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Debt Rattle January 28 2025

Jan 282025
 
 January 28, 2025  Posted by at 10:25 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  73 Responses »


Pablo Picasso The artist and his model 1926

 

• A Cabinet of the Cancelled (Paul Craig Roberts)
• US Army Needs Huge Shakeup – Vance (RT)
• Trump Targets ‘Gender Ideology’ In The Military (RT)
• Denmark Can’t Protect Greenland – Trump (RT)
• Trumps Opens The War Against Russia From Greenland (Helmer)
• The Trump Pardons Trigger Judicial Rage (Turley)
• Russia Must Help Overthrow Europe’s Dangerous Political Elites (Karaganov)
• DeepSeek Pulls Rug Out On Nvidia, ASML (ZH)
• Trump Says He ‘Immediately Halted’ Hiring of New IRS Agents (ET)
• Trump’s Agenda Will Force Foreign Leaders To Adopt Pro-Growth Policies (ZH)
• Argentina’s Milei Attacks European Liberal ‘Epidemic’ (RT)
• EU Prolongs Sanctions On Russia (RT)
• Ukraine’s Top Spy Believes Country Could Cease To Exist (RT)
• The CIA Report: A Low Confidence Finding is the Height of Hypocrisy (Turley)
• Glug Glug. . . . (James Howard Kunstler)
• Taibbi Hints FBI Communications With COVID Scientists Will Be Exposed (ZH)
• Devalued Dollar Will Crash the DOW – Martin Armstrong (USAW)
• The Nation That Liberated Auschwitz Is Being Excluded From Memory (Romanenko)

 

 


Mars

 

 

Tucker

NC

Homan

Ritter

Maidan 2014

Brennan

Historical course of WWII map sequence

Roger Ver

 

 

 

 

“During the next four years the fate of America’s constitutional order will be determined.”

• A Cabinet of the Cancelled (Paul Craig Roberts)

Abigail Shrier writes in the City Journal that the members of Trump’s “Cabinet of the Cancelled” understand the danger of government coercion because they have experienced it firsthand. And so has Trump and thousands of his supporters. Shrier does a service by reminding us of the intense attempt of the Biden regime to revolutionize our society by attacking our principles and replacing a merit-based color-blind society with a status-based society of privileges based on race, gender, and sexual preference. The Biden regime weaponized law in order to cancel people who spoke truth to the regimes’ official narratives and to silence people by censoring and imprisoning them. 1,500 Trump supporters were sentenced for attending a rally, and right-to-life protesters were imprisoned for opposing a practice that during the first part of my life the law considered murder.

With Biden regime protection, Child Protective Services considered it child abuse for parents to oppose sex change operations or fail to use a child’s pronouns chosen for him by DEI propagandists at his public school, and children were seized from “abusive” parents. Large numbers of traditional Americans found themselves living in a dystopian novel. An effort was made to destroy the US military with DEI and mandated vaccination. Traditional military families turned their sons away from military service. Covid “vaccines” were forced on those who had too much sense to submit to vaccination with an untested experimental and known dangerous substance. The great horror of abortion advocates spread into the male population. Both genders lost control over their own bodies to coerced vaccination.

The examples are endless. Tulsi Gabbard was placed on a government watch list and subjected to airport harassment simply for being critical of the Biden regime. Stanford University Medical School professor Jay Bhattacharya was “cancelled” by social media companies at the insistence of the Biden regime’s Surgeon General. Elon Musk’s companies were targeted with regulatory harassment because he returned free speech to Twitter, now known as X. Skepticism expressed about the safety and effectiveness of the Covid “vaccine” got doctors fired, their medical licenses confiscated by utterly corrupt “medical boards” acting on Big Pharma’s orders under the protection of Fauci and the Biden FDA. Others who interfered with Big Pharma’s profits were branded “enemies of the people” and threatened with arrest.

Americans were not even permitted to object to males participating in female sports or to men gaining access to female locker rooms by self-declaring themselves to be women. During the Biden attack on America, the most serious crime was not treason or mass murder. The most serious crime was opposition to DEI. As I explained yesterday, the enemies arrayed against Trump and his supporters are in control of all American institutions, public and private. The federal bureaucracy is against him. His appointees must be culture warriors, because they are greatly outnumbered by a force that has been conducting culture war against America for decades.

The agenda of the Woke Democrats is no less than the revolutionary overthrow of the United States and its replacement with a race and gender status-based hierarchy in which white heterosexual males are second class citizens in law. White males who vote Democrat are endorsing their own demise and are the epitome of insouciant dumbshits. During the next four years the fate of America’s constitutional order will be determined.

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“We fought many wars over the last 40 years, but haven’t won a war about as long as I’ve been alive..”

• US Army Needs Huge Shakeup – Vance (RT)

The US has failed to win a single war in several generations despite spending staggering sums of money on its army, Vice President J.D. Vance has said, calling for a major military overhaul. In an interview with CBS News on Sunday, Vance defended the confirmation of Pete Hegseth as the new secretary of defense, which narrowly passed the Senate with a 50-50 tie broken by the vice president himself. Hegseth has faced criticism over his controversial public comments about Islam, limited leadership experience, and accusations of sexual assault, which he has denied. Vance described Hegseth as a “disruptor” and said he was the right person to usher in long-overdue change. “We fought many wars over the last 40 years, but haven’t won a war about as long as I’ve been alive,” Vance said.

“They’ve got us a military with a major recruitment crisis, a procurement price crisis that’s totally dysfunctional, where we buy airplanes for billions and billions of dollars, terrible cost overruns, the delivery dates are always delayed. So we need a big change,” he said. The US has “gotten into way too many wars that we don’t have a plan for winning,” Vance said, adding that “we have to really, top to bottom, change the way that we fund the procurement of weapons.” Hegseth “is the guy to lead the job,” he insisted, adding that the new secretary, who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, is the one who sees “not through the perspective of the generals or the bureaucrats, [but] through the perspective of the men and women that we send off to fight.”

US President Donald Trump has vowed to end the current conflicts, having already credited himself with brokering the recent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, while vowing to prioritize domestic issues. Shortly after his inauguration, he ordered additional troops to the US-Mexico border to stave off the migration crisis. In November, the Pentagon failed its seventh consecutive audit, having been unable to fully account for its $824 billion budget. It has not passed a single audit since 2018, when it became a legal requirement to do so. However, officials have pointed to visible progress, promising to achieve a clean audit by 2028.

Hegseth

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“..moves to end attempts to “socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.”

• Trump Targets ‘Gender Ideology’ In The Military (RT)

US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order aimed at removing “radical gender ideology” from the US armed forces. The order, titled ‘Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness’, was issued on Monday, just over a week after Trump’s inauguration, as part of a broader effort to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in the federal government. The order says that military service should be reserved for those who are mentally and physically fit for duty. It outlines a policy focusing on troop readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity. “This policy is inconsistent with the medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals with gender dysphoria,” the order states. “This policy is also inconsistent with shifting pronoun usage or use of pronouns that inaccurately reflect an individual’s sex.”

Newly confirmed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who narrowly won Senate approval last Friday, is tasked with implementing the directive. Within 60 days, Hegseth must revise medical standards for military service to align with the order’s objectives. Over the next month, he will set up a strategy to tackle the issues and submit it to Trump. The US will focus on “restoring the warrior ethos, rebuilding our military, and reestablishing deterrence,” Hegseth said in a message to the armed forces on Saturday. The executive order follows a series of actions by the new US president aimed at dismantling DEI programs within the federal government. On his first day back in office, he signed orders rolling back protections for transgender individuals and terminating DEI initiatives, describing these efforts as moves to end attempts to “socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.”

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“They put two dog sleds there two weeks ago, they thought that was protection..”

If you’re a Greenlander, how much faith do you have in Denmark?

• Denmark Can’t Protect Greenland – Trump (RT)

Denmark is not capable of adequately protecting its strategically important territory of Greenland, US President Donald Trump has claimed. Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One on Saturday, Trump appeared to ridicule the Danish plan to increase its military presence on the Arctic island. Trump first floated the idea of purchasing Greenland during his first term in office, and revived the idea following his victory in the presidential election on November 5. The US president has spoken of Greenland’s significance for US national security, refusing to rule out the use of military force to obtain it. Denmark has firmly rejected any suggestion that Greenland could be sold.Trump stated: “I do believe Greenland, we’ll get – because it really has to do with freedom of the world. It has nothing to do with the United States, other than we’re the one that can provide the freedom. [Denmark] can’t. They put two dog sleds there two weeks ago, they thought that was protection,” he said, as quoted by the Financial Times.

Trump was apparently referring to an announcement by Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen earlier this month. He said Copenhagen was planning to add two inspection vessels, two drones, and two dog sled patrols to its current force of 75 personnel, four ships, and a surveillance plane. “I don’t really know what claim Denmark has to it, but it would be a very unfriendly act if they didn’t allow that to happen,” Trump said over the weekend. He also claimed that the “people [of Greenland] want to be with us.” Speaking to local broadcaster TV2 on Sunday, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen emphasized “how good an ally Denmark has been” to the US. The Nordic country is a NATO member state that participated in US-led military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Frederiksen also reiterated that Greenland was not for sale, and its population has an exclusive right to determine its future. According to a Financial Times report on Friday, citing several anonymous European officials, the US president and the Danish prime minister had a “horrendous” phone conversation earlier this month. Trump was reportedly “very firm” about his intention to purchase Greenland, threatening Denmark with tariffs if it continues to resist his bid. The confrontational tone of the phone call is said to have “freaked out” officials in Copenhagen, making them realize that Trump’s intentions were “serious.”

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Just check the maps..

• Trumps Opens The War Against Russia From Greenland (Helmer)

In the two great battles whose outcomes turned a small, defensive Anglo-Saxon island into an offensive global empire, the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and the Battle of Bosworth Field of 1485, the ruling English kings, Harold Godwinson and Richard III, launched downhill cavalry charges which almost overpowered the invading forces; almost reached the challengers William of Normandy and Henry Tudor; almost killed them. But Harold and Richard were killed instead; their kingdoms were captured. The lesson of those two cavalry charges led from the front by Harold and Richard has been erased in the story-telling which followed their deaths by the propagandists of William and Henry.

In the present battles with the US and the NATO allies on the Ukrainian battlefield, the Russians could provide an object lesson to the Danes on what they should expect to be done to them by President Donald Trump as he rushes to capture Greenland, confident that the threat of his charge will be enough to force the Danes to surrender, the Greenlanders to capitulate. Danish Prime Minister Mette Fredericksen heard it for herself. “It was horrendous,” said one of the sources in Copenhagen after she and Trump had spoken by telephone last week. Another source has added: “He was very firm. It was a cold shower. Before, it was hard to take it seriously. But I do think it is serious, and potentially very dangerous…It was a very tough conversation. He threatened specific measures against Denmark such as targeted tariffs.”

This was what was heard and reported to a London newspaper. Prime Minister Fredericksen was shy; she told the Financial Times she does: “not recognise the interpretation of the conversation given by anonymous sources”. Officially, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman has declared Russia to be against both Fredericksen and Trump. Their claims, Maria Zakharova said last Thursday, “neglect the crux of the issue.” That, she explained, is the concerted Danish campaign to destroy the indigenous identity, culture, and reproduction of the Inuit Greenlanders, combined with the theft and poisoning of their land by US nuclear bomber and submarine bases. “Given the extensive history of colonial exploitation by Denmark and the United States, it is unsurprising that Greenland seeks independence and the establishment of a sovereign state,” Zakharova said.

No Russian currently engaged in the serious fighting against the US believes in displaying enthusiasm for either the cavalry charge or the parley. Instead, the Russians are preparing to fight Trump’s Greenland move as the opening of a new front to attack Russia from the north. The US plan of attack on the north front isn’t new with Trump. The recent history of that plan, retold from the Russian point of view, follows.

In the US Defense Department’s “2024 Arctic Strategy” paper, Russia is the principal target, along with Russian-Chinese cooperation in natural resource mining, trade and oil and gas shipping along the Northern Sea Route. “Major geopolitical changes are driving the need for this new strategic approach to the Arctic,” the paper declared, “including Russia’s full-scale [sic] invasion of Ukraine, the accession of Finland and Sweden to the NATO Alliance, increasing collaboration between the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and Russia, and the accelerating impacts of climate change. This increasingly accessible region is becoming a venue for strategic competition, and the United States must stand ready to meet the challenge alongside Allies and partners.”

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“Rhodes previously asked to speak to the House committee that investigated the riot, but the Democrat-controlled committee refused to allow it..”

• The Trump Pardons Trigger Judicial Rage (Turley)

Even though President Trump had made it a campaign pledge to pardon those involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, the roughly 1,500 pardons Trump issued on his first day produced familiar reactions from politicians and pundits. In Philadelphia, District Attorney Larry Krasner pledged to pursue those pardoned or commuted with new charges on the state level — eclipsing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg in repackaging federal crimes as state offenses. Others cited the pardons as evidence of an even greater plot or purpose. On MSNBC, former NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund head Sherrilyn Ifill declared that the pardons were all part of a plan to build an army of “brownshirts.” Not to be outdone, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) warned that Trump was issuing pardons to create a “reserve army of political foot soldiers to act on behalf of MAGA and Donald Trump.”

Such hyperbole, particularly the Nazi references, is now commonplace. Indeed, the left jumped the shark on the Nazi-mania and death-of-democracy mantra months ago. This week, however, some of the most strident comments seem to be coming from the federal bench itself. Indeed, some judges used dismissal hearings to launch into what seemed at points like cable-ready commentary. Take District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, an Obama appointee who had previously presided over Trump’s election interference case. Chutkan had been criticized for failing to recuse herself from that case after she made highly controversial statements about Trump from the bench. In a sentencing hearing of a Jan. 6 rioter in 2022, Chutkan said that the rioters “were there in fealty, in loyalty, to one man — not to the Constitution.”

She added then, “[i]t’s a blind loyalty to one person who, by the way, remains free to this day.” That “one person” was still under investigation at the time and, when Trump was charged, Chutkan refused to let the case go. She then pursued Trump with a vigor second only to Special Counsel Jack Smith. In the latest hearing, Chutkan again decided to use the bench to amplify her own views of the pardons and Jan. 6. She proclaimed that the pardons could not change the “tragic truth” and “cannot whitewash the blood, feces and terror that the mob left in its wake. And it cannot repair the jagged breach in America’s sacred tradition of peacefully transitioning power.” In fairness, judges often express the gravity of offenses at sentencing, and most of us certainly share the strong revulsion over what occurred on Jan. 6. However, these cases are being dismissed after an election whose winner explicitly pledged to close the prosecutions through executive clemency.

The defendant in her courtroom was there to have a required dismissal entered in his case, not to hear Judge Chutkan speaking truth to power. In this case, she is the power. It is the power to rule dispassionately on the specific case before her. It is not the power to hold court on the merits of presidential decisions. Down the hall, Chutkan’s colleague Judge Beryl Howell, also an Obama appointee, lashed out at Trump’s actions, writing, “[T]his Court cannot let stand the revisionist myth relayed in this presidential pronouncement.” Yet, all of that paled in comparison to what their colleague U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, also an Obama appointee, did with his Jan. 6 cases. He ordered J6 defendants to seek prior approval before going to Capitol Hill or even coming within any of the 69 square miles of the nation’s Capitol. Thus Mehta practically banished Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and seven other defendants.

It does not appear that the Trump Justice Department requested such restrictions, but Mehta was able to impose them because those defendants had received commutations rather than pardons. A commutation does not require the dismissal of a case, and courts are generally allowed to set conditions for released defendants. However, these are new conditions imposed after presidential commutations. More importantly, they could affect the exercise of First Amendment rights from free speech to free association to the right to petition the government. For example, Rhodes and others would have to disclose intended meetings with members of Congress or participation in political events. Rhodes previously asked to speak to the House committee that investigated the riot, but the Democrat-controlled committee refused to allow it. (A Yale law graduate, Rhodes insisted that the hearing be conducted in public, the very condition Hunter Biden made with the support of some of these same members.)

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“Western Europe.” By Professor Sergey Karaganov, honorary chairman of Russia’s Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, and academic supervisor at the School of International Economics and Foreign Affairs Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Moscow.

• Russia Must Help Overthrow Europe’s Dangerous Political Elites (Karaganov)

Any outcome of the Ukraine conflict framed as a ‘compromise’ would be celebrated in the West as a victory and perceived as a failure by Russia. This must be avoided at all costs.

First, Russia must openly confront Western Europe’s historical culpability. It’s not the ‘garden’ its elites imagine but a field of fat weeds thriving on the blood of hundreds of millions it has enslaved, murdered, and robbed. Calling Western Europe out for its crimes – from colonialism to warmongering – legitimizes our potential use of nuclear deterrence as a justified response to aggression.

Second, Russia must emphasize the inevitability of nuclear escalation in any conflict between NATO and Russia. This message is essential not only to limit an arms race but also to underscore the futility of stockpiling conventional weapons that will be rendered irrelevant in a nuclear confrontation. NATO’s leaders must understand that they cannot avoid the consequences of their actions.

Third, we must continue advancing on the battlefield, destroying the enemy’s forces with relentless precision. However, it is equally critical to declare that Russia’s patience is finite. For every Russian soldier killed, we must make clear that a thousand Western Europeans will pay the price if their governments persist in waging war against us. The public over there must understand that their elites are preparing to sacrifice them, and nuclear weapons will not discriminate between soldiers and civilians. Western European capitals will be among the first targets of our retaliation.

Fourth, Russia must communicate to the Americans that their continued escalation of the Ukraine conflict will lead to catastrophic consequences. Should they persist, we will cross the nuclear Rubicon, targeting their allies and bases worldwide. Any non-nuclear response will provoke a nuclear strike on American soil. This clarity will force Washington to reconsider its reckless policies.

Fifth, we must strengthen our military capabilities while continuing to adjust our nuclear doctrine. If diplomacy fails, we must escalate decisively, demonstrating our readiness to use advanced weapons to defend Russia’s sovereignty and interests. While new technologies such as the Oreshnik missile system enhance our capabilities, they are no substitute for nuclear weapons, which remain the ultimate guarantor of our security.

Finally, Russia must offer the United States a dignified exit from its self-inflicted Ukrainian disaster. We have no desire to humiliate America but are prepared to help it extricate itself from this quagmire, provided it abandons its destructive policies. At the same time, Western Europe must be sidelined from global decision-making. It has become the primary threat to itself and the world.

If America withdraws, Ukraine’s defeat will follow swiftly. Russia will reclaim its rightful territories in the east and south, while a neutral, demilitarized state is established in central and western Ukraine. Those unwilling to live under Russian law will be free to relocate. Peace can only be achieved by removing Western Europe as a destabilizing force and addressing humanity’s broader challenges alongside the global majority.True peace will only come when Western Europe’s backbone is broken once more, as it was after Russia’s victories over Napoleon and Hitler. The current elites must be replaced by a new generation capable of engaging in constructive dialogue. Only then can Europe rejoin the world as a responsible partner, not a source of perpetual conflict. The stakes are clear: This is not just a battle for Russia’s future, but for the survival of human civilization as we know it.

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Overnight DeepSeek experienced a “large scale cyberattack”. They’ll be fine.

• DeepSeek Pulls Rug Out On Nvidia, ASML (ZH)

There is only one topic on traders’ minds this morning that threatens to upend the multi-year AI bull trend driving chip stocks to record highs: the (extremely) cheaper Chinese DeepSeek response to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, as noted in an overnight piece titled “Goldman Asks If China’s DeepSeek is AI’s Sputnik Moment.” Bloomberg’s Mark Cudmore said earlier that the emergence of DeepSeek is terrific news for global growth and productivity. However, he cautioned that the new free, open-source large-language model undermines the massive premium paid for AI research and development by US mega-cap stocks, warning that this development could serve as a catalyst to end 15 years of US stock market exceptionalism. Perhaps the pin that bursts the AI stock bubble in the US. If so, watch out below…

The buzz over DeepSeek has stoked questions about the tens of billions of money big tech firms have spent on AI models and data centers, along with broader trends to upgrade aging power grids. As a result, chip designer Nvidia plunged 12% in premarket trading in New York, while Netherlands-based chip companies ASML and ASM International tumbled 10% and 15%, respectively. In Asia, Japanese chip-related stocks traded lower. Bitcoin was hammered lower. For Wall Street analysts, the developments raise serious questions about elevated valuations of AI-related stocks and Silicon Valley’s business model of massive research.”It does put a lot of scrutiny at the level of valuations,” said Benedicte Lowe, equity derivatives strategist at BNP Paribas Markets 360, adding, “We are quite positive on US tech stock sector. But it puts pressure on the outlook and is a turning point for the companies at this stage in the cycle.”

Jefferies analysts told clients, “Concerns have immediately emerged that it could be a disruptor to the current AI business model, which relies on high end chips and extensive computing power and hence energy.” Goldman’s Jeremy Elster offered his take on DeepSeek and market reaction:

“Only one topic to start the week, threatening to undermine much of the narrative driving eu industrials and cap goods ytd… DeepSeek .. I will defer to Privo’s take on the background this morning: “what makes DeepSeek important is not necessarily that it’s Chinese or rapidly ascended to one of the most popular downloads in the Apple App Store but that it appears quite a fundamental advancement in the efficiency of AI technology. For a lot of complicated reasons it’s basically a huge upgrade to effectiveness of inference. By some measurements, 40-50x more efficient than other models. If you can do more with less it naturally leads the question to whether you need so much capacity”…(note) => In industrials / cap goods, reactions this morning are mostly of the “shoot first” variety towards capex and power equipment plays in relevant and adjacent verticals. GSXEACDC -6% is unsurprisingly most impacted (SU most datacentre exposed,- see full list of exposures in piece from Friday here: link). Also seeing the contagion to semi-cap (Atlas Copco, VAT Group).”

In a separate Goldman note, analyst Francois Theis market outlined the DeepSeek reaction sent “Asian AI ecosystem in full profit taking mode (GS Japan AI -3.08%, GS Asia Power Grid -3.3%) and Nasdaq down significantly premarket.” Theis pointed out one key implication of the DeepSeek development: “First of all remains around Softbank’ Stargate return on investments and capex efficiency (and hence beneficiaries around supply chain and energy requirements).” JPM Market Intel desk told clients: “The DeepSeek story is forcing investors to question the market position of all the MegaCap Tech names and the entire AI supply chain.” Q&As about DeepSeek (courtesy of Bloomberg):

How does DeepSeek R1 compare to OpenAI or Meta AI? Though not fully detailed by the company, the cost of training and developing DeepSeek’s models appears to be only a fraction of what’s required for OpenAI or Meta Platforms Inc.’s best products. The much better efficiency of the model puts into question the need for vast expenditures of capital to acquire the latest and most powerful AI accelerators from the likes of Nvidia Corp. That also amplifies attention on US export curbs of such advanced semiconductors to China — which were intended to prevent a breakthrough of the sort that DeepSeek appears to represent. DeepSeek says R1 is near or better than rival models in several leading benchmarks such as AIME 2024 for mathematical tasks, MMLU for general knowledge and AlpacaEval 2.0 for question-and-answer performance. It also ranks among the top performers on a UC Berkeley-affiliated leaderboard called Chatbot Arena.

What’s raising alarm in the US? Washington has banned the export of high-end technologies like GPU semiconductors to China, in a bid to stall the country’s advances in AI, the key frontier in the US-China contest for tech supremacy. But DeepSeek’s progress suggests Chinese AI engineers have worked their way around the restrictions, focusing on greater efficiency with limited resources. While it remains unclear how much advanced AI- training hardware DeepSeek has had access to, the company’s demonstrated enough to suggest the trade restrictions have not been entirely effective in stymying China’s progress.

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“..no Federal civilian position that is vacant at noon on January 20, 2025, may be filled, and no new position may be created..”

• Trump Says He ‘Immediately Halted’ Hiring of New IRS Agents (ET)

President Donald Trump on Saturday said he has halted any new hires of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents. “They hired—were trying to hire 88,000 new workers to go with you, and we’re in the process of developing a plan to either terminate all of them or maybe we move them to the border,” Trump remarked at a speech in Nevada, while also saying, “On day one, I immediately halted the hiring of any new IRS agents. “I think we’re going to move them to the border where they are allowed to carry guns. You know, they’re so strong on guns. But these people are allowed to carry guns. So we will probably move them to the border,” he said.

He was repeating a claim made in 2022 by Republicans that some of the IRS agents who would be hired would be able to carry firearms, although the bill did not designate money specifically for a large number of armed IRS employees. At the time, the IRS said it would also obligate about $8.64 billion of the new funding during the 2023 and 2024 fiscal years, and that 7,239 of the new hires during those years will be enforcement staff. In his administration, President Joe Biden approved plans to direct $80 billion to the IRS under the largely Democrat-passed Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. House Republicans later clawed back billions of dollars from the legislation, most recently in the attempt to avert a government shutdown in December.

The original 87,000 or 88,000 IRS agents figure appears to have come from a U.S. Treasury Department estimate in 2021 to determine the level of hiring of agents to maintain the agency’s efficiency in collecting taxes. Last year, the IRS said it was going to hire nearly 20,000 new employees and deploy new technology over the next two years as it ramps up an $80 billion investment plan to improve tax enforcement and customer service. Soon after taking office, Trump signed an executive order to freeze the hiring of federal civilian employees across the government, stating that “no Federal civilian position that is vacant at noon on January 20, 2025, may be filled, and no new position may be created except as otherwise provided for in this memorandum or other applicable law.”

“Except as provided below, this freeze applies to all executive departments and agencies regardless of their sources of operational and programmatic funding,” it adds. Aside from the hiring freeze, the president suspended Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act funding disbursements in what his office said was “terminating the green new deal,” including pausing funds “supporting programs, projects, or activities that may be implicated by the policy established in Section 2 of the order.”

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By Eric Peters, CIO of One River Asset Management.

“Biden was bad for business but good for prices,” [..] “And Trump will be good for business but bad for prices.”

• Trump’s Agenda Will Force Foreign Leaders To Adopt Pro-Growth Policies (ZH)

Hope all goes well… “Builders make the most money,” I said at the luncheon, high in some tower, looking out over Dallas. “That’s why I’m sitting here today,” said the entrepreneur to my left, confident, smiling. “If you’re not building a company, the next best thing is to own equity,” I said to the oil, gas, tech execs, family offices. We discussed the new administration, geopolitics, markets, risks, opportunities, my worldview. Then I asked them all about Trump’s drill-baby-drill policy, America’s energy supply dynamics, demand. “Biden was bad for business but good for prices,” one said, many nodded. “And Trump will be good for business but bad for prices.” “The golden age of America begins right now,” said President Trump, vowing to annihilate the nation’s many challenges, sending a shiver through our country’s allies and adversaries.

Economists were quick to spread skepticism. You see, American growth is already quite robust, with GDPNow estimating Q4 real GDP of 3.0%. Unemployment is low at 4.1%. CPI inflation at 2.9% is higher than target but well off the 9.1% high in mid-2022. Nationwide gasoline prices are $3.14 a gallon, not far from levels in Trump’s first term, miles below the $5.03 mid-2022 highs. And the stock market is at all-time highs, with the Shiller P/E ratio at a level exceeded only in the 1999 bubble. So, economists argue that with a 6.3% federal budget deficit, the prospect of massive tariffs, slowing international trade, government layoffs, reduced immigration, and rising inflation, the US economy simply lacks the capacity to power ahead, even with Trump’s pledge to slash red tape. Perhaps they’re right, but economists (and central bankers) have been horribly wrong for so many years that it’s hard to do anything but take the other side of their consensus.

Our geopolitical allies and adversaries are another matter altogether. They’re simply praying Trump’s economic experiment fails. With the American economy already outpacing every country that matters, and with those nation’s electorates growing increasingly agitated, restless, riotous, the possibility of the US widening the chasm terrifies their leaders. The prospect of being held to account for their economic mismanagement, like the negligent mayor of Los Angeles, is too much to bear for the globe’s presidents, prime ministers, chancellors, paranoid dictators. And this, in an ironic twist, holds promise for a brighter global future, if the America First agenda forces panicked foreign leaders to adopt more pro-growth policies for their people.

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“..their blatant desire to eliminate dissent, criticism and ultimately freedom so they can continue to uphold a model in which they are the main beneficiaries.”

• Argentina’s Milei Attacks European Liberal ‘Epidemic’ (RT)

Argentine President Javier Milei has criticized European leaders and condemned “woke ideology,” branding it an “epidemic” that must be cured. Addressing the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Thursday, he claimed that the “global hegemony” of left-wing politics and ideology is “starting to crumble.” Making his second appearance at the WEF, the outspoken president defended what he called the traditional values of the West, describing them as “the peak of the human species.” Milei then doubled down on his “cultural battle” against so-called “wokeism,” a term often used by right-wing political movements to criticize progressive policies addressing social inequalities. “What once seemed like a global hegemony of the ‘woke’ left in politics, educational institutions, in the media, in supranational organizations or even in forums like Davos, has begun to crumble,” he said.

According to Milei, wokeism seeks to penalize any kind of opposition “because beneath the rhetoric that they so often preach what truly lies is their blatant desire to eliminate dissent, criticism and ultimately freedom so they can continue to uphold a model in which they are the main beneficiaries.” He took aim at Britain, asking: “Is it not true that right now as we speak, in the UK, citizens are being imprisoned for exposing horrifying crimes committed by Muslim migrants? Crimes that the government seeks to conceal?” Milei was referring to a wave of protests in the UK last summer against Islam and mass immigration which resulted in large-scale arrests. British authorities responded to the riots in draconian fashion, with more than 1,000 people arrested, 480 charged, and 99 sentenced for their role in the disorder, according to figures published by the BBC.

The Argentine leader, who attended US President Donald Trump’s inauguration last week, also targeted the EU, accusing the bloc of scrapping the presidential election in Romania. “Didn’t the bureaucrats in Brussels suspend Romania’s elections simply because they didn’t like the party that had won?” he asked. Romanian right-wing candidate Calin Georgescu, a critic of NATO and the EU and a staunch opponent of sending aid to Ukraine, topped the now-annulled first-round vote in November, beating liberal leftist candidates. Romania’s Constitutional Court suddenly canceled the election ahead of the second-round vote, citing intelligence documents alleging “irregularities” in Georgescu’s campaign performance, which have subsequently been linked to a social media campaign run by one of his opponents.

Milei said that while there is no actual censorship in the West, there is the idea that anyone who doesn’t align with a woke ideology must be silenced. In Milei’s view, it is an “ideology that has colonized the West, a single thought regime on feminism, diversity, inclusion, immigration, abortion, environmentalism, gender ideology” representing “an epidemic that must be cured, a cancer we need to get rid of.”

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Europe will shoot its own foot until it falls off.

• EU Prolongs Sanctions On Russia (RT)

EU foreign ministers have agreed to extend the bloc’s economic sanctions on Russia, after Hungary dropped a last-minute threat to block the extension over Ukraine’s refusal to restart the flow of Russian gas to the EU. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas announced the extension on Monday, claiming that the move will “continue to deprive Moscow of revenues to finance its war.” The EU has imposed 15 rounds of economic penalties on Russia since the Ukraine conflict escalated in February 2022, freezing Moscow’s sovereign assets and severing almost all trade and energy links between the bloc and Russia. These sanctions must be renewed every six months with the unanimous consent of all 27 EU member states.

Last week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban threatened to “pull the handbrake” on this renewal if Kiev does not restart a transit deal with Russian energy firm Gazprom to allow Russian gas to flow into the EU via Ukraine. Hungary relies on Russia for around three-quarters of its natural gas imports, a small percentage of which flowed through the trans-Ukraine pipeline. Budapest dropped the threat after receiving “the guarantees it has requested concerning the energy security of our country,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto wrote in a post on X. In a statement seen by Reuters, the European Commission said it would “continue discussions with Ukraine on the supply to Europe through the gas pipeline system in Ukraine.” “The Commission is ready to associate Hungary in the process along with Slovakia,” it added.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico announced earlier this month that he would veto any future EU aid to Kiev over the gas cutoff, warning that he could also halt the supply of electricity to Ukraine and cut humanitarian aid deliveries. Slovakia depends on Russian gas to meet about 60% of its demand. Orban and Fico have repeatedly argued that Ukraine cannot defeat Russia on the battlefield, and that Western military aid to Kiev will only prolong the bloodshed. Both leaders have also insisted that the EU’s sanctions hurt European economies more than they hurt Russia’s, and Orban has repeatedly threatened to block the implementation of these sanctions in exchange for significant carve-outs from Brussels, including a partial exemption from the EU’s bloc-wide oil embargo and a guarantee that its nuclear sector won’t be affected by future sanctions.

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Budanov is a prime candidate to succeed Zelensky.

• Ukraine’s Top Spy Believes Country Could Cease To Exist (RT)

Ukraine could face collapse by summer if it does not agree to peace negotiations with Russia, the country’s top intelligence official has told lawmakers in Kiev, according to a report on Monday by local outlet Strana.ua. According to the website’s sources, Kirill Budanov, the chief of the Main Directorate of Intelligence, made his remarks during a closed-door meeting in the Ukrainian parliament. One of the people present at the conference told the outlet that there were sensitive briefings by top military officials, including officers of the General Staff. However, the source singled out Budanov’s account. “Someone asked him: ‘How much time do we have left?’ He responded, with his signature cold smile: ‘If there are no serious negotiations by summer, very dangerous processes could begin for the very existence of Ukraine.’”

Budanov’s reported warning comes as Kiev’s forces have been pushed back across the front line by Russian troops. Ukrainian officials and commanders have also complained of manpower shortages amid a troubled mobilization campaign, with recruitment officers often facing open resistance from reluctant draftees. Earlier this week, Strana reported that top Ukrainian officials were reviewing a plan by US President Donald Trump’s team to end the conflict within 100 days. While the roadmap has not been confirmed, its key points reportedly include direct talks between the US president and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to pave the way for a ceasefire along the front lines by April 20 and a peace agreement by early May.

According to the roadmap, it is believed that Ukraine would agree to abandon its NATO membership ambitions, stop cracking down on political forces advocating cooperation with Russia, and become a member of the EU by 2030. Kiev would also reportedly refrain from attempts to reclaim its former territories from Moscow without formally recognizing Russian sovereignty, with the West pledging to partially lift sanctions immediately after the peace deal. While Ukrainian officials have dismissed the roadmap as a hoax, the Kremlin has not commented on the report. However, Moscow has repeatedly said it is open to talks over Ukraine, signaling readiness for a Trump-Putin summit. Russia has ruled out the freezing of the conflict, arguing that Kiev would use such a pause to rearm itself, while insisting that peace could be reached only if Ukraine commits to permanent neutrality, demilitarization, and denazification.

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“Throughout history, censorship has never succeeded. It has never stopped a single idea or a movement. It has a perfect failure rate.”

• The CIA Report: A Low Confidence Finding is the Height of Hypocrisy (Turley)

Every modern president seems to promise transparency during their campaigns, but few ever seem to get around to it. Once in power, the value of being opaque becomes evident. We will have to wait to see if President Donald Trump will fulfill his pledges, but so far this is proving the cellophane administration. Putting aside his constant press gaggles and conferences, the Administration has ordered wholesale disclosures of long-withheld files from everything from the JFK investigation to, most recently, the CIA COVID origins report. That report is particularly stinging for both the Biden Administration and its media allies. Newly-confirmed CIA Director John Ratcliffe released the report, which details how it views the lab theory as the most likely explanation for the virus.

Expressing “low confidence,” the agency still favored that theory over the natural origins theory, which was treated as sacrosanct by the media and favored by figures like Anthony Fauci. (Other recent reports have contradicted the equally orthodox view on the closing of schools, showing no material benefit in terms of slowing the transmission of COVID). Even a low-confidence finding shows the height of hypocrisy in Washington where politicians and pundits savaged any scientist who even suggested the possibility that the virus was man-made and likely originated in the Wuhan lab near the site of the outbreak. This follows a recent disclosure in the Wall Street Journal of a report on how the Biden administration may have suppressed dissenting views supporting the lab theory on the origin of the COVID-19 virus. Not only were the FBI and its top experts excluded from a critical briefing of President Biden, but government scientists were reportedly warned that they were “off the reservation” in supporting the lab theory.

As previously discussed, many journalists used the rejection of the lab theory to paint Trump as a bigot. By the time Biden became president, not only were certain government officials heavily invested in the zoonotic or natural origin theory, but so were many in the media. Reporters used opposition to the lab theory as another opportunity to pound their chests and signal their virtue. MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace mocked Trump and others for spreading one of his favorite “conspiracy theories.” MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt insisted that “we know it’s been debunked that this virus was manmade or modified,” MSNBC’s Joy Reid also called the lab leak theory “debunked bunkum,” while CNN reporter Drew Griffin criticized spreading the “widely debunked” theory. CNN host Fareed Zakaria told viewers that “the far right has now found its own virus conspiracy theory” in the lab leak. NBC News’s Janis Mackey Frayer described it as the “heart of conspiracy theories.”

The Washington Post was particularly dogmatic. When Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark) raised the theory, he was chastised for “repeat[ing] a fringe theory suggesting that the ongoing spread of a coronavirus is connected to research in the disease-ravaged epicenter of Wuhan, China.” Likewise, after Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) mentioned the lab theory, Post Fact Checker Glenn Kessler mocked him: “I fear @tedcruz missed the scientific animation in the video that shows how it is virtually impossible for this virus jump from the lab. Or the many interviews with actual scientists. We deal in facts, and viewers can judge for themselves.” As these efforts failed and more information emerged supporting the lab theory, many media figures just looked at their shoes and shrugged. Others became more ardent. In 2021, New York Times science and health reporter Apoorva Mandavilli was still calling on reporters not to mention the “racist” lab theory.

In Kessler’s case, he wrote that the lab theory was “suddenly credible” as if it had sprung from the head of Zeus rather than having been supported for years by scientists, many of whom had been canceled and banned. As these figures were attacking reports, Biden officials were sitting on these reports. Figures like Fauci did nothing to support those academics being canceled or censored for raising the theory. The very figures claiming to battle “disinformation” were suppressing opposing views that have now been vindicated as credible. It was not only the lab theory. In my recent book, I discuss how signatories of the Great Barrington Declaration were fired or disciplined by their schools or associations for questioning COVID-19 policies.

The suppression of the lab theory proves the ultimate fallacy of censorship. Throughout history, censorship has never succeeded. It has never stopped a single idea or a movement. It has a perfect failure rate. Ideas, like water, have a way of finding their way out in time. Yet, as the last few years have shown, it does succeed in imposing costs on those with dissenting views. For years, figures like Bhattacharya (who was recently awarded the prestigious Intellectual Freedom Award by the American Academy of Sciences and Letters) were hounded and marginalized. Others opposed Bhattacharya’s right to offer his scientific views, even under oath. For example, in one hearing, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) expressed disgust that Bhattacharya was even allowed to testify as “a purveyor of COVID-19 misinformation.”

Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik decried an event associated with Bhattacharya, writing that “we’re living in an upside-down world” because Stanford University allowed dissenting scientists to speak at a scientific forum. Hiltzik also wrote a column titled “The COVID lab leak claim isn’t just an attack on science, but a threat to public health.” One of the saddest aspects of this story is that many of these figures in government, academia and the media were not necessarily trying to shield China. Some were motivated by their investment in the narrative while others were drawn by the political and personal benefits that came from joining the mob against a minority of scientists. The CIA report does not resolve this debate, but it shows that there is a legitimate debate despite the overwhelming message of the media and the attacks on scientists. Of course, the same media and political figures responsible for this culture of intimidation have simply moved on. The value of an alliance with the media is that such embarrassing contradictions are not reported. At most, these figures shrug and turn to the next subject for groupthink and mob action.

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“. . .once Trump runs out of easy ways to unfuck the federal government, his administration will hit a crossroads moment, probably sooner rather than later.” — Matt Taibbi

• Glug Glug. . . . (James Howard Kunstler)

That’s the sound of a swamp being drained. And much fetid water is still backed up over the 68.3 square miles that comprise the District of Columbia. You might be just realizing that the “Joe Biden” regime was not a government at all, but rather, a colossal racketeering operation. And let’s be clear and precise: racketeering is making money dishonestly. Thus: the grubby Biden Family itself at the top of that putrid food-chain, and their smalltime harvesting of mere table-scraps. Where trillions got creamed off by the big gators, the Bidens risked all for a measly few million, like newts gorging on gnats in a drainage ditch. Are you so cynical— as the Marxians are in their so-called “critique” of capitalism — that you think all human transactions of making-and-doing are dishonest? That is yet another misreading of reality, which the recent years of nonstop official propaganda and gaslight have catastrophically aggravated to the degree that half of America can no longer think at all.

Capitalism is not a political ideology despite the “ism” incorrectly attached to it, like the tail pinned on a donkey. Capitalism is simply the management of surplus wealth. The catch is, in a hyper-complex society, the management itself becomes complex to an extreme. And that can easily lead to mismanagement, which will deform and pervert the very mechanisms that superintend wealth, sometimes so badly that the wealth disappears altogether. These are the dynamics faced by the newborn Trump command. Both political parties, per se, have fallen into a dismal habit of racketeering in this sclerotic state-of-empire. But now Mr. Trump has seized control of the Republican apparatus, at least, and the Party’s entrenched ol’ crocs and pythons descry that under DJT the regular feeding frenzy is over.

Hence: the hand-wringing over Pete Hegseth setting foot in the Pentagon, as he will sometime this dawning day. The dollars pounded down that rat-hole in this century could have funded start-ups of several empires, but instead the swag just landed in the index funds of countless board members parasitically lodged in a dark cosmos of G.I. procurement circle-jerks. A lot of that can and will be stopped. And the ones who just won’t quit are liable to be found out. Now, the Democratic Party faces more perplexing quandaries. It, too, is constructed as a gigantic grift machine. But if you subtract the employees of the multitudinous NGOs and non-profit orgs set up in recent years to receive government largess — which have spawned like smelts in the San Joaquin delta — you would eliminate much of the party’s rank-and-file. (The rest are apparently embedded in government itself and the teachers’ union.) A whole lot of activists would lose their platforms for activism in the process.

[..] The first seven days of Mr. Trump have been sheer razzle-dazzle. He and the people around him have torn through the zeitgeist like front-end-loaders through a homeless encampment. He has yet to meet a crisis. Some of the obvious traps are avoidable. For instance: seeking further injury to Russia as a way of ending the stupid Ukraine war — started by us in 2014, thanks a lot Victoria Nuland & Company — since both the US and Russia are just about unconditionally desirous of stopping the damn thing as soon as possible. It’s had no benefit for anybody but the Raytheon war lobby and the Zelensky regime’s legion of grifters. Mr. Trump’s recent tough talk has been entirely for show, just a mass of rhetorical lube to un-stick the lingering “Joe Biden” stasis in that sad-sack corner of the world.

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Good conversation. The boys are somewhat optimistic.

• Taibbi Hints FBI Communications With COVID Scientists Will Be Exposed (ZH)

Award-winning independent journalist Matt Taibbi revealed in an interview with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson that communications between FBI officials and scientists related to gain-of-function research and the origins of COVID-19 is expected to one day be made public. Watch: (relevant portion begins at 34:06)

MATT TAIBBI: There are so many different areas where they are going to have to investigate and reinvestigate that. We just went through a period where there was mass stonewalling of Congress when it was trying to investigate what happened with COVID. There were key people like Peter Daszak from the EcoHealth Alliance, who just didn’t answer subpoenas, right? There are documents that we know exist that we’re going to get now with FBI communications between the bureau and a lot of these scientists dating back ten years. And it’s going to tell a crazy story, a really interesting story. There’s a reason why Fauci’s pardon is backdated to 2014, because that’s the time period they are going to have to start looking, which is, when did we start defying the ban on gain of function research. We clearly did. That’s pretty established at this point.

Why were we doing it? What connection did that have to the Wuhan thing? What kind of advanced notice did we get? What kind of lies were told about it? Who were responsible for those lies? What information did we get about the inefficacy of the vaccine and how did that connect to statement by the CDC and the White House? This also connects to the censorship issue in a major way because there was a massive effort to control the public conversation about this that went through the health agencies. We know they’re looking at that. And that’s another executive order, by the way, the free speech order. It directs the Department of Justice to come up with a comprehensive review of all the censorship stuff, so we’re going to find out about that. I just think COVID is a gigantic rat’s nest of stuff. Every direction they look there’s going to find something revelatory.

TUCKER CARLSON: The question is: will that information reach the public? There is these intermediaries like the media. Congressional brand investigators, executive brand investigators like DOJ, inspector generals, they are always constantly releasing reports and no one reads them because no one picks them up in the media. Do we have enough interested reporters to designate what they find?

MATT TAIBBI: I think we do because what we think of as the media is dead. They no longer really matter. The media that matters right now are people like you, Joe Rogan and other independent podcasters out there. There’s this gigantic, thriving independent media out there that turned the last election. It was abundantly clear that the old media no longer had any ability to control the narrative about anything. They’re totally discredited.

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“..Armstrong’s computer program “Socrates” sees a global recession no later than 2028. Socrates also sees the possibility of “war as early as April or May of 2025.”

• Devalued Dollar Will Crash the DOW – Martin Armstrong (USAW)

Legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong is back with a warning to President Trump, who is on record wanting a weaker dollar. Trump might try to force a lower value for the US dollar to help offset the trade deficit. Just this past week, Trump is demanding lower interest rates. Experts say this might also lower the value of the US dollar. Armstrong predicts, “Everything has an international value. If you lower the value of the dollar, then oil in terms of dollars will rise. Look at gold. It’s not making new highs right now because the dollar is going up, but chart it in Canadian dollars or Euros and it’s making new highs. . . . You dramatically lower the dollar and you are going to cause a crash–again. . . . It could be 40% to 50%.”

Armstrong has deep experience in the currency markets. In 1985, Armstrong was called in by the Reagan Administration about cutting the value of the dollar to spark trade. Armstrong warned if you cut the dollar, you will have a big crash within two years. What happened? Two years later, the stock market crashed more than 22% in one day in the infamous 1987 stock market crash. It is still the record for a one-day crash in percentage terms. Armstrong says, “In the end, they said we think foreign exchange had something to do with the crash. That was the best I could get out of them. They are not going to stand up and say, oh gee, we caused it (the crash) by lowering the dollar by 40%.”

Armstrong is going to write President Trump a letter warning him NOT to force the US dollar lower. How is the war picture shaping up now that Trump, who wants to be a “peacemaker,” is in office? Armstrong says, “You have French President Macron saying he wants to send troops into Ukraine. Britian has just now sent 20,000 or 30,000 troops into Romania. They want war. They are basically on the verge of a sovereign debt crisis. So, they have a choice. They default and say, oh sorry, we screwed up. Or, it’s not us, it’s Putin. We have to go get him. The German government fell the very next day after Trump was elected. You see this going on all over Europe.”

In closing, Armstrong sees gold (and silver) going up from here. The US is still the strongest economy by far, but Armstrong’s computer program “Socrates” sees a global recession no later than 2028. Socrates also sees the possibility of “war as early as April or May of 2025.” Armstrong tells President Trump, “Get out of NATO–ASAP.”

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“On January 27, 1945, the Soviet Red Army liberated Auschwitz, revealing to the world the unimaginable horrors of the Holocaust. This event became a symbol of the triumph of humanity over the worst atrocities of the Nazi regime.”

• The Nation That Liberated Auschwitz Is Being Excluded From Memory (Romanenko)

Russia’s exclusion from the commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation is not just a diplomatic snub – it is an insult to history and to the memory of millions who suffered and died during World War II. This decision, part of a growing trend of historical revisionism, diminishes the decisive role played by the Soviet Union in defeating Nazi Germany and liberating concentration camps, including Auschwitz. It’s a troubling development that undermines the lessons of the past in favor of political expediency.

On January 27, 1945, the Soviet Red Army liberated Auschwitz, revealing to the world the unimaginable horrors of the Holocaust. This event became a symbol of the triumph of humanity over the worst atrocities of the Nazi regime. Yet, in 2025, Russian representatives were excluded from the anniversary ceremony at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland. Piotr Cywinski, the museum’s director, justified the decision by citing Russia’s actions in the Ukraine conflict, stating that a country “that does not understand the value of liberty has something to do at a ceremony dedicated to the liberation.”

This reasoning ignores a critical truth: Auschwitz’s liberation was accomplished by Soviet soldiers, many of whom paid with their lives. The USSR bore the brunt of the Nazi war machine, suffering the loss of an estimated 27 million military personnel and civilians during the war. To exclude Russia from commemorations of such a significant event is to erase the sacrifices of those who played an indispensable role in ending the Holocaust.

This act is part of a broader pattern of attempts to revise history, downplaying or ignoring the Soviet Union’s contributions to the defeat of Nazi Germany. In recent years, statements from Western leaders have increasingly glossed over the USSR’s role in World War II. For instance, during a Memorial Day speech, then-US President Joe Biden recounted the victory over Nazi Germany without mentioning the Soviet Union, a glaring omission that Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov criticized as a cynical diminishment of historical truth. Similarly, current US President Donald Trump once claimed that it was “American soldiers who truly won World War II,” conveniently overlooking the critical battles of Stalingrad, Kursk, and Berlin where Soviet forces dealt the decisive blows to the Nazi regime.

Even more troubling is the West’s apparent tolerance for neo-Nazi elements in Ukraine, a country central to the current geopolitical tensions. In 2023, the Canadian Parliament hosted Yaroslav Hunka, a 98-year-old Ukrainian who served in the Waffen-SS “Galicia” division – a unit implicated in war crimes. Hunka was given a standing ovation, a shocking display that later forced the resignation of Canada’s House Speaker Anthony Rota. Such incidents highlight a disturbing willingness to whitewash history in the name of contemporary political alliances.

Russia’s exclusion from World War II commemorations is not new. In 2024, Russian officials were barred from the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, France, with the French presidency stating that “the conditions for their participation are not there given the war of aggression launched in 2022.” Similarly, in 2020, Poland excluded Russian representatives from a Warsaw commemoration marking the outbreak of World War II. These decisions reflect a troubling trend: using historical remembrance as a tool of political messaging.

This selective approach to history is dangerous. World War II was a global conflict that required immense sacrifices from numerous nations, but no country paid a higher price than the Soviet Union. To erase or diminish that contribution is to distort the historical record and risk undermining the shared understanding that has underpinned the post-war international order. The decision to exclude Russia from Auschwitz’s 80th anniversary commemorations sends a troubling message about the value of historical truth in times of geopolitical conflict. If we begin to erase inconvenient aspects of history to suit present-day narratives, we risk losing sight of the lessons that history teaches us. The Holocaust and the broader atrocities of World War II were enabled by dehumanization, propaganda, and the denial of reality. To combat these forces in our time, we must commit to an honest reckoning with the past, even when it is uncomfortable.

By excluding Russia, the organizers of the Auschwitz commemorations missed an opportunity to reaffirm the shared commitment to remembering the Holocaust and the sacrifices made to end it. The liberation of Auschwitz was a moment of global significance, a reminder of what humanity can achieve when united against evil. That unity is undermined when we allow historical revisionism to take hold. In remembering Auschwitz, we must honor all those who contributed to its liberation, regardless of modern political considerations. The Soviet soldiers who freed the camp’s survivors deserve recognition, as do the millions of Soviet citizens who perished in the fight against fascism. To deny their role is not only an affront to historical truth but also a betrayal of the very ideals of liberty and justice that the commemorations seek to uphold.

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Creating Zen
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