Jan van Eyck Madonna and Child at the Fountain 1439 (height: 7 . 4 “, 19cm)
Sachs
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 19, 2024
Tom Homan
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 19, 2024
Lala
Elon Musk: The laptop class is living in La La Land.
“The laptop class is living in La La Land.
Look at the cars. Are people working from home here? Of course not.
People who are building cars, servicing the cars, building houses, fixing houses, making the food, making all… pic.twitter.com/NFrNJEoXO4
— ELON CLIPS (@ElonClipsX) December 19, 2024
Sen. Kennedy
Senator Kennedy Urges Trump to Take Charge of House GOP After Speaker Johnson’s CR Debacle
SENATOR KENNEDY: "I saw what you saw. I mean, it's a multiple vehicle pileup. I knew as soon as I saw the bill, it was going to be trouble. The thing was as big as a Costco. And Speaker… pic.twitter.com/DCxDqcPtII
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) December 19, 2024
Watters Biden
Bad news: @JoeBiden is delaying his retirement to clean up his legacy. But with the election lost and Biden out to pasture — Democrats are leaking like a busted sink. In a bombshell report, over 50 Biden insiders told the @WSJ that Joe was even worse than we thought… Biden… pic.twitter.com/GgC8Fu7n1M
— Jesse Watters (@JesseBWatters) December 20, 2024
Durbin
🚨The Dems are eating themselves alive:
CNN Reporter: “People look at the performance of Congress and say ‘Why should we give them more money?’”
Senator Durbin: “What about the media?… Half of your listeners are not there anymore and you’re still getting the same paycheck.” pic.twitter.com/m7k4q8euRG
— johnny maga (@_johnnymaga) December 18, 2024
Jennings
NOW – Scott Jennings Goes Scorched Earth on Dems Calling Biden's Decline Cover-Up: 'The Biggest Scandal in America' | @ScottJenningsKY
Finally.🔥
Scott Jennings just exposed the cover-up of Biden's cognitive deterioration, forcing his CNN colleagues to listen to the evidence… pic.twitter.com/IUHwtm2xHh
— Overton (@overton_news) December 20, 2024
O’Leary
https://twitter.com/i/status/1869549028200808482
“There are probably dozens of Republicans who have never voted for raising the debt ceiling. Now Trump is forcing them to do so.”
• Trump-Backed Funding Bill Fails House Vote As 38 Republicans Say ‘No’ (ZH)
Update (1752ET): The first vote to kick the can down the road until 2027 has failed the House, by a vote of 174-235-1, with 38 Republicans voting ‘no’. The bill required 2/3 of the vote under a fast-track method, yet didn’t even clear a simple majority. Polymarket odds of a shutdown have spiked to 76% as of this writing * * * Update (1752ET): In what comes as a surprise to nobody, Democrats want their pork – and have said “Hell no” to the massively reduced spending package that Mike Johnson rolled out after conferring with the Trump team. “The Musk-Johnson proposal is not serious. It’s laughable. Extreme MAGA Republicans are driving us to a government shutdown,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters as he walked into a closed-door caucus meeting Thursday afternoon. In short, it’s doomed. “I’m not simply a no. I’m a hell no,” Jeffries then said at the closed-door meeting, Politico reports, citing three people familiar with the meeting.
That’s 38 Republicans voting to express no confidence in Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House. A stunning rebuke for a guy who won unanimous support in conference just weeks ago. What a turnaround. He’s in very big trouble. https://t.co/bcOHiNWCTn
— Matthew Boyle (@mboyle1) December 20, 2024
[..] With Friday’s government shutdown looming – and odds spiking after everyone figured out that the 1,547-page Continuing Resolution (CR) was full of Orwellian bullshit and other malarkey, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has gone to Donald Trumps team with hat in hand. The new plan will be a federal funding stopgap plan that includes disaster aid, pushing off the debt limit fight for two years, and a one-year farm bill extension, Politico reports, citing Republicans familiar with the discussions. No word on how close this comes to a “clean” bill, or how much of the aforementioned bullshit is gone – such as funding the Global Engagement Center, shielding the Jan. 6 committee from subpoenas, and funding new biolabs, but we guess we’ll find out. Also unknown is whether Democrats will support the plan.
“But Trump had made an 11th hour public demand that any stopgap bill should deal with the debt limit. Trump’s team is pushing for at least a commitment to lift the debt limit before Jan. 20. The level of disaster aid and whether it’s completely paid for is still unclear. The package would also likely include some additional economic aid for farmers, amid threats from rural Republicans to oppose any stopgap that doesn’t include the funding”. -Politico. In a closed door meeting on Thursday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) told Democratic lawmakers: “Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate,” citing JFK. Polymarkets odds of a government shutdown went from 15% yesterday to 49% this morning. According to Punchbowl News, here’s what happened, and what’s next;
At some point today, House Republicans and Democrats will likely have separate party meetings to chart their path forward. Democrats have announced their meeting for 9 a.m. We’ll talk more about them below. But make no mistake — this is Johnson and Trump’s mess to solve. And we’re inching toward a shutdown as government funding runs out at midnight Friday. Johnson was mostly MIA Wednesday, holed up in his Capitol office for hours without showing his face. Even the House GOP leadership team felt like they were being kept in the dark about what was happening. Late in the evening, Johnson met with Vance, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) and Rules Committee Chair Michael Burgess (R-Texas). Jordan and Roy are conservative hardliners. Diaz-Balart is a senior appropriator.
As Scalise left around 10 p.m., he told reporters “We’re not there yet” when asked whether the debt-limit boost would be part of any new government-funding plan. “A lot of things have come up,” Scalise added.A somewhat obvious play may be a funding bill with a two-year debt-limit extension. Why? Because Trump supports increasing the debt limit now. Given how volatile Trump was during his first term, there’s no guarantee he’ll do this again. (For what it’s worth, Biden administration officials estimate the debt limit won’t be reached until sometime next summer. GOP leaders were planning to handle it in a reconciliation bill). Trump is giving Johnson cover for the time being. It’s limited, however. Because Trump, once again, has put his party in a bind. There are probably dozens of Republicans who have never voted for raising the debt ceiling. Now Trump is forcing them to do so.
“If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, then CALL THEIR BLUFF..”
• Trump and Musk Sink US Government Spending Bill (RT)
The US government is facing a partial shutdown after a stopgap spending bill pitched by lawmakers earlier this week was scrapped under pressure from President-elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk. The current funding expires on Friday, and unless a bill is passed before that deadline, millions of US federal workers will be left without paychecks. The text of the new spending plan, known as a continuing resolution (CR), was released on Tuesday just days before the deadline. The package largely provides for the government to continue to spend at current levels for the next three months, giving the newly elected Congress time to work on more permanent federal funding. The 1,547-page bill includes a pay raise for lawmakers, $100 billion for disaster relief funding and $10 billion in economic assistance for farmers, numerous provisions including foreign investment restrictions and new health care policies, among other authorizations.
US Republicans balked at the proposed package right after its release, slamming it as being too bloated and full of Democratic policy priorities. Tesla and SpaceX owner Elon Musk – pitched by Trump as the head of his new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a panel charged with finding ways to slash federal spending – launched an entire campaign against the package on X. “This bill should not pass,” Musk wrote early on Wednesday, repeatedly posting different versions of this call throughout the day and late into the night, making a total of more than 60 updates. He decried the bill as “criminal,” “outrageous,” “unconscionable,” and ultimately “one of the worst bills ever written.” Musk’s tirade sparked a virtual flashmob of disapproving statements regarding the bill, which culminated with condemnation by Donald Trump, who called it full of “Democrat giveaways.”
“Republicans must GET SMART and TOUGH. If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, then CALL THEIR BLUFF,” he said in a joint statement with Vice President-elect JD Vance, posted on his TruthSocial account. Many observers noted that it was unusual for the incoming president and his team to tip the scales on legislation before officially coming into power. CNN and The Washington Post reported late on Wednesday that the bill had been killed, with Musk confirming it in yet another post on X.
“Your elected representatives have heard you, and now the terrible bill is dead. The voice of the people has triumphed!” he wrote, adding in another post that “no bills should be passed Congress until January 20,” when Trump takes office. It is currently unclear whether House Speaker Mike Johnson, who spearheaded the failed bill, will be able to come up with an alternative before Friday’s deadline. According to The Hill’s sources, Johnson could propose a “clean” CR, which would entail dropping the additional provisions included in the package, such as disaster aid and assistance for farmers. However, Johnson has not yet scheduled a vote on the bill.
I'm not sure if people have truly grasped the power of X.
The House was set to pass a BS spending bill.
After just a few hours of posting on X by Musk & X users, the bill was effectively killed… potentially saving the US taxpayer billions of dollars.pic.twitter.com/TbvGfLVFJ8
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 18, 2024
“What can we do right now, and then what can we do next? Let’s just focus on what we can do right now.”
• DOGE Insider: ‘A Lot of Stuff Ready For Day One’ (ZH)
Billionaire entrepreneur and investor Joe Lonsdale expressed strong optimism for the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative during his appearance on the Shawn Ryan Show. The Palantir co-founder highlighted the “very bold” reforms being planned by co-heads Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, revealing that the DOGE team is already hard at work on strategic priorities. With over 100 people on board, the team is preparing to enact immediate changes, including staff removals and regulatory rollbacks.
SHAWN RYAN: We’re both pretty fired up about the [Trump administration]. Who are you most excited about? Do you have anybody in particular?
JOE LONSDALE: I’m most excited about Elon, Vivek and the DOGE effort because this is something I’ve wanted to see for forever. I’m probably like one of the only guys in tech that’s done a lot in policy on the right, on the small government side for the last 10-20 years, and it’s like the world just shifted this way—like the vibe shift is exactly in line with stuff I’ve been thinking and talking about for a decade. I’m so excited about this.
SHAWN RYAN: How fast do you think they’re going to start cleaning this stuff up?
JOE LONSDALE: They’re already doing it, man. They can’t really officially do it yet, but they’re already making all the plans. There’s people working hard there. There’s guys picking me, ‘Joe, we need another engineer for this,’ ‘We’re trying to map this out,’ ‘We need more lawyers for this. They’re going right now as hard as they can and getting ready. It’s going to be really bold. I think the way Elon works in general is just like, “What can we do right now, and then what can we do next? Let’s just focus on what we can do right now.” So they have what’s called their ‘Day One priorities,’ and they’re just focusing and sprinting on everything they could do day one. I think they’re going to have a lot of stuff ready for day one.
They’re bringing in at least well over 100 people for the DOGE effort, and they’re going to put a few of them directly into each agency. A lot of the transition team itself is hiring people to put into these jobs. There’s these policy placements that are all working with DOGE and being liaisons with DOGE. They’re going to come out of the gate with a bunch of general things—removing certain people, removing certain regulations. I can’t go into the details exactly of what they’re going to be doing, but it’s going to be really aggressive right from the start.” Meanwhile, Lonsdale stressed the need to rebuild America’s manufacturing base.
“I’m concerned in general that we don’t have an advanced manufacturing base that’s nearly as big as it needs to be. I think from a geopolitical perspective it’s extremely dangerous and if we want to be ready—so in World War II it wasn’t that we had like a bunch of big defense contractors that we had a bunch of big industrial manufacturers and powers that were able to be shifted to do things for the war.” “If we’ve basically gotten rid of a lot of that base and we need it back if we want to defend ourselves. So I think Trump is very good on this; he shifted it back. I think even his first term actually kind of turned the whole conversation in our country where a lot of people on both sides now agree we need to fix this. But this is where the tariffs against China, if they’re done correctly, are not totally insane at all. It makes a lot of sense to me,” he continued.
.@JTLonsdale to @ShawnRyan762: U.S. Must Rebuild Manufacturing Base to Counter China Threat
"I'm concerned in general that we don't have an advanced manufacturing base that's nearly as big as it needs to be. I think from a geopolitical perspective it's extremely dangerous and if… pic.twitter.com/hd4q3wRrIP
— CAPITAL (@capitalnewshq) December 19, 2024
“.. it makes no sense for the machinery that the incoming administration wants to overthrow to be in charge of the transition..”
• A Very Different Transition (Jeffrey A. Tucker)
The transition from Barack Obama to Donald Trump in 2016 went like every other presidential transition in modern history. The old administration had extended meetings with the new, and old agency heads and their staff trained the new ones. It was managed by Chris Christie and then-Vice President-elect Mike Pence. It was funded by the General Services Administration and the incoming team received emergency drills, confidential documents, security briefings, and training sessions on emergency protocols. The FBI was brought on board to vet all new hires. That’s because the incoming administration believed that the system worked. It had won and therefore would be in charge. That’s how it is supposed to work in the United States. The idea of this process is to ensure continuity in government from one administration to the other.
In normal times, all of this would be a good idea. The Founders set up a structural system of government with minimal functions, stable law, checks and balances, and established elections for president every four years to ensure that the chief executive served with the people’s consent. Most functions of government were handled by the states, in any case. There was never supposed to be a need for a fundamental regime change. We merely changed administrators and members of Congress. The rest was supposed to take care of itself, which is why it would seem to make sense that the old administration trains the new one, and a permanent staff of experts and civil service employees helps the new kids learn the ropes from those with experience. And yet here we are. The Trump administration’s mandate from voters is not just for a change in personnel.
The mandate is in fact for fundamental regime change within the framework of democracy. The administrative state, which is nowhere found in the Constitution, has over time developed far more power than elected leaders. That absolutely must change, as voters made clear in November 2024. It was yet another case, just like in 2016, of the candidate winning whom nearly the whole of mainstream media believed would not win, and of the whole of what anyone would call the establishment disfavoring the result. The victory was so overwhelming as to amount to a primal scream against government as usual. In this case, it makes no sense for the machinery that the incoming administration wants to overthrow to be in charge of the transition. Remember that this is not Team Trump’s first rodeo. Last time, it went along with all the protocols, funding, systems, and sessions.
The White House staff members went through day after day of lectures from government experts on how Washington works. They sat through intelligence briefings. They were schooled in protocols for the management of nuclear war, biological warfare, natural disasters, and pandemics. They put up with all the PowerPoint presentations, exhortations, manuals, lists, and introductions to people who really run the government. They assumed that once the president was sworn in, he would in fact be the president and those whom he appointed would be in charge.
[..] After leaving office in January 2021, the Trump team went to work trying to figure out what the heck had happened in the first term to cause everything to go so wrong, or, more specifically, what enabled the administration’s authority to be so thoroughly subverted from within. It concluded that the real problem began with the transition itself. That was when the permanent bureaucracy first asserted its power over the incoming administration. That’s when the deep state got its hooks in. This time, the team has a very different plan. It is being managed by trusted members of Trump’s inner circle. They have not allowed the General Services Administration to manage any aspect of the transition. They have done this by refusing to accept any money from any government source.
Instead, the transition has been entirely privately funded, with methods deployed to make sure that the funding sources are not tainted by deep state contacts. The explicit purpose has been to avoid subversion. It’s been the same with FBI vetting. The incoming Trump administration simply does not trust the process and for good reason. It was the FBI that had spied on the campaign and even raided Trump’s own home. Furthermore, it worked with other agencies to deploy myriad forms of lawfare for years.
This transition is without precedent. The permanent staff of government itself only became the U.S. norm starting in 1883, and it has grown every decade since. At some point in the past, the elected leaders became more like decorations than real rulers of government. The Trump administration cannot achieve its objectives with this status quo. This is the reason for this very different transition. It is a good sign and symbol of what might be coming. We might in fact experience a much-needed change of regime in Washington through exactly the system and process that the Founding Fathers set up. The second term of Trump seems determined to avoid repeating the obvious errors of the last time around.
“..even some Democrats are even admitting that the slew of legal cases against him were either unfounded or a strategic blunder..”
• Trump Notches Several Court Victories On Eve Of Return To The White House (JTN)
The legal system has been very good to Donald Trump as he prepares to return to the White House, removing perceived enemies as prosecutors, dismissing charges and even awarding defamation damages. A Georgia appeals court decision to disqualify Fani Willis, the anti-Donald Trump Fulton County district attorney from prosecuting an election interference case against the once and future president marks only the latest victory for Trump in lawfare battles since the 2020 election. Recently, Trump also obtained a $15 million defamation settlement from ABC News after an anchor inaccurately and repeatedly claimed he was found civilly liable for “raping” E. Jean Carroll. The New York Post reported that George Stephanopoulos was repeatedly told by his executive producer not to “use the word ‘rape’” before going on the air to discuss Donald Trump but the ABC News anchor ignored the warning.
Early on in the Republican primary, Trump had to grapple with five cases brought by state and federal prosecutors that tied the former president to courtrooms as the election season kicked off. Now, with Trump still standing as the president-elect for the second time, the state-level cases appear to be embroiled in death throes and delays while the Justice Department’s special prosecutor moved last month to dismiss the two pending federal cases. As the cases die down and Trump prepares to take office in January, even some Democrats are even admitting that the slew of legal cases against him were either unfounded or a strategic blunder. “The Trump hush money and Hunter Biden cases were both bullshit, and pardons are appropriate,” Senator John Fetterman, D-Penn., wrote in his first post to Trump’s social media platform, Truth Social.
“Weaponizing the judiciary for blatant, partisan gain diminishes the collective faith in our institutions and sows further division,” he continued. Before the election, former Democratic presidential candidate and Congressman Dean Philipps called on New York Governor Kathy Hochul to pardon Trump in his state cases “for the good of the country.” Trump latest win came in the Georgia election interference case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. On Thursday, an appeals court ruled that Willis and her deputies should be disqualified from prosecuting Trump due to the “appearance of impropriety.” “We reverse the trial court’s denial of the appellants’ motion to disqualify DA Willis and her office. As we conclude that the elected district attorney is wholly disqualified from this case the assistant district attorneys — whose only power to prosecute a case is derived from the constitutional authority of the district attorney who appointed them — have no authority to proceed,” the Georgia appeals court wrote in the decision.
During several hearings on the case, Willis faced accusations of financial mismanagement and of carrying on an improper relationship with her chief prosecutor on the case, Nathan Wade. The Fulton DA also laid the groundwork for prosecuting Trump before she had even taken office, according to Wade’s testimony to the House Judiciary Committee earlier this year. The judges wrote that the “remedy crafted by the trial court to prevent an ongoing appearance of impropriety did nothing to address the appearance of impropriety that existed at times when DA Willis was exercising her broad pretrial discretion about who to prosecute and what charges to bring.” This decision indicates that the proceedings in the case are likely to drag out even longer, already significantly delayed by the Willis accusations. Trump and his co-defendants have raised several other legal challenges on appeal including over the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling.
“The case against Trump was deeply flawed. It read like a legal version of six degrees from Kevin Bacon..”
• Georgia Appellate Court Disqualifies Fani Willis (Turley)
Today, the Georgia Court of Appeals disqualified Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and her team in the prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump. The final collapse of the House of Willis came after months of her spending enormous amounts of time and money to try to stay at the lead of the high-profile case. Lawfare holds little value unless you are the lead warrior. For over a year, some have criticized Willis for her refusal to recuse herself. When her hiring of her former lover was first disclosed, Willis could have done the right thing for her office, the case, and the public. She could have recused herself and may have preserved her office’s ability to continue with the case. She was then given a further opportunity to do the right thing by Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee who disqualified her former lover, Nathan Wade, and found an “appearance of impropriety.”
He, however, left it up to Willis to recuse herself after criticizing her conduct. Some of us noted that the finding did not jive with the order. If there was an “appearance of impropriety,” it would obviously continue with Willis remaining at the lead in the case. However, Willis let the case go dormant and committed her office to the fight to preserve her role. Now, the appellate court has forced her off the case and ordered a new office to take over any prosecution. The court ruled that “[a]fter carefully considering the trial court’s findings in its order, we conclude that it erred by failing to disqualify DA Willis and her office. The remedy crafted by the trial court to prevent an ongoing appearance of impropriety did nothing to address the appearance of impropriety that existed at times when DA Willis was exercising her broad pretrial discretion about who to prosecute and what charges to bring.”
The court admitted that Willis had forced the hand of the court by her refusal to do the right thing in the lower court. It recognized that “an appearance of impropriety generally is not enough to support disqualification, this is the rare case in which disqualification is mandated and no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings.” Accordingly, it reversed McAfee and found that if “the elected district attorney is wholly disqualified from this case, ‘the assistant district attorneys — whose only power to prosecute a case is derived from the constitutional authority of the district attorney who appointed them — have no authority to proceed.’” The opinion made clear that these cases cannot become the vanity projects of prosecutors. They are expected to do the right thing, even when the right thing does not come easily personally or politically.
The center of the case now shifts to another prosecutor who will have to decide whether it wants to continue the case and what (and who) to prosecute. As I have previously written, the Georgia case has viable crimes against others for offenses such as unlawful entry into restricted areas. The case against Trump was deeply flawed. It read like a legal version of six degrees from Kevin Bacon. As my friend and fellow analyst Andy McCarthy noted, this is the first racketeering case that any of us have seen where the strongest connection between the parties was being named in the charging documents.
A new prosecutor should drop the Trump charges and end this ridiculous lawfare enterprise. If not, the case will likely collapse by its own weight due to the attenuated racketeering theory or other legal problems, including the use of evidence barred under the recent presidential immunity decision. In the end, Willis was reelected by the voters of Atlanta who clearly accepted or supported the weaponization of the criminal justice system to target political opponents. The millions spent in the case were just treated as a cost of doing the business of lawfare. Hopefully, a new prosecution office will restore a modicum of integrity to the Georgia legal system. It is now time to end this circus as the ringmaster leaves the center ring.
What did Bezos pay? Not much of that is left. The $1 million for Trump comes way too late. Nobody reads WaPo anymore.
• Top Editors Stiff WashPost (Axios)
The situation at The Washington Post is so dire that two candidates to run the paper — Cliff Levy of The New York Times and Meta’s Anne Kornblut, a former Post editor — both withdrew from consideration for the top newsroom job over the paper’s strategy, sources involved in the process tell us. The Post is scrambling to find a new executive editor, the chair once held by Ben Bradlee, amid shrinking paid readership and revenue. Publisher and CEO Will Lewis, handpicked by owner Jeff Bezos to save The Post, hasn’t impressed the candidates with his vision for the future, the sources tell us. One person involved in the search told us Lewis’ pitch was foggy and uninspiring. Levy, who pulled out last week, and Kornblut, whose conversations ended in September, declined to comment. Other candidates include current interim executive editor Matt Murray.
But it’s hard to imagine this monthslong process unfolding so publicly — only to end with the same guy in charge. A few candidates were asked to write six-page memos — a hallmark of Amazon culture — about their journalistic vision for the paper, using AI and how to grow The Post’s audience. Levy is a two-time Pulitzer winner who was an early advocate for digital innovation, and now is deputy publisher of two prized Times properties, The Athletic and Wirecutter. He started talking to The Post in August after the paper’s search firm, Egon Zehnder, reached out. Kornblut, who declined to move forward with the process after initial conversations, is Meta’s VP of global product content operations. She had a formidable newspaper career before moving to the Bay Area as a tech executive: She was a Washington correspondent for The Boston Globe and The New York Times before becoming a Washington Post reporter and editor for eight years.
Kornblut rose to deputy assistant managing editor for national news, where she was the lead editor on Pulitzer-winning coverage of Edward Snowden’s NSA revelations. Matea Gold — a respected, popular managing editor many reporters wanted in the top job, and who conceived of and ran The Post’s Pulitzer-winning investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — announced last week that she’s moving to The New York Times as Washington editor, making her deputy to the bureau chief. There’s lots of anxiety in The Post newsroom right now about whether the paper is still committed to that kind of fearless accountability reporting. Axios confirmed that the search firm also reached out to Kevin Merida and Steven Ginsberg, two former Washington Post managing editors. Neither expressed interest in the role.
The big picture: Bezos has said little about what he wants for a revived Post. He is scheduled to dine with President-elect Trump at Mar-a-Lago this week — two months after killing a Post endorsement of Trump’s rival, Vice President Harris. Bezos’ various business interests — Amazon and the Blue Origin space company — stand to gain or suffer from Trump’s presidency. The Post has announced no major shifts or innovations under the Lewis regime. Toss in a demoralized staff and invigorated labor unions, and you have a mighty challenge for the next top editor.
Between the lines: The Post has lost a ton of talent this last year, and several stars are talking to competitors about leaving soon. One hot rumor inside The Post: The Atlantic is licking its chops over political writers who are increasingly poachable. Other Posties are eying The New York Times, long known at the Post as “Brand X.” People involved in the process say Bezos has been mostly MIA at the Post, leaving matters to Lewis, who is unpopular in the newsroom.
Several people familiar with The Post’s search were baffled by the apparent absence of editorial vision or business strategy. “I’m not sure it’s salvageable,” one of them said.
“..forcing Trump to make critical choices between his transactional instincts and the harsh ideological bent of his advisers.”
• Trump Confronts a Rising China (Michael Klare)
Gaza, Haiti, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Russia, Syria, Ukraine, and Venezuela: President-elect Donald Trump will face no shortage of foreign-policy challenges when he assumes office in January. None, however, comes close to China in scope, scale, or complexity. No other country has the capacity to resist his predictable antagonism with the same degree of strength and tenacity, and none arouses more hostility and outrage among MAGA Republicans. In short, China is guaranteed to put President Trump in a difficult bind the second time around: he can either choose to cut deals with Beijing and risk being branded an appeaser by the China hawks in his party, or he can punish and further encircle Beijing, risking a potentially violent clash and possibly even nuclear escalation. How he chooses to resolve this quandary will surely prove the most important foreign test of his second term in office.
Make no mistake: China truly is considered The Big One by those in Trump’s entourage responsible for devising foreign policy. While they imagine many international challenges to their “America First” strategy, only China, they believe, poses a true threat to the continued global dominance of this country. “I feel strongly that the Chinese Communist Party has entered into a Cold War with the United States and is explicit in its aim to replace the liberal, Western-led world order that has been in place since World War II,” Representative Michael Waltz, Trump’s choice as national security adviser, declared at a 2023 event hosted by the Atlantic Council. “We’re in a global arms race with an adversary that, unlike any in American history, has the economic and the military capability to truly supplant and replace us.”
As Waltz and others around Trump see it, China poses a multi-dimensional threat to this country’s global supremacy. In the military domain, by building up its air force and navy, installing military bases on reclaimed islands in the South China Sea, and challenging Taiwan through increasingly aggressive air and naval maneuvers, it is challenging continued American dominance of the Western Pacific. Diplomatically, it’s now bolstering or repairing ties with key U.S. allies, including India, Indonesia, Japan, and the members of NATO. Meanwhile, it’s already close to replicating this country’s most advanced technologies, especially its ability to produce advanced microchips. And despite Washington’s efforts to diminish a U.S. reliance on vital Chinese goods, including critical minerals and pharmaceuticals, it remains a primary supplier of just such products to this country.
For many in the Trumpian inner circle, the only correct, patriotic response to the China challenge is to fight back hard. Both Representative Waltz, Trump’s pick as national security adviser, and Senator Marco Rubio, his choice as secretary of state, have sponsored or supported legislation to curb what they view as “malign” Chinese endeavors in the United States and abroad. Waltz, for example, introduced the American Critical Mineral Exploration and Innovation Act of 2020, which was intended, as he explained, “to reduce America’s dependence on foreign sources of critical minerals and bring the U.S. supply chain from China back to America.” Senator Rubio has been equally combative in the legislative arena. In 2021, he authored the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, which banned goods produced in forced labor encampments in Xinjiang Province from entering the United States.
He also sponsored several pieces of legislation aimed at curbing Chinese access to U.S. technology. Although these, as well as similar measures introduced by Waltz, haven’t always obtained the necessary congressional approval, they have sometimes been successfully bundled into other legislation. In short, Trump will enter office in January with a toolkit of punitive measures for fighting China ready to roll along with strong support among his appointees for making them the law of the land. But of course, we’re talking about Donald Trump, so nothing is a given. Some analysts believe that his penchant for deal-making and his professed admiration for Chinese strongman President Xi Jinping may lead him to pursue a far more transactional approach, increasing economic and military pressure on Beijing to produce concessions on, for example, curbing the export of fentanyl precursors to Mexico, but when he gets what he wants letting them lapse.
Howard Lutnick, the billionaire investor from Cantor Fitzgerald whom he chose as Commerce secretary, claims that Trump actually “wants to make a deal with China,” and will use the imposition of tariffs selectively as a bargaining tool to do so. What such a deal might look like is anyone’s guess, but it’s hard to see how Trump could win significant concessions from Beijing without abandoning some of the punitive measures advocated by the China hawks in his entourage. Count on one thing: this complicated and confusing dynamic will play out in each of the major problem areas in U.S.-China relations, forcing Trump to make critical choices between his transactional instincts and the harsh ideological bent of his advisers.
Puti did his annual “ask me anything” gathering. 4.5 hours. Off the cuff.
• Putin Says He Hasn’t Spoken To Trump For More Than Four Years (RT)
Russian President Vladimir Putin stated during his annual end-of-year press conference on Thursday that he has not spoken to US President-elect Donald Trump in over four years, and thus expects “there will be plenty to discuss” when their next conversation takes place. The comment came in response to a question from Keir Simmons of NBC News, who asked about the potential dynamics of a future meeting between the two leaders, suggesting that Russia’s position on the global stage has weakened and that Trump would have the upper hand in any talks. “I don’t know when we will meet because he has not said anything about it,” Putin said. “I have not talked to him for more than four years. Of course, I’m ready to talk anytime; I will be ready to meet with him if he wishes.”
The Russian leader went on to refute the notion of a weak Russia, saying that the US journalist and those paying his salary “really want to see Russia in a weakened state,” but as a “well-known writer once remarked: ‘The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.’” “I believe that Russia has become significantly stronger in the past two or three years. Why? Because we are becoming a truly sovereign country, and we barely depend on anybody. We are capable of firmly standing on our own feet when it comes to the economy,” Putin said. The president highlighted Russia’s economic resilience and stated that the combat readiness of the Russian Armed Forces is among the highest in the world, with the defense industry rapidly expanding and producing essential military equipment.
“That is why I believe that Russia has largely achieved the state we wanted to achieve. It has grown stronger and become a truly sovereign state, and we will make decisions without regard to other people’s opinions, only with our national interests in mind,” he added. During a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Monday, Trump declined to say whether he had spoken to Putin since winning last month’s presidential election, but indicated that he intends to do so at some point.
“We’ll be talking to President Putin, and we’ll be talking to representatives Zelensky and others from Ukraine,” he said. “We’ve got to stop it. It’s carnage,” referring to the almost three-year conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Trump has repeatedly claimed that he could end the Ukraine conflict within “24 hours” of taking office by forcing “peace through strength,” but has not provided specifics on how he would do this. Putin previously stated that Trump’s remarks on ending the conflict “deserve attention” and expressed openness to talks with the president-elect. “Should there be an opportunity for a meeting with the newly elected President Donald Trump, I am confident there will be plenty to discuss,” Putin said on Thursday.
“Let them identify a target in Kiev, concentrate all their air defense and missile defense systems there, and then we will strike it with an Oreshnik..”
• Putin Challenges West To ‘Technological Duel’ With Oreshnik (RT)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has challenged the West to put their modern air defense systems up against Moscow’s new hypersonic Oreshnik missile in what would be a “technological duel.” During his annual end-of-year press conference on Thursday, Putin was asked to comment on opinions expressed by some foreign military experts suggesting that the Oreshnik can easily be shot down by Western missile defense systems. “Well, if those Western experts you mentioned believe that, they should suggest to their employers in the West and the US to conduct a technological experiment. For instance, a high-tech duel of the 21st century. Let them identify a target in Kiev, concentrate all their air defense and missile defense systems there, and then we will strike it with an Oreshnik. Let’s see what happens. We are ready for such an experiment. Is the other side ready?” Putin asked.
The president explained that given the technical characteristics of the Oreshnik and the current missile defense systems deployed by the West, it would be impossible to stop the missile or its hypersonic warheads after it had been launched. Putin suggested that the results of such a “duel” would be of great interest to both Russia and the US, whose air defense systems are currently operating in Ukraine. Putin was also asked why the Oreshnik is named the way it is, to which he confessed that he doesn’t actually know.
The Russian military carried out the first-ever combat test of the Oreshnik on November 21, using it to destroy a Ukrainian military industrial facility in Dnepr with multiple hypersonic warheads. Putin said at the time that the decision to unveil the Oreshnik was made in response to Ukraine’s long-range strikes on internationally recognized Russian territory made with Western permission. Putin had previously explained that the Oreshnik can carry both nuclear and conventional warheads, which travel at ten times the speed of sound, making it impossible for Western air-defense systems to intercept them.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1869695854459912571
“The US not only does not have a hypersonic offensive system – it doesn’t even have a defensive system that has any hope of stopping Oreshnik..”
• Russia’s Invincible Oreshnik Has Left West in The Dust – Ex-DoD Analyst (Sp.)
Russia’s Oreshnik medium-range hypersonic ballistic missile grabbed the attention of military observers the world over after it was fired at a major defense-related enterprise in Dnepropetrovsk days after the US and the UK okayed the launch of ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles at targets deep inside Russia.The West is in denial about Russia’s Oreshnik missile that defense systems are powerless to counter, Michael Maloof, former senior security policy analyst in the Pentagon, told Sputnik.He pointed out that Russia’s multi-warhead, nuclear-capable Oreshnik has left the United States far behind.“The US not only does not have a hypersonic offensive system – it doesn’t even have a defensive system that has any hope of stopping Oreshnik and the new class of missiles that are coming out,” the veteran analyst maintained. While the US scrambles to be in the vanguard of such cutting-edge weapons systems, in effect it tends to “put all the bells and whistles on a system, overprice it and then fall behind,” said Maloof.
Washington is reluctant to acknowledge that both Russia and China have weapons systems that the US does not have, namely, hypersonic missiles. The pundit speculated that if the United States had remained in the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a missile like the Oreshnik might not exist today. He observed that Russia’s clear demonstration of the missile’s unmatched capabilities serves as “another way of Putin telling Trump to maybe reconsider.”“I think in order to lessen the threshold of war […] and this would be a good start and, at least, beginning with the United States and Russia. And the other countries can follow suit,” said Maloof, adding: “It’s something that the world needs to really focus in on, recognize, and deal with constructively.”
“..the “West pulled the plug on the negotiations which were on course to produce a ceasefire.”
• ‘Deeply Immoral’ Anglo-Americans Sabotaged Ukraine Peace – Ex-Swiss Envoy (RT)
Veteran Swiss diplomat Jean-Daniel Ruch has alleged that the US and UK “immorally” prevented Ukraine and Russia from sealing a truce back in April 2022 in the hope of dealing a blow to Moscow. The former official, who at the time served as Swiss ambassador to Türkiye, was in the country when peace talks were taking place. In Istanbul, Ukraine and Russia preliminarily agreed to a draft truce under which Kiev would have renounced its NATO membership aspirations, declared neutrality, and limited the size of its armed forces in exchange for international security guarantees. However, Ukrainian negotiators abruptly pulled out, with Moscow later claiming that then British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had urged the Ukrainian leadership not to sign any accord and to “just continue fighting.”
While David Arakhamia, the Zelensky-allied MP who led the Ukrainian delegation, confirmed this in November 2023, Johnson still insists that the allegation is an “absolute steaming, stinking lie.” In an interview with the French-speaking Anti These media outlet on Sunday, Ruch recounted how the “West pulled the plug on the negotiations which were on course to produce a ceasefire.” According to the diplomat, it was clear already in April 2022 that “if the war continued… the dead would be counted at least in tens of thousands, more probably in hundreds of thousands.” Nevertheless, the “Americans and their British allies” intervened in the Istanbul peace talks and scuttled a ceasefire that “was within reach,” insisting on weakening Russia further instead, Ruch claimed.
The former ambassador described the move as “deeply immoral,” suggesting that Kiev is now unlikely to be offered terms as favorable as the ones proposed in 2022 in Türkiye. Speaking on Johnson’s role in those events, the veteran diplomat alleged that the former British leader “was in [Istanbul] on duty for the Americans” as he “doesn’t make this kind of decisions all by himself.” Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly expressed readiness to engage in dialogue with Kiev based on the draft agreement prepared in Istanbul in the spring of 2022, plus recognition of the “new territorial realities” that have taken shape since. According to the Russian leader, “the document did not come into force only because the Ukrainians were ordered not to do this. The elites in the US and some European countries felt the desire to seek Russia’s strategic defeat.”
The Ukrainians were merely the henchmen. They had to get the OK first.
• It’s The Biolabs, Stupid: Is This Why Ukraine Murdered A Russian General?
The shocking assassination of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Protection Forces, reverberates far beyond the streets of Moscow. On December 17, 2024, Kirillov was killed in a brazen bombing, an act the Russian government has denounced as terrorism. While the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) – Kiev’s successor to the Soviet KGB – via ‘anonymous sources’ cited in multiple media outlets, has claimed responsibility, labeling Kirillov a war criminal, the truth about his death is likely far more complex – and far more chilling. Kirillov’s death was not just an attack on a prominent Russian official; it was an attack on the truth. For years, he had been at the forefront of investigating and exposing alleged US-funded biolabs in Ukraine, claiming they were part of a broader Western biological warfare agenda.
His assassination raises a deeply unsettling question: Was this a deliberate effort to silence him and prevent his revelations from coming to light? Kirillov’s work was controversial, but his allegations deserved scrutiny. He repeatedly accused the United States of funding clandestine biological laboratories in Ukraine, purportedly operating under the guise of public health initiatives. According to Russian reports, these labs were involved in the development of pathogens that could potentially target specific populations, a claim Washington and Kiev vehemently denied. Throughout the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Kirillov presented what he claimed were classified documents and intercepted communications proving the existence of such facilities.
He argued that the labs represented a serious threat not only to Russia but to global security. Though his assertions were often dismissed in the West as propaganda, they stirred debate and distrust among nations already skeptical of US military and scientific activities abroad. The timing and method of Kirillov’s assassination are too conspicuous to ignore. A bomb concealed on an electric scooter detonated as he left for work, killing him and his assistant. The sophistication of the attack suggests involvement by professionals with substantial resources. The SBU’s admission of responsibility and Russia’s subsequent arrest of an alleged Ukrainian agent may seem to provide a tidy explanation. However, there are reasons to believe that more powerful actors had a vested interest in Kirillov’s demise.
Kirillov’s investigations threatened to unveil a shadowy intersection of science, warfare, and geopolitics. If even a fraction of his claims about the US biolabs in Ukraine were accurate, they would implicate powerful institutions in serious breaches of international law, including violations of the Biological Weapons Convention. Such revelations would have provoked outrage among non-aligned nations and could have seriously undermined the credibility of the United States and its allies.
National identities are a threat to Brussels.
• EU Suffers By Suppressing National Identities – Putin (RT)
People in the European Union are being negatively affected by the marginalization of their national identities, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday, arguing that a lack of national sovereignty affects all aspects of life in a state. Speaking during his year-end marathon Q&A session, Putin cited economic stagnation in Germany, claiming Russia’s economy is stable in comparison. One of the event’s co-hosts brought up a story that Putin told recently about a visit to Germany and how all songs performed at an event he was attending were in English. Putin said it was not completely true, since he brought a Russian band with him to be part of the entertainment at the birthday of former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. The visiting singers learned a native song on their way to Hanover as a gesture of respect to the host, he said.
”Sovereignty is a very important thing. It has to be on the inside, in the heart. I believe that the German people had this feeling of belonging to a homeland and sovereignty eradicated in them during the post-war period,” he mused. ”Who are the Europeans? They are all proud to be European. But they are first of all French, Germans, Italians, Spaniards, and Europeans secondly,” he added. Attempts to tone down national differences in the bloc are affecting everything, including the economy, Putin argued. Russia puts a premium on its sovereignty and enjoys the benefit of deciding its own policies, he concluded.
Hot air.
• Russia Expresses Concern Over Gaza ‘Recolonization’ (RT)
Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, has raised the alarm over Israeli officials floating the idea of replacing Palestinians with Jewish settlers in Gaza. The diplomat also accused the US of shielding Israel through its vetoes in the UN Security Council. Israel has been occupying the West Bank since 1967 in defiance of the international body’s decisions. Israel launched a massive military operation in Gaza following a deadly attack by Hamas militants on the country on October 7, 2023, which left 1,200 people dead and over 250 abducted. The heavy aerial bombardment and ground offensive by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has killed 45,000 Palestinians in the densely populated enclave, according to local Hamas-controlled health officials.
Speaking at a UN Security Council session on Wednesday, Nebenzia stated that the “Israelis continue to further their plans on building new [illegal] settlements in the West Bank,” as well as razing Palestinian homes on made-up pretexts. This, according to the Russian envoy, is precluding any chance of a negotiated settlement to the decades-long conflict. He also noted multiple instances of harassment and violence by Jewish settlers toward Palestinians, with the Israeli authorities allegedly turning a blind eye. “Against this backdrop, Israeli officials’ remarks on forcibly changing the demographics of Gaza with a view to ‘recolonizing’ the enclave are causing particular concern,” Nebenzia said. He went on to claim that Israel is abusing its legitimate right to self-defense by conducting indiscriminate military actions in Gaza, the West Bank, as well as Lebanon and Syria.
“To our huge regret, all efforts by the UN Security Council to impose a ceasefire and free the hostages have so far been blocked by the US,” Nebenzia said, citing Washington’s repeated vetoes of resolutions. As recently as this October, several Israeli ministers and settler activists held a rally near the Gaza border, with attendees calling for the removal of Palestinians from the enclave and repopulating it with Jews. Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the far-right Jewish Power party, said during the event: “What we have learned this year is that everything is up to us. We are the owners of this land.” May Golan, the minister for social equality and women’s rights, echoed this sentiment, pledging that “anyone who uses their plot of land to plan another Holocaust will receive from us… another Nakba” – a term used to describe the mass exodus of more than 750,000 Arabs from Palestine in 1948.
“Per a 2018 U.N. investigation, “universal, free healthcare” was extended to all Syrian citizens, who “enjoyed some of the highest levels of care in the region.” Education was likewise free..”
• US Plans to Sell Off Syria’s Wealth After Assad (Klarenberg)
In the immediate wake of the Syrian government’s abrupt collapse, much remains uncertain about the country’s future – including whether it can survive as a unitary state or will splinter into smaller states as did Yugoslavia in the early 1990s, a move that ultimately led to a bloody NATO intervention. Moreover, who or what may take power in Damascus remains an open question. For the time being at least, members of ultra-extremist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) appear highly likely to take key positions in whatever administrative structure sprouts from Bashar Assad’s ouster after a decade-and-a-half of grinding Western-sponsored regime change efforts. As Reuters reported on December 12, HTS is already “stamping its authority on Syria’s state with the same lightning speed that it seized the country, deploying police, installing an interim government and meeting foreign envoys.”
Meanwhile, its bureaucrats – “who until last week were running an Islamist administration in a remote corner of Syria’s northwest” – have moved en masse “into government headquarters in Damascus.” Mohammed Bashir, head of HTS’ “regional government” in extremist-occupied Idlib, has been appointed the country’s “caretaker prime minister.” However, despite the chaos and precariousness of post-Assad Syria, one thing seems assured – the country will be broken open to Western economic exploitation, at long last. Multiple reports show that HTS has informed local and international business leaders that when in office, it will “adopt a free-market model and integrate the country into the global economy, in a major shift from decades of corrupt state control.”
As Alexander McKay of the Marx Engels Lenin Institute tells MintPress News, state-controlled parts of Syria’s economy may have been under Assad, but corrupt it wasn’t. He believes a striking feature of the ongoing attacks on Syrian infrastructure from forces within and without the country is that economic and industrial sites are a recurrent target. Moreover, the would-be HTS-dominated government has done nothing to counter these broadsides when “securing key economic assets will be vital to societal reconstruction, and therefore a matter of priority”: We can see clearly what kind of country these ‘moderate rebels’ plan to build. Forces like HTS are allied with U.S. imperialism, and their economic approach will reflect this.
Prior to the proxy war, the government pursued an economic approach that mixed public ownership and market elements. State intervention enabled a degree of political independence [that] other nations in the region lack. Assad’s administration understood without an industrial base, being sovereign is impossible. The new ‘free market’ approach will see all of that utterly decimated.” Syria’s economic independence and strength under Assad’s rule and the benefits reaped by average citizens, as a result, were never acknowledged in the mainstream before or during the decade-long proxy war. Yet, countless reports from major international institutions underline this reality – which has now been brutally vanquished, never to return. For example, an April 2015 World Health Organization document noted how Damascus “had one of the best-developed healthcare systems in the Arab world.”
Per a 2018 U.N. investigation, “universal, free healthcare” was extended to all Syrian citizens, who “enjoyed some of the highest levels of care in the region.” Education was likewise free, and before the conflict, “an estimated 97% of primary school-aged Syrian children were attending class, and Syria’s literacy rates were thought to be at over 90% for both men and women [emphasis added].” By 2016, millions were out of school. A U.N. Human Rights Council report two years later noted pre-war Syria “was the only country in the Middle East region to be self-sufficient in food production,” its “thriving agricultural sector” contributing “about 21%” to GDP 2006 – 2011. Civilians’ daily caloric intake “was on par with many Western countries,” with prices kept affordable via state subsidy. Meanwhile, the country’s economy was “one of the best performing in the region, with a growth rate averaging 4.6%” annually.
“All essential goods and services have been successfully replaced by Russian manufacture, or from what are now known as ‘friendly’ nations..”
• Russia Owes Growing Economic Strength to West’s ‘Sanctions on Steroids’ (Sp.)
President Putin commented on the state of the Russian economy at his traditional year-end press conference Thursday, projecting GDP growth of 2-2.5% in 2025, and attributing the economy’s growing strength to “sovereignty.” Sputnik asked a leading financial observer to list off the measures Russia has taken to survive the West’s sanctions onslaught. “To a large extent,” Russia’s economic stability “is the result of the strengthening of sovereignty, including projected onto the economy,” Putin said at Thursday’s annual Q&A session. “Sovereignty comes in different forms, including defense, technological, scientific, educational, cultural. This is especially important for our country, because when we lose our sovereignty, we lose statehood. That’s the most important thing,” Putin added.
Russia’s path toward economic sovereignty goes back over a decade, owing its success largely to the unprecedented sanctions war the West launched against Moscow in 2014, at the start of the Ukrainian crisis, veteran financial analyst Paul Goncharoff says. “Back in 2014 the ‘sanctions on steroids’ era began against Russia. With each following year the dose only increased,” with Russia eventually becoming “the most sanctioned country in history,” Goncharoff, general director of consulting firm Goncharoff LLC, recalled in an interview with Sputnik. Russia was able to overcome the sanctions pressure through baby steps, starting with timely investments in agricultural self-sufficiency to reduce dependence on imports, as well as “stimulating essential import replacements for machinery and technological items,” the observer explained.
Gradually, Moscow “realized that there were economically beneficial alliances to be made with countries that were to one or another degree impacted by restrictions from the West,” Goncharoff added, highlighting the priority eventually given to developing good economic relations with BRICS countries, the bloc’s expansion “and the use of sovereign currencies outside of the US dollar and Euro,” illuminating “the need and desire by many sovereign governments to get out of the ‘influence sphere’ of the G7, and their payments systems.” Russia’s strategy, particularly after its exclusion from the SWIFT banking system in 2022, proved correct, according to the analyst.
“Government fiscal income revenues from Russian imports have dropped in the West and increased in the East by tens of billions of dollars. Russia’s exports increased by US$31 billion after the West imposed the nastiest post 2022 trade sanctions. This has been a boon to the neighboring countries of Central Asia, Southeast Asia, India, MENA, Africa, and the Mercosur countries who now derive benefit from the Western-forced disengagement of Russia,” Goncharoff emphasized. Ultimately, Russia was able to find new partners outside the Western bloc by hitching its economic wagon to developing nations enjoying strong economic growth.
“All essential goods and services have been successfully replaced by Russian manufacture, or from what are now known as ‘friendly’ nations. The US Dollar is no longer used in settling international trade commitments, and with an understandably volatile transition, is gradually becoming systematized,” the observer said. “To sum it up: Import substitution, trade in local sovereign currencies, infrastructure changes toward the Global South and East, redirecting oil and gas to the Global South and East, and participating in the enhancement and expansion of BRICS as the new economic frontier all come together to have formed a successful series of strategic decisions which are ongoing and gathering strength,” Goncharoff concluded.
Eva
Tomorrow is a crucial day for the future of Europe. Matteo Salvini, who’s facing up to 6 years in jail for defending Italy’s borders and putting a stop to mass migration, will finally hear his sentencing.
The only fair verdict is acquittal but with our judiciary systems… pic.twitter.com/ymbiMvXeDO
— Eva Vlaardingerbroek (@EvaVlaar) December 19, 2024
Hecc
this golden retriever and german shepherd's conversation about how to help their human is just too funny
(max.and.murph IG) pic.twitter.com/MF1ei7GXqP— theworldofdog (@theworldofdog) December 18, 2024
Beach
— Doglover (@puppiesDoglover) December 19, 2024
Jingle
Who can relate to the dog? 😂 pic.twitter.com/KxCVXqOUG9
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) December 20, 2024
Adopted
Kitten gets adopted by dog..🐈🐾🐶😍 pic.twitter.com/I3V3ljJWme
— 𝕐o̴g̴ (@Yoda4ever) December 19, 2024
Dinosaur
A cute child and her dinosaur friend ❤️ pic.twitter.com/ucRJJrnlcU
— Restoring Your Faith in Humanity (@HumanityChad) December 18, 2024
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