoing dispute over compensation, Axios and FT report. Orlando was on the shareholder vote call.

“The professional relationship between Mr Orlando and Digital World became strained and has continued to deteriorate such that there is no assurance that Mr Orlando as a current member of our board or as a controlling affiliate of the sponsor will be co-operative,” DWAC warned in a filing last month. Following the merger, DWAC will effectively cease to exist, and will be replaced by TMTG – which will be listed on the Nasdaq. Its board of directors will include Donald Trump Jr. as well as several former members of the Trump White House, the report continues. Former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) will serve as TMTG’s CEO. Meanwhile, and perhaps in anticipation of Trump selling to satisfy the bond, DWAC shares have plummeted on the news to the tune of 8% in early trading.

Beyond Trump’s massive payout from the deal, three hedge funds also stand to make huge profits – Anson Funds, Mangrove Capital Partners and All Blue Capital, which participated in a $50mm convertible debt offering earlier this year after other funds had walked away. They’re sitting on over $400 million in gains as of Thursday’s closing price. “The return will be amazing,” said one person involved in the financing, per FT. “Trump’s advisers have been keeping him on the sidelines . . . they want to get this vote clear with no issues with the government. Then, on Tuesday when it starts trading, it is game on for Trump.”

https://twitter.com/i/status/1770991128948420912

X thread. “Trump turned Leticia James into his best fundraiser..”

• Trump’s Third Act Has Begun. It’s a Beauty. (Scott Adams)

Next week, Trump could make over $4 billion when his media company goes public, removing all doubt about his billionaire status. And you can stop asking if he would have been better off putting his inheritance in a savings account in the 70s. I expect Trump to leave a 15% tip for Leticia James and the Democrats because they made his windfall possible by hunting him and censoring him for years. You can call it a bond, not a tip, if you prefer. When the Supreme Court tosses out the unconstitutional fine, Trump gets most of his “tip” back. The Democrats planned to cripple Trump financially so he couldn’t spend as much on the campaign. Trump turned Leticia James into his best fundraiser. Lots of interesting developments lately on the topic of the 2020 election. The Simulation wants at least one of those fresh allegations to be a Kraken.

Trump’s legal maneuvering is likely to keep him eligible for the election. You can fantasize about a heroic Democrat such as Newsom swooping in and replacing Biden, but it’s looking less likely every day. If it had always been the plan, it would have happened by now. Looks like Biden has to stay on the job to keep the Biden Crime Family out of jail. The predictable Democrat Summer Hoax will add some excitement, but it will be forgotten and debunked by November. Trump’s upcoming victory is looking like it will be, as Trump says, “too big to rig.” And by that I mean Democrats will try to rig it anyway and get caught. That will be fun.

The gears of the machine have become visible. We can all see the FBI is rotten and the DOJ is weaponized. We know the border is open intentionally. We know the cartels are working with our government. We know our elections are DESIGNED to not be auditable and there’s only one reason for it. We can see Biden is not in charge. We know the Ukraine war was always about its energy resources and who gets to own them. We know our rising debt is ruinous. We know our experts are liars. We know our pharma and food industries are poisoning us. We know our government is racist. We know the corporate media is essentially owned by Democrats who are controlled by intelligence entities and they are actively brainwashing the population. We know the 1st and 2nd amendments, and X, are under sustained government attack because they are the public’s last defense against the government. But we are not quitters. And the odds do not apply to us.

Trump Ad

"The establishment is acting like a cornered dog that knows it's about to be slaughtered" @AwakenedOutlaw

AO is right. And it's bc they are. The writing is on the wall.

This operation is coming to a head. "Only at the precipice will people find the will to change" in… pic.twitter.com/qahcYCDCHh

— Joe Rambo (@BrainStorm_Joe) March 21, 2024

“But fiends got to fiend, and if you try to deprive them of being fiends then you are guilty of “hate.“

• Wake-up Call (James Howard Kunstler)

Can you feel it? The tension rising to the red-line? It runs clear through all of Western Civ. We are ruled by governments of fiends. But now, the sun rides higher in the sky. The sap is rising in the northern forests. The earth heaves. The buds swell and blush. Something is in the air. The animals are waking from their long winter sleep. The natives are restless. The two traditional political divisions, liberal and conservative died with Covid. Now there are simply the sane versus the insane. The sane have had enough of being pushed around by the insane. The insane don’t register much of what reality tries to tell them. They have a body of insane ideas to comfort and protect them from the reality’s rigors. To call that body of ideas an “ideology” is way too polite. That the insane call themselves “progressive,” is a signature of their insanity. Progress toward what better state of things? Toward a supremacy of fiends, sadists, degenerates, and morons seizing riches and power by every dishonest means possible outside the rule of law and common decency?

It’s not even suitable to call them “communists.” They lack the necessary idealism for that. They don’t expect to put their shoulders to the wheel with their fellow man. They just want to grab your stuff and then kill you so they don’t have to hear any complaints. The insane do not believe any of the theoretical bullshit they want to force you to swallow. They don’t care about climate change. It’s just a cudgel they use to beat everyone over the head so they can steal your stuff. They don’t care about “democracy.” It’s just a line of bullshit to cover up their election-stealing. Do you suppose that sane people would keep using electronic vote-tabulating machines that were demonstrably connected to the Internet, and thus hackable, if they cared about election integrity? Of course not. They would arrange p.d.q. to junk them and use paper ballots, and only in person at polling places, with “absentee” exceptions only for people out of the country.

The insane do not care about public health. Everything that is known about the Covid-19 vaccinations tells you that they are unsafe and don’t prevent infection or transmission of a flu-like illness that might not even be what it was officially labeled as. Our public health officials in the FDA, the CDC, and in other corners of the Department of health and Human Services, lie about everything they’re responsible for. This week, the CDC (under Director Mandy Cohen) released a 148-page study on myocarditis reactions to mRNA shots. Every word on every page of the document was redacted. The CDC printed countless copies of the report with 148 utterly blank pages, and then proffered them to the news media. How is that not insane? The insane do not care about the rule of law. The conduct of “Lawfare” is the subversion of the law by dishonest means. It is a species of racketeering. And that is why Lawfare rogues such Marc Elias, Norm Eisen, Andrew Weissmann, Mary McCord, Lisa Monaco, Matthew Graves, and Merrick Garland, should be charged under the federal RICO statutes for conspiring to deprive sane citizens of their rights and property in the many cases related to the 1/6/21 riot at the US Capitol.

It is, so far, an abiding mystery of contemporary history as to how New York Attorney General Letitia James managed to get away with prosecuting a real estate case against Donald Trump that was no more than victimless business-as-usual between a borrower and his lenders. Ms. James ran for that elected office promising to “get” Mr. Trump on something, anything. That is not how the rule of law works. Under the rule of law, first you determine that there is a crime and then look for who did the crime. Letitia James must be insane and/or pretty stupid. The short-term gain of stealing Mr. Trump’s property under a false color-of-law and creating impediments to his election campaign, will, sooner or later, blow back at her as a matter of malicious prosecution and, plausibly, racketeering as well. (With whom did she conspire to bring this case? We shall find out.) She will eventually be disgraced publicly as her teammate Fani Willis has already been disgraced in Fulton County, Georgia.

I’ll tell you something that all sane people now know but won’t talk about for fear of being crushed by the levers of Lawfare: this looks like a concerted effort by people-of-color to railroad people of non-color. If you think that is a good thing for race relations in our country, then you are insane. Here are a bunch of other things that are insane: Re-litigating the first amendment is insane. It means what it says, and states it plainly. The open border is insane. No credible sovereign polity would allow it. It would be opposed with force, if necessary. Turning children into transsexuals on a wholesale basis is insane, and fiendishly so. Everybody knows that it is not good for the children or for our society as a whole. But fiends got to fiend, and if you try to deprive them of being fiends then you are guilty of “hate.”

‘No negotiations or settlement or we won’t support your government with the $45 billion in non-military funds [that Ukraine is now receiving annually..'”

• No Ukraine Talks Because US Threatens Zelensky – Seymour Hersh (Sp.)

Negotiations on resolving the conflict in Ukraine could have started months ago, but US authorities threatened Vladimir Zelensky with withdrawal of non-military funding, US journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh said in an article on Substack. “We were on the verge of a reasonable negotiation several months ago before Putin’s re-election and Zelensky’s military degradation. The US leaders got wind of the possibility and gave Zelensky the ultimatum-‘No negotiations or settlement or we won’t support your government with the $45 billion in non-military funds [that Ukraine is now receiving annually,'” the source told the journalist. According to Hersh’s information, US intelligence community recognises that “Ukraine has little chance of winning…”

Hersh’s interlocutor also added that US President Joe Biden has staked on confronting the “Russian threat to NATO” and will not change his course under any circumstances, while the end is inevitable. “There is no road to victory for Ukraine, and it will end with Putin as an historical icon in Russia…,” the source concluded. In autumn 2022, Zelensky signed a decree according to which his country will not negotiate with Russia as long as it is led by Vladimir Putin. Russia, for its part, has repeatedly noted its readiness to discuss the settlement of the conflict through diplomatic means. As Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasised, the Russia does not see any prerequisites for a peaceful transition of the situation, and sovereignty over the new Russian regions and Crimea is not up for discussion.

X thread. “And the West will get a lesson for memory that it is bad to fight with Russia..”

• Let NATO Troops Enter Ukraine. The War Will End Much Faster Then – Orban (VV)

Viktor Orban: “It’s a strange feeling when you come from Hungary to Brussels. Hungary looks like a completely normal country. We have a calm and rational mindset, and if you come to Brussels and talk to politicians, you will be surprised. There is a military mood, military language, military logic. The leaders talk as if they are waging their own war against Russia. And now they are saying that soldiers should be stationed in Ukraine. It is not clear exactly what they mean, where they should be stationed, with what weapons and for what purposes. But they have already begun to prepare for the fact that in this situation it will be quite natural if Western European countries deploy military posts on the territory of Ukraine, which shocks Hungarians.

Therefore, I felt as if I had entered another galaxy, and we must be careful not to fall into the psychosis of these twenty or so state leaders. [How far are Western leaders willing to go in terms of supporting Ukraine? The most disturbing thing about this whole story is that two or three months ago it was unthinkable, now, two or three months later, it becomes an ordinary event.” That’s what I said – the worse, the better. Ukraine attacked the Belgorod region. Where is Ukraine’s energy sector now? Russia has always needed a good kick in the ass for it to act. So, let NATO troops enter Ukraine. The war will end much faster then. And the West will get a lesson for memory that it is bad to fight with Russia.

Viktor Orban: "It's a strange feeling when you come from Hungary to Brussels.

Hungary looks like a completely normal country. We have a calm and rational mindset, and if you come to Brussels and talk to politicians, you will be surprised.

There is a military mood, military… pic.twitter.com/ESNjW5MVOp

— Victor vicktop55 (@vicktop55) March 22, 2024

“..Peskov explained that despite the conflict “de facto turning into a war,” legally it remains classified in Russia as a special military operation..”

• Russia is at War – Kremlin (RT)

Russia’s military operation in Ukraine has turned into full-fledged war after the West became a participant in the conflict, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview with national media published on Friday. Moscow will continue to pursue its goal of ensuring that the Ukrainian military cannot pose a threat to Russian citizens or territory, the spokesman told the Argumenti i Fakty newspaper, noting that the country now has four new federal subjects which must be protected and fully liberated from Kiev’s forces. Peskov stressed that Russia cannot allow the existence on its borders of a state that publicly claims it will seize the Crimean Peninsula as well as Russia’s new territories, referring to the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and Zaporozhye and Kherson regions.

“We are at war,” Peskov stated, explaining that while the conflict began as a special military operation, as soon as “the collective West became a participant in this on the side of Ukraine, for us it became a war.” In a phone conversation with journalists later in the day, Peskov explained that despite the conflict “de facto turning into a war,” legally it remains classified in Russia as a special military operation and that nothing has changed in that regard. The Russian Defense Ministry recently reported that since the start of the military operation in Ukraine in February 2022, over 13,000 foreign nationals have taken part in the fighting on the side of Kiev’s forces.

Of these fighters, which Moscow describes as mercenaries, some 5,962 have been “eliminated,” according to the ministry. Most of them came from Poland, Georgia, the US, Canada, the UK, Romania, Germany, and France, it reported. The head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), Sergey Naryshkin, claimed earlier this week that France is preparing its forces for deployment to Ukraine and is allegedly looking to send as many as 2,000 troops to fight for Kiev. French President Emmanuel Macron has hinted in recent weeks at the possible deployment of NATO forces to Ukraine, stating he could not “exclude” this possibility while branding Russia an “adversary.” Moscow has warned that such a step would likely lead to a direct clash between Russian and NATO forces, which, according to President Vladimir Putin, would be “one step shy of a full-scale World War III.”

Katyusha

27 million Russians died defeating the last Nazi regime in Europe.

Did you really think they were going to allow a second Nazi regime directly on their border? pic.twitter.com/oZbeDNCJMT

— Richard (@ricwe123) March 22, 2024

“..Marine Le Pen [..] accused the president last week of “hijacking” the Ukraine issue for the sake of domestic electoral politics..”

• Macron Believes Ukraine Could Fall Soon – Politico (RT)

French President Emmanuel Macron believes Ukraine might be defeated on the battlefield in short order, the French edition of Politico reported on Wednesday. The outlet’s Playbook section spoke with several members of the president’s party who had attended a working dinner at the Elysee Palace the evening before. While most of the discussion centered on the upcoming European Parliament elections, the Ukraine conflict also came up. “Ukraine could fall very quickly,” one of the outlet’s sources quoted Macron as saying. Macron ramped up his rhetoric about Ukraine a few weeks after a number of French nationals fighting on behalf of Kiev were killed in a Russian missile strike. At a meeting of EU leaders in Paris in late February, he refused to rule out the possibility of a NATO intervention in Ukraine.

Though the idea was quickly rejected by almost all members of the US-led bloc and its secretary-general, Macron doubled down, declaring there would be “no limits” to French support for Kiev and calling Russia an “adversary.” Meanwhile, the French Army’s Chief of Staff Pierre Schill announced that the country’s military was “ready,” presumably for a war. Moscow has strongly condemned Macron’s remarks and cautioned NATO against taking further hostile moves. According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the deployment of Western soldiers to Ukraine would make direct conflict with Russia “inevitable.” Marine Le Pen, a prominent member of the opposition National Rally party and Macron’s rival in the 2022 election, accused the president last week of “hijacking” the Ukraine issue for the sake of domestic electoral politics. Polls have shown that the French support helping Kiev with weapons and money, but draw the line at getting involved directly with boots on the ground.

Concerns that Kiev might be losing the war appear to be based on several French military assessments leaked earlier this month to the outlet Marianne. One report, following Kiev’s summer offensive, concluded that Ukraine could not win the conflict by military means. Another described the Battle of Avdeevka as a Ukrainian rout and had the French military “in cold sweat,” according to Marianne. A few days later, the daily Le Monde claimed that Macron’s talk of possibly sending troops dated all the way back to June 2023, when the Ukrainian counteroffensive was just starting. General Schill also told the outlet that Macron’s public statements have been “foremost a political and strategic message” to Russia about France’s “will and commitment,” rather than an actual escalation.

“Western elites have the technology and well-trained soldiers. What they lack is the stamina and political courage to face the baptism of outrage once body bags start arriving back on home soil..”

• La Macronnerie of a Failed French President: Ukraine (Jay)

Just what is Emmanuel Macron thinking with his recent media trysts which have gained the attention of the world? Initially, we thought his statements about sending French troops to Ukraine to fight Russian forces was merely chaf to throw up in the air to distract journalists and a gullible French public. It’s true, it has rattled Germany which promptly replied to Macron, reminding him that EU countries are not “at war with Russia” – a curious statement given that just a week earlier, a leaked audio conversation with German air force chiefs revealed that they wanted to send Taurus missiles to Ukraine so as to hit the Crimean bridge. Of course, now that we all know what the intentions of the Germans were, Scholz has been forced to backpedal and downplay the scandal, sticking to its position of neutrality. But if you think that’s funny, wait until you see what Macron has in store for Old Europe.

Could it be really true that he believes French troops could end up in Ukraine? A quick glance at the actual quote from Le Parisienne interview would suggest the opposite and that he’s hedging his bets, or, as some suspect trying to bait the Americans into wanting to get there first. Is this what the British expression “jumping the gun” really means? “Maybe at some point – I don’t want it, I won’t take the initiative – we will have to have operations on the ground, whatever they may be, to counter the Russian forces,” he is quoted as saying. In reality, it seems as though he has been misquoted as there is no story here. Even he is saying on the record that he won’t authorise it. So is he hinting at other western countries taking the lead, perhaps the Poles, Lithuanians and Latvians? Possibly. But in reality, the most likely scenario would be the U.S. biting the bullet and financing a private army made up of various nationalities.

Yet even this initiative would need to be prepared for media and even Russia itself so that the underlying point is clear: this is not a NATO war. Of course, this thinking is fatally flawed as it is based on a premise that Putin wouldn’t dare retaliate against those units of troops who he knows are located in a particular spot, as this could invoke Article V of the NATO treaty itself. Yet any two-bit geopolitical hack who knows Putin, knows this would not stop him as killing western troops – or even better capturing a small number – would mean the end of the West’s intervention. Western elites have the technology and well-trained soldiers. What they lack is the stamina and political courage to face the baptism of outrage once body bags start arriving back on home soil. It may well mean, for Macron, if he were ever to entertain the idea of French troops, that it would or could be African troops from former French colonies enrolled under private contracts as mercenaries.

But as I saw in Somalia in 1993, Western leaders like Clinton had no stomach whatsoever for even a small number of their own being killed or captured. Osama bin Laden watched how Clinton soiled his own pants when just 18 soldiers died in the spectacular U.S. Rangers failure in Mogadishu with an operation which was supposed to take an hour. Black Hawk Down and its implications inspired Bin Laden to bomb both the Dar Es Salam and Nairobi U.S. embassies after seeing how vulnerable the West is fighting terrorism, or merely sticking its nose into other countries problems. All it actually took was Newsweek to run a cover of a U.S. soldier’s body being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu to make Clinton not only pull out of Somalia altogether, but convince the UN itself to leave later in 1995. It also meant that the West would not help hundreds of thousands of victims of the civil war in Rwanda which led to the genocide in 1994. One U.S. soldier. One Newsweek cover.

“..the French military contingency does not make sense from a military point of view, unless that is, the ulterior objective is to incite escalation..”

• France’s Megalomaniac Macron is Gambling With World Peace (SCF)

It is unequivocally clear that if France or any other NATO member deploys combat troops to Ukraine, those troops will be targeted and killed by Russian firepower. In that case, the proxy war in Ukraine becomes an all-out war between the U.S.-led NATO alliance and Russia. That is, World War Three will have started, which in all probability leads inexorably to a nuclear conflagration. Anyone pushing that trajectory is contemptible and criminal. Step up, Monsieur Macron. This narcissistic wannabe Napoleon figure has been pushing the envelope for several weeks now since he hosted a conference on Ukraine in Paris on February 26 when he began publicly toying with the notion of sending NATO troops to Ukraine to combat Russia. This week, Russian foreign intelligence chief Sergei Naryshkin claimed that a contingent of 2,000 French military personnel were preparing to enter the Ukraine conflict. France’s military commanders vehemently dismissed the Russian intelligence claim, decrying it as an “irresponsible provocation”.

Just who is being provocative here? The alleged French deployment is consistent with the unhinged and belligerent rhetoric of French President Emmanuel Macron over the past three weeks during which he has been hinting at sending troops and of having “no red lines” to make sure that Russia does not win the war in Ukraine. Macron – like a puerile character – has also taken to goading other European leaders, notably his German counterpart, about not being “cowards” when it comes to supporting Ukraine. Let’s be clear. NATO soldiers and weapons have been in Ukraine since the CIA-backed coup in Kiev in 2014 that installed a Russian-hating NeoNazi regime. The NATO proxy war has been targeting Russia for over a decade and killed more than 10,000 ethnic Russian civilians during a low-intensity war of aggression in formerly Eastern Ukraine. That aggression was finally countered when Russian forces intervened in Ukraine on February 24, 2022. However, the deployment of NATO combat battalions on the ground takes the conflict to the threshold of all-out war.

And Monsieur Macron appears to be willing to go there (while directing from his plush leather armchair in Elysée Palace and swirling a tumbler of vintage whiskey, bien sûr.) Russian President Vladimir Putin has said on several occasions – and most recently as of last week – that if Russia is threatened existentially, even with conventional weapons, then it reserves the right to use nuclear weapons for its defense. Putin warned that nuclear weapons exist to be used. The Russian doctrine for possible nuclear war is well-defined and long-established. Putin is not saber-rattling as the Western media stupidly make out. He is merely reminding potential enemies of the ultimate reality. Given the appalling stakes involved, it may seem bewildering that France’s Macron keeps talking about the possibility of deploying French and other NATO troops to fight in Ukraine. What is driving the French head of state to make such crass allusions?

First of all, it should be noted that such military contingents are crass from an objective military point of view. The deployment of 2,000 French troops would change nothing on the battlefield. They would be destroyed in two days, as American military analyst Scott Ritter points out. The risk is that the casualties inflicted on France would trigger other NATO members to intervene with greater numbers and firepower. That would lead to a spiraling escalation towards all-out nuclear war. As well as France, the Poles and Baltic states appear to be gung-ho about sending combat units. So, the French military contingency does not make sense from a military point of view, unless that is, the ulterior objective is to incite escalation. In other words, the French battle group is deliberately put forward as a sacrificial lamb to act as a tripwire for full NATO mobilization to war.

“..by circumventing a clause in the bloc’s founding treaty..”

• EU Eyes ‘Groundbreaking’ Change On Ukraine Arms Funding (RT)

EU officials are seeking legal advice on how to unlock more military spending for Ukraine by circumventing a clause in the bloc’s founding treaty, the Financial Times reported on Thursday. The move would involve bypassing a section of the Treaty on European Union which forbids charging expenditure that has “military or defense implications” to the bloc’s joint budget. Such funding can be directly provided by member states, but individual governments can opt out of paying, even if they don’t vote against the spending itself. The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, has proposed a legal task force to evaluate whether the section in question, Article 41(2), can be circumvented so that it doesn’t prevent Brussels from buying weapons for Ukraine to support it in the conflict with Russia, four people familiar with the matter told the British newspaper. Kiev’s military effort against Russia is currently being funded through the European Peace Facility (EPF), which exists outside of the bloc’s joint budget.

The legal theory is that Article 41(2) should apply only to the EU’s own military programs and not foreign states, the FT reported. If the interpretation is applied, “it would be absolutely groundbreaking,” one source said. Talks, however, are at an early stage and may not end in Kiev’s favor, the newspaper reported. Even if changes are made, member states may challenge them in court. While many EU countries support military assistance for Ukraine, Hungary and Slovakia are in opposition. They argue that continued weapons deliveries merely result in more bloodshed, as opposed to a Russian defeat, and stand in the way of possible peace talks. There are also neutral members, such as Austria, which favor non-lethal assistance only. Last year the EU vowed to supply 1 million artillery shells to Ukraine by March 2024, but has failed to deliver on the pledge. Ukrainian officials have complained that assistance from Western donors has been lackluster in both amount and capability.

“..medical commissions would no longer classify Ukrainian recruits as ‘fit for limited military service’. She argued that “this will make life easier for tens of thousands of people.”

• Ukraine Makes Fresh Move To Draft More Soldiers (RT)

Ukrainian recruits deemed ‘fit for limited military service’ could soon be thrown into the thick of the fighting after the nation’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, moved to abolish the term altogether. A bill to that effect was supported by the Rada on Thursday. According to the text, those who have been classified as fit for military service with restrictions would have to undergo a medical examination within the next nine months to determine their new health status, and whether they could be deployed to the front line. Those deemed fit for limited service could only be called up during time of war, and are not supposed to fill frontline positions, being allowed to serve only in support and rear units. The push to change conscription legislation comes amid calls from numerous officials in Kiev that every Ukrainian citizen should serve his country during the conflict with Russia. Commenting on the bill on national TV, Deputy Defense Minister Natalya Kalmykova said that medical commissions would no longer classify Ukrainian recruits as ‘fit for limited military service’. She argued that “this will make life easier for tens of thousands of people.”

“Both the service members and their relatives asked the Defense Ministry and other authorities to resolve this issue. We are very glad that the Verkhovna Rada has supported these changes,” she added. Meanwhile, since late December, Ukrainian lawmakers have been mulling a controversial bill that would lower the minimum conscription age from 27 to 25 to compensate for battlefield losses, with reported plans to call up around 500,000 troops. In early February, the legislation was passed in its first reading after numerous amendments. Later in the month, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu estimated Ukraine’s losses at more than 444,000 troops since the start of the conflict in February 2022. On Wednesday, the minister claimed that Kiev’s casualties had reached 71,000 troops this year alone, a figure he said was three times the losses during the same period last year. However, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky claimed in February that Kiev had sustained only 31,000 soldiers killed since the start of the conflict. He did not disclose how many were injured or missing in action.

“Unlike most Western leaders, Putin is on the side of his own citizens..”

• Washington In Denial Over Putin’s Victory While Gaming Its Own Elections (Cox)

America’s legacy media and political ruling class have thrown a predictably massive hissy fit over last weekend’s Russian election, insisting that President Vladimir Putin’s landslide victory was “preordained” and “stage-managed.” Every protest and anti-Putin statement before, during, and after the election was amplified. Every allegation of misconduct was reported with zero scrutiny or skepticism. Washington and its allies decried the results, arguing that the vote wasn’t free or fair. UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron went so far as to call it “illegal.” The pearl-clutching over Russia’s vote was the most intense I’ve ever seen over a foreign election. It was so inordinate, in fact, that it reminded me of the nonstop media coverage last month after Russian political activist Alexey Navalny died in a Siberian penal colony.

The same media that showed no concern over the death of US journalist Gonzalo Lira in a Ukrainian jail – after he had been tortured, at American taxpayer expense, for daring to criticize the Kiev regime – huffed and puffed for weeks about the death of a Russian citizen in a Russian prison. Lost in all the hysteria over Putin’s victory is the fact that most of the Russian people like their president. The incumbent won over 87% of the votes, and as even CNN begrudgingly acknowledged before the election, a poll last month showed that Putin had an 86% approval rating. That compares with a 9% approval rating for Navalny, the great Western hope for destabilizing Russia, in a January 2023 poll. And by the way, it also compares with US President Joe Biden’s approval rating of around 38%. As US policy analyst Jeffrey Sachs explained in an interview this week with Russia-hating podcaster Piers Morgan, Putin’s popularity and reelection reflect the will of the Russian people. “It’s part of Russian culture,” said Sachs, who advised the Moscow and Kiev governments after the breakup of the Soviet Union.

“He’s a strong leader. The Russian people expect a strong leader, and we have to deal with a strong leader in Russia.” Therein lies the problem. Team America is unwilling to accept strong leadership of Russia with broad public support. Having failed to cripple Russia or its leadership through the proxy war in Ukraine, the US and its allies are in no mood to accept the political reality in Moscow. The political pouting was so bad in Berlin that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government refused to refer to Putin as Russia’s president. This is the same government that is mulling plans to ban one of Germany’s most popular opposition parties. However, for all the Western criticism of Putin and his policies, it’s not easy to argue that he doesn’t try to represent the interests of the Russian people. Unlike most Western leaders, Putin is on the side of his own citizens. He hit the nail on the head when he said Western attacks were directed not at him, but at “the forces that stand behind me, which seek to strengthen Russia – to improve its sovereignty, defense, and economic independence.”

“..he does not think China will ever invest in Israel again. “They see on their own social media networks what you and I are seeing..”

• World Sees Gaza as ‘US Genocide’ Not Just Israel’s (Sp.)

On Tuesday, four critical care doctors who recently returned from Gaza spoke to the UN. “I saw the most appalling atrocities, and I saw things I never would have expected to have seen in any healthcare setting,” Dr. Nick Maynard said, adding that he saw “mass indiscriminate bombing” and targeting of healthcare workers. Americans do not understand how badly the United States’ reputation has been damaged across the world, which sees Gaza as “a US genocide” and “not just an Israeli genocide,” Mohammad Marandi, a professor of English literature and Orientalism at the University of Tehran told Sputnik’s The Critical Hour on Thursday. “It’s revealing the reality of [the US] empire in a way that not even [author of ‘A People’s History of the United States, Howard Zinn] could do because it’s being done in front of our eyes, it’s being done in front of a global audience. We’ve never seen such a thing before,” Marandi said, adding that he suspects that is why the US is attempting to ban TikTok.

“The United States has lost credibility across the world. I don’t think many Americans understand how bad this has become for the United States. People across the world see this as a US genocide, it’s not just an Israeli genocide.” Co-host Wilmer Leon asked about a recent freeze on Canadian arms shipments to Israel, which Marandi said showed that “public opinion is shifting” but that ultimately “stopping Canadian exports of weapons is nothing.” Marandi said Canada needs to take a much tougher approach. “They sanctioned Syria… they’ve imposed sanctions on Cuba, on Venezuela, on Iran, on Yemen. Why don’t they impose sanctions on Israel? They’re carrying out a holocaust. Why don’t they hit the economy?” Marandi asked, noting that Israel will, unlike Russia, be allowed to participate in the Olympics. “No one takes this seriously. And, of course, the bulk of the weapons come from the United States anyway.”

“In any case, there is no reason to believe that the Canadian government cares about Palestinians, that they oppose the genocide because they’ve done absolutely nothing to stop it,” Marandi added. Ultimately, Marandi believes that Israel has laid the path for its destruction through its actions in Gaza. “I believe that the Israelis have made a fatal mistake and that what they’ve done in Gaza will be the beginning of the end of the Zionist project,” he asserted. “The real catastrophe for the Israeli regime is the fact that it’s been carrying out the genocide for almost six months in front of the world and it has demolished the facade that the regime had created for itself… about it being a democracy… All that is gone now and across the board the regime is despised and the image of the United States has been destroyed.” Marandi noted that he has been to China twice and public opinion there has shifted as well. He noted that he does not think China will ever invest in Israel again. “They see on their own social media networks what you and I are seeing,” he noted.

“He’s Hunter’s confidant, art patron, business partner, and his lawyer. Now there is a suggestion that we might have to add CIA asset or protected person..”

• CIA Told DOJ to Stay Away from Kevin Morris in Hunter Biden Probe (Turley)

The New York Post has created a stir in Washington with its report that a whistleblower claims that the CIA reportedly blocked federal investigators from interviewing Kevin Morris, the entertainment lawyer who has subsidized the expenses and bought the art of Hunter Biden. (For full disclosure, Morris previously threatened me with a defamation lawsuit over my writing about his representation of Hunter. Fortunately, I have not received any summons from either the courts or the CIA). We will have to wait for more details on the allegations, but the response of the CIA struck me as rather curious. As discussed earlier, the Hollywood lawyer, producer and Democratic donor has emerged as a major figure in the corruption scandal surrounding Hunter Biden. For years, some of us have complained that we are not sure what Morris was at any given moment.

What became clear in the deposition is that Morris does not appear certain himself. He’s Hunter’s confidant, art patron, business partner, and his lawyer. Now there is a suggestion that we might have to add CIA asset or protected person. The unnamed whistleblower told the House Oversight and Judiciary that the “intelligence agency stopped IRS and Justice Department investigators from interviewing Morris in August 2021.” That has led Oversight chairman James Comer (R-KY) and Judiciary chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) to demand answers from the CIA on whether two DOJ officials were summoned to CIA headquarters in Langley, Va. to discourage their interviewing Morris.

Given the allegations of special treatment by the Justice Department (including blocking efforts to interview Hunter or search Biden properties), the allegation is obviously quite serious. One would expect that the CIA would simply say that no such meeting related to the Hunter Biden investigation occurred. Instead, the agency responded that it “does not obstruct investigations.” The spokesman added “CIA does not comment on specific investigations. We can say that CIA cooperates with law enforcement partners and does not obstruct investigations. CIA also fully and routinely cooperates with our oversight committees and will continue to do so.”

Hunter met Morris when he attended a political fundraiser as a major donor. Soon thereafter, he warned Biden associates that Hunter’s unpaid taxes raised political problems during Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential run. He later proceeded to pay off Hunter’s taxes and to subsidize his lavish lifestyle. He also took an apparent lead in planning public campaigns against the critics of the Bidens, reportedly pushing a scorched-earth approach to attack potential witnesses and accusers. Then Morris seemed to take on the role of Hunter’s bank and art patron. He reportedly gave millions to Hunter while insisting that they are loans, not gifts. Most recently, it was revealed that, despite accounts of buyers flocking to buy Hunter’s overpriced art, it was Morris all along who bought most of the pieces. How the CIA would fit into any of this is anyone’s guess.

“..why would you have 12 people armed with shotguns and machine guns, raid a doctor’s home in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and four years later never indict him?”

• CIA Protecting Biden by Blocking IRS Interviews – Whistleblower (DeMartino)

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jordan and Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman Comer revealed that a whistleblower told them the CIA intervened to prevent the IRS from interviewing Kevin Morris, an associate of Hunter Biden who loaned him millions of dollars, as part of the IRS investigation into the first son’s alleged tax crimes. The CIA said it would not comment on specific cases but added that while it cooperates with other law agencies, it does not interfere with investigations and claims to be fully cooperative with its oversight committees. Jordan and Comer have sent a letter to the CIA requesting more information, but have not yet received a response. They set a deadline for April 4, 2024. If the whistleblower’s testimony is true, it would represent an unprecedented move by the CIA that is tasked with countering foreign threats.

Brad Birkenfeld, a whistleblower who exposed tax fraud and money laundering schemes in the Swiss banking system, told Sputnik’s Political Misfits that the problem is that “so many people are trying to help the Bidens get out of the illegal conduct that they’re doing,” noting that he has himself attempted to provide investigators with information on the Hunter Biden case, but was met hostile response. “I was introduced to Dr. Keith Ablow, [who] was Hunter Biden’s psychiatrist,” Birkenfeld began. “He wanted me to help him with his whistleblowing case.” Birkenfeld says that Ablow told him things about Hunter Biden but that Ablow didn’t show for meetings that Birkenfeld set up for him in Washington. “Then I went to Senator [Charles] Grassley’s (R-IA) office and Senator [Ron] Johnson’s (R-WI) office, and I felt obligated as an American citizen to tell them about the information that [Ablow] had relayed to us,” including Hunter Biden’s involvement with Monkey Island, a Liquified Natural Gas company in Louisiana.

“Two days later, lo and behold, the Drug Enforcement Agency in Boston raided Dr. Keith Ablow’s home,” Birkenfeld continued. “[The DEA] took everything. Now, why would you have 12 people armed with shotguns and machine guns, raid a doctor’s home in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and four years later never indict him?” “Whatever the CIA does,” Birkenfeld added while discussing the CIA’s past, including their support of dictators Augusto Pinochet, Saddam Hussein and Ferdinand Marcos, as well as their alleged efforts to undermine Donald Trump while he served as President. “Whatever the CIA does, this is like Cartoon Network over there in Langley. Yes, they do a job and some people work well. But there’s a lot of idiots over there that should be fired and prosecuted. And that’s the facts.”

Birkenfeld added earlier that Joe Biden -while serving as Vice President- was briefed in defense meetings “about his son interfering in US policies.” That, as of yet, has not been alleged by the committees investigating Hunter Biden but Birkenfeld insisted that it is “not conjecture.” “A lot of people don’t know this yet, but this is exactly what’s going to be coming out,” he asserted. While Democrats have consistently declared that the committees have yet to find any concrete evidence that President Biden committed any crimes, Birkenfeld argues that is because the power centers in Washington continue to obfuscate the case by blocking investigative efforts. “Give us the bank records, give us the credit cards offshore, and we can piece it together. But, once again, the Biden White House is obstructing, the DOJ is obstructing, the FBI is obstructing, the CIA [is] obstructing. So nobody can get the facts.”

“..the potential causes of fertility decline, such as plastics and chemical shrinking penises and sperm counts, are relatively ignored..”

“In countries like South Korea and Japan, there are twice as many people dying as there are being born..”

• Global Population Set To Fall For First Time In 700 Years (MN)

A major study published in scientific journal The Lancet has found that the global population will start to fall within decades due to vastly reduced fertility rates and may never recover. The study, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, found that by the year 2050, 155 of 204 countries are on course to have birth rates lower than required to sustain the population level. It notes that as of 2021, the “total fertility rate” worldwide was 2.23, hovering only just above the 2.1 children per woman needed to maintain population growth. That figure has fallen from 4.84 in 1950, with researchers predicting it will decrease to 1.83 in 2050 and go as low as 1.59 by 2100. The study notes that by that time only 26 countries will have birth rates that outpace the number of people dying, with “most of the world transitioning into natural population decline”. A fall in population would mark the first time in seven centuries such an occurrence has taken place. The last time it happened was after the Black Death bubonic plague pandemic killed as many as 50 million people in the mid-1300s, reducing the global population from 400 million to 350 million.

Dramatic declines in global fertility rates set to transform global population patterns by 2100

Commenting on the study, it’s co-author Dr Natalia Bhattacharjee said declining fertility rates “will completely reconfigure the global economy and the international balance of power and will necessitate reorganising societies”. Bhattacharjee, lead research scientist at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, also noted that a major consequence will be increased immigration from countries where there is still a “baby boom,” such as sub-Saharan Africa, in order to make up workforce shortages in nations with aging populations. Professor Stein Emil Vollset, senior author from IHME, also noted that the world is “facing staggering social change through the 21st century” due to population decline. The findings are exactly what the likes of Elon Musk have been warning of for years, describing population decline as a ‘civilisational threat’ and urging that humanity is literally going to disappear if something is not done to reverse the trend.

While Eco loons rage about ‘moral issues’ with having children, the potential causes of fertility decline, such as plastics and chemical shrinking penises and sperm counts, are relatively ignored. The stark reality is that birth rates globally are collapsing and almost every country is on course to have shrinking populations by the end of the century. In countries like South Korea and Japan, there are twice as many people dying as there are being born. You don’t have to be a mathematic genius to do the calculations on what’s going to happen very soon. These countries are already considering embracing mass migration, with South Korea’s Justice Minister recently declaring the country faces a “demographic catastrophe” and potential extinction otherwise. Despite this horrifying reality, it is now commonplace in modern culture for young people to genuinely believe they need to abandon their human instincts to reproduce, all for the greater good.

McCullough: Spike proteins from Saliva
https://twitter.com/i/status/1770987637257413092

FDA loses its war on ivermectin and agrees to remove all social media posts and consumer directives regarding ivermectin and COVID, including its most popular tweet in FDA history.

Shark
https://twitter.com/i/status/1770998255851036861

Fish

What kind of fish is this? pic.twitter.com/iYbQUJuYkZ

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) March 22, 2024

Elephant
https://twitter.com/i/status/1771065184980742232
https://twitter.com/i/status/1771160969823027645

How?

How?? pic.twitter.com/Gmzs3b1QAz

— non aesthetic things (@PicturesFoIder) March 22, 2024

Find “A”

Queen of the night

Queen of the night.
It blooms only one night a year. pic.twitter.com/YEyWp41uxX

— Figen (@TheFigen_) March 21, 2024

Deep-Sea Ghost Shark

Deep-Sea Ghost Shark filmed alive for first time pic.twitter.com/FeuBqumo09

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) March 22, 2024

Lion up close

A Lion up close pic.twitter.com/d96V1PdZbU

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) March 22, 2024

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

Debt Rattle March 14 2024

Mar 142024

March 14, 2024 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:01 am Finance Tagged with: election interference, Hillary, Hunter Biden, Macron, NATO, Putin, RNC, Trump, vampire ball 47 Responses »

Jacobello Alberegno The Beast of the Apocalypse 1360-90

• ‘Your Vampire Ball Is Over’ – Putin To Western Elites (RT)

• What Message is Putin Sending the West in His Interview? (Sp.)

• Putin: Warmongers Will ‘Get More Than They Asked For’ – Scott Ritter (Sp.)

• Oil Industry Will Be Swamped With Work ‘For Another 100 Years’ – Putin (RT)

• Ukraine’s Military Planning Takeover of Parliament in Kiev by Force (Sp.)

• Kiev’s Allies Start Dividing Ukraine – Zakharova (TASS)

• Macron Leads The Way To Western Civilization’s Suicide (RT)

• US Uses NATO In Ukrainian Conflict To Tighten Grip On European Countries (TASS)

• German Army Short of ‘Everything,’ Partly Due to Supplies to Kiev

• Netanyahu Government’s Future ‘In Jeopardy’ – US Intel (RT)

• Menendez Case Shatters Hunter Biden Claim of Selective Prosecution (Turley)

• ‘A Vote For Trump Is A Vote For Putin’ – Hillary Clinton (RT)

• Georgia Judge Dismisses Several Counts In Trump Election Interference Case (ZH)

• 2/3 of Liberals Would Dispute Election If Trump Wins (MN)

• Lara Trump: Preventing Cheating In November Is Top RNC Priority (ZH)

Tucker Schwab

Watch Tucker Carlson mock head of the WEF & Globalist Lunatic Klaus Schwab in under a minute.

The world continues to wake up to these maniacs & their communist intentions. pic.twitter.com/hQbQsmUM0m

— Concerned Citizen (@BGatesIsaPyscho) March 12, 2024

Doocy

Peter Doocy goes LIVE outside Joe Biden's residence, then REALITY-CHECKS him with poll showing HALF Americans think Joe Biden won't make it to election pic.twitter.com/Ibn89GgQIw

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) March 13, 2024

A-game

Speaker Mike Johnson diagnoses Joe Biden's mental decline after meeting with him leaves him STUNNED, declares him UNFIT for office:

"President Biden is not on his A-game." pic.twitter.com/05NlisaF30

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) March 13, 2024

Hur

Biden’s DOJ just called him a liar in front of the entire world. The president stole classified documents, got paid $8M for his book based on the contents, and lied about it to the world. pic.twitter.com/7yFO842avZ

— @amuse (@amuse) March 13, 2024

Rand Paul

"We're borrowing money to pay our rent as citizens in our own country"

"And we're sending $100 billion to another country"

"Under what world is that a good idea?"

"It's a terrible idea"

"There's a danger of destroying the US dollar and destroying our country"

"How much money… pic.twitter.com/DOWQMJmud7

— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) March 13, 2024

Loomer

Laura Loomer Says Two U.S. Senators Are Willing to Sell Us Out For A Max Donation

U.S. Sen. Randy Paul (R-KY) and U.S. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) oppose a ban on TikTok because they say it violates freedom of expression. But Investigative Journalist @LauraLoomer told Steve Bannon she… pic.twitter.com/LOFK842Aaa

— Real America's Voice (RAV) (@RealAmVoice) March 13, 2024

I have nothing with the UK “royals”, but this is wild.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1767693275622764667

”Those who are smarter” have now come to the conclusion that it is necessary to change their strategy in relation to Russia..”

• ‘Your Vampire Ball Is Over’ – Putin To Western Elites (RT)

The era of Western elites being able to exploit other nations and other peoples across the world is coming to an end, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an exclusive interview published by Rossiya 1 and RIA Novosti on Wednesday. The president stated that over the past few centuries, the so-called “golden billion” has grown accustomed to being able to “fill their bellies with human flesh and their pockets with money” as they have been “parasitizing” other peoples in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. ”But they must understand that the vampire ball is ending,” Putin said. He added that the citizens of the aforementioned regions, which have been continuously exploited by the West over the past 500 years, have started to associate Russia’s struggle for sovereignty with “their own aspirations for sovereignty and independent development.”

At the same time, Putin noted that Western elites have a very strong desire to “freeze the current situation” and preserve the “unjust state of affairs in international affairs.” Previously, in his keynote address to Russia’s Federal Assembly last month, Putin stated that the West, with its “colonial habits” of “igniting national conflicts all over the world,” intends to do everything it can to stall Russia’s development and turn it, as it did Ukraine, into a dying failed state. ”In place of Russia, they want a dependent, withering, dying space, where they can do whatever they want,” he said. The president followed up on those comments in Wednesday’s interview, stating that many Western elites, who have been “blinded by their Russophobia” were “thrilled” when they were able to push Russia to the point where it had to launch its military offensive in Ukraine in order to end the war unleashed by the West in 2014.

”They were even happy, I think, because they believed that now they would finish us off using a barrage of sanctions, having practically declared a sanctions war against us, and with the help of Western weapons in the hands of Ukrainian nationalists,” said Putin, suggesting that this mindset was behind Western calls to “inflict a strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield.” Now, the West appears to have realized that defeating Russia in this way is not only unlikely, but impossible due to the unity of its people, the fundamental foundations and stability of its economy and the growing potential of its military, the president said. ”Those who are smarter” have now come to the conclusion that it is necessary to change their strategy in relation to Russia, Putin surmised.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1767922770661224783

“Guarantees can only be given by responsible political figures representing stable governments of Western countries, and must be offered in the nature of absolutely binding signed documents..”

Putin won’t be fooled again.

• What Message is Putin Sending the West in His Interview? (Sp.)

Russian President Vladimir Putin touched on a number of recent developments and hot topics that emerged after the message to the Federal Assembly in an exclusive interview with Dmitry Kiselev, director general of Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik’s parent media group. President Vladimir Putin has stated very clearly that Russia is not against peace negotiations, but that they cannot be conducted on the basis of proposals put forward by the Kiev regime, Russian political scientist Dmitry Evstafiev told Sputnik. The so-called “Zelensky formula” “will not be discussed in any way,” Evstafiev underscored. Commenting on Vladimir Putin’s interview with Dmitry Kiselev, director general of Rossiya Segodnya, Sputnik’s parent media group, he continued: “Some of our partners have hinted to us about the need to start negotiations… But, first and foremost, [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelensky’s formula cannot be a starting position. Secondly, any negotiations should lead to the establishment of a lasting peace, and cannot be an instrument of a temporary truce at the front in order to further pump the Kiev regime with weapons.”

According to the analyst, an integral element of any negotiations needs to be “the West’s refusal to supply weapons to Ukraine.” Thirdly, these negotiations need to be conducted in a “public format and must be anchored in public agreements at the political level.” Putin laid out very clearly that Russia needs guarantees, the analyst said. “Guarantees can only be given by responsible political figures representing stable governments of Western countries, and must be offered in the nature of absolutely binding signed documents,” Dmitry Evstafiev said. He singled out the Russian head of state’s remark that there will be no secret temporary agreements with anyone. Russia was, is, and will always be open to negotiations on a settlement in Ukraine, but intends to continue the special military operation until its goals are achieved, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated earlier in the year. Russian and Ukrainian delegations have engaged in several rounds of peace talks, but the negotiations ultimately reached an impasse.

In October 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree stating that Kiev could not hold peace talks as long as Vladimir Putin is president of Russia. In November 2022, Zelensky unveiled a 10-point initiative dubbed a “peace formula.” It included an all-for-all prisoner swap with Russia, security guarantees for Ukraine, and a return to the pre-2014 borders. Moscow has continuously said it is open to peace negotiations as long as Kiev recognizes the territorial gains Russian forces have made since the launch of the special military operation. President Vladimir Putin has issued a warning to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that Russia is prepared to defend itself with all possible means, military analyst Anatoliy Matviychuk told Sputnik. Weighing in on Putin’s interview on March 13, the analyst said: “I believe that Putin is warning the US that you [NATO] expanded and expanded, but as long as you did not affect our living space, we were silent.”

No matter what “plausible intentions,” such as “defense of democracy, or defense against Martians,” might be drummed up to justify any foreign army’s boots on the ground on Russian territory, it would be an intervention, the retired colonel of the Russian Armed Forces underscored. “Intervention is an invasion into the expanses of the economy, into the expanses of finance, into the expanses of military security and, strictly speaking, into vital areas where Russia carries out its life activities. We will defend it with all possible forces and means that we have. And we know that the president has always warned: in the event of a sharp deterioration or even a threat to sovereignty, we will not hesitate to use nuclear weapons. I believe that is his message in this interview,” Anatoliy Matviychuk said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his interview that there has not yet been any need to use tactical nuclear weapons as part of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine, but when asked whether such an idea ever occurred to him, he replied, “No, but why?” Russia is prepared to use nuclear weapons if the existence of the Russian state is threatened, the Russian leader said, adding that Russia’s nuclear triad is more advanced than that of any other country. “From the military and technical point of view, we are, of course, ready,” Vladimir Putin said.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1767879777468182873

“..any future relationship between Moscow and Washington will have to be “negotiated carefully,” and any guarantees and assurances set down “in writing.”

• Putin: Warmongers Will ‘Get More Than They Asked For’ – Scott Ritter (Sp.)

The key takeaway from President Putin’s conversation with Rossiya Segodnya head Dmitry Kiselev is that those “looking for a contrite Russia, a weak Russia, a compliant Russia” won’t find it in “the Russia that Vladimir Putin was presenting to the world in his interview,” says former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and independent military and international affairs observer Scott Ritter. “Instead, what he’s saying is that Russia’s not looking for a fight, but if somebody wants to bring the fight to Russia, they’ll get more than what they asked for. And if the world is looking for peace with Russia, it’ll be done on terms that are acceptable to Russia,” Ritter told Sputnik. “Russia hasn’t shut the door on peace, but the terminology used by the Russian president when discussing the potential of a peace negotiation with Ukraine didn’t bode well,” the observer suggested, pointing to the derision Putin cast in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s direction when discussing Kiev’s maximalist ‘peace plan’.

“This shows that Russia doesn’t have respect for the Ukrainian leadership and indeed doesn’t view the ‘Ukrainian peace plan’ – Volodymyr Zelensky’s 10-point peace plan – as a serious effort for peace. This also points to the fact that Russia will probably continue the scope and scale of its military operations without let up until it accomplishes the missions that it has assigned itself, primarily demilitarization and denazification,” Ritter said. Furthermore, Ritter said, Putin has made clear that Russia expects US experts to “provide sage advice” to leaders in Washington to prevent the Russia-NATO crisis from breaking out into a full-blown nuclear war, while also making it obvious that he “doesn’t trust the United States,” making “that straight-up clear in this interview.” Accordingly, any future relationship between Moscow and Washington will have to be “negotiated carefully,” and any guarantees and assurances set down “in writing.”

Regarding the recent series of not-so-subtle hints by NATO officials that they would not “rule out” a direct, boots on the ground intervention in Ukraine, Putin confirmed that “any effort to intervene meaningfully, meaning large forces, etc., would be seen as a direct intervention that could lead to a direct conflict between Russia and NATO,” heightening the risks of a nuclear conflagration, Ritter said.Finally, regarding Putin’s comments about nuclear weapons, Ritter stressed that they must be taken at face value, since Russia’s nuclear doctrine provides for the use of such arms in the event of a nuclear attack, but also conventional aggression so severe that it “threatens the existential survival of Russia.”

”..for a very, very long time humanity will be dealing with the issues of hydrocarbons..”

• Oil Industry Will Be Swamped With Work ‘For Another 100 Years’ – Putin (RT)

The world will continue using oil and gas for a long time despite the focus on renewable energy, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said, adding that jobs in this sector have a secure future. He was speaking at a meeting with the winners of the Leaders of Russia award on Tuesday, when he insisted that hydrocarbons production would remain relevant for years to come, even with increased talk about transitioning to renewable energy. “No matter how they talk about renewable energy sources, for a very, very long time humanity will be dealing with the issues of hydrocarbons, their production and use,” Putin said. “There will be enough work for 100 years,” he added.

In its latest report published on Tuesday, OPEC said global oil demand is expected to grow by 2.25 million barrels per day (bpd) this year and by 1.85 million bpd in 2025. According to the report, robust growth in global oil consumption will be largely driven by transportation fuels. The Russian Finance Ministry forecast last year that the country’s revenues from oil and gas exports would surge by almost a third in 2024, reaching more than $118 billion. A further increase in energy revenues to over $121 billion is expected for 2025. Russia sharply increased its energy exports to Asia last year after the EU stopped accepting the country’s oil transported by sea. China and India have emerged as major buyers of Russian crude since Moscow redirected its cargoes from Europe eastwards in response to Ukraine-related sanctions imposed by the West.

“When the staff is recruited, fighters are trained, the mass will be ready..”

Hard to gauge the accuracy of this.

• Ukraine’s Military Planning Takeover of Parliament in Kiev by Force (Sp.)

The Ukrainian military, dissatisfied with the policy of the country’s leadership, is planning the takeover of the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, in Kiev and attracting other Ukrainian armed forces’ military personnel to their side, a correspondence on a closed resource obtained by Russian specialists has shown. Sputnik obtained the correspondence of the chat participants, which showed that the participants discussed a swift takeover of the Verkhovna Rada and attracting the military to their side. “The most important action that we will need to pull off lightning fast is the takeover of the VR [Verkhovna Rada] at a certain point,” one of the chat participants wrote.

Earlier this week, a source in the Russian law enforcement agencies told Sputnik that Russian specialists had gained access to a classified Telegram channel titled “ParaBelum,” where commanders and fighters of elite units of the Ukrainian armed forces are “seriously discussing options for overthrowing the current authorities and the command of the Ukrainian armed forces.” “When the staff is recruited, fighters are trained, the mass will be ready,” another chat participant said. “There must be support from the military. Without it, nothing will work. The main driving force. [They] will say from the trenches that [they are] with us, and people will follow,” one more chat participant said. “Especially when the people see that the military is at the helm and the rest of the military is following them – they automatically take the right side,” another chat participant added.

“..they are starting to divide between themselves what’s left of Ukraine..”

• Kiev’s Allies Start Dividing Ukraine – Zakharova (TASS)

French President Emmanuel Macron’s remark about the potential deployment of troops to Ukraine makes it clear that Western countries have started dividing Ukraine, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing. She pointed out that Macron “continues making statements about possibly sending troops to Ukraine.” “He did not rule out that French troops might be deployed to Ukraine if the Russian army <...> broke through to Kiev or Odessa,” Zakharova noted. “Clearly, Ukraine’s allies have started dividing the country. All the statements that Macron and other political figures from NATO member states are making about the possible deployment of troops or some paramilitary forces to Ukraine have to do with the division of Ukraine as they see it,” she added.

The diplomat also said that “this is why they are unwilling to grant full NATO membership to Ukraine.” “It’s about constant flirting with the issue and empty promises that are never kept because making Ukraine part of NATO means that all of the bloc’s members are ready to recognize its borders but not all NATO members are ready to do that. They are ready to occupy Ukraine and divide it; this is what political leaders in those countries are openly talking about. Actually, they are beginning to mentally prepare both their own people and Ukrainian citizens for such actions,” Zakharova added. According to her, “this is being done under a false flag, which is typical for NATO members.” “This is another staged show of an alleged confrontation with Russia but in fact, they are starting to divide between themselves what’s left of Ukraine,” the diplomat stressed.

“While Russian President Vladimir Putin is encouraging his population to have more children, Macron’s France is celebrating the ‘enshrinement’ of abortion in the constitution..”

• Macron Leads The Way To Western Civilization’s Suicide (RT)

While Russian President Vladimir Putin is encouraging his population to have more children, Macron’s France is celebrating the ‘enshrinement’ of abortion in the constitution. What does this say about France and the West in general? In 2022, there were 234,300 abortions in France. The procedure is legal upon request until 14 weeks after conception. These figures are interesting when one considers that French politicians (and elderly voters, who are the majority of the electorate) insist on maintaining the extremely costly pension system and say that it has a price. Someone needs to pay. That is, the active population needs to pay. You would think that to sustain the requisite size of the active population, it would be more logical to encourage having more new births than to ‘enshrine’ having fewer. But that’s not an issue if you import the population.

In 2022, France welcomed 320,330 new people to the country – not counting illegal immigrants. Immigration in the country has nothing to do anymore with the fact that France has been a colonial power and that it is dealing with the consequences of its former policies. More and more people are coming from countries or regions such as Pakistan, Eritrea, Chechnya… where France never meddled in local affairs whatsoever. Something important that goodhearted Frenchmen seem to forget and French politicians feign to ignore, is that these populations, especially those from Africa, come with traditions which do not quickly disappear with time. Having multiple children is one of them, as these populations have for centuries been accustomed to having ten children or more because most of them would die young. French women usually have one or two. And the women who go for abortions are in the vast majority local French women. It should be noted that the situation is the same in most of the European Union.

Besides political decisions, the euphoria that took hold after this reform of the constitution is also worrying from a psycho-social point of view. Abortion has been legal in France for decades. There is indeed nothing new in this symbolic gesture of President Emmanuel Macron’s government. The fact that many women celebrated this strictly formal political decision as a ‘victory’ is a sign that many, unconsciously, want to die, to disappear as a population, as a civilization. This neo-feminism has gone too far. It leads to pure infantilization. A child thinks that he is the center of the world; neo-feminists think that their uterus is the center of the world. A child doesn’t care about the consequences of his deeds; neo-feminists do not want to think about consequences. The real message of this ‘victory’ is the following – you can screw around with as many people as you want, there will be no consequences. Even when the existence of your people is at stake. No consequences.

“..The US keeps pouring oil on the fire, which yields huge benefits..”

• US Uses NATO In Ukrainian Conflict To Tighten Grip On European Countries (TASS)

The United States is using the conflict between Russia and Ukraine to gain control over European countries with the help of NATO, the executive director of the Center for Russia and Central Asia Studies at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Sun Qi, has told TASS while commenting on CIA chief William Burns’ statement that Washington was providing support for Kiev to contain China. “The true purpose of Burns’ speech in the Senate is not to actually care about Ukraine, but to use the Ukrainian crisis to attain selfish geostrategic aims. These aims include using NATO to tighten the grip on the European countries. On the other hand, the Ukrainian crisis is being used for deriving profit. The US keeps pouring oil on the fire, which yields huge benefits,” Sun said, adding that Washington’s support for Kiev allowed the US to increase investment in its businesses and create jobs.

Sun noted that the United States unlike China was not interested in ending the conflict in Ukraine. As an example, he cited the European tour of the Chinese government’s special representative for Eurasian affairs, Li Hui. The expert also drew attention to the fact that the conflict in Ukraine was often compared in the West to the Taiwan issue. “The Taiwan issue is an internal affair of China. It is completely different from the Ukrainian one and has nothing to do with the US. No foreign interference is acceptable. While the US and the Western countries continue to add fuel to the fire of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, they often ignore the hard facts, compare the Taiwan issue with Ukraine and try to use the Russia-Ukraine conflict to impede China’s development. This is a vulgar, thoughtless and intemperate attitude,” he stated.

Speaking at a US Senate Select Intelligence Committee hearing, Burns said that Washington was providing support for Kiev, because such activities, among other things, contributed to the containment of China. He argued that the US was able to continue supporting Kiev in the conflict, the consequences of which went far beyond Ukraine and European security.

Got to start from scratch. See you in ten years.

• German Army Short of ‘Everything,’ Partly Due to Supplies to Kiev

The German armed forces lack equipment, personnel and “everything” in general, with stocks depleted by military deliveries to Ukraine, the parliamentary commissioner for the Bundeswehr, Eva Hoegl, said Tuesday. “Unfortunately, I have to admit that the Bundeswehr still has too little of everything. There is a shortage of ammunition, spare parts and radio equipment. There are not enough tanks, ships and aircraft,” Hoegl said presenting the annual report on the state of the German military. The commissioner praised Berlin for doing an “outstanding” job in supporting Ukraine in the conflict. However, supplying military aid to Kiev means that the German armed forces now have even less of everything, even more so two years into the conflict, she added. Germany continues to procure equipment to modernize the Bundeswehr under a special military fund worth 100 billion euros ($109 billion), Hoegl said, adding that two-thirds of it are already earmarked for specific purchases.

“As for personnel, I have no good news or messages here because the Bundeswehr is aging and shrinking,” Hoegl said, adding that the number of applications and recruits last year was the same as in 2022, while 20,000 posts remain vacant. A total of 181,514 people were serving in the Bundeswehr as of the end of last year, with the average age of a German soldier being 38.8 years. The 100 billion euro fund was announced by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to improve the country’s defense capabilities shortly after the start of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine in February 2022. The fund was approved by the German parliament in June of that year. In January 2023, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius told the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper that the special defense fund would not be enough for Germany to modernize its troops and cover maintenance costs for military equipment. Pistorius then called for an increase of 10 billion euros per year in the German defense budget.

“..could potentially lead to “large protests demanding his resignation and new elections.”

• Netanyahu Government’s Future ‘In Jeopardy’ – US Intel (RT)

Israel’s far-right cabinet led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could face serious challenges and be forced to step down due to flagging public support, the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has warned. In a report published on Monday, the ODNI noted that a “different, more moderate government” could take over the reins in the near future. The US intelligence agency concluded that “Netanyahu’s viability as leader as well as his governing coalition of far-right and ultraorthodox parties that pursued hardline policies on Palestinian and security issues may be in jeopardy.” According to the document, “distrust of Netanyahu’s ability to rule has deepened and broadened across the public” – something that could potentially lead to “large protests demanding his resignation and new elections.”

“What they do not share is the same level of prosecution or press support. Menendez is a pariah in Washington and Hunter is the president’s son..”

“Hunter is not the victim of selective prosecution but the beneficiary of special treatment in the legal system..”

• Menendez Case Shatters Hunter Biden Claim of Selective Prosecution (Turley)

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., was in court this week for another superseding indictment brought by federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York. Rather than the four original counts, he now faces 18 counts with his wife, Nadine Arslanian Menendez, and alleged co-conspirators Wael Hana and Fred Daibes. What is most notable is not the proliferation of counts but the lack of comparative charges in the pending case against Hunter Biden. Some of us have long raised concerns over the striking similarity in the alleged conduct in both cases, but the absence of similar charges against the president’s son. That contrast just got even greater. The allegations in the two cases draw obvious comparisons. Menendez is accused of accepting a $60,000 Mercedes-Benz as part of the corrupt practices. In Hunter’s case, it was a $142,000 Fisker sports car. For Menendez, there were gold bars worth up to $120,000. For Biden, there was the diamond allegedly worth $80,000.

Underlying both cases are core allegations of influence peddling and corruption. However, the Justice Department threw the book at Menendez while minimizing the charges against Biden. That includes charging Menendez as an unregistered foreign agent under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Many of us have said for years that the treatment of Hunter under FARA departs significantly from the treatment of various Trump figures like former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort as well as Menendez. Now, there is a new layer of troubling comparisons to be drawn in the two cases. The superseding indictment incorporates new charges after the plea and cooperation of Menendez’s former co-defendant and businessman Jose Uribe. Uribe appears to have supplied the basis for some of the new charges, including a telling account with Nadine Menendez. She allegedly asked Uribe what he would say to law enforcement about the payments used for a Mercedes-Benz convertible and Uribe said that he could say that the payment were a “loan.” Nadine Menendez responded that “sounded good.”

The loan discussion hit a familiar cord with those of us who have written about the Biden corruption scandal. The Bidens have repeatedly referred to payment from foreign sources as “loans.” That most notoriously included millions given by his counsel Kevin Morris. In some cases, foreign money was received by President Joe Biden’s brother James and then immediately sent to the president’s personal account marked as a loan repayment. James admitted that the $40,000 was coming from the Chinese. The Justice Department in the Menendez case dismissed the claim of loans as merely a transparent effort to hide influence peddling. That includes not just the convertible payment but more than $23,000 that one businessman made toward the senator’s wife’s mortgage. Menendez and Biden share the array of luxury gifts, cars, and loans. However, the most important common denominator was the underlying corruption. Both cases are classic examples of influence peddling, which has long been a cottage industry in Washington, D.C.

What they do not share is the same level of prosecution or press support. Menendez is a pariah in Washington and Hunter is the president’s son. Menendez is blamed by many inside the Beltway not for being corrupt but for being open about it. The fact that others have been prosecuted for conduct similar to his own has not stopped Hunter from claiming victim status. He has told courts that even the few charges brought against him are evidence of selective prosecution. In the most recent filing, Special Counsel David Weiss dismissed many of Hunter’s claims as “patently false” and noted that Hunter Biden virtually flaunted his violations and engaged in obvious efforts to evade taxes and hide his crimes. Weiss further noted that other defendants did not write “a memoir in which they made countless statements proving their crimes and drawing further attention to their criminal conduct.” [..] As Hunter continues to claim to be the victim of selective prosecution in various courts, judges need only to look over the Menendez case to see the truth of the matter. Hunter is not the victim of selective prosecution but the beneficiary of special treatment in the legal system.

A loser trying to save face. Trump lives in her head rent-free.

• ‘A Vote For Trump Is A Vote For Putin’ – Hillary Clinton (RT)

Supporters of US presidential hopeful Donald Trump would be voting for Russian President Vladimir Putin, the former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has claimed. Clinton’s remark followed a meeting between the presumed Republican nominee and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Florida on Friday. After the talks that CNN sources described as “friendly”, Orban told the media that Trump had a “detailed plan” to end the conflict in Ukraine, which involved stopping US aid to Kiev. “It’s becoming clearer every day: A vote for Trump is a vote for Team Putin,” Clinton, who run for Presidency twice as a democratic nominee, wrote on X (formerly Twitter). The post also displays a photo of Trump and Orban shaking hands and features a caption “Trump will not give a penny to Ukraine – Hungary PM Orban.” The quote refers to the comments made by the latter in an interview to Hungarian broadcaster M1 broadcast on Sunday.

According to a readout from Trump’s campaign, the two politicians met “to discuss a wide range of issues affecting Hungary and the United States, including the paramount importance of strong and secure borders to protect the sovereignty of each nation.” The Hungarian leader is seen by many in the West as an ally of Russia. Budapest has consistently called for a diplomatic solution to the conflict between Kiev and Moscow, as well as criticizing other Western nations for sending weapons to Ukraine. It has also maintained economic ties with Russia and called the EU sanctions against Moscow “counterproductive.”

Trump has repeatedly claimed on his campaign trail that, if he had remained in the White House for a second term, there would be no hostilities between Moscow and Kiev. If voted back in November, he promises to end the conflict “in 24 hours” by applying pressure on stakeholders. The US President Joe Biden, who is also running for re-election, described the meeting between Orban and Trump as “worrying”, according to CNN. Orban did not meet Biden during his visit to the US. On Tuesday, the Biden administration announced a new military aid package for Ukraine worth $300 million. The move comes as a bill that would provide $60 billion additional funds for Kiev remains blocked by Republican leaders in Congress.

Armstrong

Representative Armstrong on the two tier system of justice

“Hillary Clinton ran a program called bleachbit on her server. They used hammers to destroy evidence. Joe Biden has a 50 year history of misplacing classified documents… and yet we only see one person being prosecuted” pic.twitter.com/LQpcVWdapw

— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) March 12, 2024

6 out of 40. Yay!

• Georgia Judge Dismisses Several Counts In Trump Election Interference Case (ZH)

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee dismissed six charges out of the 40-count indictment in the election interference case against former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants, including three of the counts against Trump. The ruling, which is not linked to Fulton County DA Fani Willis’s (D) relationship with a special prosecutor she hired on the case – however McAfee is expected to rule on that later this week as well. The tossed charges do not impact the RICO charge that serves as the foundation for this unprecedented prosecution. Each of the tossed charges related to alleged efforts by Trump and some of his co-defendants, including former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, to solicit Georgia officials to violate their oaths of office.

The judge ruled that while the charges do contain the “essential” elements of each crime, they fail to provide enough detail for the defendants to mount their defenses. Under the current charges, McAfee said, the defendants could have violated the law in “dozens, if not hundreds, of distinct ways.” -The Hill. “The Court’s concern is less that the State has failed to allege sufficient conduct of the Defendants – in fact it has alleged an abundance,” McAfee wrote. “However, the lack of detail concerning an essential legal element is, in the undersigned’s opinion, fatal.” McAfee also emphasized that his ruling “does not mean the entire indictment is dismissed,” and preserved Fulton County’s ability to seek new indictments once they supplement the charges to his satisfaction. He also gave the state a six-month extension to resubmit the charges to a grand jury, even if the statute of limitations expires, and that he would “likely grant” a request to appeal.

“Trump polled higher than Biden on all issues except abortion and climate change..”

• 2/3 of Liberals Would Dispute Election If Trump Wins (MN)

After over three years of complaining about Donald Trump contesting the 2020 election, a Rasmussen poll has found that a majority of Democrat voters oppose certifying the 2024 election should Trump emerge victorious. The survey found that should Trump win the election in November, and at this point it is difficult to bet against it, fifty seven percent of Democrat voters would oppose certifying the result, and close to two thirds of voters who identify as ‘liberal’ would oppose the result. That’s not very Democratic is it? The poll asked the question “Some Democrats in Congress have said that if Trump wins this year’s election, they will vote against certifying the election results because of Trump’s role in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots. Do you support or oppose Democrats refusing to certify the election results if Trump wins?” The majority of Democrat voters said they would support the move. Incredibly, in the same poll, just 24 percent of Democrat voters said Republicans should have objected to the 2020 results if they believed they were fraudulent. It’s literally the same thing.

In perhaps a more telling revelation, however, the poll found that overall, only 35 percent of all voters would support opposing certifying a Trump victory. The survey also found that among those voters who strongly support Biden, close to three quarters disagree with the Supreme Court’s decision to prevent states from removing Trump from ballots. In other words Biden loyalists want to see his opponent unconstitutionally removed from the ballot. Again, not very Democratic. But as Democrats like to continuously remind Americans, it’s OK when they do it. Meanwhile, a further ABC/Ipsos poll has revealed that more Americans trust Trump to lead the country than Biden on all the top voter issues. Trump polled higher than Biden on all issues except abortion and climate change.

“We need to have the biggest legal ballot harvesting operation this country has ever see..s”

• Lara Trump: Preventing Cheating In November Is Top RNC Priority (ZH)

RNC co-chair Lara Trump says that “protecting the vote” in the upcoming November election is the most critical task for the committee. “We have three pillars that we need to focus on at the RNC to ensure victory on November 5, turn out the vote, protect the vote, and raise money,” she told Fox news’ “Sunday Morning Futures” on March 10. “But I would argue that maybe the most important of those three is protecting the vote, election integrity,” she added. Trump was asked by host Maria Bartiromo about her opinion of Attorney General Merrick Garland’s speech earlier this month in which he suggested that it’s racist not to allow the least secure methods of casting a vote in America. “On March 3, Mr. Garland said the U.S. Department of Justice was “fighting back” against “efforts by states and jurisdictions to implement discriminatory, burdensome, and unnecessary restrictions on access to the ballot, including those related to mail-in voting, the use of drop boxes, and voter ID requirements.” -Epoch Times

“We have to ensure that, when people go vote, they feel like their vote counts, that they are inspired to go vote. We can never allow what happened in 2020 and the questions surrounding that election to ever happen again,” said Trump. Lar a, the daughter-in-law of former President Donald Trump, suggested that Democrats are against voter ID because they seek to expand their voter base with illegal immigrants.”Democrats are bleeding and hemorrhaging voters. They understand that they cannot fool people in this country any longer so they have to import people,” she said. “The only reason you wouldn’t want voter ID is if you want people who cannot vote to vote in these elections. It is insane.” Roughly 81% of Americans support voter ID, according to a February poll by Pew Research. Along party lines, however, 95% favor the concept, while 69% of Democrats – still a majority, support it. According to Lara Trump, the RNC has established an “election integrity division” and devoted “vast resources dedicated solely to this cause,” which include a “nationwide network of volunteers,” such as poll workers and poll watchers.

To those who might cheat in the upcoming election, “We will go after you [and] you will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law,” Trump said. As the Epoch Times notes further, Trump also told Ms. Bartiromo that the RNC would use legal ballot harvesting in this election cycle. “It is already underway, and we will expand it again,” she said. Last week, Ms. Trump and Michael Whatley, chair of the North Carolina Republican Party, were elected to lead the RNC to replace Ronna McDaniel. Both were endorsed by President Trump last month. The leadership overhaul comes just days after President Trump dominated the Republican presidential primaries on Super Tuesday on March 5, solidifying his hold on the Republican nomination and the party itself. Last month, Ms. Trump also told The Epoch Times in an exclusive interview that she would mount a ballot-harvesting campaign in this election, something Republicans have been averse to in the past. “We need to have the biggest legal ballot harvesting operation this country has ever seen,” Ms. Trump said.

“It feels, for a long time, like the Democrats have been playing chess, and we’ve been playing checkers,” she said. Her goal is for the Republican Party “to be the opposite, to be steps ahead of them, and on our toes, and ahead of the game, and facing forward the whole time.” Ballot harvesting, legal in some states, allows people to deliver absentee or mail-in ballots to drop-off points on behalf of other voters. Republicans have been skeptical of the procedure, fearing it would lead to election fraud. Democrats have been much more willing to use the strategy. “Whether or not [Democrats] do it legally, that’s up for discussion,” Ms. Trump said, adding that it’s time for Republicans to start “attacking the game differently.” She also suggested that the RNC embrace early voting for the upcoming election. “The truth is, if we want to compete with the Democrats, we cannot wait until election day,” she said. “If we want to compete, we must embrace early voting.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1767966769572909284

Otto

This is a powerful omen. This child is fated to lead the Danish people to a new greatness. pic.twitter.com/csqbgNifkG

— RAW EGG NATIONALIST (@Babygravy9) March 13, 2024

Kulning
https://twitter.com/i/status/1767558666834808984

Elephant
https://twitter.com/i/status/1767879410265268678

Deer

A deers' jump in slow motion pic.twitter.com/f2yf0ITWfu

— Science (@ScienceGuys_) March 13, 2024

Galapagos
https://twitter.com/i/status/1767895359521485009

Maned wolf

The maned wolf is a large canine native to South America. Despite its appearance, it's neither a fox or wolf. pic.twitter.com/kU11ZwefVF

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) March 13, 2024

Cute dogs

Cute dogs will now live in a home like a work of art pic.twitter.com/LxB8MAlIR3

— Enez Özen (@Enezator) March 13, 2024

Happy feet
https://twitter.com/i/status/1767581402164494403

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

Debt Rattle February 29 2024

Feb 292024

February 29, 2024 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 10:10 am Finance Tagged with: ballot, border security, ceasefire, Hunter Biden, Obama, SCOTUS, testimony, Trump 41 Responses »

Paul Gauguin A Day of No Gods 1894

• Illinois Judge Rules Trump Disqualified From Ballot (ET)

• Trump Asks Judge to Block Testimony From Michael Cohen, Stormy Daniels (ET)

• EU Leaders ‘Scared To Death’ By Trump – Biden (RT)

• Follow the McCaskill Rule on the Biden’s Use of False Story (Turley)

• Biden Needs Legal Authority From Congress to Act on Russian Assets – White House (Sp.)

• Hunter Biden Planned Global Hedge Fund to Benefit Joe (Sp.)

• Joe Biden ‘The Closer’ In Hunter’s Corrupt Schemes (Fox)

• The Obamas are RUNNING the Country (VDH)

• Israel, Hamas Contradict Biden Claim That Gaza Ceasefire Is Close (Sneineh)

• Ukraine In ‘Catastrophic Situation’ – Zakharova (RT)

• Media’s Selective Coverage Of Navalny and Lira (Macleod)

• The October 7th America Has Forgotten (Mazzarino)

• China’s Unexpected Gains From The Red Sea Crisis (Cradle)

• Explosive Truth of US’ Nord Stream Sabotage Could ‘Destroy’ NATO (Sp.)

• Elon Musk Slams US-Mexico Border Security (RT)

Trump
https://twitter.com/i/status/1763001928554860831

Tom Fitton: In a massive loss for Biden regime/Jack Smith and the rabid anti-Trump DC courts, Supreme Court GRANTS Trump request to pause proceedings so it can decide whether a former president can be prosecuted for official acts:

The application for a stay presented to The Chief Justice is referred by him to the Court. The Special Counsel’s request to treat the stay application as a petition for a writ of certiorari is granted, and that petition is granted limited to the following question: Whether and if so to what extent does a former President enjoy presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office. Without expressing a view on the merits, this Court directs the Court of Appeals to continue withholding issuance of the mandate until the sending down of the judgment of this Court. The application for a stay is dismissed as moot.

The case will be set for oral argument during the week of April 22, 2024. Petitioner’s brief on the merits, and any amicus curiae briefs in support or in support of neither party, are to be filed on or before Tuesday, March 19, 2024. Respondent’s brief on the merits, and any amicus curiae briefs in support, are to be filed on or before Monday, April 8, 2024. The reply brief, if any, is to be filed on or before 5 p.m., Monday, April 15, 2024.

Turley: “The order setting argument on immunity for April 22 is a blow to Smith on the calendar. Rather than granting a stay, it has constructively created such a stay by scheduling the argument. Keep in mind, even if Smith prevails, pre-trial work must wait for the return of the mandate..”

Star witness

BOMBSHELL REPORT: ⚠️ Nathan Wade’s attorney admits to speculating that Willis and Wade’s relationship began when Fani Willis was a Judge in South Fulton, YEARS BRFORE WADE WAS APPOINTED as a Trump prosecutor.. https://t.co/pO70p751zH pic.twitter.com/9rpS7RUSnD

— Chuck Callesto (@ChuckCallesto) February 27, 2024

KJP

Karine Jean-Pierre says she doesn't "have anything" to say on why the Border Patrol union president will appear with President Trump during his border visit on Thursday — but didn't even receive an invite to appear with Biden pic.twitter.com/zJWbtcrzhG

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 27, 2024

#Trump needs a cash infusion to pay his mounting legal fines, but he’s been barred from working with most major U.S. banks and his billionaire friends are silent. These are the individuals and institutions that might have his back: https://t.co/vOmfM4k4kf pic.twitter.com/601fcta1Sw

— Forbes (@Forbes) February 29, 2024

Former President Trump asked a New York appeals court Wednesday to pause the judgment against him in his civil fraud case while he appeals the ruling, as the ex-president faces a tight deadline to turn over more than $454 million and counting in the case. pic.twitter.com/FInTt7SzCo

— Forbes (@Forbes) February 28, 2024

“In the meantime, President Trump remains on the Illinois ballot, is dominating the polls, and will Make America Great Again!”

• Illinois Judge Rules Trump Disqualified From Ballot (ET)

Ahead of a Supreme Court ruling on whether former President Donald Trump can be disqualified as a candidate by individual states under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, an Illinois judge ruled President Trump ineligible for the ballot. Cook County Circuit Court Judge Tracie Porter, following other jurisdictions, stayed her order to remove the former president pending an appeal. The ruling came a week after the judge heard arguments regarding Illinois statutes. “This Order is stayed until March 1, 2024 in anticipation of an appeal to the Illinois Appellate Court, First District, or the Illinois Supreme Court. This Order is further stayed if the United States Supreme Court in Anderson v. Griswold enters a decision inconsistent with this Order,” the ruling reads.

On Feb. 8, the day the Supreme Court heard arguments regarding Colorado’s disqualification of President Trump, mail-in ballots were sent out in Illinois with President Trump’s name on them. This puts the state in a position to potentially have to not count votes cast for him. If the order is not stayed and reversed, the state elections board will be tasked with removing “Donald J. Trump from the ballot for the General Primary Election on March 19, 2024, or cause any votes cast for him to be suppressed, according to the procedures within their administrative authority.” Much of the judge’s opinion and order dealt with state law and whether the state elections board had the jurisdiction to rule on this matter. The judge found that Illinois law allowed petitioners to bring this kind of a challenge and that President Trump was “disqualified by engaging in insurrection,” noting that this finding was echoed by the hearing officer of the state election board and the Colorado Supreme Court.

“This Court shares the Colorado Supreme Court’s sentiments that did not reach its conclusions lightly. This Court also realizes the magnitude of this decision and it (sic) impact on the upcoming primary Illinois elections,” the order reads. Both of those jurisdictions based the “insurrection” conclusion on records that plaintiffs presented drawn largely from the controversial Jan. 6 Select Committee report. Judge Porter determined that Section 3 was self-executing, applied to presidents, and could be applied by individual states even in the event of a national election. These legal issues are all currently before the Supreme Court, which on Feb. 8 questioned attorneys representing President Trump and six petitioners from Colorado on the ramifications of states applying Section 3 at length and spent little time discussing whether an insurrection occurred.

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung responded to the decision by highlighting that the judge was acting against the decision of the state’s board of elections and other relevant rulings, and called Judge Porter an “activist Democrat judge.” “The Soros-funded Democrat front-groups continue to attempt to interfere in the election and deny President Trump his rightful place on the ballot,” he said. “Today, an activist Democrat judge in Illinois summarily overruled the state’s board of elections and contradicted earlier decisions from dozens of other state and federal jurisdictions. “This is an unconstitutional ruling that we will quickly appeal,” he added. “In the meantime, President Trump remains on the Illinois ballot, is dominating the polls, and will Make America Great Again!”

“The judge in President Trump’s civil fraud trial said that Mr. Cohen’s testimony was “significantly compromised..” “Arthur Engoron, who fined President Trump $355 million for supposedly inflating the value of his properties to get better loan terms, said he found Mr. Cohen’s testimony “credible.”

• Trump Asks Judge to Block Testimony From Michael Cohen, Stormy Daniels (ET)

Former President Donald Trump has asked the judge in his so-called “hush money” case to issue pretrial rulings that would block certain evidence and witness testimony that the former president says his opponents want to exploit to undermine his 2024 presidential campaign. The case centers on allegations that President Trump falsified business records to hide $130,000 in payments to adult film actress Stormy Daniels (whose real name is Stephanie Clifford) in exchange for keeping quiet about her allegations about an affair. President Trump has repeatedly denied any affair or wrongdoing, while calling the case a politically-motivated ploy to hurt his chances of winning the race for the White House.

With trial scheduled to start on March 25, President Trump is now ramping up his rhetoric, accusing prosecutors in a 47-page motion filed on Monday of planning to put forward “improper arguments” and “inadmissible evidence” in order to bolster their “listless ‘zombie’ case” and interfere in the upcoming presidential election. At the top of the list of what President Trump wants New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan to block is any new testimony from his former personal attorney Michael Cohen, who has admitted to lying to Congress. Other demands include blocking testimony from Ms. Clifford, former Trump doorman Dino Sajudin, and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, as well as other requests related to evidentiary and procedural matters. President Trump’s motion challenges the credibility of the witnesses, including calling Mr. Cohen a “liar” and suggesting Ms. Clifford would offer “false” testimony.

“The People should be precluded from suborning additional perjury by Michael Cohen,” President Trump’ attorney, Todd Blanche, wrote in the filing. He said Mr. Cohen lied to lawmakers in 2017 and, more recently, perjured himself while testifying at President Trump civil fraud trial in October. The judge in President Trump’s civil fraud trial said that Mr. Cohen’s testimony was “significantly compromised” by his misleading statements to Congress and by some “seeming contradictions” in what he said at trial. Still, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who fined President Trump $355 million for supposedly inflating the value of his properties to get better loan terms, said he found Mr. Cohen’s testimony “credible.” Mr. Blanche wrote in the filing that prosecutors have an obligation to ensure that testimony presented to judges and juries is truthful. He argued that it was a “troubling” violation of prosecutors’ ethical and constitutional obligations for them to push for testimony from Mr. Cohen, whom he called a “serial liar.”

President Trump’s attorney also asked the judge to issue a pretrial ruling that would render as inadmissible testimony from Ms. Clifford. “The People should be precluded from offering testimony from or regarding Stephanie Clifford, who has made clear through public statements that she intends to offer false, salacious, and unduly prejudicial testimony relating to President Trump,” Mr. Blanche wrote in the filing. Ms. Clifford wrote a tell-all memoir that included salacious details of her alleged tryst with the former president at a celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, California, in 2006. She then promoted the book in a series of media interviews and talk show appearances, in which she claimed she was pressured to sign a non-disclosure agreement in return for $130,000 in hush money payments. Ms. Clifford has also expressed enthusiasm to take the stand against President Trump.

“You got to pay your bills,” Trump recalled telling the unnamed ally..”

• EU Leaders ‘Scared To Death’ By Trump – Biden (RT)

US President Joe Biden has criticized his predecessor Donald Trump’s comments on NATO as “absolutely bizarre,” after the Republican frontrunner said Washington should not defend its European allies who refuse to fulfill their military spending commitments. President Biden slammed his Republican rival during a “surprise” guest appearance on NBC’s ‘Late Night with Seth Meyers’ on Monday, insisting that Trump’s idea that the US is not obliged to protect its allies was “totally against our interest.” “I’ve known every major foreign leader for the longest time, and I know all these guys extremely well. They’re scared to death. What it means for them, for them, what it means if we walk away.” Biden said. “It is just outrageous what he is talking about.”

Trump’s rhetoric on the campaign trail was in line with his NATO-skeptic stance during his term in the White House. Speaking at a rally in South Carolina earlier this month, Trump recalled an encounter in which he supposedly told a European leader that unless that nation met the spending threshold, the US would consider it “delinquent” and not defend it in the event of a Russian attack. “In fact I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You got to pay. You got to pay your bills,” Trump recalled telling the unnamed ally. Facing criticism for this “dangerous” and “un-American” stance, Trump doubled down with his verbal attack on low-spending members of the military bloc, arguing that the rest of NATO needs to send at least as much aid to Ukraine as the US does.

Trump also called on his loyalists in the US legislature to oppose any future assistance for Ukraine unless it includes a means to recoup the money. “They want to give them $60 billion more,” Trump said. “Why should you just hand it over to them? Do it as the form of a loan… If they can make it, they pay us back.” With Sweden clearing the final hurdle for accession this week, the trans-Atlantic alliance now has 32 member states, only two of which are located in North America. The organization recommends that each country spend at least 2% of GDP on military purposes, but even the wealthiest members such as Germany, France and Italy, have failed to meet the target for decades. However, smaller EU nations did ramp up their military spending during Trump’s presidency, something he has claimed as a personal diplomatic achievement.

“Dr. John Gartner, a psychologist and former professor at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, “suggested that it’s actually Trump, not President Biden, who seems to be showing signs of mental decline.”

• Follow the McCaskill Rule on the Biden’s Use of False Story (Turley)

We recently discussed the call by MSNBC contributor and former Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill for the media to stop fact checking Joe Biden before the election. Some in the media appear to have gotten the McCaskill memo in running the false story repeated by Biden in his interview this week on NBC. What is particularly striking is that the President is again being accused of spreading disinformation, the very basis used by his Administration to censor critics and groups. His Administration even pushed LinkedIn to bar those who have spread disinformation. President Joe Biden’s interview on “Late Night With Seth Meyers” has produced the usual diametrically opposite reviews. On the left, he was witty, spontaneous, and fun. On the right, he was wooden, scripted, and feeble. However, there is a new controversy over the President repeating a debunked claim that his leading opponent, Donald Trump, cannot remember the name of his wife. He was not alone.

The usual media outlets repeated the false claim and then refused to correct their false stories. It follows a familiar pattern of media adopting the most absurd interpretation of remarks while ignoring the obvious meaning. President Biden has long been challenged over false statements that range from accusing mounted border agents of whipping migrants to claiming that his son died in Iraq to embellishing his own history. He was recently called out for falsely accusing Special Counsel Robert Hur for raising his son’s death. It was the President who raised the death. What is striking about this incidence is that the falsity of this story was immediately called out and some in the media had the integrity to identify it as disinformation. Yet, it did not matter to Biden or his staff. The interview seemed highly scripted and it appeared that the questions were given to Biden in advance by NBC (as demonstrated by Biden holding his aviator glasses in anticipation of a line from Meyers as a prop). If so, it appears that his staff also did not care that the story was untrue.

Biden is trying to control the damage after a special counsel cited his diminished faculties as a reason for not indicting him. On the show, this issue of the President’s age was gently raised and Biden responded: “Well, a couple things. Number one, you got to take a look at the other guy. He’s about as old as I am, but he can’t remember his wife’s name!” It was a reference to the claim that Trump called his wife Melania “Mercedes” during the keynote speech at a recent Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) event. However, many pointed out that he was addressing Mercedes Schlapp, the wife of CPAC founder Matt Schlapp. The usual suspects spread the false claim such as Independent, Metro, and other sites as well as many on social media. Some liberal sites joyfully reported the false statement, opining “calling your wife by another woman’s name in bed or anywhere else is near most always a death sentence.

Trump called his wife, on stage and in front of a room full of people, Mercedes. Maybe he just confused to two because they’re both expensive to keep up when they get older.” Even for some of the outlets, the fact that it was untrue was only mentioned in passing while seemingly praising Biden for going on the attack on Trump. Salon ran an article entitled “He can’t remember his wife’s name!”: Biden turns the tables on Trump over age attacks, it then buried the fact that he was referring to Schlapp deep in the column. “Turning the tables” was using something that his own administration would consider malicious disinformation. Forbes said the President “flipped the script” on Trump with the attack. The usual experts came forward to issue medical judgments. Dr. John Gartner, a psychologist and former professor at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, “suggested that it’s actually Trump, not President Biden, who seems to be showing signs of mental decline.”

Doesn’t stop him from starting wars either.

• Biden Needs Legal Authority From Congress to Act on Russian Assets – WH (Sp.)

US President Joe Biden requires legal authority from Congress to take action on frozen Russian assets, White House National Security Communications adviser John Kirby said on Tuesday. “I want to make a couple of things clear. Number one, we still need more legislative authorities from Congress for the President to be able to act on that [unlocking assets],” Kirby said during a press briefing. US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said earlier in the day that the Group of Seven countries should work together to explore different approaches to utilizing frozen Russian assets, including seizing and using them as collateral to borrow on global markets. Russia said it would view any move to seize or use its frozen assets as an “escalation of economic aggression” and would respond harshly.

“The younger Biden proposed a list of billionaire investors for the new venture, including tycoons from China, Spain, Kazakhstan, Russia, South America, Africa and the Middle East.”

• Hunter Biden Planned Global Hedge Fund to Benefit Joe (Sp.)

US president Joe Biden’s son Hunter plotted to set up a shadowy fund to cash in on his influence — so says a former business partner. Independent US media outlet Just the News has obtained a recent statement by Hunter Biden’s business associate Jason Galanis to the House impeachment inquiry.He said Hunter and his business buddies planned to build a global hedge fund with Joe Biden as its “central asset.” “The entire value-add of Hunter Biden to our business was his family name and his access to his father, Vice President Joe Biden,” Galanis told the House impeachment investigators. “Our objective was to build a diversified private equity platform, which would be anchored by a globally known Wall Street brand together with a globally known political name.” Hunter Biden sought “strategic relationships to the venture” with tycoons from all over the world, including from post-Soviet space.

Just the News quoted emails from Hunter Biden’s infamous “laptop from hell” which allegedly confirm the ambitious plan. “This is a global cooperation group that will assist each other in our respective regions in whatever manner possible,” Hunter’s other associate, Jeff Cooper, wrote in March 2014. The younger Biden proposed a list of billionaire investors for the new venture, including tycoons from China, Spain, Kazakhstan, Russia, South America, Africa and the Middle East. One of Hunter’s partners, Chinese businessman Xuejun “Henry” Zhao, showed interest in the plan based on the prospect that Joe Biden would join the venture after his vice presidential term ended. “Mr. Zhao was interested in this partnership because of the game-changing value add of the Biden family, including Joe Biden, who was to be a member of the Burnham-Harvest team post-vice presidency, providing political access in the United States and around the world,” Galanis said.

Galanis’s lawyer provided a draft email backing up the businessman’s testimony. “Michael, please also remind Henry [Zhao] of our conversation about a board seat for a certain relation of mine,” Hunter reportedly wrote. “Devon [Archer] and I golfed with that relation earlier last week and we discussed this very idea again and as always he remains very very keen on the opportunity.” According to Galanis, the “certain relation” was none other than Joe Biden. Even though the phrase was removed from the final email, it remained in Galanis’ records. The group’s plan to assemble a “dream team” of international billionaires and create a global Biden business empire took a serious knock when Archer and Galanis were charged and convicted of a plot to steal $43 million in tribal bonds. Hunter Biden avoided scrutiny despite “then-available documentation that we were partners, were involved in the decision making that involved illegal self-dealing, and all of us had financially benefited from these schemes,” Galanis claimed.

Galanis told House investigators that the illegal tribal bond scheme was part of a larger effort to create a financial platform for the Biden hedge fund. “In an effort to build this financial platform, I engaged in unlawful conduct. Our companies were entrusted with $11 billion of union members’ pension fund money whose trust I betrayed,” Galanis stated. “I pleaded guilty. I have had eight years in federal custody to reflect on my actions and I am profoundly sorry for my role.”

Gaetz

My assessment from the deposition today is that Hunter Biden was essentially managing a money-laundering operation from foreign entities into the Biden family.

That said, for dozens of moderate Republicans, they will only vote for impeachment if they see money going DIRECTLY to… pic.twitter.com/H1U65rR7g3

— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) February 28, 2024

“What Harvey sells at a high price is his outsized reputation —the prospect of power and influence..”

• Joe Biden ‘The Closer’ In Hunter’s Corrupt Schemes (Fox)

In the hit TV series “Suits,” the lead character Harvey Specter is known as “the closer.” His underlings construct the lucrative agreements, but Harvey’s mere appearance in a room or a timely phone call always closes the deals. What Harvey sells at a high price is his outsized reputation —the prospect of power and influence. That appears to have been Joe Biden’s role in the numerous overseas schemes that netted tens of millions of dollars for his son and family. The elder Biden adopted a Specter-like modus operandi, according to evidence uncovered by the House impeachment investigation. That is, Hunter Biden solicited deals with foreign actors by selling access to his powerful dad and promises of influence. Joe would attend meetings or show up at dinners arranged with the benefactors. Sometimes he’d simply join in on a phone call. His presence signified his assent and participation, thus closing the deals.

Enormous sums of cash would immediately flow into Hunter-controlled banks accounts where the payola was funneled through a complex web of shell companies. Some of it was then distributed to Biden family members. In legal terms, the House Oversight and Judiciary committees portray Joe Biden as a witting accessory who actively aided and abetted the influence-peddling schemes by helping to sell the “Biden Brand.” Hunter associates Devon Archer and Tony Bobulinski have already testified in detail how the Bidens enriched themselves by marketing their own brand as the Washington DC power version of a Nike sports brand. The first son put it best in a WhatsApp message to his Chinese business partners when he bragged, “The Bidens are the best at doing exactly what (the) Chairman wants.”

As Harvey Specter liked to say, “It’s not bragging if it’s true.” And the Chinese knew that better than anyone. In one deal alone with the Beijing conglomerate CEFC China Energy, the Bidens hauled in $5 million. The money was wired only after Hunter sent an urgent missive armed with a thinly veiled threat, “I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled.” For emphasis, Hunter then added, “I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction.”

The CEFC transaction is especially illuminating because there are coded references to Joe Biden receiving a 10 percent cut of future profits that could have reached hundreds of millions of dollars. Two of Hunter’s former partners confirmed that Joe was “the Big Guy.” The IRS whistleblowers also verified it, although they complained that Biden’s Department of Justice tried to cover it up. Recently, Bobulinski testified, “The only reason any of these transactions took place…was because Joe Biden was in high office. The Biden family business was Joe Biden, period.” Bobulinski explained that the Vice President would call or meet with Hunter’s overseas partners “to demonstrate the ‘Biden Brand’ to whoever was in that meeting, whether it was the Ukrainians, the Romanians, the Russians, Colombians, Chinese, whoever it was. That’s all he had to do.”

COMER: “The Bidens didn’t have a legitimate business, their business was selling access to Joe Biden — The Brand… Joe Biden communicated with the people right before the closing, he was the closer” pic.twitter.com/25my9lypvb

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) February 28, 2024

Well, isn’t that interesting…

Jim Jordan on how none of Hunter Biden’s business deals came to fruition until his daddy (Joe Biden) stepped in. pic.twitter.com/NTZjSTzmSI

— Sebastian Gorka DrG (@SebGorka) February 28, 2024

X thread. “Obama’s responsible for the border. He’s responsible for the whole crime epidemic. This is what he wanted. And Biden was very useful.”

• The Obamas are RUNNING the Country (VDH)

“The Obamas are RUNNING the Country,” says military historian Victor Davis Hanson. Barack Obama said he wanted to serve a third term “in my basement in my sweats.” And he’s “living his dream” using Joe Biden as a “cardboard person they cut out,” declared @VDHanson. “Obama never moved the country as left as he wanted to. He was too timid, and he felt that he wasn’t yet ready. He would hurt his legacy if he didn’t get reelected. It was too dangerous. So now, with Joe Biden, he’s living his dream.” In November 2020, Barack Obama said to Stephen Colbert:

“And I used to say, ‘You know what, if I could make an arrangement where I had a stand-in, a front man or a front woman, and they had an earpiece in, and I was just in my basement with my sweats looking through the stuff, and I could sort of deliver the lines, but somebody else was doing all the talking and ceremony, I would be fine with that.’” “That’s what he’s doing right now,” remarked Hanson. “The Obamas are running the country. When my point is – they want Joe Biden the way he is because he’s a construct. He’s just a cardboard person they cut out and they plopped him down in the basement, and they make him move once in a while, and then they run all of the agency. Obama’s responsible for the border. He’s responsible for the whole crime epidemic. This is what he wanted. And Biden was very useful.”

https://twitter.com/i/status/1762901089995587931

“..we do not understand what the American president’s optimism is based on.”

• Israel, Hamas Contradict Biden Claim That Gaza Ceasefire Is Close (Sneineh)

U.S. President Joe Biden said that he hopes a ceasefire will be reached between Israel and Hamas by next week, which would end Israel’s aggression on Gaza and secure the release of the Israelis taken captive on October 7, 2023. “Well, I hope by the beginning of the weekend, by the end of the weekend,” he told reporters. His comment came as an Israeli delegation flew for intensive talks to Qatar, which plays a mediator role along with Egypt. “My national security adviser tells me that we’re close. We’re close. We’re not done yet. My hope is, by next Monday, we’ll have a ceasefire,” Biden added while visiting an ice cream shop in New York on Monday. Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas have been going on since December, but so far, they have not borne fruit. They have been hindered by the Israeli assassination of Hamas leader Saleh Aruri in January, the ground invasion of Khan Younis, and most recently, the threats to invade Rafah, where 1.4 million Palestinians are currently sheltering.

Biden also said that Israel“agreed” to end its military operations in the Gaza Strip for almost six weeks, which include the months of Ramadan that starts on March 10 and ends on April 9. “Ramadan’s coming up, and there’s been an agreement by the Israelis that they would not engage in activities during Ramadan as well, in order to give us time to get all the hostages out,” Biden said. There have been a few frameworks for a deal between Israel and Hamas that have been leaked since December. The most recent one, but yet to be confirmed by either Israeli or Hamas officials, is a temporary truce for 40 days, the release of 40 Israeli hostages, five female soldiers, and 35 civilians, in return for 400 Palestinian prisoners.

Israel’s air force will cease flights over Gaza for eight hours a day, withdraw from several areas, and allow the gradual return of Palestinians to north Gaza, except men “who are at the age of enlistment for Hamas,” Yediot Ahronoth reported. The deal involves the entry of 500 trucks of humanitarian aid daily into Gaza, 200,000 tents for displaced families, and 60,000 mobile homes. In addition, Israel agreed to an American proposal to free 15 Palestinian national figures from Israeli jails in return for the release of five Israeli soldiers.

However, Israeli and Hamas officials met Biden’s optimistic language less enthusiastically. A senior Israeli official told Yedioth Ahronoth that “we do not understand what the American president’s optimism is based on.” Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas political chief, said the movement “will not allow the enemy to use negotiations as a cover for this crime”. Previously, Hamas described the optimism of reaching a deal as “far from the truth.” Biden’s comment seems to be more about the U.S. presidential race and less about ending the Israeli assault on Gaza. His campaign is attempting to win Muslim and Arab American voters in states such as Michigan, which votes today in a Democratic primary to choose the party’s presidential candidate, and where anger over the administration’s firm support of Israel’s war on Gaza is profound.

“.. the French leader’s statement has had the opposite effect, especially after a large number of NATO representatives publicly stated that they were in no way considering sending their own soldiers to fight for Ukraine..”

• Ukraine In ‘Catastrophic Situation’ – Zakharova (RT)

The current frontline situation is “monstrous” and “catastrophic” for Kiev and nothing can save it at this stage, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in an interview with Sputnik radio station on Monday. According to her, even promises by French President Emmanuel Macron to send Western troops into Ukraine will not be enough to change the minds of the Ukrainian people, who have started to wake up to the fact that they have been betrayed by the West. The French leader had said this at a meeting of representatives from 20 Western nations, when Paris proposed the scenario of sending Western ground forces to Ukraine. Although a consensus on the proposal was not reached during that meeting, Macron has said that, in the future, such a scenario could not be ruled out.

Zakharova suggested that Macron’s statement was an attempt to send out a “bright” and “powerful statement that would somehow inspire people in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and in the ranks of Ukrainian citizens being driven to slaughter” that the West would help them. However, according to the spokeswoman, the French leader’s statement has had the opposite effect, especially after a large number of NATO representatives publicly stated that they were in no way considering sending their own soldiers to fight for Ukraine. “The signal was exactly the opposite – that they betrayed Ukraine and will continue to use and betray it,” she said. Countries that have officially dismissed any notion of sending their troops to fight for Kiev include the UK, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Italy, Finland and Sweden, among others.

NATO’s own Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, has also shot down Macron’s statement, insisting that there are “no plans for NATO combat troops on the ground in Ukraine.” Moscow, meanwhile, has warned that a direct conflict between Russia and NATO would become “inevitable” if the members of the US-led bloc decided to deploy their forces to Ukraine. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that those who have opposed the move appear to have arrived at a “sober assessment of the potential risks” and realized that such a decision would be “absolutely against the interests of those nations” and their people. Russia has repeatedly stated that it considers the Ukraine conflict to be a Washington-orchestrated proxy war against Moscow, and has repeatedly warned that by supplying increasingly sophisticated weapons to Kiev, NATO members are drawing closer to a direct confrontation.

“Navalny was a controversial character. Earlier in his political career, he was a prominent leader in xenophobic, far-right marches. He also appeared in a political video where he described the Muslim people of the Northern Caucasus as an “infestation of cockroaches.”

• Media’s Selective Coverage Of Navalny and Lira (Macleod)

MintPress conducted a quantitative analysis of the media coverage of two political figures who recently died in prison: Alexey Navalny and Gonzalo Lira. Both were controversial characters and critics of the governments that imprisoned them. Both died under suspicious circumstances (their families both maintain they were effectively murdered). And both died in the past six weeks, Navalny in February and Lira in January. A crucial difference in their stories, however, is that Navalny perished in an Arctic penal colony after being arrested in Russia (an enemy state), while Lira’s life ended in a Ukrainian prison, abandoned by the pro-Kiev government in Washington, D.C. The study compared the coverage of Navalny and Lira’s death in five leading outlets: the New York Times, the Washington Post, ABC News, Fox News, and CNN. These outlets were chosen for their reach and influence and, together, could be said to reasonably represent the corporate media spectrum as a whole.

The data was compiled using the Dow Jones Factiva news database and searches on the websites of the news organizations. This study takes no position on the matter of Navalny, Lira, or the Russia-Ukraine war. In total, the five outlets collectively ran 731 articles or segments that discussed or mentioned Navalny’s death, including 151 from the Times, 75 from the Post, 177 from ABC, 215 from Fox, and 113 from CNN. This means that each organization studied ran more than one piece per hour. This media storm stands in stark contrast to the Lira case, where the entire corporate media coverage of his death boiled down to a single Fox News article. Moreover, the article in question described him as “spreading pro-Russian propaganda” in its headline, did not inform readers that there was anything suspicious about his death, and appeared to be doing its best to justify his treatment in the body of the article. Aside from that, there was radio silence.

It is perhaps understandable that Navalny’s death was covered in much greater detail than Lira’s. Navalny was a political leader known across Russia and the world who died just weeks before the country’s presidential elections. Yet Lira was far from unknown. News anchor Tucker Carlson, for example, devoted an entire show to his imprisonment, while high-profile figures like Twitter owner Elon Musk took up his cause. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller has been repeatedly asked about Lira’s case and has failed to offer concrete answers. As an American living in Ukraine who took a pro-Russian line on the invasion, Lira built up a following of hundreds of thousands of people across his social media platforms.

As an American citizen who died while in the custody of a government that the U.S. has provided with tens of billions of dollars in aid, it could be argued that Lira’s case is particularly noteworthy for an American audience and should be given special attention. Moreover, Lira died more than one month before Navalny, meaning that the study compares more than 40 days of Lira coverage to just six days of coverage of Navalny’s death, making the disparity all the more glaring.

Alexey Navalny was a lawyer, activist and the leader of the opposition Russia of the Future Party. A fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin, for many, especially in the West, he became a symbol of the struggle for human rights and democracy in Russia. In 2021, he released a documentary film alleging that Putin was building an enormous $1 billion palace on the Black Sea for himself. Navalny made many enemies and was allegedly poisoned in 2020. Although most in the West believe the Kremlin was behind the incident, this is not a commonly held view in Russia. After returning from Germany for medical treatment in January 2021, he was incarcerated. On. February 16, 2024, he died at the notorious Polar Wolf penal camp in Russia’s far north. “Vladimir Putin killed my husband,” Navalny’s wife, Yulia, said in a statement, adding, “The most important thing we can do for Alexey and for ourselves is to keep fighting more desperately and more fiercely than before.”

Western leaders are largely of the same opinion. President Joe Biden said that, while the details are still unclear, “there is no doubt that the death of Navalny was a consequence of something Putin and his thugs did.” Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said that he was “brutally murdered by the Kremlin.” That’s a fact, and that is something one should know about the true nature of Russia’s current regime,” he added. Other politicians were more cautious. “Why this hurry to accuse someone?” Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Lula) asked. “If the death is under suspicion, we must first carry out an investigation to find out why this person died,” he said. Despite Lula’s warning, Western nations are already taking action against Russia. Both the U.S. and the U.K. have announced new rounds of “major sanctions” against Moscow, although it is far from clear to what extent previous sanctions actually hurt Russia.

Although he enjoyed a good reputation in the West, in his homeland, Navalny was a controversial character. Earlier in his political career, he was a prominent leader in xenophobic, far-right marches. He also appeared in a political video where he described the Muslim people of the Northern Caucasus as an “infestation of cockroaches.” While bugs can be killed with a slipper, in the case of human infestations, “I recommend a pistol,” he said before mimicking shooting one. According to a 2023 poll, just 9% of Russians held a positive view of him, compared to 57% who disapproved of his activities.

“..something more sinister may be at play in shaping what violence we choose to focus on and condemn, and what violence we choose to overlook.”

• The October 7th America Has Forgotten (Mazzarino)

We Americans have been at war now since October 7th, 2001. That was when our military first launched air strikes against the Taliban in Afghanistan in response to al-Qaeda’s September 11th terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. That’s 22 years and counting. The “war on terror” that began then would forever change what it meant to be an Arab-American here at home, while ending the lives of more than 400,000 civilians — and still counting! — in South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. In the days after those September 11th attacks, the U.S. would enjoy the goodwill and support of countries around the world. Only in March 2003, with our invasion of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, would much of the world begin to regard us as aggressors.

Does that sound like any other armed conflict you’ve heard about recently? What it brings to my mind is, of course, Israel’s response to the October 7th terror assault by the Islamic militant group Hamas on its border areas, which my country and much of the rest of the world roundly condemned. Many Americans now see the destruction and suffering in Gaza and Jewish settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank as the crises of the day and I agree. It’s hard even to keep up with the death toll in the Palestinian territories, but you can certainly give it a college try. More than 29,000 Gazans have already been killed, more than 12,000 of them reportedly children. The scale of the loss of civilian life has been breathtaking in what are supposed to be targeted missions.

For example, in mid-February, in an ostensible attempt to free two Israeli hostages in the southern Gazan city of Rafah, where more than one million civilians are now sheltering under the worst conditions imaginable, Israeli troops killed 74 Palestinians. Between December 2023 and January 2024, four strikes there had already killed at least 95 civilians. And on and on it goes. Anyone with concerns about Israel’s response to Hamas’s bloody attacks has ground to stand on.

But if war deaths among people of color in particular are really that much of a concern to Americans, especially on the political left, then there are significant gaps in our attention. Look at what’s happening in the 85 countries where the U.S. is currently engaged in “counterterrorism” efforts of one sort or another, where we fight alongside local troops, train or equip them, and conduct intelligence operations or even air strikes, all of it in an extension of those first responses to 9/11. Ask yourself if you’ve paid attention to that lately or if you were even aware that it was still happening. Do you have any idea, for instance, that our country’s military continues to pursue its war on terror across significant parts of Africa?

Given Israel’s October 7th tragedy, my mention of that date in 2001, which marked Washington’s first military response to the worst terrorist attacks on our soil, is more than a play on words. Like Israel, the U.S. was attacked by armed Islamic extremists who sought to make gruesome spectacles of ordinary Americans. Some of them, like the Israeli families smoked out of their saferooms only to be shot, flung themselves from their office buildings in New York’s Twin Towers, essentially choosing the least awful deaths under the circumstances. Yet after decades of America’s war on terror, whose benefits have been, to say the least, questionable, our tax dollars continue to fund the longest and bloodiest response to terrorism in our history. Our own October 7th and its seemingly never-ending consequences suggest that something more sinister may be at play in shaping what violence we choose to focus on and condemn, and what violence we choose to overlook.

“Prior to the sending of the 46th fleet of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, Beijing’s response to Ansarallah’s maritime attacks had been relatively muted.”

• China’s Unexpected Gains From The Red Sea Crisis

The Gaza war’s expansion into the Red Sea has created an international maritime crisis involving a host of countries. Despite a US-led bombing campaign aimed at deterring Yemen’s Ansarallah-aligned navy from carrying out missile and drone strikes in the Red Sea, the armed forces continue to ramp up attacks and now are using “submarine weapons.” As these clashes escalate dangerously, one of the world’s busiest bodies of water is rapidly militarizing. This includes the recent arrival to the Gulf of Aden of a Chinese fleet, including the guided-missile destroyer Jiaozuo, the missile frigate Xuchang, a replenishment vessel, and more than 700 troops – including dozens of special forces personnel – as part of a counter-piracy mission. Beijing has voiced its determination to help restore stability to the Red Sea.

“We should jointly uphold the security on the sea lanes of the Red Sea in accordance with the law and also respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the countries along the Red Sea coast, including Yemen,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi emphasized last month. As the largest trading nation in the world, China depends on the Red Sea as its “maritime lifeline.” Most of the Asian giant’s exports to Europe go through the strategic waterway, and large quantities of oil and minerals that come to Chinese ports transit the body of water. The Chinese have also invested in industrial parks along Egypt and Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coasts, including the TEDA–Suez Zone in Ain Sokhna and the Chinese Industrial Park in Saudi Arabia’s Jizan City for Primary and Downstream Industries. Prior to the sending of the 46th fleet of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, Beijing’s response to Ansarallah’s maritime attacks had been relatively muted.

China has since condemned the US–UK airstrikes against Ansarallah’s military capabilities in Yemen, and refused to join the western-led naval coalition, Operation Prosperity Guardian (OPG). China’s response to mounting tension and insecurity in the Red Sea is consistent with Beijing’s grander set of foreign policy strategies, which include respect for the sovereignty of nation-states and a doctrine of “non-interference.” In the Persian Gulf, China has pursued a balanced and geopolitically neutral agenda resting on a three-pronged approach: enemies of no one, allies of no one, and friends of everyone. China’s position vis-à-vis all Persian Gulf countries was best exemplified almost a year ago when Beijing brokered a surprise reconciliation agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia, in which it played the role of guarantor. In Yemen, although China aligns with the international community’s non-recognition of the Ansarallah-led government in Sanaa, Beijing has nonetheless initiated dialogues with those officials and maintained a non-hostile stance – unlike many Arab and western states.

Overall, China tries to leverage its influence in West Asian countries to mitigate regional tensions and advance stabilizing initiatives. Its main goal is ultimately to ensure the long-term success of President Xi Jinping’s multi-trillion dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and keep trade routes free of conflict. Often labeled by the west as a “free rider,” China is accused of opportunistically benefiting from US- and European-led security efforts in the Persian Gulf and the northwestern Indian Ocean without contributing to them. But given China’s anti-piracy task force in the Gulf of Aden and its military base in Djibouti, this accusation isn’t entirely justified. Beijing’s motivations for staying out of OPG were easy to understand: first, China has no interest in bolstering US hegemony; second, joining the naval military coalition could upset its multi-vector diplomacy vis-à-vis Ansarallah and Iran; and third, the wider Arab–Islamic world and the rest of the Global South would interpret it as Chinese support for Israel’s war on Gaza.

“The center is self-destructing and virtually now ushering in the far-right to take its place..”

• Explosive Truth of US’ Nord Stream Sabotage Could ‘Destroy’ NATO (Sp.)

On Monday, Denmark became the second European country to officially close its investigation into the explosion of the Nord Stream gas pipeline. for Ukraine’s proxy war against Russia. Lazare lists a number of figures benefiting from the phenomenon, including Donald Trump in the US, Marine Le Pen in France, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, and Giorgia Meloni in Italy. In September 2022 a series of explosions disabled both branches of the Nord Stream pipeline between Russia and Germany. Completed in 2012, for almost a decade the pipeline provided Russian natural gas to Western Europe. Although the United States expressed unease over the act of cooperation between Russia and its European allies, the Nord Stream played a crucial role in fueling German industry and providing low-cost energy throughout the continent.

Observers immediately blamed the United States for the act of industrial sabotage, pointing to US President Joe Biden’s cryptic promise to “bring an end” to the project if Russia moved to intervene in Ukraine’s attacks on the ethnically Russian Donbass region. Denmark’s inquiry indeed found the explosions were an act of “deliberate sabotage,” although Danish officials refused to investigate who bore responsibility. Investigative journalist Dan Lazare joined Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program on Wednesday to comment on the US ally’s report. “It’s just absolutely farcical,” said the iconoclastic author. “I don’t know how much longer this can go on. I mean, Denmark investigated, came up with a conclusion, and everybody knows it was obviously sabotage – that was obvious from the very start. And [Denmark] refrains from pointing a finger at a likely culprit.” “And the reason, of course, is the likeliest culprit – in fact, I’m 100% convinced that it is the culprit – is the United States,” he claimed. “But, Denmark, Sweden, everybody is afraid to say it. It’s extraordinary.”

Sweden, likewise a US ally, ended its own investigation into the Nord Stream disaster earlier this month, also without commenting on the culprit of the sabotage. Lazare said the United States’ guilt is obvious, but frequently ignored in order to safeguard relations between the US and Europe. That dynamic is playing to the benefit of far-right parties across the continent who are the only ones willing to openly acknowledge the US role in the act, according to Lazare. “The man or woman on the street knows perfectly well who did this, but the liberal centrist parties try to bottle it up, try to deny reality,” he explained. “Which means that the only parties talking about it [are] other parties, the populist parties on the far-right, like the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) in Germany. And the AfD actually is riding this issue rather hard.” “So if the AfD is climbing in the polls they have Joe Biden to thank because Joe Biden blew the pipeline up, and everyone’s afraid to admit it,” Lazare concluded.

The Alternative for Deutschland is one of a number of rightwing forces currently enjoying increased support in the West amidst economic hardship and the political establishment’s increasingly unpopular support for Ukraine’s proxy war against Russia. Lazare lists a number of figures benefitting from the phenomenon, including Donald Trump in the US, Marine Le Pen in France, Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, and Giorgia Meloni in Italy. “The center is self-destructing and virtually now ushering in the far-right to take its place,” he said, claiming establishment lawmakers “are going to pay a terrible, terrible price for covering this [Nord Stream sabotage] up.” But Lazare insisted that liberal political parties are not the only institutions likely to be damaged by the explosive reality of the Nord Stream disaster. “The US engaged in an act of war against a fellow NATO member,” he claimed bluntly. “NATO members aren’t supposed to engage in war against one another. They’re supposed to guard against attacks by outsiders.”

“..anyone, even a literal serial killer, can toss away the ID they used to get into Mexico from anywhere in the world, then claim asylum, say they have no documents and be ushered into America.”

• Elon Musk Slams US-Mexico Border Security (RT)

The fact that illegal migrants can cross the US-Mexico border and claim asylum without any identification has effectively turned the US into a “refuge” for criminals, Elon Musk stated in a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday. His comments came in response to a recent Bloomberg article, shared by the X user EndWokeness, reporting that Venezuela is experiencing its lowest homicide rate in 22 years, now that many criminals and gangs have left as part of a massive wave of emigration prompted by economic hardship. EndWokeness commented on the report, stating “Venezuela has its lowest homicide rate in 22 years because their gangs are coming here.” Musk agreed and claimed that “the ability to discard your identification documents (from any country), walk across the southern border and claim ‘asylum’ has turned America into a refuge for the world’s worst criminals.”

In another post later that day, the billionaire doubled down on his statement, writing that “anyone, even a literal serial killer, can toss away the ID they used to get into Mexico from anywhere in the world, then claim asylum, say they have no documents and be ushered into America.” On Wednesday, the Tesla CEO also slammed a bill proposed by Democratic Senator Laphonza Butler, asking the Biden administration for more federal taxpayer money to provide beds for immigrants in San Diego after the county shelter ran out of funding. The senator warned that between 800 and 1,000 people residing in the shelter would be released per day otherwise.

“Dams are bursting all over the country,” Musk responded, noting that “America is only 4% of Earth’s population” and if just 1% of the rest of the Earth moves to the US, it would crush all of the country’s essential services. “I am ringing the alarm bell, because the flood of illegals is crushing the country,” he wrote. The state of the US-Mexico border has become one of the key issues in US politics over the past year amid a historic influx of millions of immigrants. Republican lawmakers have been demanding tighter controls and more money to be set aside to deal with the border crisis, prompting them to block a multi-billion-dollar aid package for Ukraine.

Holes
https://twitter.com/i/status/1762790920200614146

Groucho

The beyond legendary, beyond great – beyond pretty much everything really – GROUCHO MARX, roasting Johnny Carson at The Friars Club in 1968.

pic.twitter.com/NZ8nPZ7YXn

— Michael Warburton (@MichaelWarbur17) February 28, 2024

UNBELIEVABLE. Meta’s AI says Joe Biden was the 45th President and completely leaves out Donald Trump! pic.twitter.com/ZuMeOpS3dk

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 27, 2024

Friends
https://twitter.com/i/status/1762776196276785614

Osprey

This is Incredible! This Osprey managed to hoist out a big Gafftopsail catfish from the ocean. pic.twitter.com/wMzDu7IHBR

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) February 28, 2024

Blue whale

This massive blue whale comes up from the deep to breach the surface pic.twitter.com/6asbGrHeNq

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) February 28, 2024

Look
https://twitter.com/i/status/1762925969705189497

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

Older Entries