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Debt Rattle November 8 2024

Nov 082024
 
 November 8, 2024  Posted by at 9:44 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  75 Responses »


Berthe Morisot Julie and her boat1884

 

• Trump’s Got the Mandate: Now He’s Going to Have to Walk the Talk (Sp.)
• Trump’s First Day in Office (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Trump Win Signals ‘Historic Realignment’ (Wegmann)
• How The Trump Election Impacts the Supreme Court (Turley)
• Trumpquake (Pepe Escobar)
• Putin Congratulates ‘Courageous’ Trump (RT)
• Steve Bannon Goes Scorched Earth On Democrats On Election Night (ZH)
• The Guardian Offers Free Therapy To Journalists After Trump Win – Media (RT)
• Polymarket Vindicated After Trump Landslide (ZH)
• Why Trump Won The Election, And What He May Do Now (Amar)
• Trump Cabinet To Push For ‘Freezing’ Ukraine Conflict – WSJ (RT)
• Sturgess Post-Mortem: No Novichok Found Until Government Ordered It (Helmer)
• “Punitive Front” In Kursk Shows There Is No Future For Ukrainian Forces (SCF)
• German PM Scholz Blames Ukraine Aid For Government Collapse (RT)
• EU Could Face Gas Shortages – FT (RT)
• NATO Knows Ukraine Is Losing – Foreign Policy (RT)

 

 

 

 

JD

God voted three months ago

Rogan

RFK
https://twitter.com/i/status/1854115060001419617

Trump 2020

Baris

Susie

State Fair
https://twitter.com/i/status/1854335056363356177

Musk JD

Simpsons
https://twitter.com/i/status/1854714961630544213

Stone

 

 

 

 

“..Tulsi Gabbard was right, that there was no substance to Kamala Harris, who, depending on the day of the week and the face of the moon is either an Indian from South Asia or she is black or she’s something else entirely different..”

• Trump’s Got the Mandate: Now He’s Going to Have to Walk the Talk (Sp.)

Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris on Tuesday, winning the popular vote and helping Republicans keep and solidify their control of Congress. When he returns to Washington in January, Trump will have to make good on his promises if he wants to be a positive force for change, a US diplomat-turned-whistleblower and political analyst told Sputnik. “The Republicans have the presidency. The Republicans have both houses of Congress. And the time for talk, the time for posturing is over. He’s got to take action from the start,” former US diplomat Michael Springmann told Sputnik, commenting on the Republicans’ surprise electoral sweep. “He’s got to stop the war against the Russian Federation using Ukraine as a pawn. He’s got to stop the crazed Zionists in occupied Palestine from their genocide and the destruction of Lebanon and Syria and Iraq,” Springmann, who famously blew the whistle on the State Department after refusing to issue visas to CIA-backed terrorists linked to Osama bin Laden in a Gulf country in the 1980s, said.

In his post-election victory speech after midnight Wednesday morning, Trump reiterated his campaign promises to “stop wars.” “We wanna have borders. We wanna have security. We wanna have things be good, safe,” the president-elect said. “We had no wars. Except we defeated ISIS*, we defeated ISIS in record time. But we had no wars. They said ‘he will start a war’. I’m not going to start a war. I’m going to stop wars,” Trump said, echoing sentiments expressed in his January 2021 farewell address, in which he said he was “especially proud to be the first president in decades who started no new wars.” At home, “the sooner he can take action and put an end to this Democratic Party’s decades long effort to engage in discrimination and press their buttons for diversity, equity and inclusivity, which translates into reality as being biased and prejudice and a thumb on the scales,” the better, the observer said.

“We have got to get together and take action to fix this country, which is terribly broken and is run by an oligarchy manifesting itself through the Deep State and which controls just about everything in the country, including the media machine, which essentially is brainwashing without soap,” he added. Replacing Biden with Harris proved a big mistake for Democrats, Springmann said. “She was a nonentity. She couldn’t win a single presidential primary four years ago. She was a vicious prosecutor, bringing the whole weight of the state in California down on the backs of small-time petty criminals. She postured, she cackled, she smirked. And she demonstrated conclusively that Tulsi Gabbard was right, that there was no substance to Kamala Harris, who, depending on the day of the week and the face of the moon is either an Indian from South Asia or she is black or she’s something else entirely different,” he summed up.

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“Trump is old in years but not in spirit and stressed by eight years of persecution. That stress is about to intensify.”

• Trump’s First Day in Office (Paul Craig Roberts)

Well, we finally have an American back in the White House. The night after Trump was declared the winner, I had a fantasy dream about his first day in office. Trump pardoned Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, and appointed Assange to head the FCC and Snowden to head the NSA. Derek Chauvin and the police officers who were falsely indicted and falsely convicted by a corrupt judge and prosecutor who withheld from the trial and jury evidence proving their innocence were pardoned and awarded $25 million each in compensation for their wrongful conviction in one of the worst failures of justice in history. The media monopolies were broken up for violating the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and for violating the fairness doctrine and weaponizing the air waves for political purposes. The NSA was cleaned up and stopped from warrantless spying on US citizens and violation of their privacy by storing their emails, credit card and internet activities.

All the attorneys who were falsely accused and some convicted of interfering with an election by reporting documented instances of Democrat election fraud were pardoned. All victims of the corrupt and politicized Biden Justice (sic) department, such as the Americans who were sent to prison by the corrupt Merrick Garland for exercising their First Amendment rights, were pardoned and awarded $10 million each in compensation. The entire Biden Justice (sic) Department was arrested and indicted for violating their oath of office to protect the Constitution of the United States. The corrupt Democrat judges and Democrat prosecutors were sanctioned and removed from office for weaponizing law to serve their political party. Former CIA director John Brennan was arrested and indicted, along with FBI director Christopher Wray for high treason for trying to frame the President of the United States.

Trump’s FDA director Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cleared Big Pharma’s operatives out of the FDA, CDC, and NIH and had criminal investigations launched of Big Pharma and Big Food’s poisoning of the American population and influence over university medical and nutritional curriculums. At the Office of Management and Budget Elon Musk cut $2.5 trillion out of the annual US budget. Hundreds of US overseas bases were closed, and entire federal agencies and departments disappeared. Tariffs were imposed on the offshored production of US corporations, forcing them to return American jobs to America. At the Pentagon recruitment and promotion were again merit-based. All race- and gender-based promotions ceased. The new Justice Department ruled that all “affirmative action” programs, all race and gender privileges are banned for being illegal under the 1964 Civil Rights Act and in violation of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.

State and local Democrat officials were compelled to stop their practice of imperiling public safety in the interest of preventing the stigmatization of non-white criminals. A ban was put on the ability of interest groups to purchase government with campaign contributions. A war was declared on lobbying in an effort to move public policies toward service to the public’s interest in place of profits to interest groups. The Department of Education and all federal aid to education was terminated.

As I began my second cup of coffee, an unsettling realization displaced remembrance of my delightful dream that truth and justice would be restored to America. Long before such a restoration project could get underway Trump and his effective appointees would be assassinated. The evil Democrats and ruling elite and their government and private institutions are still in place. So are their politicized federal judges who regard the Constitution as a barrier to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The school boards overseeing the teaching of white kids that they and their parents are racists are still there. The feminists are still in place turning white women against white men. The lie machine posing as a media is still in place. The corrupt and power-crazed federal agencies remain in place. A demoralized military officered by DEI incompetents is there to be called out against insurrectionist Trump.

The election of Trump is just the beginning of an insurrection against the anti-American forces that have been successfully assaulting our country for years. Trump without an army in place is confronted by evil with its army in place. As determined as Trump is, his chances are far from certain. If MAGA Americans think that the war is over with Trump’s election, they will be defeated by the institutionalized existing powers that be. Everything depends on Trump’s appointments. All it takes is a bad appointment of a weak man as Attorney General and the Trump insurrection is finished.

The insurrection that Trump is leading is an existential threat to the existing evil order. The ruling establishment will most certainly not fold up its tents. Already we can see the ruling elite moving to gain Trump’s confidence in George W. Bush’s congratulations to Trump on his victory. Many will be congratulatory and Trump carried away by his success can get the knife in the back. Trump actually thinks that Dick Cheney was for him but obliged his insane daughter by supporting Kamala. Other Trump opponents will start offensives against Trump on non-negotiable issues. The media will try to define the pressing problems and in that way derail Trump’s agenda. Trump is old in years but not in spirit and stressed by eight years of persecution. That stress is about to intensify.

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“He keeps going forward. He doesn’t quit. He’s the most resilient, hardworking man that I’ve ever met in my life.”

• Trump Win Signals ‘Historic Realignment’ (Wegmann)

Trump declared his candidacy immediately after the 2022 midterms, marched almost effortlessly through a crowded field of primary challengers, and secured a third consecutive presidential nomination. He did not regain his grasp on the GOP so much as he tightened his grip on that party. “I think that we just witnessed the greatest political comeback in the history of the United States of America,” Trump running mate J.D. Vance said after Tuesday’s election returns rolled in. There was no exaggeration in his words. The first time Trump won the White House, he did so as the leader of a white working-class coalition, promising those he would call in his inaugural address “the forgotten men and women” to reverse the “American carnage” brought on by deindustrialization, globalization, and unchecked immigration. The former, and now future, president did not moderate.

Opponents condemned his calls for mass deportations as “racist” and his vow to root out the ill-defined “enemy within” as “fascist.” Those denunciations ultimately had little effect. Not only did Trump maintain his support with the white working class, but he also made significant gains with both Hispanic and black voters according to early exit polls. A multi-class, multi-ethnic coalition returned him to power. One demographic at the center of that electorate: young men. Tuesday’s results amount to a repudiation, not only of Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, but also the old breed of Republicans who made common cause with corporations and harbored a neoconservative foreign policy. The most visible among them, former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, threw her support behind the Democrat. Trump’s second victory heralds a shifting political landscape that will continue sorting itself out during the presidential transition and in the four-year term to follow.

Reflecting on the breadth of his support, Trump told a crowded victory party that his winning coalition was drawn “from all quarters – union, non-union, African American, Hispanic American, Asian American, Arab American.” Surrounded by his family and campaign staff on stage, he added, “We had everybody, and it was beautiful.” “It was,” Trump added, “a historic realignment.” The Harris campaign had already headed to bed at that point. “Let’s finish up what we have in front of us tonight, get some sleep,” campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon wrote to her team in an email obtained by RealClearPolitics, “and get ready to close out strong tomorrow.” The vice president had yet to concede by mid-morning Wednesday. Famous for chiding Republican men when they talked over her – “I’m speaking” – Harris sent her campaign chairman, Cedric Richmond, on stage to tell her supporters at Howard University late Tuesday that they would not hear from her. Many left in tears. Trump World was just beginning to party.

A crowd noticeably younger than the ones Trump attracted in his two previous elections had packed into the Palm Beach Convention Center hours earlier. As their champion monitored data from nearby Mar-a-Lago, they pulled up to any of the six cash bars in the main hall. The most popular beer for the thirsty America First voter: Modelo, a lager from Mexico. The MAGA faithful were prepared for a long night. News networks warned that the results might not be known on Election Day or even the morning after, a message amplified by Democrats. And there was good reason to believe the race might come down to the wire: Trump and Harris were locked in a dead heat for much of the contest as a divided nation evaluated its options. But just as he used social media to sidestep gatekeepers eight years ago, Trump targeted new, younger voters, with a new medium: the Bro Podcast.

He talked about everything from aliens to artificial intelligence with Joe Rogan, host of “The Joe Rogan Experience.” He chopped it up on the Barstool Sports podcast “Bussin’ With the Boys,” hosted by former NFL football players Will Compton and Taylor Lewan. He asked Theo Von if he still uses cocaine (the comedian told the teetotaling president that the white powder “will turn you into a damn owl, homie”). The conversations did not resemble anything like Frost v. Nixon. Podcasts are certainly much cheaper and less serious. They were instrumental, all the same, in turning out young men who are famously low-propensity voters. Harris sought to make the race a referendum on Trump. She described him as a threat to democracy generally and an opponent of abortion rights specifically. For his part, he called illegal immigration “the biggest issue” and an inflation-addled economy “the second.” A senior Trump advisor told RCP it was “more like ‘Issue 1A and 1B,’ but immigration is one of them.”

Either way, the economic frustrations and security fears were enough to deliver Trump a majority despite the criminal indictments and felony convictions that Democrats had hoped would throttle his candidacy. Those legal challenges made Trump the symbol of conservative martyrdom. It became visceral at the fairground in Butler, Pennsylvania, this summer when an assassin’s bullet clipped his ear. The photo of the bloody Republican pumping his fist in defiance instantly became an image for the ages. “This is what happens when the machine comes after you,” bellowed Ultimate Fight Championship president Dana White from the main stage here Tuesday night. “He keeps going forward. He doesn’t quit. He’s the most resilient, hardworking man that I’ve ever met in my life.” Referring to Trump’s victory in the face of the challenges, White said, “This is karma.”

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” It is not that Harvard does not resemble America, it does not even resemble Massachusetts in its virtual purging of conservative or Republican professors.”

• How The Trump Election Impacts the Supreme Court (Turley)

In 1937, it was said that a critical shift of one justice in a case ended the move to pack the Court by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It was said that it was “a shift in time saves nine.” In 2024, a shift in the Senate may have had the same impact. Trump’s victory means that absent a renewal of the court-packing scheme and other extreme measures of the left, the Court will remain unchanged institutionally for at least a decade. The expectation is that Associate Justice Clarence Thomas could use this perfect time to retire and ensure that his seat will be filled with a fellow conservative jurist. Justice Samuel Alito may also consider this a good time for a safe harbor departure. They have a couple of years before they reach the redline for nominations before the next election.

The election means that court-packing schemes are now effectively scuttled despite the support of Democratic senators like Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D., R.I.). Given Kamala Harris’s reported support, the Supreme Court dodged one of the greatest threats to its integrity in its history. The impact on the law will also be pronounced. Returning the issue of abortion to the states will remain unchanged. A younger generation will grow up in a country where the voters of each state are allowed to determine what limits to place on abortions. Likewise, gun rights and religious rights will continue to be robustly protected. The checks on the administrative state are also likely to be strengthened. Pushes for wealth taxes and other measures will likely receive an even more skeptical court.

The possible appointment of two new justices would likely give Trump a total of five to six nominees on the court. Liberals previously insisted that it was time for Justice Sonia Sotomayor to leave the Court, a campaign that I opposed. The appointment of seven of the nine justices by a single president would be unprecedented. (I expect, as with the calls to “end the filibuster” as undemocratic, the liberal campaign to push Sotomayor to retire ended around 2:30 am on Tuesday night). Trump has shown commendable judgment in his prior nominations. All three—Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett—are extraordinary jurists who have already created considerable legacies. I testified at Neil Gorsuch’s Senate confirmation hearing and still consider him one of the most consequential and brilliant additions to the Court in decades.

These justices were subjected to appalling treatment during their confirmation process, including attacks on Barrett for her adopting Haitian children. New Trump nominees can expect the same scorched-earth campaign from the media and the left, but they will have a reliable Senate majority for confirmation. These justices have shown the intellect and integrity that bring credit to the Court, including each voting in key cases with their liberal colleagues when their principles demanded it. Trump can cement his legacy by continuing that legacy over the next four years with nominees of the same caliber. In this way, the election may prove the key moment in ending one of the most threatening periods of the Court’s existence. With the loss of the control of the Senate, the push for new limits on the Court and calls for investigations of conservative justices will subside for now. However, the rage in the media and academia will only likely increase.

Both media and academic commentators pushed for sweeping constitutional changes, including packing the Court or curtailing its jurisdiction. Many saw the Harris-Walz Administration as the vehicle for such extreme measures. Harris herself pledged to “reform” the Court. Some liberals figures even called for the dissolution of the Court and other radical changes. I recently debated a Harvard professor at Harvard Law School on the lack of free speech and intellectual diversity at the school. I noted that Harvard had more than 75 percent of the faculty self-identified as “liberal” or “very liberal.” Only 5 percent identified as “conservative,” and only 0.4% as “very conservative.” It is not that Harvard does not resemble America, it does not even resemble Massachusetts in its virtual purging of conservative or Republican professors.

We just had a country where the majority of voters chose Donald Trump. Among law school faculty who donated more than $200 to a political party, 91 percent of the Harvard faculty gave to Democrats. Yet, the professor rejected the idea that Harvard faculty or its students should look like America (only 7 percent of incoming students identified as conservative). So, while the Supreme Court has a strong majority of conservatives and roughly half of the federal judges are conservative, Harvard law students will continue to be taught by professors who overwhelmingly reject those values, and some even reject “constitutionalism.”

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“We will defeat the West in Ukraine – without resorting to ultimate means.”

• Trumpquake (Pepe Escobar)

On the political Richter scale, that was a killer – literally. What was supposed to be a Liberal Totalitarian Show was brutally, unceremoniously, swept out of the park – any park. Even before Election Day, critical thinking was aware of the stakes. With fraud, Kamala wins. With no fraud, Trump wins. There were, at best, (failed) attempts at fraud. The key question still remains: what does the U.S. Deep State really want? My inbox is infested with loads of weepy reports from U.S. Think Tankland wondering, in disbelief, why Kamala could possibly lose. It’s quite straightforward – apart from her sheer incompetence cum utter mediocrity literally cackling out loud. The legacy of the administration she was part of is ghastly – all the way from Crash Test Dummy to Little Butcher Blinkie.

Instead of bothering to care about the abysmal state of affairs, at every level, concerning that mythical entity, “the American people”, they chose to invest everything on a neocon-manufactured proxy war to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Russia – stealing Russian assets, unleashing a tsunami of sanctions, shipping an array of wunderwaffen. The weaponization of Ukraine led to countless Ukrainian dead and the inevitable, fast-approaching cosmic humiliation of NATO in the black soil of Novorossiya. They invested everything to support a genocide in Gaza conducted with a huge arsenal of American weapons: a lebensraum-coded ethnic cleansing cum extermination op directed by a bunch of Talmudic psychos – and marketed under the “rules-based international order” spewed out by Butcher Blinkie in every bilateral or multilateral gathering.

It’s no wonder that West Asia and the wider Global South soon got the message of what may happen to anyone daring to go against the Hegemon’s “interests”. Thus the counterpunch: the strengthening of BRICS and BRICS+, celebrated for all the world to see two weeks ago in Kazan. At least this administration had a merit, strengthening the bonds between all major “existential threats” to the Hegemon: three BRICS (Russia, China, Iran), plus the indomitable DPRK. All that in contrast with a meager tactical victory – which may not last long: the absolute vassalization of Europe. Of course, foreign policy does not win U.S. elections. Americans themselves will have to solve their dilemmas, or plunge into civil war. As for the bulk of the Global Majority, it harbors no illusions.

Trumpquake’s coded message is that the Zionist lobby wins – again. Perhaps not so unanimously when we consider all strands of neo-cons and Zio-cons. Wall Street wins again (BlackRock’s Larry Fink said so even before Election Day). And prominent silos across the Deep State also win again. That begs a modified question; what if Trump feels emboldened enough after January 25 to launch a Stalinist purge of the Deep State? Election Day proceeded nearly simultaneously with the Valdai Club annual meeting in Sochi, where the superstar, not surprisingly, was eminent geopolitician Sergey Karaganov. Of course he directly referred to the Empire’s Forever Wars: “We are living in biblical times.” And even before Trumpquake, Karaganov stressed, calmly, “We will defeat the West in Ukraine – without resorting to ultimate means.”

And that “will provide for a peaceful withdrawal of the U.S. – which will become a normal superpower.” Europe, meanwhile, “will move to the sidelines of History.” All of that spot on. But then Karaganov introduced a startling concept: “The war in Ukraine is a replacement of WWIII. Afterwards, we can agree on some kind of order in Eurasia.” That would be the “indivisibility of security” proposed by Putin to Washington – and rejected – on December 2021, part of the “Greater Eurasia Partnership” that was conceptualized by Karaganov himself. The problem though is his conclusion: “Let’s make the Ukrainian war the last major war in the 21st century.” Ay, there’s the rub: the real major war is actually Eretz Israel v. the Axis of Resistance in West Asia.

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“..when then-candidate Trump rose to his feet and raised his fist after a bullet grazed his ear. “I was impressed. He’s a courageous person..”

“..he is open to receiving a phone call from Trump, adding that “it wouldn’t be beneath me to call him myself.”

• Putin Congratulates ‘Courageous’ Trump (RT)

Russian President Vladimir Putin has congratulated Donald Trump on his electoral victory and confirmed that he is ready to talk with the US president-elect. Putin hailed Trump’s “courageous” response to the attempt to assassinate him in July. Speaking at a meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club in the southern Russian city of Sochi on Thursday, Putin said that he wished to “offer my congratulations on [Trump’s] election as president of the United States.” Putin noted that Trump has expressed a desire to end the Ukraine conflict, and that such statements “deserve attention, at the very least.” The Russian president then paid tribute to Trump’s actions during an attempt on his life in Pennsylvania this summer, when then-candidate Trump rose to his feet and raised his fist after a bullet grazed his ear. “I was impressed. He’s a courageous person,” Putin said.

“A person shows their true color in these emergencies, and I think he acquitted himself admirably and in a valiant fashion as a man.” Hours earlier, the Kremlin denied reports that Putin had sent a private congratulatory message to Trump, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov telling reporters that the US is “an unfriendly country that is directly and indirectly involved in the war against us.” However, Putin said that he is open to receiving a phone call from Trump, adding that “it wouldn’t be beneath me to call him myself.” Trump has repeatedly promised to bring the Ukraine conflict to a swift end, although he has offered little explanation as to how he would achieve this. Vice President-elect J.D. Vance and unnamed aides quoted in American media have suggested that Kiev could abandon its territorial claims and hopes of NATO membership in exchange for peace, with the conflict frozen along the current line of contact.

Moscow maintains that any settlement must begin with Ukraine ceasing military operations and acknowledging the “territorial reality” that it will never regain control of the regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye, as well as Crimea. In addition, the Kremlin insists that the goals of its military operation – which include Ukrainian neutrality, demilitarization, and denazification – will be achieved. Should Trump push to freeze the conflict and deny NATO membership to Ukraine, and should Putin accept this plan, “the likelihood that [Ukrainian leader Vladimir] Zelensky will refuse is close to zero,” a source close to Zelensky told Ukrainian media earlier on Thursday. Ukraine “is not in a position to refuse its main partner, without whose support it will be almost impossible to continue the war,” the source said.

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He has a right to speak. He spent 4 months in prison for these clowns.

• Steve Bannon Goes Scorched Earth On Democrats On Election Night (ZH)

Steve Bannon took to his livestream on election day, just hours after leaving prison for contempt of congress charges, to offer up his take on the landslide victory President Trump was in the midst of at the time. Speaking about Democrats, Bannon exclaimed: “You stole the 2020 election. You’ve mocked and ridiculed and put people in prison and broken people’s lives because you said this thing was stolen. This entire phony thing is getting swept out. Biden’s getting swept out. Kamala Harris is getting swept out.” “MSNBC is getting swept out. The Justice Department [DOJ] is getting swept out. The FBI is getting swept out. You people suck, okay? And now you’re going to pay the price for trying to destroy this country.” “And we’re going to get to the bottom of where are the 600,000 votes. You manufactured them to steal this election from President Trump in 2020,” Bannon exclaimed.

“Think of where the country would be if we hadn’t gone through the last 4 years of your madness. You don’t deserve any respect, you don’t deserve any empathy and you don’t deserve any pity,” he said. “And if anybody gives it to you it’s Donald J. Trump because he’s got a big heart and he’s a good man. A good man you’re going to still try and put in prison on the 26th of this month, this is how much you people suck,” Bannon said. “You tried to destroy his business and he came back in the greatest show of political courage in world history,” Bannon exclaimed. “What he has done is a profile in courage.”

“No one speaks for the President but the president, and what the president said and as he said it last night on the stage is that he’s going to be a president for everybody, and we’ve got an opportunity right now to unify the country to bring this country back together,” Lewandowski, a senior adviser on Trump’s 2024 campaign, responded to The Hill. “Listen, there’s going to be a lot of hyperbole out there; there’s going to be a lot of people saying they know Donald Trump or speak for him,” he said. “Unless you hear it from Donald Trump, you don’t have to listen to what these other people say.”

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Not fit to be journalists, then.

• The Guardian Offers Free Therapy To Journalists After Trump Win – Media (RT)

The Guardian has offered its journalists free counseling and mental health support to help them process Donald Trump’s win in the US election, according to an internal email seen by Guido Fawkes, a British political gossip blog. Written by editor-in-chief Katharine Viner, the email was sent to the liberal paper’s employees on Wednesday, Guido Fawkes claimed. “I know the result has been very upsetting for many colleagues,” Viner wrote. “Our US teams in particular have covered the election with brilliant reporting…They will be most directly affected by the result. If you’re not in the US, do contact your American colleagues to offer your support.” “It’s upsetting for many others, too,” she continued.

“If you want to talk about it, your manager and members of the leadership team are all available, as the People team. There is also free access to free support services, which I’ve outlined at the end of this email.” The Guardian’s British staff were told that they can avail themselves of a 24/7 online general practitioner, mental health support, and “virtual wellbeing tools.” Staff in Australia were told that they can access “confidential, impartial professional counseling and support.” “Something tells Guido all the counseling in the world won’t cure them of Trump Derangement Syndrome,” the gossip site joked.

Trump won a resounding victory against Kamala Harris on Tuesday, defeating the vice president in all seven battleground states and winning the popular vote – a feat not achieved by a Republican since George W. Bush beat John Kerry in 2004. Harris underperformed President Joe Biden’s 2020 result in all 3,144 US counties, while Trump dramatically increased his support from black, Latino, and young voters across the US, particularly males. The Guardian is not the only institution whose employees apparently need therapy after the election. Dow Constantine, the chief executive of King County in the US state of Washington, emailed county employees on Wednesday offering “emotional support” services, while Harvard University Dean Rakesh Khurana canceled classes to give students “space to process” the results.

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The polling firms became political actors. Until the last moment they kept saying it was a very close race. It never was.

• Polymarket Vindicated After Trump Landslide (ZH)

The 2024 election was truly a contest between traditional polling and betting markets; so-called nominative opinion polls cast through betting websites such as Peter Thiel-backed Polymarket. and Kalshi, where decentralized groups of individuals were able to wager on various contests in a hyper-efficient free market (notwithstanding regulators’ best efforts to limit access). The day before the election, Bloomberg wrote: “Election Gambling Markets Face Their Moment of Truth”. The prevailing wisdom on Wall Street is that prediction markets have an edge over polls because participants are economically motivated to incorporate every drip of new information faster. Between a single forecasting model and the wisdom of a crowd that has digested all that information, the latter might reasonably do better. After the election, the outlet noted that betting markets were thoroughly vindicated after the election – writing: “Trump Win Boosts Prediction Markets That Nailed Election Outcome”.

“These markets will run the world,” said Thomas Peterffy, the billionaire founder of Interactive Brokers. “People tend to say what they want, but in these markets, they will bet the way they think the outcome will occur, not what they want the outcome to be. It takes the emotion out of these questions.” Perhaps the most notable aspect of this year’s betting markets was a French trader who walked away with an estimated $85 million – betting on a Trump win using as 11 accounts on Polymarket. “Last night, Polymarket proved the wisdom of markets over the polls, the media, and the pundits,” Polymarket posted on X, after the platform “Polymarket consistently and accurately forecasted outcomes well ahead of all three, demonstrating the power of high volume, deeply liquid prediction markets like those pioneered by Polymarket.”

On Thursday, Polymarket CEO Shane Coplan appeared on CNBC, where he explained “I think the thing that people get wrong about Polymarket, the thing I wish people would understand better—and maybe now that they’re more open-minded to it—is that if someone takes a really big position on Trump, for example, there’s someone on the other side, a counterparty. It’s all peer-to-peer. “There’s a big position being taken on Harris. And because of that, when you see the odds on Polymarket, it’s not a function of how much money was put on either side. It’s a function of the market price at that moment. It’s the tightest spread for this market in the world. And I think when you think about it like that, a trade someone made two weeks ago doesn’t have bearing on what the market price is right now. So, all I can say is I understand that it’s a novel concept, and people were skeptical when it came around, but hopefully, people will be more embracing of market-based information.”

When host Joe Kernen asked if Polymarket could be manipulated, Coplan replied: “If there’s uninformed flow or price-insensitive flow, people will take that risk. Granted, it’s up to the market to interpret a lot of that flow. If there’s a large influx of flow—whether informed or uninformed—that’s a function of the markets working. “As we saw this time around, right, this was someone with an infinite bankroll and they didn’t push the market up that much. And they had done a lot of research and had non-consensus information.” “The thing that is undeniable was that on the night of the election, Polymarket was the first destination to basically convey that Trump had won. It was a good two, three hours ahead of the media,” Coplan added.

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“He is a textbook narcissist..” ? No, he’s not.

• Why Trump Won The Election, And What He May Do Now (Amar)

Donald Trump has won the US election. After serving as the 45th president between 2017 and 2021, he will now be the 47th. Trump has not merely defeated but trounced his opponent Kamala Harris. She was crushed so badly, she even failed to address her supporters at the traditional election party and instead – there’s really no nicer word for it – slunk away. Claiming his victory, meanwhile, Trump told his voters that they – and he, of course – had “made history.” He is very likely to be right about that. While rhetoric about “the most important election in our lifetime” has been badly overused for campaigning purposes, in this case, Trump’s second victory really is special. The fact that he is the first president since the 1880s to win a second term after being out of office is the least of it. Such trivia will make for good game-show questions. But what turns the return of the Donald – as he used to be called semi-affectionately when still generally mistaken for a buffoon – into a historic event is that it is occurring at a very peculiar moment.

We are witnessing the decline and fall of, at least, American supremacy, and, possibly, of the American polity as we know it. At the same time, a multipolar world order is emerging. It is against that background of historic change that we have to understand the Trump Phenomenon. And a capital-‘P’ Phenomenon it is. That much is beyond doubt. Full disclosure: I have almost no sympathy for Trump’s politics; and since I am a socialist, he would be very unlikely to have any for mine. But whoever is still in denial about the fact that the uncouth and stubborn real-estate billionaire and former reality TV star is a natural-born politician of outstanding savvy is a fool. That gift makes Trump neither good nor bad; it simply means that his impact will continue to be massive. Regarding the past, we may have gotten a little too used to Trump already and find it hard to recall just how sensational his trajectory has been.

As a reminder, a very brief summary: Since 2011, he has broken into the US political system from the margins, imposing himself on its traditional elites. He has catalyzed the transformation of that system and those elites, not only but especially of its (very) right-wing section, the Republican Party, into his personal domain. He has held one presidency for a full term – as many predicted he would not – against enormous media and deep-state resistance (including the mass idiocy of Russia Rage/”Russiagate”). And now “the twice-impeached semi-pariah” of 2021 has staged a formidable comeback against even more of the same, this time featuring a combination of assassination attempts and total lawfare, including felony convictions that turned out not to matter (except they helped him fire up his base and donors). You neither have to like nor admire the man to register the plain fact that the above is the imprint of very unusual political talent because no one is just that lucky.

And all the signs are that Trump is far from done. Because, make no mistake, he has not run for the presidency again merely to take his revenge for being defeated in 2020 and harassed ever after. He is a textbook narcissist, and the sheer pleasure of showing them all certainly matters to him. But, still, it is nothing more than the fun part. Beyond that lies an almost messianic will to principally change the US, politically and culturally (in the broadest sense of the word), including the way it relates to the rest of world. How far will Trump get with that agenda? Trumpism is certainly much more organized, as the hostile Economist grudgingly recognizes, this time around. Ultimately, though, time will tell. What is certain is that Trump will try because he is not one to rest on his laurels. Before we look at what he may do in more detail, a few words are in order about the causes of his triumph and the Democrats’ second, devastating humiliation at his hands. Some may even recall the rare predictions made in 2021 – one by this author, as it happens – that a Biden presidency could well turn into the perfect springboard for Trump’s revenge.

Others will stick to the obvious: the debilitating senescence of President Joe Biden and the shameless, as well as stupid, lying about it; the malodor exuded by the Bidens as an influence-peddling, power-hungry clan; the obstinate march of folly deep into the quagmire of a losing, wasteful proxy war against Russia via Ukraine; the clear and often brazen neglect of the interests and lives of ordinary Americans to go along with that waste; the sleazy last-minute promotion to the top of the ticket of Vice President Kamala Harris, a careerist who has never won a primary and offered a bizarre mix of what sometimes looked like somewhat substance-enhanced “joy” and embarrassingly empty rhetorical hogwash even by US standards; her transparent shortsighted and painfully desperate play to the right, roping in neocon liabilities such as the Cheneys and mistaking them for assets. And, overshadowing it all, abetting – really co-perpetrating – Israel’s crimes, including genocide and every war crime and crime against humanity ever codified, as part of the administration of “Genocide” Joe Biden.

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“..the US could help resolve the Ukraine conflict since it is the one fueling it..”

• Trump Cabinet To Push For ‘Freezing’ Ukraine Conflict – WSJ (RT)

Donald Trump’s team is considering several potential plans to end the Ukraine conflict, which would require Kiev to drop its plans to join NATO in the foreseeable future and freeze hostilities along the current front line, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing sources. Trump, who defeated his Democratic rival Kamala Harris in the presidential election, has repeatedly vowed to end hostilities between Moscow and Kiev within 24 hours, even before being sworn into office. According to officials and aides familiar with the situation, the Trump team does not yet have a detailed plan, with different factions “set to compete to influence the Republican’s foreign policy.” Such “traditionally minded” Trump allies as Mike Pompeo, who served as secretary of state and CIA director during the president-elect’s first term, are reportedly pushing for a deal that “doesn’t appear to give a major win to Moscow.”

Other figures, such as Richard Grenell, who could become Trump’s national security adviser, may advocate for ending the conflict as soon as possible, even if Kiev has to make significant concessions, the article said. However, according to the WSJ, peace proposals “uniformly recommend freezing the war in place… and forcing Ukraine to temporarily suspend its quest to join” NATO. Three unnamed officials inside Trump’s transition office told the paper that one idea is to have Ukraine pledge not to join NATO “for at least 20 years,” while in exchange, the US would provide Kiev with ample weapons deliveries to keep Russia at bay. The reported plan would also establish a demilitarized zone along the current front line, with one Trump adviser ruling out the possibility that peace there would be maintained by American troops or US-funded international organizations such as the UN.

Under this proposal, the US would seek to delegate this task to its European allies, according to the WSJ. “We can do training and other support but the barrel of the gun is going to be European,” the paper’s source said. “We are not sending American men and women to uphold peace in Ukraine. And we are not paying for it. Get the Poles, Germans, British and French to do it.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that the US could help resolve the Ukraine conflict since it is the one fueling it, insisting that Moscow is “open to contacts and dialogue.” Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has ruled out “bargaining” over the country’s sovereignty or “trading” the territories Kiev claims as its own.

Read more …

Some messes are incredible.

• Sturgess Post-Mortem: No Novichok Found Until Government Ordered It (Helmer)

The single most important witness in six years of investigations into the cause of Dawn Sturgess’s death, the pathologist appointed by the government to conduct her post-mortem, has testified that he failed to discover Novichok in his eleven-hour long autopsy. Instead, his official reports from 2018 reveal that he was told to find Novichok by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), the UK chemical warfare centre at Porton Down. But he didn’t sign his name to that for more than four months after the autopsy, until November 29, 2018. The witness is Guy Rutty. He appeared in a state-censored format at the Sturgess Inquiry hearing on November 5, chaired by retired Appeal Court judge, Anthony Hughes (titled Lord Hughes of Ombersley).

In the official document releasing Sturgess’s body to her family, Rutty wrote: “The provisional cause of death following the autopsy examination is: 1a Awaiting further tests.” Rutty signed that two days after the autopsy on July 19, 2018. Sturgess’s body was then kept at Porton Down for another eleven days; evidence from the undertaker, Chris White Funeral Directors, reveals it was collected for the funeral ceremony and cremation on July 30. In Rutty’s report dated November 29, 2018, he revealed that blood testing of Sturgess on July 2, 2018, identified that she had taken a combination of illicit, potentially lethal drugs before her collapse. Rutty says these included cocaine and fentanyl. Rutty avoided disclosing the precise reports of the toxicology testing so that the dosage Sturgess had consumed of cocaine and fentanyl has been concealed.

In his official reporting Rutty used circumlocutions to conclude he couldn’t tell what drugs may have been the cause of her death. The toxicology, he said, “identified a number of therapeutic and non-therapeutic drugs to be present. Although I have not been provided [sic] with the levels of the drugs identified, I am not aware [sic] that there is any indication [sic] to suggest that the deceased’s collapse was a direct [sic] result of the action of either a therapeutic or illicit drug.”. Sic marks the evasions. In the Anglo-American law and court practice for suspicious death cases, this is the point at which evidence is either inadmissible for the prosecution’s case or short of the required standard of beyond reasonable doubt for the judge and jury.

Rutty also qualified his conclusion on the cause of Sturgess’s death by saying: “I am of the opinion that these observations, although reported organophosphate toxicity, are not necessarily specific in their own right to organophosphate toxicity.” — line 901. In his testimony this week Rutty referred to what he had been told by the DSTL Porton Down, claiming it was “independent”. Independent of Hughes’s proceeding, Porton Down is. Independent of the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD), it is not.

“I understand,” testified Rutty, “that there is independent [sic] laboratory evidence that the deceased was exposed to Novichok and that it is considered [sic] that this was through a dermal route. Thus, I am of the opinion that the clinical presentation in terms of the signs and symptoms, as well as the in-lift laboratory tests and the tests and reports received following the autopsy examination all support that Dawn Sturgess did not collapse or die from a natural medical event, an assault or the result of a therapeutic or illicit drug overdose but rather due to the complications resulting from a cardiac arrest caused by Novichok toxicity. Having been exposed to the nerve agent Novichok…appears from the information 1 have been provided [sic] to have occurred through a dermal exposure…”

Apart from this hearsay, the only evidence made public of what Rutty was told by the DSTL Porton Down is a 2-page, partly censored summary report from Porton Down attached as an appendix to Rutty’s report. According to Porton Down, its testing of blood samples taken from Sturgess on July 2, 2018, found no specific Novichok evidence. Instead, the summary claims the finding was of “a characteristic marker for exposure to a particular nerve agent of the Novichok class”. The state laboratory kept repeating the blood testing for two days until on July 4, 2018, when the report claims “these analytical results confirmed that Dawn STURGESS was poisoned with a specific Novichok agent”. The specificity of the identification – that’s to say, reliable biochemical evidence — has been omitted from the report.

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“It is possible to say that Russia has already won the current conflict for a very simple reason: Ukrainians do not want to fight anymore.”

• “Punitive Front” In Kursk Shows There Is No Future For Ukrainian Forces (SCF)

There is ample evidence that Ukraine’s armed forces are close to complete collapse. After nearly three years of intense fighting against Russia, the Kiev regime no longer appears to have enough strength to sustain its war efforts in the manner it has done previously. Despite the almost endless supply of Western money, weapons, and mercenaries on the battlefield, a number of material and psychological conditions are making it impossible for Ukraine to continue its operational and strategic capabilities. Since 2022, one of the main internal issues of the Kiev regime has been how to keep ordinary soldiers active on the battlefield, despite their family, ethnic and cultural ties with Russia – as well as their disbelief in any possibility of real victory on the battlefield.

There have been many reports since the beginning of the operation of Ukrainian soldiers who somehow refused to follow orders or revolted against their officers, being punished by the neo-Nazi battalions – who are the real defenders of the Maidan regime. Now, apparently, Ukraine has found the “perfect” destination for its “rebel soldiers” – the Kursk front. It is no longer a secret for anyone that the Ukrainian suicidal invasion of the southern region of Russia has no clear military objective. Initially, it was intended to divert Russian attention from Donbass, as well as to provoke nuclear terror, possibly by capturing the local power plant. Neither of these objectives was achieved and the Kursk trenches are now a mere “meat grinder” for Ukrainian troops.

In a rational government, the correct decision would be to stop the operation, retreat the troops and think about a new strategic plan. However, rationality and strategy are not part of the Ukrainian decision-making process. The regime decided to take advantage of the critical situation of the troops to create a kind of “punishment camp” for disobedient soldiers. In the current situation, servicemen who are considered “rebels”, deserters and “traitors” are sent to Kursk, from where they are unlikely to return.

Recently, the Russian security service published reports explaining how the enemy is using Kursk to punish its own soldiers. This was later confirmed by a Ukrainian soldier identified as “Alexandr”. In an interview with Western media, he reported that there had been a mutiny in Kurakhovo, Donetsk People’s Republic, by the 116th brigade of the army. Exhausted and unable to continue fighting, the soldiers went on a kind of “strike”, demanding rotation in their service. The reaction of the commanders was simply brutal, arresting the mutineers and sending them on a suicide mission to Kursk.

In fact, the practice of the “punitive front” is not new. Several armies have used this method throughout history, trying to punish their own soldiers by sending them on suicide missions from which they would be unlikely to return. The main problem with this type of attitude is that there are hardly any good expectations for the side that started implementing it. The most vital thing for an army to continue fighting during a conflict situation is the desire to defend the country, believing in national values and in the need to protect the people and the homeland. If this moral and psychological aspect is removed, nothing is able to stop the soldier from prioritizing his own personal interests and his natural quest for survival, ignoring national purposes.

It is possible to say that Russia has already won the current conflict for a very simple reason: Ukrainians do not want to fight anymore. For the regime’s soldiers, the war is a burden. All they want is to get away from the front. Kiev makes this situation even worse by making it clear that fighting in the most difficult missions of the conflict is a “punishment” – something to be avoided. Meanwhile, most of the Russian military personnel in the operation are volunteers who deliberately want to defend the country against the Western enemy. Morally and psychologically, Ukraine is already defeated. The experience in Kursk makes it clear that for Moscow, victory is only a matter of time.

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“..the refusal of Finance Minister Christian Lindner to support a budgetary plan that would increase aid to Ukraine..”

• German PM Scholz Blames Ukraine Aid For Government Collapse (RT)

The key reason for the collapse of Germany’s ruling coalition was the refusal of Finance Minister Christian Lindner to support a budgetary plan that would increase aid to Ukraine, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said. On Wednesday, Scholz fired Lindner, the leader of the pro-business Free Democratic Party (FDP), which is one of three parties comprising Germany’s so-called ‘Traffic Light’ coalition government alongside the Social Democrats and the Greens. The rift between Scholz and Lindner reportedly came to a head after a meeting in which the coalition partners failed to find common ground on how to plug a multibillion-euro hole in next year’s budget and revive the struggling economy. At a press conference the same day, Scholz said that, by dismissing Lindner – who walked out along with other FDP ministers, he had sought to “turn away damage from our country.”

He noted that he had made a comprehensive offer to Lindner in a bid to close a budgetary gap in a way that would not “plunge our country into chaos.” According to the German leader, his proposal had four key points, including a push to ensure affordable energy costs, a package to secure jobs in the automotive industry, and a plan to introduce an investment premium to attract capital to Germany. Scholz also insisted on “increasing our support for Ukraine, which is heading towards a severe winter,” adding that Germany had to send a signal to the world that it can be relied upon, especially after Donald Trump’s victory. “The finance minister shows no willingness to implement this offer in the federal government for the benefit of our country. I do not want to subject our country to such behavior any longer,” he added.

Following the coalition’s collapse, Scholz found himself at the helm of a minority government and announced a vote of confidence in mid-January, which could potentially pave the way for snap election in March. Previous media reports claimed that Lindner had asked the Defense Ministry to limit military assistance to Kiev, citing budgetary difficulties. Berlin has already almost halved its assistance to the embattled country from €7.5 billion ($8 billion) in 2024 and to just €4 billion ($4.3 billion) in 2025. Russia has repeatedly denounced Western arms shipments to Ukraine, warning that they are only prolonging the conflict and imposing a burden on taxpayers without altering the outcome.

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They volunteered.

• EU Could Face Gas Shortages – FT (RT)

The European Union’s gas supplies could be at risk this winter due to increasing reliance on liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a replacement for Russian pipeline gas, the Financial Times wrote on Thursday. The bloc increased LNG purchases two years ago following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict and sanctions on Russia. The supply and pricing of globally traded super-chilled fuel are volatile and can be affected by regional crises. This is the EU’s “fundamental problem,” the publication explained. ”As it stands, Europe’s gas storages are full and the winter gas balance looks OK,” one trader told the FT. “But anything can happen. You just need a few supply disruptions and things could go horribly wrong.” The EU still gets around 5% of its gas imports from Russia via Ukraine’s gas transit network, according to Brussels-based economic think tank Bruegel.

The transit agreement between Moscow and Kiev is set to expire on December 31. The Ukrainian leadership has insisted that this will not be extended. Russian President Vladimir Putin said last month that Moscow can continue to supply piped gas to the EU via Ukraine, but Kiev must extend the contract. ”If we suddenly get a very cold winter at the same time as we lose the Russian gas flows, that will just be very bullish for gas prices,” energy strategist Florence Schmit told the FT. “And I don’t think there’s going to be any big alternative supplies via [other] pipelines. I think most of it will need to be replaced by LNG.”

Another source of concern is a possible escalation of the Middle East conflict, the FT noted. A closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf to the open ocean and an area sensitive to tensions between Israel and Iran, would jeopardize 20% of the global LNG supply, according to energy analytics firm Kpler.”The risk is we don’t run out of gas this winter, but it gets a lot more difficult to fill to a comfortable level ahead of next winter,” another gas trader told the FT. “You’ll always have gas. The question is what price you get that gas in.” In late October, European gas prices climbed to their highest level of the year, close to €44 ($47.50) per megawatt hour, as a production outage in key supplier Norway added to market concerns over the situation in the Middle East.

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“..the Kremlin sees a leadership “vacuum” during this period and is “testing for soft tissue” in the West.”

• NATO Knows Ukraine Is Losing – Foreign Policy (RT)

NATO is fully aware that Ukraine is slowly losing its conflict with Russia, with an especially difficult winter predicted to worsen the situation, the influential US publication Foreign Policy has reported. Amid increasing infrastructure damage and pressure on Kiev’s key resources, Western officials are warning that a victory for Moscow would solidify its influence in Europe, the magazine claims in an article, published on Wednesday. Foreign Policy sources believe Russian President Vladimir Putin is taking advantage of uncertainty in Washington. Michael Bociurkiw – a lobbyist at NATO’s Atlantic Council adjunct – speaking from Ukraine, stated that the Kremlin sees a leadership “vacuum” during this period and is “testing for soft tissue” in the West.

The strategy has reportedly been effective, he says, as missile strikes across Ukrainian cities have increased the possibility of winter power and heating shortages. Moscow’s attacks on Ukrainian ports, according to officials, have also hurt Kiev’s logistics. The report indicates that Ukraine’s losses are reshaping the strategic outlook in the US and Western Europe. It highlights that a Russian victory would be a major setback for Washington and NATO. Western experts argue that Russia retaining its new territories could lead to a strengthened military presence near NATO’s borders, potentially igniting further conflict. Moscow highlighted Kiev’s aspirations to join NATO as among the main reasons for launching its military operation against Ukraine in February 2022.

Ruth Deyermond, of King’s College London, said a cease-fire would cause the Americans to lose face. “Ukraine losing would look to the rest of the world as if the US was losing to Russia… any scaling back of US support would also look as if the US had been forced to retreat by Russia,” she said. Political shifts in the US could mean a reassessment of Washington’s aid to Ukraine, Foreign Policy added. Observers warn this may signal a weakened American footprint on the global stage. Russia has intensified its strikes on Ukrainian military and energy facilities in recent months. In April, the Defense Ministry said they were a response to Kiev’s attempts to target Russian oil infrastructure, stressing that the targeted facilities support the Ukrainian defense industry, and that the strikes do not target civilians.

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RFK Gates

 

 

Optimus

 

 

Dots

 

 

Stoat
https://twitter.com/i/status/1854773870705709192

 

 

Rabbit

 

 

Puppy

 

 

SSB

 

 

 

 

Support the Automatic Earth in wartime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle October 23 2023

Oct 232023
 
 October 23, 2023  Posted by at 8:38 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  44 Responses »


Roy Lichtenstein Femme d’Alger 1963

 

• God’s Chosen People and the “Moral” West (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Israel’s Continued Existence Is Not Guaranteed In The Long Term (Lukyanov)
• Western Nations Issue Joint Statement On Israel’s Right To Defend Itself (Az.)
• US’ Blind Support for Israel Lets China Woo The Arab World (Sp.)
• Netanyahu Under Fire as Former Leaders Demand His Resignation Amid Crisis (Sp.)
• Consequences Will Be ‘Devastating’ If Hezbollah Enters War – Netanyahu (RT)
• Israeli Minister Threatens To ‘Wipe Iran Off The Face Of The Earth’ (RT)
• Would Israel Use Its Nuclear Arsenal If The War Expands Beyond Gaza? (ZH)
• Hamas Members Instructed To Make Chemical Weapons – Israeli President (TASS)
• Global Industry Needs $7 Trillion To Avoid Gas Shortages (RT)
• No, Congress Should Not Expel the Squad (Turley)
• ‘We Must Deport More and Faster’: Germany’s Scholz (Sp.)

 

 

 

 

Gold
https://twitter.com/i/status/1715097654504632434

 

 

 

 

 

 

@DougAMacgregor: Eisenhower said if NATO still exists in 10 years then we have failed. That was 1955.

 

 

 

 

“This is blatant ethnic cleansing and it is receiving the full support of the United States..”

• God’s Chosen People and the “Moral” West (Paul Craig Roberts)

More than 2 million Palestinian people have now been without running water, electricity, food, medicine, for 10 days. After instituting the blockade of Gaza, Israel dropped 4,000 tons of bombs on Gaza in a 5 day period (Oct 7 – 12). Nine more days have passed with continued heavy bombing; if continued at the same rate, Israel has dropped more than 10,000 tons of bombs – 2 million pounds of high-explosive — on the people of Gaza. Israel told 1.1 million Palestinians that they had 24 hours to leave northern Gaza or else be bombed. The JDAM bombs being dropped on Gaza were supplied to Israel by the US. Many thousands have been killed since the bombing began. 52% of the Palestinians in Gaza are under 18 years of age; a huge percentage of those Palestinians being killed and wounded are children.

This is blatant ethnic cleansing and it is receiving the full support of the United States. In the UN Security Council, the US has twice vetoed Resolutions calling for a ceasefire in Gaza; the vote on the second attempt was 14 to 1, with the US being the only no vote with their veto. The US does not want a ceasefire, it wants war, and thus has sent Carrier Battle Groups, squadrons of A-10 Warthogs, and thousands of Marines in preparation to back up an Israeli ground assault into Gaza. The US is now complicit in the massive war crime being committed in Gaza by Israel. All the endless US speeches about freedom and democracy ring hollow in the face of this atrocity. And these crimes are likely to get much worse once Israel sends hundreds of thousands of troops into Gaza.

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“..West Jerusalem has no experience of making long-term arrangements with its neighbors without relying on the US. So, the question now is whether there is time for the Israelis to learn to live in a new way.”

• Israel’s Continued Existence Is Not Guaranteed In The Long Term (Lukyanov)

The leitmotif of the varied history of a hundred years is that it has all taken place, if not under the dictates of, then with the active participation of external forces. The composition of the latter has changed, but in every combination such players have set the tone. The change that has taken place now is that outside players are forced to react to events initiated by regional forces. This reaction is based on accumulated experience, but it does not work the way it used to. The degree of self-determination of the states in the region (let us call it the pursuit of national interests as they understand them) is much higher than in the past. Meanwhile, the major countries are running out of the instruments of coercion that worked in the twentieth century.

US President Joe Biden’s arrival in Israel in the midst of the violence could be described as an act of political courage, were it not for the suspicion that Washington simply does not fully appreciate the urgency of the situation. In the aftermath of the horrific hospital tragedy in Gaza, it is understandable that a sharp escalation is taking place. But before that, the United States probably thought it could drag its feet. The idea seems to be to support Israel by pre-empting its most dangerous actions and reassuring the Arab countries – especially in the Persian Gulf – that the old agenda will be restored once passions subside. It is also to prevent Iranian interference by making it clear that it will trigger American military involvement, but if Tehran shows restraint, a return to talks on unfreezing money and relations cannot be ruled out. Finally, Biden wishes to guarantee a package decision on financial assistance to all of his major military clients – Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan – that will not allow one of them to be blocked individually.

Right now, the whole delicate plan is hanging by a thread. And the problem is not specific political and diplomatic mistakes, but a fundamental inability to manage processes in the way the US and big countries in general are used to, believing they have the levers for everything. This is a systemic change, the consequences of which could be anything. The transition from external regulation of the region to internal balance is painful, and success is not predetermined. Thus, Israel’s problem is that the overwhelming power advantage it has relied on for three-quarters of a century is no longer a reliable guarantee of its existence. The overall balance in the region will not shift in the Jewish state’s favor, and its patron’s attention may be diverted by other internal and external crises. Meanwhile, West Jerusalem has no experience of making long-term arrangements with its neighbors without relying on the US. So, the question now is whether there is time for the Israelis to learn to live in a new way.

Read more …

How to turn the entire world except yourself against you. Nothing about the Palestinians’ rights. This verges on criminal behavior. Good thing is, it’s there for everyone to see.

• Western Nations Issue Joint Statement On Israel’s Right To Defend Itself (Az.)

President Biden, along with fellow leaders from Western-allied countries, reaffirmed their support for Israel and its right to defend itself Sunday while urging the nation to adhere to international humanitarian law, Report informs, citing foreign media. “Today, President Joseph R. Biden, Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada, President Emmanuel Macron of France, Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy, and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of the United Kingdom spoke regarding the ongoing conflict between Israel and the terrorist organization Hamas,” the leaders said in a joint statement Sunday. While the group of leaders reiterated its support for Israel and its right to defend itself against terrorism, they also called for “adherence to international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians.”

The leaders also called for the “immediate release of all remaining hostages,” noting that they are “committed to close coordination to support their nationals in the region, in particular those wishing to leave Gaza.” The group of leaders also welcomed the release of two Americans who were taken hostage by Hamas. The group of leaders also celebrated the recent announcements that the first humanitarian convoys arrived in Gaza, saying they’ll remain committed to coordinating “with partners in the region to ensure sustained and safe access to food, water, medical care, and other assistance required to meet humanitarian needs.”

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..“a very unfortunate message to the Arab World” about Washington’s priorities.”

• US’ Blind Support for Israel Lets China Woo The Arab World (Sp.)

US policy toward Israel is “driven primarily by domestic politics,”[Dr. Shaun Narine, a professor of international relations and political science at St. Thomas University in New Brunswick, Canada] noted, with its response to the October 7 escalation dictated by the “shock” experienced by Jews inside the United States and around the world, resulting in Washington’s “unlimited, unconditional support.” Biden personally “has been dedicated strongly to Israel for his entire political career,” Dr. Narine recalled. Unfortunately for Washington, the US’s blind support for Israel, and its seeming lack of concern about Palestinian lives to anywhere near the same degree as Israeli ones is proving politically damaging to US foreign policy, the academic noted, since it sends “a very unfortunate message to the Arab World” about Washington’s priorities.

“Even beyond the Arab World, there are African politicians who have made clear that they’re looking at the American response in the UN Security Council, and they’re saying, ‘yes, this is about Palestinian lives not mattering, maybe the lives of people in the Global South not mattering that much.’” In that sense, Dr. Narine believes that viewed from the lens of America’s global competition with China, Beijing “stands to gain quite a bit in the Arab World by taking a more evenhanded approach to the conflict between Palestine and Israel, but also even weighing more towards the Arab side in this.” “So the Americans are giving the Chinese a really powerful advantage potentially in this context,” but “doing it anyway because their calculations are not driven by those foreign policy concerns at this moment,” the academic summed up.

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Large street protests too against him.

• Netanyahu Under Fire as Former Leaders Demand His Resignation Amid Crisis (Sp.)

Former Israeli military, political, and intelligence officials have criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his leadership amid the ongoing crisis caused by Hamas attacks on October 7. Prominent former Israeli figures, including ex-Prime Minister Ehud Barak, have voiced their concerns about Netanyahu’s leadership during the crisis, as reported by British media. Barak described the Hamas attack as “the most severe blow Israel has suffered since its establishment.” He expressed doubt in Netanyahu’s ability to lead in the aftermath of such a devastating event. These criticisms come in the wake of growing concern within Israel about the government’s efforts to secure the release of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Some families have urged negotiations, while others support an immediate military operation to dismantle Hamas leadership, even at the risk of the hostages’ safety.

Critics argue that the government’s response to the crisis has been inadequate. A former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces has called for Netanyahu’s resignation, citing the government’s dysfunction, as quoted by UK media. This sentiment is shared by many Israelis who believe the government has mishandled the situation. Netanyahu has been under scrutiny even before the Hamas attack, facing criticism for his attempts to overhaul the Israeli judiciary and legal issues, including a corruption trial. Cabinet ministers, defense chiefs, and intelligence heads have apologized for the government’s failure to protect citizens in the wake of the attack, and polls have shown that a majority of Israelis want Netanyahu to take responsibility for these failures.

While protesters have gathered outside the Israeli military headquarters to express their concerns about Netanyahu’s leadership, there remains trust in military leaders overseeing operations in Gaza. The crisis has prompted renewed calls for Netanyahu to step down and allow someone else to lead the country during these trying times. This situation also coincides with controversy surrounding Retired Brigadier General Gal Hirsch, who was appointed to coordinate the rescue of Israeli hostages abducted by Hamas. Defense officials have criticized Hirsch for his behavior and failure to effectively carry out his role, further highlighting leadership issues in the government.

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It doesn’t look like Israel can beat Hezbollah.

• Consequences Will Be ‘Devastating’ If Hezbollah Enters War – Netanyahu (RT)

Hezbollah “will be making the mistake of its life” if it enters the Israel-Hamas war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told troops stationed near the Lebanese border on Sunday. Netanyahu warned that Lebanon would be “devastated” in response. “If Hezbollah decides to enter the war, it will long for the Second Lebanon War,” Netanyahu said, referring to the 2006 conflict in which Israel invaded southern Lebanon and pounded Beirut with airstrikes in response to Hezbollah raids into Israel. Some 165 Israelis and more than 1,000 Lebanese were killed in the month-long conflict. “It will be making the mistake of its life,” Netanyahu continued, according to a transcript seen by Israeli media. “We will strike it with unimaginable strength and the significance to it and to the country of Lebanon will be devastating.”

Israeli and Hezbollah forces have engaged in tit-for-tat exchanges of rocket and artillery fire since the conflict with Hamas broke out two weeks ago. While the Lebanese paramilitary group has sent drones and a number of infiltrators across the border, no large-scale incursion has taken place, and Israel has thus far avoided opening a second front in the north. The Lebanese militia has stepped up its attacks in recent days, however, firing dozens of rockets at Israeli military bases and killing an Israeli soldier in a missile attack on Friday. Israeli forces have responded with artillery bombardments and drone strikes. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant proclaimed on Saturday that Hezbollah “has decided to participate in the fighting” and would pay “a heavy price” for doing so.

Behind the scenes, however, the US is warning Israel against getting drawn into a war on two fronts, the New York Times reported on Friday. According to the paper’s sources, American officials view Gallant as a Hezbollah hawk, whose actions risk dragging Israel into a war that it would struggle to win. Furthermore, with the US backing Israel and Iran backing Hezbollah, such a war could easily spiral into a wider and more destructive conflict, the sources said.

Hezbollah is currently “in the heart of the battle” between Israel and Hamas, the group’s deputy leader, Naim Qassem, said on Sunday. Qassem explained that Hezbollah’s objective at the moment is to “weaken the Israeli enemy and let them know that we are ready” for a possible major escalation. Tens of thousands of Israelis have been evacuated from settlements near the Lebanese border. Residents of 14 communities have been ordered to leave for temporary accommodation since Saturday morning, while 28 other settlements were emptied last week.

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Right back at you. “..“If the war crimes against the Palestinians are not immediately stopped, other multiple fronts will open and this is inevitable..”

• Israeli Minister Threatens To ‘Wipe Iran Off The Face Of The Earth’ (RT)

Israeli Economy Minister Nir Barkat said on Sunday that the Israeli forces would “eliminate” Hezbollah and target Iran if the Palestinian militants open up a “northern front.” “The plan of Iran is to attack Israel on all fronts. If we find they intend to target Israel, we will not just retaliate to those fronts, but we will go to the head of the snake, which is Iran,” Barkat told The Mail on Sunday. He added “the ayatollahs in Iran are not going to sleep good at night” if they move against Israel. Barkat warned that Lebanon and the pro-Palestinian militant group Hezbollah “are going to pay a heavy price, similar to what Hamas is going to pay.” Israel would go “after the heads of Iran” if necessary, the minister said.

“Israel has a very clear message to our enemies. We are saying to them, look what’s happening in Gaza – you are going to get the same treatment if you attack us. We are going to wipe you off the face of the Earth.” The statement came after Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said on Monday that the security situation for Israel may worsen very quickly. “If the war crimes against the Palestinians are not immediately stopped, other multiple fronts will open and this is inevitable,” he said. The Iranian diplomat later doubled down, warning the US and Israel that, if they do not stop mistreating the Palestinians, “anything is possible at any moment and the region will go out of control.” Amir-Abdollahian added that further escalation would have “far-reaching repercussions.”

The IDF and Hezbollah have repeatedly exchanged fire since the fighting erupted between the Israeli forces and Hamas earlier this month. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated on Sunday that Hezbollah would suffer “unprecedented destruction” if it officially joins the war against the Jewish state. The Israeli army made several large-scale incursions in Lebanon to fight the militants there in the past. The most recent invasion took place in 2006. On October 7, Hamas and allied Palestinian groups attacked multiple Israeli settlements, prompting Israel to begin airstrikes on the Gaza Strip. More than 1,400 Israelis and over 4,300 Palestinians have been killed, according to officials from both sides.

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This is where China and Russia come in.

• Would Israel Use Its Nuclear Arsenal If The War Expands Beyond Gaza? (ZH)

The Israeli nuclear arsenal is now suspected to include hundreds of warheads capable of being delivered by several methods. These include gravity bombs dropped by F-16s, cruise missiles fired from mobile platforms and even submarines with modified cruise missiles. Interestingly, Israel just launching a large new class of submarine this summer called the DolphinI/II which appear to carry much bigger missiles than previous submarines. These subs may in fact be capable of carrying and launching nuclear weapons and could strike almost anywhere in the world. The most likely use of nuclear weapons by Israel, though, would be as a deterrent to wider war. The international agreement Israel follows requires that they not be the first nation in the Middle East to “introduce” such weapons.

The word “introduced” has been interpreted very broadly to mean that Israel will not ever officially admit they have nuclear weapons, thereby spurring an arms race. That said, a deterrent weapon is not much of a deterrent unless your enemies know you have it. This might explain why Israeli officials have hinted at the existence of nukes in the past, calling them “other capabilities” in discussions on Israeli defense. The employment of nukes is another matter entirely. It would seem that a number of nations are ready to engage with Israel in direct warfare in the wake of the attack by Hamas, merely waiting for Israel to strike back with a significant ground force. These governments might have forgotten Israel has nukes, or, they might believe that Israel would never dare use them.

This is a dangerous assumption. Former Prime Minister Yair Lapid noted in a discussion on defense last year that Israel has “other capabilities” (i.e. nukes): “The operational arena in the invisible dome above us is built on defensive capabilities and offensive capabilities, and what the foreign media tends to call ‘other capabilities.’ These other capabilities keep us alive and will keep us alive so long as we and our children are here…” In other words, Israel intends to use their nuclear capabilities should their civilization come under threat. Strategically speaking, Israel is well placed for the employment of nukes, given all of its enemies are east or north of the nation’s position, which means Israel would not have to worry about suffering from the radioactive fallout from its own weapons.

But, this fallout could affect nations like Iraq and Iran, thereby giving them license to join in the war when they might otherwise abstain. Obviously this would have far reaching implications for the rest of the world, including escalation with nuclear powers such as Russia and China. The real question is not “if” Israel would use nukes, but under what conditions? How bad does the situation have to get before a nuclear response is assured? Given the rhetoric of previous Israeli leaders on defense, it would not take much. A war on more than one front leading to an uncontrolled breach of Israel’s border could be all the excuse the country needs.

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Again, right back at you.

“Reality is shattered. People are asking themselves deep questions. Is it possible? Can I make peace with a neighbor who wants to chop my children’s heads off? Is it feasible?”

• Hamas Members Instructed To Make Chemical Weapons – Israeli President (TASS)

Members of the Palestinian radical group Hamas who infiltrated Israel carried instructions on making chemical weapons, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said in an interview with Sky News. “This is how shocking the situation is where we’re looking at the instructions that are given on how to operate and how to create a kind of non-professional chemical weapon with cyanide,” the TV channel quoted the president as saying. “It’s Al Qaeda material. Official Al Qaeda material. We are dealing with ISIS, Al Qaeda and Hamas,” he said. Herzog demonstrated the documents to the TV channel. Sky News noted that it was unable to independently verify the claims. Replying to a question about the liability of the Israeli government for the situation where numerous militants were able to infiltrate into Israeli territory, the president said that “we will deal with all of that after the war.”

That said, he acknowledged that many Israelis are highly displeased with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. He also refused to discuss the possibility of the Palestinian-Israeli settlement given the military operation underway in the Gaza Strip. “”I can’t go into this [a two-state solution] right now when my nation is bleeding, and in pain, and in agony,” he said. “Reality is shattered. People are asking themselves deep questions. Is it possible? Can I make peace with a neighbor who wants to chop my children’s heads off? Is it feasible?” Herzog added. He also disagreed with a statement that Israel’s attempts to eliminate Hamas are disproportionate, harming civilians in the Gaza Strip.

“It’s not true. We have realistic objectives. We say we want to wipe out the military infrastructure of Hamas. We’ve said it clearly. We are cautious. Already two weeks have gone by, and we haven’t operated on the ground because we are cautious,” Herzog stressed. Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 when militants from the Gaza-based Palestinian radical group Hamas staged a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel has declared a state of war readiness; announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians; and began delivering air strikes on the enclave and certain parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are underway in the West Bank as well.

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A 56% reduction in emissions by 2050 costs $7 trillion, but if emissions stay at current levels till 2050 it’s $10 trillion? I confuse easily.

• Global Industry Needs $7 Trillion To Avoid Gas Shortages (RT)

Global industry will need $7 trillion in investment to ensure sufficient natural gas supplies and avoid crises through 2050, Bloomberg reported, citing Japan’s Institute of Energy Economics (IEEJ). According to the report, the funding will be required to build new liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities and expand existing plants, and to develop new gas deposits as countries shift from coal to cleaner energy sources. The forecast by the Japanese think tank assumes a 56% reduction in emissions by the middle of the century. However, in a scenario when emissions stay at current levels by 2050, the world will need almost $10 trillion to avoid natural gas shortages, the IEEJ projects.

Differing outlooks on gas demand in the coming years are hampering future planning, making companies uncertain over investments in new supplies, the International Gas Union (IGU) said in a report earlier this week. “The unprecedented demand uncertainty and insufficient level of investment in natural gas, low-carbon, and renewable gases are putting the energy transition at risk, undermining energy affordability, security, and sustainability,” the IGU stated. Last week, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned that global gas markets have entered a “new and more uncertain” period that is likely to be characterized by slower growth and higher volatility, and could lead to a peak in global demand by the end of the decade.

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“It is the ultimate manifestation of our age of rage where expressing opposing views are now considered disqualifying acts for holding office..”

• No, Congress Should Not Expel the Squad (Turley)

This weekend, presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) became the latest figure in Washington to call for the expulsion of members of Congress for their controversial views. In a New York Post op-ed, Scott cites pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel statements of members of “the Squad” as examples of officials giving “aid and comfort” to Hamas. Expulsion and disqualification have come into vogue in Washington as members of both parties seek to bar opponents from ballots or office. It is the ultimate manifestation of our age of rage where expressing opposing views are now considered disqualifying acts for holding office. Sen. Scott points to Rep. Rashida Tlaib declaring that Israel intentionally bombed a hospital in Gaza after U.S. intelligence found that the explosion was likely caused by a Palestinian missile.

He also cites Rep. Pramila Jayapal calling Israel “a racist state” and Rep. Ilhan Omar previously saying that Jews had “hypnotized the world.” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was also cited for criticism of those supporting Israel as “takin the side of occupation.” I have previously criticized members of the Squad for reckless rhetoric and condemned the spreading of false or unproven claims on the Gaza hospital explosion. However, the solution to bad speech is better speech. Indeed, Scott’s op-ed (and the writings of many others) are an example of how free speech can combat disinformation and propaganda without the necessity for censorship or other punitive measures. Yet, Sen. Scott insists that “any member of Congress who gives [Hamas] aid, comfort or justification is in violation of their constitutional oath and must be removed.”

It is now a familiar refrain. Ironically, it is analogous to the argument put forward by some Democrats to bar Republican members through an alternative means. Those members have called for the use of the 14th Amendment to disqualify Republicans for giving “aid and comfort” to those who sought to block the certification of President Joe Biden. They have been supported by a host of legal academics. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) demanded the disqualification of the 120 House Republicans—including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA)—for simply signing a “Friend of the Court brief” (or amicus brief) in support of an election challenge from Texas. Expulsion and disqualification demands are both based on the same view that political support for extreme or controversial positions should not be tolerated in members of Congress.

It is a dangerous, slippery slope as politicians declare certain views as incompatible with holding elected offices. Rather than based on a novel constitutional theory, expulsion is based on the inherent authority of Congress to expel members who violate the rules and standards of a house. Courts are generally deferential to Congress given the authority under Article I, Section 5 that “[e]ach House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behavior, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.” Nevertheless, fewer than two dozen members have ever been expelled. Indeed, three of the then five members of the House had expressed loyalty to the confederacy during the Civil War. It is telling that, despite our long history of bitter and divisive politics, only five house members have been expelled in the House. Members have realized that expulsions not only deny the right of voters to pick their representatives, but invite endless tit-for-tat measures.

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Thanks, Mutti.

• ‘We Must Deport More and Faster’: Germany’s Scholz (Sp.)

The German Chancellor Olaf Scholz showed a clear perspective on the issue of illegal migration in a recent interview with a local news source. He pressed for the deportation of migrants who had no right to stay in Germany, emphasizing the need to boost European border controls. He reiterated the need to limit the surge of illegal migrants on German soil. Chancellor Scholz’s stance leans towards reducing refugee numbers and a more stringent approach towards denying asylum seekers. “We must finally deport en masse those who have no right to remain in Germany …Those who have no prospect of remaining in Germany because they cannot claim asylum must return … We must deport more and faster,” Scholz said. The Chancellor has so far set down a more stringent approach towards illegal migration, according to which only refugees with legitimate claims are entitled to asylum.

At the same time, recognizing the vital need for immigrant labor, Germany’s reliance on skilled workers remains a distinct consideration. “Those who do not belong to one or the other group cannot stay with us,” Scholz noted. The leader of Germany’s Social Democratic Party further indicated a desire to consider suggestions from the federal states to deter illegal migration. Scholz affirmed that the federal government would back such initiatives if states opt for in-kind benefits over monetary support, propose an asylum seeker payment card or extend public works opportunities. The European Asylum Agency’s latest data reveals that Germany shoulders about a third of asylum applications within the European Union. As of August 2023, Germany’s Federal Interior Ministry said there were around 1.1 million Ukrainian refugees seeking refuge in Germany.

The reason for this rise in Ukrainian refugees is the explicit support the Scholz government has given to NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine. Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees has grappled with a significant influx, with more than 200,000 asylum applications pouring in from all sorts of nations this year, marking a substantial 77 percent increase compared with the corresponding period a year before. As of June 2023, Germany had approximately 44,500 recognized asylum-seekers, primarily from Turkiye, Syria, and Iran. Furthermore, roughly 755,000 individuals with refugee status under the Geneva Convention, predominantly hailing from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Nearly 280,000 foreigners in Germany are designated for departure, with roughly half of them asylum seekers who have been rejected. Many hold “temporary toleration” status because of life-threatening situations in their home country or unresolved health issues that prevent deportation. According to a German media outlet, Germany is in a terrible quandary, involving 95,000 individuals whose citizenship status remains elusive, rendering them without a clear destination for legal deportation.

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Blockchain for babies
https://twitter.com/i/status/1715978488694337624

 

 

 

 


“When China spies on you”, France, 2023

 

 


Ernest Hemingway, Noel Coward and Alec Guinness on location at Hemingway’s favourite watering hole – Sloppy Joe’s – in Florida whilst shooting ‘Our Man In Havana’ in 1959.

 

 


Most people have heard of Koko, the gorilla who could speak about 1000 words in Sign Language, and understand about 2000 in English. What most people don’t know, however, is that Koko was an avid Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood fan. When Fred Rogers took a trip out to meet Koko for his show, not only did she immediately wrap her arms around him and embrace him, she did what she’d always seen him do onscreen: she proceeded to take his shoes off.

 

 

 

 

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