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Debt Rattle November 9 2024

Nov 092024
 
 November 9, 2024  Posted by at 9:25 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,  69 Responses »


Claude Monet Camille Sitting on the Beach at Trouville 1870-71

 

• Trump’s ‘New Conservatism’ Can Bring A Revival of The True American Spirit (RT)
• The System Worked (Jeffrey Tucker)
• Trump Prosecutors Stuck on Listless Ships Without a Port of Call (Turley)
• DOJ Says Policy Is to Not Prosecute Presidents (ET)
• Aborted- Be Careful What You Wish For (James Howard Kunstler)
• The World According to Trump – with Col. Wilkerson (Chris Hedges)
• Musk Joined Trump-Zelensky Call – Axios (RT)
• Putin Left Door Open to West (Sp.)
• Zelensky Wants All Of Russia’s Frozen Money (RT)
• Nearly Fifth of Ukraine’s Soldiers AWOL Amid Collapse in Morale (Sp.)
• US Will Abandon Ukraine – Orban (RT)
• EU ‘Lacks Brains’ – Putin (RT)
• Russian And Ukrainian Officials Meet In Belarus (RT)
• The Colonization of Europe By The United States (Vasco)
• Dr. Peter McCullough Calls On Trump To Remove The Covid-19 Vaccine (JTN)
• Dutch Health Minister Admits Covid is a Military Operation” (PCR)

 

 

 

 

Flynn warns of third assassination attempt

Second most

Tucker Vivek

Vivek

Idiots
https://twitter.com/i/status/1854902036698935645

Fed

Homan
https://twitter.com/i/status/1854850081893007519

 

 

 

 

Trump, the Economy & World War III: Col. Douglas Macgregor’s Shocking Predictions

 

 

Galloway: The greatest comeback since the Rumble in the Jungle

 

 

 

 

 

 

Constantin von Hoffmeister.

“The “new conservatism” inaugurated by Trump is guided by precepts that once defined the American way of life..”

• Trump’s ‘New Conservatism’ Can Bring A Revival of The True American Spirit (RT)

Donald Trump has accomplished the improbable once more – mastering every obstacle and surviving two assassination attempts – to reclaim the throne as president of the United States. In a nation whose corrupt establishment sought to sideline him, he returns not as a defeated man but as one propelled by a profound connection with the American spirit, a connection that no attack could diminish in the slightest. Trump’s return embodies resilience and an enduring rapport with the people, marking the most remarkable comeback in American history. He has taken political center stage again to revive America’s core values and lead his supporters towards a renewal of genuine American principles. Trump’s return has reignited the aura of the time up through the 1980s when America’s moral and cultural values were clear, stable, and honored by the everyday citizen.

The nuclear family, veneration of one’s heritage, gun rights, and unfiltered patriotism – the values cherished in the past are now considered “reactionary.” However, with Trump’s victory, these values might regain their prominent place, repelling the leftist currents that have tried to undermine them for decades. This signals a dramatic shift in America’s ideological trajectory. Trump’s election acts as a direct response to decades of leftist domination in media, academia, and politics. The “new conservatism” inaugurated by Trump is guided by precepts that once defined the American way of life, including the acceptance of traditional gender roles, religion’s high status in public life, and a perception of freedom based on constructive individualism, not coercive rhetoric. Trump’s base, often labeled “backward,” sees itself as repossessing the dignity of the average, and thus quintessential, American.

It understands that what was once normal is now framed as “right-wing extremist” or “radical” simply because the ground beneath America’s cultural landscape has shifted so far left. The anti-liberal movement that Trump embodies has roots in George Wallace Jr.’s presidential campaign in 1968 and Pat Buchanan’s populist challenge to the Republican establishment in the 1990s. Trump continues these legacies, proving that his message is heard by those who feel alienated by the sterile and homogenized culture foisted upon them. His leadership represents a recapture of cultural space that many Americans feel has been taken from them. With Trump’s win, America is going to regain its sanity – its center.

In the aftermath of Trump’s triumph, our expectation is shifting forward, where J. D. Vance is positioned as a fitting successor. In his autobiographical account Hillbilly Elegy, Vance describes with unflinching clarity the plight of the white working class, revealing the same wounds of disintegration and despair that stirred Trump’s ascent. His book lays bare the erosion of blue-collar America – the scourge of addiction, the decay of family bonds, and the economic desolation haunting rural communities. These communities, spurned and mocked by the urban mainstream and coastal cosmopolitans, have become Trump’s most loyal supporters. Vance, with his intellectual acuity and profound understanding of this demographic, stands ready to carry the torch of Trump’s populist message, built on a more conceptual foundation.

One of Trump’s most significant pronouncements in his 2016 campaign – “Americanism, not globalism, will be our credo” – was far more than simple rhetoric; it was a fierce call to renounce the burdens of global stewardship. With “America First,” Trump tapped into the psyche of a people weary of perpetual wars and foreign obligations that sapped the nation’s strength and spirit. The 2017 National Security Strategy echoed this reorientation, asserting that “the American way of life cannot be imposed upon others, nor is it the inevitable culmination of progress.” Here, Trump’s message resonated with unmistakable clarity: the duty of the American government lies foremost with its own citizens, firmly tied to the preservation of its own destiny.

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“It was the least expected conclusion to the most contentious election of our lives or perhaps in a century or more..”

• The System Worked (Jeffrey Tucker)

These have been a dark few years in which many suppositions about the U.S. system of government have come into question. You can see it in the polls showing the loss of trust. It has pertained to everything from medicine to media to tech to academia and of course government. In addition, the sources we once associated with expertise have pushed agendas that have contradicted all experience and hence have been rejected by vast numbers. The United States is hardly alone in this. Most countries of the world today are dealing with a wrenching upheaval in politics and social order generally. Stability has turned to instability, certainty to uncertainty, and clarity to the fog of war. The resulting thicket seemed to offer no way out. As an inevitable part of this, many people have questioned whether the democratic system of choosing leaders works properly anymore.

Protests following election returns are common worldwide, not necessarily because people have stopped believing in the ideal but because they doubt that the count is accurate and the ballots are legitimate. Technology has not helped this problem but rather introduced more doubt. This problem has massively afflicted the United States in recent years. There have been doubts at every point, not helped by a well-documented loosening of voting rules during the pandemic response (the CDC encouraged mail-in voting) and then after during a refugee wave that has disrupted many communities around the country. This is a serious problem: when people have doubts about such a core functioning of the system, there is a feeling of being caged in a machine only the elites control. This is a major reason for the shock concerning election results. It’s not just that the Republicans swept the presidency and one if not both houses of Congress but also the popular vote, which no one really believed possible.

The betting markets gave such an outcome very low odds. Many people this year trudged the polls with grave doubts about the relevance of what they were doing. Is the system so broken that the will of the people no longer matters as compared with the power of the elites? This was a real shock, from people from all sides. It was that the people’s voice rose above all the money, manipulation, claims of fraud, uncertainties over voter ID, technology, and so much more. For years now, people have habitually found fault with nearly everything. The prediction was that the conclusion of the vote in the presidency would take days, weeks, or even months. Such a prospect is enormously depressing for a nation that imagines itself to be a great one. But sure enough, the results came in on a perfect schedule, as the polls closed, culminating in a result for a candidate that had for years now faced down attacks from every angle. It was the least expected conclusion to the most contentious election of our lives or perhaps in a century or more.

It was a clean victory for Donald J. Trump, including the popular vote. Not only that: it was a credible result. That’s the key. The result accomplished much. It wiped out several years of partisan agitation against the system of the Electoral College as established in the U.S. Constitution. The purpose of this institution is to grant a more even representation of the states as entities over the popular will. This traces to the federalist system established by the Founders, not a unity government from the center but a federation of states that have come together for their common betterment. Wiping that structure out would have been transformative. But with a victory of the popular vote, that is no longer an issue. It would not have changed the result. This feature, truly blessed, of the outcome also quelled much-predicted street violence. Even the concession speech by Kamala Harris was conciliatory, and contained not even one hint of funny business or rigging. It was a clear and challenged expression of popular will to which everyone on all sides had to accede.

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“Trump will not be the only defendant to see substantial changes on January 20, 2025. Trump has pledged to pardon those prosecuted over the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot.”

• Trump Prosecutors Stuck on Listless Ships Without a Port of Call (Turley)

Nearly two years ago, I wrote that Democratic prosecutors’ lawfare campaign against Donald Trump would make the 2024 election the single largest jury decision in history. Now that the verdict is in, the question is whether prosecutors will continue their unrelenting campaign against the president-elect and his companies. The answer is that it may not matter. The election reflected a certain gag sensation for a public fed a relentless diet of panic and identity politics for eight years. The 2024 election will come to be viewed as one of the biggest political and cultural shifts in our history. It was the mainstream-media-versus-new media election; the Rogan-versus-Oprah election; the establishment-versus-a-disassociated-electorate election. It was also a thorough rejection of lawfare. One of the things most frustrating for Trump’s opponents was that every trial or hearing seemed to give Trump a boost in the polls. As cases piled up in Washington, New York, Florida and Georgia, the effort seemed to move more toward political acclamation than isolation.

These cases are now legal versions of the Flying Dutchman — ships destined to sail endlessly but never make port. If there is a single captain of that hapless crew, it is Special Counsel Jack Smith. For more than a year, Smith sought to secure a verdict in one of his two cases in Washington and Florida before the election. His urgency was seemingly shared by Judge Tanya Chutkan in Washington, but by few other judges or justices. Around 2 am, Smith became a lame-duck prosecutor. Trump ran on ending his prosecutions and can cite a political mandate for it. Certainly, had he lost, the other side would be claiming a mandate for these prosecutions. Trump’s new attorney general could remove Smith and order the termination of his continued prosecution. That is less of a problem in Florida, where a federal judge had already tossed out the prosecution of the classified documents case, which some of us saw as the greatest threat against Trump.

In Washington, Chutkan, who proved both motivated and active in pushing forward the election interference case, could complicate matters. Under federal rules, it is up to Chutkan to order any dismissal. In the case of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, Judge Emmet Sullivan resisted granting the dismissal sought by the Justice Department — a record that I criticized as both unusual and unwarranted. Chutkan could run the incoming Trump administration around on any dismissal, but in the end, it should succeed in ending Smith’s ill-considered indictment. In reality, Smith was not only losing the Florida case but was likely to be reversed again in Washington due to his refusal to make sufficient changes in his indictment of Trump after the recent immunity decision by the Supreme Court. Smith could make one last push to damage Trump in the period before the inauguration by pushing for an immunity decision from Chutkan. He would again likely find a supportive ally in Chutkan.

However, in the end, this would do little to change the fact that the Flying Dutchman will soon be without a crew or port of call. One of the most immediate cases to resume is the prosecution in Manhattan by District Attorney Alvin Bragg. Many, including commentators like CNN’s senior legal analyst Elie Honig, have denounced that case as legally flawed and obviously politically motivated. Judge Juan Merchan is scheduled to rule on the immunity issue by Nov. 11 and to hold a possible sentencing on Nov. 26. Merchan has shown a pronounced bias against Trump in the past, and his counsel is likely anticipating a continuation of this pattern. Merchan could sentence Trump to jail. However, such an abusive sentencing, even a brief one, would likely trigger an expedited appeal and would likely be stayed. Trump cannot pardon himself in a state case, but the case itself is a target-rich environment of arguable legal errors that could collapse on appeal.

Another case in New York is likely to move forward now. There is a pending appeal on the massive civil case against Trump brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. For many, James is the very face of lawfare as a prosecutor who ran on getting Trump on something, anything. She ultimately secured another openly biased judge in Justice Arthur Engoron, who imposed an absurd, grotesque $455 million in fines and interest against Trump and his corporation. Notably, some of the judges on the appellate panel seemed to agree with that assessment, questioning not just the amount but the very use of this law in a case where there was no victim and no one lost a single dollar due to the fraud alleged. My assumption is that the opinion is already written, held back only because of the election. It could now be issued and constitute a major change in the case. Whatever is left of that judgment, if anything, would then certainly be appealed.

Then there is the roaring dumpster fire in Georgia. An appellate court there will decide whether District Attorney Fani Willis and her office can continue prosecuting the case. If they are forced off the case, a new prosecutor must review the matter. While some criminal allegations against defendants can be established, the alleged racketeering conspiracy against Trump is legally flawed and likely to fail on appeal. Trump will also continue to appeal civil cases such as the E. Jean Carroll case, which will linger long past the election. Trump will not be the only defendant to see substantial changes on January 20, 2025. Trump has pledged to pardon those prosecuted over the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot. The public elected him despite that pledge and over the opposition of Democrats. That will affect hundreds and may come in the form of a mix of pardons and commutations, depending on the underlying charges.

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The GOP has demanded that Jack Smith preserve all his records.

• DOJ Says Policy Is to Not Prosecute Presidents (ET)

Special counsel Jack Smith’s office said the Department of Justice (DOJ) has a longstanding policy not to prosecute a sitting president, in response to a query about whether it will drop its criminal cases against President-elect Donald Trump, who won the 2024 election. Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsel’s office, declined to comment on whether the office will drop its cases but directed The Epoch Times to a 2000 memo from the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel. It states that “indictment or criminal prosecution of a sitting President would unconstitutionally undermine the capacity of the executive branch to perform its constitutionally assigned functions.” Multiple Republicans called on the DOJ and local district attorneys to end their prosecutions of Trump after he won the presidential election on Nov. 5.

“The American people have spoken: the lawfare must end,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) wrote in a post on social media platform X. “I call on Attorney General Garland, [Manhattan District Attorney] Alvin Bragg, and [Fulton County District Attorney] Fani Willis to immediately terminate the politically motivated prosecutions of President Donald Trump.” On Nov. 6, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) wrote on X that special counsel Jack Smith should “look forward to a new chapter” in his legal career. “The Supreme Court substantially rejected what you were trying to do, and after tonight, it’s clear the American people are tired of lawfare. Bring these cases to an end,” Graham wrote.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1854615830358614487

Former Attorney General Bill Barr, who served under Trump, told Fox News that prosecutors should “do the right” thing and end their cases against the president-elect. “Further maneuvering on these cases in the weeks ahead would serve no legitimate purpose and only distract the country and the incoming administration from the task at hand,” Barr said. “The public interest now demands that the country unite and focus on the challenges we face at home and abroad. Attorney General Garland and all the state prosecutors should do the right thing and help the country move forward by dismissing the cases.” He said that the U.S. electorate has “rendered their verdict on President Trump and decisively chosen him to lead the country for the next four years.” “They did that with full knowledge of the claims against him by prosecutors around the country, and I think Attorney General Garland and the state prosecutors should respect the people’s decision and dismiss the cases against President Trump now,” Barr said.

Trump is slated to appear before a New York judge later this month to face sentencing after he was charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection to payments he made during the 2016 election. He was convicted by a jury in May. He had pleaded not guilty and denies the allegations. However, with the election result, it’s not clear whether Trump will receive any sentencing after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that presidents should have some degree of immunity from prosecution for official acts. It’s unclear what Judge Juan Merchan will do following the election. Merchan has already pushed back the sentencing date twice. Trump faces charges in Fulton County, Georgia, for allegedly trying to illegally overturn the 2020 election results, although that case is currently in limbo after the president-elect and several co-defendants appealed a judge’s ruling to allow Willis to remain on the case. The Georgia Appeals Court is currently scheduled to take up a Trump appeal next year, and the case is currently on pause.

Willis, a Democrat, was elected to another term in office as Fulton County’s top prosecutor on Nov. 5, according to projections from The Associated Press. In two federal cases brought against him, Trump faces criminal charges in Washington, brought by Smith, over his alleged activity following the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol breach. A separate case that was brought by Smith in Florida over his handling of classified documents was dismissed by a federal judge earlier this year, although Smith had appealed it. When Trump officially takes office, he could use his presidential authority to dismiss the two cases brought by Smith, who was appointed by Garland. However, he has less latitude in dealing with the cases brought in New York City and Fulton County. In public events and on social media, Trump often has said that the various criminal cases brought against him were attempts to interfere in the 2024 election.

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“The Democratic Party and the Deep State blob really did try to steal that from you. As they stole the 2020 election — which is probably one of the things to be revealed in the process.”

• Aborted- Be Careful What You Wish For (James Howard Kunstler)

At last, it appears that the Party of Chaos got its fondest wish: it aborted itself in the 2024 election. “Joe Biden” was the coat-hanger it used: this miserable, grifting, now-senile hack politician who will be remembered only for driving his country to the verge of ruin. And for what? All in an effort to cover-up a long train of crimes and abuses against the American people perpetrated by a permanent bureaucracy gone rogue that was the party’s partner-in-crime. And now it’s over. The childishness of the Left — AOC whining about “fascism” — is under-appreciated. Note how the party’s most august mouthpiece, The New York Times, pretends to soul-search in the aftermath of the election debacle. “Many Democrats were considering how to navigate a dark future, with the party unable to stop Mr. Trump from carrying out a right-wing transformation of American government. Others turned inward, searching for why the nation rejected them. They spoke about misinformation and the struggle to communicate the party’s vision in a diminished news environment inundated with right-wing propaganda” — The New York Times

The New York Times diminished itself. It drove itself crazy with narratives — just as a crazy person with disordered thoughts can’t discern what’s real and what’s not. What they need is a serious mental health check. The time for incessant lying, hoaxing, and performative hysteria is over. On Thursday, in a three-minute speech, the President-elect set out a clear list of measures to reconstruct a national consensus based on reality. It includes firing a lot of people in the agencies, dis-embedding all the inspector-generals from the departments they oversee, establishing a “truth and reconciliation commission” to declassify and publish documents “related to alleged deep state activities, including spying, censorship, and corruption,” and finding out who exactly at the CIA / FBI / DHS / and other places has been leaking fables and falsehoods to the news media. In other words, clear away a shit-ton of untruth that burdens the consciousness of country.

Though the statement omitted to say so directly, it’s very likely that a number of public officials will find themselves before grand juries in the years ahead. If you haven’t figured it out already, you’ll learn that the term “misinformation” was just the gas in the gaslight used to confound the country about what has really been at stake — which is your personal liberty in what is supposed to be a free country. The Democratic Party and the Deep State blob really did try to steal that from you. As they stole the 2020 election — which is probably one of the things to be revealed in the process.

Look at this bar graph. Note how many millions more votes were cast in the 2020 elections than in the two previous and now in the 2024 contest. How did that happen? Where did that surplus supply come from? The Covid-19 scam provided the cover for a profligate mail-in ballot operation. They deluged the country with paper. Mark Zuckerberg provided $450-million through his cut-out charities to hire thousands of party activists to harvest and fill-out fraudulent ballots, and stuff them in drop-boxes by the hundredweight, with special attention to the crucial precincts in swing states — and that’s what landed the basement-cringing candidate, “Joe Biden,” in the White House.

It was that simple, and that much in-your-face, and for four years the official organs of the news swatted the truth away claiming they were “false, baseless, conspiracy theories” — and half the country was credulous enough to believe that. Or mentally ill, not able to tell fantasy from reality, especially in the newsrooms. Even more shamefully, this half of the country was led by the better-educated, credentialed, managerial class of citizens, who, amazingly, managed to turn intelligence into a new kind of personal liability. (The simplest explanation for that astounding failure is that people who consider themselves “experts” eagerly believe other experts and credentialed authorities, making them easiest to dupe. That’s why the faculty lounges are full of Jacobins.)

The winning side in this contest didn’t vote against Kamala Harris so much as they voted against the Democratic Party, the Party of Chaos, of BLM riots, of drag queens in the school library, of men in the women’s swim lane (and locker room), of forced vaccinations (your bodily autonomy, sister?), of locking up grandmothers who walked through the Capitol rotunda, of state-driven censorship, of malicious political prosecutions, of ruinous proxy war, of flooding the country with criminal alien mutts, of Mao Zedong style erasing of history, of FISA court surveillance, and, finally, of the same sort of self-loathing for the nation that a three hundred pound sophomore with a nose ring and sleeve tattoos feels for herself.

Kunstler

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Wilkerson: “..it’s genuine. I don’t think he likes war. I don’t think he likes starting wars.”

Hedges is a lifelong leftie not flexible enough to comprehemd what just happened.

• The World According to Trump – with Col. Wilkerson (Chris Hedges)

Donald Trump will become the 47th president of the United States and given the host of global debacles the US has its hands in—ranging from the genocide in Gaza, to Israel’s attacks on Lebanon and Iran to the Ukraine war—nobody is quite certain what direction the country will take with the former president at the helm again. Joining host Chris Hedges on this episode of The Chris Hedges Report is Lawrence Wilkerson, a retired Army colonel and former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell. With his extensive insights and expertise into the Middle East and American foreign policy, Wilkerson provides a valuable understanding into what a Trump presidency may look like outside of the borders of America.

Wilkerson predicts Trump will stay true to “his disdain for war,” emphasizing “it’s genuine. I don’t think he likes war. I don’t think he likes starting wars.” Regarding Ukraine, Wilkerson thinks Trump will shut down the war effort. But when it comes to the Middle East, that commitment clashes with one of Trump’s long standing loyalties: unwavering support for Israel. War with Iran seems increasingly likely by the day despite, according to Wilkerson, resistance from the Pentagon and prior administrations. In the case of Trump, however, “you wonder how long that resistance can hold up if the president of the United States is intent on—and this is the one place where Trump really worries me—doing everything in his power for Israel,” Wilkerson notes. He adds, “Trump has made it quite clear that that’s his policy, that’s his belief, and I think he’s being honest about it.”

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Wonder whose idea that was.

Musk has allegedly predicted the conflict will be over soon.

• Musk Joined Trump-Zelensky Call – Axios (RT)

Elon Musk joined US President-elect Donald Trump’s phone call with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky the day after Trump prevailed in the US election, Axios claimed on Friday. According to sources familiar with the conversation, Trump reassured Zelensky of US support, though he avoided specific commitments on aid. At the same time, Musk added that he would keep supporting Ukraine with Starlink satellites, which have been a critical link for Ukraine’s communication and defense. Both men have previously been critical of financial and military support for Ukraine, saying that Kiev cannot win the conflict. The outlet described the move as a surprise that added a layer of intrigue to the call between the president-elect and the embattled leader in Kiev.

Musk’s involvement underscores his influence with Trump and his complex stance on the war, Axios added. Earlier this year, Musk allegedly told Republican US senators during an X Spaces conversation that Ukraine could not realistically win against Russia. “There is no way in hell [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is going to lose,” he reportedly said to Senators Ron Johnson and Mike Lee, among others. “This spending does not help Ukraine; prolonging the war does not help Ukraine. Having these boys die for nothing is wrong and needs to stop.” Musk has also urged citizens to contact their representatives and oppose continued aid, comments that generated backlash for his perceived cynicism toward Ukraine’s cause. The Biden administration is aiming to accelerate military assistance to Ukraine before the January 20 transfer of power, amid concerns Trump might cut support.

However, Trump’s call with Zelensky apparently sent a different message, with the Ukrainian leader later describing the conversation as “positive” and saying Trump’s outreach so soon after his victory was encouraging. Yet Zelensky remains cautious. Speaking at a press event in Budapest on Thursday, he stressed that while he appreciated the prompt call, he “cannot yet know” what Trump’s actions will ultimately be. Zelensky added, “If it’s just fast, it means losses for Ukraine. I just don’t yet understand how this could be in any other way.” During the campaign, Trump frequently pledged to end the conflict quickly but avoided detailing how.

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“..performed brilliantly in terms of being on top of his brief, having all these facts and figures at his fingertip, being very articulate, being very clear, answering questions directly.”

“I can’t think of any other political leader in the world who could perform in that kind of way..”

• Putin Left Door Open to West (Sp.)

Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a speech at the plenary session of the 21st Annual Meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club on Thursday. While criticizing Western leaders for failing to serve the interests of their people, Vladimir Putin also sent a positive signal for the future, Geoffrey Roberts, emeritus professor of history at University College Cork, Ireland, told Sputnik. “Very clearly, he [Putin] is signaling continued resistance to Western hegemony, Western dominance. He also makes his point, time and again, that European political leaders aren’t serving their country’s best interests […] by the policy that they’re pursuing in terms of global politics,” he noted.

However, at the same time, the Russian president “made it clear that Russia is not going to run after the West to restore relations, but the door is open if that’s the choice that the West wants to make,” the leading British scholar on Soviet diplomatic and military history underscored. It’s not clear whether US President-elect Donald Trump will pursue friendly relations with Russia, but the chances are much higher now, Roberts speculated. “[Vladimir Putin] said that if Trump wants to improve relations, he is open to it,” Roberts said after attending Putin’s speech and a Q&A session at the Valdai Club. “It would be a while before we know what’s going to happen. I think a big factor will be who he [Trump] appoints to key positions in foreign policy and national security… I also think Trump will be very reluctant to increase the American commitment to NATO in any way and to see further expansion of NATO […] in Europe or elsewhere.

But as I say, that’s a matter for speculation,” the emeritus professor noted. According to the academic, Putin was “very relaxed, very confident” throughout his appearance at the event, and “performed brilliantly in terms of being on top of his brief, having all these facts and figures at his fingertip, being very articulate, being very clear, answering questions directly.” “He’s responding on the spot to comments, statements, questions that the people at the meeting, the members of the Valdai Club, are making. I can’t think of any other political leader in the world who could perform in that kind of way,” Roberts remarked.

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Biden is crazy enough to give it to him before Jan. 20.

• Zelensky Wants All Of Russia’s Frozen Money (RT)

Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has demanded that the $300 billion of Russian sovereign assets currently immobilized by sanctions in Western financial institutions be given to Kiev. He raised the issue of Western aid, particularly the possibility that US President-elect Donald Trump could cut aid for Kiev, at a press conference following the European Political Community summit in Budapest on Thursday. Following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, the US and its allies froze an estimated $300 billion in assets belonging to the Russian central bank. The bulk of the funds, around €197 billion ($213 billion), are being held at Euroclear. The Brussels-based clearinghouse has estimated that the impounded Russian assets generated €5.15 billion ($5.55 billion) in interest in the first three quarters of this fiscal year.

“Everyone says: What will you do if Trump does not support you financially? Where will you get weapons? Let me answer you. Can we take the $300 billion that rightfully belongs to us?” Zelensky said. This would allow Ukraine to buy armaments for itself, he claimed. “Is it possible for us to decide for ourselves what kind of weapons we need? Can we decide for ourselves what to do with this money?” he added. The US and its European allies have so far allocated more than $218 billion in aid to Kiev since the escalation of the conflict, according to stats from Germany’s Kiel Institute. However, in recent months, the payments have been getting smaller and the larger aid allocations have instead been loans.

In October, G7 states finalized a massive $50 billion loan for Ukraine to be backed by profits accrued on the frozen Russian assets currently immobilized in the West. Despite US pressure to confiscate the assets in their entirety, the IMF has so far opposed this course of action, raising concerns that it could undermine trust in the Western financial system. Moscow has denounced the asset freeze as “theft,” and repeatedly warned that tapping its funds would be illegal and set a dangerous precedent. Western donors have become increasingly concerned about the money allocated to Kiev, as corruption has been one of Ukraine’s biggest problems for years. In June, the European Commission also set up a special watchdog to prevent possible embezzlement. Earlier this year, the Pentagon’s inspector general described corruption in Ukraine as “endemic,” and its government as “one of the least accountable” in Europe.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1854847549242294536

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“..a million men of military age are estimated to be on the run across Ukraine..”

• Nearly Fifth of Ukraine’s Soldiers AWOL Amid Collapse in Morale (Sp.)

Ukraine’s deep manpower shortage has overshadowed the steady flow of Western arms deliveries. Against the backdrop of Russia’s steady advance, Kiev regime military personnel have been surrendering and deserting in droves, while over a million men of military age are estimated to be on the run across Ukraine. Almost a fifth of Ukraine’s soldiers have gone AWOL from their positions, The Economist cited a source in the general staff as saying. An overwhelming collapse in morale on the front line amid Russia’s steady advance is driving mass desertion, a senior Ukrainian military commander has claimed. Despite more Western weapons in the pipeline for Ukraine, these is a “breakdown of trust between society, the army and the political leadership” in Kiev, according to the outlet.

It added that Ukraine has been struggling to replace vast battlefield losses with conscription, “barely hitting two-thirds of its target.” Rampant draft dodging and desertion forced the Volodymyr Zelensky regime to adopt a new draconian mobilization law this year, while also lowering the recruitment age from 27 to 25. Ukrainians are increasingly resisting being sent into the meat grinder of a proxy conflict. Earlier, in October, Ukrainian media reported that since the beginning of 2022, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office has registered some 60,000 criminal cases of unauthorized abandonment of a unit and about 30,000 cases of desertion.

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“The biggest problem in Europe right now is that they don’t talk to those who need to be talked to,” he said. “This is a luxury one cannot afford in politics.”

• US Will Abandon Ukraine – Orban (RT)

US President-elect Donald Trump will pull his country out of the Ukraine conflict, leaving EU leaders in an “uncomfortable and difficult position,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said. “The situation on the front line is obvious. It’s a military defeat. The Americans will get out of this war,” he told Kossuth Radio on Friday. “Europe alone cannot finance this war.” Some EU leaders want to keep pouring money into a lost cause but the silence is growing among those with such an opinion, Orban said, while others are calling for a policy reassessment. Meanwhile, the few nations that have been advocating de-escalation and talks, including Hungary itself, as well as Slovakia and the Vatican, have been vindicated, he added. Orban’s prediction of a change in US foreign policy follows Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election earlier this week.

The Republican has previously claimed that he could end the Ukraine conflict in 24 hours. The Hungarian leader expects major changes for the entire world after Trump’s win, which he said was so big that “it can be seen not only from the Moon, but also from Mars.” Politicians who have been pushing for a Ukrainian victory are now in a bind, but they always knew that such an outcome was possible, Orban said. Earlier this year, he conducted what he called a “peace mission,” meeting stakeholders in the conflict. He traveled to Kiev, Moscow, and Beijing, as well as to the US, where he discussed the issue with President Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

Budapest subsequently sent a report to other EU member states, which recommended that they should prepare for a shift on Ukraine, so “there is no reason for any leader to say that they were surprised,” Orban said. “The biggest problem in Europe right now is that they don’t talk to those who need to be talked to,” he said. “This is a luxury one cannot afford in politics.” Orban was maligned by some other EU leaders for his diplomatic engagements. They claimed that he was siding with Russia and abusing Hungary’s rotating presidency of the EU by allegedly giving the impression that he was acting on Brussels’ behalf. The prime minister clarified that he was representing only his own nation.

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“When I talk to my colleagues and experts – I don’t want to offend anyone – but I often ask them what the EU lacks. They answer that it lacks brains..”

• EU ‘Lacks Brains’ – Putin (RT)

The EU lacks leaders who act based on the national interests of their countries, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. He also claimed that the bloc’s current economic policies are devised by people with insufficient expertise who are guided by “vassalage” to the US. “When I talk to my colleagues and experts – I don’t want to offend anyone – but I often ask them what the EU lacks. They answer that it lacks brains,” Putin said at the Valdai International Discussion Club in the Russian Black Sea city of Sochi on Thursday. “It is not that they are stupid, but that the decisions in the economic sphere are made by politicians who have nothing to do with the economy,” the Russian leader stated. As a result, the steps taken by the bloc, such as anti-Russia sanctions, are “politicized, ill-considered, and baseless,” he added. We see that many European countries – and almost all NATO members – they take steps that work to the detriment of their own interests and only benefit US politics and economy.

Putin mentioned former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, whom he praised for acting “solely” in the interests of the German people. He cited one such example as being the construction of the Nord Stream pipelines, through which Russia supplied gas to Germany until their partial destruction due to sabotage in September 2022. “Schroeder did not do that in the interests of Russia, did not do it in order to create conditions for us to obtain economic benefits, but solely in the interests of the German people, fighting to ensure that the best conditions for the supplies,” Putin stated. Schroeder “deliberately risked his political career” by making decisions “completely unpopular” among his peers, Putin added. The Russian leader lamented that “very few” politicians in Germany or the broader EU can do that today, arguing that this is why their economies are in a state of crisis.

The Russian leader also criticized EU politicians for abandoning Russian gas amid sanctions linked with the Ukraine conflict. This is “incomprehensible,” Putin said, as these same politicians “made so much noise” about their green goals, only to seek alternative supply sources and restart coal plants amid the energy crisis that resulted from their actions. Putin stressed that the bloc needs more politicians such as Schroeder, who “have their own opinion,” are “consistent” in their policies, and act in the interests of the people. “People see what’s really happening. If the gap between the ruling elites who are guided by other’s interests and the bulk of the population increases, nationally oriented political forces will grow… Everything will eventually lead to a weakening of this vassalage [to the US],” he stated.

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“Russia received 37 bodies, while handing Ukraine 563.” “The lopsided numbers point the real ratio of casualties on the battlefield, multiple Russian media outlets have said..”

• Russian And Ukrainian Officials Meet In Belarus (RT)

Delegations from Moscow and Kiev have met in Belarus to exchange bodies of the fallen and discuss humanitarian matters, Russian Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova has revealed. The last time Moskalkova met with her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmitry Lubinets, was in January 2023. “We exchanged lists of persons visited by mutual consent and letters from prisoners to their relatives, and also discussed further humanitarian cooperation in providing assistance to civilians, including establishing the location and reunification of families, and mutual visits to prisoners,” Moskalkova said on Friday, in a statement posted on Telegram.

One family reunification has already taken place. Anna Kondratyevna, a 91-year-old resident of Cherkasy Region, was brought to Belarus so she could be transferred to Russia and be taken care of by her family there. “Her son asked us for help in transferring his mother to Russia, where he could look after her,” Moskalkova said, noting that the Ukrainian side agreed, but the situation was complicated by the fact that Kondratyevna could not move independently.The meeting in Belarus was also used to exchange the remains of fallen soldiers. Russia received 37 bodies, while handing Ukraine 563.

Among the remains handed over to Ukraine were the bodies of 62 POWs killed in January this year, when a Russian Il-76 transport airplane was shot down over Belgorod Region by Ukraine’s US-supplied Patriot missiles. The lopsided numbers point the real ratio of casualties on the battlefield, multiple Russian media outlets have said. Moskalkova announced a pending meeting with Lubinets in mid-October, without revealing its time and place. She said at the time that the talks would address the condition of detention of prisoners, allegations of torture, and the fate of civilians forcibly relocated by Ukrainian invaders in Russia’s Kursk Region.

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Making Europe poorer is a deliberate policy.

• The Colonization of Europe By The United States (Vasco)

Former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi recently presented a comprehensive report to the European Union that demonstrates how Europeans are falling behind Americans – and even Asians – on key issues of economic development. While in 1990, GDP per capita in the United States was 16% higher than in the eurozone, by 2023 that gap had already grown to more than 30%. This means that Americans are increasingly richer than Europeans. But the gap between the richest men in the United States and Europe is also widening. Only 10% of high-tech entrepreneurs in the top 30 and top 500 of the market capitalization rankings are European. By comparison, 73% in the first and 56% in the second are American. These new figures once again reveal the economic devastation of Europe. And its origins are directly linked to American power. By the 1930s, the United States had lost all the advantage it had gained over its European competitors at the end of World War I.

Europe was devastated and Washington had emerged as the world’s great economic superpower. However, the 1929 crisis brought this strength to an end. The Great Depression seemed to have put an end to the American dream. Just as World War I was a dispute between imperialist powers over the world market, the future World War II needed to be unleashed so that the Americans could regain control – partially lost to Germany and Japan in the wake of the 1930s crisis. Franklin D. Roosevelt led the reorganization of the American economy, vastly expanding federal spending and making large public investments thanks to a dictatorial centralization of economic power in the hands of a small corporate monopoly. The result was an unimaginable increase in industrial production – focused almost exclusively on the war. Pearl Harbor came in very handy: it was the excuse the regime needed to eliminate opposition to its entry into the conflict.

Between 1941 and 1944, U.S. war production more than tripled, and by 1944 its factories were producing twice as much as Germany, Italy and Japan. American industrial production served two intertwined strategic objectives: to destroy Europe and to rebuild it in its image and likeness. The U.S. equipped Britain with the weapons needed to confront Germany, and both carried out an intense bombing campaign with the explicit intention of destroying the German economy, the industrial engine of Europe. Almost 2.7 million tons of bombs were dropped on Germany and the Nazi-occupied regions of other countries, particularly France and Belgium (completing the industrial heartland of Europe). American and British aerial bombings killed 305,000 Germans, injured almost 800,000, totally or partially destroyed 5.5 million homes, and left 20 million without essential public services.

It was genocide. Added to the immediate slaughter of 330,000 civilians in Japan by the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the U.S. bombings took the lives of 635,000 people. The U.S. destruction of Europe was a big deal that benefited the United States decisively in securing its total supremacy in the new postwar world order. The deficit of foreign countries in 1946-47 was more than $19 billion. The U.S., which was intact, offered loans to begin the reconstruction of Europe as a soft form of colonization, while at the same time punishing those countries severely. In the words of the unsuspecting establishment historian Arthur S. Link, “the American government, even during the bitter days of Reconstruction, had never taken such terrible revenge on former enemies.” The German people and institutions were reformed “in the image of the United States.”

The Truman Doctrine and, mainly, the Marshall Plan, were the pillars of the U.S.’s post-World War II policy of colonizing Europe: the first transformed all of Western Europe and part of its southeast into a huge American military base, through NATO, policing the politics of these countries. The second began as a clientelist policy, granting handouts to starving Europeans (11 billion dollars) that were later returned with interest, beginning the process of economic, political and social dependence on Europe. Between 1948 and 1951, another 12 billion dollars had been spent in this regard.

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“The viral infection is like the common cold now,” McCullough said. “So they’re not clinically indicated. They’re not medically necessary..”

• Dr. Peter McCullough Calls On Trump To Remove The Covid-19 Vaccine (JTN)

Prominent cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough on Thursday called on president-elect Donald Trump to pull the COVID-19 vaccine from the marketplace. “The COVID-19 vaccine should be pulled from the market,” he said. “They have not had the safety track record America wanted to see.” He added that many who have taken the COVID-19 vaccine have suffered injuries from the vaccine, got disabilities or even died. Numerous lawmakers and doctors have expressed concern about the safety of the vaccine and whether the federal government and vaccine makers fully disclosed the risks.

In January, Florida’s top doctor called for the halt of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine use. “The viral infection is like the common cold now,” McCullough said. “So they’re not clinically indicated. They’re not medically necessary. They should be removed from the market.” The Centers for Disease and Prevention has addressed concerns about “adverse events” related to the vaccines, saying they “meet the Food and Drug Administration’s standards for safety and effectiveness” and that only in “rare cases” have people experienced serious health events as a result of getting an initial shot or booster.

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“Does this explain why Sweden, which only joined NATO this year, was the only country in Europe to adopt a more lenient policy during the coronavirus crisis?”

• Dutch Health Minister Admits Covid is a Military Operation” (PCR)

The Dutch Health Minister has revealed a damning fact about the Covid Deception: The Dutch Minister of Health revealed that Covid was a far worse and far larger public deception than critics have realized. It was “a military operation” against the people. This is not a conspiracy theory. This is real. In the Netherlands, the Covid release program was run by the intelligence agency NCTV. One of the first to comment on Agema’s appearance on X was Woo researcher Cees van den Bos. Under the heading “the coup d’etat,” he characterized the NCTV as a “bamiluk” of NATO: “This country will only be free if the NCTV is completely abolished and these kinds of shadow governments never get a foothold again. This is the biggest obstacle that stands in the way of a democracy,” he said. He added that there is no control over the NCTV: “The NCTV has carte blanche, as has been shown during corona.”

According to Van den Bos, people who think corona is over (“let’s stop talking about it”) are waiting for another hard “reality check.” He thanked Agema for her “candor.” Van den Bos previously pointed out – also in this newspaper – that the NCTV was in charge during the coronavirus crisis, in the person of Pieter-Jaap Aalbersberg, who had succeeded Dick Schoof as NCTV boss in early 2019. At the end of 2022, Van den Bos accused the NCTV of having committed a “coup d’etat.” The crisis management was almost everywhere in the hands of the military and intelligence services, and in our country it rested with the NCTV. In addition to the day-to-day management of the crisis organization, the NCTV even counted it as its task to coordinate the parliamentary process (“timing and mutual congruence”). The intelligence service set up a separate team for this, according to a report from mid-March 2020.

Commenting on the parliamentary vote, it said: “Ambition and agreement are not surprising.” It was likely intended to prevent unexpected motions or amendments to new legislation. In early 2023, journalist Elze van den Hamelen described NATO’s role in this newspaper, based on investigative work by Van den Bos: “The documents show that since at least 2019, more than a year before the coronavirus pandemic, the government has set up a large organization to “combat disinformation.” The initiative for this came from NATO and the EU, Van den Bos shows: “It was a military operation aimed at its own population. Not to turn people off, but to influence their behavior.” During the coronavirus pandemic, NATO set the guidelines for the covid response and coordinated the “Stratcom” (strategic communications). “The guidelines were circulated through the member states’ foreign ministers.” Does this explain why Sweden, which only joined NATO this year, was the only country in Europe to adopt a more lenient policy during the coronavirus crisis?

Critics from the medical world have meanwhile reacted sharply to Agema’s revelation, including medical ethicist Wendy Mittemeijer: “For the first time in four years, I hear a public admission that the NCTV was in charge during the corona crisis, and that it had to be carried out. It was a military operation. This was not allowed to be said for four years. That was a conspiracy theory. I appreciate the honesty of the minister, that this is being admitted and that he was not in charge. The news of Agema also fits in with what Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly stated about the production of the coronavirus vaccines in the US. According to him, this was a military operation, with close involvement of the US Department of Defense (DOD) and the military-industrial complex. Defense, according to him, was in full charge and paid pharmaceutical companies for their brand names, so people would think they were getting something from Pfizer or Moderna.

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RFK vaccines

 

 

Fire escape

 

 

Pelican

 

 

Wolf attack

 

 

Geese(?!)

 

 

 

 

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