Salvador Dali Spain 1936-38
Colbert Trump
He thanked Trump for running for President in the beginning! pic.twitter.com/ZmRi1rq3tl
— Johnny Midnight ⚡️ (@its_The_Dr) July 23, 2024
Student visas
Kamala Harris may not be eligible to be President because her parents were in the USA on student visas (one expired!) when she was born, according to legal scholar Dr. John Eastman. pic.twitter.com/YlGZZsHUWO
— The Absolute Truth with @EmeraldRobinson (@AbsoluteWithE) July 23, 2024
She’s going to dump little Blinkie…
• Blinken Dubiously Hails Harris As A ‘Leading Voice’ Of US Foreign Policy (ZH)
At a moment President Biden hasn’t been seen by anyone – or even photographed – in about a week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday is seeking to assure the public that the president will remain “intensely focused” on work that remains in the next since months, chiefly foreign policy issues. Blinken cited Biden’s work on “bringing peace to the Middle East and dealing with Russia’s ongoing aggression” – though we can imagine the reality is that admin officials and a teams of staffers, and not Biden himself, will be handling these things. The other dubious statement from Blinken concerned Vice President Harris’ supposed foreign policy credentials…
“Blinken, speaking to reporters, said Vice President Kamala Harris has been a leading voice for U.S. foreign policy and diplomacy, adding that she was a very strong, effective and deeply respected voice for the United States around the world,” as cited in Reuters. This begs the question: is she a “deeply respected voice” around the world? A clip of Harris previously weighing in on the Ukraine crisis from 2022 has resurfaced and is going viral. We should look no further than this…
https://twitter.com/i/status/1815166419731972451
Is this something that Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping respects? Or are they laughing? Blinken on Tuesday continued to claim that somehow she’s a foreign policy heavyweight. “I’ve seen her not only around the world, but I’ve seen her on the most critical foreign policy questions of our time, in the Situation Room at the White House, at the Oval Office with the president,” he told a press briefing. And now the endorsements are rolling in from Democratic national security insiders, per The Washington Post: Some of the most senior foreign policy leaders in the Democratic Party endorsed Vice President Harris’s bid for president on Tuesday, declaring in an open letter that she has more international experience than most recent incoming presidents and expressing confidence that she is the “best qualified person” to lead the country.
The more than 350 signatories to the letter, which was obtained by The Washington Post, add to voices within the Democratic Party seeking to cement Harris’s role as nominee following President Biden’s withdrawal from his reelection bid on Sunday. They include former national security advisers Susan Rice and Thomas E. Donilon; former secretaries of state John F. Kerry and Hillary Clinton; former secretaries of defense Chuck Hagel and Leon Panetta; and former top intelligence officials Michael Hayden and James Clapper. Let the Democratic deep state’s crowning begin. But Trump actually previously summed up her experience and ‘statesmanship’ more accurately in the following clip. But we are being told she is going to “stand up to dictators” and command respect around the world. Perhaps more accurately she would serve as a useful puppet for the Washington foreign policy blob, in continuation of the same ole interventionist and neocon policies which have marked the past couple decades, much like Biden.
🇺🇸 Trump talks Kamala Harris with Tucker:
“She speaks in rhyme. It’s weird, the whole thing is weird”
“The bus will go here and then the bus will go there because that’s what buses do”
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) July 3, 2024
There are already polls that cast her as the winner…
• Harris Starts Race Down 9 Points, Even Worse Than Biden (ZH)
Democrats’ enjoyment of the Kamala Harris campaign’s “new car smell” may prove short-lived, as a brand new poll shows the vice president trailing former President Trump by a whopping 11 points among likely voters — matching up even worse than President Biden, who trailed by 10. The Forbes/HarrisX survey was conducted July 19-21 — that’s after the Republican convention but before Biden was forced to withdraw from the race. “Kamala Harris starts her 2024 battle behind Trump, who is enjoying a strong post-convention bump,” said HarrisX chief pollster Dritan Nesho. “If the polls don’t start to close and show better traction for her, Biden’s decision to step aside for Harris may be a case of ‘too similar, too late.’ That said, Vice President Harris alleviates concerns among the democratic base and is better able to sway undecided independents and suburban women, showing some promise.”
In an ominous note for the Harris campaign, aside from her worse margin against Trump, in her head-to-head matchup, fewer voters were undecided than they were in a Biden-Trump scenario. Among likely voters, Trump led Biden 49%-39% with 12% undecided. However, versus Harris, Trump led 51%-40%, with 9% undecided. “Democrats are jumping out of the frying pan into the fire,” Trump campaign senior advisor Jason Miller told Fox News. “They may have gotten rid of one problem with Joe Biden, but they’ve inherited a whole new problem with Kamala Harris.” Continuing a well-established trend, Harris’s job-approval rating is as bad as Biden’s: both scored a dismal 38% approval. She did a little better than Biden among younger voters, with 42% of those between age 18 and 34 approving of her performance, compared to 36% for Biden. So far, there are few single-state polls gauging a Trump-Harris contest, and none that were taken since she became the presumptive nominee.
While the numbers are bound to change after Americans are subjected to a Harris-friendly media blitz, they still give some insight into where she’s starting from: An Atlanta-Journal Constitution poll has Trump winning Georgia by 4.6% over Harris, compared to 3.5% over Biden. In a result that shows Democrats clearly on the defensive on the 2024 chessboard, a New Hampshire Journal poll has Trump up 0.9% in Granite State — where the GOP hasn’t won in 24 years. In a glimmer of hope for Democrats, Harris is doing better than Biden in Pennsylvania, but still trails Trump in the pivotal state by 2%. Conversely, Harris is polling worse than Biden in Nevada, losing to Trump by 10%. The results are sure to grind the gears of the many Democratic mega-donors who favored a “mini-primary” to select Biden’s replacement atop the 2024 ticket, rather than simply coronating Harris, a demonstrably terrible candidate who didn’t even make it to the Iowa caucuses in 2020.
“Her breathtaking incompetence as Border Czar has allowed a crisis of drugs, rape, and murder to flood the streets of America,” the Daily Caller reported..”
• US Lawmaker Seeks to Impeach Harris Over Handling of Border Crisis (Sp.)
US Congressman Andy Ogles introduced articles of impeachment against US Vice President Kamala Harris for her handling of the border crisis and her role in covering up President Joe Biden’s lack of fitness to serve. “Time and again, Kamala Harris has refused to uphold her oath to the US Constitution, and she must be impeached. Her breathtaking incompetence as Border Czar has allowed a crisis of drugs, rape, and murder to flood the streets of America,” the Daily Caller reported Ogles as saying. Moreover, Harris breached the public’s trust by failing to invoke the 25th Amendment after it became clear that Biden was mentally and physically unfit to serve as president, Ogles reportedly said. The resolution calls to impeach Harris for high crimes and misdemeanors.
US Congresswoman Elise Stefanik also introduced a resolution on Tuesday to condemn Harris’ handling of the border crisis. “House Republicans will vote on my resolution to condemn Kamala Harris’ failure as Joe Biden’s border czar. Kamala Harris’ failed leadership led to the most catastrophic open border crisis in history,” Stefanik said in a statement. Stefanik’s resolution condemns Harris’ failure to secure the United States’ borders, affirms the American people deserve elected officials who will execute policies to fix the border crisis and states that the continuation of the Biden administration’s border policies would be disastrous for the United States.
“..national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin wouldn’t likely be extended in their current roles..”
• Harris Would Purge Biden’s Team – WSJ (RT)
Kamala Harris is unlikely to keep the current crop of national security officials, should she win the US presidential election in November, according to sources quoted by the Wall Street Journal. President Joe Biden dropped out of the re-election race on Sunday, endorsing his vice-president for the top of the ticket. While the Democrats still need to officially confirm Harris as their nominee, media speculation about her presidency is already rampant. “Key Biden appointees, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin wouldn’t likely be extended in their current roles,” the Journal claimed late on Monday, citing anonymous current and former US officials. While Harris “hasn’t had an opportunity to define her own brand of foreign policy,” the Journal claimed that she “might ultimately align herself more closely with the progressive elements” of the Democrats and put some conditions on US support for Israel.
The Journal described Harris as the current administration’s “most ardent senior-level advocate of securing a cease-fire in Gaza,” citing a passage from her speech in Selma, Alabama in March when she criticized the “inhumane conditions” in the Palestinian enclave. Arab American Institute founder Jim Zogby told the outlet that he spoke with Harris by phone last October and believed that she has shown “far greater empathy” for Palestinians than Biden or the rest of the White House. According to NBC News, Harris is “widely expected to continue” Biden’s foreign policy if elected, but “appears more willing to publicly criticize” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and “express empathy for the plight of Palestinian civilians” in Gaza. Having Harris run might help the Democrats with Arab-Americans, younger voters and progressives, an anonymous source told NBC, as she is not associated with Biden’s support for Israel. Biden picked Harris as his running mate in August 2020, reportedly as part of a deal to secure the nomination. She had dropped out of the race for nomination herself in late 2019, before the primaries even started.
Blinken was Biden’s long-time foreign policy and national security adviser before his current appointment as head of the State Department. Sullivan spent three years advising Biden during the administration of Barack Obama, before joining Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. Austin reportedly struck up a friendship with Biden’s son Beau, who had served in Iraq as his staff officer in 2008-2009, and later briefed Biden as the head of US Central Command. A “central role” in a Harris administration would be played by Philip Gordon, who is currently her national security adviser, the Journal said. He is a veteran of the Clinton and Obama administrations, who worked at both the National Security Council and the State Department, notably as Victoria Nuland’s predecessor at European and Eurasian Affairs. He has also been a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a senior adviser at Albright Stonebridge Group.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1815780103969808868
“..she could be far less competent” than Biden, “which is hard to believe.”
• Kamala Harris Lost 92% Of Her Staff In 3 Years – Watchdog (RT)
US Vice President Kamala Harris has a staggering staff turnover rate of 91.5%, transparency watchdog OpenTheBooks reported on Monday, citing disclosures from the Senate. The revelation came days after President Joe Biden ended his reelection campaign and endorsed Harris as his replacement. An NGO that monitors government spending, OpenTheBooks has analyzed the list of titles and names of the staffers at the Office of the Vice President that was lifted from the semi-annual report of the Secretary of the Senate. “As of March 31, 2024, only four of the initial 47 staffers from the first year are still employed – consistently and without interruption – by the vice president,” the group said.
The turnover rate for Biden’s staffers is 77%, as only 127 of his initial 560 White House employees have remained in their position since 2021, OpenTheBooks said. Harris’ problems with retaining staff have been reported in the past, with The Hill describing her team as a “revolving door.” The political news website said in the summer of 2022 that more than 13 “high-profile aides” had left the vice president in less than a year. Axios has cited “burnout, better opportunities and concern about being permanently branded a ‘Harris person’” as some of the reasons behind the high turnover rate at the vice president’s office.
Biden announced that he was leaving the race on Sunday, after weeks of growing concerns among Democrats and their supporters over his declining health and the ability to defeat former President Donal Trump in November. Although Biden and multiple prominent Democrats have backed Harris as the party’s candidate for the presidency, the nominee will be officially decided at a convention next month. During her first campaign rally on Tuesday, Harris accused Trump of wanting to “take our country backward,” and spreading “chaos, fear and hate.” Trump, in turn, has accused Harris of failing to tackle the illegal immigration crisis at the US border with Mexico, suggesting that “she could be far less competent” than Biden, “which is hard to believe.”
“We’ve gone from Biden saying he won’t run again to Kamala Harris securing his delegates, fundraising cash and the backing of the entire party in less than 72 hours. Why can’t government display this shocking level of efficiency all the time?”
• “He’s Alive!!” (Quoth the Raven)
After six days of darkness, the leader of the free world has made a physical appearance, exiting a vehicle, mumbling incoherently at reporters, and carefully ascending the stairs of the smaller AF1… “He’s Alive!!” Unless this is a ‘cheap fake’? We’ll wait to hear from KJP for confirmation. [..] Before I even start with my analysis, I want to make the point that I hope President Biden is doing fine and on the path to recovery from Covid, as his doctor claimed in a letter (I’ll discuss below) that he was. I hope we can take the administration at their word, but I also think it’s helpful to not ignore mounting critical questions for our country. I don’t want to start the morning off with hyperbole or sensationalism, honestly, but rather with what, in my opinon, has developed as a legitimate question over the last 24 to 48 hours: is the current President of the United States still alive and/or fit to lead?
Ever since dropping out of the presidential race on Sunday via a letter with a signature that has been in question and conspicuously lacking the seal of the White House or President of the United States, President Joe Biden has failed to turn up anywhere in person. The swift decision to drop out of the race, combined with the announcement last week that Biden tested positive for Covid and would “self-isolate” —which incidentally came out after Biden said he would consider dropping out if it were due to a ‘medical condition’—combined with endless unproven rumors swirling on social media about a medical emergency, have left people no choice but to sadly consider a worst-case scenario. Since Biden was last spotted on July 17 exiting Air Force One, he hasn’t been seen publicly, though reports have put him at his home “recovering” in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
As questions about Biden’s health began to swirl more and more over the last 48 hours, Biden‘s doctor released a note supposedly claiming Biden is on the path to recovery from Covid and had been administered Paxlovid. He wrote: “President Biden completed his eighth dose of Paxlovid [an antiviral COVID-19 medication] this morning,” O’Connor wrote. “His symptoms have improved significantly. His pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate, and temperature remain absolutely normal. His oxygen saturation continues to be excellent on room air. His lungs remain clear. “The President continues to tolerate treatment without any difficulty and will continue Paxlovid as planned. He continues to perform all of his presidential duties.” There was one little peccadillo I found interesting enough about this letter that I wanted to point out.
Maybe it is overanalyzing and reading too much into things, but as an English major who sat through hundreds of hours of linguistics courses, I can’t help but notice things sometimes. The use of the word “absolutely” before “normal” in the above paragraph is a filler word. It’s unnecessary. It doesn’t add anything to the point that the sentence is trying to make, namely that Biden’s temperature is normal. I have found that in some cases people add filler words when they’re trying to be overly convincing. I’m not saying this is the case in this instance, but every single news anchor who gave Donald Trump shit for constantly using the words “tremendous,” “strong,” “powerful,” and “big league” should tap back into that instinct, read this letter from Biden’s doctor, and let me know if I’m onto something or not.
Then we had Biden calling into a Kamala Harris campaign event yesterday. His scratchy voice boomed from the sky while a staffer hurriedly affixed a Presidential seal to the podium, as if he were there in person. Bizarre. During the same endorsement, Kamala Harris appeared to almost admit Biden was on a recording (as opposed to being on the phone live). Also bizarre is that the whole power structure of the Democratic Party and the 2024 campaign has shape-shifted without the presence of the current President of the United States in about three days. We’ve gone from Biden saying he won’t run again to Kamala Harris securing his delegates, fundraising cash and the backing of the entire party in less than 72 hours. Why can’t government display this shocking level of efficiency all the time?
“That debate was a set-up(!) to convince Democrats that he (Biden) couldn’t run for president..”
“..party members “will be strongly encouraged” to instead support Arizona senator and former astronaut, Mark Kelly, for president at the DNC in Chicago..”
• Democratic Bigwigs Threatened Biden With 25th Amendment
Joe Biden had to withdraw from the US presidential race late last week after threats by high-ranking Democrats to forcibly remove him from office – the New York Post (NYP) reports, citing unnamed sources. The well-orchestrated “palace coup” has been in place for weeks, with Biden fighting it “every step of the way,” the sources claimed, referring to “anger, paranoia and frustration” allegedly shown by the 46th US president, as the party elite piled pressure on him. The top Democrats had threatened to invoke the 25th Amendment to the US Constitution to stop Biden from seeking re-election, the insiders argued, recalling that the document authorizes the vice president, and members of the Biden administration, to declare the president unfit for service. According to the insiders, part of the “elaborate” strategy to remove Biden from the presidential race involved permitting him to debate Republican candidate and former US President Donald Trump last month.
“That debate was a set-up to convince Democrats that he (Biden) couldn’t run for president,” one source insisted. POTUS’ disastrous performance during the 90-minute event shocked many in his party, prompting them to urge the 81-year-old to withdraw from the race. In the wake of the debate, POTUS’ son, Hunter Biden, suddenly became more involved in his father’s day-to-day business, insisting on attending every official and unofficial meeting, per the insiders. With Biden already endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee, the party members “will be strongly encouraged” to instead support Arizona senator and former astronaut, Mark Kelly, for president at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago slated for August, the sources added.
Failed murder. Loose ends everywhere.
• Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle Resigns (ZH)
US Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has resigned, one day after a contentious session with House lawmakers over security failures that facilitated the assassination attempt on Donald Trump on July 13, both NBC and ABC News report. Her resignation comes after a bipartisan grilling on Monday, with numerous Republicans and at least one Democrat lawmaker demanding she resign, as her agency fell short of its “zero-fail mission.” Cheatle’s testimony came after a Sunday night announcement from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that the DOJ was forming an independent review panel charged with examining the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. Of course, Mayorkas and Biden are ‘grateful’ to Cheatle for her ‘decades of public service,’ which was great aside from that whole almost getting Trump killed thing.
In one notably heated exchange on Monday, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) told Cheatle that she was ‘full of shit today,’ after Cheatle continued to give vague, or no, answers to pointed questions. We also learned yesterday that the Secret Service has no recordings of radio communications from the 13th. She also admitted to using encrypted apps on her personal phone to conduct official business. During one exchange with California Democrat Ro Khana, Cheatle didn’t realize that a former Secret Service Director in charge during the Reagan assassination attempt stepped down. The unusual Sunday night announcement from Mayorkas came about 12 hours before Cheatle’s 10 am Monday appearance before the House Oversight Committee, which Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has touted as “must-watch TV,” telling CNN, “She’s got a lot to answer for. And those concerns are bipartisan.” Underscoring that notion, Oversight Committee member and Democratic Pennsylvania Rep. Brendan Boyle has already demanded that Cheatle resign, via a statement released Saturday.
That panel has been given 45 days to perform its review. While new experts may be added shortly, it initially has four members:
• Obama Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano
• Fran Townsend, a homeland security advisor to President George W. Bush
• Mark Filip, who was deputy attorney general to George W. Bush
• David Mitchell, former Secretary of the Department of Public Safety and Homeland Security for the State of DelawareDamning information about the Secret Service’s handling of Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania continues to emerge. On Saturday, the agency was caught in a lie: Having repeatedly denied that Trump’s campaign was denied additional security resources it had requested, the agency was exposed as having done just that, via a report from the Washington Post. On Friday, the world learned that would-be assassin Thomas Crooks was able to fly a drone over the event site just a few hours before he opened fire. The Secret Service typically bans drone flights at secured sites; but it’s unclear if such a prohibition was at least nominally imposed at the rally.
Crooks was identified as a suspicious individual more than an hour before he opened fire from a rooftop only about 450 feet from Trump’s podium. At the time, he’d already been observed in possession of a range finder and carrying a duffel bag. Later, he was spotted on a rooftop 20 minutes before all hell broke loose. As it did, female agents assigned to the DEI-focused protective detail appeared to falter under fire — even struggling with holstering a weapon. In the aftermath of the shooting, Cheatle’s credibility took a sharp downturn when, asked why no Secret Service agent was posted atop ideal sniper roost used by the shooter, she told ABC: “That building in particular has a sloped roof at its highest point. And so, you know, there’s a safety factor that would be considered there that we wouldn’t want to put somebody up on a sloped roof.”
“..it’s not the GOP that’s claiming to be the guardian of the vox populi while conspiring to undermine that vox at every turn..”
• The Party Of ‘Democracy” Will Now Choose Your Candidate For You (McMaken)
On Sunday, July 21, President Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential campaign via a text-only post on Twitter/X. Less than an hour later, Biden – also via a text-only post on Twitter/X – endorsed vice president Kamala Harris for the presidency. Thus, in just a few minutes, the ruling party in Washington completely erased the primary election process from one of the country’s major parties.That is, the same Democratic party that tells us it is the party of “democracy” just completely cut ordinary voters out of the selection process for the Democratic nominee. Instead, the Democratic nominee in 2024 will be chosen by a small group of elite party insiders. We’re told there will be an “open convention” in Chicago to choose the nominee, but all that means is that that there is no pre-determined nominee going into the convention. In any case, however, the nominee will be chosen by delegates and superdelegates (i.e., wealthy party elites like Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama) behind closed doors.
The Democratic party’s efforts to circumvent the primary process are quite remarkable for a ruling coalition that lectured the general public endlessly in 2020 about how Donald Trump was allegedly a “threat to democracy” and how “democracy is on the ballot.” Yet, this is what we’ve come to expect from political elites who use the term “democracy” as a propaganda term. For these people, the term has no objective meaning, it just means “something we like.” “Anti-democratic,” in contrast, just means “something we don’t like.” Moreover, its use as a propaganda term can be seen in the way that “democracy” is used in the same way as “revolutionary” by Marxist regimes. In such cases “revolutionary” is code for “in favor of the ruling elites” and “something we like.” Similarly, the opposite of “democracy” in a Marxist regime is “counterrevolutionary” or “bourgeois.” Those terms were essentially code for “against the ruling party” and “thing we don’t like.”
Such terms have no actual content in the usual sense of a word. Thus, the term “democracy” simply means “good” and “not democratic” means “evil.” For example, President Joe Biden delivered two major speeches in 2022 on how “democracy” will supposedly be abolished if his opponents win. In November of that year, former president Barack Obama solemnly intoned that if Republicans win in Arizona, “democracy as we know it may not survive.” This is repeated among the party’s media allies. One writer at Salon chastised voters for daring to let their votes be influenced by economic concerns when “democracy is under threat.” One New York Times headline bemoaned the apparent reality that voters don’t seem interested in “saving democracy” when it’s supposedly all so clear that “democracy is in peril.” At no point in these jeremiads is it ever explained how a vote for the out-of-favor candidate will actually end elections or universal suffrage or any other event or institution associated with democracy.
In Biden’s September 2022 speech in Philadelphia, he went on for twenty minutes about an imagined threat to democracy, without ever actually defining what democracy is. One was reminded of Fidel Castro howling in his multi-hour speeches about the threat to “the revolution” from insidious imperialists and counterrevolutionaries—by which he meant anyone who opposed his regime. The term “revolutionary” had no connection to actual revolution in this context. It simply meant “something my regime likes.” Meanwhile, the elites have gone to great lengths to ensure that no actual democracy—in the technical or traditional sense—has taken place in the nomination process. The Democratic Party made it clear that it would not allow any presidential hopefuls to challenge Biden to a debate. Early Democratic challengers Congressman Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson were told to get lost.
The most significant challenger within the party, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., was effectively expelled from the party in October 2023. He was forced to declare his candidacy as an independent candidate soon after. So, after denying Democratic voters the chance to vote on Kennedy or anyone else, the party has now also denied the voters the chance to vote on Harris or whoever else the party elites will decide is the nominee in 2024. I don’t mention any of this to burnish the reputation of the Republican Party, by the way. Those of us who remember the Ron Paul campaigns in 2008 and 2012 remember how the GOP conspired to torpedo his campaign, going so far as to change the convention rules, ex post facto, to deny Paul a prime-time speaking position and to disenfranchise his delegates. Yet, it’s not the GOP that’s claiming to be the guardian of the vox populi while conspiring to undermine that vox at every turn.
“..after Justice Engoron’s decision, it gives the state attorney general’s office “limitless power to target anyone,“ including ”political opponents..”
“..no company will want to come to New York to do business, and many businesses are fleeing,” his attorneys wrote. “The economic aspects of this decision are a disaster for New York.“
• Trump Asks Appeals Court to Overturn $454 Million Civil Fraud Judgment (ET)
Lawyers for former President Donald Trump on July 22 asked a New York appeals court to overturn the $454 million New York civil fraud judgment that was handed down earlier this year. In court papers filed with First Department of the State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division, the state’s mid-level court, his lawyers wrote that Manhattan Judge Arthur Engoron’s Feb. 16 finding, that claimed former President Trump made false statements to insurers, banks, and other entities about his wealth, was incorrect. “Based on the ruling in this case, no company will want to come to New York to do business, and many businesses are fleeing,” his attorneys wrote. “The economic aspects of this decision are a disaster for New York.“ The New York Attorney General’s office ”has used the statute in a way never seen before,” they added. The lawyers said “there were no victims and no losses,” adding that the former president’s business partners “raved internally about their business with him and were eager for more.”
In their appeal, they contended that the judge made an “erroneous” decision and, during the case, “struggled to understand basic banking concepts” before he handed down the fine. They further said that he erred in rejecting an earlier appeals court decision regarding the statute of limitations for the case, arguing that New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil lawsuit should have been dismissed. The former president’s team also contended that after Justice Engoron’s decision, it gives the state attorney general’s office “limitless power to target anyone,“ including ”political opponents,” according to the 116-page filing. “If Appellants’ conduct constituted ‘fraud’ […] then that word has no meaning, and [New York Attorney General’s] power to seize and destroy private businesses is boundless—and standardless,” the attorneys added.
Before the trial, Justice Engoron rejected many of the Trump attorneys’ objections as the case proceeded, at one point equating them to the plot of the movie “Groundhog Day” and fining some of the lawyers $7,500 each for “repetitive, frivolous” argument. The Appellate Division previously denied former President Trump’s bid to end the case on statute of limitations and other grounds. After the judge handed down the judgment, former President Trump posted a $175 million bond in April to halt its collection and prevent interest from accruing. The move also blocked Ms. James from seizing some of his assets in New York City while he appeals the matter. The Epoch Times contacted the New York Attorney General’s office for comment Tuesday. In a statement to multiple news outlets, Ms. James’ office said that the appeal filed Monday repeats some arguments that were already rejected. “We won this case based on the facts and the law, and we are confident we will prevail on appeal,” a spokesperson said.
Former President Trump, the Republican nominee for the 2024 presidential election in November, has maintained his innocence in the fraud case, saying he’s being unfairly targeted. Should former President Trump and his company, the Trump Organization, have to pay the entire judgment, it could imperil his cash reserves, although he might be able to recoup some of those losses due to his large stake in Trump Media, which owns his Truth Social platform. Earlier this year, he was ordered in a separate case to pay nearly $84 million in damages after a New York jury found that he defamed a writer, E. Jean Carroll. In May of this year, he was convicted by a Manhattan jury on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in relation to payments made during the 2016 campaign. Sentencing for that case is scheduled for September.
The Manhattan case may be the only one of four cases against former President Trump that goes to trial before the November election. A federal judge in Florida last week dismissed federal charges involving his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House, arguing that the special counsel appointed in that case, Jack Smith, was improperly appointed by the Department of Justice. Mr. Smith has vowed to appeal the judgment. Two other election-related cases brought against him in Washington and Georgia have been stalled, and it’s not clear when either will go to trial, if ever. The former president had pleaded not guilty to all charges in the four cases.
True across the board for NATO countries. Who still think that if you add up all these losing propositions, you end up with a winner.
• UK Military Problems ‘Much Worse Than Thought’ – Defense Secretary (RT)
The British Army, Royal Navy, and Royal Air Force are all struggling with “hollowed out forces, procurement waste, [and] low morale,” British Defense Secretary John Healey has warned. In a grim assessment of the state of the UK military, Healy told the British Army’s annual Land Warfare Conference in London on Monday that the nation’s armed forces face “very serious challenges,” according to Sky News. “We now also see that these problems are much worse than we thought,” added the defense secretary, who has been in office for just over two weeks as part of the new Labour government. Healey also said he wants to establish “a new era for UK defense” in the face of “rapidly increasing global threats.” The new British government launched a thorough defense review earlier this month after Labour’s general election victory. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has insisted that Britain should be better prepared for “a more dangerous and volatile world.”
The government has set out a “roadmap” to spending 2.5% of national income on defense. Britain is a member of NATO, which requires that member states spend at least 2% of GDP on their militaries. The conference in London was also attended by the Ukrainian ambassador to the UK, General Valery Zaluzhny, who delivered a speech claiming that a Third World War may be approaching as a result of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Zaluzhny was removed from his post as commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces by Vladimir Zelensky in February following the failed 2023 counteroffensive. London has been a vocal supporter of Kiev since the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022. The British government has delivered almost £12.5 billion ($16.1 billion) in aid to Kiev as of the beginning of July.
Earlier this month, Starmer pledged to provide £3 billion ($3.87 billion) a year in military support to Ukraine until 2030/31 and “for as long as needed.” Zelensky visited London last week to meet with Starmer and attend a cabinet meeting. The British leader told Zelensky that London would speed up the delivery of aid to Kiev, claiming that “Ukraine is, and always will be, at the heart of this government’s agenda.” London and Kiev also signed a framework agreement which included a £2 billion ($2.6 billion) loan to finance Ukraine’s defense needs. The Russian diplomatic mission in London warned that further support for Kiev would only worsen the conflict and the situation on the ground in Ukraine.
Cracks in the unity?!
• Almost Half of EU Members Wanted to Hold Top Diplomats Meeting in Hungary (Sp.)
At this week’s EU Foreign Affairs Council, countries of the European Union were divided on the matter of where to hold the next gathering of the bloc’s foreign ministers, with almost half preferring Budapest instead of Brussels, which was picked by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, Politico reported on Tuesday. On Monday, Borrell said that the next meeting of the foreign ministers would be held in Brussels, not Budapest, due to Hungary’s position on Ukraine. In total, 13 countries said that they preferred to meet in Budapest, while five others, especially states in Eastern Europe and the Baltics, said that they would boycott the gathering in the Hungarian capital, according to Politico. In the end, Borrell picked Brussels in a move that aims to “send a signal, even if it is a symbolic signal,” to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the newspaper added.
The informal meeting of EU foreign ministers was initially scheduled to be held in Budapest in late August to mark the beginning of Hungary’s EU presidency. Earlier in July, Orban met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping as part of his diplomatic efforts to open up lines of communication to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. He also met with US presidential candidate Donald Trump. Some EU leaders protested what they see as Orban’s misuse of the bloc’s rotating presidency.
“Ukraine stopped the flow of oil through the Druzhba pipeline last week..”
“Ukraine stopped receiving electricity from Slovakia and Romania as of midnight on Tuesday..”
• Hungary Issues €6.5bn Ultimatum To Ukraine (RT)
Budapest will block funds the European Union has earmarked for Ukraine until Kiev resumes the transit of Russian crude oil to Hungary and Slovakia, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said. Ukraine stopped the flow of oil through the Druzhba pipeline last week, citing its sanctions against Russian energy giant Lukoil, thus depriving the two EU members of an estimated 30-40% of their needs. “As long as this issue is not resolved by Ukraine, everyone should forget about the payment of the €6.5 billion of the European Peace Facility compensation for arms transfers,” Szijjarto announced on Tuesday. “Ukraine’s decision to not allow Lukoil to transit oil supplies through Ukraine poses a fundamental threat to the security of energy supplies to Hungary and Slovakia,” Szijjarto said, describing Kiev’s move as “unacceptable and incomprehensible,” as well as incompatible with its aspirations to join the EU.
Szijjarto also reminded the EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell that Hungary – along with Slovakia and Poland – came to Ukraine’s aid in early July, sending enough electricity to stabilize Kiev’s energy system. Hungary supplied 42% of Ukraine’s electricity in June, Szijjarto noted. According to unconfirmed reports from Ukrainian local media, Ukraine stopped receiving electricity from Slovakia and Romania as of midnight on Tuesday. Kiev has had to resort to imports after Russian air and missile strikes disabled most of its domestic generation capabilities. Moscow has described the strikes as reprisal for Ukrainian attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure.
Poland has already protested Hungary’s move, saying that it would deprive Warsaw of €2 billion it needs to modernize its armed forces. “This is a huge disappointment for me,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski has said. Kiev’s official explanation for embargoing oil deliveries was that Lukoil revenue could be used to support the Russian military. One Ukrainian lawmaker, however, suggested to Politico that the blockade has a secondary purpose, to pressure Hungary into changing its policy on arming Kiev. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has long refused to send Ukraine any weapons, train any Ukrainian troops, or allow the use of Hungarian territory for EU or NATO arms shipments, insisting that Kiev should sue for peace with Moscow as soon as possible.
If only you could push it into the ocean…
• EU May Not Be Right Fit For Hungary – Finnish FM (RT)
The EU may not be the “right reference group” for Hungary, considering the apparent divergence in views between Budapest and the bloc, Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen has suggested. She accused Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban of giving the impression that he was representing the EU during his recent visits to Russia and China to discuss the Ukraine conflict. Speaking after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday, Valtonen stressed that Hungary – which currently holds the rotating EU presidency – is not entitled to represent the 27-nation bloc as its foreign policy views “do not correspond to the official line of the union.” “Of course, it is up to the individual country to do so,” Valtonen told the Helsingin Sanomat newspaper. “But at some point, it may be worth asking whether the European Union is the right reference group if the ideas differ so fundamentally from our common values.”
Budapest took over the rotating presidency of the EU Council at the start of July. The body defines the bloc’s overall political direction and priorities. Hungarian Prime Minister Orban then embarked on what he called a Ukraine “peace mission,” aiming to find a resolution to the conflict by holding talks with its “five main actors” – Ukraine, Russia, China, the EU, and the US. As part of the mission, he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, triggering the ire of EU leaders. Orban stressed he does not need a mandate from Brussels to promote peace and that his discussions cannot be considered official talks. The European Parliament last week condemned Orban’s visits, particularly to Moscow, describing them as “a blatant violation of the EU’s treaties and common foreign policy.” The EU has also been outraged by Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto’s speeches to the UN Security Council, in which he has accused the bloc of pursuing a “pro-war policy” with its military and financial support for Ukraine.
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has criticized Szijjarto by declaring that “the European Union is not at war,” and has called for a discussion on “what to do with Hungary’s presidency of the EU Council in the next few months.” In a rebuke of Orban’s solo diplomatic efforts on Ukraine, the EU’s next informal meeting of foreign and defense ministers will take place in Brussels instead of Budapest, Borrell said on Monday. He called the change of venue “a signal’ to Hungary. Moscow has said the EU’s criticism of Orban over his Ukraine peace initiative proves that Brussels has resolved to support Ukraine militarily, and that its pro-war policies will not change. Budapest is due to retain the EU presidency until January 1, 2025, when it will pass to Poland.
“..cut water access in Gaza to 6 percent of levels that were already insufficient for regular life..”
• Israel Has Reduced Water Access in Gaza by 94% Since October (Zhang)
Oxfam has warned that Israel’s longstanding policy of using water as a weapon against Palestinians has reached its peak amid Israel’s genocide, with water access for Palestinians in Gaza now at a small fraction of pre-genocide levels as Palestinians die of dehydration, starvation and disease. According to a report on Israel’s water deprivation policies by Oxfam, Israel has reduced water access in Gaza by a whopping 94 percent since October. This means Palestinians only have access to an average of roughly 4.7 liters of water per person per day, or only about 1.2 gallons a day. In the supposed “humanitarian safe zone” in al-Mawasi — which Israeli forces have attacked relentlessly — Palestinians only have access to an average of 2.5 liters per day, the report said. This paltry amount of water must be used for all purposes: drinking, cooking, bathing, laundry, and more. It is far less than the minimum of 15 liters needed per day in emergencies, as determined by UN officials.
This dramatic reduction in water access is the result of Israel’s sustained attacks on Gaza’s water infrastructure, Oxfam said. Israel has destroyed 100 percent of wastewater treatment plants in Gaza and has destroyed all water desalination plants and water sanitation warehouses in Gaza City, while destroying the vast majority of infrastructure in other parts of the Strip. The report found that Israel has damaged or destroyed five sanitation sites every three days just since October. This amounts to nearly 70 percent of water and sanitation infrastructure in Gaza being compromised by Israel. “The Israeli military’s operations in Gaza have repeatedly committed violations of international humanitarian law depriving people of access to water, an indispensable resource for their survival, by damaging or destroying water infrastructure, contaminating water sources, and blocking supplies needed to enable water production,” the report says.
Meanwhile, delivering water in humanitarian convoys is nearly impossible due to Israel’s aid blockade, the report says. Maintaining what is left of sanitation infrastructure is its own challenge, as Israeli forces have targeted maintenance workers within Gaza as part of their attacks on all systems supporting life in Gaza. “My colleagues and I have been living through a nightmare these past nine months, but we still feel it’s our responsibility and duty to ensure everybody in Gaza is getting their minimum right of clean drinking water,” Monther Shoblak, general manager of Gaza’s water utility, said in a statement. “It’s been very difficult, but we are determined to keep trying – even when we witness our colleagues being targeted and killed by Israel while undertaking their work.
Israel’s current attacks on water access are part of its decades-long campaign to exercise control over basic needs in Gaza in order to kill Palestinians through deprivation. As a result of Israel’s deprivation campaign, water access was already subpar in Gaza before October. Though the World Health Organization recommends a daily quantity of 100 liters per day for regular activities, as of March 2023, Palestinians in Gaza had access to only about 83 liters per day, while those in the occupied West Bank had access to 89 liters a day. Israelis, including those who live in illegal settlements in the West Bank, have access to almost 250 liters a day, by comparison. This means that Israel, over the course of its nine months of genocide in Gaza, has cut water access in Gaza to 6 percent of levels that were already insufficient for regular life.
Orca great white
Apex Predator showdown: Orca vs Great White Shark pic.twitter.com/i7WVScfU5S
— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) July 21, 2024
Log
https://twitter.com/i/status/1815659908815024506
Beethoven
https://twitter.com/i/status/1815679190546473075
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