Pablo Picasso Portrait of Dora Maar pensive 1937
Kash J6
Trump’s FBI pick Kash Patel explains how he’s going to expose Jan 6 narrative:
“What u need to show is whether or not the FBI was using undercover operatives & informants on January 6. If u can show that, then u can defeat the insurrection narrative with the FBI’s own… pic.twitter.com/1y7evOOWkF
— Jimmy Dore (@jimmy_dore) December 9, 2024
SNL Hunter
https://twitter.com/i/status/1865719454434251213
“It had already been old, sick, and somewhat half-witted, and now it has perished, unnoticed by anyone..”
• Western Democracy Is Dead – RT Editor-in-Chief (RT)
Western democracy is dead and the only thing left is to offer condolences, according to RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan. She was commenting on the cancelation of the results of the presidential election in Romania, in which independent candidate Calin Georgescu, a NATO and EU critic and a staunch opponent of aiding Ukraine, won the first-round vote. Ahead of the second round, which had been due to take place on Sunday, Romania’s Constitutional Court annulled Georgescu’s victory, declaring that the entire election would be re-run at a later date. According to Romanian media, the court made the decision based on declassified intelligence documents which allegedly found irregularities behind Georgescu’s performance.
They claimed that Georgescu’s candidacy was improperly promoted online, including on TikTok, by paid influencers and extremist right-wing groups, and that his campaign may have benefited from Russian interference – an allegation that Moscow has denied. In an interview on the Russia 1 TV channel with Vladimir Solovyov, Simonyan slammed the decision by Romania’s court as “absolutely illegal,” and said it was most likely the result of interference from the EU. “The Constitutional Court likely responded to a call from Brussels, which likely said ‘are you nuts? You have a person who is not anti-Russian, whose statements are quite humanistic, normal, pro-Romanian… no, no, no, you can’t do that!’
And the Constitutional Court said, ‘OK, this election was rigged.’” According to Simonyan, the Romanian authorities have thus far failed to give sufficient explanation for the cancelation of the results, and suggesting that Georgescu’s TikTok promotions are reason enough to annul his victory “is just surreal.” “When someone talks about Western democracy, one must immediately understand that the person speaking is either an oligophrenic or a liar and a hypocrite, and it is unclear which is worse,” she stated. “I would like to express my sincerest, deepest condolences to the entire Western world in connection with the death of Western democracy. It had already been old, sick, and somewhat half-witted, and now it has perished, unnoticed by anyone,” she added.
Who in Europe supports the insane, unbridled support for Ukraine to their own detriment? Who supports the economic suicide of countries like Germany?… Who supports the woke ideology, which is built on the denial of the human nature… this is not democracy, this is demonocracy and it is not liberal, it is vomit-inducing. According to Simonyan, the reason for this “death of democracy” is the complete lack of values and scruples in Western politics. Their decisions and policies, she argued, are no longer in line with the values and opinions of their populations, and they act like the “so-called dictators” which they constantly malign. Simonyan also said there are no countries in the West where the majority of the population supports an anti-Russian course, yet their governments still pursue this, contrary to the basic principles of democracy.
“..if only to see how much room remains for diplomacy in a world increasingly shaped by force.”
• Why Trump Needs To Call Putin On Day One (Dmitry Trenin)
The practice of leaking proposed diplomatic plans is standard in Western political culture, making the recent publication of a reported framework for resolving the Ukraine conflict – allegedly authored by US President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for special envoy to Kiev Keith Kellogg — unsurprising. Such moves often serve to test the likely reactions of key players before formal talks begin. From a realpolitik perspective, it would make sense for Trump, after his inauguration, to call Russian President Vladimir Putin and propose sending Kellogg – or another senior figure – to Moscow for negotiations. While the exact content of Trump’s future proposal remains unclear, its general theme — “peace from a position of strength” — seems obvious. If Trump takes this step, it’s likely that Putin will agree to receive the envoy and assign a senior Russian official for the meeting.
The success of any talks, however, will depend entirely on the substance of Washington’s proposal. Judging by what has circulated in the media so far, the terms being floated are clearly unacceptable to Moscow. Russia has its own clearly defined vision for resolving the Ukraine crisis – one focused on addressing the root causes of the conflict, not simply managing its symptoms. The terms for negotiations with Ukraine have been publicly stated and repeatedly reiterated by Russian officials. For the US, the first step toward meaningful talks should be ceasing its involvement in the war altogether. Any hypothetical negotiations between Moscow and Washington would center not on Ukraine, but on the broader military and political stability in Europe and beyond.
If Trump is prepared to pursue this agenda, meaningful progress may be possible. If not, he will likely face a choice: escalate an increasingly dangerous war or shift the responsibility for supporting Kiev onto the European NATO allies. Neither option is ideal. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz faces a tough February election, with polls suggesting he is vulnerable. Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is eager to project “Global Britain” ambitions abroad. At the same time, French President Emmanuel Macron is presently a lame duck and doesn’t even have a functioning government. All will struggle to sustain Western Europe’s commitment to the war without firm US leadership. For Trump, the clock will be ticking from the moment he enters the White House. A phone call to Moscow may be a necessary first step — if only to see how much room remains for diplomacy in a world increasingly shaped by force.
“Too many lives are being so needlessly wasted, too many families destroyed, and if it keeps going, it can turn into something much bigger, and far worse.”
• Trump Tells Putin to Agree to Immediate Cease-Fire in Ukraine (ET)
President-elect Donald Trump sent a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin following the collapse of the Assad regime in Syria after Islamist opposition fighters captured Damascus. He called for an immediate cease-fire in Ukraine. “Assad is gone. He has fled his country,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on the morning of Dec. 8. “His protector, Russia, Russia, Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was not interested in protecting him any longer. There was no reason for Russia to be there in the first place.” The incoming president also said that Moscow had “lost all interest in Syria because of Ukraine, where close to 600,000 Russian soldiers lay wounded or dead, in a war that should never have started, and could go on forever.” Trump then said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “would like to make a deal” to end the nearly three-year-long war, noting the loss of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians.
“There should be an immediate cease-fire and negotiations should begin,” Trump said. “Too many lives are being so needlessly wasted, too many families destroyed, and if it keeps going, it can turn into something much bigger, and far worse. I know Vladimir well. This is his time to act.” Moscow, a backer of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, whom it intervened to help in 2015 in its biggest Middle East foray since the Soviet collapse at the end of 1991, is scrambling to protect its position, with its geopolitical clout in the wider region and two strategically important military bases in Syria on the line. Russia has yet to respond to Trump’s remark, although its foreign ministry confirmed that Assad left Syria amid the conflict. “As a result of negotiations between B. Assad and a number of participants in the armed conflict on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic, he decided to resign from the presidency and left the country, giving instructions for a peaceful transfer of power,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Dec. 8. “Russia did not participate in these negotiations.”
Russia operates the Hmeimim air base, in Syria’s Latakia Province, which it has used to launch airstrikes against rebels in the past, and has a naval facility at Tartous on the coast. The Tartous facility is Russia’s only Mediterranean repair and replenishment hub, and Moscow has used Syria as a staging post to fly its military contractors in and out of Africa. The ministry’s statement said Russia’s two military facilities in Syria had been put on a state of high alert but played down an immediate risk to them. “There is currently no serious threat to their security,” the ministry said. Over the weekend, in a separate Truth Social comment, Trump said the United States should not intervene in the Syrian conflict. A top adviser in the Biden administration made a similar remark, stressing that the United States would not send troops to the restive Middle Eastern country.
“The United States is not going to … militarily dive into the middle of a Syrian civil war,” President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, told reporters in California. Sullivan stressed that the U.S. military would act out of necessity to keep the ISIS terrorist group from gaining a foothold in Syria should it happen. The insurgents who took over Damascus are led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which the United States has designated as a terrorist group and says has links to the al-Qaeda terror organization, although the group reportedly has since broken ties with al-Qaeda. One of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s main leaders is Abu Mohammed al-Golani, or Muhammad al-Jawlani, who is considered a terrorist by the State Department and has been blamed for a number of terrorist attacks that have left civilians dead in Syria.
“The Biden-Blinken-Rice-Sullivan-Sherman team has done enough damage. Just get out of the way….”
• Trump Signals Shift From Unnecessary Military Intervention (JTN)
The unexpected fall of the Assad regime in Syria to a ragtag team of Islamist insurgents plunged the Middle East into a new era of uncertainty and opportunity while putting the world on notice that Donald Trump’s return to power was already uprooting decades of interventionist foreign policy in America. Trump signaled the shift in dramatic fashion, yawning at the Islamist rebels’ final push into Damascus to oust Bashar al-Assad as not a battle America needed to fight and then using its aftermath to urge Russia, long a backer of Assad, to focus instead on seeking a peaceful end to its war against Ukraine. “There should be an immediate ceasefire and negotiations should begin,” Trump implored Sunday as he pressed Russia and Ukraine in the aftermath of Assad’s stunning ouster.
“Too many lives are being so needlessly wasted, too many families destroyed, and if it keeps going, it can turn into something much bigger, and far worse. I know Vladimir well. This is his time to act. China can help. The World is waiting!” Trump’s reaction stood in stark contrast to the man he is replacing, President Joe Biden, who declared he was communicating with the Islamist rebels who overthrew Assad and ordered massive air strikes against ISIS camps to make sure the terror group doesn’t advance in the country. The strategy is laden with risks, as Biden noted himself. “Make no mistake, some of the rebel groups that took down Assad have their own grim record of terrorism and human rights abuses,” Biden said Sunday. “We’ve taken note of statements by the leaders of these rebel groups in recent days and they’re saying the right things now. But as they take on greater responsibility, we will assess not just their words but their actions.”
Former CIA analyst and National Security Council chief of staff Fred Fleitz said Sunday that Trump was right to avoid direct intervention in Syria and to focus instead on stabilizing other ongoing conflicts. “We have to stay out of this and Trump is exactly right. Trump’s America first. That means a strong and decisive president that keeps our country out of new and unnecessary wars,” Fleitz told Newsmax. Trump gave a matter of fact response when Assad fled Syria for Russia, seeing it as an opportunity in Eastern Europe far from the civil-war-torn Mideast nation. “Assad is gone. He has fled his country. His protector, Russia, Russia, Russia, led by Vladimir Putin, was not interested in protecting him any longer,” Trump said. “There was no reason for Russia to be there in the first place. They lost all interest in Syria because of Ukraine, where close to 600,000 Russian soldiers lay wounded or dead, in a war that should never have started, and could go on forever,” he wrote in Truth Social on Sunday.
“Russia and Iran are in a weakened state right now, one because of Ukraine and a bad economy, the other because of Israel and its fighting success. Likewise, Zelenskyy and Ukraine would like to make a deal and stop the madness. They have ridiculously lost 400,000 soldiers, and many more civilians,” he added. With just six weeks before the inauguration, Trump must navigate a turbulent world with a lame-duck U.S. president eager to continue his interventionist, world cop tactics from arming Ukraine to bombing ISIS. Former Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell implored Biden to stand down in Syria, noting he stood still for a year as the country’s situation deteriorated. “The best thing @JoeBiden and @JakeSullivan46 can do now is let @realDonaldTrump and his team take over,” Grenell wrote on X. “The Biden-Blinken-Rice-Sullivan-Sherman team has done enough damage. Just get out of the way….”
“..Zelensky wants peace and a ceasefire, Trump added. “He wants to have a ceasefire … He wants to make peace. We didn’t talk about the details. He thinks it’s time..”
• Trump Says Developing Concept to End ‘Ridiculous’ Conflict in Ukraine (Sp.)
US President-Elect Donald Trump has said that he is developing a concept to put an end to the “ridiculous” conflict in Ukraine. “I’m formulating a concept of how to end that ridiculous war,” Trump told The New York Post. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wants peace and a ceasefire, Trump added. “He wants to have a ceasefire … He wants to make peace. We didn’t talk about the details. He thinks it’s time,” the President-elect said. Trump previously said that if he had been the US president instead of Joe Biden, the conflict in Ukraine would never have started. He also emphasized that if re-elected, he intends to achieve a settlement of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine in just 24 hours. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, commenting on Trump’s words, called the conflict too complex a problem to be solved in one day.
In June, Russian President Vladimir Putin put forward initiatives for a peaceful settlement of the conflict in Ukraine: Moscow will immediately cease fire and declare its readiness for negotiations after the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the territory of Russia’s new regions. The Russian leader also said Kiev must abandon its plans to join NATO, it must carry out demilitarization and denazification, and also adopt a neutral, non-aligned and non-nuclear status. Putin also mentioned in this context the lifting of sanctions against Russia.
They fear a revolt.
• Zelensky Rules Out Lowering Draft Age (RT)
Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has rejected the idea of lowering the military mobilization age in his country, dismissing calls from the West to do so. Earlier this year, Ukraine lowered the mandatory conscription age from 27 to 25. Some former Western officials have urged Kiev to drop it further to 18, and the administration of outgoing US President Joe Biden has reportedly pushed for this behind closed doors. “The priority should be providing missiles and lowering Russia’s military potential, not Ukraine’s draft age,” Zelensky said, commenting on the idea in a post on X on Tuesday morning. “We must focus on equipping existing brigades and training personnel to use this equipment. We must not compensate the lack of equipment and training with the youth of soldiers,” he wrote.
The issue was raised on Monday during a regular briefing at the US State Department, with spokesman Matthew Miller stating that the decision was Kiev’s to make. “What we have made clear is that if they produce additional forces to join the fight, we and our allies will be ready to equip those forces and train those forces to enter battle,” he added. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken previously suggested that Kiev has some “hard decisions” to make in terms of mobilization. “Getting younger people into the fight, we think, many of us think, is necessary,” the top US diplomat said in an interview last week. The lowering of the draft age was part of a major overhaul of the Ukrainian military service system, which Kiev hoped would bolster conscription rates to replace battlefield losses sustained in the fight with Russia.
However, many Ukrainian men prefer to hide from draft officers or even flee the country illegally, taking a precious and sometimes fatal trip across the border. Over the weekend, Zelensky met with US President-elect Donald Trump, who has pledged to wrap up the hostilities after he is inaugurated in January. Following the meeting in Paris, the Ukrainian leader said he would talk to Biden about his request for an invitation to NATO, because “it makes no sense discussing with Trump” something that he does not yet have an influence on. Ukraine’s bid to join the US-led military bloc and the West’s promise to eventually grant it are among the primary causes of the conflict, according to Moscow. The West intends to fight Russia “to the last Ukrainian,” Russian officials have said.
Being on that list paints you as guilty. Wonder who will openly refuse to be on it.
• Pardon Envy: Democrats Vie to Make the Biden Pardon List (Turley)
Liberal pundits and press in Washington are facing a growing nightmare in Washington. No, it is not the victory of President-elect Donald Trump or the Democrats’ loss of both houses of Congress and the popular vote in this election. It is the possibility that democracy may not collapse as predicted, and Trump might not even round up his opponents en masse. For months, liberals have been telling voters that this will likely be their last election and that democracy is about to end in the U.S. ABC host Whoopi Goldberg declared on “The View” that Trump will immediately become a dictator who will “put you people away … take all the journalists … take all the gay folks … move you all around and disappear you.” Many predicted they would be on the top of the enemies list and the first to be rounded up.
Now, the moment is nearly here, and pundits are dreading that the public may notice there is no line of democracy champions being frog-marched down Pennsylvania Avenue. Faced with such a scenario and a further loss of credibility, many are coming up with the next best thing — pretending they stopped the roundup by having Biden pardon everyone. The spin will be that Trump would have gone after rivals but was prevented from doing so by Biden. The idea is to portray yourself as a white knight, riding down to protect the vulnerable and timid from the coming hoard. Even if democracy inconveniently survives, Biden can preserve the narrative with sweeping pardons. The White House is reportedly exploring giving preemptive pardons to figures ranging from Dr. Anthony Fauci, Sen.-elect Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.).
Cheney previously declared that this “may well be the last real vote you ever get to cast.” A pardon would preserve her persona as a modern-day Joan of Arc who avoided being burnt at the stake only by the grace of a Biden pardon. Others seem to be panicking that there may be a list of pardoned people, but they will be left off. Call it “Pardon Envy.” The only thing worse than not being on a Trump enemies list is not being on a Biden pardon list.Before the election, MSNBC host Al Sharpton and regular Donny Deutsch warned viewers that they would likely be added to an “enemies list.” MSNBC host Rachel Maddow ominously told her viewers that, “Yes, I’m worried about me — but only as much as I’m worried about all of us.”Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin seemed apoplectic that she and others might be omitted from both lists.
One has to be somewhat sympathetic to Rubin. To be left both unpardoned and unarrested is to lose all standing among the “save democracy” social set.Rubin, once dubbed the Post’s Republican columnist, has called for the Republican Party to be burned down and recently advised people how to keep panic alive despite the election: “You can’t talk broad themes. You have to boil it down to nuts and bolts, and you have to be pithy. What do I mean by pithy? How about this: Republicans want to kill your kids. It’s true.” In a podcast, Rubin explained that Biden should pardon “thousands” to blunt Trump’s “initial round of revenge” from journalists to the “little guy and gal” counting votes.
She advised that he should pardon whole “categories” of people to pardon anyone Trump may have “identified by name or type” to offer “protection from a maniac.” In her most recent column, Rubin repeated the call for Biden to pardon “scores of Americans” due to a “reasonable fear that a weaponized FBI directed by a vengeful president will carry out threats to pursue his enemies.”The key is to issue broad pardons to suggest that, absent such extraordinary action, “this maniac” would have purged whole areas of blue states. It is like telling everyone that you are wearing a tin-foil hat to prevent aliens from snatching you. When someone points out that they have not seen any aliens, you can respond, “See, it worked!”
“..they will go after whoever doesn’t have that kind of pardon, and there are plenty of targets who they can assail.”
• Hunter Biden Pardon Raises Expectations For Trump Clemency Wave (JTN)
President Joe Biden’s controversial pardon of his son Hunter may give President-elect Donald Trump a blank check to issue his own round of pardons upon taking office.Trump suggested as much earlier this week in his response to the president’s pardon, a wide issuance of forgiveness for any potential crimes dating back a decade. “Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?” Trump said in a statement. “Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!” Trump promised on the campaign trail to set free many Jan. 6 protesters who stormed the U.S. Capitol. “I am inclined to pardon many of them. I can’t say for every single one because a couple of them, probably, they got out of control,” Trump said at a CNN Town Hall in 2023. “I would say it will be a large portion of them and it would be early on,” he added.
Many lawyers involved in protesting the 2020 election results have faced prosecution as well. However, defendants facing state charges can receive little help from Trump, barring an extraordinary action from the president-elect. Trump could issue a blanket pardon for lawyers that worked with him broadly covering at least federal crimes for more than a decade, similar to Hunter’s pardon and the ones under consideration for other Biden officials.“Christmas is coming, and as the old saying goes, what’s good for the goose is good for the gander,” Colin Reed, a Republican strategist, former campaign manager for U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., and co-founder of South and Hill Strategies, told The Center Square. “After thumbing his nose at the idea that ‘no one is above the law,’ President Biden has undermined the entire Democratic Party’s messaging apparatus and robbed their ability to claim the moral high ground.
The Department of Justice has signaled that its own cases against Trump will be dropped, keeping with a longstanding policy preventing prosecution of sitting presidents. It may be the season of grace because media reports indicate that Biden’s team is considering issuing many more pardons preemptively protecting Biden allies from prosecution by a Trump administration, such as Dr. Anthony Fauci. Democratic Sen. Blumenthal said on CNN this week that he would “strongly oppose” those kinds of blanket pardons. “The way to stand up to a bully like Donald Trump is not to run and hide,” Blumenthal said. “It’s to confront him. And that’s what we ought to do if they misuse the Department of Justice. I was a prosecutor, U.S. attorney and then state attorney, and I believe that the way to confront Donald Trump is to put together a defense team and a defense fund.
“I’d be happy to join it,” he added. “And what we should do is support those people who are potentially in jeopardy but there is no way to offer this kind of immunity to anyone who may be a target of Donald Trump because they will go after whoever doesn’t have that kind of pardon, and there are plenty of targets who they can assail.” Despite Trump’s pledges in the 2016 cycle to drain the swamp and prosecute Hillary Clinton, his DOJ never prosecuted political opponents. “By issuing the pardon so early in the lame duck period rather than on his way out the door, President Biden also provided President Trump time to plan his next moves,” Reed told The Center Square. “The Hunter pardon and its implications will live on long after the Biden presidency has reached its final chapter.”
Changing the Constitution is forever dangerous.
For once I can agree with Lindsey Graham: “They have no desire to make the court better. They’re just trying to make it more liberal.”
• Senators Introduce Bill to Cap Supreme Court Terms at 18 Years (ET)
Two senators introduced a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would impose term limits for members of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court unanimously adopted a code of conduct in November 2023 governing the justices’ behavior. The new resolution, introduced on Dec. 5 by Sens. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) and Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.), would limit newly appointed justices to 18 years on the bench, and lead to a new opening roughly every two years. To become effective, a constitutional amendment has to be passed by a two-thirds majority of both houses of Congress and ratified by three-quarters of the states. According to a summary provided by Welch, the amendment would not change the number of sitting justices, currently set at nine by law, and would establish a transition period to ensure vacancies occur at regular intervals.
“Taking action to restore public trust in our nation’s most powerful Court is as urgent as it is necessary. Setting term limits for Supreme Court Justices will cut down on political gamesmanship, and is a commonsense reform supported by a majority of Americans,” Welch said in a joint statement issued with Manchin on Dec. 7. “I’m proud to lead this effort with Senator Manchin, which will restore Americans’ faith in our judicial system.” During the transition period, 18-year terms will start every two years, without regard to when a sitting justice steps down. When a sitting justice retires, the incoming justice will complete what remains of the next upcoming 18-year term. Manchin, a former Democrat whose term in the Senate ends when the new Congress convenes on Jan. 3, 2025, said the current lifetime appointment structure is broken and “fuels polarizing confirmation battles and political posturing that has eroded public confidence in the highest court in our land.”
“Our amendment maintains that there shall never be more than nine justices and would gradually create regular vacancies on the court, allowing the president to appoint a new justice every two years with the advice and consent of the United States Senate,” he said. Other measures are pending in Congress that would limit the tenure of Supreme Court justices. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who chairs a Senate subcommittee overseeing federal courts, introduced a bill that would limit justices’ tenure to 18 years. Reps. Don Beyer (D-Va.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) filed a similar bill in the House. Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) introduced legislation that would force out justices after 18 years of regular active service, at which point they would assume senior status, a kind of semi-retirement for federal judges, and continue to draw a federal paycheck for life.
Superannuated justices are already allowed to serve on lower courts by a 1937 law that allows justices to sit “by designation” on those courts. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in the summer that he opposes Supreme Court reform proposals, including term limits for justices, that are backed by Democrat lawmakers and President Joe Biden. “They want to pack the court. They want … to undercut the conservative court,” Graham said during a July 28 interview on CBS’s “Face The Nation.” “They have no desire to make the court better. They’re just trying to make it more liberal.” The Epoch Times reached out to the Supreme Court for comment but did not receive a reply by publication time.
“As a first generation American of Middle Eastern Heritage, she has become a role model for women in Law and Politics,”
• Trump Names Alina Habba As White House Counselor: ‘Tireless Advocate’ (JTN)
President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday night appointed attorney Alina Habba as White House counselor, hailing her as a tireless advocate for America First policies. Habba was a relentless defender on television and in the courtroom as Trump battled four indictments while working his way back to the White House. Trump said she was well versed in the weaponization of the “injustice” system. “Alina has been a tireless advocate for Justice, a fierce Defender of the Rule of Law, and an invaluable Advisor to my Campaign and Transition Team,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “She has been unwavering in her loyalty, and unmatched in her resolve – standing with me through numerous ‘trials,’ battles, and countless days in court.” “As a first generation American of Middle Eastern Heritage, she has become a role model for women in Law and Politics,” he added.
“The objective is very clear: Joe Biden cannot leave office without a legacy..”
• Biden’s Show In Africa At Europe’s Expense (Dionísio)
From north to south, east to west, desperate moves are multiplying, most of them failing dramatically. The objective is very clear: Joe Biden cannot leave office without a legacy. During the election campaigns, the still U.S. president, with no restraint whatsoever, promised all sorts of things, which, perhaps out of arrogance or lack of proper advice, he thought achievable: the strategic defeat of the Russian Federation on the battlefield; the isolation of the Russian Federation on the international stage; the containment of the People’s Republic of China and its submission to Washington; the control and submission of Iran; the protection and security of Israel; the (re)industrialization of the USA, etc….
There was no shortage of praise, but of all Joe Biden’s achievements, the only ones that stand out are those that he couldn’t promise directly and forthrightly: the destruction of the German economy and, in turn, of the EU economy; the takeover of the European LNG market, through the destruction of NordStream; the takeover, from within, of the military industrial complex of the EU countries; the destabilization, and consequent installation of puppet regimes in countless countries geografically connected to their main enemies; the destruction and destabilization of supply chains, as a way of attacking confidence in Chinese industrial capacity; the partial decoupling, no matter who it hurts, of the Western economy from the Chinese economy; the destruction of the international trade system and confidence in the legal-institutional architecture built up after the Second World War.
These objectives have been satisfactorily achieved, I would say. But none of them will save the U.S. from losing its hegemony and supremacy on the international stage. On the verge of abandoning ship, without producing any results worthy of being placed on the pedestal of measures capable of counteracting the degradation of U.S. hegemonic dominance, Joe Biden’s departure from the scene is in itself a vivid image of the bankruptcy of what has come to be called “American democracy”. A candidate who was elected by the grassroots of the Democratic Party, after a primary in which he had no worthy competitors, was later rejected and passed over by the party’s donor oligarchies.
After the debacle in Ukraine, which is becoming increasingly difficult to hide, and the (until now) failed attempts at a “colored revolution” in Georgia, Venezuela, Mozambique and Serbia, where not even NATO’s biggest fanboys can hide the argumentative debacle that followed the repetition, as predictable as it was desperate, of the accusation that elections are always rigged when the chosen ones of the Olympus of democracy that is the G7 don’t win, now it’s Syria’s turn, a country in which the bold manoeuvre to repeat the “Arab Spring”, conceived and operationalized using the return of emblematic “rebel movements” that are nothing more than terrorist groups and Islamic fundamentalists that the U.S. and Israel move around as needed (Uighurs, mujahideen from Iranian Balochistan, Al-Nusra terrorists and many other “moderates”).
Faced with a threat of destruction, Israel cannot live with an axis of resistance linking the Shiite peoples from Iran all over to Lebanon, nor can the U.S. let Israel fall. But this maneuver, too, seems to be falling apart. At the same time, without obtaining any practical results, the U.S. has made it known to the world that Erdogan, who is so critical of Israel, is in fact nothing more than a paint-switch and cannot be trusted. Ukraine, meanwhile, has once again sought to gain an advantage in Syria by supporting the operation – to threaten the warm water port that the Russian Federation has there? – which it has not been able to achieve on the battlefield, and which it needs for any negotiation that could end with a NATO member state at the gates of the Donbass. Something which, of course, the Russian Federation will never accept.
But don’t be fooled into thinking that Biden’s desperate maneuvers are limited to the military. The military plan is just the most brutal way of guaranteeing the main objective: the domination of the world economy and the continued exploitation of the world’s great sources of wealth.
“..the ‘unexpected’ consequences will soon create a new supra-regional crisis; new refugees are already on the march towards Europe, estimated at up to 1.5 million. A terrifyingly difficult figure to manage.”
• Syria, Year 2024, The Fall (Pacini)
What the hell happened? How could the Syrian army surrender so much territory in a matter of days? How did it happen that years of diplomatic and secret agreements, with the deployment of foreign armed forces and the activation of known and hidden military bases, collapsed in a matter of hours? What happened behind the scenes? It will not be easy to answer these questions. We will try, helping ourselves with the little information currently available and some cold, rational reasoning. The first step to understanding this is to note that the Syrian army was ordered to withdraw from Aleppo/Hama. The soldiers did not flee and there was no mutiny. The al-Qaeda hordes did not defeat the army, because they did not fight them. They simply gave ground. To understand why such a heartbreaking decision was made, we have to look at the broader picture.
This was a ‘blitzkrieg’, a true Blitzkrieg: a surprise attack with a military force concentrated at a specific point to overwhelm the enemy. Once the Al-Qaeda hordes broke through the M4 highway, the attempt to keep the city in the mode of chaos would have resulted in mass casualties among both civilians and soldiers. Not much can be done in such cases. The first option is to fall back, grinding ground until it reaches a point where it does not have enough resources to keep pushing. That point was reached in Homs. One can otherwise play the air superiority card, because it is clearly much easier to bomb convoys of al-Qaeda terrorists from the air on the highways than to fight them inside the cities. Or one can opt for flanking, separating the enemy into more easily manageable pockets. Part of this strategy was seen when Russia blew up the bridge from Hama to Homs in Rastan.
Sticking to a purely strategic-military calculation, the Syrian army did not suffer many casualties during the retreat, managing to preserve ‘human strength’ in a country with a total of less than 20 million inhabitants, a low percentage of whom are in military service and can be recalled in the event of war (which in any case requires minimal preparation time). The Syrian army was fighting a war on several fronts: the Turkish hordes in the north, the Americans in the east, the Americans and Takfirists in the south, and finally Israel. Hezbollah’s war against ‘Israel’ and Russia’s war against Ukraine increased the manpower shortage. Trying to counter-attack with a large deployment of men would most likely have meant the fall of Damascus well before it happened.
As journalist Vanessa Beeley testified while fleeing Syria, ‘Chaos reigns supreme, looting, thuggery and thievery. It has the stamp of approval of the US and Israel because that is what they believe in. Crossing the border was a succession of gunfire, infighting and looting in every single shop and market. Terrorists on motorbikes, gunmen and criminals. An incredibly sad experience. The house was surrounded by ‘rebels’ drunk on ‘victory’ from 5am, with continuous celebratory gunfire, and around 10am they tried to break down the outer door to loot the contents of the house. Early in the morning, Israel destroyed Syria’s air defence with bunker bombs. The whole house shook. The CIA road map is always the same. The Resistance is broken and I doubt it can be repaired, but extremist mercenaries in Israel’s pay will tell you they ‘support Palestine’. Go then, you are on the border now’.
Israel is the most interesting footnote: it was already ready to go in, it was just waiting for the right moment, and it did so as soon as things started to come to a head and victory – very quickly – was near. This is perhaps the most important reason for the withdrawal from Hama and Aleppo. The intention was probably to create a land grab and label it a ‘buffer zone’. The Golan had already seen an additional deployment of soldiers to deal with the attacks that began after 7 October. Israel is the biggest threat to Syria, the al-Qaeda hordes are just a distraction.
It is no coincidence that in recent months Turkey and Israel have both occupied new portions of territory to expand their neo-colonial ambitions. From Azerbaijan seizing Armenian villages using Turkish weapons and NATO diplomatic pressure on Yerevan, to the invasion of the Gaza Strip, or the new land grab after the collapse of Syria, which fell into the hands of Turkish-backed terrorist groups, and Israeli expansion into the Golan Heights. After two decades of Western intervention in the Middle East and the transformation of several countries into battle zones, the ‘unexpected’ consequences will soon create a new supra-regional crisis; new refugees are already on the march towards Europe, estimated at up to 1.5 million. A terrifyingly difficult figure to manage.
“We’re going to drill, baby, drill. We’re going to bring down your energy costs.”
• Trump Pledges To ‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ (RT)
US President-elect Donald Trump has confirmed a campaign pledge to focus on increasing oil and gas output once he returns to the White House in January. Trump has made clear his strong support for the oil and gas industry by pledging to ease availability of drilling leases for energy companies, as well as building more energy infrastructure. Other policies are expected to include potentially allowing energy firms to sell more natural gas abroad, as well as increasing drilling on federal land. In an interview with NBC News, the president-elect said that he would stick to his promise of pumping more oil. Asked if he would direct the US authorities to punish those he believes crossed the line in investigating his actions over recent years, Trump said, “No, not at all. I think that they’ll have to look at that, but I’m not going to – I’m going to focus on drill, baby, drill.”
The phrase was a Republican campaign slogan first uttered in 2008, and then used repeatedly by Trump during his campaign earlier this year. Trump has criticized the administration of current President Joe Biden over energy prices, telling supporters at a rally in Las Vegas in June: “We’re going to drill, baby, drill. We’re going to bring down your energy costs.” Last month, Trump announced plans to select North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum as his secretary of the interior. Burgum previously helped open millions of acres of public land for fracking. The role is expected to focus on streamlining policies related to oil, gas, and coal production in order to boost supply rather than limit demand.
Ranked as the world’s number one oil producer, the US is expected to continue increasing its oil output to 13.5 million barrels per day next year, compared to 12.9 million and 13.2 million recorded in 2023 and 2024, respectively, according to the Energy Information Administration.
“It took the [Georgian] Ministry of Internal Affairs exactly five days to neutralize the resource of violence of the radical opposition..”
• Georgia Has Prevented Maidan-Style Coup – PM (RT)
Georgia has prevented an attempted overthrow of the government orchestrated by foreign powers, Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze has said. He compared the scenario allegedly prepared for the nation with the situation in Ukraine in 2014. Speaking on Monday, Kobakhidze referred to the US-backed Maidan coup in Kiev a decade ago, which ousted Ukraine’s democratically elected president, Viktor Yanukovich, and precipitated the current conflict between Moscow and Kiev. “It took the [Georgian] Ministry of Internal Affairs exactly five days to neutralize the resource of violence of the radical opposition,” Kobakhidze said at a cabinet meeting, thanking the head of the ministry, Vakhtang Gomelauri, and police officers. He added that the ministry had acted in accordance with standards “higher than the American and European ones.”
“This is how the attempt of Maidan in our country was stopped in exactly five days,” Kobakhidze concluded. The Georgian capital, Tbilisi, has been rocked by anti-government and pro-EU rallies since late November, when Kobakhidze announced that the country would halt negotiations on potential accession to the bloc until 2028, citing “blackmail and manipulation” from EU officials. Brussels has since imposed personal sanctions against members of the Georgian government. Protestors have repeatedly clashed with law enforcement, shot fireworks, and thrown Molotov cocktails at riot police, who have deployed tear gas and water cannons in an effort to disperse the demonstrators.
“Press a button and get both sides of that exact same story, based on that story, and then give comments..”
• LA Times Owner Readies ‘Bias Meter’ To Appear On News Articles And Column (jTN)
The Los Angeles Times is preparing to unveil a “bias meter” to appear on news articles and columns on the news outlet’s website, according to the news outlet’s owner. The bias meter, which could launch as early as January, will be operated by Artificial Intelligence (AI). “Whether it be news or opinion — more likely the opinion or the voices — you have a bias meter so somebody could understand as they read it that the source of the article has some level of bias,” Patrick Soon-Shiong, a billionaire entrepreneur, said Wednesday on “The Mike Gallagher Show” podcast. “Press a button and get both sides of that exact same story, based on that story, and then give comments,” he added. Shortly after the 2024 election, Soon-Shiong, who purchased the outlet in 2018, announced that he would be installing a new editorial board and that he was looking for more conservative columnists to balance out the opinion section.
“The rapidity of Syria’s collapse raises the question whether Washington purchased Syria’s collapse with payments to generals and officials..”
• Does Russia Have an Intelligence Service? (Paul Craig Roberts)
I think not. There is a bureaucracy, an office, and someone with a title, but there is no intelligence. Putin did not know that a US trained and equipped Georgian Army was about to invade South Ossetia and went to the Olympics in China. Putin didn’t know that the US was about to overthrow the Ukrainian Government and went to the Sochi Olympics. Putin didn’t know that the West was deceiving him with the Minsk Agreement. This cost him 8 years and left him behind the eight ball and locked into a military conflict now 3 years old, a conflict that has expanded into US/NATO missile attacks into Russia. And still Russia stands down. Has Putin not been informed of the attacks? Lavrov told Carlson that Russia was not at war with the West.
Putin didn’t know that the US was about to overthrow Syria. In his interview with Tucker Carlson Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov spoke as if the renewal of the conflict in Syria allowed plenty of time to find a diplomatic solution. He had no idea that Syria would be overthrown by about the time the interview ended.
Russia had no realization, despite Biden explicitly telling them, that the Nord Stream Pipeline was going to be blown up by the US. How is it possible that the Russian government never has a clue about imminent events that have adverse consequences for Russia? Have the fearsome days of the NKVD and KGB convinced Russian liberals like Putin and Lavrov that intelligence services are dangerous and unnecessary in a democracy? The sudden fall of Syria has completely changed the matrix. The US and Israel have gained tremendously at the expense of Russia and Iran. The Israeli government sees an enormous situational change that has greatly weakened the ability of Iran and Hezbollah to oppose Greater Israel.
The Jerusalem Post reports that Israel Defense Force Operations Command Chief Major General Israel Ziv said the fall of Syria has weakened the Axis of Resistance to Greater Israel and presents a historic opportunity that Washington and President Trump should capitalize on to remove Iran as an obstacle to US and Israeli interest. The year 2024 ends with the erasure of Palestine and Syria by Washington and Israel. During 2025 the targets will be Lebanon and Iran. And Russia, of course. The rapidity of Syria’s collapse raises the question whether Washington purchased Syria’s collapse with payments to generals and officials. The Syrian military had successfully repelled the previous assault with the aid of Russian airpower. But this time the army retreated from its positions and refused to fight, leaving the cities open for enemy opposition.
“Unlike the original Jacobins of 1794 in Paris, who were ultra-extreme idealists, our Woke Jacobins are extreme cynics..”
• Twilight of the Race Hustle (Kunstler)
Were you thinking of Daniel Penny this weekend? A year and a half ago, the US marine veteran, age 26, subdued one Jordan Neely, 30, a homeless schizophrenic with a record of 42 arrests who was menacing riders on a New York City subway car. Neely was, at the time, a fugitive on an arrest warrant for felony assault on a sixty-seven-year-old woman. Penny applied a choke hold after Neely declared he was of a mind to kill somebody on the train. Neely was still alive when the cops came, but they declined to give him CPR because he was filthy and an apparent drug-user, and they feared getting AIDS or hepatitis from giving him mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. . . so Neely died there in the subway.
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg indicted Penny for manslaughter in the second degree and secondarily for criminally negligent homicide. His trial has been going on all month. On Friday, the jury reported its inability to reach a verdict on the manslaughter charge. Instead of declaring a mistrial, Judge Maxwell T. Wiley dismissed the primary charge and directed the jury to continue deliberations this week on the secondary negligent homicide charge, a procedurally dubious action. Everybody knows that the trial is an absurd injustice, but that has been the temper of our society for many years now in the age of the Woke Jacobins. Unlike the original Jacobins of 1794 in Paris, who were ultra-extreme idealists, our Woke Jacobins are extreme cynics, imagining only the worst about the project of civilization. Hence, their alt-project to de-civilize the rest of us.
[..] One signal result of all this has been the increasing reluctance of police to stop criminal behavior, which, of course, leads to ever more bad behavior. Add to that new modes of law enforcement that make it difficult to hold violent criminals in custody — no cash bail, down-charging, catch-and-release. This has been the mode in New York under state AG Letitia James and Manhattan DA Bragg.It was the decision out of Bragg’s office to keep Jordan Neely on the street despite the danger he posed to the public, as denoted in his arrest record. Daniel Penny stepped in where law enforcement failed. Jordan Neely was not dehumanized by the system. He dehumanized himself and his death was the result of his own recklessness. He wasn’t anyone else’s victim. He doesn’t deserve a statue. The father who abandoned him does not deserve a multi-million-dollar payout from New York taxpayers.
I’ll be surprised if the jury returns with a guilty verdict against Daniel Penny on the secondary charge of negligent homicide. That charge is just as unreasonable and dishonest as the primary charge was, and, anyway, a conviction will likely get thrown out on appeal due to the procedural mistakes of Judge Wiley. The Penny case, I’m sure you realize, is not the only bit of professional mischief that Alvin Bragg has engaged in. A case might be made that he has systematically tried to deprive non-black citizens of their civil rights. The Department of Justice in a new administration ought to contemplate prosecuting him for it.
It’s up to Kash Patel to investigate that. Why introduce another blanket pardon?
• No, the J6 Committee Should Not “Go to Jail” (Turley)
President-Elect Donald Trump gave President Joe Biden and his critics a major boost this weekend by stating on NBC’s Meet The Press that he believes that the entire J6 Committee “should go to jail.” Despite weeks of saying that he did not plan any campaign of retribution and “success will be my revenge,” Trump undermined those statements with the statement, which the media is now playing up as proof that he is going to unleash a vengeance campaign. Many in the media are also omitting that Trump immediately said “no” to whether he would direct either the Attorney General or the FBI director to indict or investigate.The fact, however, is that there is no viable criminal case to be made against the J6 Committee members for their investigation or report. We need to move beyond the rage rhetoric if this country is going to come together to face the tough challenges ahead.
In the Sunday interview, Trump was referring to how Cheney and the “committee of political thugs” deleted all the evidence from their investigation: “Cheney did something that’s inexcusable, along with [Chair Bennie] Thompson and the people on the un-select committee of political thugs and, you know, creeps.” He added, “Cheney was behind it. And so was Bennie Thompson and everybody on that committee. For what they did, honestly, they should go to jail.” I have been one of the most vocal critics of the J6 Committee, having written over a dozen columns on their misrepresentation of evidence, false claims, burying of evidence, and political bias. I consider the J6 Committee to be not just a colossal failure but a missed opportunity for a bipartisan look at that tragic day. I also fully support the effort of the House committees to finish its own investigation into the security failure at the Capitol and the record of the J6 Committee.
Having said that, these are ethical and political failings, not criminal violations. Politicians routinely distort facts on both sides of scandals, including Presidents Biden, Trump, and Obama. We have elections to allow the public to hold such politicians accountable. In the case of Liz Cheney, the people of Wyoming overwhelmingly removed her from office. Cheney’s work on the committee was rife with false claims and the manipulation of evidence. What could have been her finest hour in forcing a balanced and honest approach to the investigation proved to be her undoing (at least with her prior political base). Members, however, are protected from prosecution for expressing their opinions or advancing legislative measures. This includes Article I, Section 6, Clause 1, which states that members of Congress “shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony, and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their attendance at the Session of their Respective Houses, and in going to and from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.”
The Supreme Court has held that “to the extent that [congressional officers] serve legislative functions, the performance of which would be immune . . . if done by Congressmen, these officials enjoy the protection[s] of the Speech or Debate Clause.” Doe v. McMillan, 412 U.S. 306, 320 (1973). More importantly, the omissions and unfairness of the process do not constitute crimes. That brings us to the focus of Trump’s remarks: the alleged destruction of evidence by the Committee. Over a hundred files were allegedly destroyed, though Thompson insists that they were not required to be preserved. It does appear that the Committee may have violated the House’s archiving rules. However, this is not ordinarily a case for criminal prosecution. These rules have sufficient room for interpretation to make any such claim difficult to prosecute. Moreover, the responsibility of any given member of the Committee for such violations is doubly difficult to establish.
Clearly, a false statement to federal investigators or an effort to obstruct an investigation can be separate criminal violations, but there is no indication of such allegations. Most importantly, presidents do not send people to jail. Juries and judges do that. We have the oldest and most successful constitution in history. J6 Committee members, like all citizens, are fully protected under that system. Trump’s statement, however, has given a boost to his critics who are trying to preserve the narrative that blanket preemptive pardons are needed to protect his political opponents. As I recently wrote, some are suggesting up to thousands of such pardons. In a statement to The New York Times, Cheney immediately used Trump’s statement to keep the narrative alive:
“This was the worst breach of our Constitution by any president in our nation’s history. Donald Trump’s suggestion that members of Congress who later investigated his illegal and unconstitutional actions should be jailed is a continuation of his assault on the rule of law and the foundations of our republic.” The media is widely reporting Trump’s statement and omitting his prior insistence that he was not going to unleash a retributive campaign against political opponents. Trump gave his critics a windfall benefit, which they can now cite as the basis for the blanket pardons. The press and pundits have been dreading the rather awkward prospect of democracy not ending as predicted or the chance that this is not (as figures like Cheney claimed) our last election. The “white knight pardons” are a way of arguing that Biden prevented the collapse.
WMD
https://twitter.com/i/status/1865894197183529374
Wreath Rome
https://twitter.com/i/status/1865835458803933243
Elephants camera
https://twitter.com/i/status/1865441139559428249
Sea horse
The wonders of nature! pic.twitter.com/6QpUFvwc13
— Figen (@TheFigen_) December 8, 2024
Maasai boma
Day 8 of our advent and we meet a calf who managed to survive alone for a number of weeks, after his mother was fatally speared in a case of human-wildlife conflict! In the end, he delivered himself to a Maasai boma – seeking help or company we do not know – but it ensured he… pic.twitter.com/9EYtaiQGiy
— Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (@SheldrickTrust) December 8, 2024
Lennon
https://twitter.com/i/status/1865876485107531848
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