Menu Icon

Debt Rattle August 8 2024

Aug 082024
 
 August 8, 2024  Posted by at 9:34 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  52 Responses »


Henry Bacon General View of the Acropolis at Sunset 1900(?)

 

• Stolen Valor: Walz Bailed On Iraq Tour, Then Lied About Combat Deployment (ZH)
• The GOP Plan To Handle Tim Walz, ‘Ideological Soul Mate’ of Harris (RCW)
• Minnesota National Guard Confirms VP Nominee Tim Walz Demoted (JTN)
• Kamala Donated To ‘Defund Police’ Group Pushing For DC Sanctuary City (ZH)
• US Arms Makers Refusing To Invest In Ukraine (RT)
• EU Hails Incursion Into Russia As Ukraine’s Right To ‘Self-defense’ (RT)
• Ukraine Spreading ‘Terrorism’ Around The World – Zakharova (RT)
• Fourth African State Sanctions Ukraine For ‘Supporting Terrorism’ (RT)
• Why Did America Give Away Its Manufacturing Jobs? (Paul Craig Roberts)
• FBI Raids Scott Ritter’s House (RT)
• Vienna Cancels Taylor Swift Concerts Over ISIS Attack Fears (RT)
• Hunter Biden Got ‘Millions’ of Dollars From Romania to Influence US Gov’t (Sp.)
• The “No Kings Act” is a Decapitation of the Constitution (Turley)
• Crazed Authoritarians Demand X Be Shut Down in UK (MN)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shellenberger

 

 

Pelosi

 

 

Somalia

 

 

Sinwar
https://twitter.com/i/status/1821017557538590978

 

 

Victor Davis Hanson: “Anything That Didn’t Kill [Trump] Made Him Stronger”

 

 

 

 

Did they vet this guy at all? He bailed on his National Guard battalion when he heard he would be deployed to Iraq, and you want to put him second in line for Commander-in-Chief?

• Stolen Valor: Walz Bailed On Iraq Tour, Then Lied About Combat Deployment (ZH)

Kamala Harris’ VP pick Tim Walz has come under fire over his extreme left-wing policies, from joking about helping illegal immigrants into the country by investing in a ‘ladder company,’ to signing a law that gives them driver’s licenses, to delaying the deployment of the National Guard during the Georger Floyd riots. And while there’s much more to discuss, Walz has come under the most intense scrutiny for embellishing his military record, when in reality he bailed on his National Guard battalion – instead running off to Congress after learning that he would be deployed to Iraq.”On May 16th, 2005, [Walz] quit, betraying his country, leaving the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion and its Soldiers hanging; without its senior Non-Commissioned Officer, as the battalion prepared for war,” wrote retired Command Sergeants Major Thomas Behrends and Paul Herr in a 2018 letter posted to Facebook.

The pair further criticized Walz for abandoning the National Guard for Congress despite being fully aware that he could have requested permission from the Pentagon to seek office while on active duty. And instead of filing the proper paperwork to ensure a smooth transition out of the military, Walz “instead … slithered out the door,” the letter reads, adding that Walz “embellished and selectively omitted facts of his military career for years.” Trump VP pick JD Vance ripped Walz in a press conference, saying “What bothers me about Tim Walz is the stolen valor garbage. Do not pretend to be something you’re not. And if he wants to criticize me for getting an Ivy League education, I’m proud […] I was able to make something of myself and I would be ashamed if I was him and I lied about my military service like he did.” (X via @townhallcom). What’s more, Walz lied – telling a crowd that he was in fact deployed. “I carried weapons of war in war,” he said. Walz insists he has an “honorable record.”

Read more …

“..Democrats have “shifted so far to the left as a whole that candidates as extreme as Kamala Harris, as extreme as Tim Walz, are now considered mainstream.”

• The GOP Plan To Handle Tim Walz, ‘Ideological Soul Mate’ of Harris (RCW)

Democrats are eager to introduce Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to the country. He is a veteran who used the GI Bill to get to college, a former public-school teacher who coached high school football, and a two-term governor of a midwestern state with a record of accomplishments on behalf of working-class families. Republicans are just as excited. Despite his Rust Belt resume, they say Vice President Harris has selected a radical as her running mate. In an interview with RealClearPolitics, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley said, “Tim Walz is really, truly her ideological soulmate.” The emerging Republican plan to beat the Harris-Walz ticket? Just roll the tape, replied Whatley: “Our opposition research is going to be video clips of Tim Walz.” More specifically, Whatley said the GOP would point to Walz’s previous comments about wanting to invest in a “30-foot-ladder factory” to help migrants scale former President Trump’s border wall, his support for giving undocumented individuals healthcare and driver’s licenses in Minnesota, and his handling of the 2020 riots in Minneapolis that followed the death of George Floyd.

Republicans have already been hitting Harris over illegal immigration and the border, inflation and the economy, and crime. Walz just presents a new wrinkle and new video clips. One immediately began circulating online. Conservatives were quick to criticize Walz for not deploying the Minnesota National Guard sooner in the summer of 2020 as rioters looted and burned through Minneapolis. “I could smell the burning tires, and that was a very real thing,” Minnesota first lady Gwen Walz told a local news reporter in an interview making the rounds online Tuesday. “I kept the windows open as long as I could because I felt like that was such a touchstone of what was happening.” According to the GOP, this is more evidence of the weak-on-crime radicalism of Democrats. The race is now on for Democrats to introduce their new folksy anti-Trump champion while Republicans rush to define him as more of the same.

For his part, Walz has a history of spoiling GOP plans. He punched his ticket to Congress in 2006 by flipping a Republican House seat. After more than a decade, Walz ran and won the governor’s mansion by more than 10 points in 2018, a post he easily held a second time four years later. Michael Tyler, a spokesman for the Harris campaign, said that by picking Walz, Harris has “cemented the fundamental contrast in this race between the Harris-Walz ticket which is fighting for working families and the Trump-Vance Project 2025 agenda that would unleash harm on Americans across the country.” The pair will spend the coming months, he added, traveling the country talking about “building up the middle class instead of cutting taxes for the rich, and fighting for our fundamental freedoms, including reproductive freedom.” Walz may be an asset particularly in the Midwest. He talks plainly, and his small-town biography explains his appeal.

When President Biden announced his retirement, Walz was quick to throw his support behind Harris as many others did. He emerged as a sort of pathfinder for Democrats with his broadsides against Sen. J.D. Vance as soon as Trump named the Ohio Republican his running mate. “The golden rule” in rural, small-town America, Walz said during a “Morning Joe” interview last month, was to “mind your own damn business.” And then the governor forged the talking point that the left has used with some immediate success to define the GOP ticket. “We do not like what has happened where we can’t even go to Thanksgiving dinner because you end up in some weird fight that is unnecessary,” he continued. “Well, it’s true. These guys are just weird.” And in this way, the word “weird” became the Democratic byword for the Republican ticket. Trump, Vance, and all their ideas, Democrats have said on repeat for weeks, aren’t just a threat to democracy, they are unusual and out of touch with America itself.

The left now enjoys rare alignment. Everyone from New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to West Virginia independent Sen. Joe Manchin praised the Walz pick. All of it, replied Whatley, is more evidence that Democrats have “shifted so far to the left as a whole that candidates as extreme as Kamala Harris, as extreme as Tim Walz, are now considered mainstream.”

While the party boss said that the GOP playbook remains the same now that Walz has joined the ticket, behind the scenes Republicans expressed giddiness that Walz, instead of a more moderate candidate like Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, was selected. One prominent Republican operative accused Walz of “plagiarizing California’s failed far-left liberal agenda for Minnesota.” Republicans hope to compete in that state, despite Donald Trump’s two narrow losses there. The selection of Walz won’t do anything to change that strategy, Whatley told RCP. He said Republicans are looking forward to “a conversation in Minnesota about how, as the governor, Walz allowed riots to basically burn down Minneapolis, and then Kamala Harris came in and bailed out all those people out.” That will continue to be, he said, “a conversation we’re happy to have in Minnesota.”

Read more …

“He ran away. It’s sad.” “He had the opportunity to serve his country, and said ‘Screw you’ to the United States..”

• Minnesota National Guard Confirms VP Nominee Tim Walz Demoted (JTN)

The Minnesota National Guard confirmed Wednesday that Gov. Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’ vice presidential running mate, was demoted and did not retire as a command sergeant major like he has claimed for years, including on his official gubernatorial biography. While Walz temporarily held the title of command sergeant major he “retired as a master sergeant in 2005 for benefit purposes because he did not complete additional coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy,” Army Lt. Col. Kristen Augé, the Minnesota National Guard’s State Public Affairs Officer, told Just the News. The statement reignited a controversy that began during his 2018 election for governor in which National Guardsman claimed on social media and in a paid ad that Walz declined to deploy to Iraq for combat duty in 2005 and forfeited his title of command sergeant major. Walz chose to run for Congress that year.

The governor’s biography, published on the state’s official website, says that “Command Sergeant Major Walz” retired from the Minnesota National Guard in 2005. At the time he was serving as one of the highest ranking members of the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion. The Minnesota National Guard disputed his description of his final rank,. “Governor Tim Walz served from April 8, 1981, to May 16, 2005. Governor Walz served in the Minnesota National Guard’s 1st Battalion, 125th Field Artillery after transferring from the Nebraska National Guard in 1996. While serving in Minnesota, his military occupational specialties were 13B – a cannon crewmember who operates and maintains cannons and 13Z -field artillery senior sergeant. In Nebraska, he served as a 11Z – infantry senior sergeant, and a 71L – administrative specialist. He held multiple positions within field artillery such as firing battery chief, operations sergeant, first sergeant, and culminated his career serving as the command sergeant major for the battalion,” Army Lt. Col. Kristen Augé, Minnesota National Guard’s State Public Affairs Officer, told Just the News in a statement Wednesday.

“He retired as a master sergeant in 2005 for benefit purposes because he did not complete additional coursework at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy,” she added. According to Army Regulation 600-8-19, a solider who does not complete the requisite coursework results is automatically demoted. “The Soldier must complete the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Course as a condition of this promotion. Failure to meet the condition will cause demotion per AR 600 – 8 – 19,” the regulation reads. This is not the first time that Walz’s military records have come under scrutiny. During his campaign for governor in 2018, two retired senior officials in the Minnesota National Guard criticized Walz for retiring shortly before his battalion was set for a deployment to Iraq. The two retired Command Sergeants Major in the guard wrote in an open letter posted to Facebook that they felt it was their “duty and responsibility to bring forth the truth as we know it concerning his service record.”

Thomas Behrends, one signer of the letter, was chosen to replace Walz. According to the letter, Minnesota Governor Walz was selected in 2004 to serve as the Command Sergeant Major of the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion and by September of that year Walz was conditionally promoted to the rank. But, by early 2005, Walz’s battalion was ordered to mobilize for an active duty deployment to Iraq. Shortly after, in May 2005, Walz “quit, leaving the 1-125th Field Artillery Battalion and its Soldiers hanging; without its senior Non-Commissioned Officer, as the battalion prepared for war,” according to the two Command Sergeants Major. “When your country calls, you are supposed to run into battle — not the other way,” Behrends told the New York Post Tuesday. He ran away. It’s sad.” “He had the opportunity to serve his country, and said ‘Screw you’ to the United States. That’s not who I would pick to run for vice president,” he added.

The office of Governor Walz did not respond to a request for comment from Just the News. Retired U.S. Army Reserve Major General Tim Haake told Just the News that, based on his experience, a Command Sergeant Major resigning shortly before a deployment would likely have a “deleterious” effect on the unit. “The Command Sergeant Major is the highest enlisted rank in a unit and is the key person ensuring the troops are prepared, logistically, emotionally, and any other way, for the mission.” As a result of his abrupt retirement, and breach of his conditional agreement, the authors claimed Walz was demoted to Master Sergeant for his retirement.

Read more …

#BlackLivesMatter still exists?

• Kamala Donated To ‘Defund Police’ Group Pushing For DC Sanctuary City (ZH)

Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff donated to a progressive legal group last year that pushed to defund the police, and wants to make Washington DC a permanent “sanctuary city” for illegals, the Washington Examiner reports, citing a copy of their joint tax return. Harris and Emhoff donated $1,000 to Legal Aid DC, a nonprofit that works on housing law and represents low-income clients in multiple areas. The pair also donated $1,000 to the nonprofit in 2021, according to the report. “News of the donations, which have not been reported on until now, comes as Harris faces scrutiny on the 2024 campaign trail over her support in 2020 for defunding the police and her handling of the border crisis. Harris has reversed course on a variety of her left-wing policy positions after becoming the Democratic presidential nominee.

“But the vice president’s willingness to fund Legal Aid DC as recently as 2023 could raise questions about her ties to controversial progressive activists — including after Harris selected Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), who has been widely criticized over his response to the 2020 riots in Minnesota, as her running mate.” -Washington Examiner. Legal Aid DC was founded in 1932, and brands itself as “the district’s oldest and largest civil legal services organization” helping to “make justice real in individual and systemic ways.” In 2020, Legal Aid DC published a statement in the wake of George Floyd’s death noting that it “stands in solidarity with those speaking out, demonstrating, and demanding a country and society that will treat every one of its residents with dignity and respect.” Days later, the group’s housing law attorney Amanda Korber was quoted in an article pushing for fewer police officers in DC.

Legal Aid DC shared the article on social media, writing “As Legal Aid’s Amanda Korber noted in the article, we are concerned, especially given the ongoing protest movement, about any solution that involves more police and policing in DC public housing. #BlackLivesMatterDC.” As the Examiner notes further, Legal Aid DC shared an article in 2021 glorifying BLM, and amplifying a quote by Minneapolis City Councilman Jeremiah Ellison declaring “I think the police will view a leftist protester with a gas mask as more dangerous than a right-wing protester with a semiautomatic rifle.” Of note, Ellison – the son of Minnesota AG Keith Ellison, helped lead the charge in 2020 to “dismantle” the Minneapolis Police Department. Legal Aid DC also supported a since-approved law in DC that to make it a “permanent” sanctuary city – legislation which restricts cooperation between US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and local agencies.

Legal Aid’s Adam Jacobs said at the time that the law “could lift some of the terror our immigrant neighbors and their families have faced for many years.” “It also restricts the city’s prisons from functioning as immigration detention centers and amends a loophole used by ICE and the U.S. Marshals to detain immigrants outside of D.C. Superior Court,” reported NBC4 Washington in 2020 upon the City Council’s approval of a permanent version of the then-temporary law. Meanwhile, Harris running mate Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), has supported similar “sanctuary state” policies in the past, as well as a law allowing illegal immigrants to obtain a driver’s license.

Meanwhile, Legal Aid DC also submitted testimony in 2023 in support of a bill to “create a reparations task force and fund to address the impacts of slavery and institutional racism in Washington, D.C.,” according to documents. The organization’s policy counsel, Jen Jenkins, told the DC City Counsel that it’s essential for the district “to acknowledge that slavery, colonialism, and systemic racism have left deep scars in D.C. and to begin rectifying those impacts for black D.C. residents through enacting this bill.” Also, Walz’s wife is ‘weird’…

Read more …

“Making investments into a manufacturing facility that could be obliterated by Russia and may not have sustained demand in the future “has to make sense from a business case..”

• US Arms Makers Refusing To Invest In Ukraine (RT)

American arms manufacturers are reluctant to open workshops in Ukraine despite the Pentagon coaxing them to do so, the military news outlet Defense One reported on Tuesday, citing a US State Department official. The Ukrainian government has touted the build-up of domestic arms manufacturing by foreign firms as an alternative to the long-term supply of military aid by Western sponsors. Germany’s Rheinmetall has so far voiced the most ambitious plans to operate on Ukrainian soil, promising to make not just munitions, but also armored vehicles and tanks in the country. However, other large players, particularly those from the US, have been cautious about making such pledges. Northrop Grumman is an exception, having announced last month that it had finalized an agreement to produce medium-caliber ammunition in Ukraine. The company will provide equipment and training, but has refused to put its own employees on the ground.

Making investments into a manufacturing facility that could be obliterated by Russia and may not have sustained demand in the future “has to make sense from a business case,” a US State Department official told Defense One on the sidelines of the Farnborough air show in the UK. The US industry “is really eager” to profit, but needs the government to hedge their investments for risks, according to the source. ”It has to be a business case for what they’re trying to do, and so looking at maybe starting off with a maintenance, repair, and overhaul type stuff, spare parts production, so kind of starting a crawl-walk-run-type philosophy, before you actually get to the more advanced stuff,” the official said. In addition to the war-related risks, Western firms are also concerned about corruption, the source acknowledged. The US diplomat claimed that Ukraine was making progress in that regard, but was far from where it needed to be to allay the concerns.

Graft has been an endemic problem in the country since it gained independence in the early 1990s. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has reportedly complained about the attention paid to the problem by his Western backers, claiming that it is largely irrelevant at a time when his nation is fighting Russia. Russia has described the Ukraine conflict as a US-triggered proxy war against it, waged for the sake of Washington’s geopolitical interests. The American economy has benefited from it by boosting demand for weapons and tanking the competitiveness of Western European manufacturers, Russian officials have said. European firms have lost access to cheap Russian energy and raw materials due to the breakdown of trade with the country, with some relocating plants to the US as a result.

Read more …

Where did they find 1,000 extra troops?

• EU Hails Incursion Into Russia As Ukraine’s Right To ‘Self-defense’ (RT)

The European Union fully supports the actions of Ukraine’s forces, including striking Russian territory, European Commission spokesman Peter Stano has said. The statement came a day after Ukraine launched a major cross-border sortie into Russia’s Kursk Region early on Tuesday. At least five civilians were killed in assault as of Wednesday evening, according to the Interim Governor of Kursk, Aleksey Smirnov. Another 31 people – including six children – were injured in the Ukrainian shelling of the town of Sudzha, Russia’s Health Ministry said late on Wednesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the Kursk attack yet another “large-scale provocation” by Kiev, accusing Ukrainian troops of deliberately targeting civilians. Commenting on the raid, Stano said Ukraine has the right to defend itself, “including by striking the aggressor on its territory.”

“The EU continues to fully support Ukraine’s legitimate right to defend itself” and win back its lost territories, the spokesperson told the Ukrainian news network Suspilne on Wednesday. Kiev considers the Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, the Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, as well as the Crimean peninsula to be parts of Ukraine. All five territories formerly joined the Russian Federation after a series of democratic referendums. Ukrainian forces numbering up to a thousand, supported by tanks and artillery, moved across the border in an attempt to take hold of the Sudzhinsky district of Russia’s Kursk Region, the Russian Ministry of Defense said on Wednesday, reporting that the Ukrainian advance had been stopped. In the attack, Kiev’s forces suffered at least 315 casualties, with more than 100 killed and the rest wounded as of Wednesday, the chief of the Russian General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, reported.

Ukraine also lost at least 54 armored vehicles, including seven tanks during the push, he stated. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova slammed the incursion as a “massed terrorist attack.” The “barbaric attack” aimed to “sow panic among the residents of the region and demonstrate at least some semblance of activity, amid the constant failures of the Ukrainian armed forces in the conflict,” she stated. Commenting on Kiev’s incursion, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Washington’s stance on Ukraine’s use of US-supplied weapons in cross-border attacks has not changed, and that “with the actions that they are taking today, they’re not in violation of our policy.” Moscow has repeatedly warned that Western arms supplies to Ukraine will not break the course of the conflict, but only prolong it.

Read more …

“Things will get worse in terms of Ukrainian terrorism spreading across the planet. It’s not a joke..”

• Ukraine Spreading ‘Terrorism’ Around The World – Zakharova (RT)

The Ukrainian government has become a terrorist organization acting on behalf of Western nations and their “deep state structures,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has claimed. The official condemned Kiev in an interview on Wednesday, after Ukrainian troops launched an incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region one day previously and several civilians were killed by Ukrainian strikes. “This is an act of terrorism. It was obviously directed against peaceful people. There is no doubt about that,” the spokeswoman told Sputnik Radio. Zakharova brought up Mali’s decision earlier this month to cut diplomatic relations with Kiev, after Ukrainian officials claimed credit for an ambush on Russian military contractors by Tuareg militants. A spokesman for the Ukrainian military intelligence called it a “successful military operation” by his agency, but Bamako described it as support for terrorism in the Sahel region of Africa.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has since denied Kiev’s involvement in the incident, while neighboring Niger joined Mali in condemning Ukraine and breaking ties with it. “Things will get worse in terms of Ukrainian terrorism spreading across the planet. It’s not a joke,” Zakharova warned. People in power in Kiev have turned their country into a “terrorist gang” doing the dirty work for Western nations and their “deep state structures,” the diplomat claimed. She also asked what it would take to convince the American people that by bankrolling Ukraine, their government was sponsoring terrorism. Ukrainian troops have been launching attacks against settlements in the border areas of Kursk Region as they try to push their way inside Russian territory.

On Tuesday evening, acting Governor Aleksey Smirnov reported that the civilian death toll from the hostilities had increased, after a Ukrainian kamikaze drone hit an ambulance near the town of Sudzha, one of the primary targets of the attacks. The strike killed the driver and an elderly paramedic, and left a doctor injured, he said. Previous updates confirmed three civilian fatalities. Meanwhile, local health officials reported on Wednesday that at least 28 people had been injured by Ukrainian strikes. Zakharova cited a deep fake video of Smirnov, in which the governor urged all men in Kursk Region to go to conscription centers and take arms, as evidence that Ukraine’s military activities were primarily meant to disturb Russian civilians. The clip was apparently based on an actual video statement made by the governor on Tuesday, which urged citizens to keep calm and prioritize their safety.

Read more …

Mali, Niger, Senegal and Burkina Faso. What business does Kiev have there?

• Fourth African State Sanctions Ukraine For ‘Supporting Terrorism’ (RT)

Niger has severed diplomatic relations with Ukraine in response to Kiev’s alleged support for militants who killed dozens of Malian soldiers and Russian Wagner Group contractors in an attack last month. The West African state’s decision on Tuesday came just two days after Mali took the same step, accusing Kiev of supporting international terrorism. Ukrainian officials had earlier indicated that Kiev had assisted Tuareg rebels who staged an attack in the village of Tinzaouaten. In an interview following the incident, Ukraine’s spy agency spokesman, Andrey Yusov, indicated on national TV that the insurgents had received intelligence to conduct a “successful military operation against Russian war criminals.” He warned that “there will be more to come.” Ukraine’s embassy in Senegal posted the video – now deleted – on its Facebook page along with a comment from Ambassador Yury Pivovarov, who said “there will certainly be other results.”

Niamey’s military government spokesman, Amadou Abdramane, called the remarks “indecent” and “unacceptable” in an address on state TV late on Tuesday, claiming that they characterize “acts of aggression.” “Niger, in total solidarity with the government and people of Mali, has decided in all sovereignty […] to sever diplomatic relations between the Republic of Niger and Ukraine with immediate effect,” Abdramane said. Kiev has yet to respond to the African state’s move. On Monday, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry denied any involvement in the terrorist attack and described Mali’s decision to break off diplomatic ties as “shortsighted and hasty.” “Ukraine is known in Africa as an important contributor to ensuring regional security,” the ministry stated, arguing that Bamako had acted without providing any evidence of Kiev’s complicity in the ambush near the Algerian border.

On Tuesday, the West African regional bloc ECOWAS condemned the killings in Mali and expressed “strong” opposition to “any foreign interference” that threatens the region’s peace and security. Bamako’s neighbors, including Senegal and Burkina Faso, have all criticized Ukraine over the statements by its officials. Since 2012, Mali has been embroiled in a jihadist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives. A decade-long French military mission failed to quell the violence, which has spilled over to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger. All three former French colonies, led by their militaries, have severed defense ties with Paris and formed the Alliance of Sahel States to combat terrorism. Russia, which Bamako, Niamey, and Ouagadougou regard as a strategic security ally, has agreed to assist the troubled Sahel states in combating long-standing terrorist threats.

Read more …

“Journalism as an occupation no longer exists. Today the struggle is not to get at the heart of an issue, but to have one’s agenda prevail.”

• Why Did America Give Away Its Manufacturing Jobs? (Paul Craig Roberts)

Not long ago a couple of publishers asked about my memoirs. I told them I had no interest. Memoirs are an enormous undertaking, especially when your files haven’t been organized for the purpose. Moreover, many of mine have been discarded in moves. When you have lived as long as I have and been involved in so many major issues, files are a voluminous collection. Moreover, I have always had a jaundiced eye toward memoirs, being unsure whether they are an exercise in egotism. In past times I think memoirs, even if they were attempts to control the narrative, something done for us today by the CIA and woke media and universities, still made information available that otherwise would have died with the person. I find this a bit sobering as there is a great deal of information that is going to die with me. Despite all the winnowing of my files, I still have 25 crates that if I did nothing else for one year I might get through. To organize the information, I would need at least two assistants.

I have barely touched the crates, and already I have found important matters long forgotten. In 2004 NY Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer and I opened a New Year with a jointly authored column in the New York Times. We raised the offshoring issue. American manufacturing jobs and the tech jobs of American professionals were being sent to Asia. We posed the question that if jobs offshoring was free trade, as economists claimed, was free trade any longer in America’s interest? My position was that jobs offshoring is a contradiction of free trade–more later–and Schumer was still in his idealistic period when he was concerned about the displacement of American labor by foreign labor in the production of goods and services that Americans consumed. Our article caused a firestorm. The Brookings Institution in Washington called a conference and asked us to come and defend our position. C-Span broadcast the conference live and rebroadcast it a number of times. Schumer and I carried the day.

Delighted with the publicity, Schumer suggested a follow-up article. The NY Times was eager. We began a draft, and then it went cold. My explanation is that Wall Street, which was committed to jobs offshoring, got to Schumer and explained campaign contributions to him. I continued on. Conservatives, free market economists, and libertarians, who are indoctrinated with free trade, but who do not comprehend the theory, called me a heretic. Nevertheless, both the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post were intrigued that the “most ardent” of the “Reagan policymakers” had taken a position against the policy that Wall Street was imposing on the country. The Wall Street Journal assigned Timothy Aeppel to arrange a series of debates to be published in the Wall Street Journal between me and Columbia University Professor Jagdish Bhagwati. The question was: Is jobs offshoring really free trade?

Adam Smith and David Ricardo’s theory of free trade rests on the principle of comparative advantage. What this means is that a country’s capital remains employed at home and is employed in areas in which the capital is best used. If all countries do this, there are gains from trade, and all countries will be better off than if they are self-sufficient. I have wondered if the free trade theory was used as a stratagem to repeal the British Corn Laws and reduce the income and power of the landed aristocracy. Both Smith and Ricardo made it completely clear that if a country’s capital left the country, it was pursuing absolute advantage, not comparative advantage, and free trade theory is vitiated. This is the point I made. Without comparative advantage, there is no case for free trade. The Wall Street Journal wasn’t the only media institution interested in the facts. So was the Washington Post.

The Washington Post assigned their economics editor Paul Blustein to interview me and my critics and to do a news report. Blustein interviewed me at least three times prior to writing his story. Keep in mind that Blustein had been a critic during my Treasury days with the Reagan administration. Nevertheless, after giving my critics their say, Blustein wrote:“Still, mainstream economists can’t answer a key question that Roberts raises, which is how the U.S. economy can generate better employment opportunities to replace the white-collar jobs that are suddenly vanishing. “Roberts recently got some support for his argument from a heavyweight academic economist, William J. Baumol . . . a past president of the American Economic Association and a book he published with Ralph E. Gomery, [a distinguished mathematician] that pokes some holes in economic orthodoxy by showing that free trade will not necessarily provide mutual gains to countries.”

Today this exchange of ideas in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post and the honest appraisal of one’s opponents is not possible. I am banned from the Wall Street Journal, a newspaper I used to edit. I am banned from the Washington Post for which I was a contributor. I am banned from the NY Times which used to call me and ask me to write on current issues. I am banned from the newspapers of the Scripps Howard News Service. I am banned from the San Diego Union, the San Francisco Examiner, and the Los Angeles Times for which I was a regular contributor. There is no debate. There are narratives, and the narratives are imposed. Journalism as an occupation no longer exists. Today the struggle is not to get at the heart of an issue, but to have one’s agenda prevail.

Read more …

“..violations of the Foreign Agent Restriction Act (FARA)”

• FBI Raids Scott Ritter’s House (RT)

Federal agents and state police have searched the house of former US Marine and UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter in New York state on Wednesday. State Police and FBI agents descended on the street of Bethlehem township, south of Albany, around noon, according to the local outlet Times-Union. They carried “more than two dozen boxes” out of the house just before 5pm local time. The law enforcement executed a search warrant “related to concerns apparently the US government has about violations of the Foreign Agent Restriction Act (FARA)” Ritter told reporters gathered outside the house after the agents left. He denied any allegations of wrongdoing and said the federal government was trying to intimidate him. An FBI spokesperson confirmed “law enforcement activity in connection with an ongoing federal investigation,” but would say nothing further.

Ritter is a former US Marine Corps major who served as a UN weapons inspector in Iraq during the 1990s. He opposed the 2003 US invasion, insisting that Saddam Hussein’s government did not have weapons of mass destruction, as Washington claimed at the time. He has also been an RT contributor and saw his passport seized by the US government when he tried to attend the St Petersburg International Economic Forum in June. Jim Hoffman, Ritter’s neighbor across the street for two decades, told the Times-Union that the former inspector has kept a low profile. “When he came out against the Iraq War back in early 2000s, he was vilified everywhere,” Hoffman said. “Honestly, he was right. He said there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.”

Ritter himself has not posted anything about the raid on social media. His most recent post on X was from Tuesday’s meeting with independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The administrators of his Telegram channel posted photos of the raid and said they have not heard from him either.

Read more …

Hmmm…

• Vienna Cancels Taylor Swift Concerts Over ISIS Attack Fears (RT)

US pop mega-star Taylor Swift has canceled three upcoming concerts in Vienna, Austria after two suspects were arrested for allegedly planning terrorist attacks on the shows. Swift was supposed to perform at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium on August 8, 9, and 10 as part of her European leg of the Eras Tour. Venues across the continent have been sold out for weeks. “With confirmation from government officials of a planned terrorist attack at Ernst Happel Stadium, we have no choice but to cancel the three scheduled shows for everyone’s safety,” concert promoter Barracuda Music said in an Instagram post. “All tickets will be automatically refunded within the next 10 business days.” Austrian police arrested a 19-year-old who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS) in Ternitz, a town south of Vienna. Another suspect was later detained in the capital

Franz Ruf, director-general for public safety in the Austrian Ministry of the Interior, told reporters that the suspects were allegedly self-radicalized online, planned to attack Vienna, and expressed particular interest in Swift’s concerts. The organizers expected 65,000 concertgoers at each show and an additional 10,000 to 15,000 fans outside the arena, police said. The risk justified raising security precautions, said Vienna police chief Gerhard Purst. The 19-year-old suspect may have been building an explosive device, police said, and the chemical substances found at his home are currently being investigated. The names of the suspects have not been made public. Swift embarked on the Eras Tour in March 2023, aiming to do 152 concerts across five continents, performing hits from her 17-year career. The 34-year-old songstress is expected to make $2 billion from the tour by the time it wraps up in December.

Read more …

Pardon him while you still can..

• Hunter Biden Got ‘Millions’ of Dollars From Romania to Influence US Gov’t (Sp.)

Hunter Biden, the son of US President Joe Biden, has received millions of dollars from a Romanian entrepreneur in order to influence the US government during his father’s vice presidency, court filings have revealed. US Department of Justice Special Counsel David Weiss’s office found that Biden received “substantial” sums of money from foreign firms and individuals in exchange for acting as a lobbyist, consultant, or legal adviser. “With respect to his first topic, ‘allegations that Mr. Biden (1) acted on behalf of a foreign principal to influence U.S. policy and public opinion,’ the defendant did receive compensation from a foreign principal to attempt to influence U.S. policy and public opinion, as alleged in the indictment, and this evidence is relevant and not unfairly prejudicial,” the Wednesday filing read. Hunter Biden worked for Romanian businessman Gabriel Popoviciu (referred to as G.P. in the document) to help him escape bribery charges in Romania, Weiss’s office also revealed.

“The evidence of what the defendant agreed to do and did do for G.P. demonstrates the defendant’s state of mind and intent during the relevant tax years charged in the indictment. It is also evidence that the defendants actions do not reflect someone with a diminished capacity, given that he agreed to attempt to influence U.S. public policy and receive millions of dollars,” the document said. In November 2023, House Republicans subpoenaed the president’s brother James Biden and Hunter Biden to appear for a deposition before lawmakers. In May, Smith said that Hunter Biden had repeatedly lied to Congress in his February deposition to distance his involvement in what should be considered a “clear scheme to enrich the Biden family.” The House of Representatives is investigating the Biden family for alleged criminal activity, including foreign influence peddling and bribery.

Read more …

The Supreme Court is the only things they don’t control..

• The “No Kings Act” is a Decapitation of the Constitution (Turley)

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) has introduced the “No Kings Act” with great fanfare and the support of most of his Democratic colleagues. Liberal groups have heralded the measure to legislatively reverse the ruling in Trump v. United States. It is obviously popular with the press and pundits. It is also entirely unconstitutional in my view. The “No Kings Act” is not just a cynical abdication of responsibility by Democrats, but would constitute the virtual decapitation of the Constitution. I have previously written about the false claims made about the Supreme Court’s decision by President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and other leading democrats. The press and pundits have reached a new level of sensationalism and hysteria in the coverage with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow even claiming that it was a “death squad ruling.” The Court actually rejected the most extreme positions of both the Trump team and the lower courts.

As it has in the past, the Court adopted a three-tiered approach to presidential powers based on the source of a presidential action. Chief Justice John Roberts cited Youngstown Sheet and Tube Co. v. Sawyer, in which the court ruled against President Harry Truman’s takeover of steel mills. In his famous concurrence to Youngstown, Justice Robert Jackson broke down the balance of executive and legislative authority between three types of actions. In the first, a president acts with express or implied authority from Congress. In the second, he acts where Congress is silent (“the zone of twilight” area). In the third, the president acts in defiance of Congress. In this decision, the court adopted a similar sliding scale. It held that presidents enjoy absolute immunity for actions that fall within their “exclusive sphere of constitutional authority” while they enjoy presumptive immunity for other official acts. They do not enjoy immunity for unofficial or private actions.

Where the coverage has been wildly inaccurate, the No Kings Act is cynically dishonest. To his credit, President Joe Biden was at least honest in proposing a constitutional amendment to overturn the decision in Trump. However, that was dead on arrival in Congress since under Article V it would require a two-thirds majority vote in both houses and then ratification by three-fourths of the states. The Democrats are seeking to circumvent that process with simple majority votes with the No Kings Act. The bill is being presented as a jurisdiction-stripping measure, not an effort to dictate outcomes. Congress does have authority to change the jurisdiction of the federal courts. That authority was recognized by the Court itself in Ex parte McCardle (1869). Chief Justice Salmon Chase ruled that it did have the authority “to make exceptions to the appellate jurisdiction of this court.”

However, Chase also emphasized that the law did “not affect the jurisdiction which was previously exercised” so that prior decisions would remain fully enforceable. Moreover, shortly after McCardle, the Court ruled in United States v. Klein (1871), that Congress may not use its authority of court jurisdiction to lay out a “rule of decision” for the Supreme Court, or effectively dictate results in court cases. The No Kings Act does more than just strip jurisdiction and makes no secret of its purpose in dictating the outcome of future cases. It purports in Section 2 to “clarify that a President or Vice President is not entitled to any form of immunity from criminal prosecution for violations of the criminal laws of the United States unless specified by Congress.” That is a rather Orwellian view of “clarification” since it directly contradicts the opinion in declaring in the very next section that “[a] President, former President, Vice President, or former Vice President shall not be entitled to any form of immunity (whether absolute, presumptive, or otherwise) from criminal laws of the United States unless specified by Congress.”

Schumer and most of the Democratic senators actually believe that they can simply instruct lower courts to ignore a Supreme Court ruling on the meaning of the Constitution. It would undermine the basis of Marbury v. Madison after 221 years. To be sure, it is stated in strictly jurisdictional terms. Yet, it crafts the jurisdictional changes to mirror the decision and future immunity claims. The bill declares that federal courts “may not consider whether an alleged violation of any criminal laws of the United States committed by a President or Vice President was within the conclusive or preclusive constitutional authority of a President or Vice President or was related to the official duties of a President or Vice President unless directed by Congress.” But the Democrats are not done yet. Section 4 actually removes the Supreme Court from such questions and makes appellate courts the effective highest courts of the land when it comes to presidential immunity:

“The Supreme Court of the United States shall have no appellate jurisdiction, on the basis that an alleged criminal act was within the conclusive or preclusive constitutional authority of a President or Vice President or on the basis that an alleged criminal act was related to the official duties of a President or Vice President.” Notably, this is one of the wacky ideas put forward by the President’s Supreme Court Commission. After all, why pack the Court if you can just gut it? Of course, some sponsors like Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) want to both pack the Court and strip it of authority. Presumably, once packed, the authority to act as a court would be at least restored with the liberal majority.

Read more …

Sorry, Two Tier Kier. NASA need Musk to save their ISS astronauts.

• Crazed Authoritarians Demand X Be Shut Down in UK (MN)

Mimicking a policy that the west once condemned Communist China for pursuing, authoritarians are now calling for X to be shut down completely in the UK to stop civil unrest. After the country was rocked by a series of riots over the past week in response to a 17-year-old son of Rwandan immigrants killing three little girls in Southport, the media and the political class blamed the anger on “misinformation” shared on X. In reality, the UK has been a boiling pot of resentment and rage over mass migration for years, with huge numbers continuing to arrive, putting massive strain on the country and making some parts of major towns and cities unrecognizable, despite nobody having ever voted for it. However, the disorder is being exploited to grease the skids for mass censorship. Cambridge professor Sander van der Linden said the government could “geo-restrict access to a platform if the situation got so bad” and Twitter could also be “banned from the app store for violating policies.”

Jessica Simor QC also called for the UK government to “pass a short bill closing down Twitter in the UK.” Entrepreneur Ana Vilhete also called for Twitter to be temporarily banned in the UK to “limit the spread of inflammatory information.” Journalist Paul Mason, a Marxist who once worked for the BBC, demanded the government use the Online Safety Bill (which passed under the excuse of protecting children from harmful content) to “pull the plug” on X. Apparently, it’s horrendous for Middle Eastern dictators to shut down and block social media networks during times of civil unrest, as occurred during the Arab Spring, but when the UK does it, it’s fine. Whenever there are anti-government protests in China, the Communist regime there also blocks and suspends social media networks, something that was once slammed by western governments as a vicious attack on basic freedom, but a tactic which they now emulate.

Although the riots are cited as the primary reason for mass censorship, the calls are also being driven by the fact that Elon Musk has challenged the mainstream narrative on the riots and embarrassed Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Musk branded Starmer ‘Two Tier Kier’ for pursuing a vigorous crackdown on anti-mass migration demonstrators while turning a blind eye to Muslim mobs who have also rioted and physically attacked innocent people. The British political establishment engaged in a collective hissy fit over Musk’s simple question for Starmer and the government when he asked, “Why aren’t all communities protected in Britain?”. The X owner also drew attention to a viral video clip of a man being arrested in his own home by police over a Facebook post, asking if it was “Britain or the Soviet Union”. The regime is deeply fearful that Musk’s intervention is causing them to lose control of the narrative that the unrest is being fueled by mindless, racist thuggery and not legitimate concerns about the impact of mass migration on working class people in the UK.

Hitchens/Starmer

Read more …

 

 

 

 

All roads…

 

 

Mar a lago

 

 

Starlink

 

 

Sting
https://twitter.com/i/status/1820913480192725080

 

 

Rescue
https://twitter.com/i/status/1820900188627857766

 

 

Oh no!

 

 

More friends
https://twitter.com/i/status/1821162344866632041

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle October 8 2023

Oct 082023
 
 October 8, 2023  Posted by at 9:17 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,  43 Responses »


Leonardo da Vinci A Copse of Trees 1508

 

• Biden Blames The Press For Bad Poll Numbers (RT)
• Biden Mulls Asking $100 Billion Check For Ukraine – Telegraph (RT)
• Will Donald Trump Win by Waging War on American Institutions? Sp.)
• Appeals Court Rules for Trump Amid NY Fraud Trial (ET)
• Judge Who Will Hear Trump’s Jan 6 Case Is the Pot Calling Him Black (Kelly)
• Western Officials Pressure Media On Ukraine’s Battlefield Failures – WaPo (RT)
• Medvedev Blames US for Israel-Hamas Fighting (RT)
• Hezbollah Next To Attack? War Could Spiral Into Biggest In Decades (ZH)
• Time to Tell America’s Climate Cult ‘Stop!’ (ET)
• Bill Maher: “Democrats Look Like Sanctuary City Hypocrites” (ZH)
• One Year On, EU, US Collude To Sweep Nordstream Under The Rug (Bowes)
• ‘No Lives Were Saved’ by COVID-19 Vaccines, 17 Million Deaths (ET)

 

 

 

 

How Bad is US intel on Ukraine?

 

 

Macgregor: The Russians Press On And Take Odessa

 

 

 

 

Buffett

Rand Paul Fauci
https://twitter.com/i/status/1710475596466147791

 

 

RFK

 

 

4 short years ago, we had:
Peace in Europe
Peace in the Middle East
1% inflation
$1.75 a gallon gasoline
2.5% mortgage rate
A growing economy
Full employment
What the hell happened?

 

 

Years ago, anthropologist Margaret Mead was asked by a student what she considered to be the first sign of civilization in a culture. The student expected Mead to talk about fishhooks or clay pots or grinding stones. But no. Mead said that the first sign of civilization in an ancient culture was a femur (thighbone) that had been broken and then healed. Mead explained that in the animal kingdom, if you break your leg, you die.

You cannot run from danger, get to the river for a drink or hunt for food. You are meat for prowling beasts. No animal survives a broken leg long enough for the bone to heal. A broken femur that has healed is evidence that someone has taken time to stay with the one who fell, has bound up the wound, has carried the person to safety and has tended the person through recovery. Helping someone else through difficulty is where civilization starts, Mead said.” We are at our best when we serve others. Be civilized.

 

 

 

 

Biden has 98% of the media on his side. But that’s apparently not enough.. His poll numbers have nothing to do with not knowing where he is half the time, it’s uber-friendly media still not being friendly enough.

“You turn on the television, and there is not a whole lot about ‘boy saves dog because he swims in the lake.’ It’s about, ‘somebody pushed the dog in the lake.’ I mean, I get it.”

• Biden Blames The Press For Bad Poll Numbers (RT)

US President Joe Biden has argued that Americans aren’t recognizing his strong performance on the economy heading into the 2024 election because of media negativity. Biden touted the latest US employment report in a White House press briefing on Friday, then suggested that public perceptions of the economy have been dimmed by the negative tone of media coverage. “You all are not the happiest people in the world, which you report,” he said. “And I mean it sincerely: You get more legs when you report [that] something is negative. I don’t mean you’re picking on me. It’s just the nature of things.” The president made his comments on the same day that a Real Clear Politics poll showed that his approval rating had dropped to 40.5%, the lowest level since August 2022. An Economist/YouGov poll released on Wednesday showed that only 16% of Americans believe the US economy is “getting better,” while 56% see it as “getting worse.”

Perhaps even more concerning for Biden, voters perceive that his top Republican rival in the 2024 race, former President Donald Trump, is superior on handling the economy, inflation and border security, among other key issues. Trump has a 23- to 24-point lead over Biden on the economy and inflation, according to a Marquette University poll released this week, and he leads by 19 percentage points in voter confidence in his ability to create jobs. Biden leads by nine to 15 points on abortion policy and climate change. Biden’s Democratic Party is also taking a beating in public perceptions on the economy. A Gallup poll released this week found that Republicans had a 14-point lead over the Democrats in terms of public confidence in their ability to keep the nation prosperous. That margin marked the largest lead for the Republican Party since 1991, Gallup said.

Biden told reporters that, while his positive economic message isn’t getting through to some voters, the many Americans landing new jobs “feel better about the economy.” He added that the media’s negative tone is to be expected: “You turn on the television, and there is not a whole lot about ‘boy saves dog because he swims in the lake.’ It’s about, ‘somebody pushed the dog in the lake.’ I mean, I get it.” Critics have long accused major media outlets of favoring Biden and other Democrats after years of vilifying Trump. “Corporate media’s behavior as we head into 2024 – their willingness to endlessly lie, propagandize and be more overt in their liberal political activism – will shock even the most jaded haters,”independent journalist Glenn Greenwald said earlier this week.

Read more …

“one-and-done”.

• Biden Mulls Asking $100 Billion Check For Ukraine – Telegraph (RT)

US President Joe Biden is reportedly plotting a potential “one-and-done” Ukraine aid request that would be so big that he wouldn’t need to seek any more funding approvals from Congress until after the 2024 election, The Telegraph has reported on Saturday. The new Ukraine aid request could be as large as $100 billion, enough to avoid continued legislative controversies that could hinder Biden’s re-election bid next year, the British newspaper said, citing people familiar with the White House discussions. Such a proposal would dwarf the $24 billion funding request that US House lawmakers stripped out of the stopgap spending bill that they passed last week to avert a government shutdown.

“The big package idea is firmly supported by many throughout the administration,” the newspaper’s source said. “Supporters of Ukraine want this to be a one-and-done, big bill, and then not have to deal with it until after the next election.” Biden’s administration is scrambling to find temporary ways to keep the money and weapons flowing to Kiev, supporting Ukraine’s fight against Russian forces, until a major aid bill is passed by Congress. For instance, a US State Department grant program could reportedly be tapped to provide about $650 million in funding. The White House officials were quoted by the media as saying that only a few weeks remain before a potential lapse in Ukraine funding, which they have warned could have devastating consequences on the battlefield.

Republican lawmakers have become increasingly critical of Biden’s Ukraine policy, with some arguing that massive aid to Kiev is only prolonging the bloody conflict at the expense of bigger domestic priorities. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was voted out of his leadership post earlier this week, the first such congressional ouster in US history, reportedly after some of his fellow Republicans heard that he had promised Biden a separate Ukraine aid bill to be approved after passing the stopgap funding measure. The Biden administration won’t decide on whether to propose a one-and-done aid package for Ukraine until after a new House speaker is elected, possibly next week, according to The Telegraph’s report. Getting a $100 billion bill passed might require the president to make concessions to conservative Republicans on such issues as illegal immigration.

US Representative Lauren Boebert, one of the Republicans who have been critical of Biden’s Ukraine policy, suggested in an interview on Friday that the new House speaker might have to pledge opposition to passing more funding for Kiev. She noted that a majority of Republicans in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted against a $300 million Ukraine aid bill last week. “For the first time, we saw that Ukraine funding alone does not have a majority of the majority’s support,” Boebert told US podcast host Steve Bannon. “Any speaker has to recognize that and not allow more funding for Ukraine to come to the floor. We are absolutely tired of spending it.” Congress has already approved four rounds of Ukraine funding, totaling about $113 billion. The Pentagon warned last week that it had exhausted “nearly all available security-assistance funding for Ukraine.”

Read more …

“The courtroom has replaced his rallies and that’s what the next 14 months are going to look like. He’s a showman; he loves this s***. This will be his campaign and it could work.”

• Will Donald Trump Win by Waging War on American Institutions?

Observers saw shades of Trump’s victorious 2016 campaign as the former president spoke to US media outside of a New York courtroom this week. “It’s a scam, it’s a sham,” said the former president to reporters huddled outside of a Manhattan courtroom. “It’s a witch hunt and a disgrace.” The tenor of his comments was familiar as he opined on the civil fraud case that saw him accused of inflating the value of his businesses by millions of dollars. But the subject of his ire was somewhat new. A longtime critic of the United States’ media and political establishments, former president Donald Trump has recently added the American judicial system to his list of targets in a campaign season that once again seems poised to position the iconoclastic businessman as an outsider candidate.

It’s a role Trump is all too eager to play. He briefly waded into US politics in 2000, forming a presidential exploratory committee and promising to challenge the then-bipartisan consensus around free trade, among other issues. He waged his 2016 campaign against perhaps the most well known living representative of the Washington political establishment (former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton). And he spent his turbulent four years as president constantly at odds with detractors from all sides of the political spectrum. Now Trump can add judges and prosecutors to his long list of adversaries. “Every time he’s in a courtroom, he’s campaigning,” said Joe Walsh, a former Republican congressman from Illinois who became a fierce critic of Trump from within his own party. “The courtroom has replaced his rallies and that’s what the next 14 months are going to look like. He’s a showman; he loves this s***. This will be his campaign and it could work.”

Trump’s civil case compounds his recent legal woes, which include 91 criminal charges from four separate indictments and another civil trial that saw the former president held liable for sexually abusing and defaming columnist E. Jean Carroll earlier this year. Then, as now, he decried the case as part of a witch hunt to derail his 2024 presidential candidacy. The legal proceedings create an unprecedented dynamic in next year’s campaign. In any other election, with any other candidate, they might spell certain doom. Yet Trump currently remains the overwhelming favorite to win his party’s presidential primary. Most recent polling shows him running even with Biden in the general election, if not leading him. In 2020 Trump ran as an incumbent, forced to defend his political record and handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. But recently, events have conspired to once again give him the aura of an outsider, running against a political figure who was first elected to national office in 1972.

In the context of 2024’s presidential contest, the judiciary becomes just another aspect of Trump’s audacious challenge to America’s political and social system. Polling has long shown sharply declining trust in a broad swath of US institutions. Congress, the presidency, and the Supreme Court remain among some of the least-respected institutions in American public life, but most others fare no better. Such wide skepticism could create the perfect environment for Donald Trump to triumphantly return to the White House. But whatever the outcome of next year’s contest, the American public may be ready for deep reform in almost every corner of society. Whether our institutions permit such change may dictate their very survival.

Read more …

“If the statute of limitations is applied correctly, the majority of the prosecutor’s claims are “subject to dismissal as untimely..”

• Appeals Court Rules for Trump Amid NY Fraud Trial (ET)

After a hearing on Friday, an appeals court granted a stay, or pause, on a judge’s order that former President Donald Trump’s businesses be dissolved. This was only a partial victory for President Trump, as the appeals court said the trial that began this week could continue. The prosecutors had opposed the request for a delay, accusing the defense attorneys of attempting “to sow chaos” and disruption. The Trump Organization issued a statement after the pause, calling the judge’s order to cancel the Trumps’ business certificates “overzealous.” “Judge Engoron’s order erroneously sought to adjudicate the rights of non-party business entities that employ nearly 1,000 hard-working New Yorkers, have never been accused of any wrongdoing and, were never given their day in court – in clear violation of their fundamental Constitutional rights and Due Process. We will continue to vigorously defend our company and our incredible employees from this politically-motivated persecution,” the statement reads.

President Trump’s attorneys appealed the civil fraud case against him on Oct. 4 and Oct. 5, filing a 1,154-page document in a bid to pause the currently ongoing trial. “[New York] Supreme Court’s Sept. 26 and Oct. 5, 2023 decision impose unauthorized, undemanded, overbroad relief without proper factual or legal predicate, which will result in significant, irreparable harm,” states the reason for requesting a stay on the case. President Trump had already previously sought to delay the trial, and the appeal had been denied just days before the trial began. New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron’s Sept. 26 decision not only found President Trump liable for fraud, but ordered the dissolution of the Trump Organization and related LLCs, which means the 45th president will lose his entire real estate empire in a matter of days unless the appeal is granted. Furthermore, attorneys argue, hundreds of employees will be affected.

“Supreme Court clearly does not comprehend the scope of the chaos its decision has wrought,” the filing reads, describing the summary judgment as a “miscarriage of justice.” President Trump’s business certificates have already been canceled, and the judge’s Oct. 5 order requires him to notify the court before applying for a new one, even outside New York. His sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., executive vice presidents in the Trump Organization, face similar penalties. The buildings they stand to lose include Trump Tower, 40 Wall Street, the Seven Springs family estate upstate, and private residences belonging to Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. The case began when President Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen made claims that his boss inflated his net worth. New York Attorney General Letitia James, who declared that she would sue the former president for fraud when she was campaigning for her position, brought forth a civil lawsuit in September 2022 accusing him of defrauding the state by artificially inflating his net worth to get more favorable terms from insurers and banks.

[..] A June appeals court decision had defined the statute of limitations to allegations from 2014 onwards. The prosecutors’ original lawsuit covered the decade from 2011 to 2021. During the trial, the judge acknowledged the statute of limitations, but said he would allow evidence from before 2014 if the prosecutors could connect it to later crimes. The prosecutors had argued for bringing in this evidence under the “continuing wrongs doctrine.” In the appeal, President Trump’s attorneys argue that the doctrine does not delay or extend the period allowed, citing other court rulings. Furthermore, the court is now treating the individual financial statements as “separately actionable claims,” rather than “continuing wrongs,” they argued. If the statute of limitations is applied correctly, the majority of the prosecutor’s claims are “subject to dismissal as untimely,” they argued.

Read more …

“On numerous occasions, the judge has insisted the 2020 election was legitimate and fully vetted by the court system – a claim disputed by Trump that lies at the heart of the case she is now hearing..”

• Judge Who Will Hear Trump’s Jan 6 Case Is the Pot Calling Him Black (Kelly)

At her first appearance in the criminal case against Donald Trump for his alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 election, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya S. Chutkan repeatedly warned the former president’s lawyers that politics would not be tolerated in her courtroom. But even as she warns Trump about his “inflammatory” language, Chutkan has routinely issued politically charged rulings and made incendiary statements of her own while presiding over some 30 cases involving Trump supporters charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, melee at the U.S. Capitol. These include her public assertions that the 2020 election was beyond reproach, that the Jan. 6 protests were orchestrated by Trump, and that the former president is guilty of crimes. She has described Jan. 6 as a “mob attack” on “the very foundation of our democracy.”

Chutkan’s strident language raises questions about her impartiality in handling the case against the presumptive GOP nominee for president in 2024. Chutkan blamed Trump for the Jan. 6 violence while sentencing Robert Palmer, who pleaded guilty in June 2021 to one count of assaulting police officers with a dangerous weapon (a fire extinguisher). In that case, Palmer’s lawyer sought a reduced prison sentence by echoing the judge’s view of Trump. “Mr. Palmer went to the Capitol at the behest of the former president,” attorney Bjorn E. Brunvand wrote in a December 2021 sentencing memo to Chutkan. “Like many others who participated in the Capitol riot, Mr. Palmer blindly followed the many figures who falsely but persistently claimed that the election had been stolen from the president.”

Palmer apologized to Chutkan for his conduct and begged for mercy. His plea fell on deaf ears. Chutkan expressed no sympathy for Palmer, whom she sent to prison for more than five years. Chutkan’s references to the former president aren’t the only area of concern for Trump. Her comments from the bench also suggest that she shares the same view of Jan. 6 as the man prosecuting Trump in her courtroom, Special Counsel Jack Smith. Tasked by Attorney General Merrick Garland with investigating “whether any person or entity unlawfully interfered with the transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election or the certification of the Electoral College vote held on or about January 6, 2021,” Smith indicted Trump in the District of Columbia on three conspiracy counts and one obstruction count last month.

Throughout the 45-page indictment, Smith repeatedly accused Trump of knowingly promoting falsehoods about the 2020 presidential election. Chutkan clearly shares that view. On numerous occasions, the judge has insisted the 2020 election was legitimate and fully vetted by the court system – a claim disputed by Trump that lies at the heart of the case she is now hearing. She has accused individuals who believe the 2020 election was “stolen” as promoting “conspiracy theories.” In the case of Donna Bissel, who pleaded guilty to the nonviolent petty offense of “parading” in the Capitol, Chutkan cited Bissel’s personal beliefs as reason to sentence her to 14 days in jail rather than impose the three-year probation sentence recommended by prosecutors.

Read more …

Here, too, the regime has 98% of the media on its side. But that’s not enough..

“..urged the media to depict Ukraine’s faltering counteroffensive in a more charitable light..”

• Western Officials Pressure Media On Ukraine’s Battlefield Failures – WaPo (RT)

Western officials have urged the media to depict Ukraine’s faltering counteroffensive in a more charitable light, the Washington Post has reported. The US newspaper claimed the efforts are aimed at preventing a decline in public support for providing further military aid for Kiev in the coming months. In an article on Saturday, the Post alleged that “Ukrainian and Western officials in recent weeks have focused on reshaping the narrative” amid Kiev’s underwhelming progress so far. The implementation of the supposed new strategy presumably has to do with increased criticism in some Western countries, which has called into question the continuation of military aid for Kiev.

According to the media outlet, while Ukraine’s Western backers are publicly putting a brave face on the counteroffensive, privately they are increasingly concerned that the conflict could become a frozen one, with Kiev’s forces unable to breach Russian defenses. The Post noted that several Western officials had recently paid an unusual amount of attention in their press briefings to the way the media is covering the Ukrainian military’s progress. In one example cited by the newspaper, an unnamed official urged journalists to “lift up the conversation a bit” and stop focusing too much on the day-to-day developments on the ground, lest they miss the “fuller picture.” The same official also reportedly tried to lower expectations in the briefing, saying that a Ukrainian victory would not necessarily mean the recapture of “every bit of territory by X date” – despite Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s insistence that this is the only acceptable scenario.

Ukrainian officials have been limiting journalists’ access to the front line, citing security reasons, the Post continued. Special officers are making sure that sensitive topics, such as Kiev’s losses, are kept quiet. Late last month, the New York Times reported that a slowdown in the counteroffensive “comes with huge risks for Ukraine.” The newspaper explained that “if it looks unlikely to recapture large areas of the country, Western support could wane, either through lack of political will or unwillingness to donate more weapons.” Meanwhile, Kiev’s already slow progress may be further impeded by autumn rains in the region, the NYT pointed out, adding that such adverse weather conditions would make the ground almost impassable for heavy Western-supplied tanks and other hardware.

Read more …

I could add 1,000 words to the 1,000,000 already written in the past 24 hours. But for now I’ll stick with Macgregor’s ”Make peace, you fools.”

• Medvedev Blames US for Israel-Hamas Fighting (RT)

US foreign policy is partly to blame for the latest violent flare-up between Israel and the Palestinians, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has suggested. The official, who is currently Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council, said Washington should have channeled its energy into ensuring a lasting peace in the Middle East but chose to focus on Ukraine instead. Commenting on Saturday’s escalation between Israel and the Hamas militant group from Gaza, Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel that these events were predictable. “This is what Washington and its allies should have dealt with,” he explained, adding that the Israel-Palestine conflict has lasted for decades, with the US being a “key player there.”

According to Medvedev, instead of this, “these morons got involved in our region and are actively helping neo-Nazis, pitting two close peoples against one another.” The former president brought his remarks to a conclusion with the thought that “apparently only a civil war on US territory” would help quell “America’s manic passion for igniting conflicts all around the planet.” On Saturday morning, Hamas militants launched a massive attack on Israel, firing thousands of missiles and then breaching the border fence and overrunning multiple Israeli towns bordering the Gaza enclave. According to Israeli emergency service Magen David Adom, at least 40 Israelis have been killed and 740 others wounded. In his address to the nation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country is at war. He also vowed that the “enemy will pay a price like they have never known before.”

An IDF spokesperson revealed that fighting is ongoing, with Hamas militants still present in multiple localities. Meanwhile, the Israeli air force has conducted air strikes on Gaza. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has insisted that the Palestinian people have a right to defend themselves against what he described as the “terror of settlers and occupation troops.” The White House issued a statement, condemning what it termed “unprovoked attacks by Hamas terrorists against Israeli civilians.” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin reassured Israel that the US’ commitment to its security remains “unwavering.” In the coming days, he promised, the Pentagon will “work to ensure that Israel has what it needs to defend itself and protect civilians from indiscriminate violence and terrorism.”

Read more …

Kim Dotcom: “Understanding the Hamas attack on Israel: Iran is aiming for a confrontation with Israel and the US. The success of Russia in Ukraine is encouraging Iran to undo decades of hostile US foreign policy in the Middle East. A bankrupt US Govt has just been invited to another war. The timing is opportunistic. The US Govt is forced to print trillions of USD as it struggles to raise new debt. Another war would lead to a significant increase in inflation and an accelerated economic decline of the US.

If Iran mines the Strait of Hormuz the global energy crisis would become critical. The Biden administration has used the majority of US oil reserves to stabilize domestic oil prices. Iran can increase the pain for the US Govt significantly. Ukraine is turning into a major defeat for the US and NATO. A new front in the Middle East would accelerate the US decline. The US Govt and its western partners simply cannot afford it. Russia and China would benefit most. Iran understands this and is playing into the hands of its partners.”

• Hezbollah Next To Attack? War Could Spiral Into Biggest In Decades (ZH)

It appears at the very least, we are in the midst of a third intifada. But one big question will linger in the coming days and weeks as Israel is sure to escalate its response into a ground invasion Gaza: will the war escalate beyond Gaza and southern Israel? Already both Hezbollah and the Islamic Republic of Iran have sent “congratulations” messages to Hamas and the Palestinians. Hezbollah’s statement in particular condemned Arab states who have normalized relations with the Jewish state. The Wall Street Journal reports on Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah’s statement as follows: “Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which like Palestinian militant groups also vows Israel’s destruction, praised the operation by Hamas inside Israel, according to Arab media. Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah said it served as a warning against recognizing Israel.

“It sends a message to the Arab and Islamic world, and the international community as a whole, especially those seeking normalization with this enemy, that the Palestinian cause is an everlasting one, alive until victory and liberation,” Nasrallah said in a statement.” At the moment Israel’s northern border with Hezbollah remains quiet, but if a shooting war starts out of southern Lebanon, Israel will find itself in a war on two fronts. Already there are allegations from Western pundits that Iran is financing this expanded Hamas operation… [..] A potential broader war could also draw in Syria, given already Israeli jets have struck the country almost on a weekly basis. Israel has long said it is attacking Iranian targets and assets inside Syria. If Hezbollah and Israel enter a war, this would increase the likelihood of it expanding into already war-torn Syria.

Mashiach

Read more …

“..the first city in America to [insert costly, new, crackpot, ‘green’ energy notion here].”

• Time to Tell America’s Climate Cult ‘Stop!’ (ET)

Rishi Sunak, Britain’s Tory prime minister, seems to have bravely adopted at least some of that mission by challenging Britain’s radical climate agenda. It’s a lesson for the United States. Addressing Britain’s sanguine climate policy, Mr. Sunak said, “there’s nothing ambitious about simply asserting a goal for a short-term headline without being honest with the public about the tough choices and sacrifices involved and without any meaningful democratic debate about how we get there.” Mind you, Mr. Sunak isn’t what the climate cult types call a “climate change denier”; far from it. But he understands that aspirations without means are merely pipe dreams. And he also understands that imposing climate mandates without public discourse or debate is antithetical to the democratic principles that underlie his republic, as they do ours.

Unfortunately, the mismatch between means and aspirations, as well as the disregard for democratic principles, characterizes much of what passes for the national climate policies of both the UK and the United States. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency set the CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standards for model year 2026 automobiles at 55 miles per gallon for sedans and 39 mpg for trucks and light-duty trucks/SUVs. Those are enormous increases of 25 percent and 28 percent, respectively, just since 2020. The clear intention in raising the CAFE standards so quickly is to force consumers into buying new cars that are either fully or partially electric, hybrids, or fully electric. But there’s clear resistance, as reflected even by Kyle Bass, an avid environmentalist and chief investment officer of Conservation Equity Management, a private equity fund focused on “facilitating conservation investment”: “The advertised ranges of EVs have turned out to be pure fantasy (we own two Teslas). After a couple of years, the batteries degrade even more (think about your iPhone). I will never give up my combustion engine.”

State and local governments in so-called “blue” states have been even more aggressive in forcing radical lifestyle changes on the people in their jurisdiction. In New York, for example, it’s something of a race to “make history,” with elected officials lauding the city’s status as “the first city in America to [insert costly, new, crackpot, ‘green’ energy notion here].” For example, in a social media post on June 27, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul lauded an expensive “congestion pricing” tax scheme that the city will impose next year, whereby drivers who go below 6oth Street in Manhattan will have to pay a congestion pricing toll of $26 to “reduce fuel consumed and pollutant emissions.” “New York City is leading the nation by becoming the first city in America with a congestion pricing program—setting the standard in the fight for cleaner air, better transit, and less traffic,” Ms. Hochul wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “As we so often do here in New York, today, we’re making history.”

Another “green” initiative bans new construction in New York City from having natural gas hookups, even though natural gas reserves are estimated at 300 years and natural gas burns far cleaner than many alternatives. New York’s legendary pizzerias, some serving pizza from coal-fired ovens for more than a century, will likely be forced to adopt electric pizza ovens. Another initiative will force New Yorkers to hold onto their garbage for up to a week for mandatory composting of organic waste, since the city’s plan only allows for compost pick-ups just once a week. Imagine the smell. And the vermin!

Read more …

“New York City is very expensive. You are better off going to a more affordable city”..

• Bill Maher: “Democrats Look Like Sanctuary City Hypocrites” (ZH)

Real Time” host Bill Maher blasted President Biden and ultra-radical progressives for their massive policy U-turn on the southern border this week. He said border state Republicans who bused migrants to sanctuary metro areas (mainly in the Northeast) “called the Democrats’ bluff about sanctuary cities,” and the Democrats “look like sanctuary city hypocrites.”

“Here’s how serious the situation is: You know, they’ve been busing the migrants to the cities now. They kind of called the Democrats’ bluff about sanctuary cities, and they said oh, you love them so much? Here you go. And the cities don’t like it so much. NYC Mayor Eric Adams said this is going to destroy our city … Eric Adams … went to Mexico today. He’s going to Mexico, Ecuador, and Colombia, I think door-to-door, no, really, just to tell people personally, we don’t have room, I’m not kidding, don’t come. That’s pretty amazing. No, he’s telling these people, we don’t have room. This is New York City. Don’t you know our catchphrase? We’re the Little Apple. And our theme song, if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere, so go anywhere, don’t come here,” Maher said in his opening opening monologue on Friday evening.

Maher continued, “The border crisis has become a national crisis. It was always something like oh, it’s down there, and yes, it’s bad. But it’s – and now it’s all over the country because they’ve been busing the migrants and so forth.” He said this all “feels like a disaster for the Democrats.” The Biden administration’s reversal to now support former President Trump’s southern border wall comes as radical progressives, for years, called anyone who praised Trump’s wall ‘racist’ and other terrible names. The policy U-turn by the president and radical leftists comes as it appears polling data is not moving in their favor ahead of the election cycle, as disastrous open border policies have transformed many metro areas into chaotic areas that resemble third-word-like conditions. [..] Maher said, “Trump today said he wants Biden to apologize because it looks like Biden was adopting his policy. This does not look good for the Democrats.”

Read more …

“More than a year after these attacks, it’s apparent that the manner in which this reality has been suppressed is possibly more sinister than the attack itself.”

• One Year On, EU, US Collude To Sweep Nordstream Under The Rug (Bowes)

It’s been more than a year since one of the biggest pieces of energy infrastructure in Europe was destroyed in what can only be described as a terror attack. One would imagine that no stone would be left unturned to investigate a crime of such magnitude and attribute responsibility. You would also think that the countries that stood to lose most from Nord Stream’s destruction would be at the forefront of these investigations. Well, welcome to the Europe of 2023 where, in a weird case of Stockholm syndrome, it seems neither the alleged perpetrator nor indeed one of the main victims wants any more “trouble” when it comes to Nord Stream. The consensus is to let sleeping dogs lie, and considering the evidence of US involvement in the attack, that’s entirely unsurprising.

On September 26, 2022, the world’s news feeds erupted with reports of the powerful explosions which tore the landmark Russian-German gas pipelines apart, dealing a devastating blow to Berlin’s, and by extension the entire EU’s, energy security. Within a couple of days, Western media had seemingly solved the mystery. Publications such as Politico eagerly proclaimed that “Everything is pointing to Russia,” embracing the utterly delusional anti-logic that would make it plausible that Russia would destroy a piece of its own energy infrastructure that had been bringing it steady income. This reality, widely accepted by objective, nonaligned observers, was however lost on a slew of NATO-, US-, and EU-aligned commentators and officials. A mere four days after the explosions, US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm told the BBC that it “seems” Russia was behind the destruction of its own multibillion-dollar investment.

When we roll the clock forward to today, it is now patently clear that Western media have been tasked with memory-holing the entire Nord Stream affair, with Germany, Sweden, and Denmark quietly conducting separate “investigations” which conveniently exclude Russian officials while also remaining strangely low-key in Western newsfeeds. These obviously declawed investigations continue as it is increasingly accepted in the West that Russia had nothing to do with the sabotage, it now being obvious that the US and/or a proxy partner were actually behind this terror attack on European soil. More than a year after these attacks, it’s apparent that the manner in which this reality has been suppressed is possibly more sinister than the attack itself.

An often-overlooked element of the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines is the devastating environmental impact that resulted from the explosions. Over 100,000 tons of methane gas was released into the atmosphere as four huge blasts tore through the two pipelines. A far less well known, or publicized, fact is that these pipelines were laid near an area where tons of toxic chemical weapons waste from the First World War had previously been dumped. The scale of the resulting short- and long-term impact on the seabed and atmosphere is difficult to establish, but both this and the single-biggest release of methane into the atmosphere in recent history seem to have gone generally unnoticed by the Green lobby in the EU and US. Anyone doubting the influence of this bunch should recall that on Joe Biden’s first day in office, he canceled a huge pipeline project, Keystone XL, jeopardizing thousands of construction jobs in what was seen as payback to environmentalists, whose cash and influence had been critical in his narrow electoral success.

The silence of the Green lobby on the catastrophic impact of the Nord Stream attack thus seems all the more unusual. Environmental activists across the US have rallied around calls to prevent the construction of pipelines in various regions, citing their negative environmental impact, but those same people seem remarkably quiet when it comes to the biggest pipeline-related environmental catastrophe in decades. The lack of any significant challenge regarding this act of eco-terrorism speaks volumes about the West’s selective approach to the Ukraine conflict. Green moral outrage is instantly shelved once Russia or China is the target and not the perpetrator.

Read more …

There is a video with this, but I couldn’t find an embeddable version. Go here to watch.

• ‘No Lives Were Saved’ by COVID-19 Vaccines, 17 Million Deaths (ET)

A new scientific report challenges the idea that COVID-19 vaccines have prevented deaths after researchers assessed all-cause mortality in 17 countries and found COVID-19 vaccines did not have any beneficial effect on reducing mortality. Instead, researchers found that unprecedented peaks in high all-cause mortality in each country—especially among the elderly population when COVID-19 vaccines were deployed—coincided with the rollout of third and fourth booster doses. The report, published Sept. 17 by Correlation Research in the Public Interest (not yet peer-reviewed), quantified the vaccine-dose fatality rate (vDFR) for all ages—which is the ratio of inferred vaccine-induced deaths to vaccine doses delivered in a given population.

After analyzing mortality data, the researchers calculated a mean all-ages fatal toxicity by injection of vDFR of one death per 800 injections across all ages and countries. This equates to 17 million COVID-19 vaccine-related deaths worldwide from 13.25 billion injections as of Sept. 2, 2023. “This would correspond to a mass iatrogenic event that killed (0.213 ± 0.006) % of the world population (1 death per 470 living persons, in less than 3 years), and did not measurably prevent any deaths,” the authors said. They found the overall risk of death induced by COVID-19 vaccines is 1,000 times greater than previously reported in data from clinical trials, adverse event monitoring, and cause-of-death statistics obtained from death certificates.

All-cause mortality is the death rate from all causes of death for a population in a specific time period. This is the most reliable data for detecting and epidemiologically characterizing events driving death and for measuring the population-level impact of any surge or collapse in deaths from any cause. “All-cause mortality is a good feature to use in statistical medical analyses since there is no ambiguity in whether someone has died or not,” Stephanie Seneff, a senior research scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), told The Epoch Times in an email. “It is highly disturbing that these authors have found a consistent trend among seventeen countries showing a significant increase in all-cause mortality coinciding with extensive COVID vaccine rollout. Their estimate of one death for every 800 injections globally is alarming.”

[..] “There is no evidence in the hard data of all-cause mortality of a beneficial effect from the COVID-19 vaccine rollouts. No lives were saved,” Denis Rancourt, co-director of Correlation Research in the Public Interest with a doctorate in physics, told The Epoch Times in an email. “On the contrary, the evidence can be understood in terms of being subjected to a toxic substance. The risk of death per injection increases exponentially with age. The policy of prioritizing the elderly for injection must be ended immediately.”

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ibex
https://twitter.com/i/status/1710560060710019158

 

 

Dog star

 

 

 

 

FishingVillage
https://twitter.com/i/status/1710598084231671813

 

 

Wall building
https://twitter.com/i/status/1710614273930490009

 

 

Cat shades
https://twitter.com/i/status/1710692933215600738

 

 

 

 

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