CBS Archives - The Automatic Earth (original) (raw)
February 10, 2025 Finance Tagged with: Bessent, CBS, diversity, DOGE, Elon Musk, Jan 6, Russophobic, security clearances, Treasury, Trump, USAID
Jacopo Bassano The Miraculous Draught of Fishes 1545
https://twitter.com/i/status/1888619828258214032
Bureaucracy
🚨 ELON MUSK: "One of the things that's happened is that you have a steady increase in the amount of bureaucracy. The size of government grows, the laws and regulations that are put in place get larger every year. The cleansing process normally for getting rid of nonsensical laws… pic.twitter.com/exBUz7pt4S
— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) February 8, 2025
Bessent
WATCH: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Sets the Record Straight on @DOGE
"Elon and I are completely aligned in terms of cutting waste and increasing accountability and transparency for the American people. I believe that this DOGE program … is one of the most important… pic.twitter.com/F3vsrhzuKW
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) February 8, 2025
Alina
🚨🔥Alina Habba just went OFF on Democrats melting down over Elon and DOGE:
“Sorry Chuck, Maxine, and Nancy, with your stock trades. The show's over. People screaming the loudest are the people that are pissed off because their money train has ended."
pic.twitter.com/mZPvH1bRc3— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) February 8, 2025
Rubio
Marco Rubio on USAID. pic.twitter.com/dsEpEFFON6
— Defiant L’s (@DefiantLs) February 9, 2025
“They’re doing it at my insistence. It would be a lot easier not to do it, but we have to take some of these things apart to find the corruption.”
Moving at breakneck speed as President Donald Trump shakes up the executive branch, Musk’s engineers and advisers have accessed information technology (IT) systems in several federal departments. Anonymously sourced reports, not yet independently verified by The Epoch Times, allege DOGE is probing several other agencies, and groups are filing lawsuits to bar Musk’s advisers from accessing those departments’ computer systems. DOGE’s actions, which Musk says are aimed at reducing government spending and waste, have spurred a backlash from some Democratic lawmakers who describe it as a breach of congressional oversight by an unelected “special government employee.” Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) cited cybersecurity concerns if DOGE is connecting to federal databases with “their own unvetted commercial servers.”
This week, during a House Oversight Committee on “Reducing Waste in Government,” Rep. James Comer (R-K.Y.) defended Musk’s unprecedented role in the executive branch, saying “real innovation isn’t clean and tidy.” President Donald Trump defended DOGE’s access to federal data systems on Friday, adding that the Pentagon and the Department of Education are next. “We’re going to be looking at tremendous amounts of money … being spent on things that bear no relationship to anything and have no value,” Trump said. “I’m very proud of the job that this group of young people … [are] doing. They’re doing it at my insistence. It would be a lot easier not to do it, but we have to take some of these things apart to find the corruption.”
So far, the DOGE team has accessed IT systems at agencies, including the Treasury Department, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Department of Energy, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), while a coalition of labor unions has sued to block access at the U.S. Department of Labor. Additionally, students in California are suing the Department of Education, alleging that DOGE staffers are accessing confidential student data. The Epoch Times could not independently confirm other agencies—including the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and the U.S. Agency for International Development—where DOGE may have received access to internal systems or databases.The Treasury Department confirmed in a Feb. 4 letter to Congress that DOGE staff had been given “read-only” access to the agency’s nearly $6 trillion federal payments system.
According to the letter, Cloud Software Group CEO Tom Krause will work with the agency as a “special government employee” to review the Bureau of the Fiscal Service for operational efficiency and prevent abuse, fraud, and waste. The work will be done in conjunction with career Treasury officials.On Feb. 5, the Justice Department wrote in a court filing that it would, for now, restrict DOGE’s access to Treasury Department payment systems. DOGE was also granted access to systems and technology at CMS, the agency said on Feb. 5. CMS will be in direct collaboration with DOGE while two senior agency staffers will direct the effort. CMS, which is within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, oversees the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Medicare is a health insurance plan for older and disabled Americans, while Medicaid covers low-income enrollees.
While DOGE has said it wants to cut $2 trillion in government spending, the goal would likely be difficult to reach without reducing spending on health and social assistance programs. Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the Affordable Care Act marketplace health insurance subsidies made up 24 percent of the 2024 federal budget, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. However, Trump told reporters last week that there would be no impacts on Medicare, Medicaid, or Social Security unless his administration finds waste or abuse. “The people won’t be affected,” Trump said, referring to recipients of those benefits.
“How on Earth are we supposed to stop fraud and waste of taxpayer money without looking at how money is spent?”
• Musk Slams Ruling Blocking DOGE From Accessing Treasury Payment Systems (JTN)
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk slammed an Obama-appointed federal judge for blocking his Department of Government Efficiency from accessing Treasury Department payment systems for at least one week. “This ruling is absolutely insane! How on Earth are we supposed to stop fraud and waste of taxpayer money without looking at how money is spent? That’s literally impossible! Something super shady is going [on] to protect scammers,” Musk wrote Saturday on X.
According to Manhattan-based U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer’s order, access to payment records would be limited to “civil servants with a need for access to perform their job duties within the Bureau of Fiscal Services who have passed all background checks and security clearances and taken all information security training called for in federal statutes and Treasury Department regulations.”
The reason the radical Dems don’t want an audit of social security fraud is because they’re the ones getting it … https://t.co/zLDCxNRj6J
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 9, 2025
The Dems went “judge-shopping” and found one willing to block DOGE, and even the Treasury Secretary, from accessing Treasury files.
• Musk Calls For Impeachment Of Judge Who Blocked DOGE Access At Treasury (ZH)
Elon Musk has called for the impeachment of an Obama-appointed judge who barred DOGE and the Treasury Secretary from accessing payment systems at the US Treasury. On Friday night, Democrats went ‘judge shopping’ to ask that Musk’s team be stopped from accessing Treasury systems, knowing that instead of receiving a judge by random selection, the only available judge would be Paul Engelmayer – who held an ex-parte hearing without DOJ lawyers. Engelmayer did not cite any case law or precedent for his ruling, which many have criticized for vast overreach. The order prohibits special government employees, along with those from outside the Treasury department, and the Treasury secretary himself, from accessing the systems. On Saturday, Musk posted to X: “A corrupt judge protecting corruption,” adding “He needs to be impeached NOW.”
> A corrupt judge protecting corruption. > > He needs to be impeached NOW! https://t.co/zgnwZuOz2Y > > — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 9, 2025
In an earlier post, Musk wrote “it’s time,” in response to the suggestion that activist judges should be impeached. Engelmayer’s ruling came in response to a lawsuit by 19 Democratic state attorneys general who panicked over DOGE investigating waste, fraud and abuse within the US government. “The Court’s firm assessment is that, for the reasons stated by the States, they will face irreparable harm in the absence of injunctive relief,” wrote Engelmayer in his decision. “That is both because of the risk that the new policy presents of the disclosure of sensitive and confidential information and the heightened risk that the systems in question will be more vulnerable than before to hacking.”
“..Engelmayer’s order came in response to a lawsuit filed on Friday by Letitia James..”
• Trump, Musk, and the Deep State: The Battle Over Transparency Begins (Kimball)
Tasked with the Herculean labor of unscrambling the byzantine Rube Goldberg device that is the 21st-century administrative state for furthering corruption, illegal payments, and partisan influence at home and abroad, DOGE commander Elon Musk and his laptop-and-algorithm-toting lieutenants have been patiently uncovering the pyramid of waste, fraud, and abuse that is the foundation of the United States government in its twenty-first-century incarnation. In a remarkable piece called “Override: Inside The Revolution Rewiring American Power,” a blogger known as EKO showed how it worked. Four young coders arrive at the Treasury Department in the wee hours of January 21. Within hours they have succeeded in tracing long-hidden payment directions. No committees. No approvals. No red tape. Just four coders with unprecedented access and algorithms ready to run.
“The beautiful thing about payment systems,” noted a transition official watching their screens, “is that they don’t lie. You can spin policy all day long, but money leaves a trail.” That trail led to staggering discoveries. Programs marked as independent revealed coordinated funding streams. Grants labeled as humanitarian aid showed curious detours through complex networks. Black budgets once shrouded in secrecy began to unravel under algorithmic scrutiny. The difference between Trump’s first term and his second (acknowledged) term can be explained in two words: velocity and preparedness. In 2017, Trump’s initiatives were hampered, blindsided, litigated, and smothered in red tape. This time the Leviathan’s usual expedients are impotent. “Their traditional defenses—slow-walking decisions, leaking damaging stories, stonewalling requests—proved useless against an opponent moving faster than their systems could react.
By the time they drafted their first memo objecting to this breach, three more systems had already been mapped.” And here’s the point: “Pull this thread,” a senior official warned, watching patterns emerge across DOGE’s screens, “and the whole sweater unravels.” He wasn’t wrong. But he misunderstood something crucial: That was exactly the point. The left gets it. And their heads are exploding. So far, their biggest gun was the creaky cannon Judge Robart wheeled out: the emergency injunction with immediate “nationwide effect.” The New York Times, a house organ for anti-Trump hysteria, has a long hand-wringing column about the latest wheeze. Paul A. Engelmayer, a U.S. District Judge appointed by Barrack Obama, just issued an “emergency order” to restrict Elon Musk’s and DOGE’s access to the Treasury Department’s payment and data system.
He also insisted that anyone who had access to those systems after January 20 “destroy any and all copies of material downloaded from the Treasury Department’s records and systems.” Fun part: even Scott Bessent, the Secretary of the Treasury, is prohibited from looking into the corrupt structures of his own department. Engelmayer’s order came in response to a lawsuit filed on Friday by Letitia James, Attorney General of New York and professional scourge of all things Trump, along with 18 other Democratic state attorneys general. What was the charge? The stated predicate was that by authorizing the investigation, Trump had failed in his Constitutional duty to “faithfully execute the laws enacted by Congress.” The real predicate was that Musk’s beavers were uncovering the inner mechanism of the deep state and the resulting truths were unbearable.
“Humankind,” said T. S. Eliot, in “Burnt Norton,” “cannot bear very much reality.” Similarly, Bureaucrats cannot bear very much transparency. Like vampires, the sunlight is fatal to them. How will Trump respond? We do not know yet. I hope it will be at least partly as Andrew Jackson is said to have responded in his contretemps with Chief Justice John Marshall. In 1834, the Supreme Court determined that the Cherokee Indians owned Northern Georgia. Nevertheless, Andrew Jackson evicted the Indians, reputedly observing that Marshall “has made his decision; now let him enforce it.” Lincoln responded in a similar fashion to Chief Justice Roger Taney in 1861. In April of that year, Lincoln suspended the writ of habeas corpus between Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia. This allowed military commanders to imprison suspected saboteurs without indictment.
Taney said (in “Ex Parte Merryman”) that Lincoln did not have the authority to do this. Lincoln basically ignored him, invoking the novel doctrine of “nonacquiesence.” As usual, Lincoln demonstrated his deep understanding of the issues involved. “Are all the laws but one to go unexecuted,” he asked Taney, “and the Government itself go to pieces lest that one be violated? Even in such a case, would not the official oath be broken if the Government should be overthrown when it was believed that disregarding the single law would tend to preserve it?” In my view, Trump’s actions to expose the partisan corruption of the administrative state are in response to an existential threat is as grave, if less bloody, than the Civil War. The permanent bureaucracy that rules us has for decades been erecting and fortifying a nearly impenetrable edifice from which to preserve its privileges and power, stifle criticism, and export its globalist agenda.
Donald Trump was elected to deconstruct that edifice. Elon Musk is one of his most potent aides in accomplishing that task. Of course, the left is hysterical. Their gravy train is being derailed before their eyes. The people who elected Trump are delighted. I suspect that the squeals and tantrums of the ruling party and its minions will amount to no more than theater. I further suspect that Trump will resort not only to “nonacquiesence” but also to non-payment. In 2022, New York received $383 billion in federal spending. There are many ways in which Trump could stanch the flow of federal dollars to obstreperous states. I think he should consider them all. I am also happy to see some official pushback. Rep. Darrell Issa, for example, just announced that he is “immediately introducing legislation next week to stop these rogue judges and allow Trump and DOGE to tell you where government is spending your money.” Good for him.
One final suggestion. If left-wing regime-party judges can issue emergency restraining orders with “immediate nationwide effect,” why couldn’t a politically mature district judge in, say, Alabama do the same, overturning the order issued by his left-wing colleague on an “immediate, nationwide basis?” I offer the idea free and for nothing.
Want to oppose finding fraud?
• Musk Says DOGE, Treasury Agree on New Anti-Fraud Measures (Ozimek)
Elon Musk said Saturday that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the U.S. Treasury Department have agreed on new anti-fraud measures aimed at preventing tens of billions of dollars in fraudulent government entitlement payments each year. In a Feb. 8 statement shared on social media, Musk described the scale of the problem as “utterly insane,” citing estimates that at least 50billionannuallyisbeinglostduetoimproperpayments,includingfundsgoingtoindividualswithoutSocialSecurityNumbersoreventemporaryIDnumbers.Musk,wholeadsDOGEandhasbeendesignateda“specialgovernmentemployee”byPresidentDonaldTrump,revealedinthepostthatTreasuryofficialsestimatedthat50 billion annually is being lost due to improper payments, including funds going to individuals without Social Security Numbers or even temporary ID numbers. Musk, who leads DOGE and has been designated a “special government employee” by President Donald Trump, revealed in the post that Treasury officials estimated that 50billionannuallyisbeinglostduetoimproperpayments,includingfundsgoingtoindividualswithoutSocialSecurityNumbersoreventemporaryIDnumbers.Musk,wholeadsDOGEandhasbeendesignateda“specialgovernmentemployee”byPresidentDonaldTrump,revealedinthepostthatTreasuryofficialsestimatedthat100 billion in annual entitlement payments may be going to individuals without verifiable identification.
In a discussion with Treasury personnel, Musk said he asked for an estimate of how much of that is “obvious and unequivocal” fraud, and the consensus was that at least half—$50 billion per year, or around $1 billion per week—is fraudulent. “This is utterly insane and must be addressed immediately,” Musk wrote, adding that the DOGE team and Treasury have jointly agreed to a series of reforms. One of the most significant changes will be the requirement that all outgoing government payments include a payment categorization code. According to Musk, these codes are essential for financial audits, yet they are frequently left blank, making it nearly impossible to track where taxpayer dollars are going.
Under the new rules, every payment will also need to include a rationale in the comment field. Currently, many government payments lack any explanation, making it difficult to assess their legitimacy, Musk said. While he emphasized that no judgment will be applied to these rationales at this stage, requiring at least some justification for payments is expected to serve as a deterrent against waste and fraud. Another reform involves more effective implementation of Treasury’s Do-Not-Pay list, which is meant to prevent payments to fraudulent entities, deceased individuals, suspected terrorist fronts, and other entities or people who should not be paid by federal agencies. Musk said that this list has not been strictly enforced, with some payments still being made to flagged entities. He also pointed out that it can take up to a year for names to be added to the list, calling for weekly or even daily updates to prevent ongoing fraud.
Musk said that the above “super obvious and necessary” changes will be implemented by existing, long-time career Treasury employees; not anyone from the DOGE. His remarks in this regard align with Treasury Department Scott Bessent’s insistence that DOGE members have read-only access to Treasury data and that they have not been “tinkering” with sensitive payment systems at the department. The development comes as DOGE focuses its cost-cutting and efficiency-enhancing efforts at multiple federal agencies, including Treasury, as part of the Trump administration’s broader aim of reducing deficits and eliminating fraud, waste, and abuse from government.
Republicans have praised DOGE’s efforts to identify government waste, while Democrats have denounced the body’s actions as an abuse of power and its operations as skirting congressional oversight. There have been protests over DOGE by members of Congress, federal employee unions, and privacy advocates, along with a number of lawsuits targeting its activities. Recently, a judge blocked DOGE’s access to the personal financial data of millions of Americans at the Treasury Department. Bessent recently defended DOGE’s actions at Treasury. He said in an interview with Bloomberg that the DOGE team is made up of highly trained professionals and “not some roving band running around doing things,” possibly in reference to claims by critics that DOGE has embraced and is applying the adage “move fast and break things,” which is part of the Silicon Valley start-up culture of being innovative, nimble, and disruptive.
Just one example of many.
• US Treasury Pays $100bn Annually To Unknown Recipients – Musk (RT)
Elon Musk, as head of the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has said that the US Treasury pays over 100billionannuallytoindividualswithoutSocialSecurityNumbers(SSNs)ortemporaryIDnumbers.Muskhasurgedimmediatereformstoaddresspotentialfraudandinefficienciesinpaymentsystems.TheCEOofSpaceXandTeslaandownerofXhasbeenappointeda“specialgovernmentemployee”toleadtheDepartmentofGovernmentEfficiency(DOGE)underUSPresidentDonaldTrump’sadministrationandiscurrentlyamongTrump’skeyadvisers.Despiteitsname,theagencyisnotapermanentfederalexecutivedepartment,butatemporarybodydedicatedtoreducinggovernmentspending.Thetechbillionairehassetagoalofreducingthefederaldeficitbyatleast100 billion annually to individuals without Social Security Numbers (SSNs) or temporary ID numbers. Musk has urged immediate reforms to address potential fraud and inefficiencies in payment systems. The CEO of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of X has been appointed a “special government employee” to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) under US President Donald Trump’s administration and is currently among Trump’s key advisers. Despite its name, the agency is not a permanent federal executive department, but a temporary body dedicated to reducing government spending. The tech billionaire has set a goal of reducing the federal deficit by at least 100billionannuallytoindividualswithoutSocialSecurityNumbers(SSNs)ortemporaryIDnumbers.Muskhasurgedimmediatereformstoaddresspotentialfraudandinefficienciesinpaymentsystems.TheCEOofSpaceXandTeslaandownerofXhasbeenappointeda“specialgovernmentemployee”toleadtheDepartmentofGovernmentEfficiency(DOGE)underUSPresidentDonaldTrump’sadministrationandiscurrentlyamongTrump’skeyadvisers.Despiteitsname,theagencyisnotapermanentfederalexecutivedepartment,butatemporarybodydedicatedtoreducinggovernmentspending.Thetechbillionairehassetagoalofreducingthefederaldeficitbyatleast1 trillion, which would require daily cuts averaging $4 billion.
“Yesterday, I was told that there are currently over 100B/yearofentitlementspaymentstoindividualswithnoSSNorevenatemporaryIDnumber.Ifaccurate,thisisextremelysuspicious,”MuskpostedonX.AccordingtoTreasuryofficials,approximatelyhalfofthesepayments,equatingto100B/year of entitlements payments to individuals with no SSN or even a temporary ID number. If accurate, this is extremely suspicious,” Musk posted on X. According to Treasury officials, approximately half of these payments, equating to 100B/yearofentitlementspaymentstoindividualswithnoSSNorevenatemporaryIDnumber.Ifaccurate,thisisextremelysuspicious,”MuskpostedonX.AccordingtoTreasuryofficials,approximatelyhalfofthesepayments,equatingto50 billion per year, or $1 billion per week, could be fraudulent, Musk stated. He described it as “utterly insane and must be addressed immediately.” Musk said that in response, DOGE and the Treasury Department have agreed to implement measures to enhance transparency and accountability in government payments. These include requiring all outgoing payments to have a payment categorization code. Musk pointed out that this field is frequently left blank, making audits challenging. Additionally, all payments must include a rationale in the comment field, which is currently often omitted.
Musk noted that it can currently take up to a year to get on the “Do-Not-Pay” list. The list includes entities known to be fraudulent, deceased individuals, probable fronts for terrorist organizations, and recipients not matching Congressional appropriations. Musk has asked for updates at least weekly, if not daily. He emphasized that these changes are being implemented by existing, long-time career government employees, not by anyone from DOGE. He expressed his astonishment that such obvious and necessary changes were not already in place. Last week DOGE announced that it had managed to save over 1billionthankstotheeliminationofcontractsrelatedtodiversity,equity,andinclusion(DEI).Thepublishedindexlists30federalbodies,statingthat104contractswitha“ceilingvalue”ofover1 billion thanks to the elimination of contracts related to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). The published index lists 30 federal bodies, stating that 104 contracts with a “ceiling value” of over 1billionthankstotheeliminationofcontractsrelatedtodiversity,equity,andinclusion(DEI).Thepublishedindexlists30federalbodies,statingthat104contractswitha“ceilingvalue”ofover1.2 billion were eliminated.
In a post on X on Monday, Musk described DOGE as “the wood chipper for bureaucracy.” Musk’s team has also gained access to the federal payment system, courtesy of US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, to oversee and curb government expenditures. This move has sparked concerns among some officials, who worry about potential conflicts of interest and the impact on sensitive taxpayer information. Lawyers with the US Justice Department have agreed to a proposed order that would temporarily restrict DOGE from accessing sensitive financial data at the Treasury Department.
“‘Independent media’ lmao…”
• Musk Mocks Pro-Western ‘independent’ Media For Losing US Funding (RT)
Elon Musk has derided pro-Western Russian and Ukrainian media outlets over their degree of perceived “independence,” as the publications now find themselves under severe financial strain following US President Donald Trump’s clampdown on the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Shortly after his inauguration, Trump suspended most of US foreign aid pending a three-month review, which primarily affected USAID, Washington’s agency for funding political projects abroad. Trump has called for the agency to be shut down altogether, citing rampant corruption and overall inefficiency. On Sunday, Elon Musk, the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and also a fierce critic of USAID, mocked a Washington Post article entitled “Independent media in Russia, Ukraine lose their funding with USAID freeze.”
“‘Independent media’ lmao,” he wrote on X, employing the acronym meaning “laughing my a** off.” The WaPo report highlighted the dire financial situation many pro-Western media in Ukraine and Russia found themselves in following Trump’s return to the White House. The article noted that the lack of funds affected Ukraine’s small regional outlets and investigative websites. Detector Media, a Ukrainian journalism watchdog, warned last week that “We risk losing the achievements of three decades of work and increasing threats to Ukraine’s statehood, democratic values, and pro-Western orientation.” Natalya Ligachova, head of Detector Media, estimated that “more than 50%” of media outlets are dependent on American assistance, at least to some extent.
Meanwhile, The Moscow Times, an Amsterdam-based English- and Russian-language newspaper, reported, citing sources, that up to 90 Russian organizations operating outside of the country – many of which have been accused of spreading falsehoods about Russia – have lost US funding. Many of them may be forced to cease operations altogether, the report said. The Moscow Times itself has been designated “undesirable” by the Russian government for “discrediting” Russia’s foreign and domestic policies.
Prior to the USAID clampdown, Russian officials repeatedly accused the US of waging an information war, including by using numerous foreign-funded liberal outlets against the country to justify the West’s “hybrid aggression.” Following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Moscow took tough measures to curb the spread of falsehoods about the Russian military, imposing a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison for violations. Russian President Vladimir Putin said last September that despite the conflict in Ukraine, the media are still free to express their opinions, as stipulated by the Constitution. He stressed, however, that both domestic and foreign media are obliged to obey the country’s laws.
“..when Ukraine’s current past-best-by-date leader Vladimir Zelensky actually did face and win an election in 2019, his single concrete – and sensible – promise was to seek peace through negotiations..”
• Trump’s USAID Purge Has Revealed US Scheming In Kiev, But Won’t Stop It (Amar)
First, we now learn that almost the entire Ukrainian media sphere – 90 percent of news organizations – depended on USAID funding. Indeed, Olga Rudenko, editor-in-chief of the Kyiv Independent (the irony…), a staunchly info-warring publication, fears that losing access to the USAID trough “has caused harm to independent Ukrainian journalism on par with the COVID-19 pandemic and the onset of Russia’s full-scale war.” Hear, hear. More generally, a recent article in the Columbia Journalism Review is worrying that losing USAID money will threaten “independent” journalism worldwide. No wonder, as USAID itself has proudly claimed that the US government “is now the largest public donor to independent media development globally.”
But any talk of “independence” here is, just like Rudenko’s complaint, obvious Orwellian-grade propaganda: Journalism that literally depends for its very existence on funding from an organization serving as a front for the foreign interests of the single most powerful and aggressive country in the world may be anything, but it cannot be – by definition – independent. You may, if that’s your thing, politically sympathize with such journalism or argue that you feel it is still, on balance, useful, if you wish, but please cut out the absurdity. In practice, Ukraine is a perfect illustration of how such media dependency-across-borders can easily end in catastrophe: Anyone who knows Ukrainian well enough – as I do – can have a look for themselves.
What they will find is a Potemkin village of pseudo-diversity, at best, with very few and embattled exceptions. In reality, the Ukrainian public sphere has been massively manipulated by a monotonous diet of pseudo-”patriotic” messaging. The single most urgent question concerning Ukraine’s own national interests, however, has been systematically maligned and made taboo: namely, if serving as proxy war cannon fodder for the West has been worth it. The second manner in which USAID has promoted this devastating war was, if anything, even worse, in the sense of more drastic and hands-on: It’s now almost forgotten, but when Ukraine’s current past-best-by-date leader Vladimir Zelensky actually did face and win an election in 2019, his single concrete – and sensible – promise was to seek peace through negotiations.
Clearly, at the time, that promise was a major factor in his unprecedented landslide victory. Once in office, for a very short moment, it seemed as if Zelensky was trying to keep that promise. But then – years before the 2022 escalation – he made a 180-degree turn and emerged as an uncompromising and shortsighted nationalist and a tool of the US – if a very expensive and occasionally capricious one. It is likely that he will soon be discarded, as tools can be. But the damage he has already done to his country is enormous. Many observers have long been puzzled by early Zelensky’s terrible turn. Was it fear of the powerful and aggressive Ukrainian far-right? Was it a misconceived play for even more popularity? Was it money? Was it Western pressure? We still don’t know the whole story, but we do know one important new thing: a wave of “popular” resistance “from below” and by “civil society” against Zelensky’s initial attempts to look for peace was not genuine.
Instead, it had massive Western backing, including from USAID. In particular, the organization was one of the key sponsors of a “joint statement” which presented a concerted threat to Zelensky in 2019, that is, almost immediately after he assumed office. On the surface the product of 70 Ukrainian NGOs, this was, in reality, a massive affront to democracy and the rule of law: Its sole purpose was to unconstitutionally constrain the newly elected president with so-called “red lines” and, in particular, nullify what so many of his voters wanted, namely an honest search for peace. None of this means that Zelensky is innocent. On the contrary, it was his duty and, literally, his job to resist such shameless pressure tactics and their foreign backers and stand up for his voters and the country as a whole. His failure to do so is his and will remain so forever.
Feels like a good idea.
• Designating Cartels as Terrorists Will Have Huge Consequences (Summers)
On Jan. 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that started a process by which international organized crime cartels would be designated as “Foreign Terrorist Organizations” or “Specially Designated Global Terrorists.” The designations would give the U.S. government power to go after the cartels’ finances, target those who supply them with weapons, and even carry out military strikes against cartel-owned facilities. With groups such as the Sinaloa cartel, MS-13 from El Salvador, and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua posing a serious threat to the United States, analysts say these new terrorist designations could have far-reaching consequences. The Trump administration has not gone into detail about how it plans to use the new powers, but on Jan. 31, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he would not rule out military strikes against the cartels.
On Feb. 3, following Trump’s tariffs threat, Canada announced it would invest $200 million and appoint a czar to investigate the fentanyl trade and would also designate the cartels as terrorist organizations. Ioan Grillo, a Mexico-based journalist and author of several books, including “El Narco, The Bloody Rise of Mexican Drug Cartels,” told The Epoch Times the terrorist designations would provide the U.S. government with more power to go after the cartels’ finances. He said it could also be used to target arms dealers in the United States who provide weapons for them. “You could go after people trafficking firearms to the cartels, you could arrest them for providing material to a foreign terrorist organization,” Grillo said.
Organized crime syndicates such as Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa cartel will be put in the same basket as al-Qaeda, ISIS, and other groups listed as designated foreign terrorist organizations on the State Department’s website. Francois Cavard, a human rights activist who has spent years investigating the drug trade in Central and South America, told The Epoch Times that changing the legal status of cartels such as Tren de Aragua from “being considered just another criminal organization” to being designated as terrorists was “huge.” Cavard said the gang—whose name translates as the “Train of Aragua” and which began as a group of corrupt workers on a failed railway project, which was funded by a huge loan from China—was heavily involved in human smuggling, drug trafficking, and money laundering.
Greta Nightingale, an attorney and partner at O’Melveny, a firm of Washington-based international lawyers, and chair of its national security group, said that being designated as a “foreign terrorist organization” and a “specially designated global terrorist” were based on different statutes but have essentially the same effect. She told The Epoch Times that the assets of the designee are frozen and that if they come within the control of U.S. persons (such as a U.S. bank) they cannot access them. Nightingale said Americans are also not allowed to engage in any dealings with such designees or engage with third parties if they will benefit the designated party. “If a U.S. company does business with a Mexican company that is tied to one of these cartels, they risk an enforcement action,” she said.
“If the company is owned or controlled by a cartel, then such business is clearly illegal. But if the ties are more attenuated then the legal exposure is less clear.” Nightingale said that “the safest approach is to stay away if you have information that suggests that there are ties between a cartel and a Mexican business, as you invite reputational harm and also may undermine the safety of your employees.” Cavard said the most significant effect of the designation is that cartels and gangs such as Tren de Aragua were no longer considered to just be after illegal financial profit but are considered “to also have power and control purposes … that represents a serious and extremely dangerous threat to the security of the country.”
“..all of this work we’re doing now with getting [illegal aliens] out, finding murderers on the street. … all of this that we’re doing is because of him allowing people to come into our country.”
• Trump Stripping Security Clearances Of Numerous Antagonists (Devine)
President Trump has ordered security clearances stripped from a new hit list of antagonists. Just days after revoking Joe Biden’s access to classified information and secure federal buildings — “because I don’t trust him” — Trump said his new top target is ex-Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who orchestrated the “Dirty 51” letter from former intelligence officials on the eve of the 2020 election. The infamous missive falsely claimed that Hunter Biden’s laptop, the contents of which The Post revealed, was Russian disinformation. Blinken’s security clearances will be revoked, following the same presidential directive aimed at Biden and the 51 ex-spooks last week, Trump told The Post in an exclusive interview. “Bad guy. Take away his passes,” he said of Blinken. “This is to take away every right they have [revoking security clearances] including they can’t go into [federal] buildings.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg join the new group of eight Democrat foes Trump plans to punish by revoking any access to classified information and barring their entry to federal facilities. The president said they all will be given “exactly the same” punishment as Biden and the Dirty 51 as part of his administration’s vow to hold government officials accountable for actions he regards as election interference or the mishandling of classified information. Bragg prosecuted Trump last year in the so-called “hush money” case and James brought a civil fraud case against the president for supposedly exaggerating his wealth when applying for bank loans.
The move is regarded as more symbolic than consequential for the New York lawfare duo. But it could hamper them in carrying out their official duties by prohibiting them from entering courthouses, prisons, and law enforcement facilities in Foley Square in lower Manhattan, including the Thurgood Marshall and Daniel Patrick Moynihan courthouses, the Metropolitan Correctional Center, and the Jacob Javits Federal Building which houses the FBI’s New York field office. They also will not be able to set foot in the US Attorney’s offices for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, in Manhattan and Brooklyn. “It’s more an insult and a slap in the face than a real deterrent,” said attorney Bob Costello, a former Manhattan federal prosecutor who testified as a defense witness in Trump’s hush-money trial in Manhattan.
The other targets Trump disclosed to The Post include Biden’s former National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who also was chief foreign policy adviser to Hillary Clinton during her failed 2016 presidential bid when he notoriously helped foment the Trump-Russia collusion hoax. Also in Trump’s sights are Biden’s Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, who was involved in overseeing lawfare investigations against Trump and coordinating the DOJ response to the Jan. 6 riot. She also helped orchestrate the Russia hoax while working as an aide to President Obama.
Next in line are anti-Trumpers Andrew Weissman, the lead prosecutor in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russiagate investigation of Trump, who frequently maligns the former president in his role as an MNBC contributor; lawyer Mark Zaid, who represented Eric Ciaramella, the CIA analyst identified as the whistleblower in Trump’s impeachment in 2019 over a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky; and Norm Eisen, special counsel to the Democrat-led House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment. Former Trump attorney Tim Parlatore says Trump’s action is largely symbolic and hard to enforce, especially on New York officials. But it will have a “major impact” on Zaid’s legal practice “because he fashions himself as a national security lawyer.” “He’s a whacky partisan guy [who] tweeted after Trump was inaugurated that it was time for a coup. He makes his money during Republican [presidencies] by going against the administration.”
Trump last week cut off Biden’s access to the daily intelligence briefings normally afforded former presidents, before stripping his security clearances, telling The Post he doesn’t “trust” his predecessor with such sensitive information. “I don’t trust him. He’s not worthy of trust … To safeguard national security,” He told the Post his administration had no plans to investigate his predecessor, while noting that Biden did not pardon himself when he pardoned his son Hunter and six other family members. “I wouldn’t do it specifically. If something comes up, he’s certainly prime time for investigation. … It’s not good what he did to our country. I mean, all of this work we’re doing now with getting [illegal aliens] out, finding murderers on the street. … all of this that we’re doing is because of him allowing people to come into our country.”
“It is beyond dispute that Defendants wanted Harris to win the Election, and indeed political gain for Harris was certainly Defendants’ intent behind their tampering with the Interview..”
• Trump Doubles CBS Harris Interview Lawsuit Damages to $20 Billion (ET)
President Donald Trump has expanded his lawsuit against CBS, doubling the damages sought to $20 billion and adding CBS parent company Paramount Global as a defendant. The amended complaint, filed on Feb. 7 at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, alleges news distortion, election interference, and financial harm caused by CBS’s handling of its “60 Minutes” interview with Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris. “It is beyond dispute that Defendants wanted Harris to win the Election, and indeed political gain for Harris was certainly Defendants’ intent behind their tampering with the Interview,” the amended complaint reads. “But Defendants’ primary motivation was commercial and pecuniary gain.”
Trump’s legal team claims that CBS deceptively edited Harris’s responses to make her appear more articulate and composed, while also diverting viewership from Trump’s media platform, Truth Social, reducing ad revenue. The complaint asserts that CBS intentionally aired different portions of Harris’s remarks on “Face the Nation” and “60 Minutes,” misleading the public about her full statements. “Once Defendants finally released the unedited version of the Interview, it became apparent that they had engaged in gross broadcast distortion cover-up and manipulated not only Harris’s Reply about Prime Minister Netanyahu, but the Interview in its entirety,” the amended complaint reads. CBS has dismissed the claims and maintains its edits were standard journalistic practice.
“We are posting the same transcripts and videos of our interview with Vice President Kamala Harris that we provided to the FCC [Federal Communications Commission],” the network said in a Feb. 5 statement. “They show–consistent with 60 Minutes’ repeated assurances to the public–that the 60 Minutes broadcast was not doctored or deceitful. CBS further stated that a longer portion of Harris’s response aired on Face the Nation while a shorter one aired on 60 Minutes for the sake of brevity. “As the full transcript shows, we edited the interview to ensure that as much of the vice president’s answers to 60 Minutes’ many questions were included in our original broadcast while fairly representing those answers,” the network stated. “60 Minutes’ hard-hitting questions of the vice president speak for themselves.”
The uncut transcript reveals that some of Harris’s answers were cut roughly in half and clarifies her full response to a question about the Israel–Hamas war, which Trump’s campaign claimed was awkwardly phrased and was unfairly edited to improve her image. The transcript also shows that Harris’s complete answer was a combination of the two aired clips. “Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by, or a result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region. And we’re not going to stop doing that. We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end,” Harris said, per the transcript.
Reacting to the transcript’s release, Trump wrote in a post on social media that it shows CBS had removed Harris’s “horrible election changing answers” and replaced them with better ones and that this was election interference and “election fraud at a level never seen before.” He also called for CBS to lose its broadcasting license.
“..he justified that decision by pointing out that the convicted Jan. 6 defendants had already been locked up for years, often in “inhumane” conditions..”
• Freed Jan. 6 Prisoners Speak Out as They Begin to Rebuild Their Lives (Hisle)
Prosecutors acted with “unrelenting integrity,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said, as the Justice Department pursued cases against 1,583 people for events on Jan. 6, 2021—a date etched into the American psyche with unforgettable images of vandalism and violence at the U.S. Capitol. President Donald Trump, who had attracted a massive crowd to Washington that day amid a dispute over his 2020 election loss, decried these cases as “political persecutions.” He tossed out the prosecutions upon his return for a second presidential term on Jan. 20. Saying he was ending “a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years,” Trump commuted sentences for 14 serious Jan. 6 offenders and issued full pardons to all remaining defendants—1,569 people, based on federal data.
Trump showed mercy even to those convicted of assaulting officers—a controversial move. He previously stated that only peaceful, nonviolent offenders deserved consideration. But he justified that decision by pointing out that the convicted Jan. 6 defendants had already been locked up for years, often in “inhumane” conditions. They were targeted for political reasons and were punished more harshly than many people who committed worse offenses, including killings, he said. A half-dozen of the former Jan. 6 prisoners told The Epoch Times their side. The publication also reviewed Justice Department statements about each interviewee and dozens of other resources for this story. The interviewees, ranging from a 25-year-old entrepreneur to a 55-year-old former New York police officer, say much information has been suppressed and distorted.
They, like many Americans, continue to question why security in and around the Capitol was clearly insufficient on Jan. 6. They also suspect a government setup—and a coverup. Although officials have rejected such claims, a government watchdog’s recent report reignited questions over the actions of “confidential human sources.” Twenty-six of these informants were present on Jan. 6, the Inspector General’s report said. Four of the informants entered the Capitol; 13 others entered restricted areas on the grounds—without FBI permission. The FBI didn’t authorize the informants to encourage violence, either.
But the report left it unclear whether informants obeyed that order. The interviewed Jan. 6 defendants say many Americans still incorrectly believe that police officers were killed in the melee; 140 officers were hurt, none fatally, despite initial reports. It’s unclear how many civilians were injured, but Trump supporters were the only people who died that day. Police fatally shot Ashli Babbitt, 35, and beat Roseanne Boyland, 34, who was knocked unconscious in a stampede; her cause of death remains in dispute. Investigators cleared officers of wrongdoing in both cases.
“All branches of the US military are facing some of the worst recruiting shortfalls in their history.”
• ‘Diversity Is Our Strength’ Dumbest Phrase In Military History – Hegseth (RT)
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke out on Friday against diversity initiatives in the armed forces, blasting the phrase “diversity is our strength” as the “dumbest” in military history. Addressing Pentagon staff, he said his leadership would focus on unity and fairness while eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. “In this department, we will treat everyone equally,” Hegseth told the audience in the Pentagon auditorium. “We will treat everyone with fairness. We will treat everyone with respect, and we will judge you as an individual by your merit and by your commitment to the team and the mission.” Hegseth, a former Fox News host and US National Guard veteran, has moved to end DEI, arguing such programs are divisive. He has also halted identity month celebrations, such as Black History Month and Women’s History Month.
In his speech, he said such efforts “put one group ahead of another” and “erode camaraderie and threaten mission execution.” Hegseth also talked about global security, saying recent events had damaged perceptions of American strength. He pointed to the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Ukraine conflict, and the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel as signs of instability. “Chaos happens when the perception of American strength is not complete,” he maintained. “And so we aim to reestablish that deterrence.” He pledged accountability for the Afghanistan withdrawal in 2021 when the US-backed government in Kabul collapsed faster than expected.
The withdrawal from Afghanistan, planned by President Donald Trump in his first term, followed a 20-year military campaign that cost billions of dollars and killed tens of thousands. Former President Joe Biden was roundly criticized for his handling of the pull out, in which 13 American service members were killed, and for leaving thousands of allied Afghans behind. “We are going to look back at what happened in Afghanistan and hold people accountable,” he said. “Not for retribution, but to understand what went wrong and why there was no accountability for it.” President Trump has pushed back on DEI within the federal government since assuming office on January 20. After being sworn in, he signed a series of orders rolling back protections for transgender individuals and terminating DEI initiatives.
Trump banned transgender people from serving in the US military in 2017. Biden repealed the ban shortly after taking office in 2021, only to have Trump reverse that in his second term. The Pentagon repealed its “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in 2011, allowing gay and lesbian troops to serve openly. Gender dysphoria, the clinical diagnosis for many transgender people, was still considered cause for involuntary discharge until 2016. All branches of the US military are facing some of the worst recruiting shortfalls in their history. Republican lawmakers have blamed the problem on the Pentagon’s prioritization of diversity over military readiness. A 2021 report commissioned by Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee found that the US Navy was focusing more on “wokeness” and diversity than winning wars.
“Paris is officially supporting some kind of incredible and insane force of neo-Nazism, which has flourished in Ukraine,” Zakharova said..” “Moreover, the neo-Nazism in Ukraine has already turned into terrorism, it has mutated.”
• Paris Backs Neo-Nazism in Ukraine – Moscow (RT)
The French authorities have unquestionably supported the rise of neo-Nazism in Ukraine, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said. She emphasized that the Kiev regime has turned into an international terrorist cell with the connivance of its Western backers. Moscow has repeatedly accused the current Ukrainian government of embracing Nazi ideology, and listed the denazification of the country as one of the key objectives of its military operation, along with demilitarization and enforcing neutrality. “Paris is officially supporting some kind of incredible and insane force of neo-Nazism, which has flourished in Ukraine,” Zakharova said in an interview with RIA Novosti published on Sunday. “Moreover, the neo-Nazism in Ukraine has already turned into terrorism, it has mutated.”
The spokeswoman mentioned a series of atrocities allegedly conducted by Ukrainian soldiers in the village of Russkoye Porechnoye in the Russian region of Kursk, which are currently being probed by the country’s Investigative Committee, in the latest instance of what she branded “a fusion of Nazism and fascism with new technological capabilities and a terrorist nature.” Earlier this year, Russian investigators reported multiple incidents related to the village, located 10km north of Sudzha, which had been occupied by the Ukrainian army since last August. The officials charged that Ukrainian soldiers raped, tortured, and murdered local residents. Some of the allegations have been confirmed by Ukrainian soldiers captured during the liberation of the settlement.
“All these [war crimes] are being backed by Paris via supplies of weapons and money, via lending political support, via encouraging [Kiev], and of course via saying no word of condemnation,” Zakharova maintained. The spokeswoman concluded that officials in Paris prefer not to notice that killings of civilians and journalists “through the use of the weapons supplied to Ukraine by Western backers, including France, do not match with the ethics supported by the French authorities on the international scene.”
Earlier this week, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu announced that the Ukrainian military had received the first batch of fourth generation Mirage 2000-5 aircraft that French President Emmanuel Macron promised to supply last year. Lecornu added that the jets would be operated by Ukrainian pilots who have undergone training in France. Commenting on the move, Russian lawmaker Leonid Ivlev said that the transfer of the fighter jets would inevitably lead to the involvement of France in a military conflict with Russia. Meanwhile, a representative of Russian defense conglomerate Rostec said the jets would be swiftly destroyed if Kiev uses them near the front line.
“..an energy crisis that’s heavily contributed to voters across the bloc turning against establishment parties..”
• The EU’s Worst Enemies Are Its Own Russophobic Leaders (Marsden)
It’s a big day for the EU, says the bloc’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas. All because three former Soviet states – Latvia, Lithuania, and her home country, Estonia, where she previously served as prime minister – have just swapped out their historically reliable Russian electricity entirely for a system regulated by the folks in Brussels, whose recent energy security strategies have included imploring citizens to dress in sweaters, like turtles, and to consider group showers. “Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia will permanently disconnect from Russia’s power grid tomorrow,” Kallas wrote on social media on February 7th. ”Russia can no longer use energy as a tool of blackmail. This is a victory for freedom and European unity.”
Yeah, Western Europeans are united, alright. On the fact that the EU has triggered an energy crisis that’s heavily contributed to voters across the bloc turning against establishment parties in recent national elections. The skyrocketing cost of living, largely attributed to a lack of affordable energy, was even cited by the EU’s own Eurobarometer report last year as a motivating factor for 42% of Europeans in last summer’s EU parliamentary elections. Those elections saw the arrival in Brussels of “more MEPs on the far-right benches than before,” Le Monde wrote, characterizing the rise of anti-establishment populism, notably on the right.
While loudly shunning cheap Russian energy, the EU has nonetheless been importing record levels of it, in the form of LNG, at several times the price. Russian oil being shipped to the EU has surged by putting on a fake mustache and arriving on European shores from Türkiye, India, and China, with Foreign Policy magazine underscoring just last month that Europe “somehow still depends on Russian energy.” The end result is essentially a virtue tax that gets passed on to the consumer. All this to impress the EU’s girlfriend, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, whose country was raking in about a billion dollars a year just for him kicking his feet up and watching Russian gas flow across Ukraine to the EU. Easiest job in the world, right? With the added bonus of pocketing cash from Russia that it can’t spend on the battlefield, according to typical EU logic. But Ukraine and the EU colluded to even put an end to that, creating an even bigger financial sinkhole for themselves to fill. Brilliant.
The EU has also become heavily dependent on the US – now to the benefit of President Donald Trump’s agenda. Which hopefully Brussels loves, because it has already set itself up to finance it as a result of its overdependence on the US as a means of sticking it to Putin. Trump has made it clear that he views the EU’s lack of sufficient dependence on the US as some form of abuse – of the US. “I told the European Union that they must make up their tremendous deficit with the United States by the large scale purchase of our oil and gas. Otherwise, it is TARIFFS all the way,” Trump wrote last December on social media. What a mess. How did it all go so wrong?
RFK
Pain is the touchstone of growth. Struggle shapes character.
Through adversity, Bobby Kennedy has emerged as a leader who understands suffering, redemption, and the fight for something greater than himself. pic.twitter.com/G0QXQrwnAk
— MAHA Alliance (@MAHAalliance) February 8, 2025
Pachamamba
"WHAT?!" 🤯 – Joe can't believe what Mel Gibson tells him about the Pope.
Gibson says his next film will be about the battle between good and evil. 😇👿 pic.twitter.com/IjUa4Iu0sa
— TUPACABRA (@TUPACABRA2) February 8, 2025
Levitation
The skill to create the illusion of levitation
— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) February 9, 2025
Calm
A serval cat takes the initiative to calm a cat down
[📹 F1 Savannah Kittens]pic.twitter.com/F3YdgsUN98
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) February 9, 2025
Baby elephant
Baby elephant asking for treats pic.twitter.com/1Q3mh6ekZR
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) February 9, 2025
Bluebirds
Bluebirds huddling for warmth.. 😊 pic.twitter.com/cU0b5PokEU
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) February 9, 2025
Bubbles
Dolphin blowing bubble rings pic.twitter.com/fla9Uz3R2T
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) February 9, 2025
Bull
A bull in Brazil taking his drunk owner home pic.twitter.com/fff1b0njwU
— NO CONTEXT HUMANS (@HumansNoContext) February 8, 2025
MTL
Montreal’s snow removal process 🤯
pic.twitter.com/JihnXx5jCG— Made In Canada (@MadelnCanada) February 8, 2025
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November 2, 2024 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:40 am Finance Tagged with: CBS, JD Vance, Joe Rogan, John Paulson, Kamala, Middle East peace, MSM, open invitation, paradigm shift, rewriting, Trump
Otto Dix Ice drift 1940
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2024
How is she polling over 10%?
This is embarrassing.pic.twitter.com/WHu1djlTpk— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) November 1, 2024
Rogan Vance
https://twitter.com/i/status/1852075204614459792
JUST IN: JD Vance explains exactly how the 2020 election was "rigged," rips the media for being involved in the cover-up.
"The media will find the craziest conspiracy theory about what happened in 2020. They'll debunk it and say, 'oh, look, this shows that nothing bad happened… pic.twitter.com/ycU4vCMQil
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 31, 2024
https://twitter.com/i/status/1852086241334038642
JD Vance compares the way Kamala lies to how his toddler recently lied about stealing Oreo cookies. It's brilliant. WATCH. pic.twitter.com/5TJEIiUM0S
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) October 31, 2024
https://twitter.com/i/status/1852039026456285455
Jeffrey Sachs
Jeffrey Sachs Killed Biden, Zelensky and Kamala!!! pic.twitter.com/INb5j8dLiN
— Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil (@ivan_8848) November 1, 2024
RFK
Jake Tapper throws a tantrum on CNN about Trump saying he will let RFK Jr. go wild on health:
“Just a reminder RFK Jr. has no medical license, and has made wildly inaccurate claims about all sorts of medicines including childhood vaccines.”
“There aren’t even words to describe… pic.twitter.com/btl3CfGhu8
— End Tribalism in Politics (@EndTribalism) November 1, 2024
https://twitter.com/i/status/1852306377504608646
Bolton
NEW: Trump absolutely rips "dope" John Bolton, says he was good during negotiations because foreign leaders thought he was insane.
"Bolton a real dope. He was like a boiler every time. If somebody shot down a little tiny, crappy drone that cost about $15, he'd want to go to war… pic.twitter.com/ncIL93zuJz
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 1, 2024
Putin
https://twitter.com/i/status/1851760343489405075
Alina
https://twitter.com/i/status/1852090630291493214
Tucker J6
No one has ever gone to prison for the real crimes of January 6th. Liz Cheney destroyed a man’s life to cover up her role in the hoax. Here’s what really happened.
(0:22) The January 6th Aftermath
(5:24) What Role Did Liz Cheney Play in the J6 Committee?
(12:18) Cassidy… pic.twitter.com/XwkltCZNT5— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) November 1, 2024
Bannon Clark
“Trump is talking about solving problems for Americans while Kamala Harris is focused exclusively on attacking him..”
• The GOP’s Closing Argument: ‘Kamala Broke It, Trump Will Fix It’ (Whedon)
Former President Donald Trump and his supporters have sounded their closing refrain in the final week of the campaign, arguing that Harris is responsible for the current state of the nation and that the only remedy is the return of the 45th president. “Kamala broke it, but I will fix it,” Trump declared at his Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday evening. The line has become something of a secondary slogan for the campaign, with Trump himself and his surrogates alike repeating it at every opportunity. The campaign appears to be banking on most of the electorate deciding they were better off under Trump and aims to cast Harris as the one pulling the strings in the Oval Office. “Fixing it,” moreover, refers to his laundry list of policy items, in particular his border security and tax policies, but applies to initiatives across all the major issues.
“Trump is talking about solving problems for Americans while Kamala Harris is focused exclusively on attacking him,” one campaign official told Fox News. He is “asking people to vote for something, while she is asking for people to vote against something.” Other surrogates have embraced the messaging. In a recent op-ed for Fox Business, former Trump advisor Larry Kudlow highlighted inflation data and cost-of-living figures to show that the American people are worse off. He took the “riff” a measure further, however, by highlighting Trump’s allies, who would work in the administration to help repair the nation. “There are lots of other folks — both new and old allies — who are helping Mr. Trump, but this is an important representative group,” wrote Kudlow. “[T]he group, along with many others, shows that Donald Trump has the confidence and good judgment to get the very best people on his team, and that’s why he can say, with growing confidence: Kamala broke it, Trump will fix it. That’s the riff.”
Kudlow, in particular, highlighted former [presidential candidate] Vivek Ramaswamy, Elon Musk, JD Vance, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, and a handful of others. Vance himself made the point during a Tuesday rally, saying “[t]hink about the big tent coalition that we’ve assembled. On the right, we’ve got people like Brian Kemp, Nikki Haley. On the left, we’ve got people like Tulsi Gabbard, Bobby Kennedy.” “This is the common sense coalition that’s ready to take the country in a more positive direction. But it’s very simple. Kamala Harris broke it. And Donald Trump will fix it,” he concluded. The campaign is not the first to embrace such messaging. On the world stage, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban made a similar point in March of this year, amid escalating conflicts in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. “President [Donald Trump] was a president of peace. He commanded respect in the world, and created the conditions for peace,” Orban said. “During his presidency there was peace in the Middle East and peace in Ukraine. We need him back more than ever!”
“It is up to Americans to make their own decision, and it is up to us Hungarians to frankly admit that it would be better for the world – and better for Hungary, too – if President Donald Trump were to return to power,” he added. Trump himself has repeatedly pointed to Orban’s comments and did so again at a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, earlier this week. “Victor Orban, the powerful Prime Minister of Hungary said, ‘bring back Trump, and everything will stop. All these wars, everything will stop. They respected him.’ He actually said differently. He said they feared him, but I don’t care,” Trump said. “China was afraid. Russia was afraid. They’re all afraid. And you know what? I don’t want [them] to be afraid. I just want respect,” he added. “And they got to respect us again right now. They’re laughing at our country. They’re laughing at us. If we win, America will be feared and respected again and then on issue after issue, Kamala broke it, and I will fix it.”
“..the national popular vote has favored Harris for months, but now has shifted in Trump’s favor..”
• National Climate, Polling Points to a Trump Victory (Jim Lee)
Currently, both the national climate and the polling seems to point to a Trump victory in November. For instance, according to polling averages , only 28% of Americans say the country is going in the right direction, compared to 61% who say it’s on the wrong track. Why is this important? Because wrong track voters are more apt to vote for the party out of power – i.e., the Trump campaign – than the party “in power.” Second, President Joe Biden’s average approval rating is still at a dismal 41% nationally, with a higher 56% of Americans saying they disapprove of his job performance. Why is this important? Because if Americans are unhappy with the president’s job performance, they theoretically should be less likely to vote for another four years of his administration with a vote for the Harris campaign.
And remember, when Kamala Harris was asked on a national network television program just recently if she would have done anything different than Biden, she couldn’t answer. In other words, she seems to have unwittingly conceded that she represents another four years of a Biden presidency. Another reason the political climate seems to favor Republicans at the current time has to do with how Americans are self-identifying in polls. According to national polling, in October 2016, the country self-identified as Democrat by a 3-point margin over Republicans. In October 2020, the country self-identified as Democrat by a higher 6-point margin. But in September of this year, just last month, new polling showed Republicans with a 1-point lead over Democrats on party self-identification. This could prove important because it seems to suggest that more Americans are aligned with the GOP brand than the Democrats – another good sign for the Trump campaign.
Moreover, the current polling has shifted in Trump’s favor both nationally and in critical battleground states. For instance, the RCP average of national polls now shows Trump with a 48.4 to 48.3% lead – just one tenth of a percent difference, but still leaning Trump. This is a big deal because the national popular vote has favored Harris for months, but now has shifted in Trump’s favor. This could be a sign of which way the political winds are blowing. Plus, polling averages currently show that Trump leads in all seven battleground states, including Pennsylvania (.6 percent lead), Michigan (.2 points), Wisconsin (.2 points), Arizona (1.5 points), North Carolina (.8 points), Georgia (2.2 points) and Nevada (.7 points). These are RCP averages as of October 26.
In Pennsylvania, Trump’s lead is significant when you consider that on that day in 2020, Biden led in the RCP averages in Pennsylvania by 4.8%; Biden of course went on to eek out a narrow margin over Trump by only 1.2%. Back in 2016 at this time, Hillary Clinton led in the RCP averages by 4.3 points, only to lose to Trump by a razor-thin, 48.58 to 47.85 margin on Election Day (or 44,292 votes). So, are we on the cusp of a landslide (Electoral College) victory for Trump? No one knows for sure, but it could happen. In Pennsylvania, our latest poll shows a 46% to 45.8% statistical tie between Trump and Harris (Harris leading by .2 percentage points). This poll was conducted October 18-22 with a sample size of 500 likely voters. But there is plenty of good news for Trump in this poll.
I don’t know guys… Trumps crowd is starting to look kinda small.
Jk… dude is a rockstar ⭐️
— MJTruthUltra (@MJTruthUltra) November 1, 2024
“..the SCOTUS is going to turn a flame thrower on Judge Merchan and Alvin Bragg and vacate the absurd case and every half-assed procedure that was used to arrive at it..”
• Actually, The Democratic Party is Hitler (Kunstler)
Along about now, you’re probably wondering what sort of mayhem the Party of Chaos is set to unleash on our democracy after their mighty ballot fraud operation fails to overcome the yet more powerful instinct of the voters to expel them from the seats of power they seized by fraud in 2020 and 2022. You can be sure they’ve gamed-out a playbook aimed at paralyzing the nation one way or another if the effort to install Kamala Harris in the White House face-plants, as it appears to be doing in these final days before the reckoning. Rioting, arson, and looting in the cities? Not so much. Probably some, but only because it’s an excuse for 100-percent-off sale “shopping,” plus the need for hordes of dopamine-deprived youth to seek a little dangerous excitement — in a society that gives them nothing meaningful or purposeful to do. It’d surely reflect poorly on the regime clinging to power in the months before January 20.
Anyway, “Joe Biden,” Kamala, and company would be blamed for letting the cities get wrecked again, and then double-blamed by their own partisans if they try to stop it with the national guard. It’s a no-win deal for them. More likely, the Party will hijack the nation’s legal machinery to cancel the election ex post facto. They’ve done a swell job in advance setting up conditions that make it difficult if not impossible to sort out legal ballots cast from the frauds. So, expect the Party’s chief lawfare ninja Marc Elias, and his zillion-dollar-funded cadre of pettifoggers, to contest the swing-state precincts where their ballot-harvest somehow fell short a few bushels. They’ll file enough lawsuits to gum up the courts until the sun becomes a red dwarf. If the actual numbers add up to a Trump victory, the Democrats will re-brand that as the new “Big Lie” and commence a strenuous campaign in the old media to gaslight the public into believing the vote-count isn’t what it looks like.
After all, numbers are math and math is racist. That will provide the rationale, and furnish the game-space, to stop Trump by other means. Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD) has already advertised his scheme to knock Mr. Trump off the game-board by using Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to declare him an “insurrectionist,” disqualified from holding office. Of course, Mr. Trump has not been charged, indicted, or convicted for insurrection, nor was anyone involved in the J-6 protest and riot. Insurrection was supposed to be established as fact by the House J-6 Committee, but it died of illegitimacy after destroying all its accumulated records last year, including documents in evidence and the videos of all the witnesses it deposed. Whoops. The Jack Smith prosecution in Judge Tanya Chutkan’s DC Federal District court was a backup plan for that, but the July SCOTUS decision on presidential immunity has, so far, gummed up that ploy.
Mr. Raskin would need a Democratic House majority to pass such a resolution, in any case, and it looks unlikely that he will have that. A rather desperate gambit to oust Mr. Trump with a military coup, first advanced by former Pentagon official Rosa Brooks in a February, 2017, op-ed in the high-toned journal Foreign Policy, and reiterated by Nancy Pelosi in January, 2021, has been resurrected now that Mr. Trump is firmly branded as Hitler by the Party of Chaos — meaning he can be eliminated by any means necessary. “Joe Biden’s” woked-up generals might be game for a coup, but they’d have to overcome a lot of counter-coup-minded, not-so-woked-up colonels to get there. Anyway you cut it, the hysteria in the body politic is running at a pitch — as Mr. Trump himself might say — that has never been seen before, at least not since Fort Sumter.
The Democrats complain that a Trump victory means the Department of Justice will be weaponized against them. Is that rich, or what? It actually tells the whole story since you know the Party always accuses its opponents of exactly what it is already doing. Speaking of which, we must look forward to Judge Juan Merchan’s November 26th sentencing of Mr. Trump in DA Alvin Bragg’s “Stormy Daniels hush money” case. It’s out there, looming, and it ain’t going away. Judge Merchan is going to have to do. . . something! The jury has pronounced Mr. Trump guilty of those 34 “felonies” (based on 34 book-keeping entries, originally misdemeanors, and beyond the applicable statute of limitations).
I’d like to see the Judge stash the president-elect in the Rikers Island lockup for a few hours. It’ll be a better stunt than Mr. Trump’s shift serving fries at McDonald’s, or riding the garbage truck after “Joe Biden” called more than half the country that supports him “garbage.” Because a few hours after Mr. Trump settles into his Rikers cell and enjoys his first boloney sandwich, the SCOTUS is going to turn a flame thrower on Judge Merchan and Alvin Bragg and vacate the absurd case and every half-assed procedure that was used to arrive at it, and refer Merchan and Bragg for disbarment for professional misconduct, malicious prosecution, and failure to uphold the law.
“Our profession is now the least trusted of all. Something we are doing is clearly not working.”
• Trump Victory Means MSM Is Dead In Current Form (ZH)
CNN chief media analyst Brian Stelter shared a comment from an anonymous television executive on X, “If half the country has decided that Trump is qualified to be president, that means they’re not reading any of this media, and we’ve lost this audience completely. A Trump victory means mainstream media is dead in its current form.” The anonymous TV exec’s comment to Stelter nailed it. Trust in corporate media has been sliding for decades but has imploded to record-low levels in the last several years. History might show that the 2020s was the decade when the curtain was lifted on the censorship blob, a combination of MSM, government, big tech, nonprofits (fake fact-checkers), and globalist billionaires that work overtime to sow division across the nation, trick the American people into endless foreign wars, and artificially create a news flow environment favorable to far-left policies.
At the start of the year, Wall Street Journal EIC Emma Tucker told fellow elites at Davos: “We owned the news. We were the gatekeepers, and we very much owned the facts as well. Nowadays, people can go to all sorts of different sources for the news. And they’re much more questioning about what we’re saying.” Fast-forward to recent months, and some of those far-left globalist elites, including Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, sounded the alarm about free speech as their control over information waned with the rise of Elon Musk’s ‘free speech’ platform X. A combination of alternative media outlets, Musk and his platform X, helped to shape this election cycle with news flow that shifted ‘Overton Window’ from unthinkable and radical leftist propaganda to the center of common sense. This allowed for narratives such as ‘Bidenflation’ and ‘migrant invasion’ to dominate news cycles instead of the leftist propaganda of wokeism.
This, of course, has infuriated the Deep State’s censorship blob, which this week launched an attack on alternative media via the NYTimes And Media Matters. Perhaps one of the biggest wake-up calls for MSM was their full-blown hate-speech propaganda blitzkrieg of calling Trump a ‘Nazi’ and ‘Hitler’ – only finding out that most Americans have given up on CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, and MSNBC – and could care less about the misinformation and disinformation pushed by those muppets. Another big wake-up call for MSM was some of their own allies defecting from the liberal cause, including The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and USA Today, which the three papers did not endorse Harris-Walz nor any other candidate. This is out of the norm for these papers.
WaPo’s owner, Jeff Bezos, wrote in an explainer about his decision, indicating, “Our profession is now the least trusted of all. Something we are doing is clearly not working.” If Trump wins, David Sacks on X offered some views of what could be next for MSM…
> The major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) operate on free licenses of public spectrum in exchange for requirements to serve the public interest. They no longer do, and this is an obsolete model anyway. The spectrum should be auctioned off, with the proceeds used to pay down… > > — David Sacks (@DavidSacks) October 26, 2024
“He thinks he can cut $2 trillion without affecting anybody, and I think he can do it..”
• Trump Promises ‘Influential Positions’ For Musk and Kennedy (RT)
Donald Trump has confirmed that he will give Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “influential” positions in his government if he wins the upcoming presidential election. During an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson at a campaign event in Arizona on Thursday, Trump was asked whether Kennedy or Musk would become key figures in his administration, should he be reelected on November 5. “Yeah, I do. I think so,” the former president responded. He noted, however, that Musk has indicated that he “doesn’t want to become a secretary of something” and instead wants to focus on finding ways to reduce waste in government spending. “He thinks he can cut $2 trillion without affecting anybody, and I think he can do it,” Trump said. “He wants to cut costs, he wants to save the country.”
Despite initially proclaiming political neutrality, Musk officially endorsed Trump earlier this year and has become a major supporter of the former president in his bid to secure a second term in office. Trump has promised the Tesla CEO that he would establish a special “government efficiency” commission, dubbed DOGE, which would be headed by the billionaire if he wins the election. Speaking at a Trump campaign event in New York last week, Musk suggested that he could reduce the annual federal budget by “at least $2 trillion,” claiming that American taxpayers’ money was “being wasted.” Regarding Kennedy, Trump told Carlson that he wanted the former Democrat – who ran as an independent in this year’s presidential race before dropping out and backing Trump – to “work on health” and “take care” of the US population.
“He’s right with so much of the things he’s talking about, because you know, we’re not a healthy country,” Trump said. Earlier this week, Kennedy himself confirmed that Trump had promised him a role in his administration, noting that while he would not be leading any government agencies, he would likely play a part in choosing who does as a senior adviser of some sort. Trump transition team co-chair Howard Lutnic also said on Wednesday that Kennedy would not head the Health and Human Services department if Trump is reelected. Trump had previously also applauded Kennedy’s decades of work as an advocate for the health of American families and children, and had indicated that he would establish a “panel of top experts” that would work with him to investigate “what is causing the decades-long increase in chronic health problems and childhood diseases” in the US.
“Paulson said that if nominated, he would not anticipate pushback from the Senate.”
• Trump’s Potential Treasury Pick Vows Spending Cuts in Partnership With Musk (NTD)
Billionaire John Paulson said he would work with Elon Musk to cut federal spending, particularly by reducing green energy subsidies, if appointed Treasury Secretary under Trump’s administration. Paulson shared these comments during a Tuesday interview with The Wall Street Journal. “All of these tax subsidies for solar, for wind, inefficient, uneconomic energy sources. Eliminate that. That brings down spending,” he told the media outlet. He specifically mentioned targeting green energy subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act, which he referred to as the “Green New Deal.” A staunch Trump ally and major donor to his 2016, 2020, and 2024 campaigns, Paulson is also a trustee of the conservative Manhattan Institute, chaired by fellow Wall Street executive Paul Singer. Trump has named Paulson a possible Treasury Secretary if he wins the 2024 election.
Paulson’s stance mirrors Musk’s, who claimed he could slash at least 2trillionfromthefederalbudget.“Yourmoneyisbeingwasted,”MusksaidataTrumprallyonOct.27atNewYork’sMadisonSquareGarden.“We’regoingtogetthegovernmentoffyourbackandoutofyourpocketbook.”The2 trillion from the federal budget. “Your money is being wasted,” Musk said at a Trump rally on Oct. 27 at New York’s Madison Square Garden. “We’re going to get the government off your back and out of your pocketbook.” The 2trillionfromthefederalbudget.“Yourmoneyisbeingwasted,”MusksaidataTrumprallyonOct.27atNewYork’sMadisonSquareGarden.“We’regoingtogetthegovernmentoffyourbackandoutofyourpocketbook.”The2 trillion target amounts to nearly a third of current spending, with the federal government spending $6.75 trillion in fiscal year 2024, according to the Treasury Department. Trump mentioned that he asked Musk to lead the newly proposed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) aimed at auditing U.S. federal agencies. Musk replied on X, saying, “I can’t wait. There is a lot of waste and needless regulation in government that needs to go.” Neither Trump nor Musk has provided details on the specific programs they would cut.
Musk, like Paulson, is a prominent Trump supporter, campaigning with him, donating nearly 120milliontoapro−TrumpsuperPAC,andpledging120 million to a pro-Trump super PAC, and pledging 120milliontoapro−TrumpsuperPAC,andpledging1 million to voters who support free speech and gun rights. On Monday, Philadelphia’s district attorney asked a state judge to block Musk’s $1 million giveaway, calling it an “illegal lottery scheme. The Treasury Secretary manages federal finances and tax laws, often engaging with Wall Street, business leaders, and foreign dignitaries. Paulson is among several candidates being considered for the role, alongside Scott Bessent, founder of Key Square Group and a Trump ally on Wall Street, former trade ambassador Robert Lighthizer, and former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton.
Paulson said that if nominated, he would not anticipate pushback from the Senate. “I have good relationships with senators on both sides of the aisle. The review process is a rigorous process. That’s a hurdle that would have to be crossed before we get to the Senate. I think once we cross that review process, I wouldn’t expect opposition.” he told The Wall Street Journal. The economy stands as the top issue for voters in the 2024 presidential election. A Gallup poll found it is the only topic over 50 percent of registered voters rated as “extremely important” in shaping their decision.
“The only people this will work on is low IQ morons, which tells you something about how the Harris campaign views American voters.”
• Trump Is Suing CBS For $10 BILLION For Election Interference (MN)
President Trump has filed a $10 billion lawsuit against CBS news over its deceptive editing of Kamala Harris’ 60 Minutes interview. Trump is accusing CBS of election interference to help Harris, with his attorneys stating “CBS’ partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference through malicious, deceptive, and substantial news distortion calculated to confuse, deceive, and mislead the public.” Trump further charges that CBS was blatantly attempting “to tip the scales in favor of the Democratic Party as the heated 2024 Presidential Election — which President Trump is leading — approaches its conclusion.” “President Trump brings this action to redress the immense harm caused to him, to his campaign, and to tens of millions of citizens in Texas and across America by CBS’s deceptive broadcasting conduct,” the lawsuit further states.
60 Minutes was caught editing Kamala’s answers in an attempt to make her sound somewhat coherent. They left her word salad answer to a question about Israel on the cutting room floor, replacing it with a completely different sentence that she said earlier in the interview. CBS News has also refused to release the full transcript of the interview. Trump should also file a lawsuit against Harris’ campaign for deceptively editing footage of him speaking at rallies and during interviews. Yet again Thursday, the Kamala HQ X account posted an out of context clip of Trump talking about Liz Cheney, with a caption insinuating that he’d like to see her shot in the face. If you watch the full clip, Trump is talking about how hawkish Cheney is, and how such politicians will eagerly send young Americans to die in pointless wars while they sit in their DC offices.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1852213972281270565
They do the same thing daily with out of context clips of Trump, because it’s all they’ve got. With the example above from yesterday, where Trump wasn’t even talking about abortion or women’s rights, Harris repeated the lie and CBS made it headline news: The only people this will work on is low IQ morons, which tells you something about how the Harris campaign views American voters.
“Now, the White House Press office is being criticized from a new quarter for the clean up on aisle three: the Director of White House Stenography, Amy Sands..”
• White House On the Rewriting of President Biden’s Garbage Comments (Turley)
Since the “Let’s Go, Brandon” incident, the media has been repeatedly accused of reframing news or rewriting words to benefit the President or the Biden-Harris Administration. This week, the White House Press Office and various media outlets like Politico and MSNBC have been ridiculed for denying that President Joe Biden called Trump supporters “garbage.” It has created a weird dissonance as Democratic politicians denounced what the White House and many in the press denied was said. Now, the White House Press office is being criticized from a new quarter for the clean up on aisle three: the Director of White House Stenography, Amy Sands. The White House stenographers objected to the rewriting of the transcript by the Biden White House staff to suggest that the President was condemning Trump’s rhetoric, not his supporters.
The President’s attack on Trump supporters was nothing new. Leaders like Hillary Clinton called them “deplorables,” and Biden himself has described their views as a return of the confederacy and the rise of fascism. Democrats have called the movement a modern form of Nazism and an effort to destroy democracy, round up homosexuals, and create internment camps. The problem was the timing. As Harris was denouncing Trump for name-calling and insisting that Democrats are bringing the country together (while condemning Trump as a modern version of Hitler), Biden was literally behind her in the White House, calling tens of millions of Trump supporters “garbage.” Fox News reportedly obtained an email in which the supervisor sounded the alarm on the White House press office’s “breach of protocol and spoilation of transcript integrity between the Stenography and Press Offices.”
Sands went on to say that “if there is a difference in interpretation, the Press Office may choose to withhold the transcript but cannot edit it independently. Our Stenography Office transcript — released to our distro, which includes the National Archives — is now different than the version edited and released to the public by Press Office staff…After last night’s process, our team would like to reiterate that rush drafts/excerpts the Stenography Office sends to assist the Press Office are not intended for public distribution or as the final version of the transcript. Please avoid sharing rush drafts/excerpts, which are subject to review and might create confusion among staff, media, and the public while our Stenography Office completes a thorough review process.”
The White House was criticized for adding an apostrophe to the President’s comments to change the meaning of the key line. After the statement, there was an immediate clean-up effort by Politico White House bureau chief and MSNBC host Jonathan Lemire, who was accused of changing the language by saying that “Biden, in a Zoom call with the organization Voto Latino, said ‘the only garbage’ was the ‘hatred’ of Trump supporters who said such things about American citizens.” Lemire was widely ridiculed. For many, it sounded like another “Let’s Go Brandon” moment. He later turned to the apostrophe spin: “The full Biden quote from the Zoom tonight, which is being taken out of context.”
Accompanying the text is a screenshot of a transcript that has Biden saying: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.” The spin would have been more convincing if many of these pundits were not at the same time insisting that a line from a comedian delivered at a Trump event should be attributed to Trump (despite his later condemnation of any such view). It would also be more credible if Biden had not spent much of the last four years portraying the Trump movement as a new confederacy (before it was reframed as the new Third Reich).
“The whole conduit of money into politics is fundamentally broken, we have to fix that.”
• Vance-Rogan Interview (ZH/ET)
Near the start of the interview, Vance discussed how he was selected to be Trump’s running mate—and how it’s changed his and his family’s life. Vance said he didn’t learn that Trump had picked him until July 15, the first day of the Republican National Convention. That day, he said he missed Trump’s first effort to call him as he was playing with his children. A few minutes later, he realized that he had missed the call and called Trump back. “Hey, sir, what’s going on?” Vance recalled saying. He said Trump replied: “JD, you’ve just missed a very important phone call. I’m gonna have to pick someone else.” Vance said he began to panic, only for Trump to say: “No, I’m just kidding. Obviously, I want you to be my vice president.” Vance said the call wasn’t a total surprise; by that point, he believed he had about a 60 percent chance of being picked for the No. 2 job.
Though Vance has been a U.S. Senator since 2023, he said he was able to remain somewhat anonymous most of the time—people often had no idea who he was. “It’s definitely weird just not being anonymous at all anymore,” Vance said. He noted the many changes that have occurred for his family since he became a candidate: his child’s schoolmates have started a game called “boss man” where they pretend to be Secret Service agents; Vance can’t drive his family around anymore; and he receives both praise and condemnation from people in public. “There are a lot of benefits to it. There’s a lot of downsides to it,” Vance said. “It’s what I asked for. I don’t have to think too much about it or complain too much about it. I just try to accept it.”
Vance described how the Republican Party was changing under Trump—particularly in relation to its attitude toward corporations and money in politics. Vance and Rogan discussed a variety of controversial social issues—transgenderism, environmentalism, Big Tech, and the pharmaceutical industry—that Vance said are all influenced by money. Vance has often outlined a unique position on economic issues that aligns more closely with populism than with 20th-century Republican positions. He’s expressed support for unions in principle; he’s often critical of corporate and elite institutions; he’s pushed for state policies to incentivize the creation of families. Once, Vance said, Republicans were openly the party of corporations. Since Trump’s entry into the party in 2016, however, Vance said that Republicans are now more willing to ask “Is this corporation’s interest in the American people’s interest?”
When evaluating other social movements, Vance said that people need to apply more scrutiny to their potential hidden motives. For instance, he noted that transgender drugs and operations are profitable to the pharmaceutical industry, as were COVID-19 vaccines—particularly because pharmaceutical companies are given broad immunity from liability for adverse reactions. “We should just ask ourselves, ‘Who’s getting rich from this stuff?’ Maybe we should be skeptical of people getting rich from this stuff,” Vance said. “The whole conduit of money into politics is fundamentally broken, we have to fix that.”
[..] The two also discussed abortion. Vance said he and Trump want to make it a state issue—so California can make its own laws while Alabama can do the same. Trump recently said he would veto a national abortion ban if Congress sent one to his desk. Vice President Kamala Harris has accused Trump of lying and has used the 2022 Supreme Court Dobbs decision to mobilize women voters. Rogan said he worries that some states with strict bans could put women in “very vulnerable positions” if they seek care across state lines, and face potential legal consequences when they return home. The host also said the “life begins at conception” position is rooted in religion, and is concerned about that dictating “whether or not a person can legally travel to another state.” Vance said he is not aware of laws that could do that, but nonetheless disagrees with arresting women seeking abortions. “I think I’m trying to be fair to both sides here [and] balance the interest in life against the interest in autonomy,” Vance said, adding that “pro-life” people need to be “pro-family” beyond just being “pro-birth.”
“My sincere wish is to just have a nice conversation and get to know her as a human being. I really hope we can make it happen.”
• Joe Rogan Says He Gave Harris Campaign “Open Invitation”, Still Stands (ZH)
Podcaster Joe Rogan said in an Oct. 30 episode of his show that he gave Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign an “open invitation” to sit down for an interview at any time. “I said anytime. I said if she’s done at 10, we’ll come back here at 10. I’ll do it at 9 in the morning, I’ll do it at 10 p.m. I’ll do it at midnight if she’s up, if she wants to, you know, drink a Red Bull,” he said, recalling what he told the campaign. Rogan’s show features around 14 million subscribers on Spotify, making it the top show on the platform, but it also generates significant traffic and engagement on YouTube. His interview with former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, released late last week, has garnered more than 41 million views on YouTube so far.
While speaking to comedians Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster during episode 2220 of The Joe Rogan Experience….Rogan said that Harris “actually reached out when she found out that [Trump] was coming on.” “So their camp reached out to me,” he said. “So I said, ‘Great, I would love to talk to her.’ But it was very difficult to tie it down. They wanted [me] to travel, and see, the thing is, if I go somewhere, then there’s going to be other people in the room. And they want to control a lot of things, I’m sure.” As The Epoch Times’ Jack Phillips reported, Harris was in Houston last week and held a rally there featuring an endorsement and speech from pop singer Beyoncé. In a social media post earlier this week, Rogan said that the Harris campaign had conditions for the Democratic presidential nominee to do the interview. The Epoch Times previously reached out to the campaign, which has not responded to Rogan’s remarks, for comment.
“For the record, the Harris campaign has not passed on doing the podcast,” Rogan wrote in a social media post on Tuesday. “They offered a date for Tuesday, but I would have had to travel to her, and they only wanted to do an hour. I strongly feel the best way to do it is in the studio in Austin. My sincere wish is to just have a nice conversation and get to know her as a human being. I really hope we can make it happen.” During the episode with Kisin and Foster, Rogan also addressed speculation that he might be a covert Trump supporter. “Just because of my appearance, there’s always been this assumption that I’m some right-wing MAGA guy,” he said, referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. “I’m a politically homeless person for sure. You know, I always considered myself a left-wing person. I never thought I would ever vote right-wing, but then the tides of culture shifted in a very bizarre way. And it just made me, over time, much more aware of what this stuff is really all about.”
Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), will also air on Rogan’s show after being interviewed at Rogan’s Austin studio on Wednesday. Both Trump and Harris have engaged in a flurry of campaigning as the race draws to a close. Both candidates have taken part in several podcasts ahead of the 2024 General Election as they attempt to reach new audiences. More than 60 million people have cast early ballots so far ahead of the Nov. 5 contest, according to data released by the University of Florida’s Election Lab.
“If this election is about anything — apart from the price of groceries, of course — it is about the national-security state’s place in American politics..”
• Portents of Chaos (Patrick Lawrence)
I have long detected that American liberalism has at its core a vein of illiberalism that is essential to its character. America is simply not, to put this point another way, a tolerant nation. It does not encourage its people to think: It requires them to conform. Alexis de Tocqueville saw this coming two centuries ago in the two volumes of Democracy in America. We are now, post–Clinton, treated to the spectacle of full-dress liberal authoritarianism, and if you do not like the term there are others. De Tocqueville, prescient man, called it “soft despotism.” I’ve always favored “apple-pie authoritarianism.” There is a feature of this awful manifestation among NPR–addicted, kale-eating liberals that distinguishes our time as especially discouraging as to the future. This is their wanton corruption of some of the institutions without which even a semblance of democratic government is impossible. I am thinking particularly of three that figure in the pre-election picture.
One is the judiciary — federal, state, county, local. Beginning with the Mueller investigation, the in-plain-sight corruption of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the ridiculous court cases brought against Donald Trump, Attorney–General Merrick Garland’s subversion of the Justice Department to protect President Joe Biden as his son’s influence-mongering schemes came to light — all this in behalf of the Democrats: Well, as I learned during my days as a correspondent abroad, when the judicial system goes down, the path to failed-state status opens. Two is the intelligence apparatus and the military. Intel, from the days of James Clapper and John Brennan, has lined up unequivocally behind the Democrats ever since the brash real-estate man from New York foolishly assumed he could “drain the swamp” — his declaration that he would take on the Deep State.
As to the military, the generals thought nothing of declaring eight years ago, at the Democrats’ convention in Philadelphia and in open letters published in the Times, that they would refuse the commander-in-chief’s orders were Trump to win and attempt a new détente with Russia and an end to “the forever wars.” Yes, you’ve got John Kelly, who served in Trump’s cabinet and then as his chief of staff, suddenly calling Trump a fascist — the Democrats’ favorite epithet these past weeks. Doesn’t anyone want to know why Kelly worked closely with a man he considered a fascist? Doesn’t it occur to anyone — it must, surely — that Kelly, a retired Marine general, says these things to serve the party he trusts to keep the wars going and the tax dollars flowing? A paradox here, more apparent than real: John Kelly, H.R. McMaster, James Mattis, Mark Esper, and various others like them did not wear uniforms when they served in the Trump administration, but they never took them off.
If this election is about anything — apart from the price of groceries, of course — it is about the national-security state’s place in American politics. In our post–2016 era, intel and the military are perfectly welcome to operate openly, unabashedly, in the American political process — this because the Democratic Party gives them a wide berth to do so.
“The EU, however, insists on ignoring reality and keeps talking about a “victory” for Ukraine..”
• Western Europeans Don’t Understand Russia – Orban (RT)
Most EU politicians misunderstand Russia and project their own policies and priorities on Moscow instead, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said. Orban is a long-time critic of the EU policy on the Russia-Ukraine conflict. He spoke at an event with former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in Vienna, organized by the Swiss newspaper Die Weltwoche. “It is a Christian country and part of Europe, but it is different from us,” Orban told the audience at the Sophiensale in the Austrian capital on Thursday. “Their politics revolves around a different question than ours.” In the West, Orban explained, the focus is on maximizing individual freedom and material prosperity. Russia’s oft-misunderstood priority is keeping the multi-ethnic state of 140 million people together and preventing adversaries from “chewing away” some territories, he said.
This inability to adequately understand Russia is a major “intellectual problem” for Western leaders, Orban said. Instead, people like European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen speak about some kind of military victory over Russia in Ukraine, which the Hungarian prime minister described as the stuff of fantasy. Russia cannot be defeated on the battlefield and will in fact win the war, both Schroeder and Orban agreed. They advocated a ceasefire as soon as possible, arguing that time is working against Vladimir Zelensky. The EU, however, insists on ignoring reality and keeps talking about a “victory” for Ukraine. “This war is lost for Ukraine, which is increasingly in ruins!” Orban told the Vienna audience, pointing out that it is important to face reality.
Asked about his “peace mission” to Kiev, Moscow, Beijing, and Mar-a-Lago earlier this year, Orban said he tried to use Hungary’s presidency of the EU Council to bring about a ceasefire and stop the killing, rather than get “pats on the back from Brussels bureaucrats.” Orban has accused the EU, specifically Von der Leyen and another prominent German politician, of seeking to oust him and replace him with a “Jawohl government” that would take orders from Brussels and Berlin. He has pointed to public statements by EU officials to that effect, including the claim that they already did this in Poland last year. Hungary was long the sole dissenter with the EU policy of unconditional support for Kiev, until last year’s election of Robert Fico in Slovakia. Earlier this year, Fico barely survived an assassination attempt by a pro-Ukrainian activist.
Soros
Every American Voter Needs to be Aware of This
1st Video: The Prime Minister of Hungary exposes the document proving George Soros is largely behind the global illegal migrant invasion
2nd Video: Judge Joe Brown exposes Kamala Harris is funded and owned by George Soros
If you… pic.twitter.com/bTRt7uRnX7
— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) October 31, 2024
They want Russia to sign on to some American deal.
• Israel Wants Russia To Mediate Peace – Media (RT)
Israel wants Russia to take part in peace efforts aimed at ending the Jewish state’s conflict with the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Ynet news and several other local outlets have reported, citing officials involved in negotiations. According to the reports, West Jerusalem expects that Moscow’s involvement could add stability to any future deal and reduce dependence on the US. “The Russians will have a special role in implementing the agreement and preventing further escalation,” a source told Ynet. Commenting on the reports, Orna Mizrahi, a former Israeli deputy national security adviser, told Newsweek that while Israel “prefers the Americans,” it understands that Russia’s “good relations” with Iran could contribute to the stability of any deal on Lebanon reached in the future.
“Another point is the fact that they are part of the UN Security Council five and if we get to the point that we have some kind of a new resolution about the ceasefire in the UN Security Council, we would like the Russians to approve it,” she said. Israeli media reports claimed this week that negotiations on a ceasefire deal in Lebanon have already reached “advanced stages.” US President Joe Biden’s envoy, Amos Hochstein, who is mediating between Israel and Lebanon, reportedly reached preliminary agreements on the deal during a visit to Beirut earlier this week. The deal involves a wider implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1701, passed in 2006, which demands the withdrawal of Hezbollah forces from the Lebanese-Israeli border. It introduces an international mechanism to supervise the region and deal with violations claims by either Israel or Lebanon and reportedly prevents Hezbollah from rearming, which effectively means the group would be banned from acquiring military means.
Israeli officials told Ynet that the deal, if signed, would start with a 60-day cease-fire, during which time the new mechanism to supervise the region would be set up. Hochstein is reportedly expected to arrive in Israel before the US presidential election scheduled for November 5 to finalize the deal. The reports claim that Moscow has already discussed the situation with Iran, which is said to be encouraging Hezbollah to agree to the terms. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Friday neither confirmed nor denied Russia’s involvement in the peace process, but said Moscow “maintains contacts with all parties of the conflict.” “And, of course, if our assistance is needed, Russia is ready to play its part,” he stated.
“..an independent Palestinian state..”
but
“..Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed not to allow the creation of a fully functional Palestinian state..”
• Moscow Names Only Chance For Middle East Peace (RT)
The conflict in the Middle East can only be resolved by stopping the violence and creating the conditions for establishment an independent Palestinian state, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated on Friday. “There will be no winners” in the ongoing war, he added. In an interview with the Turkish daily Hurriyet, Lavrov said we are seeing a deepening spiral of violence in the Middle East and that an increasing number of countries are being drawn into the “whirlpool of confrontation.” Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah have exchanged fire over the past year as the latter has supported the Palestinian cause in light of West Jerusalem’s military operation against Hamas. Israel has escalated its campaign against the Shiite militant group, launching attacks on Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
Tensions between Tehran and West Jerusalem have also escalated since Israel conducted a series of strikes against targets in Iran last week. The attack was in response to a barrage of missiles fired by Iran at the Jewish state in October – which itself was in retaliation for the killing of Hezbollah and Iranian commanders. The Russian minister has urged the sides to stop further escalation before the situation gets out of hand. Tens of thousands of “innocent Palestinians” have been killed in Gaza since the outbreak of the conflict with Israel, while in Lebanon the number of victims is in the thousands, he said. Lavrov noted that Russia has condemned the assassination of Hamas and Hezbollah political leaders, warning that it could worsen the already tense situation in the region and undermine attempts to end the war in Gaza. The top diplomat noted that Moscow had earlier proposed that the UN Security Council give an assessment of the killings, however, “due to resistance from Western members of the Security Council, this was not possible.”
Moscow calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities and is undertaking diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the situation, according to Lavrov. However, long-lasting peace in the region can only be established “though the creation of an independent Palestinian state within the borders of 1967,” the minister stressed. Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas earlier this year that the roots of the Gaza conflict are that UN resolutions regarding the creation of an independent Palestinian state have been ignored. Currently the state of Palestine is recognized by 146 UN members and half of the G20, including China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, and Türkiye. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly vowed not to allow the creation of a fully functional Palestinian state.
Progress, change comes not smoothly in a linear way, but in bursts and spurts.
• The Paradigm Shift Is Here (Jeffrey A. Tucker)
Some wild shifts are taking place in our time. The low-tariff global trade order is falling apart. Nationalist movements are gaining strength in every Western nation, not just the United States. The major media is under serious financial strain to the point that the owner of the Washington Post has penned an editorial decrying the tendency to speak only to elites. A presidential candidate is talking about scrapping the income tax. The Supreme Court earlier this year ruled that 40 years of regulatory jurisprudence is essentially contrary to the Constitution. The list goes on and on with the rise of homeschooling, the reliance on alternative media, the dramatic shift in partisan affiliations over healthy food, the unpredictable alliances over the U.S. role in the world, and so much more. People are asking fundamental questions about issues that only a few years ago seemed fully settled. What was stable is unstable and what was believed by nearly everyone is now widely doubted.
It’s enough to make one’s head spin. What is happening and why is it happening? The short answer is that we are living through a class paradigm shift. One is going away and another is coming. We are in pre-paradigmatic times, which are surely the most exciting times to be alive.
The word paradigm entered into the mainstream of thought with an important book by Thomas Kuhn. His “The Structure of Scientific Revolutions” appeared in 1962, and it completely upended the dominated assumptions about how science works. More than that, it implicitly shook how people came to understand how progress takes place. He said it is not a linear process with every generation absorbing the best from the last but rather that progress is episodic, a shift from success to failure and back again, through titanic movements of large paradigms. Kuhn arrived at this conclusion by looking at the long history of science and noticing the tendency toward complacency around an orthodoxy of some sort. This is the period he calls “normal science.” The practitioners have all been schooled in a certain way, deferring to teachers and dominant institutions that have captured government and the public mind. It’s a way of understanding the world and within that the main practitioners focus on problem-solving and applications.
This period of normal science can last a month or decades or centuries, rarely questioned. And then something happens. Kuhn writes that this orthodoxy comes to be challenged by certain features of reality that are not explained by normal science. Once these are more closely investigated, the anomalies start to pile up and then overwhelm the explanatory power of the settled paradigm. The longer this goes on, the more the paradigm comes under strain, as a new generation seizes on the failures and highlights the incapacity of the orthodoxy to account for the reality all around us. That’s when the settled science breaks down. It can happen slowly or quickly, and sometimes paradigms overlap both in their popularity and their collapse. That collapse does not mean that every mind is changed. Kuhn observes that the practitioners of the old science continue on their merry way through retirement and final expiration, while the younger people work on cobbling together a new way of thinking that gradually emerges as the dominant paradigm.
Kuhn was writing about science and the profession thereof but his insight has broad application to sociological, cultural, and political ideas too. They do not evolve in a linear fashion, piling victory upon victory, as a Whiggish perspective of the 19th century would have it. Instead, change occurs episodically. One generation is as likely to forget the wisdom of the past as it is to overthrow the orthodoxies of the present. We are in a forever state of cobbling together truth rather than progressively unfolding it. We’ve seen this happen in the postwar world, as planners built structures that were supposed to govern the world forever. But in a few short years, the world came to be divided rather than united by the Western perception of the new threat of Russian imperialism. That created the Cold War which lasted for 40 years until a new “end of history” was born, which put freedom, democracy, and U.S. hegemony on the commanding heights. That turn has been challenged by the rise of China and huge industrial shifts in the 21st century.
If we were to name one dominant factor that has provoked the big change in our time, it would have to be the global response to the lab-created virus of SARS-CoV-2, which was met with Chinese Communist Party-style universal quarantines all over the world, and followed by shot mandates on most public institutions and many private businesses. These policies were extreme beyond which had been practiced in any period of history but also, and in many ways, merely an extension of the “normal science” of times. The media, large corporations, and nearly all governments got behind the pandemic response and jeered the non-compliers. This was a huge error because it gave rise to a full generation of the incredulous who lost trust in elites at all levels: medical, academic, media, and government. It has all fallen apart in our time, leaving people scrambling in all directions for explanations of what could have gone so wrong and what should be done about it.
What fascinates me about our election year is not so much the issues on the table but the underlying template that everyone knows is there but no one dares mention; namely the utter discrediting of elite opinion over the last four years. The claims of the experts simply became too implausible to compel public assent. And this time it was personal. People’s schools and churches were closed, loved ones forced on ventilators to die alone, and whole communities were shattered when public spaces were blocked. In other words, the “normal science” became a threat to people’s lives, especially once the vaccine mandates came along that most people did not want or need and which ended up being far less effective and far more dangerous than advertised. That was the turning point, the mark at which the anomalies overwhelmed the orthodoxies and the expert classes fell into disrepute.
Nothing about any of this would shock Thomas Kuhn, who gave us a map of understanding back in 1962. Finding that new way of thinking is the essence of our times, which is why everything seems to be in question. The other day, Elon Musk suggested cutting $2 trillion next year from the federal budget. It barely made the headlines, even though it is a highly credible promise. That’s the new world in which we live. It is being built on the embers of the old. To be sure, this shift will not happen all at once. It will happen in fits and starts and be accompanied by a great deal of alarm and even pain along the way. But one way or another, it is going to happen, and for one simple reason. As Jeff Bezos explained in the Washington Post, reality is an undisputed champion.
Elon
Elon Musk: “I think colleges are basically for fun and to prove you can do your chores, but they're not for learning – You don't need college to learn stuff – You can learn anything you want for free.” pic.twitter.com/CIX7bw8BHF
— ALEX (@ajtourville) November 1, 2024
Four and a half years ago, Elon Musk was managing expectations hard, saying the main goal of @Starlink was to be in the ‘not-bankrupt’ category of LEO constellations.
I think it's safe to say SpaceX has secured that goal. pic.twitter.com/vM2flhZ2Ig
— ALEX (@ajtourville) November 1, 2024
Tuna
An amazing five hour feeding frenzy as the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna Thunnus thynnus chased Garfish Belone belone off the south Devon coast today pic.twitter.com/osuhCcjDRp
— John Walters (@JWentomologist) October 30, 2024
Shoes
https://twitter.com/i/status/1852235112391278653
Sign
https://twitter.com/i/status/1852028051946618938
Barry Young
This is my personal story…
I worked for Health NZ as a Senior Database Administrator.
A vaccine payment database system that I built clearly showed excess deaths were occurring.
I tried to reach out to the Leadership Team at Health NZ.
This was their response… pic.twitter.com/DFV71OYQlm— Barry Young (@BarryYoungNZ) November 1, 2024
Support the Automatic Earth in wartime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.
October 19, 2024 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 8:52 am Finance Tagged with: Al Smith dinner, Biden, CBS, Chutkan, culpability, General Staff, Kamala, Nile, Obama, Trump, Zelensky
René Magritte Youth 1924
Vote against the machine!
pic.twitter.com/Wkz6dgAtWK— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 18, 2024
Al Smith
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847100390237499809
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847118287089397871
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847095450211377631
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847098080752971896
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847108883992793229
Elon waste
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847062684803469367
PURE FIRE FROM ELON MUSK 🔥
“We want secure borders, we want safe cities.. sensible spending. We want freedom of speech. We want the constitution to be upheld.”
"Anyone who is against those things is fundamentally anti-American and to hell with them!" pic.twitter.com/5WoWnZRJBg
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) October 17, 2024
Barron
Throughout my younger years, I watched as the mainstream media relentlessly attacked the Trump Family, mocking my father's candidacy and insisting he was a joke who could never become president. Their lies and blatant bias were astonishing. Yet, who’s laughing now? The media's… pic.twitter.com/5O7g8ByxqK
— Barron Trump 🇺🇸 NEWS (@news_barron) October 16, 2024
Kimbal
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847076821851951407
Trump 34
https://twitter.com/i/status/1846987041852346491
RFK
If the government is now the arbiter that it's determining what is misinformation or disinformation, it's not actually looking at the facts. It's looking at things that are critical of them. pic.twitter.com/8e7rXaisYt
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) October 17, 2024
Delaware
WATCH: An election integrity expert in Pennsylvania just revealed to Elon Musk that the state's officials have admitted in court that the voting machines are NOT secure
"Jonathan Marks admitted this in court last week."
Elon: Wow. He did?
"In court on a transcript." – Greg… pic.twitter.com/PwGmdjHYA6
— George (@BehizyTweets) October 17, 2024
AIPAC
WATCH & SHARE
This is John Ehrenberg, a Jewish Professor, exposing the nefarious methods and blatant election meddling employed by Israel’s AIPAC lobby in the U.S.
pic.twitter.com/byKX2CkgUu— Patrick Henningsen (@21WIRE) October 18, 2024
Apple
WOAH! President Trump just revealed that Apple CEO Tim Cook called him this morning to discuss outrageous fines imposed on Apple by the European Union.
Trump told Cook he needs to be elected first, but that he will take care of it when he gets back in office. It's quite telling… pic.twitter.com/ktm9QQzqQV
— Bad Hombre (@joma_gc) October 17, 2024
“..voting for the rich white man in this election doesn’t make you evil. It makes you wise.”
• Why Women Should Vote for Trump (Tiffany Marie Brannon)
Dear fellow women, You are being played… And falling for this particular confidence scheme won’t just cost you, it’ll cost all of us. I’m an affluent 30-something divorced, white, childless, American woman with multiple postgraduate degrees, and a busy career. I’ve lived abroad in several metropolitan cities and I own my home. According to every single statistic, I should be a J.D. Vance-loathing single cat lady. I should also really hate Donald Trump. But I don’t. Lest we forget, the presidency is not a popularity contest. There seems to be some confusion on that front. You aren’t casting a ballot for Prom Queen, you’re voting for the leader of the free world. It’s why that little thing called the Electoral College exists. I’ve heard other women say they’re voting for Vice President Kamala Harris because “she’s more iconic” than Trump. My response: what about inflation, foreign or domestic policy, war, immigration, education, human trafficking, or any other serious issue?
The truth is, if you actually voted for real pro-women policies, you’d vote for Trump. And the Left knows this. That’s why the Democratic Party has spent untold millions making Abortion the #1 issue for women. White women alone make up 40% of the electoral vote and 89 million American women total are registered to vote, making us the largest voting bloc in the nation. In 2020, swing states like Arizona, Michigan, Minnesota, and Pennsylvania saw women vote at record rates, with Biden winning 57% of female voters.We hold serious power. Hence why Democrats want to convince women that the unrestricted right to abortion is more important than the right to vote, freedom of speech, or any other right you can think of. Make abortion equalitarian with being female and tell them they are physically under attack by the GOP. Oh, and also by the Supreme Court. We can’t forget them.
Democrats have done such a good job with this indoctrination that, in a recent viral video, young women said they would rather have the right to an abortion over the right to vote. What are they teaching girls in schools these days? Yet even if you’re a passionately pro-choice voter, it’s silly to consider abortion as the critical issue at stake in this election. After all, Trump has already said he doesn’t favor a national abortion ban and that he would veto any such bill. According to KFF, only 14% of American women – or 7% of the American population – have had an abortion at some point in their life, 21% being Black, 19% Hispanic, and 11% White women. In contrast, 100% of Americans – women included – have to buy food, pay medical bills, and want to know their tax dollars are going to help them in an emergency. Just ask the victims of Hurricane Helene as they were offered a measly $750 after FEMA gave billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars away to noncitizens and foreign countries under the Biden Harris Administration.
We’ve been inundated with the message that voting for an objectively unpopular and recognized failure of a Vice President because she loves abortion, possesses a female reproductive system, and is of minority ethnicity is more important than anything else that matters. Ladies – don’t be so easily fooled. Trump’s record speaks for itself and is deserving of closer attention by female voters. The former president approved the largest paid parental leave program in history, guaranteeing 12 weeks of paid leave. He directed more than $200 million per year to technology education grants for women and programs that encouraged STEM careers. He founded the Women’s Global Development and Prosperity Initiative, the first-ever government program focused on advancing women’s “full and free participation” in the global economy. Trump also shone a spotlight on under-the-radar domestic women’s issues, establishing a task force for missing and murdered Native American women.
Under the Trump administration, women’s unemployment reached the lowest level in 67 years and women received over 70% of new jobs. Last I checked, those policies affect far more than 14% of the female population. Even Trump recognizes this. He recently observed, “Women want to have safety. They want to have a strong military. They want to have a strong police force… They want to be in their house and they want to be safe. … I hope they like my personality… But to me, it wouldn’t be very important, the personality.” He’s right. This is not a personality contest. It’s not about which candidate is more “iconic.” It is our duty as citizens to vote for the best policies, laws, and chances for us and our loved ones to thrive for years to come. Women voters are no exception to this rule. So, from one would-be single cat lady to a nation of others, consider this: voting for the rich white man in this election doesn’t make you evil. It makes you wise.
“Will the last person hanging around Harris-Walz campaign headquarters please turn off the lights?”
• The Collapse of Kamala Harris (Hammer)
On July 26, in the aftermath of the Democratic Party’s ruthless midsummer coup of their own democratically elected presidential nominee, this column predicted that the elevation of dimwitted cackler-in-chief Kamala Harris to the party’s presidential slot would “spectacularly backfire.” More specifically, I wrote: “Practically, the path to winning 270 Electoral College votes still runs through the Rust Belt states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. It is frankly bizarre for Democrats to swap out the man who talks ceaselessly about his hardscrabble Scranton upbringing for a Californian who boasts the most left-wing voting record of any presidential nominee in modern history.” I’m feeling pretty good these days about that prognosis. Harris recently campaigned in Erie, Pennsylvania—a crucial regional hub in this election cycle’s most important battleground state.
Conspicuously absent from that snoozefest was incumbent Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.). Harris tried to pass off the snub as a nothingburger, suggesting that Casey was doing the more important work of knocking on doors and getting out the vote. This doesn’t pass the laugh test. Facing a spirited challenge from Republican hopeful Dave McCormick, Casey has clearly concluded that Harris’ immense Bay Area lefty baggage—her history of endorsing the Green New Deal, a national fracking ban, and crippling electric vehicle mandates—is an electoral albatross around his neck. It’s tough to blame Casey. Other vulnerable Senate Democratic incumbents, such as Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.), reached the same conclusion a while ago. Such a conclusion makes a great deal of sense: A recent Marist national general election poll, for instance, shows Trump up a whopping 10 points on Harris with registered independents. If that margin ends up being anywhere near accurate, it is extraordinarily difficult to see a scenario in which Trump loses.
Harris has recently been engaging in what the psychology profession calls “projection,” ludicrously criticizing Donald Trump for avoiding the media when it was actually Harris who infamously avoided a single one-on-one sit-down interview for weeks on end following the Biden coup. In reality, Trump recently sat down for two interviews with Time magazine, whose owner is a vocal Harris donor. Harris declined a Time interview nonetheless. Prior to this week’s desperate, last-second change of course, which saw her sit down with Fox News’s Bret Baier, Harris had only deigned to sit down with the most obsequious media imaginable.
One can only wonder how bad the Harris-Walz internal polling must be to impel her to ditch the far-left “Call Her Daddy” podcast and the friendly ladies of “The View” for the considerably more mainstream Baier. Desperate times sure call for desperate measures. Democrats routinely blast Republicans as misogynistic, but their own chronic misandry is so bad that Kamala is apparently considering a sit-down with podcast king Joe Rogan, whose own brand of woke-skeptical irreverence sharply clashes with Harris’ identity politics obsessions and overt race-based pandering. The tables sure have turned. Will the last person hanging around Harris-Walz campaign headquarters please turn off the lights? Snark aside, this race isn’t over yet. But the Harris-Walz camp cannot possibly be feeling too good right now, either.
Democrats have no one to blame but themselves for their predicament. Throughout this interminable campaign season, they have studiously avoided substantive discussion of the four issues that Americans consistently tell pollsters are most important to them this cycle: the economy, inflation, immigration, and crime. Instead, they have repeatedly attempted to shift the electoral terrain back to the few issues that poll in their favor: namely, abortion and the Jan. 6 jamboree at the Capitol. In this, they have completely failed. The American people still care above all about the same four basic quality-of-life issues that they have cared the most about for years now. It is Democrats’ fault that they are so woefully out of touch with the voters’ sentiments on those issues and that the Biden-Harris administration’s track record polls as poorly as it does.
Perhaps if the Harris-Walz ticket does go down in flames, Democrats will pause and take a long, hard look in the mirror. Perhaps they will recognize that promising late-term abortion is a peculiar way to pander to women, that pledging mass amnesty for illegal aliens is a counterproductive way to pander to Hispanics, and that dangling marijuana legalization is an outright offensive way to pander to Blacks. Perhaps. But if history is any indication, they probably won’t.
“Most of all, Mr. Trump has to defeat the sick belief that anything goes and nothing matters.”
• The Three Layers of Culpability (Kunstler)
The Great Fright among the elite of the party ruling our country steals across the land chillingly now from sea to shining sea — as if all those ghouls, werewolves, zombies, and tormented wraiths assembled in the front yard Halloween displays send up one mighty wail of despair: Donald Trump will seek revenge against his enemies if you elect him! they scream into the pale moonlight. Well, he ought to, of course, and remember: they are your enemies, too — the FBI thugs battering down your doors at five in the morning, the malicious US attorneys manufacturing phony felonies, the Soros-owned DAs and party-owned judges, and the thousands of spooks from agencies both known and unheard-of surveilling your every move, every purchase, every journey, every thought. Consider that it is not whether Mr. Trump might seek revenge but whether justice, and the mental health of the nation, require an accounting for the real crimes of actual persons against the people of America lo these years of the Woke Jacobin Inquisition.
Finally, as the days dwindle down to November 5, you understand exactly what motivates the three layers of evil heaping America with malice and punishment. Layer one: the officers of the political establishment, a.k.a., “the blob” or Deep State, both current and emeritus. You know now that they are motivated to stay out of courts-of-law (and, ultimately, prison). Figures such as John Brennan, Merrick Garland, Lisa Monaco, Chris Wray, Anthony Fauci, Alejandro Mayorkas, Barack Obama, and many more, exude culpability for doing real harm to US citizens. They do not want to do time. As Dr. Johnson famously said: “When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” They see Donald Trump’s poll number go hockey stick and they tremble in their Beltway mansions. On the Kubler-Ross transect of grief, they are just now wavering between the stages of anger and bargaining.
Second layer: the lawfare lawyer gang deployed to keep the blob safe from investigation and prosecution: Marc Elias (the mail-in ballot fraud genius), Norm Eisen, Andrew Weissmann, Mary McCord (authors of every get-Trump legal brief), and many others who work with them, are motivated by the gigantic fees they command from the Democratic National Committee and other cut-out orgs that funnel payments to them. The Elias Law Group alone is rumored to have raked-in millions from one client, the Kamala Harris campaign. This is apart from whatever lawyerly zeal they exercise so enjoyably in their blood-lust for Mr. Trump and his associates. Remember: Jacobins are sadists who derive pleasure from cruelly punishing their adversaries. It probably motivates them more than the money involved, since ambitious Beltway lawyers can always and easily make bundles of money from the most mundane services to the blob.
Third Layer: the news media. The motives of these birds are the flimsiest: social status and professional stature. They operate within a self-referential reward bubble that provides psychological nourishment as long as they go along with the mumurations of their flock. They will be easiest to turn around as the national mood turns (and is now turning, sharply). A year from now, don’t be surprised if they treat Mr. Trump as a revered hero who saved the country from the malignant blob — and pretend that they never thought otherwise. By then, it will be too late for some, of course, and actual figures such as Lawrence O’Donnell and Rachel Maddow of MSNBC, Maggie Haberman of The New York Times, NBC’s Nicolle Wallace, will be drowning in their own slime trails.
Now, whether Mr. Trump would actively seek revenge is a thing apart from the paranoia of his adversaries. On the one hand, he seems aware that his own place in history will rest not on looking backward to the harms inflicted on him as the sacrificial goat for the sins of “the deplorables” — the many Lawfare cases against him will likely be reversed in higher courts, or just dropped — but on attending to and fixing the many obvious, reality-based problems afflicting the nation: inflation, the horrendous debt, the libido for war induced by military contractors and neocons, the return of productive industry and jobs that pay living wages, sealing the border and expelling dangerous aliens, and stopping the race-and-gender hustles, to name a few things.
In 2016, Mr. Trump floated the idea of defaulting on US debt, or negotiating its terms. Sounded outrageous to some at the time. Now, with the BRICs org meeting to de-dollarize their trade arrangements, might be a ripe time to make such a move. He can reverse “Joe Biden’s” 2021 reversal of his border policies by executive order on day one, put a stop to the “sanctuary city” idiocy, and end all cash incentives to illegals currently inside the USA. He can negotiate a reasonable end to the Ukraine conflict that leaves that country neutral, as everyone knows it should be. He can incentivize the return of factory production with US companies. He knows (and you know) that there is a huge agenda of practical problems to face. Mr. Trump does not need the aggravation of stirring up further grievance and resentment among the defeated Wokesters. He needs them to get aboard a national reclamation project, get their minds right, and lend a hand.
Speaking of hands, on the other hand, remember that the signal weakness of Julius Caesar was pardoning his enemies. Since Mr. Trump is best known as a deal-maker, I believe he will seek to make a deal with the blob. The deal will be for them to cooperate in the prosecution of certain key figures in exchange for not demolishing their agencies altogether. Some of these people — Garland, Mayorkas, Fauci, Brennan, and Wray, for examples — really do need to do some ‘splainin’ in front of juries. That may be sufficient to clarify for history some of the damage the Woke insanity did to our country. We can’t pretend that nothing happened. Most of all, Mr. Trump has to defeat the sick belief that anything goes and nothing matters.
“These days, it’s really a pleasure [to be] anywhere in New York without a subpoena for my appearance..”
• Trump Pokes Fun At His Subpoenas, Kamala’s Absence During Al Smith Dinner (JTN)
Former President Donald Trump on Thursday night poked fun at both himself and rival Vice President Kamala Harris during a speech at the Al Smith charity dinner in New York City. The dinner is a historic night where presidential candidates often make lighthearted jokes about each other while raising money for Catholic charities. Trump, who attended the event alongside his wife Melania Trump, joked about his recent court cases in the Big Apple, and claimed that he was happy to be in New York without a subpoena, The Independent reported. “These days, it’s really a pleasure [to be] anywhere in New York without a subpoena for my appearance,” Trump said. “Anytime I don’t get a subpoena, I’m very happy.”
Trump also teased Harris for not attending the event in person, while also commenting on a recent viral video of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer feeding a woman a chip in the same manner that a Catholic priest gives someone Communion. “I must say, I was shocked when I heard that Kamala was skipping the Al Smith dinner,” Trump observed. “I’d really hoped that she would come, because we can’t get enough of hearing her beautiful laugh. She laughs like crazy. We would recognize it any place in this room … Instead of attending tonight, she’s in Michigan receiving communion from Gretchen Whitmer.” Harris decided to skip the event to campaign in Wisconsin, becoming the first major party presidential candidate to skip the dinner since 1984, but did address the audience in a pre-recorded video.
“In the period after Biden’s debate meltdown, Harris insisted Biden was “sharp as a tack.”
• Harris’ One Answer To Bret Baier That Americans Just Don’t Believe (JTN)
Vice President Kamala Harris largely demurred on tough questions in her interview with Fox News’s Bret Baier, offering a concrete and definitive answer on only one key question. Unfortunately for her, it’s the one answer Americans just don’t buy. Harris’ ties to President Joe Biden have been a double-edged sword for her, as she simultaneously tries to distance herself from him and his unpopular administration while also asserting that she was a major player in the White House over the past four years. Ostensibly justifying her candidacy, however, was Biden’s failing mental health. When asked about Biden’s current mental health situation, she offered an unequivocal answer: Biden is fine. But that answer raised eyebrows. During the interview Baier pressed her on Biden’s cognitive decline, a development that became plain for all to see during his debate with former President Donald Trump and which served as the ostensive reason that top Democrats pressured him to step aside.
“You told many interviewers that Joe Biden was on his game [and] ran around circles on his staff. When did you first notice that President Biden’s mental faculties appeared diminished?” Baier asked her. Harris, for her part, deflected the premise of the question and insisted that “Joe Biden is not on the ballot.” She notably, however, took great care to assert that the president is competent to remain in office. “Joe Biden, I have watched in – from the Oval Office to the situation room, and he has the judgment and experience to do exactly what he has done in making very important decisions on behalf of the American people,” she insisted. Baier pushed back, asking “I understand you met with him at least once a week for three and a half years. You didn’t have any concerns?” “I think the American people have a concern about Donald Trump,” Harris retorted, “which is why the people who know him best, including leaders of our national security community, have all spoken out, even people who worked for him in the Oval Office, worked with him in the Situation Room, and have said he is unfit and dangerous and should never be President of the United States again.”
Harris’s response appears to undercut the premise for her candidacy to some extent, given that public perception of Biden’s mental faculties after the debate largely drove the pressure for him to step aside and permitted her elevation. In the period after Biden’s debate meltdown, Harris insisted Biden was “sharp as a tack.” Her continued insistence that he remains sharp puts her in opposition to the overwhelming majority of the public, who have witnessed a litany of Biden’s awkward gaffes, ramblings, and forays off script. While conservatives had long suggested that Biden suffered from mental and physical decline, the sentiment became the consensus opinion after the presidential debate, during which he often stumbled over his answers and appeared lost on stage. A CBS News/YouGov survey released in late June, after his debate with Trump, found that 72% of registered voters did not believe Biden had the mental and cognitive health to serve as president. Only 27% believed he did.
A Harvard CAPS/Harris Poll after the debate, meanwhile, found that 66% of registered voters had doubts about Biden’s mental fitness while 74% said he had shown he was too old to be president. Fifty-four percent expressed the belief that he was “getting worse.” In explaining his decision to step aside, Biden did not mention internal party pressure or concerns over his mental fitness, but implicitly acknowledged his age by saying “I’ve decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation.” The Trump War Room distributed the clip on social media, with many respondents questioning Biden’s decision to leave the race if those close to him genuinely believe he is fit to continue in the White House.
The Baier interview came as part of a major media blitz by the Harris campaign to familiarize voters with the candidate at the 11th hour and to push back on claims she had ducked substantive interviews. The campaign had touted her willingness to appear on Fox News, a generally right-leaning outlet perceived as hostile territory. She has still not held an unscripted, open-question press conference. Indeed, pro-Harris media celebrated the interview as a rebuttal to her critics who fretted over her penchant for softball interviews with friendly news outlets. On the right, Harris attracted considerable mockery over her evasive answers and habit of redirecting questions to permit her to attack former President Donald Trump. While several such clips went viral, her one attempt at a concrete answer may prove the most damaging in that it begs the question: Why isn’t Biden at the top of the ticket?
Too late.
• Obamas To Hit Campaign Trail With Harris (RT)
Barack Obama and his wife Michelle will join US Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on the campaign trail in swing states Georgia and Michigan next week, according to media reports. Harris is set to appear with the former president in Georgia on October 24 and with Michelle Obama in Michigan on October 26, the Associated Press reported on Friday, citing a senior official from the Harris campaign, speaking on condition of anonymity. The latest polls put Harris and her Republican rival Donald Trump neck-and-neck nationally, while Trump leads Harris with 52% to 45% in Georgia, and Harris is ahead of Trump 47% to 45% in Michigan. Barack Obama and his wife remain “immensely popular” with supporters of the Democratic Party, Reuters noted. Their appearance could boost Harris’ chances in states where victory margins are thin, the agency added.
The former president recently campaigned for Harris in Pittsburgh, and is scheduled to appear in the coming days in the swing states of Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Michelle Obama is set to campaign for the first time this election cycle. Harris, while serving as district attorney of San Francisco, supported Barack Obama’s successful presidential bid in 2008. The former president also reportedly helped usher President Joe Biden out of the race after the 81-year-old’s disastrous debate against Trump in June. Joe Biden served as vice-president during Obama’s two terms in office from 2009 to 2017. The New York Post claimed earlier this week that Biden and Obama shared a private conversation at a memorial service in Washington, reportedly agreeing that Harris wasn’t as strong as the outgoing president.
The current election race has seen several high-profile endorsements of the rival candidates. Among celebrities to support Harris are singers Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, and Bruce Springsteen, and actors George Clooney, Anne Hathaway and Jennifer Lawrence. Trump has been endorsed by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, rapper 50 Cent, politician and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., commentator Tucker Carlson, retired professional wrestler Hulk Hogan, and actor Jon Voight.
“1,900 pages of documents..”
• Judge Chutkan In Jack Smith’s Trump Probe Unseals More Docs (JTN)
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over former President Donald Trump’s federal Jan. 6 election interference case, on Friday unsealed nearly 1,900 pages of documents from special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation for the public to view. Trump has said the release of such documents ahead of the election on Nov. 5 is election interference in itself. Trump’s legal team has said the “asymmetric release of charged allegations and related documents during early voting creates a concerning appearance of election interference.” The judge in the case disagreed. “If the court withheld information that the public otherwise had a right to access solely because of the potential political consequences of releasing it, that withholding could itself constitute — or appear to be — election interference,” she argued in her order on Thursday evening.
“..going to the news is an act of extending trust. Now, the thing about trust is that once it’s lost, it’s very difficult to regain.”
• CBS Could Be In Trouble Over Kamala Interview (RT)
The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has grounds to hear a complaint against CBS for deceptively editing an interview with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, a Republican-appointed commissioner has said. Earlier this month, the broadcaster aired two different answers by Harris to the same question, one in a preview and the other in the actual ‘60 Minutes’ show, prompting accusations of misleading editing to make the sitting vice-president sound more coherent than she actually was. The Center for American Rights (CAR) filed a complaint to the FCC on Wednesday, accusing the network of “deliberate news distortion,” which would be an actionable offense under the regulator’s rules. “What this claim is alleging is that an act of distortion took place,” Commissioner Nathan Simington told Fox News Digital on Friday.
The FCC has “certainly contemplated the possibility of distortionary reporting taking place via splicing,” he explained, noting that in a previous proceeding the commissioners “gave the example of substituting a yes answer to one question or a no answer to an entirely different question.” Simington reminded the audience that the FCC can’t regulate what can be said or written, given that the US has the First Amendment to the Constitution that protects freedom of speech and the press. However, CBS could still find itself in trouble for “abuse of public trust,” he said. “I think everyone agrees that deliberately misleading the public is a bad idea,” the commissioner said, adding that if CBS did so, Americans should be upset, “because people go to the news in order to learn about things that they would never be able to learn about themselves.
In other words, going to the news is an act of extending trust. Now, the thing about trust is that once it’s lost, it’s very difficult to regain.” Simington is one of the two Republicans on the five-member FCC. He was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2020. Trump will face Harris in the November 5 election for the White House, after the Democrats pressured President Joe Biden to drop out of the race in July. Trump accused ‘60 Minutes’ of perpetrating “the greatest fraud in broadcast history” by swapping Harris’ responses. FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, responded by accusing the former president of attacking free speech and democracy itself. “The FCC does not and will not revoke licenses for broadcast stations simply because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes content or coverage,” she said last week.
The CAR complaint specifically names WCBS-TV in New York, which is owned and operated by CBS Corporation, rather than an affiliate who could assert plausible deniability. While Simington would not speculate about a possible probe, he said the FCC might levy a fine or place conditions on the network’s license renewal, if CBS is found to have deliberately distorted the Harris interview. A day before the CAR complaint was filed, House Speaker Mike Johnson accused CBS of selectively and deceptively editing his own interview. The Louisiana Republican offered proof by posting raw footage recorded by his office, alongside what actually aired, on X (formerly Twitter).
“..We’re not sure whether he is cooperating or not or whether he’s going to watch the Democratic Party go into the wilderness.”
• Could Biden Create Global Upheaval in His Remaining Time in Office? (Sp.)
Though Joe Biden’s presidential term is nearing its end, he can still “make major decisions that can never be overturned” while still in the office, says Professor Joe Siracusa, political scientist and dean of Global Futures at Curtin University. “For example, in the next four months and here we’re talking about January 20th, 2025, he could in this short period of time encourage President Zelensky to negotiate with the Russian Federation about a diplomatic solution of the war in Ukraine,” Siracusa suggests. “He could encourage the Israelis to attack Iran and drag the United States into a conflict that might ultimately involve the Russian Federation,” Siracusa continues.
Aside from affecting global affairs, Biden’s decisions may also affect the outcome of the upcoming presidential election in the US, seeing how Democratic candidate Kamala Harris is Biden’s vice-president and thus “will pretty much have to wear what he does,” Prof. Siracusa points out. For instance, Biden could “give the Ukrainians the green light to use American offensive weapons on their border to hit inside Russia itself” or “encourage the Israelis to attack the oil and gas installations in Iran, threatening world prices.” “In terms of the United States leverage with its allies, and here we’re looking at Israel and Ukraine, allies such as they are, could get the United States in a lot of trouble down the road that would affect the system for a long time,” the scholar remarks.
That said, while Biden still has “plenty of time to get in trouble,” there is “probably not enough time for a major diplomatic breakthrough,” Prof. Siracusa observes, making it unlikely that the 46th POTUS could be aiming for some sort of legacy-defining success in foreign policy. “I think in the next four months, Joe Biden has to decide whether he’s really going to help Kamala Harris become the next president,” Prof. Siracusa adds. “He’s very angry that he was pushed aside, particularly since he seems to have reclaimed his cognitive abilities. We’re not sure whether he is cooperating or not or whether he’s going to watch the Democratic Party go into the wilderness.”
“Who takes seriously the Rupert Murdoch approach to truth – you don’t read the London Times or Fox News to determine what is true.”
• The Debate – General Staff vs Kremlin, Helmer vs Doctorow (Helmer)
“The winners of the war are the Russian General Staff. Everyone in Russia understands that the Russian Army is winning and will win this war…I believe Gilbert is wrong on the history of the negotiations that have gone on since before this war began… It’s [Russian] military protection that guarantees [Ukrainian] permanent neutrality… Second, I think that Gilbert is wrong on the foundation of policy…The US policy does not date when Gilbert has put it from Madeleine Albright [US Secretary of State 1997-2001]…US policy since 1945 has been to destroy Russia and prevent Russia from ever forming a kind of partnership with Germany in Europe. If such a German-Russian partnership post-war were to develop, that would end US control of Europe… This is not a neocon invention. It goes back to non-Ukrainian, non-Jewish decision makers during World War II in the United States…Thirdly, Gilbert is wrong on method…
What Gilbert is saying is that he watches Russian television talk shows… This is an absurd method for understanding either President Putin’s role in the command structure, or the General Staff’s role, or what the future security of Russia is required to be in a settlement…Who takes seriously the Rupert Murdoch approach to truth – you don’t read the London Times or Fox News to determine what is true. Therefore, the notion that we should watch Russian television with that group of talk show presenters as an example of what is the truth of Russian debate is inappropriate.” “I’m sorry, Gilbert is well-meaning but we are not talking about Doctorow — we are talking about Doctor Zero…If we don’t settle the outcome of the war according to Russia’s security needs now, by the time there is the next [Russian] presidential election, there will be more war.”
“The issue isn’t what [President Vladimir] Zelensky says publicly. The major security threat for Russia is in the secret annexes [of the Ukrainian ‘Victory Plan’]…What went into the US secret annex in Greece [1981-87] was the deployment of US nuclear weapons aimed at Moscow…Secret annexes mean secret weapons, secret deployments, and dual-capable bombs, missiles and warheads…We know we are back in the world of nuclear targeting on Russia…That brings us back to the general problem – what’s US policy toward Russia? Can anything, anything a US administration ever offer Russia be trusted unless the Russian Army is in place? And that brings us back to the Gorbachev treason, repeated as the Yeltsin treason. No Russian president — no Russian president can repeat those two things. The Russian Army won’t tolerate it, and neither will the Russian people…Without the Russian Army, the signature of the US on an agreement is worthless.”
“..doing everything imaginable to foment a NATO war and hope to save his life if not his political power..”
• Zelensky ‘Feels Noose Tightening Around His Neck’ (Sp.)
Volodymyr Zelensky’s so-called “victory plan” that was recently unveiled to the public and met with a rather lukewarm reaction from the NATO countries may represent the Ukrainian ex-comedian taking a page from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s playbook, suggests international relations analyst Gilbert Doctorow. Just like Netanyahu, having realized that Israel bit off more than it can chew with its “three front war” and seeing the only chance of victory in dragging the US “into the fight on his side,” so Zelensky seems to be trying to do the same, Doctorow explains to Sputnik. “He knows his armies are suffering a disastrous defeat and that in a matter of a few months all of Ukraine east of the Dnepr will be in Russian hands,” he elaborates.
“His only way to stay in power and to salvage something of Ukraine is to bring NATO into the battle at his side right now. Immediate admittance of Ukraine into NATO, his point one of his 5-point plan, would immediately make NATO a co-belligerent and widen the war to a NATO-Russia war.” Another point of Zelensky’s scheme is involving strikes using Western weapons deep into Russian territory. If implemented, this would “immediately make NATO a co-belligerent and start a NATO-Russia war which NATO and the US in particular absolutely refuses to do,” the analyst notes. “Zelensky feels the noose tightening around his neck and is doing everything imaginable to foment a NATO war and hope to save his life if not his political power,” Doctorow concludes.
“There must be an end to the ideological disease if the world is ever to establish lasting peace.”
• Zelensky’s Victory Plan A Delusional Distraction From Diplomacy And Peace (SCF)
After weeks of touting a so-called victory plan, the former comedian and illegitimate Ukrainian president Vladimir Zelensky finally revealed his big idea. It is a bad joke indeed. Zelensky, who outlived his electoral mandate months ago and then cancelled scheduled elections, is not even a legally elected leader. He is the head of a junta that is running a war racket and milking Western taxpayers for hundreds of billions of dollars. Last month, he began briefing U.S. president Joe Biden about a “victory plan”. Zelensky also lobbied the presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump. All was kept secret about the plan – although Trump did not seem impressed at the time. This week, the military-fatigue-wearing former comic met with the heads of the European Union to unveil how the NATO-backed Kiev regime would defeat Russia. Seeing him sitting at a big round table with European politicians has become farcical. This is while Russian forces are grinding down remnants of Kiev’s foot soldiers and NATO mercenaries in the eastern region of former Ukraine.
The Kiev regime’s puppet has nothing new to offer. It all boils down to begging for more weapons and money and desperate wishlists of long-range missiles to hit Russian territory with, joining the NATO alliance – and the ultimate insanity, giving the neoNazi regime nuclear warheads. Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban called Zelensky’s latest star-turn ludicrous and a frightening, desperate gamble to start World War Three. The game is up for the Ukrainian conman and his corrupt regime. Ukraine has been destroyed with over 600,000 Ukrainian soldiers having perished for no good reason – only for a proxy war that the U.S.-led NATO axis wanted in a delusional attempt to somehow defeat Russia. Zelensky and his cabal went along for the ride, making money from the war racket. Even in the Western media, there are sobering admissions that the proxy war has turned out to be a disastrous defeat for the NATO-backed side.
This conflict should never have happened. Russia had offered a comprehensive set of proposals at the end of 2021 to address its long-term security concerns about NATO’s expansion and its relentless promotion of a NeoNazi front in Ukraine on its doorstep. Moscow’s reasonable attempt at diplomacy was dismissed by an arrogant U.S. and NATO, thinking that a military strategic defeat could be achieved against Russia. It was the Western powers that opted for war instead of diplomacy. Through their criminal recklessness, many Ukrainian military lives have been wasted and the former Soviet republic has been shattered. The lands that Russia took were historic Russian territories and they will not be given back. The Kiev regime has forfeited any right to negotiate. It’s remorseless aggression and Russophobia means that the only solution is its complete eradication. Russia is dismantling the regime and its NATO pretensions by force.
Ultimately, the United States and its NATO accomplices will have to recognize that their criminal machinations in Ukraine have been vanquished. The war must come to an end by accepting Russia’s rightful demands for security on its terms. It could have been done the easy way through diplomacy. But the West chose the hard way. The Kiev regime is a sordid residue that must be discarded like its former Nazi forebears was. Talk about a “victory plan” is nothing but a cruel joke that prolongs the agony of the Ukrainian people. American and European leaders need to understand that their war fantasies are finished. Sooner rather than later, the work of diplomacy and reason must begin. That means treating Russia with the respect that it deserves.
The trouble is the Western political elites are so ingrained with arrogance and ideological animosity towards Russia, it is hard to see how they will sober up to begin the task of genuine peace negotiations. Until that happens, Russia has every right to smash the enemy and ensure that NATO never threatens its nation. When the Soviet Union defeated Nazi Germany in 1945 it was a tremendous victory and blow against fascist aggression. However, tragically, as history has shown, the cause for world peace was not secured. Because it wasn’t the end of Western imperialism. The beast returned over and over again. There must be an end to the ideological disease if the world is ever to establish lasting peace.
“..on the one hand, [Zelensky] sold all the land and the valuables that it holds, and on the other hand, offered up his country as a private military company..”
• Zelensky’s Plan Sells Ukraine to West – Lavrov (Sp.)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s so-called victory plan suggests that Ukraine will hand over its natural resources to Western allies in exchange for weapons and turn the Ukrainian army into a private military company, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday. “Zelensky, in these points of his, spoke so veiledly about the economic side of the issue. According to the leaks, the secret annexes… stipulate that he is ready to place all of Ukrainian natural resources under the management of his Western masters, hand over controls over them, effectively to sell Ukraine,” Lavrov told reporters after a foreign ministers’ meeting on the South Caucasus.
Some leaks suggest that Zelensky’s main purpose is to get weapons no matter what, Lavrov added. He said that Western countries had already made it clear this was an “unacceptable scenario” that increased risks for the West. “According to the leaks, also accompanied by a secret annex, the Ukrainian army will be ready to defend Europe and deploy its soldiers under a contract … maybe even replacing US contingent that is already in Europe after it wins. So just, on the one hand, [Zelensky] sold all the land and the valuables that it holds, and on the other hand, offered up his country as a private military company,” Lavrov said.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova brushed off Zelensky’s “victory plan” as a set of incoherent slogans that would push NATO into a direct conflict with Russia. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that the conflict would end when Kiev realized the futility of its policy. Zelensky presented the three-point plan, which also includes three secret additions, in parliament on Wednesday. He proposed that allies invite Ukraine to join NATO, lift restrictions on strikes deep into Russia and deploy a “comprehensive non-nuclear deterrence package” on Ukrainian soil to contain Russia. The plan envisions an end to the conflict no later than 2025.
“..it is currently considering whether sales from his other businesses, namely SpaceX, Neuralink, xAI and The Boring Company, should be included in determining potential fines against X.”
• EU Looking To Expand Fines Against Musk (RT)
The EU could target all of Elon Musk’s private businesses when calculating fines for X (formerly Twitter), Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter. Brussels has been considering fines against X since the bloc’s former tech czar, Thierry Breton, accused the platform of failing to properly police illegal content and violating the EU’s 2022 Digital Services Act (DSA). The decision on whether to penalize X now lies with the EU commissioner for competition, Margrethe Vestager. According to Bloomberg, Brussels recently warned Musk that it is currently considering whether sales from his other businesses, namely SpaceX, Neuralink, xAI and The Boring Company, should be included in determining potential fines against X.
The outlet’s sources noted that Tesla Inc’s sales would not be included in such calculations because it is a publicly traded company and not under the billionaire’s full control. Under the DSA, the EU can slap online platforms with fines of up to 6% of their yearly global revenue for failing to combat illegal content and disinformation and follow the bloc’s transparency rules. Bloomberg’s sources noted, however, that no final decision to penalize X has yet been made and that the size of any potential fine is still under deliberation. They also stated that the platform may avoid penalties altogether if it complies with the bloc’s demands.
While X has not officially responded to the report, Musk previously vowed to appeal any potential DSA fines through a “very public battle in court, so that the people of Europe can know the truth.” In August, ahead of his interview with former US President Donald Trump, Musk was also threatened by Breton with facing a “full toolbox” of legal repercussions if he did not step up censorship of “harmful content.” In response, the billionaire posted a meme, telling the EU commissioner to “take a big step back and literally, f**k your own face.” Since purchasing Twitter in 2022, Musk has pledged to turn the platform into a more transparent space that is committed to free speech and is devoid of censorship.
“.. about 85% of the water that flows into the Nile comes from the Ethiopian highlands, yet Ethiopia can use only 1% of that volume of water.”
• Colonial Legacy Of The Nile Threatens Peace In Africa And Beyond (Ryzhenkova)
This past summer, a significant and somewhat unexpected development occurred when the parliament of South Sudan ratified the Nile Basin Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA), also known as the Entebbe Agreement. Some 14 years after several East African countries initially signed the agreement, the ratification of the document officially called into question Egypt and Sudan’s historic rights to the water of the Nile. The Entebbe Agreement was originally signed in 2010 by Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, and Burundi. South Sudan joined the agreement in 2012. However, a key provision required the document to be ratified by the parliaments of at least six countries in order to establish a special commission that would be permanently headquartered in Uganda. After South Sudan ratified the document, the necessary quorum was finally achieved.
On October 13, Ethiopia officially announced that the agreement had entered into force. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed described this moment as a “historic milestone” in the collective efforts of the signatory countries to “foster genuine cooperation in the Nile Basin.” The Entebbe Agreement nullifies the historical water allocations to Egypt and Sudan (55.5 billion cubic meters annually for Egypt and 18.5 billion cubic meters for Sudan), determined by colonial-era agreements from 1929 and the 1959 Agreement “for the full utilization of the Nile waters” between the two countries. A total of 12 African countries are located in the Nile Basin: Burundi, Egypt, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, the Central African Republic, Eritrea, and Ethiopia. Together, these nations are home to 40% of Africa’s total population.
Known as the longest river in Africa (and possibly in the world), the Nile competes only with the Amazon in terms of length. It stretches approximately 5,600km from Lake Victoria, where the White Nile originates, to the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile Basin covers an area of 3.4 million square kilometers. The Blue Nile, which begins in Ethiopia, merges with the White Nile in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, before flowing into the Mediterranean Sea via Egypt. Since ancient times, the waters of the Nile have been used for irrigation and, today, they play a crucial role in electricity generation. The Nile is particularly important for Egypt – 95% of its population resides along the banks of the river and in the Nile Delta. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus famously referred to Egypt as “the gift of the Nile.” Major Egyptian cities, including the capital Cairo and Alexandria, are situated along the banks of this river.
Currently, official statistics indicate that Egypt faces a water deficit of up to 20 billion cubic meters per year, while its total annual water requirements reach 80 billion cubic meters. The country’s economy relies heavily on the Nile, with approximately 97% of its water supply coming from this river. Though Egypt lies downstream, colonial-era agreements still grant it not only a larger share of the river’s water but also the authority to oppose the construction of dams and other water projects in upstream states. As a result, economic development in these countries poses a threat to Egypt’s water needs. Interestingly, about 85% of the water that flows into the Nile comes from the Ethiopian highlands, yet Ethiopia can use only 1% of that volume of water.
Maps
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847208577473089833
Crossing
https://twitter.com/i/status/1846592234868601199
Mudfish
The African mudfish, or lungfish, can live out of water for many months in its burrow of hardened mud beneath a dried-up streambed.
This footage from 1935 shows how one is awakened.
[🎥 British Pathé] pic.twitter.com/tD82SVcXo0
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) October 18, 2024
Snoop
obsessed with Al Roker giving Snoop Dogg the weather report duties, with towns that have weed affiliated names. pic.twitter.com/wp3obpqsEv
— Sassington, M.C. (@MissSassbox) October 17, 2024
Pippillota
Little Pippilotta has come so far. And she isn't one bit angry. Given what has happened to her she is one of the most gentle souls you'll ever meet.
My friend Sybille has done all the hard rescue and we @wearehappydoggo are finding her perfect home 🥰🙏 pic.twitter.com/mikfBRDQ2x
— Niall Harbison (@NiallHarbison) October 18, 2024
Support the Automatic Earth in wartime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.
October 13, 2024 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 8:31 am Finance Tagged with: AEA, Aurora, Boeing, CBS, huge margin, Kamala, Marc Elias, NATO, Trump, voter ID, voter rolls
Max Ernst Ubu Imperator 1923
Funniest trailer l've seen in 2024😂@TheBabylonBee Bee made a mockumentary called "January 6th – The Most Deadliest Day" and it's comedy GOLD
Kamala does not want people seeing this right before the election
Ruins the J6 narrative! pic.twitter.com/ugxy6uaJVp
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) October 12, 2024
Trump ad
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2024
Vance
JD Vance shuts up New York Times reporter Lulu Garcia-Navarro after she asked him if Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.
Brilliant.
Garcia-Navarro: "Senator, yes or no. Did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election?"
Vance: "Let me ask you a question: Is it okay that big… pic.twitter.com/OkpMxNLu6F
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 12, 2024
Jan 6
OUTRAGE: FBI Director Wray essentially ADMITS over 100 FBI assets posed as Trump supporters at the Capitol on Jan 6th. The Biden-HARRIS administration is STALLING the release of the Inspector General's report until AFTER the election
— Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) October 10, 2024
Kirk
This young man asked me why he should vote for Trump when his border policies are "xenophobic."
So I asked him what he would do if a homeless man broke into his dorm room?
Watch what happens next… pic.twitter.com/21wLojAyRd
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) October 11, 2024
Tucker Dhillon
https://twitter.com/i/status/1844809672911679769
Harmeet Dhillon is a San Francisco lawyer who’s known Kamala Harris for more than 20 years. Her verdict: Kamala Harris is a criminal. Here are the details.
(0:43) Who Really Is Kamala Harris?
(2:41) Kamala and Willie Brown
(22:17) How Does Kamala Pronounce Her Name?
(32:23)… pic.twitter.com/Gt0qP939DJ— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) October 11, 2024
Hawley Wray
FBI's Wray Literally SHAKING When Sen. Hawley Catches Him LYING About FBI's "Church Arrests Memo" pic.twitter.com/s5zspQoHGr
— 1776 (@TheWakeninq) October 11, 2024
Judge Thomas
Thirty-three years ago today, Clarence Thomas delivered one of the most remarkable statements ever made in Congress.
(If you have developed a soft spot for Joe Biden in recent weeks, the first few seconds of this clip will quickly dispel that sentiment.) pic.twitter.com/9uQz5gbAxf
— Hans Mahncke (@HansMahncke) October 11, 2024
Appellate
Appellate court grilling Letitia James.
Can Letitia be criminally charged? pic.twitter.com/ORLvVzNMSY
— Sheri™ (@FFT1776) October 11, 2024
“She ends as an historical prank on her own country. It must be deeply demoralizing to be used like that in front of the whole world.”
The outstanding question: will the Democratic Party actually go ahead and attempt to execute an election steal despite growing evidence of a developing Trump landslide that might obviate it? The works are already in motion. The mail-in ballots went out long ago and early votes are getting cast by the day. The overseas ballots that require no US address or voter verification are flooding in by the millions and four years of open borders has 10-million illegal aliens (at a minimum) dispersed around the nation, great gobs of them planted in swing states, processed through the DMVs and social services — with the requisite automatic voter registration — their ballots already pre-bundled for harvest.
It could go a few ways. One is, just let’er rip, harvest all those fake votes, stuff the drop-boxes, flood the zone, and do it all right in America’s face as if to say: we can do whatever we want. . . to get whatever we want. . . and you can’t stop us. That is probably the point where blue America finds out exactly what the Second Amendment was designed for. You might also expect a whole lot of state-organized resistance, especially in the populous red ones, Texas, Florida, real court cases over fraud this time, contested certification.
Or, the election could come out a hopeless unresolvable muddle. There’s no precedent for this and no provision in the Constitution, but you can imagine the Supreme Court having to decide a necessary do-over minus all recent gimmicks, paper ballots only, voters with proof of citizenship only, all voting on one re-scheduled election day before January 1. This novelty would be something apart from the clunky Congressional machinery established for settling electoral college disputes, since it is predicated on various states’ inability to determine their electoral college vote in the first place, based on patent irregularity and fraud. You could also imagine a period of disorder so deep and grave that the regime behind “Joe Biden” declares martial law. . . or, alternately the military — the martial institution — has to take matters into its own hands, shoving aside even “Joe Biden” and his filthy retinue. Appalling to consider, I’m sure, but these things happen in history, and the Party of Chaos has set enough mischief in motion to wreck the election and wreck the country. Call it catastrophizing, if you will. There it is.
But to step back from that abyss, it appears that Mr. Trump’s momentum accelerates by the day, that he is becoming, at last, an implacable, irresistible juggernaut who will, perforce, overcome all the gimmicks, traps, and frauds arrayed against him. Kamala seems to think so. Have you ever seen such resignation, such loserdom-in-action as her recent performance on CBS’s 60-Minutes, or her pitiful admission on ABC’s The View that she couldn’t think of anything she would do differently beyond the excellent management of national affairs under “Joe Biden” (and herself as veep). Surely that said it all. She has nothing, brings nothing. Long ago, she was a pretty girl with a law degree and an infectious laugh on the fringes of local politics in San Francisco. The winds of fortune blew her this way and that way until she ended up way over her head, used by the reprobates around her as a mere device to stay out of jail. She ends as an historical prank on her own country. It must be deeply demoralizing to be used like that in front of the whole world.
With all the shenanigans going on, Trump needs to win by a huge margin. Another reason not to believe these polls.
• US Election ‘Too Close To Call’ In Swing States – WSJ Poll (RT)
Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are locked into a dead heat in all seven of the battleground states that will decide the outcome of next month’s US presidential election, according to a poll published on Friday by the Wall Street Journal. Sampling 4,200 voters, the poll found Harris with a razor-thin lead over Trump in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and Trump holding a slim advantage in Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. However, the newspaper noted that no lead is wider than two percentage points, except for in Nevada, where Trump leads by five points. All of these results are within the newspaper’s margin of error. Across all seven swing states, Trump leads Harris by 46% to 45%, the poll found. Some 93% of Republicans are backing Trump, while 93% of Democrats are supporting Harris, the WSJ noted, adding that independents prefer Harris by a slim 40% to 39%.
“This thing is a dead heat and is going to come down to the wire. These last three weeks matter,” Republican pollster David Lee, who worked on the survey, told the newspaper. “It really could not be closer,” Democrat pollster Michael Bocian said. “It’s an even-steven, tight, tight race.” A slew of recent polls have shown Trump and Harris within the low single digits of each other in these key states, with Trump gaining the upper hand in every state but Wisconsin in an average compiled by RealClearPolitics. Voters surveyed by the Wall Street Journal ranked the economy and immigration as their top two issues of concern, respectively.
They favored Trump over Harris on economic issues by ten points, and on immigration and border security by 16 points. Harris beat Trump on the issue of abortion by 16 points. By this time in the 2020 campaign, President Joe Biden was leading Trump by five points in the states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Trump won all three of these post-industrial northern battlegrounds in 2016, and lost them to Biden in 2020. Winning all three would likely guarantee the presidency to either Trump or Harris this year.
Baris
"IF YOU WANT A RACE TO BREAK YOUR WAY, THIS IS THE PERFECT TIME" – @peoples_pundit says groups are moving in @realdonaldtrump direction at just the right time. @jsolomonreports @amandahead pic.twitter.com/JNEQnyT6VV
— Real America's Voice (RAV) (@RealAmVoice) October 11, 2024
“..so far, the cures for the Harris slide are far worse than the malady itself..”
• The Scent of a Harris Panic in the Air (Victor Davis Hanson)
The 2024 race is still close. But then so was the 1980 Carter-Reagan race at this same juncture. Indeed, incumbent president Carter was then comfortably up in the last two October Gallup polls—before utterly and suddenly evaporating on Election Day. But in the last seven days, there seems a sense of panic in the Harris campaign. How do we know that? Why are Democratic pundits—from Axelrod to Carville—blasting the Harris campaign and otherwise warning of bad things to come? Why are some of the once Democrat sure-thing senate races—e.g., in Ohio, Wisconsin, and even Michigan—tightening up? Pundit poll-watchers are suggesting that Trump is close, even, or slightly ahead in the swing-state polls, suggesting that he is nearing a margin that could cancel out anticipated “ballot irregularities”.
The expected October Harris-Biden surprises—the opportune Fed interest rate cut, the transparently desperate Jack Smith beefed-up re-indictment, the current new Hollywood Trump-hit movie, the desperate Zelensky fly-in to Pennsylvania, the election-cycle customary Bob Woodward unsourced gossip book—seemed so far to have had no effect. Why would any campaign send out the bumbling Tim Walz to a Fox Sunday interview after his disastrous debate? Why is a suddenly smiling Biden so eager to claim candidate and VP Harris as a co-conspirator to his disastrous four years? Why would Harris pivot and now agree to (admittedly mostly softball) interviews, thus confirming to the voting public why she wisely had previously avoided all press conferences, interviews, and town halls? Why—after the last two moderator-rigged ABC and CBS debates—would Harris desperately want another and possibly believe that Trump would ever agree to any such warped forum?
The last 4-5 Harris scripted interviews, but especially on CBS’s 60 Minutes, have been train wrecks. Everyone expected (and was not disappointed) the on-spec word salads, predictable sappy retreats to her misleading bio, the now accustomed deer-in-the-headlights confusion about her prior three years with Biden, and the general mush in lieu of any policy prescriptions. Why would CBS think it worth ruining its already debased reputation by doctoring the transcript of the Harris disastrous interview in a vain attempt at Orwellian repair? Why is a rusty but still narcissistic Barack Obama at last hitting the campaign trail? And is he still effective—or reduced to becoming an Oprah-like caricature? After all, is it wise for the elite Obama (in his now accustomed snarky “clingers” style) to venture out of his mansions (Kalorama? the Hawaii beachfront? or the Martha Vineyard estate?) to talk down to black males struggling under years of a hyperinflationary economy, a flood of illegal immigrants from an open border, and a four-year-spiking crime rate?
Does the Netflix grandee berating black men as victims of false consciousness, misled, and brainwashed into voting for the Trump agenda really win them over to Harris? Does the hundred-million-dollar-plus man Obama persuade anyone by reverting for a few moments to his old community-organizing, fake black patois and his pseudo-racial intimacy of “brothers”? And does it work for Obama (remember “when they go low, we go high”) to blast Trump as racist and crude, when Obama jokes that Trump wears diapers— this after previously suggesting at the Democratic convention that Trump suffered from small genitalia? If this should continue, soon the July 21st coup that removed Biden, along with the Harris pick of Tim Walz, will go down as days of Democrat infamy. Anything can happen in the next three weeks. But so far, the cures for the Harris slide are far worse than the malady itself.
“These aforementioned attendees were essentially just “seat fillers” — they were not the audience members who were called on to ask pre-selected questions..”
• Shills For Harris (Michael Tracey)
Last night’s Univision “town hall” with Kamala Harris was billed as an exciting opportunity for “undecided Latino voters” to question and evaluate the potential next President of the United States. The corporate press release from Univision advertises it explicitly as such. But viewers at home would have been wholly unaware that this billing was false. As I discovered, having been granted the sacred opportunity to view the event from an adjacent room on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus, the carefully curated “town hall” audience was actually comprised of avowed Harris supporters. “I already knew I was going to go for Kamala,” one town hall participant told me. “Part of the reason why I wanted to go was just, like, to also fully support her.” “So you were already decided, before you came?” I asked another. “Yes,” she replied, declaring her support for Kamala.
The audience members I spoke to were selected with the help of a company called FansOnQ, according to the company’s founder, Conny Quintanilla, whose title for yesterday’s event was “Audience Manager.” The company puts out “casting calls” for events like the Latin Grammy Awards, which have been previously held in Las Vegas. It’s a type of company that you might not be consciously aware exists, but once you’re told of its existence, it makes perfect intuitive sense: people who want to dance at award shows are “vetted” by this particular company, perhaps for good looks and rhythmic skills. That’s the same company which filled the seats at Kamala’s town hall. Another person told me he was able to attend because he “knows people” at an unnamed “progressive organization,” which somehow granted him the ability to get in the town hall audience. The person said he works as an intern for Rep. Steven Horsford, Democrat of Nevada. I’m not naming the person because he was wary of attribution. Others quoted here also didn’t want to be identified.
These aforementioned attendees were essentially just “seat fillers” — they were not the audience members who were called on to ask pre-selected questions. Those audience members were flown in from around the country at Univision’s expense. Which is a bit odd, because there would certainly have been plenty of genuine “undecided Latino voters” in Clark County, Nevada who I’m sure would’ve been more than happy to ask Kamala Harris a question. NOTE: The non-question-asking attendees were still integral to the televisual production of the event, hence their recruitment. Uninformed viewers at home were under the false impression that the people they were watching react to Kamala’s answers were “undecided voters,” when numerous of them were in fact pre-committed Harris voters who sought to attend for the specific purpose of demonstrating their support for Kamala.
Naturally, I wanted to interview the actual question-asking attendees. However, a corporate dictate apparently came down prohibiting this. “We won’t be making them available,” Anna Negron, Director of Corporate Communications at TelevisaUnivision, told me when I asked if there would be an opportunity to interview said audience members. She would not elaborate on the reason for this strange secrecy. Reporter Mark Kellner of the New York Post asked Negron the same question, and was similarly dismissed. So the sum total of the authorized journalistic acts that we were permitted to carry out at this event was to sit in a side room and politely view a generously provided video feed of the “town hall,” which was taped several hours before it aired yesterday. For the record, I don’t think she actually used a teleprompter, despite social media allegations to that effect. I can verify that the event was already contrived enough as it is — no need to embellish any phony stories.
Of course, most journalists covering the event simply repeated the conceit that Kamala was empathetically taking questions from “undecided Latino voters.” In other words, they simply regurgitated the corporate press release. Her actual remarks were bereft of any real substance. The only amusing part was when she name-dropped Alberto Gonzales, the former Attorney General under George W. Bush, as one of her cherished Republican endorsements — adding him to the esteemed roster of Dick and Liz Cheney and myriad “national security officials” affiliated with Mitt Romney and John McCain. Perhaps Kamala calculated that the surname “Gonzales” would be extraordinarily appealing to these allegedly “undecided Latino voters.”
It’s worth briefly reminiscing about what the purpose of a “town hall” has traditionally been: for ‘townspeople’ to gather and air their concerns about issues that most affect them. (“Town halls” are actually how some small New England towns are governed — the town halls effectively become temporary citizen-led legislatures to decide questions around zoning and so forth.) Now, though, they’re just glitzy TV productions that accomplish the polar opposite of the free-flowing dialogue and debate with which the term was once associated. Indeed, these events now more resemble the production values of the Latin Grammy Awards — literally — than a forum to scrutinize candidates for public office.
‘I’ve been told this type of rhetoric is “dangerous to our democracy” or something…’
• Dems Won’t Certify Election if Trump Wins (HUSA)
Despite their constant whining about the Jan. 6, 2021, “insurrection,” the Democrats recently admitted that they won’t certify the 2024 election results if Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is elected. Axios reported that the Democrats would certify the election results only if Trump used “free, fair and honest means to secure a victory,” which, according to Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., is not what Trump would do. This statement implies that he would be declared a winner only if he cheats. “[Trump] is doing whatever he can to try to interfere with the process, whether we’re talking about manipulating electoral college counts in Nebraska or manipulating the vote count in Georgia or imposing other kinds of impediments,” the politician told the news source. Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., also questioned whether Trump would win the election fair and square, telling Axios that she doesn’t know “what kind of shenanigans he is planning.”
Conservatives on Twitter pointed out the hypocrisy after the article was published. “I’ve been told this type of rhetoric is “dangerous to our democracy” or something,” @Patriot_Vibes wrote. Co-owner of Trending Politics, Colin Rugg, also mocked the Democrats who have been talking non-stop about Republicans and Trump’s alleged attempt to overthrow the government at the beginning of 2021. “The ‘democracy defenders’ won’t commit to certifying an election?” he wrote. Others wrote that the recent news is a warning from Democrats about their own insurrection, this time it being real and violent. Some conservatives noted that hearing about the recent news was not surprising after the Democrats replaced Joe Biden, who was elected by leftists during the primaries, with the current Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, who nobody cared about before the disastrous debate between Trump and Biden.
“No surprise there. They threw democracy out the window when they put Kamala in w/o a single vote. Why wouldn’t they pull some more shenanigans? We’ll get SCOTUS involved if we have to, but they need to do their job or GTFO,” an anonymous person wrote. The Democrats’ recent comments are also unsurprising because Raskin said he would never allow Trump to be in the White House again. “I’ve been warning of this for months. Here is Rep Jamie Raskin confirming what I’ve been predicting. Even if President Trump wins the 2024 election, Democrats will not accept the results and refuse to leave the White House, creating a civil war scenario,” investigative reporter and commentator Drew Hernandez said.
Elias makes a lot of money. But I think the Steele dossier has tainted him too much to be effective.
“According to court records, Elias acted as a cutout for more than $1 million in campaign payments for the dossier..”
• Trump’s Toughest Foe Could Be Harris Lawyer Marc Elias (Sperry)
Elias later testified that he was worried – then as now – that Trump was a threat to democracy: “I received information that was troubling as someone who cares about democracy.” That “information” turned out to be a fictitious “dossier” linking Trump to the Kremlin crafted by former British spook and FBI informant Christopher Steele, who huddled with Elias in his Washington office. “Some of the information that was in it I think has actually proved true. It was accurate and important,” Elias testified in a closed-door hearing on Capitol Hill in December 2017, according to a declassified transcript. Actually, Steele’s allegations proved to be a collection of improbable rumors and fabricated allegations invented by Steele’s top researcher and a Clinton campaign adviser. Nonetheless, the disinformation was fed to the FBI and media, igniting criminal investigations (including illegal electronic surveillance), congressional probes, and a media frenzy that crippled Trump’s presidency with bad press for years.
In a parallel operation against Trump, Elias worked with his then-law partner Michael Sussmann and Clinton campaign officials – including Jake Sullivan, who is now President Biden’s national security adviser – to develop misleading evidence of a “secret hotline” between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that allegedly used a “back channel” connection between email servers at Trump Tower and Russian-owned Alfa Bank. These false allegations were posted on social media and brought to the attention of the FBI, triggering a separate criminal investigation targeting Trump and his campaign. Like other Russiagate probes, it was eventually discredited. But the damage was done. By spreading fake Russian dirt on Trump, Elias was able to create scandals that dogged Trump for years, tarnishing his electability. The Democratic lawyer’s machinations, however, drew scrutiny from other investigators and hurt his own reputation – albeit temporarily.
During his probe of Russiagate, Special Counsel John Durham found Elias intentionally sought to conceal Clinton’s role in the dossier. According to court records, Elias acted as a cutout for more than 1millionincampaignpaymentsforthedossier.Bylaunderingitspaymentsthroughalawfirm,theClintoncampaignandEliaswereabletoclaimattorney−clientconfidentialitywhenDurhamsoughttheirinternalemails(theassertionofthatprivilegealsoblockedinvestigatorsfromaccessingcommunicationsbetweenEliasandSteele’simmediateemployer,theWashington−basedoppositionresearchfirm,FusionGPS).ButtheirshellgamegottheClintoncampaignintroublewiththeFederalElectionCommission,whichlaterfineditandtheDemocraticNationalCommittee1 million in campaign payments for the dossier. By laundering its payments through a law firm, the Clinton campaign and Elias were able to claim attorney-client confidentiality when Durham sought their internal emails (the assertion of that privilege also blocked investigators from accessing communications between Elias and Steele’s immediate employer, the Washington-based opposition research firm, FusionGPS). But their shell game got the Clinton campaign in trouble with the Federal Election Commission, which later fined it and the Democratic National Committee 1millionincampaignpaymentsforthedossier.Bylaunderingitspaymentsthroughalawfirm,theClintoncampaignandEliaswereabletoclaimattorney−clientconfidentialitywhenDurhamsoughttheirinternalemails(theassertionofthatprivilegealsoblockedinvestigatorsfromaccessingcommunicationsbetweenEliasandSteele’simmediateemployer,theWashington−basedoppositionresearchfirm,FusionGPS).ButtheirshellgamegottheClintoncampaignintroublewiththeFederalElectionCommission,whichlaterfineditandtheDemocraticNationalCommittee113,000 for misreporting the purpose of the payments as “legal expenses,” rather than opposition research, in violation of FEC laws.
The Durham probe, which Elias insists was “politically motivated,” nonetheless raised ethical issues with the D.C. Bar and Elias’ former law firm, Perkins Coie, reportedly leading to their breakup in August 2021, when Elias suddenly left the powerhouse after almost 30 years. The firm, which Elias had joined fresh out of law school in 1993, grew “increasingly uncomfortable” with the unwanted scrutiny the Durham probe invited on it, according to published reports. The veteran prosecutor exposed questionable billing practices by the firm. Durham also revealed the Democratic firm had set up an FBI workspace within its Washington offices, further calling into question the FBI’s impartiality in investigating Trump. In late 2021, Elias opened his own firm, the Elias Law Group, but soon lost major clients who reportedly grew weary of his aggressive tactics and go-it-alone style.
Last year, the DNC severed its 15-year relationship with Elias; then more recently, the Biden campaign parted company with him. In 2020, Elias had quarterbacked Biden’s legal team that fought Trump’s claims in court that the election had been stolen. He also beat back GOP measures to ensure election integrity after Democrats took advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to dramatically loosen rules for voting – including allowing ballot harvesting, drop boxes, and ballots arriving up to four days after Election Day to still be counted. Top Democratic Party officials were said to sour on Elias after he filed election-related lawsuits without consulting with them, some of which backfired with unfavorable – and lasting – rulings. Biden’s team reportedly also became frustrated with his fees. Elias billed the DNC and Biden campaign more than $20 million during the 2020 election cycle.
But Elias has since taken on other clients – including Kamala Harris – who have more than made up for the loss in revenue. So far in this election cycle, the latest FEC filings show the Elias Law Group has received a total of more than $22 million in disbursements from a host of major Democratic and anti-Trump clients.
It’s a war act. But there’s no war.
• Alien Enemies Act is Not a Viable Legal Basis for “Operation Aurora” (Turley)
In announcing his “Operation Aurora,” former President Donald Trump has suggested that he may use the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) of 1798 to crackdown on “every illegal migrant criminal network operating on American soil.” The plan to begin mass deportations is certainly popular with the public, according to polling. However, without a declaration of war, he will likely have to look to alternative statutory vehicles for a peacetime operation. This is not the first time that the Trump campaign has invoked the AEA. Last year, the campaign cited the law as giving it the power to “remove all known or suspected gang Members, drug dealers, or Cartel Members from the U.S.” The AEA has only been used three times and each time we were in a declared war: the War of 1812, World War I, and World War II. It is a law that became infamous in its use to put Japanese, German, and Italian civilians in internment camps during World War II. In DeLacey v. United States in 1918, the Ninth Circuit wrote that:
“The first reported case arising under the [AEA] is [by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in] Lockington’s Case [in 1814] … Lockington … had refused to comply with the executive order of February 23, 1813, requiring alien enemies who were within 40 miles of tidewater to retire to such places beyond that distance from tidewater as should be designated by the marshals. He was arrested, and on petition for habeas corpus attempted to test the legality of his imprisonment. Chief Justice Tilghman said of the [AEA]: “It is a provision for the public safety, which may require that the alien should not be removed, but kept in the country under proper restraints. … It is never to be forgotten that the main object of the law is to provide for the safety of the country from enemies who are suffered to remain within it. In order to effect this safety, it might be necessary to act on sudden emergencies. … The President, being best acquainted with the danger to be apprehended, is best able to judge of the emergency which might render such measures necessary. Accordingly, we find that the powers vested in him are expressed in the most comprehensive terms.”
The laws sweeping language makes it ripe for abuse. Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Brackenridge in Lockington’s Case (1814) observed that under the AEA “the President would seem to be constituted, as to this description of persons, with the power of a Roman dictator or consul, in extraordinary cases, when the Republic was in danger, that it sustain no damage: ne quid detrimenti respublica capiat.” However, the AEA’s only limiting language is found in the triggering language for those powers: “Whenever there is a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government, or any invasion or predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States by any foreign nation or government, and the President makes public proclamation of the event…” In Ludecke v. Watkins, 335 U.S. 160 (1948), the Supreme Court held Justice Felix Frankfurter wrote a supportive decision of the presidential authority under the AEA on when the powers expired, but not when the powers begin:
“And so we reach the claim that, while the President had summary power under the Act, it did not survive cessation of actual hostilities. This claim in effect nullifies the power to deport alien enemies, for such deportations are hardly practicable during the pendency of what is colloquially known as the shooting war. Nor does law lag behind common sense. War does not cease with a cease-fire order, and power to be exercised by the President such as that conferred by the Act of 1798 is a process which begins when war is declared but is not exhausted when the shooting stops.” This broad granting of authority under the AEA is obviously a great attraction for presidents who have rarely hesitated to use the maximal levels of their powers. However, the threshold requirement of a declared war has proven the limiting element and it is telling that the law been used only three times by presidents.
“Once a government has a monopoly on violence, the concept of public consent is meaningless..”
• Jon Stewart: Americans Don’t Need Guns To Protect Constitutional Rights (ZH)
Donald Trump’s recent return to Butler, PA where he was nearly assassinated due to Secret Service incompetence (or deliberate failure) has got the political left all worked up. Perhaps in part because Thomas Crooks failed to complete his task despite being given every conceivable opportunity to succeed, but also because Elon Musk was there to support the rally. Nothing Musk said was particularly shocking to normal Americans, but his comments on the necessity of the 2nd Amendment as a means to keep the 1st Amendment have outraged Democrats. Coastal progressives in particular have sought to disarm the rest of the nation for decades. Gun control and ultimately gun confiscation are foundational policies that their movement revolves around. The question is, why? Why are they so desperate to violate the Bill of Rights and take firearms away?
They certainly don’t care about people’s safety. If they did, they wouldn’t have cheered on the baseless and violent BLM and Antifa riots. Social media is replete with woke activists calling for the deaths of conservatives. These are not peaceful people seeking nirvana, they are happy to use violence if they think it will get them more power. This is a problem that old-school Democrats like Jon Stewart continue to enable while pretending it doesn’t exist. Stewart, clinging to cultural relevancy on his newly rebooted Daily Show, attempted to lampoon Elon Musk over his assertions on the 2A in Butler, but his strange diatribe about representative democracy is a retro callback to the 1990s and comes off as rather naive. Does Stewart really believe this nonsense? It’s hard to say, but the past few years have made his arguments obsolete.
The 1st Amendment is not protected by the “consent of the governed.” Americans just experienced a three year period of active censorship under the Biden Administration working closely with Big Tech and social media companies. Stewart shrugs off such censorship as if it’s overblown and doesn’t matter, but even Mark Zuckerberg admitted that Facebook was under pressure from the establishment to silence dissent on a number of issues from covid mandates to Hunter Biden’s laptop. Contrary to Stewart’s delusions about democracy, the reality is that the Constitution does not defend itself. According to polls a large number of Democrats desired the erasure of numerous rights during the covid scare. They don’t represent the majority, but there is more than enough of them to add weight to any authoritarian effort. And, the only thing stopping them from getting everything they want is the existence of millions of American gun owners.
It’s not as if the progressive/globalist establishment intends to give up, either. As John Kerry noted during a climate conference held by the WEF in September, their open intent is to shut down free speech rights regardless of the democratic process. If they could get rid of the 1st Amendment, they would. The only reason they haven’t is because the US government doesn’t have a monopoly on force. In Stewart’s fantasy land, a free Republic is a self perpetuating entity that continues on for eternity once it is set in motion, driven only by the goodness and purity of ideology and the voting process. But elections can be subverted by top-down corruption and the system has clearly been broken for some time. One only need to look at the malicious government crackdown on speech happening in the UK to see what happens when a population is disarmed.
There are examples of this across the globe, yet in the world of The Daily Show there is some kind of magical force embedded in “democracy” that protects the populace from abuse. To be sure, the act of violent rebellion is generally a last resort after all other measures have been exhausted. It’s just important to recognize that there’s always a breaking point and America is very close now. Stewart ironically contradicts his own premise when he claims guns “only protect the speech of the people holding the guns.” Yes Jon, that’s why the 2A exists, so that everyone’s speech is protected. Because a representative government can become a tyrannical government as easily as any other government. All it takes is time. The 2A ensures that the “consent of the governed” is never manufactured or forced without the threat of rebellion. Once a government has a monopoly on violence, the concept of public consent is meaningless and the elites will do as they please.
As Thomas Jefferson once wisely stated in reference to the potential for future citizen rebellion: “…What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
WWIII as their legacy for Trump.
• Biden, Netanyahu Closer to Consensus on Attacking Iran (Antiwar)
President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu moved closer to an understanding on Israel’s plans to attack Iran during their phone call on Wednesday, Axios reported on Thursday. The report, which cited US and Israeli officials, said that the US had accepted Israel is going to launch a major attack on Iran soon and is only concerned that striking certain types of targets could dramatically escalate things. However, Iran has vowed it will respond to any type of Israeli attack, and the situation could easily turn into a full-blown war that would involve the US. An Israeli official told Axios that the Israeli plans are still a bit more aggressive than the US would like. The US has been warning against striking nuclear facilities or oil infrastructure, and recent media reports have said Israel will likely target military infrastructure.
Netanyahu convened his security cabinet on Thursday to brief them on the situation with the US and is expected to get approval for him and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to set a timeline for the Israeli attack. The Times of Israel reported that the US and Israel will continue conversations on the plans in the coming days, signaling the attack is not imminent. NBC News reported on Tuesday that the US was considering supporting Israel’s attack with direct airstrikes of its own, although US officials said intelligence support was more likely. The Jerusalem Post reported that the US was offering Israel a “compensation package” of military aid and full diplomatic support if it only hits US-approved targets in Iran. The US has also committed to defending Israel from any Iranian response.
Iran fired nearly 200 ballistic missiles at Israel last week in response to a string of Israeli escalations, including the assassination of Hamas’s political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran. Immediately after the attack, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the US would work with Israel to ensure Iran suffers “severe consequences.”
So noble.
• Biden Warns Iran Against Going After Trump – WaPo (RT)
US president Joe Biden has told the White House National Security Council to warn Iran against trying to assassinate Donald Trump, the Washington Post has reported. The message that the US president wanted to be relayed to Tehran was that Washington would treat any attempt on the life of his predecessor, or on that of any other former American official, as an act of war, the paper wrote on Friday. WaPo cited National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett, who insisted that Biden has directed “every resource” to make sure that the Republican Party nominee is well protected and that his security detail receives intelligence data in a timely manner about any dangers he might face. “We consider this a national and homeland security matter of the highest priority, and we strongly condemn Iran for these brazen threats,” Savett stated.
Tehran will face “severe consequences” if it attacks any American citizen, including people who “continue to serve the US or those who formerly served,” he stressed. Late last month, Trump claimed that there were “big threats” on his life, coming from Iran. He said that the two assassination attempts against him in recent months, at a rally in Pennsylvania in July then, in September, at his golf club in Florida, “may or may not involve” Tehran. WaPo, citing sources familiar with the matter, wrote that currently there is no evidence tying Tehran to either of the incidents. The former president’s statement came a day after his team announced that they had a meeting with representatives of US intelligence, who warned them about Tehran’s alleged plans to kill Trump and to “sow chaos” in the country.
Politico said on Friday that it had talked to dozens of officials, who claimed that Iran’s efforts to kill Trump, as well as persons involved in the assassination of top Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani, were “even more extensive and aggressive than previously reported.” Soleimani died in a US drone strike outside an airport in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, in January 2020, during Trump’s period in office, and Iran has promised that he would be avenged. However, after Trump was wounded in the ear in an assassination attempt on July 13, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani stressed that Tehran “strongly rejects” any suggestion that it was involved. “Iran is determined to pursue legal action against Trump for his direct role in the crime of assassinating Martyr General Qassem Soleimani,” Kanaani said.
“About the notion that broadcast licenses should be up for bidding anew, Collins said: “If it causes a conversation in the halls of New York, and panic, maybe I’m all for it.”
• CBS News Faces Integrity Crisis Amid Bias Concerns, Missteps (JTN)
CBS News was once home to giants in the journalism industry. Walter Cronkite – known as “the most trusted man in America” – broadcast from a bomber in WWII on a mission over Germany. Edward R. Murrow changed investigative reporting forever with a 1960 documentary that is still taught in journalism schools today. And Mike Wallace could stir fear in the hearts of interview subjects with a simple phone call from his “60 Minutes” office. But today the news giant once heralded as the “Tiffany network” is blinking with crisis as the neutrality of its anchors is challenged and the integrity of editing at its most famous news magazine has been questioned. Many believe the storm of credibility was born two decades ago when then-Anchor Dan Rather’s supposed scoop on George W. Bush’s Vietnam war service factually crumbled, a miscue so embarrassing it sunk the 60 Minutes II franchise for good.
But a steady run of miscues and clashes in the era of Donald Trump and Middle East war has only inflamed the distrust – at least among conservatives – to scandalous levels and left a cloud lingering over the entire CBS News franchise. The most recent accusations of liberal bias exploded when CBS announced ahead of the vice presidential debate between Republican Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic nominee, that its moderators would not “fact-check” the candidates’ answers. Instead, CBS moderators Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan pulled a fast one, and several times argued with him about assertions. At one point when Vance answered their questions pushing back, they interrupted him and cut his mic off. In another event, The Free Press reported that a memo from Mark Memmott, the network’s director of standards and practices, told CBS reporters not to refer to Jerusalem as being in Israel, though it is the nation’s capital city and home to the U.S. embassy.
But perhaps the most politically incendiary incident, and the one that has Trump calling for CBS to lose its broadcast license, involved “60 Minutes” on Monday, when the network’s flagship news show was caught subbing one rambling answer from Vice President Kamala Harris for a more coherent one. “60 Minutes is a major part of the News Organization of CBS, which has just created the Greatest Fraud in Broadcast History,” Trump posted on social media after the Monday night show aired. “CBS should lose its license, and it should be bid out to the Highest Bidder, as should all other Broadcast Licenses, because they are just as corrupt as CBS — and maybe even WORSE!” The Harris interview was conducted by Bill Whitaker at the Naval Observatory over the weekend and an edited portion aired on “Face the Nation,” also a CBS show.
When Whittaker asked about U.S. diplomacy in Israel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reaction to the Biden administration’s desire to scale down the war against Hamas, Harris responded with: “Well, Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by or a result of many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region.” But when the question aired later on “60 Minutes,” the response by Harris was different. “We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end,” the presidential nominee said. In an additional social-media post by Trump, he said: “With me, 60 Minutes does the exact opposite! They take everything I say, realize how totally BRILLIANT it is, and take it out. So, with Kamala they add, with ‘TRUMP’ they delete. Like the Democrat Party, THEY ARE A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY!”
While progressive pundits quickly came to the defense of CBS, saying that edits for the sake of time and “concision” are common in news media, Trump’s assertion that broadcast licenses ought to be in play due to media bias is gaining traction among conservatives. “I want to hold these people responsible. We’re giving them FCC licenses. They don’t deserve them,” Arizona senatorial candidate Kari Lake said Thursday on the “Just the News, No Noise,” TV show with host John Solomon. Broadcast licenses are considered a shared “public common” after the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica Foundation, an obscenity case, that the federal government had jurisdiction to manage the airwaves.
Similarly, former Congressman Doug Collins, who has served as legal counsel for Trump, told co-host Amanda Head that some of Trump’s lawyers will be filing an FEC complaint claiming that CBS has been making in-kind political contributions to the Harris-Walz campaign. About the notion that broadcast licenses should be up for bidding anew, Collins said: “If it causes a conversation in the halls of New York, and panic, maybe I’m all for it.” Michael Whatley, the chair of the Republican National Committee, called the behavior of CBS “appalling” during the “John Solomon Reports” podcast Thursday. “CBS and 60 Minutes are lying to the American people about what was said and what was done in that interview,” Whatley said. “This is just the latest example that the media is absolutely not going to play it straight.” Noting the rise of alternative media and falling ratings for broadcast news shows, he added: “There is a reckoning that is taking place with the mainstream, traditional media outlets that’s long overdue.”
Falling ratings are a long-term problem and has caused layoffs – and O’Donnell took a pay cut in 2022 to 3.8millionannually,downfrom3.8 million annually, down from 3.8millionannually,downfrom8 million previously – but as recently as four years ago the vice presidential debate between Harris and then-Vice President Mike Pence, scored 25 percent more viewers than did last month’s Vance-Walz debate. Another problem faced by CBS is its decision in February to lay off senior investigative correspondent Catherine Herridge after she reported stories that irritated progressive activists, including some involving the Hunter Biden laptop scandal. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, has launched an investigation into Herridge’s termination.
Herridge went on to say that when she interviewed then-President Trump in 2020, CBS News posted the entire interview transcript. And on Wednesday, Herridge weighed in on the “60 Minutes” fiasco, posting on the X social-media platform: “As Trump campaign calls on @60Minutes to release ‘full, unedited transcript’ of Kamala Harris interview … there is precedent.” The New York Post quoted unnamed sources as saying that “Herridge had pushed for the publication of her full transcript at the time and that it was a “special case.” “It’s about transparency and standing behind the integrity of the final edit,” Herridge posted Wednesday.
How on earth can you hold a free and fair election under such rules?
• 3 Million Non-Citizens Have Texas Driver’s Licenses Allowed As Voter ID (JTN)
Texas GOP Rep. Chip Roy and state Rep. Brian Harrison, R, said that the Texas Department of Public Safety has confirmed there are nearly 3 million non-citizens with driver’s licenses in the state that secretary of state has allowed for use as voter ID. The announcement on Thursday came after an Tuesday advisory by the Texas secretary of state’s elections director, Christina Worrell Adkins, which states that while non-citizen driver’s licenses are not acceptable as voter ID, they can be used if the person is already a registered voter. “BREAKING: according to [Texas Department of Public Safety] – 2,824,613 non-citizens have DL’s, CDL’s, or ID – after working with my friend [Brian Harrison] to run this to ground. That’s why this matters – a lot,” Roy posted on X on Thursday as he shared his earlier post with a Texas Scorecard article about non-citizens using driver’s licenses as voter ID.
“Almost 3 million non-citizens have been issued driver licenses, CDLs, or IDs in Texas,” Harrison wrote Thursday as he shared Roy’s post on X. “The Secretary of State’s office is instructing poll workers to give ballots to people with non-citizen driver licenses. [Chip Roy] is right: ‘this matters a lot.’ Developing..” The secretary of state’s advisory explains that only U.S. citizens are permitted to register to vote and cast ballots in Texas. However, the guidance also states that a person with a non-citizen driver’s license or identification card can vote if they are listed on the voter rolls. If the person is not on the voter rolls and has a non-citizen driver’s license or ID, then they may still vote by provisional ballot.
Fill up the voter rolls with illegals well in advance and no-one can take them off less than 90 days before the election.
• DOJ Sues Virginia Over Removing Non-Citizens From Voter Rolls (JTN)
The Department of Justice has sued Virginia over removing non-citizens from its voter rolls ahead of the November election. The DOJ announced the suit Friday against the Commonwealth of Virginia, the Virginia State Board of Elections, and the Virginia Commissioner of Elections for allegedly violating the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. The NVRA prevents states from using systematic programs to remove ineligible voters from voter rolls within 90 days of a federal election, according to the DOJ. “As the National Voter Registration Act mandates, officials across the country should take heed of the law’s crystal clear and unequivocal restrictions on systematic list maintenance efforts that fall within 90 days of an election,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement. “By cancelling voter registrations within 90 days of Election Day, Virginia places qualified voters in jeopardy of being removed from the rolls and creates the risk of confusion for the electorate.
Congress adopted the National Voter Registration Act’s quiet period restriction to prevent error-prone, eleventh hour efforts that all too often disenfranchise qualified voters,” she added. “The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy and the Justice Department will continue to ensure that the rights of qualified voters are protected.” Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) slammed the DOJ over the litigation. “With less than 30 days until the election, the Biden-Harris Department of Justice is filing an unprecedented lawsuit against me and the Commonwealth of Virginia, for appropriately enforcing a 2006 law signed by Democrat Tim Kaine that requires Virginia to remove noncitizens from the voter rolls – a process that starts with someone declaring themselves a non-citizen and then registering to vote,” Youngkin said in a statement Friday.
“Virginians – and Americans – will see this for exactly what it is: a desperate attempt to attack the legitimacy of the elections in the Commonwealth, the very crucible of American Democracy. With the support of our Attorney General, we will defend these commonsense steps, that we are legally required to take, with every resource available to us. Virginia’s election will be secure and fair, and I will not stand idly by as this politically motivated action tries to interfere in our elections, period.” The DOJ lawsuit come two weeks after the department sued Alabama for removing ineligible voters from its voter rolls.
“..the main goal of Russian diplomacy is now “crisis management and the prevention of… a truly large-scale conflict.”
• NATO Could Have Prevented Ukraine Conflict – Hungary FM (RT)
The current standoff between Russia and the West could have been avoided if NATO and the US had engaged in serious talks on Moscow’s demand for security guarantees, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has argued. In December 2021, two months before Russia launched its military operation in Ukraine, it submitted a list of security proposals to NATO and the US, insisting that the bloc withdraw its military infrastructure to the 1997 borders. The key point of the document was to halt NATO’s expansion, particularly regarding Ukraine, which has long sought to join the military bloc. However, the bloc rejected the proposal, citing its “open-door policy” on new members. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that one of the key reasons for the conflict was the threat of Kiev’s potential NATO membership.
In an interview with RIA Novosti on Saturday, Szijjarto suggested that the Russian terms could have served as a basis for avoiding the Ukraine conflict. “I remember those times. I think that what was missing there was a serious discussion… I do believe that if someone has an issue… then it should be discussed. And these discussions have not taken place, unfortunately,” the diplomat said. Szijjarto acknowledged that any debate on what might have happened is now moot, but stressed that he wishes “those dialogues had taken place. Because if they had taken place, we might not be in the situation we are right now.” In May, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said Moscow’s proposal on security guarantees was no longer on the table, and that the main goal of Russian diplomacy is now “crisis management and the prevention of… a truly large-scale conflict.”
Szijjarto, along with other top Hungarian officials, have repeatedly criticized the West’s approach to the Ukraine crisis, calling on both sides to reach a ceasefire and start peace talks. He has also blasted Western sanctions against Moscow as ineffective and crippling the EU economy. Russia has never ruled out talks on Ukraine, and Putin said in June that Moscow would immediately agree to a ceasefire and start peace talks if Kiev were to withdraw troops from the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions and commit to neutrality. Later, he said that any engagement was out of the question as long as Ukrainian troops occupy part of Russia’s Kursk Region.
“..options for fighting Russia are being continuously worked out within the bloc, military budgets of member states are being boosted, and Western economies are being militarized..”
• NATO Planning New Russia Strategy – Politico (RT)
NATO’s defense ministers will meet in Brussels next week to start rethinking the bloc’s decades-old strategy on relations with Russia, Politico has reported Despite ties between NATO and Russia hitting “rock bottom” after the outbreak of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, the ‘Founding Act’ with Moscow remains in force within the US-led alliance, the outlet noted in an article on Friday. The 1997 document, which states that NATO and Russia share a common goal to “build a stable, peaceful and undivided Europe,” does not reflect the current situation, Politico wrote. During its summit in Washington in July, NATO labeled Moscow the “most significant and direct threat to Allies’ security,” while Russia continues to insist that the bloc’s eastward expansion is an “existential danger” for the country.
NATO countries are now trying to “map out different elements of [the Russia] strategy and advance the debates inside the alliance that takes us to subjects like the future of the NATO-Russia Founding Act,” a senior US official was quoted by Politico as saying. “It is time to now craft a new strategy in terms of specific positions” of the member states, the official added. Lower-level discussions on the new Russia policy have been underway for months within the bloc, and next week the issue will be addressed at the ministerial level, the report said. NATO previously announced that it planned to formulate a new strategy before its summit in The Hague, to be held next summer. “Right now we have to have an understanding across the alliance… that the [Founding Act] and the NATO-Russia Council were built for a different era, and I think the allies are prepared to say that was a different era in our relationship with Russia, and therefore something new is merited,” the US official explained.
The official described the strategy as a “political exercise,” adding that its military implications are expected to be “limited.” According to Politico, there are differences among members when it comes to the new policy towards Moscow, as some are concerned that an overly aggressive “signal” could “destabilize” Russia. There are also questions over Hungary and Slovakia, which see “strategic value” in engaging with Moscow, despite being NATO members, it added. Earlier this week, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Grushko said NATO is no longer hiding the fact that it is bracing for a potential military conflict with Moscow. Possible options for fighting Russia are being continuously worked out within the bloc, military budgets of member states are being boosted, and Western economies are being militarized, he said. It was not Russia but NATO that took “the path of confrontation” by refusing to engage in dialogue, Grushko insisted. Because of this, the US-led bloc bears full responsibility for a “major European security crisis” caused by the Ukraine conflict, he added.
“We reset our workforce levels to align with our financial reality and to a more focused set of priorities..”
• Boeing To Fire 17,000 Employees (RT)
The US manufacturer Boeing has announced plans to eliminate around 10% of its workforce over the coming months, as the aerospace giant’s losses continue to mount and a strike undercuts the production of its best-selling planes. The job cuts will include executives and managers in addition to ordinary employees, according to a memo shared by the company’s new president and CEO Kelly Ortberg on Friday. The corporation employs nearly 170,000 people worldwide. “Our business is in a difficult position, and it is hard to overstate the challenges we face together,” said Ortberg, who became CEO of the troubled aircraft maker two months ago. A month after he took the helm, 33,000 hourly workers went on strike. “We reset our workforce levels to align with our financial reality and to a more focused set of priorities,” he added.
The “tough” decision is aimed at completing structural changes that will ensure the company’s ability to stay competitive and execute the customers’ orders over the long term, the CEO emphasized. Ortberg added that Boeing is also delaying its program to develop the 777X airplane until 2026 and halting production of its commercial 767 freighters in 2027 after fulfilling remaining orders. Earlier this week, Boeing said it had filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board against the union that represents its striking West Coast factory workers. The company emphasized that the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers had failed to bargain in good faith during the four-week work stoppage, adding that it was “issuing misinformation to its members about the status of negotiations.”
The company earlier withdrew a contract offer it had made to the striking machinists, saying that further negotiations “do not make sense at this point.” The union had previously stated that Boeing had refused to improve wages, retirement plans and vacation or sick leave. In a preliminary report on the financial results issued on Friday, the corporation said it expects to have an operating cash outflow of 1.3billioninthethirdquarter,andthatitwillreportalossof1.3 billion in the third quarter, and that it will report a loss of 1.3billioninthethirdquarter,andthatitwillreportalossof9.97 per share.
Maher
NOW – Bill Maher sounds the alarm on Kamala's crashing campaign; "It's 25 days before the election, and I got to say, it's not looking that great for the Democrats. This is not a good sign——" pic.twitter.com/xI46LckicK
— Overton (@overton_news) October 12, 2024
Phone frogs
Don't you try.. 😂 pic.twitter.com/jP1ZN3oar9
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) October 12, 2024
Material girl
No way, how? pic.twitter.com/S0pe98Ll8u
— The World Of Funny (@TheWorldOfFunny) October 12, 2024
Voila
https://twitter.com/i/status/1844929481615790263
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Jean-Francois Millet In the Auvergne 1869
Trump: "We go in, we blow up countries, and then we leave. We got nothing except dead people all over the place. How stupid are we? That was a Cheney and a Bush. Not just Democrats. It's both. I'm equally angry at both." pic.twitter.com/yO5W4Vy9xp
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) October 10, 2024
We Robot
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 11, 2024
FSD
Elon Musk: You can't solve self-driving unless you have millions of cars on the road.
“We are no longer compute-constrained for training.
I checked in with the team, is there anything we could do to improve the pace of progress with respect to training and inference?
And… pic.twitter.com/iccXoWu7CD
— ELON DOCS (@elon_docs) October 10, 2024
Tips
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2024
What can be
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 11, 2024
The President
https://twitter.com/i/status/1844442775745634513
Cellphones
https://twitter.com/i/status/1844085783516545366
Appellate
The appellate court is preparing to overturn Letitia James’s nearly $500m case against Trump — and the judge is making it quite clear: GUARDRAILS against Leticia are needed! pic.twitter.com/9tiZPcGEFw
— Trish Regan (@trish_regan) October 11, 2024
“..it’s simply not possible for her to win the PV if she is running this poorly in NY, MD, NJ, CA, etc. Not possible math..”
• Suspicions Grow That Some Polls May Be Masking True Size Of Trump’s Lead (JTN)
A string of polls from legacy outfits has pointed to a shift toward former President Donald Trump in most of the major battleground states while Vice President Harris maintains a national lead, but some analysts see a critical disconnect between state and national polling that could suggest the Republican is on even stronger footing. Harris currently leads Trump by 2.0% in the RealClearPolitics polling average, with 49.1% support to his 47.1%. That figure includes a Rasmussen Reports survey showing Trump with a two-point lead, a Reuters/Ipsos survey showing Harris up two, a Morning Consult poll with Harris up five, a Yahoo News poll with the race tied, and a number of other surveys. A New York Times/Siena College survey showed Harris up three points. But pollsters have pointed to an apparent disconnect between state and national level polls, with state-level surveys increasingly shifting toward Trump while Harris seemingly holds steady at the national level.
They have further observed two consistent patterns of national polling that appear to vary widely due to methodology.Dominating headlines this week was a bombshell Quinnipiac University survey, which is typically favorable to Democrats, that showed Trump leading by 2% in Wisconsin and 3% in Michigan. “The Harris post-debate starburst dims to a glow as Harris enters the last weeks slipping slightly in the Rust Belt,” Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy wrote. Far from an outlier, other surveys have followed those results, showing Trump either tied or leading Harris in those battlegrounds. A survey from The Hill/Emerson College, for instance showed the Michigan race tied at 49% each. That survey found the same result in Wisconsin. Polling averages currently show Trump poised to take Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Arizona. Harris, for her part, holds narrow leads in Minnesota and Nevada. Should such results hold, Trump would handily carry the Electoral College, barring major upsets.
The campaign released its own internal polling in a Thursday memo, showing Trump winning all seven of the key battleground states it tracked. Betting markets have also shifted decidedly in favor of Trump. Polymarket currently assigns him a 55.3% chance of winning, compared to 44.3% for Harris. The vice president was the race’s favorite just days ago. “People want America to be strong, and there really is no comparison between what Donald Trump showed us in his four years and what Kamala Harris has shown us [in] her four years as Vice President, and, you know, her tenure in the Senate,” Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley said on the “John Solomon Reports” podcast. “And so I think as people are looking at the world through that prism, it’s not surprising that we’re starting to see the polls kind of shifting our way.”
Compared to his prior elections, Trump is in a far more favorable position at this stage in the race. Against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016, he trailed by 5.8% on Oct. 10. Against President Joe Biden in 2020, he trailed by 10.0%. But that aggregate includes a handful of polls showing either a tied race or moderate Trump lead and a slew showing Harris with a 3-5% edge. “There have been two universes. 1) A close race with a marginal Trump edge. 2) Ridiculous leads for Harris larger than Obama that are never going to happen,” posted Big Data Poll Director Rich Baris in response to an Emerson College poll showing Trump ahead in Pennsylvania. NYT/Siena pollster Nate Cohn this week outlined a key methodological divide leading to some of the apparent polling conflicts, that of “weighting on recalled vote.” In that method, polls ask respondents for whom they voted in 2020 and weight those results to ensure a sample that matches the outcome of the prior election.
Polls that use such a weighting method, he asserted, tend to more closely resemble 2020 election results, while those that don’t, seem to mirror the 2022 midterms. The NYT/Siena College poll does not “weight by recalled vote.” While the issue of “weighting by recalled vote” might explain a chasm between different national polls, it would not explain the apparent disconnects between state and national data from the same outlets. Harvard CAPS/Harris poll director Mark Penn, for instance, highlighted what he called a “polling paradox,” noting that “[t]he Times/Siena poll shows Harris up 3 nationally (within their margin of error) but losing to Trump by 14 in Florida.” “Newsflash — they can’t both be right. It would be paradoxical for Harris to be up with seniors nationally and down with Floridians,” he added. “Florida has high concentrations of seniors and Latinos and if Trump is winning those groups he is sweeping Pa.,Nv and Az. The state polls and national polls have to be in sync and I can’t say which is right but one or both are off base.”
Baris also pointed to an apparent split, with polls showing Harris poised to win the popular vote despite faring significantly worse in deep-blue states such as California and New York. Baris, like Penn, pointed to the NYT/Siena poll, but notably pointed to a drop in Harris’s support in Democratic bastions. He further accused the Times of “giving their readers bipolar results for copium.” “More polls today showing Harris down in key states but also running way behind Clinton and Biden in another blue state. To the point I made yesterday, it’s simply not possible for her to win the PV if she is running this poorly in NY, MD, NJ, CA, etc. Not possible math,” he wrote. “I’m watching this being covered as a good thing for Harris. It’s an absolute catastrophe for her,” Baris wrote, in response to Mason-Dixon/Telemundo data showing Harris leading Trump among California Hispanics 55% to 35%. Biden, by contrast, won that bloc 75% to 23%. Those figures mark a 32% swing in one of the state’s largest voting blocs toward Trump.
“Why did 60 Minutes choose not to air Kamala’s full word salad, and what else did they choose not to air?”
• ‘60 mInutes’ Airs Two Different Answers From Harris To Same Question (RT)
The ‘60 minutes’ program on CBS has broadcast two different answers to the same question from US Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris. During the segment, interviewer Bill Whitaker asked Harris if she believed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not listening to the US amid an escalation in the Middle East. The vice president’s reply to that question was not the same in the preview that aired on Sunday as it was in the actual show that was broadcast on Monday. In the preview, which was shown as part of the ‘Face the Nation’ program, Harris said: “Well Bill, the work that we have done has resulted in a number of movements in that region by Israel that were very much prompted by, or a result of, many things, including our advocacy for what needs to happen in the region.” However, when the actual ‘60 minutes’ episode aired the next day, the Democratic presidential nominee’s answer was changed to a completely different one, which was shorter and more clear.
“We are not going to stop pursuing what is necessary for the United States to be clear about where we stand on the need for this war to end,” Harris said during the program. On Tuesday, the campaign of former US president and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump urged CBS and the producers of ‘60 minutes’ to release the full interview with Harris. “On Sunday, 60 Minutes teased Kamala’s highly-anticipated sit-down interview with one of her worst word salads to date, which received significant criticism on social media. During the full interview on Monday evening, the word salad was deceptively edited to lessen Kamala’s idiotic response,” Trump campaign national spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, said.
“Why did 60 Minutes choose not to air Kamala’s full word salad, and what else did they choose not to air? The American people deserve the full, unedited transcript from Kamala’s sit-down interview… What do they, and Kamala, have to hide?” Leavitt insisted. The Harris campaign insisted that it had nothing to do with the changes made to her interview. “We do not control CBS’s production decisions and refer questions to CBS,” a campaign aide told several outlets, including Fox News and Variety. Trump took to his Truth Social platform on Thursday, accusing ‘60 minutes’ of replacing Harris’ answer with another in order to “make her look better,” and labelling CBS itself a “a giant Fake News Scam.” “CBS should lose its license, and it should be bid out to the Highest Bidder, as should all other Broadcast Licenses, because they are just as corrupt as CBS – and maybe even WORSE!” he wrote.
Fake news is protected as free speech?!
• US Media Regulator Comments On Trump’s CBS Demand (RT)
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s criticism of the way CBS edited its interview with his Democratic rival Kamala Harris is a threat to free speech and democracy, the head of the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has stated. Trump had accused CBS of perpetrating “the Greatest Fraud in Broadcast History” by rearranging the ‘60 Minutes’ interview with Harris, aired earlier this week, to make her look more coherent. He called for the network to lose its license. ”While repeated attacks against broadcast stations by the former President may now be familiar, these threats against free speech are serious and should not be ignored,” FCC chair Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, said in a statement on Thursday. “The FCC does not and will not revoke licenses for broadcast stations simply because a political candidate disagrees with or dislikes content or coverage.”
According to Rosenworcel, “the First Amendment is a cornerstone of our democracy.” That particular section of the US Constitution prevents the government from infringing on freedom of speech, the press, assembly or religion. Harris recorded the ‘60 Minutes’ interview as part a media blitz, trailing Trump in many polls as the November 5 election approaches. A preview of the interview, aired on Sunday, showed her giving a confusing and convoluted response to a question about Israel. The full show, however, contained a completely different response – leaving viewers baffled as to what Harris actually said and when. Trump responded with several posts on his Truth Social platform, accusing CBS of having “sliced and diced” Harris’ “virtually incoherent” answers to make her look good, in what he called a stain on the reputation of both ‘60 Minutes’ and the network.
“It is the very definition of FAKE NEWS! The public is owed a MAJOR AND IMMEDIATE APOLOGY!” he posted on Thursday. The former and aspiring future US president suggested that other broadcast networks weren’t any better and should get their licenses pulled as well. Rosenworcel’s statement comes amid a widespread push by Democrats to censor social media in the name of combating “disinformation” to “protect our democracy.” Meanwhile, the FCC has voted along party lines to fast-track the purchase of over 200 radio stations in more than 40 markets across the US by a group backed by Democrat mega-donor George Soros. Republican commissioner Brendan Carr has called the decision “unprecedented” and said it did not follow the requirements and procedures codified in federal law.
“President Joe Biden promised to provide everything needed, “as long as he doesn’t ask for F-15s.”
• Biden Ordered Trump To Be Protected As A ‘Sitting President’ (RT)
Former President Donald Trump’s campaign has requested additional resources, including military aircraft, to protect the Republican candidate in the final weeks before the election. President Joe Biden promised to provide everything needed, “as long as he doesn’t ask for F-15s.” Following two assassination attempts against Trump in recent months, his campaign has been in contact with the White House and the Secret Service to request military assets for added protection, according to multiple US media reports on Friday. President Biden stated that he had ordered his administration to provide Trump “all that he needs” when asked about these reports. ”As long as he doesn’t ask for F-15s,” he told reporters, before adding that he “was being facetious.” “Look, I’ve instructed the department to give him every – every single thing he needs for his… as if he were a sitting president. Give him all that he needs. If it fits within that category, that’s fine. But if it doesn’t, he shouldn’t,” the US leader explained.
The request for military assets includes aircraft and vehicles to transport Trump between campaign events and expanded flight restrictions over his homes and rallies. However, reports from the New York Times, Washington Post, and CNN did not mention whether the Republican campaign sought fighter jet escorts. Trump’s presidential rival, Kamala Harris, receives protection from the US Marines as Vice President and travels on a US military aircraft designated as Air Force Two. The Secret Service, responsible for protecting presidential candidates, confirmed that it received requests for increased protection but did not disclose details. “The former president is receiving the highest levels of protection,” said a representative for the agency, noting that the Secret Service would continue to adjust its protective posture as needed to address evolving threats.
The agency faced criticism after the first assassination attempt against Trump in July, which resulted in the resignation of its director. Since then, it has increased its defensive measures for Trump, including the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, counter-drone technology, and other protective and surveillance systems. Last month, Trump claimed there are “big threats” to his life from Iran after he and his team met with representatives from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). The agency declined to disclose details of the meeting, although the Trump campaign stated it focused on “real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him in an effort to destabilize and sow chaos in the US.” Trump narrowly escaped death on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, after a 20-year-old man fired shots from a rooftop, grazing Trump’s ear and killing one audience member.
The would-be assassin, Thomas M. Crooks, was killed by the US Secret Service, and his body was quickly cremated; his social media accounts have since been scrubbed. Another would-be assassin, 58-year-old Ryan Wesley Routh, was arrested by the Secret Service on September 15 after being spotted near a Trump-owned golf course in Florida, apparently attempting to take a shot. Routh, a convicted felon, spent much of the past three years in Ukraine, claiming to various Western media outlets that he was fundraising and recruiting for Kiev’s war effort. The FBI is investigating both incidents as attempted assassinations, but authorities have yet to provide any information about possible motives and have not revealed any evidence linking to an Iranian plot.
“Many are left with a Ned Flanders moment of “well, if that don’t put the “dink” in co-inky-dink.”
• Judge Agrees To Release More Trump Material Before the Election (Turley)
It appears that U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan and Special Counsel Jack Smith are not done yet in releasing material in advance of the election. In a previous column, I criticized the release of Smith’s 180-page brief before the election as procedurally irregular and politically biased, a criticism shared by CNN’s senior legal analyst and other law professors. Nevertheless, on Thursday, Judge Chutkan agreed to a request from Smith to unseal exhibits and evidence in advance of the election. The brief clearly contains damning allegations, including witness accounts, for Trump. The objection to the release of the brief was not a defense of any actions taken on January 6th by the former president or others, but rather an objection to what even the court admitted was an “irregular” process.
As discussed earlier, Smith has been unrelenting in his demands for a trial before the election. He has even demanded that Donald Trump be barred from standard appellate options in order to expedite his trial. Smith never fully explained the necessity of holding a trial before the election beyond suggesting that voters should see the trial and the results — assaulting the very premise of the Justice Department’s rule against such actions just before elections. To avoid allegations of political manipulation of cases, the Justice Department has long followed a policy against making potentially influential filings within 60 or 90 days of an election. One section of the Justice Department manual states “Federal prosecutors… may never select the timing of any action, including investigative steps, criminal charges, or statements, for the purpose of affecting any election.”
Even if one argues that this provision is not directly controlling or purely discretionary, the spirit of the policy is to avoid precisely the appearance in this case: the effort to manipulate or influence an election through court filings. With no trial date for 2025, there is no reason why Smith or Chutkan would adopt such an irregular process. The court could have slightly delayed these filings until after the approaching election or it could have sealed the filings. If there is one time where a court should err on the side of avoiding an “irregular” process, it is before a national election. What may look like simply an adversarial process to some looks like oppo research to others. Delaying the release would have avoided any appearance of such bias.
For Smith, the election has long been the focus of his filings and demands for an expedited process. Smith knows that this election is developing into the largest jury verdict in history. Many citizens, even those who do not like Trump, want to see an end to the weaponization of the legal system, including Smith’s D.C. prosecution. Trump has to lose the election for Smith to be guaranteed a trial in the case. Chutkan has given the Trump team just seven days to oppose her order. That would still allow the material to make it into the public (and be immediately employed by the media and Harris campaign) just days before the election. The move will only increase criticism that this looks like a docket in the pocket of the DNC. It is telling that, once again, the timing just works out to the way that is most politically impactful. Many are left with a Ned Flanders moment of “well, if that don’t put the “dink” in co-inky-dink.”
“I have had the opportunity to have him on my show, more than once, and I have said no every time. I don’t want to help him, I’m not interested in helping him.”
• Elon Musk Predicts Joe Rogan Will Interview Donald Trump (ZH)
Just minutes before the scheduled start of the much-anticipated Robotaxi event on Thursday night, Elon Musk took to Twitter to tell the world an interview between Joe Rogan and Donald Trump “will happen”. Musk made the post responding to our article, “Joe Rogan Has 25 Days To Interview Donald Trump”, submitted by Zero Hedge contributor Quoth the Raven, who wrote on Tuesday: “I can’t listen to another 4 years of Rogan bitch about how bad things have gotten if he won’t talk to Trump.” Rogan has been notoriously uninterested in the interview, which he has been asked about multiple times over the last half decade. Back in June 2023, when asked about the idea, Rogan said to Lex Fridman: “I have had the opportunity to have him on my show, more than once, and I have said no every time. I don’t want to help him, I’m not interested in helping him.”
By August 2023, it looked like Rogan might be changing his tune, as he told Valuetainment’s Patrick Bet-David: “I don’t know. Maybe. At a certain point in time. Just like, it would be interesting to hear his perspective on a lot of things.” Since then, Rogan has stated his admiration for RFK, Jr., who is now supporting Trump. He has also given a platform to Tulsi Gabbard, who is campaigning with, and for, Trump. The idea that Rogan wouldn’t interview Trump, who has recently done podcasts with Theo Von and Andrew Schultz, to name a few, seems bizarre. QTR wrote on his blog Tuesday night that “If anything, an interview would give Rogan an opportunity to push Trump on the things that he disagrees with him on. Bring him on and give him hell if you want, Joe. Rogan could even extend an invitation to the Harris campaign and invite her on for a separate appearance if she wants.”
“I don’t want to pretend to understand what the problem is that Rogan has with Trump, but all I know is that it’s not bigger than the potential consequences of this election,” he wrote. “After listening to Rogan’s podcast for nearly 2,000 episodes, I’m confident in my assessment that he’s a person of integrity and a man of character. The truth is, whether he likes it or not, putting his personal animus aside and getting Trump on the largest media platform in the world can only make an impact for the next month or so.” He concluded: “After the November election, especially if Trump loses, there will be no point — and it’ll be impossible to listen to Rogan crow about the lunatics on the left any further, knowing he didn’t talk to Trump when he had the chance. So let’s get real, Joe: what the hell are you waiting for?”
QTR first predicted the interview would happen in September 2023: “To me, this meeting seems inevitable over a long enough timeline. There’s sufficient positive motivation for both parties to make it happen before the 2024 election, which is why I predict the interview will likely air before the end of the first quarter of 2024.” He’s got about 3 weeks left…
This for me goes much too far.
“In Walz’s state and on his watch, five infants were “born alive” in 2021 during failed abortions, and none received life-saving care, though two got “comfort care..”
• Democrats, Media Misrepresent Abortion Policies On Both Sides (JTN)
Democrats and the media have misrepresented the abortion policies of Republicans and the Democratic vice presidential nominee, claiming that the former are secretly much more strict than they are and arguing that the latter is not as liberal as he appears. From Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz’s abortion policies as Minnesota governor to Republicans’ stance on a national abortion ban, Democrats have distorted both their own record and their opponents’ on abortion in the months leading up to the presidential election. Following the reversal of Roe v. Wade in 2022, which returned the abortion question back to the states, Democrats have made abortion a top priority in their campaigns. According to a Gallup poll from May, 50% of U.S. adults said that abortion should be legal only under certain circumstances, while 35% believe it should be legal under any circumstances, and 12% said it should be illegal in all circumstances.
Abortion was a discussion topic in both the presidential and vice presidential debates. Former President Donald Trump said in the last presidential debate in September that Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’ “vice presidential pick says abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine. He also says execution after birth — it’s execution, no longer abortion, because the baby is born is okay, and that’s not okay with me.” ABC News’ Linsey Davis pushed back on Trump’s statement during the presidential debate, saying, “There is no state in this country where it is legal to kill a baby after it’s born.” NPR also said that abortions after birth are currently illegal in all 50 states. “Nowhere in America is a woman carrying a pregnancy to term and asking for an abortion,” Harris said during the presidential debate. “That isn’t happening; it’s insulting to the women of America.”
However, the states of Alaska, Colorado, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington, D.C., allow abortion through the ninth month of pregnancy, according to the National Catholic Register. During the vice presidential debate earlier this month, Walz was put on the defensive when asked about his state’s law on babies surviving botched abortions and Trump’s statement. “The question got asked and Donald Trump made the accusation that wasn’t true about Minnesota,” Walz said. Later on in the debate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, said, “[a]nd maybe you’re free to disagree with me on this and explain this to me, but as I read the Minnesota law that you signed into into law, the statute that you signed into law, it says that a doctor who presides over an abortion where the baby survives, the doctor is under no obligation to provide life-saving care to a baby who survives a botched late-term abortion.”
Walz pushed back, claiming, “[t]his is a very simple proposition. These are women’s decisions to make about their healthcare decisions, and the physicians who know best when they need to do this. Trying to distort the way a law is written to try and make a point, that’s not it at all.” When Vance asked Walz if what he said was incorrect, Walz responded, “That is not the way the law is written.” “In Walz’s state and on his watch, five infants were “born alive” in 2021 during failed abortions, and none received life-saving care, though two got “comfort care,” the Minnesota Department of Health reported on July 1, 2022. Three other infants were “born alive” during abortions in 2019, Walz’s first year as governor, and they too perished without life-saving care, according to a July 1, 2020, report from the same state agency.
‘Stop doing it, this is crazy, it will destroy trust in the dollar.’ You can’t go on with the system like this, it’s not just Russia.”
• US Weaponizing Dollar – Jeffrey Sachs (RT)
The US government has weaponized the dollar rather than having it serve as a medium of exchange or a store of value, award-winning American economist and public-policy analyst Jeffrey Sachs has said. Sachs made the remark on Thursday in his address via video link to a meeting of BRICS ministers of finance and central bank governors. The officials were meeting in Moscow to discuss the improvement of the international monetary and financial system, ahead of the BRICS 2024 summit in Kazan later this month. According to the economist, the weaponization of the dollar was obviously happening through the seizure of frozen Russian assets. He also mentioned the freezing by the US government of Iranian, Venezuelan, Afghan and other state funds. The US and its allies have frozen around 300billioninRussiancentralbankassets,around300 billion in Russian central bank assets, around 300billioninRussiancentralbankassets,around5 billion of which is sitting in American banks, as part of its Ukraine-related campaign of sanctions.
In April, President Joe Biden signed a bill allowing the seizure of Russian funds held in the US and their transfer to a Ukraine reconstruction fund. “You can’t use the dollar as a payments mechanism,” Sachs said, when a president alone can sign orders and seize essentially billions of dollars in Russian assets. The US currency has become “an instrument of aggressive form of policy,” he concluded. “I’ve said to my own government for the last 15 years ‘Stop doing it, this is crazy, it will destroy trust in the dollar.’ You can’t go on with the system like this, it’s not just Russia.” He pointed out that China wants to have normal trade without threats of US sanctions but, although Chinese banks are part of the SWIFT system, they have to abide out of a fear of being cut off the international financial network.
“So, the point is we need alternatives, this is clear,” Sachs stated. “Of course, countries need non-dollar payment mechanisms. We are going to need some quick, special-vehicle entities that are not also engaged in the dollar payment systems… entities that cannot be directly sanctioned…” The economist stressed that “the best alternative would be if the US recovers sense, decency and legality and stops imposing unilateral sanctions.” US actions are “absolutely incorrect” and illegal by the standards of international law and the UN Charter, said Sachs, who is also president of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.
“Vance, known for opposing aid to Kiev, has consistently argued for negotiating an end to the war, even if it involves ceding territory..”
• Zelensky Is Making Enemies In America (Lolaev)
The US presidential election campaign is entering its final stretch ahead. The outcome is crucial to many of Washington’s foreign partners but particularly for the current government in Kiev. At the end of September, Vladimir Zelensky made another visit to America. Officially coinciding with “UN Week” and a speech at the General Assembly, Zelensky’s six-day trip was primarily focused on one existential issue for his administration – securing continued financial and military support from Washington, regardless of the election results in November. However, achieving this goal proved far more challenging than anticipated. Even Ukraine’s well-oiled PR machine, honed over a decade, struggled to navigate the increasingly polarized American political landscape without incurring damage. Issues arose even before Zelensky touched down on US soil. In an article published in The New Yorker, he described Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance as “too radical” for suggesting that US support for Ukraine should be reconsidered and that a peace deal might require territorial concessions to Russia.
Vance, known for opposing aid to Kiev, has consistently argued for negotiating an end to the war, even if it involves ceding territory. In response to Zelensky’s comments, the former president’s son Donald Trump Jr criticized the Ukrainian leader for meddling in US domestic affairs, asserting that it is unacceptable for a foreign leader dependent on American taxpayers’ support to speak out against Republican candidates. Things only worsened from there. Zelensky’s first stop was a defense manufacturing plant in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he thanked workers for churning out the 155mm artillery shells that are critical to Ukraine’s military. The facility had significantly increased production over the past year, shipping over three million shells to Ukraine. Throughout the visit, Zelensky was heavily protected, with law enforcement patrolling the area.
His trip to Pennsylvania, accompanied by the state’s Democratic governor, led to a backlash from Republicans. Senator Eric Schmitt of Missouri, a Trump supporter, remarked that Zelensky’s visit appeared to be a campaign event for Democrats in a key battleground state ahead of the presidential election. Sean Parnell, a former Senate candidate from Pennsylvania and also a Trump supporter, labeled Zelensky’s visit as “foreign interference in our election,” citing the visitor’s criticism of Vance, as well as his closeness to Democrats. The Republican Majority Leader in the House Mike Johnson went even further, refusing to meet with Zelensky and demanding that he dismiss his ambassador in Washington for organizing a visit to Pennsylvania without Republican participation. Johnson characterized the event as “an obvious partisan effort to assist Democrats before the election.”
Following this rocky start, Zelensky found himself with one last chance to salvage his image among conservative audiences – a face-to-face meeting with Trump. Negotiating this encounter proved to be extremely difficult, with the Republican occasionally agreeing, then backing off again. In the end, the conversation that extended Zelensky’s stay by an extra day finally took place. During the meeting, Trump expressed his willingness to work toward ending the war between Russia and Ukraine, aiming for a “fair settlement for both sides.” He emphasized that Ukraine has “been through hell.” He also voiced his support for maintaining good relations not only with Zelensky but also with Russian President Vladimir Putin, believing this could facilitate finding common ground. However, when reporters pressed him to clarify what he considered a fair outcome, he suggested it was too early to define, as the conflict remains a complex “puzzle.”
“..five consecutive quarters of sales growth since the fourth quarter of 2022, after struggling with sales decline for four consecutive quarters before that..”
• Raytheon Making Billions From Weapons for Ukraine (Sp.)
US defense contractor Raytheon, the world’s largest producer of guided missiles, has been profiting from Ukraine-related military supplies despite previously struggling with sales up until the start of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, a Sputnik correspondent’s analysis of the company’s earnings reports showed. Raytheon Missiles & Defense (RMD), the subsidiary specializing in missile production under the RTX Corporation, has produced the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) directly for Ukraine, while the Stinger and Javelin missiles manufactured by the company have been sent to the conflict zone since early 2022. As a manufacturer of air defense systems such as the Patriot and the missiles used by such systems, RMD has received new orders for these missile systems after such weapons were sent to Ukraine by other Western countries.
Russia has repeatedly stated that arms supplies to Ukraine lead to further escalation of the conflict and directly involve NATO countries in it. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that any cargo containing weapons for Ukraine would become a legitimate target for Russia. The United States and NATO are directly involved in the conflict, including not only by supplying weapons, but also by training personnel, Lavrov said. Raytheon has seen five consecutive quarters of sales growth since the fourth quarter of 2022, after struggling with sales decline for four consecutive quarters before that, the company’s latest earnings report showed. Details from the earnings reports of Raytheon illustrate how the US defense contractor has been able to make billions from continued US military aid to Ukraine and turn its business prospects around by taking advantage of the new demands.
Raytheon’s backlog, which refers to signed but unfilled defense contracts, also expanded from 63billionattheendof2021to63 billion at the end of 2021 to 63billionattheendof2021to77 billion at the end of the second quarter of this year, according to the latest earnings report. New orders for RMD began to dry up from the fourth quarter of 2021 with an 8% year-on-year drop, the company’s earnings reports showed. By the second quarter of 2022, RMD had experienced a third consecutive quarter of sales decline, with an 11% drop from the same period of the previous year. However, RMD’s new orders in the second quarter of 2022 had already begun to show signs of increasing demand for its products following the escalation of the military conflict in Ukraine in early 2022.
“In Russia, meat consumption is rising per capita to a level never recorded before in Russian history..”
• In The War Economy Russia Has Taught The Pigs To Sing (Helmer)
If you want to understand who is winning the American war against Russia on the Ukrainian battlefield, and also in the world’s commodity trade markets, you can start by calculating the life expectancy of a NATO-trained Ukrainian soldier on the front line, or of a NATO staff officer in a command bunker he thought was safe. Then you can check the life expectancy of a Russian pig. The losses of the former are Russia’s tactical gains; they aren’t yet victory in the war. But it’s the latter, the Russian pig who, upon turning into pork, is breaking through the enemy’s defences towards strategic victory of Russian economic power to capture a world market. This means defeat – unrecoverable loss of market share – for the hostile states led by the once powerful pork exporters, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Canada, and the US.
As the most recent European Union (EU) pig and pork slaughter data show, the war is pushing up the energy and feed costs of pig farming, and drastically cutting European exports of pork to the Asian consumer market, the biggest in the world. There, Russia’s strategic ally China has cancelled the closure of its market in effect for Russia since 2008, and simultaneously has begun pork trade restriction moves against Spain, Denmark and The Netherlands, the principal European exporters of pork to China. In trade war retaliation, China is also steadily reducing the volume and value of its pork imports from the US since 2021. Behind the Ukraine front, the test of who is winning the war against Russia is also who puts their money and their meat where their mouth is. In Russia, meat consumption is rising per capita to a level never recorded before in Russian history. At the same time, the country has become the world’s fifth largest pork producer.
From self-sufficiency in pork production in 2018 to the export of market surplus, this industry achievement has been based on direct and indirect state support measures, including retaliation against EU imports which followed the start of the EU’s anti-Russian sanctions in 2014. “Practically speaking,” says Yury Kovalev, “we no longer have imports, but not because this is closed, but because over the past fifteen years an entire industry has been created, production has grown every year, and we have almost completely abandoned import dependence.” Kovalev is general director of Russia’s National Union of Pig Breeders (NSS). Kovalev is also forecasting that Russian pork exports will soon capture about 10% of the Chinese import market – about 300,000 tonnes per annum – displacing the Europeans.
“This macabre and dark “new normality” is an antidote to the lies of International Law..”
• International Law Does Not Exist (Pacini)
The assumption of benign global hegemony, that economic and political liberalism was a silver bullet to transcend power politics, turned out to be a liberal illusion fueled by hubris. New international geometries have taken hold. NATO expansion predictably inflamed tensions with Russia as Moscow reasonably perceived it as an existential threat, while China’s simple economic rise became a challenge to U.S. global primacy. Globalization as a neoliberal, Westernized-centric process has become unsustainable, in fits and starts with the U.S. stock market crisis. The excesses of liberalism are now repudiated within the West and outside it, causing polarization within societies and the international system. In all of this, International Law has always been seen as a kind of “guarantee” above the parties, to be appealed to indiscriminately, a kind of neutral power that could settle disputes… or play in favor of the stronger.
Ipso facto, International Law in the twentieth century became United Nations Law, with the UN as the macroscopic entity capable of imposing its dominance. But this hierarchical advantage was not the subject of democratic discussion, let alone confrontation among the various world players: it was an arbitrary and unilateral choice, that of the United States of America, which enjoyed the advantage of victory in World War II, rapidly and effectively expanding its hegemony, both military, cultural, political and especially economic, through the extension of the dollar as the global currency of comparison. An intentional choice? Perhaps. A fluke of history? Equally likely. What is objectively detectable is that we have arrived at the present day with an American-centric International Law, with transnational organs deputed to various functions all reporting to the main Organization, headquartered in New York. Even the various European international institutions and courts have a dependence on Lady USA.
And we come to the present day From here it is easy to see why, today, we have a crisis of International Law and an obvious problem of trust in its so-called institutions. Equally complicated is the transition to an International Law of a multipolar character. Are the events themselves that have caused people to lose confidence in this branch of Law. For there is very little of “law” left. In Kosovo, NATO was allowed to do whatever it wanted, violating Serbia’s territorial sovereignty and creating the puppet “state” of Kosovo; the U.S. can “export democracy” with bombs by attacking in the Middle East whenever it wants, because it is done in the name of “civilization.” in Ukraine, human rights were valid until a few years ago, when the Kiev regime was put on trial for child trafficking and a fratricidal coup, then once the new “villain” was found magically those rights disappeared and the perspective was reversed; Netanyahu can safely make phone calls from UN headquarters and order a carpet bombing of a city in a country, declaring a war, without anything happening to him, despite the fact that he is a proponent of a genocide that has been going on ruthlessly for more than a year. This macabre and dark “new normality” is an antidote to the lies of International Law – or at least how we have been made to believe and practice it for a century to date.
“The U.S. may opt to remove Netanyahu”, as in the Democrats terrified of losing because of the Netanyahu cabinet’s war spiral.”
• Could Palestine Be The Catalyst For An Islamic Renaissance? (Pepe Escobar)
Of all the countless analyses across the lands of Islam about the profound significance of fateful Al-Toofan (Al-Aqsa Flood) on October 7, 2023, this one stands out: a cycle of conferences in Istanbul earlier this week, including October 7, titled Palestine: the Lynchpin of Civilizational Renaissance, linked to the Kuala Lumpur Forum for Thought and Civilization.Call it a Malaysia-Turkiye partnership: Southeast Asia meets West Asia, a graphic illustration of the multi-nodal world that will be congregating in less than two weeks in Kazan, capital of Muslim Russia, for the long -awaited BRICS summit under the Russian presidency. Significantly, the centrality of Gaza was not debated in Doha, Riyadh, or Abu Dhabi, all of which would have unlimited funds to host such discussions. Istanbul was a unique opportunity to compare insights by Osama Hamdan, representing the whole Palestinian Resistance; Numan Kurtulmus, the speaker of the Turkish Parliament; Hamas top diplomat Khaled Meshaal, speaking from Doha on the “strategic victory” of the Resistance.
And all that compounded by a strong message by Dr. Mahathir Mohammad, former Malaysian Prime Minister and president of the Kuala Lumpur Forum. Dr. Mahathir emphasized that a sound solution would be “a UN peace-keeping force in Gaza protecting them”. The main problem is the Ummah “not having an alternative to UN veto powers”. Hence “Muslim countries must team up – as there are no means of applying pressure to Israel.” Illustrating Mahathir’s call, Muslim-majority nations are responsible for only 6% of global GDP and 6% of investments, while harboring 25% of the world’s population. Mahathir boldly proposed, “we can deny our oil to the rest of the world” and “take back funds invested in dollar bonds, thus forcing the West to take action” in Gaza. Now try to convince MbS in Riyadh and MbZ in Abu Dhabi about it. “Focus on popular organizations. Forget about governments”
The redoubtable Sami al-Arian, Kuwaiti-born Palestinian, director of the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA) at the Sabahattin Zaim University in Istanbul, and whose astonishing life story includes being persecuted and thrown in solitary confinement in the U.S. as a “suspected terrorist” summed up the impotence of Arab political elites when it comes to Palestine: after all the Arab world “is the weakest link on global terms” – with 63 military bases only in West Asia controlled by CENTCOM. And still, “what other cause can galvanize the whole world apart from Palestine?” Al-Arian stressed that Al-Aqsa Flood “exposed the Arab world”, as the destruction of Palestine was “imposed to make Israel the regional hegemon”. There is a glimmer of hope though: “Look at all those things that divide us. We should focus on popular organizations. Forget about governments.”
Al-Arian, who lives and works in Istanbul, tackled head on one of the key running themes of the conference: the complex relationship between Turkiye and the West: “Turkiye is with the West, basically. There is no 100% support for Palestinians. Many are still subject to notions of Orientalism.” He also evoked how 35 then future nations lived in peace within the borders of the Ottoman Empire, which spanned 35 million square kilometers. In Palestine, Al-Arian sees three possible scenarios ahead:
1.The continuity of “Netanyahu’s delusions”. There is “no evidence” that the U.S. is opposing any of them. There is “no deterrence apart from the Axis of Resistance.”
2. Denying these delusions is hard as “Israel has [Arab] regimes on its side. Yet Israel must be engaged on all fronts.” Palestine “is the symbol of all that is just”, and “not a symbol only for Palestinians.” It is imperative to “dismantle the Zionist structure, and Palestine cannot do it on its own.”
3.The third scenario is not so far-fetched anymore – considering the looming U.S. presidential elections: “The U.S. may opt to remove Netanyahu”, as in the Democrats terrified of losing because of the Netanyahu cabinet’s war spiral.
“The six-year proceeding is due to close by Christmas. By then it will have violated every rule in British court practice on the admissibility of evidence..”
• Timetable Announced For UK Novichok Trial In Kangaroo Court (Helmer)
The timetable for public hearings has been announced by the British government and its judge, Lord Anthony Hughes, to repeat the official allegations of Novichok attacks by Russian agents against Sergei and Yulia Skripal on March 4, then Dawn Sturgess on June 30, 2018. The first hearing will open on next Monday, October 14, in Salisbury, the Wiltshire county town where the Skripal attack first occurred. The hearings will then move to the International Dispute Resolution Centre in London. On November 25, a session has been scheduled for Hughes to hear police, intelligence agents, and government lawyers argue the agenda item, “Russian state responsibility”. That session will then be followed in early December by closing statements.
The six-year proceeding is due to close by Christmas. By then it will have violated every rule in British court practice on the admissibility of evidence. . No testimony by the Skripals has been allowed by Hughes. Instead, he has decided that the police, MI5 and Secret Intelligence Service will publish their version of what the Skripals said during interviews they were obliged to give without legal representation in 2018.
Libertarian
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 11, 2024
Benefit
The dog sensed what was coming but gave the benefit of doubt.
— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) October 11, 2024
Pup
Pup wanted to be close
pic.twitter.com/hShamievj9— Science girl (@gunsnrosesgirl3) October 11, 2024
Elk
What a magnificent Elk.
I liked this comment someone made when someone else called him Majestic – “I agree, shouldn't give out location, let them live in peace.”
Apparently he is a regular around that town and is very well liked.
Stay safe sir!! pic.twitter.com/2zjCY9E6AS
— PROTECT ALL WILDLIFE (@Protect_Wldlife) October 10, 2024
Support the Automatic Earth in wartime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.
Paul Gauguin Van Gogh painting sunflowers 1888
Judge Nap- Macgregor MUST watch
Schwarzenegger
Old video
Old video before this year shows how #Ukranian youth has been prepared over the past 10 years to hate and kill the #Russians or Russian speakers that lived in #Ukraine
Now all of this has come to fruition. pic.twitter.com/p6zN5vs5Ld— Arthur Morgan (@ArthurM40330824) November 18, 2022
Tucker FTX
Tucker EXPOSES why FTX "laundering" scheme for Democrats is SO much worse than you thought… pic.twitter.com/qLQXhlE1ES
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) November 18, 2022
“If you don’t believe how powerful American propaganda is, they made Fauci and Zelensky the heroes..”
• Musk Reinstates Trump’s Twitter Account After Millions Vote In Poll (JTN)
New Twitter owner Elon Musk declared Saturday night that former President Trump’s account will be reinstated. Musk made the decision after polling Twitter users Friday. More than 15 million people responded, with nearly 52% supporting the return of the 45th president to the social platform, “The people have spoken. Trump will be reinstated,” Musk tweeted at about 8 p.m. ET Saturday. The former president’s account was suspended after the Jan.6, 2021, Capitol riot. Since then, Trump has launched his own social platform called Truth Social that has attracted millions of new users. Both Trump and Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes have said the former president plans to stay on his own platform. Trump reiterated that position on Saturday, even as he encouraged followers to vote in Musk’s poll. “Vote now with positivity, but don’t worry, we aren’t going anywhere. Truth Social is special!,” he wrote.
Trump is to be reinstated on Twitter. That is the right result in terms of free speech, but hardly the right reason. Free speech should not depend on one's popularity. https://t.co/mb3Pr1xQkh if Trump received 2 % fewer votes? Would his speech remain 100% banned on Twitter?
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) November 20, 2022
One of the last things Michael Moore said that made sense, was “You can’t declare war on a noun”. El Gato takes it from there.
• War On Everything (El Gato Malo)
We live in the age of the war machine. The purpose of the war machine is not to produce victory. The purpose of the war machine is to produce war. War unending. War on everything. Permission to think the unthinkable and excuse to do that which is inexcusable. It is the triumph of the terrible and the tyrannical. The war on covid, poverty, injustice, drugs, terrorism: It’s all the same. War is the worst of humanity. It is the end of cooperation, the end of rationality, the abrogation of ethics. War is permission to “do what it takes to win” This cannot be the way. War is the end of good choices and the embrace of conflict, the end of citizens and the pursuit of subjugation. It is the end of humanity and the beginning of amoral destruction of the enemy. Perfect for politicians. Anathema to the free breath of we the people.
This is jingo as justification. It’s the supplanting of rights by righteousness. And this war machine will roll right over you and if it does its job well you will never even guess at the real reasons why. The facts and faces may change, but the war will not. It will take from you those most fundamental rights and choices and replace them with the fist, with violence, with taking. The war on drugs takes the free choice of free people and replaces it with 27 kinds of new statist intrusion breaking down doors with unaccountable no knock warrants and systems of international collaboration giving rise to vast police and surveillance states. Has it stopped drugs or even made headway? Nope. Does it have any ethical basis in a world where our own intelligence agencies traffic in the very narcotics our police profess to suppress? Nope.
It just oppresses you and takes the rights of peaceful people and shifts to unsafe and violent black markets that which was once free. It just tightens the net around you and the endless failure to win is right there in the design. The goal is not to stop drugs. The goal is to rule and to profit. The war on poverty is just the same. It seeks to take by force from some and give to others. Has it alleviated poverty? No. By most credible accounts, it has made it FAR worse among those it purports to help from the african american community in the US that was literally devastated by the so called “great society” programs to the african african community in africa where endless, meddling aid has made dependencies of countries while preventing real domestic industry and self sufficiency from emerging for who can open and support a store or a farm when trucks of free rice arrive daily and aid money is laundered into vast programs of profiteering by folks like the gates foundation? It has enabled 700 kinds of grift and grasping rapacity.
Some two-bit little man trying to make himself look powerful.
• Europe Warns Musk He Must Hire Hundreds Of Moderators (ZH)
At a time when Musk is cutting hundreds if not thousands of workers on a weekly basis, early on Friday Europe delivered some unexpected news to the world’s richest man: according to Thierry Breton, the EU’s internal market commissioner, Musk will have to increase the number of moderators in Europe, a continent which long ago gave up all pretense of having free speech. “He is in the process of reducing a certain number of moderators, but he will have to increase them in Europe,” Breton told Franceinfo in an interview, Bloomberg reported. Breton added that Musk “will have to open his algorithms. We will have control, we will have access, people will no longer be able to say rubbish.”
By “rubbish” he meant anything that Europe’s unelected technocrats disagree with, which these days is anything not endorsed by the World Economic Forum. Breton earlier warned that Twitter would have to “fly by our rules,” shortly after Musk closed his $44 billion takeover last month. The EU’s Digital Services Act gives governments power to enforce rules governing how tech companies moderate content and to decide when they must take down illegal content. The DSA specifically will also force companies to moderate content in the languages they operate in, according to Bloomberg.
If Musk doesn’t comply, Twitter will face fines of as much as 6% of annual sales and could even be banned. Breton said he had proposed establishing a “working relationship” with Musk to discuss Europe’s expectations of the social media platform. “He knows perfectly well what the conditions are for Twitter to continue operating in Europe,” Breton said, and he is right: Europe is one so-called “Democracy” where nobody even pretends there is freedom of speech even as it bashes authoritarianism in places like China and Russia; and sadly it’s a preview of what is coming to the US.
It’s a German specialty after all. Meanwhile, that country is falling apart fast.
• German Public TV Compares Elon Musk to Goebbels (Kogon)
After Germany’s “first” public television network, ARD, compared Elon Musk reducing Twitter censorship to “letting rats out of their holes,” Germany’s “second” public television network, ZDF, has now compared Musk to Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels! (The network’s name Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen literally means “Second German Television.”) Thus, last Friday, ZDF’s would-be comedy program, the “Heute Show,” posted the below tweet and photoshop.. The Tweet reads: “Thanks to Elon Musk, you’re allowed to say anything again on Twitter! Total freedom of speech! #heuteshow.” The caption, whose color scheme and font invoke Nazi-era propaganda, reads “Do you want total tweet?”
It is an allusion to Goebbels’s 1943 speech at the Berlin Sportspalast, in which the Nazi Minister of Propaganda famously shouted, “Do you want total war?” – in response to which audience members leapt to their feet shouting “Yes!” and raising their arms in the Hitler-salute. The background image appears to show a Nazi Party rally with the swastikas replaced by the Twitter bird logo. Two smaller swastikas are still visible in the lower left-hand corner of the full-size image. Leaving aside the extreme mental contortionism required to associate freedom of speech with Nazi Germany, if ever there was a don’t-throw-stones-in-glass-houses moment, this was it. For, as so happens, during the Second World War, the founding director of ZDF, Karl Holzamer, himself served in one of the propaganda units that none other than Goebbels’s Ministry of Propaganda embedded with the different divisions of the Germany military.
Holzamer served in a propaganda unit of the Luftwaffe or German air force. As noted in a 2012 article titled “Goebbels’s Soldiers” in the German daily Die Frankfurter Rundschau, Holzamer was embedded with the Luftwaffe during its April 1941 bombing of Belgrade and was “the first” to report on the German subjugation of the Yugoslav capital. The online Lexikon der Wehrmacht, which also notes Holzamer’s service in the propaganda troops, cites Goebbels himself, who explained that “the Wehrmacht’s propaganda troops ensure the coordination between propaganda warfare and armed warfare in the theater of operations.”
Musk inch perfect on Twiter: “Who made that decision?” “Oh, never mind, who cares?”
• CBS News Suspends All Twitter Activity (NYP)
Fearful of the “uncertainty” surrounding Elon Musk’s management of Twitter, CBS News announced that it would be suspending its usage of the social media site. CBS News is one of first major media entities to flee Twitter in the wake of threats from many Musk critics to leave the platform once the billionaire Tesla CEO took over the company. The major news network confirmed the move during Friday’s episode of “CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell.” Coverage began with the network reporting on the mass resignations of employees offended by Musk’s “ultimatum” from earlier this week. In his quest to streamline the company, the world’s richest man emailed all employees asking them to commit to an “extremely hardcore” workload or leave the company.
The “ultimatum,” as many disgruntled folks called it, prompted backlash from onlookers who trashed the company under Musk, some calling it a “hellscape.” The ensuing chaos from Musk’s email, as well as the general vitriol generated by him taking over the reins of company, did not sit well with CBS News. During its segment, titled “Twitter Turmoil,” CBS News national correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti reported in a dire tone, “Tonight, as questions mount over Twitter’s future, Elon Musk offers little reassurance he has a permanent plan, tweeting, ‘What should Twitter do next?’” The story featured a quote from a disgruntled former engineer who was laid off, who claimed that the culture of Twitter under Musk was “definitely a culture of fear and uncertainty, of anxiety.”
Apparently, that anxiety made quite an impression on CBS News. In the middle of the segment, Vigliotti reported the outlet’s decision to pause its usage of Twitter. He reported, “In light of the uncertainty around Twitter, and out of an abundance of caution, CBS News is pausing its activity on the social media site as it continues to monitor the platform.”
“Let’s stop supporting this dangerous man. [We should] urgently make up a peace plan,” he added.”
• France Should Stop Backing Zelensky – Ex-Presidential Candidate (RT)
France should stop supporting Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky after he almost incited a global conflict by alleging that a recent deadly blast in Poland, a NATO member, was caused by a Russian missile, former presidential candidate Nicolas Dupont-Aignan suggested on Saturday. Writing on Twitter, Dupont-Aignan, who heads the right-wing party Debout la France and has run for the presidency several times, said that “by launching a missile at Poland and accusing the Russians, Zelensky almost triggered World War III.” “Let’s stop supporting this dangerous man. [We should] urgently make up a peace plan,” he added.
Following up on his post, he claimed that the Ukraine conflict could be resolved only if Moscow and Kiev agree to a ceasefire and autonomy is given to the two Donbass republics, as the Minsk agreements were designed to do. Both the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics recently overwhelmingly voted to join Russia in public referendums. The politician also argued that any peace plan would have to include “Russia’s retreat” and “Ukraine’s neutrality.” On Tuesday, two civilians were killed when a missile landed in the Polish village of Przewodow near the Ukrainian border. Shortly after the incident, Poland signaled that it may invoke Article 4 of the NATO Treaty, which allows any member of the bloc to request consultations if it believes that its security is at risk. Western officials subsequently admitted that the missile was of Ukrainian and not Russian origin.
However, following the blast, Zelensky pinned the blame on Russia, calling the incident “a very serious escalation” and as an attack on NATO that demands a response. Later, however, he toned down his claims, admitting that “we do not know for 100%” what caused the explosion. The Russian Defense Ministry denied any involvement in the incident, saying its military experts had analyzed the photos from the scene and identified the debris as parts of an S-300 air defense system missile used by Ukraine. France, along with many other Western countries, has been providing Ukraine with military aid to support it in its fight against Russia. In recent months, Paris has sent to Kiev a number of Caesar self-propelled howitzers, MILAN anti-tank missiles, and other military hardware.
“..if [Zelensky] does not accept the reality of Ukraine’s collapse, it is pointless to sit down at the [negotiating] table. And if [he] does accept it – he will be taken out by his own nationalists, who are intertwined with the army top brass.”
• West Is ‘Pushing’ Kiev Toward Talks – Medvedev (RT)
The collective West is growing tired of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and is “pushing” Kiev into talks with Moscow, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in a Telegram post on Saturday. He added that the US and NATO don’t want to risk a new world war. The reaction to the missile strike that hit the Polish village of Przewodow on Tuesday, killing two civilians, has revealed a new “symptom” in this trend, with even “the most ardent Russophobes” in Warsaw refusing to blame the incident on Moscow, the ex-president commented. On Friday, Warsaw said the strike was an “unfortunate accident” that was “practically impossible” to prevent. Kiev has repeatedly tried to blame the strike on Moscow.
The Russian military, meanwhile, said it did not carry out any launches near the Ukrainian-Polish border at the time, while analysis of photos from the site showed that the projectile was an S-300 anti-aircraft missile operated by Ukraine’s military “Everyone is tired of the Kiev regime. Especially of the neurotic Zelensky, who is constantly whipping up tensions, whining, sniveling and extorting more and more money and weapons handouts. [He] acts like a hysterical child with developmental problems,” Medvedev stated. Fatigue with Kiev and its actions is prompting the collective West to “push” Ukraine into talks with Russia, the deputy head of the nation’s Security Council continued. “The US, NATO and the European Union do not want a complete rupture with Russia, risking a third world [war]. Hence, the frequent attempts to rein in Kiev and bring it to its senses, to push it to negotiate,” Medvedev wrote.
By refusing to talk with Russia, Zelensky is actually pursuing much more mundane and selfish goals, Medvedev suggested. He added that “if [Zelensky] does not accept the reality of Ukraine’s collapse, it is pointless to sit down at the [negotiating] table. And if [he] does accept it – he will be taken out by his own nationalists, who are intertwined with the army top brass.” The former president’s comments came as several leading politicians in the West, including French President Emmanuel Macron, have repeatedly called for direct talks between Kiev and Moscow. Recent reports have also indicated that Washington has been privately pushing Ukraine to drop its uncompromising rejection of the peace process with Russia. Last week, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, suggested that a Ukrainian military victory might be unachievable and that winter could provide an opportunity to begin talks with Moscow.
Noted that Scholz, Sunak, Zelensky are all 1.70m (5’58”). That’s a lot of complexes to make up for. Even Macron is a whole inch taller.
• Germany Warns Against Escalation Between Russia and NATO (RT)
The West should do its best to prevent an escalation between Russia and NATO, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Saturday, while stressing that it is necessary to continue providing Ukraine with arms to fight Russia. Speaking at a conference of the Social Democratic Party in the southern German city of Friedrichshafen, Scholz admitted that many European citizens “are scared, and have reasons for it.” While highlighting the importance of supporting Ukraine militarily, he noted that Western countries should “be concerned that there is no escalation that could lead to a war between Russia and NATO.” “It is important to act prudently and decisively at the same time,” he added.
Scholz’s comments come after last month he warned against taking “careless steps” amid the Ukraine conflict. “There must be no direct conflict between Russia and NATO,” he stressed at the time. With relations between the West and Russia already having hit new lows after Moscow started its military operation in Ukraine, fears of a direct clash between Russia and NATO were recently triggered by a missile having landed in a Polish village close to the Ukrainian border. Shortly after the incident, the Polish Foreign Ministry claimed that the projectile was “Russian-made.” Later, the nation’s authorities signaled that they may invoke Article 4 of the NATO Treaty, which allows any bloc member to request consultations if it believes that its security is at risk.
Following the blast, Zelensky pinned the blame on Russia, calling the incident “a very serious escalation” and an attack on NATO that demanded a response. Ultimately, however, Western officials admitted that the missile was of Ukrainian and not Russian origin. The Russian Defense Ministry denied any involvement in the incident, saying its military experts had analyzed the photos from the scene and identified the debris as parts of an S-300 air defense system missile used by Ukraine. Germany, along with many other Western countries, has been providing Ukraine with military hardware, including Gepard anti-aircraft guns, MARS II multiple rocket launchers, and the IRIS-T air defense system. Moscow has repeatedly warned that weapons shipments will only prolong the Ukraine conflict.
“..the recent record shows Xi has few reasons to take Biden at face value..”
• Goodbye G20, hello BRICS+ (Escobar)
The increasingly irrelevant G20 Summit concluded with sure signs that BRICS+ will be the way forward for Global South cooperation. The redeeming quality of a tense G20 held in Bali – otherwise managed by laudable Indonesian graciousness – was to sharply define which way the geopolitical winds are blowing. That was encapsulated in the Summit’s two highlights: the much anticipated China-US presidential meeting – representing the most important bilateral relationship of the 21st century – and the final G20 statement. The 3-hour, 30-minute-long face-to-face meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden – requested by the White House – took place at the Chinese delegation’s residence in Bali, and not at the G20 venue at the luxury Apurva Kempinski in Nusa Dua.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs concisely outlined what really mattered. Specifically, Xi told Biden that Taiwan independence is simply out of the question. Xi also expressed hope that NATO, the EU, and the US will engage in “comprehensive dialogue” with Russia. Instead of confrontation, the Chinese president chose to highlight the layers of common interest and cooperation. Biden, according to the Chinese, made several points. The US does not seek a New Cold War; does not support “Taiwan independence;” does not support “two Chinas” or “one China, one Taiwan”; does not seek “decoupling” from China; and does not want to contain Beijing. However, the recent record shows Xi has few reasons to take Biden at face value.
The final G20 statement was an even fuzzier matter: the result of arduous compromise. As much as the G20 is self-described as “the premier forum for global economic cooperation,” engaged to “address the world’s major economic challenges,” the G7 inside the G20 in Bali had the summit de facto hijacked by war. “War” gets almost double the number of mentions in the statement compared to “food” after all. The collective west, including the Japanese vassal state, was bent on including the war in Ukraine and its “economic impacts” – especially the food and energy crisis – in the statement. Yet without offering even a shade of context, related to NATO expansion. What mattered was to blame Russia – for everything.
This kind of fantasy costs a lot of lives.
• Ukraine Could Seize Crimea Before Year Ends – MOD (RT)
Ukraine could capture Russia’s Crimea by the end of this year, the country’s deputy defense minister, Vladimir Gavrilov, has said. In an interview with Sky New on Saturday, Gavrilov stated that what is known as a ‘black swan’ – or a sudden and unexpected event – could bring about Kiev’s victory. “I think Russia can face a black swan in their country, inside Russia, and this can contribute to [our] success with Crimea,”he said, adding that there was “also a military option as well with some kind of combination of forces, resources and something else.” “We can step into Crimea, for example, by the end of December. Possible? Possible. Not ruling out that it can be so,” Gavrilov added.
When asked what type of a black swan event could happen in the coming months, Gavrilov suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin could “disappear, for example, due to some reason, physical and political,” or that the Russian public could become “disillusioned” with the situation on the battlefield. Echoing a previous statement by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, Gavrilov said that Kiev would resume negotiations with Russia “only when they’re ready to leave our territories.” Expressing optimism about Ukraine’s chances, Gavrilov stated: “My feeling is that by the end of spring this war will {be} over.” Crimea broke away from Ukraine and voted to join Russia shortly after the 2014 coup in Kiev.
In July, Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said that the refusal “by Ukraine or any NATO state” to consider Crimea a part of Russia would be considered a threat. In early October, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as Ukraine’s former Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions, officially became part of Russia following referendums that saw the majority of local residents vote in favor of accession. Last week, Russian troops withdrew from Kherson, amid concerns that Ukrainian forces could destroy a nearby hydroelectric dam, thus provoking flooding that could cause the deaths of soldiers and civilians. Putin said in late September that Moscow would defend the new territories “with full force and all means at our disposal.”
“..Austin claimed that Ukraine’s population would rather go without electricity and heat than have talks with Moscow..”
You asked them?
• ‘Harsh Winter’ Ahead For Ukraine – Lloyd Austin (RT)
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin warned on Saturday that Ukraine faces a “harsh winter,” as Russia continues missile strikes on its infrastructure. Earlier, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, suggested that Kiev should take the opportunity to talk with Moscow. Speaking at the Halifax Security Forum in Canada, Austin praised the Ukrainian military’s efforts against Russia, but cautioned that “hard times lie ahead as Ukraine faces a harsh winter.” Although Ukraine has received tens of billions of dollars worth of weapons from the US and NATO, Russian drone and missile strikes have been pounding its command centers and energy infrastructure since early October. These launches have, according to Ukrainian authorities, left 40% of the country’s power infrastructure destroyed or damaged.
Amid the destruction of Ukraine’s infrastructure, a split has reportedly emerged within the White House. Some top-level Biden administration officials are urging Kiev to keep fighting Russia “for as long as it takes,” whereas Milley has declared that Ukraine cannot win militarily and should instead seize “an opportunity to negotiate.” In his address on Saturday, Austin claimed that Ukraine’s population would rather go without electricity and heat than have talks with Moscow. However, he reiterated that the US would “not be dragged into [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s war,” but would continue to funnel arms to Kiev.
Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. Earlier, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked. In early October, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions, officially became part of Russia following referendums that saw the majority of local residents vote in favor of accession.
Open. Door.
• Outcome of Ukraine Conflict Will Help Define 21st Century – Lloyd Austin (RT)
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin declared on Saturday that the outcome of the conflict in Ukraine will shape the geopolitical order of the 21st century. The West’s “stability and prosperity” is on the line, he stressed. “The outcome of the war in Ukraine will help determine the course of global security in this young century,” Austin told an audience at the Halifax Security Forum in Canada. “And those of us in North America don’t have the option of sitting this one out.” “Stability and prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic are at stake,” he continued, asserting that Russia’s military operation “tears at the rules-based international order that keeps us all secure.”
“Rules-based international order” is a term often used interchangeably with “liberal world order.” It encompasses the web of Western-dominated institutions – such as the World Bank, World Trade Organization, UN, EU, and NATO – that have regulated global diplomacy, trade, and conflict since the end of World War II. Commenting on this approach before, Russian President Vladimir Putin has argued that, rather than benefiting the whole world, this order serves as an instrument of “unipolar hegemony,” used by the US to make the rest of the world its “vassals.”
“The West is insisting on a rules-based order,” he remarked in a speech in September. “Where did that come from anyway? Who has ever seen these rules? Who agreed or approved them?” “Russia is a great thousand-year-old power, a whole civilisation, and it is not going to live by such makeshift, false rules,” he declared. Putin has spoken on numerous occasions of building a competing “multipolar” world order, in which multiple superpowers balance and constrain each other, and disputes are settled in accordance with laws rather than Western-dictated “rules.” Earlier this week, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi declared that Beijing stands ready to work with Russia “and other like-minded countries to promote the development of a multipolar world.”
“It’s hardly a surprise he did not go into detail on how this affordable price would be achieved. …This is a free market, isn’t it?”
• EU Leaders Accuse US Natural Gas Producers Of Profiteering (IA)
European leaders are unhappy with natural gas prices. Some leaders are insisting that the EU impose a price cap on all natural gas imports, regardless of origin, – notes Oilprice.com. France’s president Emmanuel Macron accused the United States of a “double standard” because of the difference between the price at which liquefied natural gas produced in the U.S. sells in Europe and the price at which natural gas sells within the U.S. “The North American economy is making choices for the sake of attractiveness, which I respect, but they create a double standard,” Macron said, also adding that “they allow state aid going to up to 80% on some sectors while it’s banned here – you get a double standard.”
He wasn’t alone among European national leaders in being unhappy about gas prices. In fact, as many as 15 leaders were unhappy, and they insisted that the EU imposes a price cap on all natural gas imports, regardless of origin. Now, the U.S. is striking back at the accusations. “What’s happening is the companies that hold those long-term contracts with US LNG producers, they’re marking that up and earning that margin in the European market,” Brian Crabtree, an assistant secretary at the Department of Energy, – told the Financial Times. “It’s not the US LNG company, it’s basically European-headquartered international oil companies and traders.” Indeed, producers of liquefied natural gas do not invariably sell their product directly to the consumer, in the face of a country in Europe, for instance, They work with commodity majors such as Vitol and Trafigura, or the supermajors, including BP and Shell.
This is not to say that LNG producers are not benefiting from the much stronger demand for LNG from Europe. And this is exactly the reason they have been benefiting, in the form of higher profits: demand has surged, and when demand surges, prices follow, especially if supply is not growing as fast as demand. In other words, Europe seems to want businesses to not act as businesses and take every opportunity to make a profit, which is what businesses are all about. Be that as it may, a Ministry of Energy analyst, told the FT that the U.S. was committed to helping Europe get enough gas “at a price that is affordable to the continent.” It’s hardly a surprise he did not go into detail on how this affordable price would be achieved. …This is a free market, isn’t it?
“..prevents nearly half of the French population from leaving their homes..”
• ‘Laziness Epidemic’ Grips France – Study (RT)
Laziness regularly prevents nearly half of the French population from leaving their homes, a new study has revealed. The “epidemic of laziness,” which is affecting roughly 45% of the population, is a direct consequence of the Covid lockdowns, the researchers say. “This laziness to leave home particularly affects the medium age groups: 52% among 25-34 year olds and 53% among 35-49 year olds, against only 33% of those 65 and over,” according to the study by the International Market Research Group (IFOP) and the Jean-Jaures foundation think tank. The survey, which was published last week, found that “the appeal of the sofa seems to be very powerful,” and the word “bed” had positive connotations for 74% of the respondents.
According to the research, the pandemic and strict lockdowns have had “a profound impact” on the attitude of the French to work, family life, free time, and personal space. Some 37% of respondents said they were less motivated than before in their work, and 41% complained about feeling more tired. The increase in fatigue seems to occur regardless of gender, age, social background, and location and “affects the morale of the population,” according to the research. From a historical standpoint, the attitudes of the French to ‘work-life balance’ have changed even more dramatically, the study shows. In 1990, 60% of French people believed that work was “very important,” compared to only 24% in 2021.
In 1953, 54% of employed adults believed that they had a good work-life balance. Now, only 39% think that is the case, while 48% of respondents “consider themselves to be losers.” This “movement of tectonic plates,” as the study puts it, was exacerbated by the Covid pandemic, but its origins are related to the general “devaluation of certain business experiences.” Regular lay-offs of long-term staff and management focusing solely on financial achievement “have altered the relationship” between employers and employees, the research claims. Some 1,001 French adults took part in the research, which was conducted online between September 1 and 2.
Anthrax Ukraine
NEW: Defense Department Records Reveal U.S. Funding of Anthrax Laboratory Activities in Ukraine pic.twitter.com/G4WQmRdxnw
— Judicial Watch ⚖️ (@JudicialWatch) November 20, 2022
Canada
Holy Shit…. Canada is going to mandate psychiatric medication for those that refuse mRNA injections or any kind of vaccination.
— Pelham (@Resist_05) November 19, 2022
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August 9, 2022 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 8:35 am Finance Tagged with: Amnesty, Assange, CBS, CIA, drought, FBI, Liz Cheney, Nord Stream 2, Poland, Red States, Trump
Piet Mondriaan Trees by the Gein at Moonrise 1908
NOTE: I know there are a lot of RT articles here lately. But it is simply the best source for Ukraine news. And rather than being Russian propaganda, it’s the only English-language source that is not rabidly anti-Russian.
The French with photos of relatives who have died from the vaccine !!
The French with photos of relatives who have died from the vaccine !! pic.twitter.com/7LnAfbAjgF
— Glynis Payne (@GlynisPayne17) August 7, 2022
Denmark.
DMED database
Army veteran Pam Long lists alarming numbers from the DMED data base. This is disturbing and we all deserve the truth. pic.twitter.com/1dXPKoLblz
— Jamie Sale (@JamieSale) August 8, 2022
A typical UK gas and power bill this winter.
“..the criminalization of politics..”
• The FBI has Raided President Trump’s Home (Techno Fog)
Breaking news for a Monday night: President Trump announced his home in Palm Beach – Mar-A-Lago – “is currently under siege, raided, and occupied by a large group of FBI agents.” [..] According to the New York Times, the search has to do with materials taken home by President Trump after he left the White House: “The search, according to two people familiar with the investigation, appeared to be focused on material that Mr. Trump had brought with him to Mar-a-Lago, his private club and residence, after he left the White House. Those boxes contained many pages of classified documents, according to a person familiar with their contents. Mr. Trump delayed returning 15 boxes of material requested by officials with the National Archives for many months, only doing so when there became a threat of action being taken to retrieve them.”
The politics of the search can’t be ignored. If the New York Times is to be believed, Trump’s purported crime – the delay of returning materials that may be classified – could have been resolved in another manner that didn’t involve raiding his home and breaking open a personal safe. No doubt the search is an escalation by a desperate Regime confronted by their own failures at home and abroad. What about the relation of the search to January 6? I’ve gone back and forth as I’ve written this, but it’s certainly possible they were also after documents related to January 6. There are no guarantees, considering the politicization of Biden’s DOJ, which has thus far protected friends in politics, the killer of Ashley Babbitt, supporters in academia, and the President Biden’s own corrupt son.
One can be certain, however, that if the Biden Administration will carry out this raid, then it will also be aggressive to pursue charges against Trump related to January 6. As if there were any doubt. After all, last week there was reporting that a federal grand jury investigating January 6 had issued subpoenas to the Trump White House Counsel, Pat Cipollone, and his top deputy, Patrick Philbin. Perhaps the roadmap for the DOJ comes from the January 6 Committee, which has poured out the thin gruel of purported criminal charges against Trump, alleging he and others, including attorney John Eastman, could be charged with: • Obstruction of an Official Proceeding (18 USC 1512(c)(2)); and • Conspiracy to Defraud the United States (18 USC 371). Each of these counts, and really the DOJ’s pursuit of Trump and his attorneys and advisors, amounts to the criminalization of politics.
“My personal theory is that the Covid-19 release was wholly and entirely about getting rid of Donald Trump and nothing else..”
• The Sickening Quickening (Kunstler)
Do you still doubt that the federal bureaucracy and the elected government parasitically attached to it seek to harm the people they rule (i.e., us) by any means necessary? They’re still pushing Covid “vaccines” in a futile effort to eliminate the control group of their massive eugenics experiment — that is, the unvaccinated, who are not getting the many vaccine-induced diseases behind the rise of all-causes mortality in people under 65. But the vaxx scam isn’t working anymore. Too many people have already been hurt, or killed, or seen friends and relatives go down mysteriously and they’re taking a pass on any more shots. Parents have evidently seen enough to not bring their little children in for the life-altering mRNA treatments. The CDC, the FDA, and their cohorts hide their information, lie when pressed, and pretend that they are acting scientifically.
But really, at this point, many public health officials must be secretly wondering how they will evade prosecution. They won’t when fraud is proven in a court of law. Even with all the lies and redactions issued by the CDC and the FDA, the evidence is piling miles high that the Pfizer and Moderna drug trials were covered-up botches and the entire administration of the vaccine program has been an unnecessary disaster. Fraud vitiates immunity from liability. The pharma companies will go out of business and their profits will be clawed back in countless lawsuits. The drug company executives will go to prison along with Rochelle Walensky, Anthony Fauci, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, and many of their lieutenants.
My personal theory is that the Covid-19 release was wholly and entirely about getting rid of Donald Trump and nothing else, in order to protect the permanent bureaucracy, a.k.a. the deep state, which was faltering in its countless turpitudes against the people, including the FBI and DOJ’s complicity in the criminal frauds and seditions of RussiaGate, and the CIA’s complicity in the “whistleblower” shenanigans behind Trump impeachment No. 1. The “long game” in the Covid-19 scam of 2020 was obviously to set-up the loosest mail-in voting apparatus possible to enable maximum ballot fraud in that year’s elections. The catch is, the Covid-19 play did not protect the deep state; it only further demonstrated its malevolence.
It’s a big club… In a small world.
• Liz Cheney’s Husband Is Partner At Law Firm Representing Hunter Biden (Fed.)
Philip Perry, who is married to Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, is a partner at the same law firm representing President Joe Biden’s scandal-ridden son, Hunter. Last week, the Daily Mail reached out to Hunter Biden’s attorney for comment on a story unearthing new details to the extent the younger Biden leveraged the family name for lucrative overseas business ventures. In 2014, the paper reported, then-Vice President Biden met with a pair of Chinese energy executives connected to Hunter Biden’s foreign business deals. An attorney named Christopher Clark, who is listed with the firm Latham & Watkins as partner, responded to the Daily Mail’s request for comment calling the reporter a “parasite” in an otherwise nonsensical email full of typos.
The vice president’s 2014 encounter with Chinese energy tycoons marks the fifteenth such meeting with businessmen tied to Hunter Biden’s financial interests, and contradicts Biden’s repeated claims of never discussing business with his son, “or with anyone else.” The first son is currently under federal investigation for money laundering and foreign lobbying. Perry is also listed as a partner with Lathan & Watkins on the firm’s website while his wife runs for re-election on an anti-Trump platform ahead of the Wyoming primary next week. Cheney faces an uphill contest from Trump-endorsed attorney Harriet Hageman in a state that voted for former President Donald Trump two years ago by a wider margin than anywhere else in the country.
A poll sponsored by the Casper-Star Tribune last month shows Hageman up by 22 points as Cheney tries to clinch a fourth term by appealing to Democrats. Even if every Democrat in the state were to change their registration to back Cheney in the primary, however, Cheney’s Trump-backed opponent remains likely to prevail where Republicans outnumber Democrats more than 200,000 to 43,000. On Sunday, the New York Times published a profile of the race ahead of next week’s contest chronicling Cheney’s failing campaign. “She no longer provides advance notice about her Wyoming travel and, not welcome at most county and state Republican events, has turned her campaign into a series of invite-only House parties,” the Times reported.
“What’s more puzzling than her schedule is why Ms. Cheney, who has raised over $13 million, has not poured more money into the race, especially early on when she had an opportunity to define Ms. Hageman,” the paper added. “Ms. Cheney had spent roughly half her war chest as of the start of July, spurring speculation that she was saving money for future efforts against Mr. Trump.”The Wyoming congresswoman likely to lose her seat in the next Congress has been laying the foundation for a presidential run in 2024. “If I have to choose between maintaining a seat in the House of Representatives or protecting the constitutional republic and ensuring the American people know the truth about Donald Trump, I’m going to choose the Constitution and the truth every single day,” Cheney said on CNN last month.
“..neither Kiev nor Tbilisi will ever become members of NATO or the EU, and that “even the unshaven guy in a green T-shirt from Kiev” understands this.”
• West Wants To Destroy Russia – Medvedev (RT)
The West has launched an aggressive “geopolitical process” aimed at destroying Russia, former President Dmitry Medvedev claimed in an interview with TASS published on Monday. Asked if the hostilities between Russia and Georgia in 2008 and the current conflict in Ukraine are “links in the same chain,” Medvedev said they are without a doubt part of the same scheme orchestrated by the West. “This is a single process and a common plan directed against Russia. It consists of the desire of the West, primarily the United States and other Anglo-Saxon countries, to rock the situation in our country. How? Through neighbors in close proximity to the borders of Russia,” Medvedev, the deputy head of the National Security Council, and president of Russia from 2008 to 2012, explained.
He noted that before the conflict with Georgia began in 2008, when Tbilisi’s forces began shelling the disputed region of South Ossetia and killed a number of Russian peacekeepers and civilians, the US was “cynically engaged” in the training, funding, and arming of the Georgian Army, and Washington was actively encouraging then-Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili to launch an attack against the civilian population in the area. The same “provocative and, let’s face it, criminal policy of the US” is currently being aggressively pursued in Ukraine, Medvedev said, adding that this time, the process is receiving more active support from the EU, which he says has “finally lost its independence.” “But the end goal remains the same,” he claimed, “to destroy Russia,” arguing that this goal is the root cause of the “extremely aggressive, Russophobic geopolitical process initiated by the West.”
The former president went on to say that despite NATO’s attempts to expand along Russia’s borders, which has become “a global problem that makes all reasonable people sick,”the US-led bloc has no intention of allowing either Ukraine or Georgia to become members. “They understand that anything they undertake in beleaguered countries such as Ukraine or Georgia, which are in territorial disputes with Russia, will be more expensive for themselves. The costs will be enormous,” Medvedev noted, adding that neither Kiev nor Tbilisi will ever become members of NATO or the EU, and that “even the unshaven guy in a green T-shirt from Kiev” understands this.
On top of this, they announced a new fuel tax last week.
• ‘Millions’ In Germany Won’t Be Able To Pay For Heating – Union (RT)
At least a third of Germans on low incomes may not be able to pay increasingly high energy bills, the German Tenants’ Association (DMB) has warned, urging the government to make changes to housing programs. “That’s a hell of a lot of people,” Lukas Siebenkotten, the DMB’s chief, told newspaper Der Tagesspiegel on Sunday. “We’re talking about millions here.” Siebenkotten urged the government to allow more people to claim housing benefits in the wake of rising energy prices. “Tenants must also be protected from the termination of contracts if they cannot make increased advance payments,” he said. The remarks came after Klaus Mueller, the head of the Federal Network Agency, Germany’s gas regulator, warned that consumers should conserve at least 20% of gas in order to avoid shortages during the winter.
“In all other scenarios, we either face the threat of a gas shortage as early as December, or have low-level shortages at the end of the upcoming heating season,” Mueller said, describing current gas prices as “astronomically high.” High inflation and increased energy costs in Germany have been exacerbated by fears that Russia might completely cut off supplies of natural gas to the country. Germany and other EU states imposed sweeping sanctions on Moscow in response to its military campaign in Ukraine and unveiled a plan to phase out Russian gas. However, the German government has repeatedly warned that an immediate end of supplies from Moscow would badly damage the economy, increase unemployment and lower living standards.
Russian gas company Gazprom decreased the flow to Germany through the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline and then suspended deliveries altogether for 10 days last month for maintenance work. According to Gazprom, the routine maintenance process had been disrupted by the hold-up of a repaired turbine in Canada, which Ottawa initially refused to return to Germany due to sanctions. Berlin rolled out a gas-saving plan late last month, which includes boosting reserves in gas storage facilities and using more coal power plants.
How will these governments survive the cold? People will discover that the only reason their kids are freezing is an ideological one.
• Germany Rules Out Emergency Use Of Nord Stream 2 Gas Pipeline (RT)
Germany is not going to put Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline into operation even if the situation with energy supplies deteriorates in the coming months, government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said on Monday. “What is clear is that we stand firmly on the side of Ukraine, that we support the sanctions that we jointly adopted in the EU and in consultations with the international community… What is also clear is that Nord Stream 2 is not certified and is not currently going through the certification process and thus is not available [for operation],” the spokesman said at a press briefing. When asked specifically if German Chancellor Olaf Scholz rules out using the pipeline in the coming fall and winter if the situation with gas supplies in the region becomes more complicated, Hebestreit said “yes, he rules it out.”
The government representative agreed that the upcoming heating season may be difficult for Germany, but noted that the government is taking the necessary steps to ease the situation. The construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, aimed at boosting Russian natural gas supplies to the EU, was completed last year. However, Berlin halted its certification shortly before Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine in late February. Hebestreit’s comments echo those of German Economy Minister Robert Habeck, who said last month that Germany does not plan to revive the Nord Stream 2 certification process despite fears of supply disruptions, and urged his country to conserve natural gas and continue decreasing its dependence on supplies from Russia.
“..1/5 of all farms will be forced to shut down and almost 1/3 of farms forced to scale down and reduce livestock..”
• Netherlands To Shut Down 11,200 Farms To Meet Climate Goals (Sweden)
If you have followed my reporting you probably know about the protests happening in the Netherlands. Tens of thousands of farmers have taken to the streets to protest against new climate goals which will force farmers to shut down their farms. They have set hay bales on fire on motorways and dumped manure and even blocked supermarket distribution centers. According to calculations done by the Finance ministry, a whopping 11 200 livestock farmers will be forced to shut down by the government to reduce nitrogen emissions in order to meet European environmental rules. Another 17 600 farmers would need to reduce the amount of animals they keep to meet these climate goals.
And this is bad. Because there are about 54 000 farms in the Netherlands, meaning that around 1/5 of all farms will be forced to shut down and almost 1/3 of farms forced to scale down and reduce livestock. Meaning that thousands and thousands of farmers will be losing their livelihoods in order to meet government climate goals. They are literally going to make people loose their livelihoods in order to meet climate goals. That is crazy. Not only that, think about all the food that will be lost as a result of this. We are already facing a food crisis due to sky high fertilizer prices and grain shortages due to the war in Ukraine. We need more food now, not less! The climate change fanatics are trying to bring us back to the middle ages.
The state is planning on forcing farmers to sell their farms to the state (buying them out). State sanctioned appropriation of farms and land. Now where have I heard about that kind of thing before…? Oh yes, under Communism. I told you that this is Climate Communism and that The Great Reset is just another word for Global Communism. And it seems like people in the Netherlands are not happy with these government plans, as the political party of the Prime Minister in the Netherlands, VVD, has reached a new all-time low in the polls. If there was an election now, they would lose 13 of their 34 seats in parliament. A whopping 7 out of 10 voters say that they are dissatisfied with the Cabinet of the Prime Minister. Meanwhile the new party called Farmer-Citizen Movement is now polling in second place.
WIth the recent revelations about the Great Barrier Reef, maybe take it easy with the term “Climate-Driven”.
• Europe Is Being Hit By A Climate-Driven Drought Crisis (G.)
Europe’s most severe drought in decades is hitting homes, factories, farmers and freight across the continent, as experts warn drier winters and searing summers fuelled by global heating mean water shortages will become “the new normal”. The EU European Drought Observatory has calculated that 45% of the bloc’s territory was under drought warning by mid-July, with 13% already on red alert, prompting the European Commission to warn of a “critical” situation in multiple regions. Conditions have deteriorated since as repeated heatwaves roll across the continent. In France, the prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, last week activated a crisis unit to tackle a drought Météo-France described as the country’s worst since records began in 1958.
More than 100 French municipalities have no running drinking water and are being supplied by truck, green transition minister Christophe Béchu said, adding: “We are going to have to get used to episodes of this type. Adaptation is no longer an option, it’s an obligation.” With surface soil humidity the lowest ever recorded and July rainfall 85% lower than usual, water restrictions including hosepipe and irrigation bans are in place in 93 of the country’s 96 mainland départements, with 62 classified as “in crisis”. Amid rising food prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, France’s agriculture minister warned the corn harvest is likely to be more than 18% lower than last year, while farmers’ unions say a shortage of cattle fodder as a result of the drought could lead to significant milk shortages in the autumn and winter.
The electricity utility EDF was last week forced to reduce output from one of its nuclear reactors in south-western France because of high water temperatures in the Garonne River, and has issued multiple similar warnings for reactors along the Rhône. Spain’s water reserves are at all-time low of 40% and have been falling at a rate of 1.5% a week through a combination of increased consumption and evaporation, according to the government, in what is likely to be the driest of the past 60 years. The country has received less than half its expected rainfall for the time of year for the past three months, with restrictions in place from Catalonia in the north-east to Galicia in the north-west as well as western Extremadura and Andalucía in the south. Most water restrictions have been imposed on domestic users, with rural authorities often reluctant to rein in farmers’ frequently illegal exploitation of an increasingly scant resource despite agriculture accounting for nine-tenths of Spain’s water consumption.
“..cutting-edge technologies developed by China, including advancements in quantum science, artificial intelligence and other areas “that are likely to disrupt how future wars are fought and economies are structured.”
• CIA’s Strategy Towards China Revealed (RT)
The CIA’s shift of focus to “great power competition” with China means that “money and resources would be increasingly shifted”away from counterterrorism (CT), the spy agency’s second-highest ranking officer reportedly told leaders of its CT branch. The meeting was held some weeks ago behind closed doors, the Associated Press reported on Monday, citing anonymous sources. Deputy Director David Cohen assured officials during the meeting that fighting terrorists would remain a priority for the agency to a significant degree, the report said. The entire US intelligence community has been pivoting towards China under the current administration, with hundreds of officers reassigned, including from counterterrorism, according to the news agency.
The CIA is also moving in that direction, hiring new officers fluent in Chinese and teaching the language to current employees, the AP said. The realignment, which is being done under pressure from Congress, means inevitable cuts of funding and manpower in other areas, the news agency said. Lawmakers are particularly interested in cutting-edge technologies developed by China, including advancements in quantum science, artificial intelligence and other areas “that are likely to disrupt how future wars are fought and economies are structured.” Last October, the CIA announced a major structural reform, which included the creation of two so-called mission centers. One is dedicated to China and the other to emerging technologies.
The AP’s report comes on the back of last week’s announcement of the CIA-led assassination of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, who was killed by a drone strike in Kabul, US President Joe Biden announced last Monday. The agency noted that supporters of the White House say the strike showed the US can deal with terrorist threats despite pulling out from Afghanistan last year. Critics, meanwhile, have suggested that Zawahiri’s presence in the country indicated a resurgence of terrorism after the Taliban takeover. Afghanistan’s new authorities rejected US claims that the al-Qaeda leader had been granted protection and the green light to live in the capital.
“..Zelensky on Sunday reiterated a warning that if the two regions go through with their plans, Kiev will break off all talks with Russia..”
What talks?
• Ukrainian Region Announces Vote On Joining Russia (RT)
aporozhye Region will hold a referendum on whether to secede from Ukraine and request joining Russia, the head of its administration announced on Monday. Evgeny Balitskiy said that he had signed an order to organize the plebiscite during a regional forum held in the city of Melitopol. Over 700 representatives from various parts of the Ukrainian region approved the idea, according to RIA Novosti. Earlier comments by administration officials indicated the referendum may be held as soon as mid-September. Russian forces took partial control of the region during the initial offensive against Ukraine launched in late February. The eponymous city located in the north of the region on the Dnepr River remains under Ukrainian control.
Officials in Kherson Region, another Russia-controlled part of Ukraine, voiced similar plans to put to a vote the proposal of breaking away from Kiev and seeking to join Russia. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky on Sunday reiterated a warning that if the two regions go through with their plans, Kiev will break off all talks with Russia. Moscow in response suggested that the Ukrainian president should address the citizens of those regions. “The thing is, this is what the residents of the region plan. It’s not like we [Russia] are holding a referendum. Here, apparently, it is necessary to understand to whom Zelensky is addressing this statement – to the citizens of Ukraine of the mentioned regions or to the citizens of Russia? If it’s to the citizens and leadership of Russia, then we are the wrong address,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on Monday.
There have been no peace talks between Russia and Ukraine for months, as Kiev rejected such contacts and claimed it would only negotiate after defeating Russian on the battlefield with the help of Western military aid. Before the talks broke off, the two nations appeared to have made progress in resolving their differences. During a meeting in Istanbul in late March, Kiev had pledged to become a neutral country and accept restrictions on its military. Moscow said it prepared a draft peace agreement based on those proposals, but Ukraine never responded. An indirect Russian-Ukrainian deal was mediated last month by the UN and Turkey to allow grain exports from three Ukrainian ports to resume via the Black Sea. The scheme was formalized in two separate agreements that were signed by Russia and Ukraine with the other two parties.
“..our forces have been victorious everywhere, constantly boldly retreating..”
• Austrian Barbarians Go Home! (Batiushka)
(With apologies to the peoples of Austria and France) As we write, the wicked Austrian terrorist State under its manic leader Putzin continues its completely unprovoked invasion of East France. President Putzin is well-known, as he is very short (not that we wish to belittle him) and has only one testicle, as everybody knows. His invasion and occupation of East France have been going on for nearly six months now and our forces have been victorious everywhere, constantly boldly retreating. However, as the younger among you may need a reminder to the facts of the background of this evil invasion, we give this below.
In 1945 France liberated defeated Nazi Germany and set about looking after it. As the word ‘Germany’ is such an ugly word, it was replaced by ‘East France’. Here hordes of workers made products for the Paris government which for nearly three generations very generously allowed the East France people to speak their German dialect. However, enough was enough and the time came when in 2014 Paris declared that all education would in the future be in French and that the German dialect would be banned in public places. If any East French were dissatisfied, too bad for them, they would just have to go and live in another country. Another huge act of generosity on the part of our glorious Paris government. Almost immediately, and in a quite unprovoked and totally unexpected manner, the evil Austrian regime annexed Bavaria.
(They called it an ‘Anschluss’, though how you pronounce such a long, complicated and ugly word, we have no idea). True, they held a referendum, in which over 90% of Bavarians voted to join Austria, but obviously nobody believes those results. Quite typically Putzin probably threatened to shoot anyone who did not vote for him. Then, on top of that, Austrian-backed, German-speaking separatists began to fight against Paris forces in Saxony. Leipzig was reduced to rubble by our brilliant artillerymen and over 10,000 separatist civilians, including over 400 children, were eliminated. However, on 24 February 2022, the Putzin regime invaded Saxony, murdering civilians and raping tens of millions of women and children, throwing babies out of incubators and bayoneting them. These are well-known facts.
“..President Andrzej Duda has expressed hope that there will be no border between Poland and Ukraine in the future, calling the two nations “fraternal.”
As Zelensky shouts about defending Ukraine, he’s selling it off at large discounts. And if Poland get their share, Hungary will demand theirs.
As for deploying Polish “peacekeeping” forces in Ukraine, beware.
• Poland Proceeding With Its Plans For Ukraine – Moscow (RT)
Warsaw is looking to send “peacekeeping” forces into Western Ukraine and take over sectors of the economy, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service claims Warsaw continues to carry out an apparent attempt to “reclaim” parts of Ukraine in accordance with its “far-reaching plans” for the country, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) said in a statement posted on Monday. According to Russian intelligence, Poland is not only setting up a scenario to deploy its “peacekeeping” forces to the western parts of Ukraine, but is also trying to establish control over promising sectors of the Ukrainian economy, first and foremost – agriculture. The SVR claims that Polish companies have taken advantage of the difficult condition Ukrainian farmers are in by arranging to purchase their goods at reduced prices, which is allegedly pushing some Ukrainian agriculture enterprises toward bankruptcy.
The intelligence agency claims that Polish entities will then buy up these assets and lands at bargain prices. “This can be illustrated, for example, by the purchase of new barley crop at $30 per ton, which is almost 5 times cheaper than the real cost of this product,” the SVR noted in its report. The agency goes on to claim that Poland is investing in the creation of transport infrastructure and other logistics for the unimpeded export of Ukrainian food to Europe and other markets where prices are much higher. All of this is being done under the new legal framework created by Kiev, the SVR explains, referring to a law on special guarantees for Polish citizens introduced in late July, and also one that allows Ukrainian industrial enterprises to be sold at a 50% discount.
Thus, the current Kiev authorities have essentially already started selling off the country, giving priority in this ‘business project’ to their Polish neighbors. In April, SVR chief Sergey Naryshkin claimed that intelligence obtained by Moscow suggested that Poland and the US were working on a plan for Warsaw to regain control of Ukrainian areas that they consider as “historically belonging” to it. He also suggested that the first phase of this “reunification” project would see Polish troops deployed to parts of Ukraine as “peacekeepers” under the pretext of protecting Ukraine from “Russian aggression.” Poland has categorically denied these claims, although President Andrzej Duda has expressed hope that there will be no border between Poland and Ukraine in the future, calling the two nations “fraternal.”
Amnesty did thorough research. Just like CBS.
• An Unpleasant Truth For Ukrainians Is Coming To Light (Milacic)
Amnesty says survivors and eyewitnesses of Russian attacks in Donbass, Kharkiv and the Mykolaiv region told researchers that the Ukrainian military was conducting operations near their homes at the time of the attacks, exposing the areas to counterfire from Russian forces. Amnesty International researchers have witnessed such behavior in numerous locations. International humanitarian law requires all parties to a conflict to avoid locating, to the greatest extent possible, military targets within or near densely populated areas. Other obligations to protect civilians from the effects of attacks include removing civilians from the vicinity of military targets and providing effective warning of attacks that may affect the civilian population.
– The army was stationed in the house next to ours and my son often brought food to the soldiers. I begged him several times to stay away, because I feared for his safety. That afternoon, when the attack happened, my son was in our yard and I was in the house. He died on the spot. His body was mutilated. Our house was partially destroyed – said the mother of a man (50), who was killed in a rocket attack on June 10 in a village south of Nikolaev. Amnesty International found military equipment and uniforms in the house next to hers. Nikola, who lives in the block in Lisichansk in Donbass, which the Russians regularly targeted and killed at least one person, said that it is not clear to him “why our army fires from the cities and not from the fields”.
Another resident said that “there is definitely military activity in the neighborhood.” – We hear “outgoing” and then “incoming” fire” – he said. Amnesty International teams saw soldiers using residential buildings located 20 meters from the entrance to the underground shelter, which was used by residents and where an elderly man was killed. In one Donbas town on May 6, Russian forces used cluster munitions over a neighborhood of mostly one- or two-story houses where Ukrainian forces were manning artillery. Shrapnel damaged the walls of the house where Ana (70) lives with her son and 95-year-old mother.
In early July, a farm worker was injured when Russian forces attacked an agricultural warehouse in the Nikolayev area. Hours after the attack, Amnesty International researchers witnessed the presence of Ukrainian military personnel and vehicles in the grain storage area, and witnesses confirmed that the military was using the warehouse, which is located across from a farm where civilians live and work. As researchers surveyed damage to residential and public buildings in Kharkiv and villages in the Donbass and east of Mykolaiv, they heard gunfire from nearby Ukrainian military positions. In Bakhmut, several residents said the Ukrainian military was using a building barely 20 meters across the street from the high-rise. On May 18, a Russian rocket hit the front of the building, partially destroying five apartments and damaging nearby buildings.
“..saying there is “no proof” that weapons entering his country are unaccounted for, despite similar warnings from the Russian government, Europol, Canada, the CIA and a number of US Republicans..”
• CBS Caves Into Ukrainian Pressure On Weapons Revelations (RT)
CBS News has pulled a documentary and amended a story featuring claims that 70% of foreign weapons never make it to the front lines in Ukraine. The changes were made amid an outcry from the Ukrainian government and its supporters. The documentary originally featured an interview with Jonas Ohman, the founder of a Lithuania-based organization supplying the Ukrainian military. Ohman told CBS that getting foreign weapons to Ukrainian troops involves navigating a network of “power lords, oligarchs [and] political players,” and that of all the aid arriving at the border in Poland, “kind of like 30% of it reaches its final destination.” Amnesty International’s Donatella Rovera also appeared in the film, saying that “there is really no information as to where [the weapons are] going at all.”
The documentary was released online on Thursday, and was set to air on CBS on Sunday evening. Pro-Ukrainian social media accounts hounded CBS over the weekend, accusing the American network of spreading “Russian propaganda. ”Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhail Podoliak waded in, saying there is “no proof” that weapons entering his country are unaccounted for, despite similar warnings from the Russian government, Europol, Canada, the CIA and a number of US Republicans. The documentary was pulled from CBS’ website on Sunday night, and Ohman’s quote removed from a text version of the story. Atop this story, CBS placed a note saying that arms deliveries have “significantly improved” since its filming in April, and that the US sent a senior military official to Kiev in recent days “for arms control and monitoring.”
Ohman’s organization issued a statementsaying that the documentary took his words “out of context,” but did not deny that 70% of incoming military aid was going missing in April. Weapons were not being “stolen” or “sold on the black market,” the organization explained, but ending up in the hands of “different power players” attempting to “solidify their positions.”Who these players were was left unexplained. CBS said that it is “updating” its documentary and will air the edited version at a later date. Rovera, already slated by the Ukrainian government and its supporters over a recent Amnesty report accusing Kiev of placing weapons in civilian areas in violation of humanitarian law, also attempted to backpedal.
In a Twitter post on Sunday, she claimed that the responsibility for tracking arms shipments lies with the states providing the weapons, not with Ukraine. The Ukrainian government welcomed the CBS retraction. Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba nevertheless declared that the US network had “misled a huge audience by sharing unsubstantiated claims and damaging trust in supplies of vital military aid to a nation resisting aggression and genocide.” “There should be an internal investigation into who enabled this and why,” he concluded. Others criticized the changes, which journalist Max Blumenthal said were made following “a coordinated freakout by the Ukraine lobby.”
As Ukraine accuses Russia of targeting a plant they already control, with missiles. Easier to just pull a switch or two?!
• Russia Accuses Ukraine Of ‘Nuclear Terrorism’ (RT)
Ukrainian troops have committed “a new act of nuclear terrorism” by continuing to shell the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday. The nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, in southern Ukraine was seized by Russian forces in late February, when Moscow launched its military operation in the neighboring state. The facility continues to operate under Russian control with Ukrainian personnel. In a daily briefing, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov said that Ukraine’s 44th Artillery Brigade fired at the plant on Sunday from the village of Marganets on the opposite side of the large Kakhovka water reservoir.
The shelling damaged a high-voltage power line, causing a short circuit at the plant, Konashenkov said. He added that a fire broke out at the facility, which was then put out. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, it was the second time Ukrainian shelling has caused a fire and a partial power outage at the plant since Friday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the attacks on the nuclear facility could have “catastrophic consequences for a huge territory, including the territory of Europe.” “We hope that countries which have an absolute influence on the Ukrainian leadership will use this influence to rule out such shelling,” Peskov said.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky accused Russia of shelling the Zaporozhye plant on Friday. “Russian nuclear terror requires a stronger response from the international community,” he tweeted, also warning about a potential nuclear disaster. Ukraine and the US previously accused Russian soldiers of using the plant as cover in the fight against Ukrainian troops. Russia has rejected these claims. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the “suicidal” attacks on the plant, expressing hope that international inspectors will be able to access the facility soon.
Blue states start boycotting red states. Civil War here we come.
• Time for a Red-State NATO-like Alliance on Boycotts (Turley)
“An attack on one is an attack on all.” That reference to Article 5 of the NATO treaty is a virtual mantra in Washington these days as “the bedrock of peace and security in Europe for over half a century.” But the benefits of such deterrence should not be lost on another group under increasing threat for their political alliances: America’s red states. From California to Illinois, legislators are moving to boycott any state contracts with businesses in states with anti-LGBTQ legislation or restrictive abortion laws. At the same time, many Democratic leaders are pressuring companies to boycott red states too. This past week, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) called upon Hollywood production companies to stop filming in states such as Georgia or Oklahoma with strict anti-abortion laws.
In Georgia, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams has warned that companies will cut off ties with such states, including her own, if they do not change their laws. (Abrams previously was criticized by conservatives for fueling the boycott of her own state which led to the withdrawal of the All-Star Game from Atlanta over election reform laws.) Such campaigns have succeeded, particularly with private companies. Indeed, in both restricting speech and boycotting states, the left has found greater success with private companies than with voters in pushing their agenda. The New York Times warned pro-life states that they risk their “competitive edge” in the market if they do not change their laws to conform with blue-state views. The boycott threats have been growing since 2016, when North Carolina was targeted for passing a bill limiting bathroom access by biological gender.
The point of these campaigns is to pressure state officials to ignore the will of a majority of their citizens and pass laws to appeal to corporations and other states in a competitive market. Such boycotts by private citizens or groups are an important form of political speech; various state laws barring state contracts with those who support boycotts of Israel, for example, have been struck down as unconstitutional, although an appellate court recently upheld an Arkansas law. However, states or companies engaging in such boycotts is a different matter. Many consumers do not want companies like Disney to engage in political debates over issues like transgender rights. One poll showed 67 percent opposed corporate opposition to an “anti-grooming” law, a view that appears to be impacting Disney.
Bunch of cowards.
• Australian Labor Party & Assange: Burying the Politics (Tranter)
The difficulty for the Australian Labor government in deciding how to respond to the Julian Assange case is that once a prosecution is characterised as a political prosecution then, by its nature, there can be no expectation of due process. The U.S.-U.K. Extradition Treaty forbids extradition in the case of “political offences.” Former Australian High Commissioner to the U.K. George Brandis — who was commissioner for almost the entirety of Assange’s Belmarsh imprisonment since 2019 — doesn’t agree that Assange is a political prisoner. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and its new Minister Penny Wong have consistently stated a view that the case is not political but purely a legal matter: “Australia is not a party to Julian Assange’s case, nor can the Australian government intervene in the legal matters of another country.”
However, the most vocally outspoken Labor MP on the Assange case has now thrown that position on its head. “This is a political case, Labor MP Julian Hill told Consortium News in a video interview on July 28. “It is a political decision to extradite. And we’ve conveyed our view to the U.K. government regarding that. And it’s also a political decision in the U.S.” The government suggesting its hands are tied as Australia is “not a party” to the Assange case and they can’t intervene in “legal matters,” ignores the evident truths that the Assange case is indeed political, that its result will have global political consequences and that a pathway exists for a political intervention towards a political resolution.
Labor also strains to maintain credibility in its stated expectations of Assange receiving fair and humane treatment, on the one hand, and on the other remaining silent on the findings of Nils Melzer, the then-U.N. special rapporteur on torture, who had found Assange had suffered both psychological torture and political persecution. There has also been a silence on the extraordinary acts of the U.S. intelligence agencies, in particular the fact that Assange’s legally privileged conversations and papers were recorded and handed to U.S. intelligence agencies, and also on the C.I.A.’s plans to kidnap or assassinate Assange.
Ukrainians migrating from Zelensky controlled areas to Russian controlled #Kherson
Here's some TRUTH coming from #CNN first time
CNN showing Ukrainians migrating from Zelensky controlled areas to Russian controlled #Kherson with family cats dogs trunks.
They have chosen freedom and real democracy#Ukraine #UkraineRussiaWar #Zaporizhzhia #UkraineWar #Bakhmut pic.twitter.com/94tTN8kXdR— UkraineNews (@Ukraine66251776) August 8, 2022
The Himalayan Vulture
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