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
Trump basically did a full standup set at the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner tonight and Kamala became the first Democrat to skip the dinner since Walter Mondale.
Mondale lost every state but one after that.
A truly legendary comedy set. 😂 pic.twitter.com/lqVtI2rIlD
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) October 18, 2024
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847095450211377631
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847098080752971896
https://twitter.com/i/status/1847108883992793229
Elon waste
.@ElonMusk is going after America’s core problems, and I honestly fear for his life.
He just reminded politicians that the tax dollars they spend belong to the American people.
“For some weird reason, a lot of people in the state, the politicians, they seem to forget that the… pic.twitter.com/jltaNwLO0N
— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@VigilantFox) October 17, 2024
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 (@BarronTNews) October 16, 2024
Kimbal
Kimbal Musk explains how SpaceX had to fight the US military to allow them to launch satellites for cheaper prices.
The US military didn’t care about price. They were perfectly happy to pay $400 million per launch to Boeing/Lockheed (ULA) instead of $50 million to SpaceX
— Wall Street Mav (@WallStreetMav) October 18, 2024
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
Why maps lie
[🎞️ geoallday]pic.twitter.com/8ehBjjgFXX
— Massimo (@Rainmaker1973) October 18, 2024
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
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