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Debt Rattle December 4 2024

Dec 042024
 
 December 4, 2024  Posted by at 10:05 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,  66 Responses »


Johannes Vermeer The geographer 1668-69

 

• FBI Agents Back Kash Patel As Next Director: ‘He’s the right fix’ (JTN)
• The Government Gangsters (Glenn Beck)
• Tucker Carlson Claims US Embassy Has Muted Zelensky (RT)
• Trump Offers Canada Chance To Join US (RT)
• Joe Biden Cloaks His Legacy in Infamy With the Hunter Biden Pardon (Turley)
• In Pardoning His Own Son, Biden Argues That US Justice Sucks (Marsden)
• “Trump-Proofing” California Could Be a Costly Option for Californians (Turley)
• Ukraine Will Reject Any Alternative To NATO Membership – Foreign Ministry (RT)
• Kiev Should ‘Disregard Everything And Everyone’, Become Nuclear Power – MP (RT)
• Georgia: A Second Front for Putin (Paul Craig Roberts)
• The Second Front Has Been Activated In Syria (Sonja van den Ende)
• EU Reports Dramatic Fall In Birth Rate (RT)
• EU Has Weakened ‘A Lot’ Amid Ukraine Conflict – Hungarian FM (RT)
• The End Of Fake News? MSNBC Hits New Low In Ratings (ZH)
• Ryanair CEO O’Leary: Germany Is Run By ‘Idiots’ (RMX)
• Fani Full Release Ordered After Fulton DA Sat On RICO Records (ZH)
• House Oversight Report Supports Lab-Leak Theory for COVID-19 Origin (ET)
• The Skripals Are As Good As Dead – The Judge Has Buried Them (Helmer)

 

 

 

 

YMCA

Article III

In a blanket pardon, you lose the 5th

Georgia
https://twitter.com/i/status/1863938810196955257

Gaetz

Benz


https://twitter.com/i/status/1864152269153063050

Biden AI

 

 

 

 

“..an influential retired bureau supervisor says a large number of agents support Kash Patel for the job..”

• FBI Agents Back Kash Patel As Next Director: ‘He’s the right fix’ (JTN)

As Democrats try to stymie President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for FBI Director, an influential retired bureau supervisor says a large number of agents support Kash Patel for the job because of his national security experience and his vision to replace the law enforcement agency’s leadership who allowed politics to usurp crime fighting. “This guy is completely and 100% qualified to run that organization. He’s what’s needed today. He’s the right fix,” retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent Jeff Danik told Just the News in a wide-ranging interview Monday. While Democrats and news media critics have suggested that Patel was selected to be a loyalist seeking revenge on Trump foes, Danik noted Patel’s extensive career experience, which includes stints as a federal public defender, federal prosecutor, counterterrorism director at the National Security Council, senior counsel to the House Intelligence Committee and chief of staff to both the Defense Secretary and the Director of National Intelligence.

“He has the correct balance, in my view, having been there for almost 30 years,” Danik said of Patel. “He has the correct balance of prosecutor, which is what we do. We feed the prosecution tube. Defense attorney, so the other side of that coin. Intelligence, the intelligence agencies, which is a key element to the FBI’s either success or failure. “And then also, I think this is personal, that he’s been a victim himself of the system,” Danik said. “And the combination of those things uniquely qualifies him beyond his, you know, substantial accomplishments.” Those accomplishments, Just the News confirmed, include two major government awards for Patel’s work on national security during the Obama administration.

The recognitions included a 2017 Assistant Attorney General’s award of excellence for Patel’s prosecution of 12 Al-Shabab terrorists who killed 72 and injured dozens more with suicide bombings targeting sports fans watching a 2010 FIFA World Cup soccer match at two locations in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. They also include a Central Intelligence Agency Award for Human Intelligence Gathering for his work combating terrorism in East Africa. Patel mentioned both awards in a lawsuit he filed against a news media organization back in 2019 and they were confirmed by government officials who spoke to Just the News.Danik’s full-throated endorsement of Patel is significant, since he is a popular figure in the FBI retiree community as an accomplished bureau supervisor in the Miami area known to help and counsel agents currently on the job.

“I talk to agents all the time. I’m constantly involved with helping them, counseling them through tough times, or helping on the job or just after retirement,” Danik said during an interview on the John Solomon Reports podcast. “And there’s a large group that are highly, highly supportive of him, of the President-elect, and are willing to help with whatever jobs or tasks are involved in getting behind the scenes.” “When somebody new comes into into an organization, even if they’re somewhat familiar with it, there’s a lot of complexity involved with these federal bureaucracies. They have really established lots of different little machine gunner nests that need to be known about before you go in,” he added. Danik was explicitly supportive of Patel’s oft-stated strategy of “cleaning house” in the upper echelons of the FBI, saying that is where cases involving Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and others have been politicized to the detriment of the nation.

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X thread.

• The Government Gangsters (Glenn Beck)

Trumps FBI Director Kash Patel knew the Deep State’s plan to remove Joe Biden and pardon Hunter to hide their crimes. Garland and Wray should have been impeached. Fauci, the CIA and the Media lied about the origins of Covid. Wray has the Epstein files. He says the FBI can be fixed by shutting down the Hoover building immediately and opening it up the next day as a Museum of the Deep State letting everyone walk the halls for free and leaving it open 365 days a year. He says twenty people can run the FBI, the other seven thousand agents that are sitting in that building should be chasing criminals around America, not distorting statistics about January 6th so Christopher Wray can go to Congress and lie and say domestic violent terrorism is on the rise.

He encourages the arrest and prosecution of Hunter Biden over the crime of prostitution for calling a Hooker, which is prosecutable in almost every jurisdiction in America and he also says Joe Biden can be prosecuted for receiving money overseas, ill gotten gains, which is illegal. There are bigger crimes involving Ukraine and other matters, but these are simple and fast crimes to prosecute. The investigation into the Hunter Biden Laptop was shutdown by the FBI and the Department of Justice with the help of the media, proving this was a coordinated Deep State effort. He says the Obama-Clinton Administration has been running the White House for years, not Joe Biden. The Deep State is evil, vindictive and very smart.

He names the Top Five Deep State Operatives in America which are General Mark Milley of the U.S. Department of Defense, Mark T. Esper former Secretary of Defense, William Barr former U.S. Attorney General of the Department of Justice, Christopher Wray current FBI Director and Merrick Garland the current Attorney General of the Department of Justice. He says the Deep State will be shattered under the second Trump Administration, but it will be a monster fight. He read the entire secret JFK files and the secret seven pages of the 9/11 report, he says he has seen it all and will recommend to President Trump to release all the files to the American people including the Epstein files. He refers to the Deep State Operatives as Government Gangsters that will be brought to justice.

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“..Carlson published a video on X in which he previewed the upcoming release of an interview with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov..”

• Tucker Carlson Claims US Embassy Has Muted Zelensky (RT)

American journalist Tucker Carlson has said the US government has been blocking his attempts to organize an interview with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky for more than a year. On Wednesday, Carlson published a video on X in which he previewed the upcoming release of an interview with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The journalist said the conversation with Russia’s top diplomat was aimed at providing a perspective on how close Washington and Moscow could be to a direct clash, after the administration of outgoing US President Joe Biden granted Ukraine permission to fire American-made long-range weapons deep into Russian territory.

In the same clip, filmed on Manezhnaya Square in the heart of Moscow, the former Fox News host revealed that “we have also tried for over a year to get an interview with Zelensky, the president of Ukraine.” According to Carlson, his team “have attacked that from a bunch of different angles. We have spoken to a lot of different people around him, had dinner with them. We have been in talks continuously.” “And those efforts have been thwarted by the US government. The American Embassy in Kiev, which our tax dollars pay for, told the Zelensky government: No, you may not do the interview. You can talk to CNN. You cannot talk to us,” Carlson said.

In June, the journalist said he had agreed an interview with the Ukrainian leader. However, Zelensky’s press-secretary, Sergey Nikiforov, swiftly rejected the claim, saying that “Tucker Carlson should check his sources in the FSB (Russia’s Federal Security Service) more carefully.” Zelensky “has a completely different schedule, and Tucker Carlson is not on it,” Nikiforov stressed. Carlson’s latest trip to Moscow is his second since the escalation between Russia and Ukraine in early 2022. In February, he interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin, with the recording of their two-hour conversation getting 14 million views on YouTube and 185 million views on X in the first three days after its release.

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Western Canada would be interested. But not the east. Though Québec…

• Trump Offers Canada Chance To Join US (RT)

US President-elect Donald Trump has suggested that Canada should become the 51st US state unless it manages to halt the flow of illegal migrants and drugs across its border with the US, Fox News reported on Monday, citing sources. According to the report, the incoming US leader made the remarks last Friday during a dinner with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Earlier last week, Trump threatened to place 25% tariffs on goods coming from both Canada and Mexico upon inauguration in retaliation for illegal immigration, as well as the “crime and drugs,” coming to the US across the borders with the two countries. Trudeau called Trump shortly thereafter to attempt to dissuade the incoming US president from going ahead with the proposed hike, and on Friday arrived at Trump’s estate at Mar-a-Lago to continue discussions.

According to people reportedly present at Friday’s dinner who heard Trump’s discussion with Trudeau, the US president-elect repeated his earlier claim that Canada had failed its neighbor by allowing drugs and illegal immigrants from over 70 different countries to enter the US. He also reportedly chided Canada for the US trade deficit with it, which he estimated at around $100 billion. Trudeau reportedly told Trump that such punishing tariffs would destroy the Canadian economy. Trump was said to have replied with a tongue-in-cheek suggestion that Canada could avoid this by becoming the 51st US state, with Trudeau as governor. He later expounded on the idea, saying that Canada could even be divided into two states, one conservative and one liberal. The remark was reportedly received with nervous laughter from Trudeau and other dinner attendants, while Trump once again emphasized that he plans to carry out his threat as soon as he returns to the White House on January 20.

After the dinner, Trudeau told reporters he had “an excellent conversation” with Trump, without revealing its details. Trump later called his meeting with Trudeau “productive” and noted that the Canadian prime minister had “made a commitment” to work with the new US administration on Trump’s key points of concern. He did not mention his previous tariff hike threat again. Many US imports from both Canada and Mexico are currently exempted from tariffs because of the USMCA trade agreement that Trump enacted during his first term. Experts have warned that it is not clear how Trump could implement the proposed tariff hikes without violating that deal. Many economists have also warned that tariff hikes could backfire on the US economy by causing a spike in domestic prices, and also lead to retaliatory actions by targeted countries that could spark a trade war.

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“Even among past scandals in the abuse of the pardon power, Biden has done lasting damage not just to his legacy but his office.”

• Joe Biden Cloaks His Legacy in Infamy With the Hunter Biden Pardon (Turley)

President Joe Biden’s decision to use his presidential powers to pardon his own son will be a decision that lives in infamy in presidential politics. It is not just that the President used his constitutional powers to benefit his family. It is because the action culminates years of lying to the public about his knowledge and intentions in the influence-peddling scandal surrounding his family. Even among past scandals in the abuse of the pardon power, Biden has done lasting damage not just to his legacy but his office. Despite its noble origins and purpose, the pardon power historically has not been a pristine power used by past presidents. As I have previously written, it was used to benefit the political cronies of past presidents. President Warren Harding was even accused of selling pardons, including to mob enforcer Ignacio Lupo, known as “Lupo the Wolf.” Former president William Clinton waited for the final days of his presidency to pardon his own brother as well as a major democratic donor.

In 2023, I wrote that Biden might follow this same pattern and pardon his son as a lame-duck president. The column suggested that Biden might withdraw as a candidate for office and then take the action as a father: “The pardon-and-apology approach might appeal to Biden not only as an effort to convert vice into virtue but to justify his withdrawal from the election as a selfless act.” In the 2020 election and throughout his presidential term, Biden repeatedly lied to the American public with an ease and impunity that shocked even many political veterans in Washington. He was repeatedly asked if he knew about Hunter’s foreign dealings, including millions in alleged deals with Russians, Ukrainians, Chinese, and other clients. President Biden lied and denied such knowledge. As I detailed in my testimony in the Biden impeachment hearing, he had repeated discussions of these dealings. He is even on tape discussing news stories on the dealings.

President Biden was also repeatedly asked if he met any of his son’s clients. He repeatedly lied. We have pictures and records of dinners and meetings with these clients. Hunter Biden was expressly thanked for his arranging such access to his father. Few reporters pressed Biden on the corruption scandal, but they were often met not only with denials but angry retorts from the president. When Fox reporter Peter Doocy raised it, the President steamed “Yes, yes, yes. God love you, man — you’re a one-horse pony, I tell you.” When CBS’s Bo Erickson broke ranks and raised the scandal and drew a rebuke from Biden “I know you’d ask it. I have no response, it’s another smear campaign, right up your alley, those are the questions you always ask.” The President continued to lie throughout the election, the presidential debates, and his term. Then, the press repeatedly asked him whether he would pardon his son. The President was now running for reelection and again lied.

He and the White House said over and over again that no such pardon would occur and was not being contemplated. That was also a lie. NBC is reporting that, while issuing these denials last June, there were discussions about the pardon. The pardon power was written in absolute terms, and a president can even, in my view, pardon himself. However, what is constitutional is not necessarily ethical or right. This is one of the most disgraceful pardons even in the checkered history of presidential pardons. President Biden has lied to cover up a corruption scandal that reportedly brought his family millions in raw influence peddling. His portrayal of his son as a victim stands in sharp contrast to the sense of immunity and power conveyed by Hunter in his dealings. There were diamonds as gifts, lavish expense accounts, and a sports car, in addition to massive payments that Hunter claimed were “loans.”

There are messages where Hunter belies the President’s portrayal of a political witch hunt, including messages like the one to a Chinese businessman openly threatening the displeasure of Joe Biden if money is not sent to them immediately. In the WhatsApp message, Hunter stated: “I am sitting here with my father, and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight. And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the Chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.” The President has now pardoned Hunter for his convicted felonies and any crimes he may have committed from “Jan. 1, 2014, to Dec. 1, 2024.” It is all now being buried under a sweeping immunity deal and a pack of presidential lies.

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“Too bad that time’s up for you to actually do anything about this kind of systemic selective prosecutorial bullying, beyond serving your own family’s interests.”

• In Pardoning His Own Son, Biden Argues That US Justice Sucks (Marsden)

One of the big bonuses of being US president is that you can pardon any federal crimes you want on the way out the door. It’s a chance to help out family, friends, donors, or curry favor with potential future business associates in your post-White House career. US President Joe Biden just handed one out to his own son, Hunter Biden, who was facing up to 25 years prison in a firearms case and 17 years for a tax case. That length of sentence would make it seem that Hunter was accused of waving a gun around or firing it off in the vicinity of someone, but that’s hardly even the case. Instead, he was convicted of lying on his paperwork when applying for one. One of the questions asks whether you’ve smoked pot or done any other drugs “unlawfully.” No way, Hunter said. But unfortunately for him, a quick Google image search reveals spades of images of him with a crack pipe hanging from his mouth. Whoops.

In the tax case, he was convicted of three felony offenses and six misdemeanor offenses, according to his dad’s Justice Department statement, having “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills.” And when he was finally made to pay up, having blanked out on paying for four tax years, he indulged in some creative accounting in inventing some business deductions. Enter Joe in the role of the parent who shows up at the school principal’s office to explain why his kid is such a screwup and can’t get his homework done on time for the tax man. “Those who were late paying their taxes because of serious addictions, but paid them back subsequently with interest and penalties, are typically given non-criminal resolutions. It is clear that Hunter was treated differently,” Biden wrote in a statement. Sounds like Hunter’s serious addiction in this case was not paying taxes, just like every other American facing similar charges.

Everyone’s addicted to something. Maybe some other Americans were too busy double-fisting Ding Dongs or Twinkies to cater to the tax man? Or working on their gains at the gym? Or on a Netflix bender? Where’s their pardon? I’m sure Americans will be thrilled to learn that the president figures that indulging in some nose candy constitutes a free pass from any serious consequences of messing up your taxes – or just ignoring their existence altogether. Tax man knocking at the door? Just answer while smoking a giant blunt and tell him to bugger off. What about the gun stuff, though? Joe has an answer for that, too. “Without aggravating factors like use in a crime, multiple purchases, or buying a weapon as a straw purchaser, people are almost never brought to trial on felony charges solely for how they filled out a gun form,” he wrote.

Yeah okay, and most drivers who speed aren’t hauled up on speeding charges. Not because they aren’t doing it, but because there isn’t a cop sitting in the back of each one of their cars waiting for them to go over the limit and give them a ticket. Biden is literally saying that Hunter has been “treated differently” simply because he’s Biden’s son. Is he seriously blowing the whistle on his own Justice Department, and American justice, in general, with accusations of political prosecutions? Sure sounds like it. Too bad that, as president, he wasn’t actually in any position to actually do anything about it, huh? How about the tax man targeting Donald Trump’s returns? Is that not political, too, Joe? What about all the other felony charges that seemed designed to derail his return to the presidency? “For the first time in American history a former president that is a convicted felon is now seeking the office of the presidency,” Biden said earlier his year. “But as disturbing as that is, more damaging is the all-out assault Donald Trump is making on the American system of justice.”

Are we talking about the same system of justice that sucks so much that you had to correct its errors so your kid could avoid becoming someone’s Alcatraz amigo? “It says a lot about the United States that we work relentlessly to free Americans who are unjustly held around the world,” Biden said amid a prisoner swap with Russia this summer. How much work has Biden done – beyond his own kid’s case – to ensure that people who mess up on government paperwork in the US aren’t facing prison terms that rival those of genocide perpetrators? “The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election,” Biden said. Sounds like a real problem. Too bad that time’s up for you to actually do anything about this kind of systemic selective prosecutorial bullying, beyond serving your own family’s interests.

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“Californian voters surprised many Democrats this election with almost 40% voting for President-elect Trump over California’s own Vice President Kamala Harris..”

• “Trump-Proofing” California Could Be a Costly Option for Californians (Turley)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is widely known to be angling to be the next Democratic presidential nominee after the implosion of Vice President Kamala Harris. This week, Newsom positioned not just his campaign but also his state as part of the “resistance” for the next four years against the Trump Administration. Newsom pushed a special session to secure a $25 million war chest to take the Trump Administration to court, even before the inauguration and release of policies by the incoming administration. I wrote earlier about how the loss of both houses, as well as the White House, will mean that lawfare and obstructive efforts will shift to the states. Newsom is moving to out-position governors (and potential primary opponents) like Govs. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker moved first in a chest-pounding press conference that he would stop the incoming administration from trying to remove undocumented persons, declaring, “You come for my people, you come through me.” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) added that he will “fight to the death” against Trump’s agenda. Newsom has upped the ante by demanding millions to pre-fund litigation against the new administration. With a massive budget debt burden, Newsom has continued to pile on new debt for politically popular initiatives. I cannot recall any state pre-positioning funds for the sole purpose of litigating against any incoming administration. The most obvious area of disagreement is the effort to ramp up the enforcement of immigration laws and to carry out deportations.

While polls show that the public overwhelmingly supports such enforcement, including deportations, California is seeking to take the lead in court actions designed to slow or frustrate such efforts. It could prove costly, not just in litigation expenditures. The Trump Administration could seek to withhold federal funding from states and cities obstructing enforcement efforts. In the meantime, sanctuary cities are continuing to face rising costs associated with rising populations of undocumented migrants. For example, as we previously discussed, Denver Mayor Mike Johnson (D) declared that he was preparing the Mile-High City for its “Tiananmen Square moment” to fight the federal government in any attempt to deport unlawful migrants. Johnson warned that he would have not only Denver police “stationed at the county line to keep [ICE] out” but also “50,000 Denverites.” He later walked back the comments while repeating that the city is positioning itself to be part of the resistance.

Now the Common Sense Institute (CSI), a non-partisan research organization estimated that eight percent of the city’s 2025 budget of $4.4 billion is now dedicated to housing and services for undocumented persons. If true, that amounts to $356 million or $7,900 per migrant. California has led other states in offering a wide array of benefits to undocumented persons. Notably, Californian voters surprised many Democrats this election with almost 40% voting for President-elect Trump over California’s own Vice President Kamala Harris.

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“Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Kiev’s NATO ambitions were the key reason behind the current conflict.”

• Ukraine Will Reject Any Alternative To NATO Membership – Foreign Ministry (RT)

Ukraine will not accept any kind of security guarantees as a substitute for NATO membership, according to a Foreign Ministry statement published on Tuesday. In the document issued ahead of the NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels this week, Kiev blasted the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, under which Ukraine gave up its Soviet-era nuclear arsenal for security guarantees from Russia and the West. The Foreign Ministry called the pact a “monument to short-sightedness in strategic security decision-making,” and urged its Western backers to issue it an invitation to the US-led military bloc during the meeting in Brussels. “Having the bitter experience of the Budapest Memorandum behind us, we will not settle for any alternatives, surrogates, or substitutes for Ukraine’s full membership in NATO,” the ministry said in a statement, marking this week’s 30th anniversary of the memorandum’s signing.

The criticism comes amid recent Russian advances and the upcoming return of US President-elect Donald Trump to the White House in January, which has raised uncertainty over US support as Kiev fears it could be forced to the negotiating table. “We are convinced that the only real security guarantee for Ukraine, as well as a deterrent factor for further Russian aggression against Ukraine and other states, is only Ukraine’s full membership in NATO,” the statement said. Ukraine was left with around 1,700 nuclear warheads after the collapse of the Soviet Union. While this stockpile technically made Ukraine the world’s third-largest nuclear power, the weapons themselves remained under the operational control of Russia, and were surrendered under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. This agreement involved the US, UK, and Russia providing security assurances to Kiev in return for the removal of the weapons.

While Ukraine has never controlled nuclear weapons, in 2022, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky expressed regret about his country agreeing to relinquish them, suggesting that Kiev has “every right” to reverse the decision. Earlier this year, Zelensky said Ukraine could protect itself by becoming either a nuclear state or a member of NATO. He later backtracked, saying Kiev does not have any alternative “except NATO.” NATO, however, is “highly unlikely” to heed Kiev’s call for a membership invitation during this week’s meeting, Reuters reported, citing diplomats, saying it would take weeks or even months to reach a consensus from the bloc’s 32 members for the decision. Ukraine made NATO membership a strategic goal in 2019. This was a red line for Moscow, which has for years expressed concerns about the bloc’s creeping expansion towards its borders. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Kiev’s NATO ambitions were the key reason behind the current conflict.

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Forget it. Think Oreshnik.

• Kiev Should ‘Disregard Everything And Everyone’, Become Nuclear Power – MP (RT)

Ukraine must become a nuclear power to protect itself no matter the consequences, an opposition MP said on Tuesday. Becoming a member of NATO, which the current government hopes will happen, is not enough, Aleksey Goncharenko has argued. This week marks the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Budapest Memorandum, which comprises three nearly-identical multilateral agreements with former parts of the USSR that had nuclear weapons stationed on their territories at the time the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991. Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine agreed to denuclearize in exchange for security assurances by Russia, the US, and UK. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Tuesday to complain that the document has not applied to Kiev since the US-backed armed coup of 2014.

The anniversary, it said, is a good time to extend to Ukraine a formal invitation to NATO, it claimed. ”NATO is a good thing. But NATO will not defend us. Nuclear weapons would,” Goncharenko wrote in response on social media. “So we should disregard everything and everyone and make the bomb. Then we’ll figure things out.” The MP also rebuked Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky for missing the opportunity to get a “normal peace treaty” with Russia and NATO membership before the 2023 ‘counteroffensive’. He belongs to the party of former President Pyotr Poroshenko, who lost to Zelensky in the 2019 presidential election. The Budapest Memorandum with Ukraine should serve as a reminder to Western leaders that the “development of European security architecture at the expense of Ukrainian interests rather than in alignment with them is doomed to fail,” the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said in the statement.

The country “will not accept any alternative, imitation, or substitute for a NATO membership with full rights,” it added. In recent statements, Zelensky has been sending mixed messages on NATO membership, suggesting that Kiev would be willing to accept accession of only the territories currently under its control, or accession of all claimed territories without protection under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. Kiev claims that Ukraine was the third-largest nuclear power after Russia and the US, before agreeing to give up the weapons. The Ukrainian government has denied having a secret nuclearization plan, after German media claimed last month that it does.

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The EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas took the side of the 34%, whom she declared to be the “Georgian people,” not the 54% who won the election.”

• Georgia: A Second Front for Putin (Paul Craig Roberts)

President Putin faces the possibility of a second Ukraine, a second war front that could result from Washington’s success in staging a coup d’etat in Georgia with a color revolution. Riots ongoing since the “Russian party” defeated the “Western party” by 54% to 34% have convinced the Prime Minister of Georgia that the West is in the process of launching a color revolution to overthrow, as was done in Ukraine, the democratically elected government. Putin is silent and consequently could find himself fighting on two fronts. Then the West will open a third front. This is what Putin can expect from consistently presenting himself as a non-interventionist unless Russia is attacked. Russia, certainly the most powerful military entity on earth, carries no weight in Western councils. Georgia, the country, became a part of Russia in early 1800. In 1917 Georgia became one of the provinces of the Soviet Union.

The country became independent in 1991 when the collapse of the Soviet Union gave Washington the opportunity to break up the Soviet Union. Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, and the Central Asian provinces were turned into independent countries. In 2003 Washington engineered the “Rose Revolution” in Georgia, which put a pro-Western government in office. In 2008 Washington sent its US trained and equipped Georgian army into South Ossetia, a disputed province that did not agree to leave Russia with Georgia. As Russian peacekeepers were killed in the Georgian invasion of South Ossetia, Putin sent in the Russian Army which quickly destroyed the American trained Georgian Army and conquered Georgia in five days, which is what should have happened in Ukraine. Failing to realize that Washington would continue to try to turn Georgia into a front against Russia, Putin turned Georgia loose and took his army home.

Putin, a true believer in non-interference even when it is at Russia’s expense, left Georgia to be subverted by Washington. Putin did not require that Georgia shut down Washington’s NGOs operating in the country or that Georgia subordinate itself in any way to Russia. Consequently, Washington got a French-born woman installed as president of Georgia, and Washington’s propaganda and NGOs have convinced 34% of Georgians to prefer alignment with the West than with Russia. It is part of Washington’s intent to surround Russia with missile bases. Washington’s EU puppet has threatened to impose sanctions on the democratically elected Georgian government for failure to void the election and put in office a pro-West government. The EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas took the side of the 34%, whom she declared to be the “Georgian people,” not the 54% who won the election.

She promised that the EU would punish those who won and that sanctions against Georgia was one of the options for dealing with the Georgian people’s refusal to comply with EU rule. Last Saturday the US State Department spokesman announced Washington’s suspension of its strategic partnership with Georgia, thus setting up Georgia for overthrow. The Georgian President supports Washington’s NGO protesters and said the parliamentary elections are illegitimate. There is no indication that the Russian government realizes that the overthrow of the pro-Russian government means trouble for Russia. Fyodor Lukyanov, chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, writes nonsensically about the attempt at “color revolution” as if it is merely an internal affair for Georgia.

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“..Uyghur jihadists in Syria pose an overlooked yet significant regional and international security problem..”

• The Second Front Has Been Activated In Syria (Sonja van den Ende)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will go down in history as the most corrupt leader of the most extreme radical settler regime ever seen in the “promised land” called Israel, has negotiated a supposed ceasefire with Hezbollah, which will last for 60 days. Shortly after the ceasefire in Lebanon came into effect, and after Israeli Netanyahu warned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that he was “playing with fire”, a new front was opened from Idlib to Aleppo. The terrorist group called Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) launched an attack on Aleppo from their last enclave in Idlib. HTS and other factions called the al-Fatah al-Mubin group, just another small terrorist organization affiliated with HTS, advanced in the western countryside of Aleppo and took control of strategic points in the villages of Qubtan al-Jabal and Sheikh Aqil.

According to sources and Syrian media, around 50 people were killed, including terrorists, Syrian Arab Army (SAA) soldiers and an SAA soldier who was taken back to Idlib as booty. Who is HTS? If you believe Western sources, they are a Sunni Islamist political and armed organization involved in the Syrian civil war. It was formed on January 28, 2017, as a merger between Jaysh al-Ahrar, Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, Ansar al-Din Front, Jaysh al-Sunna, Liwa al-Haq and Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement. Syrian and Iraqi people call the organization Daesh, which means “the one who crushes”. The West sometimes gave it another name, ISIS or Islamic State. Also, the so-called Syrian civil war is a proxy war of the West to get the oil and gas out of Syria (and Iraq). This is well known among Syrians, who see their oil being stolen by the U.S., initially by their proxies Daesh, but now more directly with the help of the U.S. military.

The main goal of the U.S. is to replace Russian allies with those of the U.S., usurping Assad’s power with radical jihadists, aligned in the past mainly with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, so that the U.S. could build a pipeline through Syria to Europe. The evidence is clear that U.S. President Barack Obama, against advice and warnings from his top military officers, pursued a policy to protect the fundamentalist Sunni organization Al Qaeda in Syria. Proof that the U.S. (and its Western client states) under the Obama administration sponsored terrorists in Syria and Iraq is in the form of the last mentioned group, the Nour al-Din al-Zenki Movement. Obama had to admit before the entire Western press that Nour al-Din al-Zenki, who beheaded an eleven-year-old Palestinian boy in cold blood in front of rolling cameras, was indeed a terrorist group.

But so were all the others who the U.S. kept on sponsoring with weapons and money (as did Europe and the entire West). Later, they all merged with Daesh (ISIS). In 2016, during the liberation of Aleppo by the Syrian Arab Army, fighters from other terrorist groups (all fighting under the banner of Daesh but fighting among themselves) captured and killed members of the Zenki movement. Many of those who survived were later granted asylum in Europe (particularly Germany) along with other terrorists. But to this day, Europe is in denial and calls them rebels, while the evidence of gang violence happening in the cities of Europe is clear. Some say because of President Assad’s humane offer, they chose to be exiled to the enclave of Idlib, where a concentration of jihadists (after 2016) is now located.

The biggest Daesh group there has become HTS, and almost all groups are affiliated with them. Also, there are remaining Uyghurs, many of whom are in Idlib. This group is extremely violent, and they know they can’t go back to China. According to one report, Uyghur jihadist fighters in Syria have served as a force multiplier for insurgents there. Uyghur fighters gained ground in Idlib, the only Syrian province that still has a large local and foreign jihadist presence. Uyghur jihadists in Syria pose an overlooked yet significant regional and international security problem. They are likely to become a greater threat if fighting in Idlib winds down and the province is not decisively captured by a strong state or non-state actor hostile to jihadist groups.”

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Here’s the plan: “The negative natural change (more deaths than births) was outnumbered by the positive net migration..”

• EU Reports Dramatic Fall In Birth Rate (RT)

The number of babies born in the EU fell to a record low last year, according to the latest data from the bloc’s statistical office (Eurostat). Despite this, the total population has been on the rise due to mass immigration. Births across the EU’s 27 member states stood at 3,665,000 in 2023 – a decline of 5.5% year-on-year, as per Eurostat’s figures. Birth rates have been falling steadily across the EU since 2008. The number of births last year was the lowest in the EU countries since comparable data was first collected in 1961, and the annual decline is the largest on record, the Financial Times (FT) reports. The sharpest drops in births over the past decade have been recorded in Italy, Spain, Greece, Poland, Finland, and the Baltic states.

Demographic experts polled by the FT believe the longstanding trend of Europeans having fewer babies may have been exacerbated by concerns over economic and political tensions on the international level, the worst surge in inflation in a generation, climate change, and the Covid-19 pandemic. According to a recent report, the Total Fertility Rate has halved from 3.3 children per woman in 1960 to 1.5 in 2022 in the 38 countries that are members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which include 22 EU member states plus Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, and others. According to Eurostat, all EU regions have fertility rates below the replacement level of 2.1 live births per woman.

Nevertheless, the population of the EU has been on the rise over the past decade, with the exception of the pandemic year of 2021. The most notable jump was recorded in 2023, according to Eurostat figures. “The negative natural change (more deaths than births) was outnumbered by the positive net migration,” the agency said in a release in July. Eurostat attributed the population growth to increased migration after the pandemic and the influx of immigrants from Ukraine who received temporary protection status in the EU.

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“When I sit on the meetings of the Foreign Affairs Council with other foreign ministers and listen to some, I’m so sad, that such kind of extreme pro-war positions are present..”

• EU Has Weakened ‘A Lot’ Amid Ukraine Conflict – Hungarian FM (RT)

The EU approach to the Ukraine conflict has ultimately weakened the bloc “a lot,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said, branding the decision to blindly follow Washington’s polices a “big mistake.” The top diplomat made the remarks while speaking exclusively to RT’s Saskia Taylor in an interview on Monday. Comparisons between EU and US aid to Ukraine by the bloc’s leaders are a “very bad and harmful approach from the European perspective,” Szijjarto said. While the US is hardly affected by the enduring hostility between Moscow and Kiev, the conflict has taken a heavy toll on the EU, according to the minister. “There is destruction taking place in Europe, and the European economy is faced with the impacts and the consequences of this war. So therefore, following the US policies without any kind of criticism, that’s a big mistake and I do believe that the strategy the European Union has been following in the recent 1000 days is a failed one,” Szijjarto said.

The EU has “weakened a lot” during the conflict, and the approach taken by the bloc has proven to be a wrong one, the diplomat stated. I do believe that instead of globalizing the conflict, the right strategy would have been to localize it and to do everything in order to resolve it, to make peace, instead of pouring oil on the fire, which has been the case. “There are many extremely pro-war politicians in Europe. When I sit on the meetings of the Foreign Affairs Council with other foreign ministers and listen to some, I’m so sad, that such kind of extreme pro-war positions are present,” Szijjarto stated. Hungary itself has taken a different approach, remaining “the only country in Europe or European Union which has not delivered weapons to Ukraine,” he noted. “We are the only country in NATO, almost the only one, which speaks openly about the red lines which must be kept seriously. And we are the ones who speak openly about our assessment that NATO is a defense alliance and not an attack,” Szijjarto added.

The foreign minister also touched upon the situation in Georgia, which has been gripped by unrest over the past few days after Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced that he would freeze accession talks with the EU until 2028. The protests have been openly backed by the EU, with the stance taken by the bloc’s leadership hardly surprising given that Hungary has been “under attack for the last 15 years,” Szijjarto suggested. “My problem is that this is very [common] in Europe. In the case, if it is not the liberals to win an election, the democratic nature of the whole country and the whole political system is being questioned immediately. If it is liberals to win, everything’s fine. If it’s patriots to win, if it is conservatives to win, if it is right-wing to win, the nature of democracy is immediately questioned. And this is totally unacceptable,” he said.

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“During the week of Nov. 6, MSNBC averaged just 38,000 viewers among adults 25-54..

• The End Of Fake News? MSNBC Hits New Low In Ratings (ZH)

The leftist “news” channel MSNBC is facing a ratings crisis, with some of its advertiser-coveted viewership dropping to a two-decade low, according to Nielsen data reviewed by Fox News. During the week of Nov. 6, MSNBC averaged just 38,000 viewers among adults 25-54, its lowest-rated non-holiday weekday since July 19, 2004. As reported by Fox News, this demographic is widely prized by advertisers and is crucial for network revenue. Low viewership impacted shows like The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle and Jose Diaz Balart Reports, both of which saw their smallest audiences ever. Other shows—including Chris Jansing Reports, Deadline: White House and Katy Tur Reports—saw their worst days ever among the demos. Several shows lost over 50% of their 25-54 audience.

Among those shows are The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle, All In with Chris Hayes, Chris Jansing Reports, Inside with Jen Psaki, The Rachel Maddow Show and Joy Reid’s ReidOut. This slump couldn’t have come at a worse time, as MSNBC’s parent company, Comcast, announced cuts to cable channels, excluding NBC News and Bravo TV. CNN reports that MSNBC will be moved into “SpinCo,” a publicly traded cable programming company. Tech mogul Elon Musk has hinted at purchasing MSNBC, while journalist Jack Posobiec says he’s recruiting investors to take control of the left-wing network.

Podcast host Joe Rogan joked about replacing Rachel Maddow if Musk buys MSNBC: “I will wear the same outfit and glasses, and I will tell the same lies.”Along with viewership and Comcast scandals, MSNBC is under the scrutiny of its viewers after Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski met with Donald Trump, despite having previously compared him to dictators. Al Sharpton faces ethical scrutiny after his nonprofit quietly took a $500,000 donation from the Harris campaign ahead of his interview with Vice President Kamala Harris. MSNBC conceded that Sharpton blindsided them with the donation. “MSNBC was unaware of the donations made to the National Action Network,” an MSNBC spokesperson told the Washington Free Beacon.

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“Hamburg will see its flights cut by 60 percent, BER by 20 percent and Cologne/Bonn by 10 percent.”

• Ryanair CEO O’Leary: Germany Is Run By ‘Idiots’ (RMX)

In an interview for the industry magazine “Airliners,” Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary attacked German politicians, calling them “a government of idiots,” criticizing in particular the Greens, whom he accused of “stupid solutions,” reports DoRceczy. He was also skeptical about the future government of the Federal Republic of Germany. “I don’t think the next government of Germany will be any better,” he said. Ryanair’s boss described the German aviation market as one of the worst in Europe, calling Berlin’s BER airport “dysfunctional,” adding that the airport could only function as “a regional airport at best.”

According to him, high fees of over €50 per passenger are a key reason why the German aviation industry is only slowly recovering from the coronavirus pandemic. This is why Ryanair has already reduced its German capacity from 16 million to 13.5 million seats. The fleet of 300 aircraft will be moved to more attractive markets, with the location “determined strictly on the basis of expected profits,” he said. Ryanair will be withdrawing completely from Dortmund, Dresden, and Halle/Leipzig airports by March 2025, while Hamburg will see its flights cut by 60 percent, BER by 20 percent and Cologne/Bonn by 10 percent. “Further cuts could come next year with the summer flight schedule, as Ryanair increasingly favors lower-cost destinations outside Germany,” DW reports.

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“Defendant is ORDERED to provide Plaintiff with copies of all responsive records that are not legally exempted or excepted from disclosure..”

• Fani Full Release Ordered After Fulton DA Sat On RICO Records (ZH)

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been ordered by a local judge to release all communications between her office, Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office, and the January 6th Committee regarding her RICO case against President Donald Trump and his allies, after she was found to have violated federal law by withholding them. “The Court also hereby ORDERS Defendant to conduct a diligent search of her records for responsive materials within five business days of the entry of this Order. Within that same five day period, Defendant is ORDERED to provide Plaintiff with copies of all responsive records that are not legally exempted or excepted from disclosure,” reads a Tuesday order. If Willis can’t find them, she is mandated to follow court-ordered procedures to “provide an explanation why such correspondence does not exist.”

Willis, who had been served on March 11, 2024 in the suite involving conservative watchdog Judicial Watch, failed to respond by an April 10 deadline. After later claiming she ‘misunderstood’ the court’s directive, she then said that the document release would jeopardize her RICO case. [..] As the Epoch Times notes further… “In mid-2023, Willis told a local radio station that she was not coordinating in any way with Smith’s office in investigations and cases brought against former President Donald Trump. Smith had charged Trump, now the president-elect, with both classified documents-related and 2020 election-related charges in two different jurisdictions, while Willis brought charges against him and more than a dozen others for alleged election-related crimes in Fulton County.

“I don’t know what Jack Smith is doing and Jack Smith doesn’t know what I’m doing,” Willis said in July of that year. “In all honesty, if Jack Smith was standing next to me, I’m not sure I would know who he was. My guess is he probably can’t pronounce my name correctly.” Since then, however, she has made no comments about Smith’s investigation. Smith, meanwhile, has never commented on Willis’s case against Trump. Smith in November filed court papers confirming he would be dropping his election case against Trump and would stop the appeals process in his classified documents case. During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump said he would terminate Smith as special counsel upon taking office.

A letter sent by Willis’s office on Dec. 17, 2021, to the House Jan. 6 committee had “requested access to any Select Committee records relevant to her investigation into President Trump’s actions to challenge the 2020 presidential election, including ‘recordings and transcripts of witness interviews and depositions, electronic and print records of communications, and records of travel,’” House Judiciary Republicans said in a report released last year relating to an investigation they launched into Willis. Willis has been critical of House Republicans’ investigation into her office and the Trump case, accusing House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) of trying to interfere in the case at one point. “Jim Jordan has, time after time after time, attacked my office with no legitimate purpose,” she told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow in May. “Anyone who knows Jim Jordan’s history knows that he only has the purpose of trying to interfere in a criminal investigation.”

In a letter issued to Republicans in 2023, Willis said Republicans are trying to “obstruct a Georgia criminal proceeding and to advance outrageous partisan misrepresentations.” Her case against Trump has stalled in recent months after one of the president-elect’s co-defendants submitted a court filing earlier this year claiming Willis and then-special prosecutor Nathan Wade were engaged in a romantic relationship. The pair confirmed they were in a relationship but denied any wrongdoing. A judge overseeing the case issued an order in March allowing Willis to remain on the case if Wade resigned, which he did hours later. Trump and several of his co-defendants appealed the decision to the Georgia Court of Appeals earlier this year, where the case is still pending.”

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“By nearly all measures of science, if there was evidence of a natural origin it would have already surfaced..”

• House Oversight Report Supports Lab-Leak Theory for COVID-19 Origin (ET)

A Republican-led oversight subcommittee has concluded that the COVID-19 virus likely originated from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, following a two-year investigation into the pandemic. The House Oversight Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released a 520-page report on Dec. 2, detailing the findings of the subcommittee’s investigation. The report found that the U.S. National Institutes of Health funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), and that EcoHealth Alliance Inc. used U.S. taxpayer dollars to facilitate this research at the lab. It also found that the Chinese communist regime, agencies within the U.S. government, and some members of the international scientific community sought to cover up facts concerning the origins of the pandemic.

The committee said that COVID-19 possesses biological characteristics not found in nature and that data indicates that all COVID-19 cases stemmed from a single introduction into humans, unlike previous pandemics, where there were more spillover events. “By nearly all measures of science, if there was evidence of a natural origin it would have already surfaced,” the oversight subcommittee said in a statement. The report said that the Wuhan Institute of Virology has a history of conducting “gain-of-function” research under low biosafety precautions. Several researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology fell sick with a COVID-like virus months before the first case of the outbreak was allegedly detected at a wet market, according to the report.

The report said that in January 2021, the U.S. State Department published an unclassified fact sheet that stated: “The U.S. government has reason to believe that several researchers inside the WIV became sick in autumn 2019, before the first identified case of the outbreak, with symptoms consistent with both COVID-19 and common seasonal illness.” Citing the fact sheet, the report stated that the Wuhan Institute of Virology “has a published record of conducting ‘gain-of-function’ research to engineer chimeric viruses.” The report said the June 2023 ODNI assessment supported this conclusion and went further, stating, “Scientists at the WIV have created chimeras, or combinations of SARS-like coronaviruses through genetic engineering, attempted to clone other unrelated viruses, and used reverse genetic cloning techniques on SARS-like coronaviruses.”

The June 2023 ODNI Assessment said that some of the “WIV’s genetic engineering projects on coronaviruses involved techniques that could make it difficult to detect intentional changes.” Among those interviewed during the panel’s investigation was Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), who stepped down from his role in December 2022. The report stated that Fauci had “prompted” a research study titled “The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2”—which dismissed the idea that the virus was laboratory constructed—to “disprove” the lab leak theory. Fauci testified at a June hearing that he did not suppress the lab leak theory and did not view it as inherently a conspiracy theory but said that “some distortions on that particular subject are,” according to the report.

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“Hughes’s expression of his gratitude to everyone associated with the Novichok narrative except for the Skripals means he is burying them..”

• The Skripals Are As Good As Dead – The Judge Has Buried Them (Helmer)

After Yulia Skripal has testified through her doctor that she was attacked with a poison spray in a restaurant minutes before she and her father, Sergei Skripal, collapsed on March 4, 2018, the British Government hearings on what happened have attempted to suppress her evidence. Yesterday, December 2, the hearings ended with a statement by Jack Holborn, a lawyer paid by the Home Office to say he represents the Skripals, and to claim they agree to the suppression of their own evidence. “Sergei and Yulia Skripal are grateful to this Inquiry for its work,” Holborn said. “Thank you.” Page 158 The retired judge who has directed the hearings, Anthony Hughes (titled Lord Hughes of Ombersley), let slip in his closing statement that he understands the Skripals are dead or incommunicado in prison because he omitted to thank them for their participation. “

I am grateful,” Hughes said, “to all the Core Participants and chiefly, of course, to those most closely connected to the events, namely Dawn Sturgess’ family, who have coped, if I may say so, admirably with what must have been at times extremely difficult evidence to listen to.” Only the Skripals were closer to the events than the Sturgess family or the ambulance crews, police, intelligence agents, doctors, and government officials who have been called to testify on their oaths. But Hughes ruled on September 23 that the Skripals were not allowed to testify either in the open hearing room, behind closed doors, or by remote internet link. Hughes’s expression of his gratitude to everyone associated with the Novichok narrative except for the Skripals means he is burying them.

Holborn has been seconding Andrew Deakin KC, a lawyer also paid by the Home Office to represent the Skripals. Neither of them has asked questions of any witness nor made submissions throughout the eight weeks of the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry hearings. Deakin’s opening statement on October 14 lasted 88 seconds. “Both Sergei and Yulia Skripal,” Deakin said, “would like to express their sorrow at the death of Dawn Sturgess and to offer their deepest sympathies to her family and loved ones. Sergei and Yulia Skripal also express their sympathy to those who were injured in the course of this incident. Finally, Sergei and Yulia would like to express their profound gratitude to the emergency workers, police and hospital staff who risked their lives to help them. Sergei and Yulia keenly await the outcome of this Inquiry. They look forward to better understanding the circumstances of the Salisbury attack, to considering the Inquiry’s conclusions as to who was responsible for that attack and to being able to move on with their lives.” Page 156-57. Deakin did not appear again.

In open testimony at the Inquiry it has been revealed that Yulia Skripal’s doctor at the Salisbury District Hospital, Stephen Cockroft, discovered she had recovered consciousness on March 8, four days after the attack. The police evidence to the Inquiry is that Skripal then communicated by eye signals to Cockroft that she remembered being sprayed, not at home but at Zizzi’s Restaurant where she and her father had been lunching just before they collapsed. The senior police source for this evidence was Keith Asman; he is the chief of forensics for the Counter Terrorism Policing (CTPSE) group which in the investigation of the Novichok affair has combined the Metropolitan and regional police forces with the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and the Security Service (MI5). In his witness statement, Asman repeated what another police officer, code-named VN104, had recorded from Dr Cockroft. The evidence of Detective Inspector (DI) VN104, identified as the deputy head of the Metropolitan Police investigating Novichok, was not called into open or closed testimony by Hughes.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Frens
https://twitter.com/i/status/1863534908569981204

 

 

Slide
https://twitter.com/i/status/1863660969118822457

 

 

Bonedigger

 

 

Kestrel

 

 

Seal

 

 

Dunkin

 

 

Chihuahua
https://twitter.com/i/status/1863677018270994682

 

 

Save the bees

 

 

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

Debt Rattle November 11 2023

Nov 112023
 
 November 11, 2023  Posted by at 9:50 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , ,  50 Responses »


Pablo Picasso Garcon à la Pipe 1905

 

• Ukraine & Gaza Fatally Expose Western Hypocrisy and Moral Bankruptcy (SCF)
• Leaked Cables Warn of Growing Anti-American Rage in Arab World (Sp.)
• US, Israel To Open Second Front In Lebanon (Bhadrakumar)
• Scott Ritter Explains Why Israel Cannot Beat Hezbollah on Its Own (Sp.)
• Killing Children In Gaza ‘Makes Hamas’ – Elon Musk (RT)
• Biden’s ‘Personal Attachment To Israel’ Fuels Its Gaza Massacres (Aaron Maté)
• Israel’s Fight With Hamas Just a Pretext for Ethnic Cleansing – Ex-Marine (Sp.)
• Ukraine Will Fight Without USA – Zelensky (RT)
• Another Snapshot of Kiev’s Military Collapse: It Ain’t Over Yet (Pepe Escobar)
• West Derails Russia’s Proposal On Nord Stream Attacks – Zakharova (TASS)
• Party Party (Kunstler)
• Hunter Biden Rushed To Erase His Delinquent Taxes (JTN)
• The House ‘Concentrates the Mind’ of Hunter Biden (Turley)
• Stefanik Hits “Radical Leftist” Trump Judge With Ethics Complaint (ZH)

 

 

 

 

I will never forget

 

 

Proportionate

 

 

George Galloway: “The foul allegations of rape have been dropped by the Israeli government. The forty beheaded babies has been downscaled to one dead baby, not beheaded, and killed by persons unknown. Two thirds of Israelis killed on October 7 were military personnel. The killers of the remaining one third are definitively revealed to have been in part the Israeli armed forces themselves. Those with influence who spread the propaganda to the contrary stand exposed as War Criminals and now much blood stains their character for ever. It is a spot which will not out.”

 

 

 

 

Nap Mearsheimer

 

 

 

 

The most sanctioned country on Earth

 

 

 

 

“The genocidal crimes of the Western powers cannot be unseen or explained away this time.”

• Ukraine & Gaza Fatally Expose Western Hypocrisy and Moral Bankruptcy (SCF)

The barbarity that is happening in Gaza and the West Bank is shocking. What is all the more repugnant is the explicit guilt of Western states in enabling the genocide. What the crimes are revealing in stark reality is the absolute fiendish nature of Western state power. The crimes of the Israeli regime are the manifestation of Western imperialism; the true and grotesque, putrid nature of Western power. For decades, indeed centuries, the United States and its European partners have conducted a charade of pretending to be paragons of democracy – while at the same time exploiting and debauching the rest of the planet.

Now all their deceptions and corruption are fully on display. These are criminal regimes whose histories of warmongering colonialism and imperialism were all too often obfuscated by preponderant media control and self-appointed allure. It is now crystal clear what the “Collective West” (a global minority elite) really stands for: death and destruction. The big question is how far and where will the huge public anger and contempt lead to. A historic revolt is underway. What comes next? Can it be mobilized constructively to overthrow decadent dictatorships of capitalist oligarchy that have dominated Western states under the guise of democracy?

One thing is evinced. The Western elite systems are damaged beyond repair and rehabilitation. The crucifixion of the Palestinian people has created a Pandora’s Box. Western corruption – deep, systematic, historical corruption – is now out and can’t be stuffed back in again by the elite rulers trying to cover up. The genocidal crimes of the Western powers cannot be unseen or explained away this time. The duplicity and bankruptcy are damaging to the existential core. Ultimately, however, there may be hope for a better, fairer and more just world. But first of all, the old Western-dominated order has to go, despite the immense pain and suffering entailed.

Husseini
https://twitter.com/i/status/1722786666539016223

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And Anti-American Rage in America.

• Leaked Cables Warn of Growing Anti-American Rage in Arab World (Sp.)

American diplomats have warned President Joe Biden that US support for Israel “is losing us Arab publics for a generation.” Two diplomatic cables recently leaked to US media warn that America’s support for Israel’s bloody military campaign in Gaza is causing damage to the country’s image that may never be repaired. “We are losing badly on the messaging battlespace,” says one cable emanating from the US Embassy in Oman on Wednesday. It warns that strong US support for Israel is viewed “as material and moral culpability in what they consider to be possible war crimes.” The cable was addressed to multiple officials at the White House National Security Council, the CIA, and the FBI. Another leaked cable from the US embassy in Egypt quoted a local newspaper editorial saying “President Biden’s cruelty and disregard for Palestinians exceeded all previous US presidents.”

The cables mirror growing global opposition to Israel’s actions as the country has recently been the target of strong criticism from governments throughout the world. But the leaked diplomatic correspondence underscores that criticism in the Arab world extends to the United States as well, as US President Joe Biden has expressed unyielding support for the country’s Middle Eastern ally. The US president recently claimed there was “no possibility” for an Israeli ceasefire in Gaza when asked about the subject at a Thursday news conference. The death toll in Gaza has recently risen to over 11,000 according to the local health ministry, with at least 4,500 of those deaths being people under 18, prompting the head of the United Nations to call the besieged territory a “graveyard for children.” The UN has noted that death tolls released by Gaza’s authorities have proven to be accurate in the past. Recent reports have warned that Gaza’s population of 2.3 million may be on the brink of suffering mass starvation as Israel has only allowed very limited amounts of humanitarian aid to enter amidst a siege of the enclave.

The leaked cables come amidst reporting suggesting a dramatic decline in support for Biden among Muslim Americans. “We told him [Biden] directly, in our personal capacities, that if you do not call for an immediate ceasefire, you will not get our votes in 2024,” said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). The spokesperson accused Biden of “betraying” Palestinians and allowing a “genocide” to take place in Gaza. “What we see from him is completely one-sided support for the state of Israel,” said Awad. A recent survey by the Arab American Institute (AAI) showed that support for Biden among Arab Americans has declined by 42% since 2020. The poll found that 17% of Arab American voters plan to support Biden’s reelection in 2024, while 40% say they’ll support former US President Donald Trump.

Israel at UN

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“..the Biden Administration is preparing for an escalation of the war into Lebanon to draw out Hezbollah, which may in turn trigger an Iranian reaction.”

• US, Israel To Open Second Front In Lebanon (Bhadrakumar)

The announcement late Sunday night by the US Central Command [CENTCOM] headquartered in Doha about the arrival of a Ohio-class American nuclear submarine in its “area of responsibility” presages a significant escalation of the situation around the Palestine-Israel conflict. It is very rare that the use of these submarines is publicised. The CENTCOM provided no additional details but it posted an image that apparently showed an Ohio-class submarine in Egypt’s Suez Canal Bridge. Interestingly, CENTCOM also separately shared an image of a nuclear-capable B-1 bomber operating in the Middle East.

Taken together, these US deployments, coming on top of the formidable presence of two aircraft carriers and warships hundreds of advanced jet fighters in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Red Sea respectively, are with an eye on “the other side of the equation,” as Secretary of State Antony Blinken quaintly described Hamas, Hezbullah, and Iran during his latest visit to Tel Aviv on Friday. In a related development, perhaps, the CIA director, William Burns arrived in Israel on Sunday for urgent consultations. The New York Times reported that the US is “looking to expand its intelligence sharing with Israel.” Arguably, the most charitable explanation for the deployment of a US nuclear submarine, which forms part of the Pentagon’s “nuclear triad” –Ohio-class boats are the largest submarines ever built for the US Navy — near the war zone is that the Biden Administration is preparing for an escalation of the war into Lebanon to draw out Hezbollah, which may in turn trigger an Iranian reaction.

In his speech on Friday, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrullah seemed to anticipate precisely such a turn of events when he explicitly warned the US of consequences that couldn’t be any different from the catastrophic American involvement in Lebanon’s civil war in the early 1980s. Ironically, this is also the 40th anniversary year of the suicide bombing of the barracks housing US forces in Beirut International Airport in October 1983 in which 220 Marines, 18 sailors and three soldiers were killed forcing a US withdrawal from Lebanon. Clearly, the locus of the US strategy in the present Middle situation may be shifting from diplomacy, which has anyway lost traction. Blinken’s desperate attempts to address the mounting international criticism of Israel’s horrific war crimes by diverting attention to a “humanitarian pause” in the fighting, et al, has been unceremoniously shot down by Netanyahu.

The point is, after pounding Gaza and its people with artillery and bombs, the Israeli army moved in on Friday. So far, it has reportedly advanced to the outskirts of Gaza City but not entered the Hamas stronghold. Fierce urban fighting is expected when it does. Equally, the Biden administration’s hurried attempt to promote a vague outline for a post-war Gaza that might include a combination of a revitalised Palestinian Authority, a peacekeeping force, etc. has been met with a distinct lack of enthusiasm at Blinken’s meeting in the weekend in Amman with the Arab foreign ministers -– from Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates –- who instead demanded an immediate ceasefire, while Blinken said Washington wouldn’t push for one.

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“..the IDF itself, which was considered to be somewhat of an invincible force – not anymore..”

• Scott Ritter Explains Why Israel Cannot Beat Hezbollah on Its Own (Sp.)

The ongoing Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) campaign in the Gaza Strip, which has already alienated Tel Aviv from much of the Arab World, has created a serious risk of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement becoming actively involved in the conflict. IDF forces stationed at the Israeli-Lebanese borders have already been exchanging fire with Hezbollah militants on more than a single occasion in recent days, although it remains to be seen whether these hostilities will escalate. Commenting on this situation, former US Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter expressed his skepticism about Israel’s ability to deal with both Hamas and Hezbollah.

He pointed out that the major military exercises conducted in Israel in the last two years were meant to determine how the Israeli Defense Force would fare if they had to tackle simultaneously attacks from multiple actors – “if Hezbollah came over the border, if Syria went after the Golan Heights, if Iran started firing missiles” – but they yielded rather unpleasant results. “And under that scenario, Israel was not able to prevail, especially with the Iranian aspect of the scenario, without major US military intervention,” Ritter said. He further observed that the Israelis themselves have apparently acknowledged that they do not know the full extent of Hezbollah’s capabilities and that Hezbollah’s sizeable arsenal of rockets may pose a serious threat to Israel.

“Hezbollah can overwhelm the Iron Dome just with its volume alone, the Iron Dome is already going through an ammunition crunch because of what Hamas has done,” Ritter remarked. He added that the IDF previously failed to destroy Hezbollah back in 2006, and that the Islamist organization has become significantly more powerful since then, with many of its fighters gaining valuable combat experience during the Syrian conflict. “So, you know, this is the reality: Israel on its own cannot defeat Hezbollah,” he surmised. Ritter also suggested that the events of October 7, when Hamas militants swiftly punched through the Israeli defenses and even managed to seize control of IDF military facilities, effectively shattered the myth of “Israeli invincibility.” “Not just in terms of the all-seeing nature of Israeli intelligence, which has been proven false, but the IDF itself, which was considered to be somewhat of an invincible force – not anymore,” he argued.

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“For every Hamas member you kill, how many did you create? And if you create more than you kill, you’ve not succeeded.”

“Providing healthcare, food and other relief to civilians while still targeting Hamas leaders and operatives, would thwart the group’s goal and “ultimately fights the broader force of hatred in the region..”

• Killing Children In Gaza ‘Makes Hamas’ – Elon Musk (RT)

Israel’s reaction to the October 7 attack by Hamas has played into the terrorist group’s hands, according to X CEO Elon Musk, who urged West Jerusalem to embrace a “counterintuitive” strategy that would be more beneficial in the long-term. “If you kill somebody’s child in Gaza, you’ve made at least a few Hamas members who will die just to kill Israelis,” Musk said on the Lex Fridman podcast on Thursday. The Tesla, SpaceX and X (formerly Twitter) head argued that the goal of the Palestinian militant group was to “provoke an overreaction” by Israel by committing atrocities and then “leverage that aggressive response to rally Muslims worldwide for the cause of Gaza and Palestine, which they have succeeded in doing.”

“This is one of the most contentious subjects one could possibly discuss, but I think if the ultimate goal is some sort of long-term peace, one has to look at this from the standpoint of, over time, are there more or fewer terrorists being created?” Musk said. “For every Hamas member you kill, how many did you create? And if you create more than you kill, you’ve not succeeded.” The October 7 incursion resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1,400 Israelis, with another 200 or so taken to Gaza as hostages. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has responded by declaring war on the Palestinian enclave, launching weeks of air and artillery strikes and proceeding with a ground invasion in early November. A proposal circulating in the media wants all of Gaza’s Palestinian population forcibly removed. Some Israeli public figures have advocated for leveling the enclave completely.

Others have labeled photojournalists who documented the October 7 attack as accomplices of Hamas that need to be killed. As of Friday, more than 11,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed and 27,490 wounded, according to the local health ministry. While the White House has cast doubt on Palestinian figures, the US State Department believes the true numbers might be even higher. “The counterintuitive thing that should be done here, even though it is very difficult, is that I recommend Israel do the most conspicuous acts of kindness possible,” Musk told Fridman in the podcast interview. Providing healthcare, food and other relief to civilians while still targeting Hamas leaders and operatives, would thwart the group’s goal and “ultimately fights the broader force of hatred in the region,” the billionaire argued.

Elon Hamas

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“..the only constituencies that matter: war profiteers, the pro-Israel lobby, and the bipartisan foreign policy establishment that has used Israel as a client state..”

• Biden’s ‘Personal Attachment To Israel’ Fuels Its Gaza Massacres (Aaron Maté)

As the official death toll passed 10,000 earlier this week, White House spokesperson John Kirby was asked if the US still has “no red lines” when it comes to how many civilians Israel kills. “That is still the case,” Kirby replied. On Thursday, President Biden informed reporters that there is “no possibility” of a ceasefire. Instead, the White House claimed to have secured an Israeli pledge for four-hour daily pauses, which would be announced in advance. Israel immediately rejected even this token gesture. “I’m not going to commit to the exact length of the pauses,” Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy said. Given the free reign offered it by Washington, Israel has no incentive to commit. According to senior Pentagon official Dana Stroul, the US is “working around-the-clock” to send its weaponry to Israel, with deliveries “taking place on a near daily basis.”

Citing White House officials and advisers, the Washington Post reports that US “levers” over Israel, namely “conditioning military aid,” are “nonstarters.” Imposing such constraints would undoubtedly save Palestinian lives. But that is of no importance to the Biden cabinet, which worries that conditions on US support for Israel would be “politically unpopular in any administration.” Moreover, “aides say, Biden himself has a personal attachment to Israel.” By “politically unpopular”, these Biden officials are not referring to public opinion, which supports a ceasefire across party lines. The president’s stance could even cost him re-election in the swing state of Michigan, home to a large Arab-American population. Instead, imposing conditions on US support for Israel would be “politically unpopular” with the only constituencies that matter: war profiteers, the pro-Israel lobby, and the bipartisan foreign policy establishment that has used Israel as a client state since its occupation of Arab lands in June 1967.

As a career operator within this Beltway trifecta, Biden’s “personal attachment to Israel” has detached him from any recognition of Palestinian humanity. Accordingly, when it comes to the fate of Gaza’s civilian population, the Biden administration barely attempts to feign concern. During his most recent trip to Israel, Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered a message described to Axios by US and Israeli officials as follows: “We don’t want to stop you, but help us help you get more time.” As Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, who has positioned himself as a critic of the Israeli bombing campaign, counseled the White House: “I think they’ve got to be even louder publicly in their concerns about the civilian cost, even while they support Israel’s ability to continue to perpetuate the war.”

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“Israel favoured Hamas over the PLO because the Islamic resistance movement “was utterly opposed to a two state solution..”

• Israel’s Fight With Hamas Just a Pretext for Ethnic Cleansing – Ex-Marine (Sp.)

Tel Aviv is using attacks on Southern Israel by the Hamas movement as an excuse to depopulate the Gaza Strip, says a military expert. The October 7 surprise breakout by the Hamas (also known as Islamic Resistance) and other groups from the besieged territory left almost 300 Israeli soldiers and 1,100 civilians dead, with more than 200 taken back to Gaza as captives. Following weeks of bombing of the densely-populated Palestinian enclave, the Israeli Defense Forces have surrounded Gaza City and are trying to fight their way into its outskirts. The Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry, based in Ramallah in the West Bank, said on Wednesday that after a month of attacks, Israeli forces and settlers had killed 10,515 Palestinians, including 4,324 children, 2,823 women and 649 elderly people, and injured 2,600 others. It said that 2,550 others, with 1,350 children among them, were still missing under the rubble of bombed buildings in Gaza.

Former US Marine and geopolitical analyst Brian Berletic told Sputnik that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration of “war” on Hamas was “just a pretext” for ethnic cleansing. “Israel is using Hamas as a pretext to erase Gaza,” Berletic said. “This has been an ongoing plan, especially for the Netanyahu administration.” The commentator noted that Hamas was an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood which “has played a role for decades in the region as tools of Western hegemony over the region.” and tried to overthrow secular governments from Egypt to Syria. He said the movement rose to power in the Gaza Strip only with Israel’s help in order to create a rival to the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

“I know it’s unpopular to point this out, but it is an admitted fact that the Netanyahu administration helped manoeuvre Hamas into power,” Berletic said. “If Israel wanted to eliminate Hamas, they could have started by not putting them into power in the first place.” Israel favoured Hamas over the PLO because the Islamic resistance movement “was utterly opposed to a two state solution” — as was Netanyahu’s hard-line government. “That is that is what is mandated under international law — a two state solution is an Israeli state, a Palestinian state. This occupation has to end,” Berletic said.

Israel has made its intention to force out the 2.3 million Palestinian inhabitants of Gaza since the start of its bombing campaign a month ago, the analyst said, telling civilians to flee to the southern end of the enclave so it could bomb Gaza City in an attempt to destroy Hamas bunkers and tunnels. “In the very beginning, they were quite open. They wanted to just displace the civilian population of Gaza and move in militarily,” Berletic said. “Once it’s erased, they don’t have to worry about a two state solution ever again.”

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Oh you hero!

• Ukraine Will Fight Without USA – Zelensky (RT)

Ukraine will not stop fighting Russia until it takes back all the territories it considers its own, President Vladimir Zelensky told Reuters in an interview this week. Withdrawal of US support would hardly affect Kiev’s policies in this regard, he added. Should Washington halt its military and financial assistance to Kiev, Ukraine would just go on with the conflict without it, Zelensky maintained when asked if he was “worried” about potential changes in US foreign policy in the case of Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential election victory in particular. Earlier, Trump repeatedly vowed that he would have a peace deal between Moscow and Kiev worked out “within 24 hours” if elected in 2024. Speaking to Reuters on Wednesday, Zelensky brushed off such promises as a plan by Trump to “fix” the conflict for himself, with no regard for the “price” Ukraine would supposedly have to pay.

“If it will change your foreign policy, so what can I say? Ok, we will fight without you,” Zelensky said, adding that it was supposedly the will of the Ukrainian people. He went on to say that the only “real way to stop the war” was for Russian forces to withdraw from all the territories claimed by Kiev. He also said he was sure that Moscow’s troops “will do it,” without elaborating. In his interview with Reuters, the Ukrainian leader also said that “any” US president would help Ukraine if they knew “all the challenges and the result and the damage of the war.” Earlier, in a separate interview with broadcaster NBC last Sunday, Zelensky invited Trump to Ukraine, vowing to convince the former American president that he would be unable to strike any deals with Russia in “24 minutes.” Trump rejected the offer in a written statement to US media outlet Newsmax. Such a trip would create “a conflict of interest” at a time when President Joe Biden’s administration was officially dealing with Kiev, he said.

Earlier this week, Zelensky also claimed that Kiev had a “plan” that would help it prevail on the battlefield and show some “results” by the end of the year. His words came as Ukraine’s much-touted summer offensive had barely brought about any changes to the frontlines following months of heavy fighting and massive material and personnel losses on the Ukrainian side. Ukraine’s top commander, General Valery Zaluzhny, told the Economist last week that the conflict between Moscow and Kiev had entered a World War I-style stalemate in which Russia had an upper hand due to larger resources. The Pentagon also said this week that it only had around $1 billion left for military aid to Kiev and would have to ration it from now on.

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“Civilians in Kharkov, for instance, confirm that foreign mercenaries speaking Polish or English are now “almost invisible”..

• Another Snapshot of Kiev’s Military Collapse: It Ain’t Over Yet (Pepe Escobar)

The spectacular “success” of Kiev’s counter-offensive, which echoed throughout the geopolitical galaxy, has predictably engendered what everyone with a brain was expecting: a dogfight. Enter the Zelensky-Zaluzhny Show – especially after the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) admitted on the record that the war has “reached a stalemate” – code for “we’re deeply in trouble”. He also referred to “positional defense” – code for “we’re gonna keep losing more and more territory.” The dogfight comes complete with Mafioso overtones, as in 39-year-old Zaluzhny assistant Gennady Chistyakov “accidentally” detonating a grenade received as a gift, seriously injuring his daughter and duly blowing himself up.

This might be seen at face value as yet another wacky Pulp Fiction-style sketch involving the top dogs (with no Winston Wolf to “solve problems”). But it does carry an ominous message to Zaluzhny: once again, Mafia-style, from now on he’d better beware of friends bearing gifts. As for the “counter-offensive”, the file, for all practical purposes, seems to be closed. There won’t be another one – because there are no more weapons, assets or troops to carry it, except the odd Ukrainian elderly citizens and unsuspecting housewives chased by the “security services” as they exit the supermarket.

[..] The report states that the 116th separate mechanized brigade is “incapable of conducting offensive operations because of high losses and high numbers of soldiers that need psychological and medical assistance.” The 116th brigade has been deeply involved in military operations in the Zaporozhye region for 5 months already. For 3 months it had been part of the 10th Army Corps, “Tavriya”. The report details that the brigade’s losses are 94 soldiers dead; 1122 wounded; and 95 missing. That corresponds to 25% of the total number of personnel. When it comes to the moral-psychological front, at least 153 soldiers are deemed in need of immediate psychological rehabilitation.

This brigade is a quite significant unit; what’s implied is that a moral-psychological debacle is now inbuilt as a System Error at the heart of the Ukrainian military. Consequences, short and middle term, will be dire. All that is happening while the flow of foreign mercenaries to the AFU is drying up. No wonder: enter the Perfect Storm of brigades being thoroughly decimated; unspeakable levels of corruption; and better career opportunities in the rekindled Forever War in Israel/Palestine. Civilians in Kharkov, for instance, confirm that foreign mercenaries speaking Polish or English are now “almost invisible”.

None of the above means that things from now on will be a cakewalk for Russia. For instance, the Russian Army still has not been able to destroy the Ukrainian bridgehead on the Dnieper in Kherson. Further on down the road, it will be increasingly trickier to expel the Ukrainians from the eastern margin of the Dnieper. Russian military media, at the highest level, does its best to sharply focus on serious instances of ineptitude by the Russian Army. That’s their civic duty – and involves creating a groundswell of public opinion, forcing the Russian Army to correct its mistakes and most of all refrain from underestimating the enemy. After all, this is far from over – no matter the dogfight now raging in the corridors of power in Kiev.

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Nobody wants to know.

• West Derails Russia’s Proposal On Nord Stream Attacks – Zakharova (TASS)

Russia was forced to ax work on a draft statement by the UN Security Council President on the investigation into the terrorist attack on the Nord Stream pipeline, as the West blocked this initiative, not wanting the truth to get out, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. She recalled that on the anniversary of the terrorist attack on the gas pipelines on September 26, Russia announced the preparation of a draft statement by the chairman of the Security Council on the issue. “We were forced to curtail work on the draft statement of the UN Security Council President on the investigation into the terrorist attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines. It was blocked by the West,” the diplomat said. According to her, Western representatives pointed out that the UN Security Council had no reason to interfere in the national investigations of Germany, Denmark and Sweden.

However, these states have failed to present even preliminary results to the international community and refuse to cooperate with the countries that suffered damage. Zakharova emphasized that this indicates their unwillingness to “identify the organizers and perpetrators of the terrorist attack.” “Or they have already identified them and are covering for them,” she added. The diplomat noted that the Russian side had been negotiating in good faith for a month. “However, during the discussions it became clear that representatives of Western countries are not ready for serious work and are looking for an excuse to let everything go down the drain: their proposal to remove from the text the phrase about bringing to justice the perpetrators and contractors of the terrorist attack speaks for itself,” she concluded. Zakharova said that Russia will continue to draw the attention of the international community to this issue, and the perpetrators of the crime must receive the punishment they deserve.

On September 27, 2022, Nord Stream AG reported “unprecedented damage” on three strings of the offshore gas pipelines of the Nord Stream system. Later, Swedish seismologists said they had identified two explosions on the route of the Nord Stream pipelines on September 26, 2022. Following the incident, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office initiated a criminal case on charges of international terrorism. Germany, Denmark and Sweden announced national investigations, but refused to involve Russia. Germany, Denmark and Sweden announced national investigations, but refused to involve Russia. On February 8, Hersh wrote in his article that explosive devices were placed under the gas pipelines in June 2022 by US Navy divers with the assistance of Norwegian specialists. According to Hersh, the decision to conduct the operation was made by US President Joe Biden after nine months of discussions with administration officials charged with national security issues.

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“Every day in suburbia will be Halloween, and not in a fun way.”

• Party Party (Kunstler)

Of course, you already sense that the 2024 election will be a freaky event, if it happens at all. If it’s not America’s last election altogether, it may be the last one that follows the traditional format that has signified stability in our country’s high tide as a great power: that is, a contest between Republicans and Democrats. Both parties are likely to crash and burn in the year ahead, along with a whole lot of other things on the tottering scaffold of normal life. Have you lost count yet of the number of things in our country that are broken? The justice system. Public safety. Education. Medicine. Money. Transportation. Housing. The food supply. The border. The News business. The arts. Our relations with other countries. That’s just the big institutional stuff. At the personal scale its an overwhelming plunge in living standards, loss of incomes, careers, chattels, liberties. . . poor health (especially mental health). . . and failing confidence in any plausible future.

The reasons behind all that failure and loss are pretty straightforward. The business model for operating a high-tech industrial economy is broken. That includes especially the business model for affordable energy: oil, gas, nuclear, and the electric grid that runs on all that. We opted out of an economy that produced things of real value. We replaced that with a financial matrix of banking fakery. That racket made a very few people supernaturally wealthy while incrementally dissolving the middle-class. We destroyed local and regional business and scaled up what was left into super-giant predatory companies that can no longer maintain their supply chains. Fragility everywhere in everything. Bad choices all along the way, you could say, but perhaps an inexorable process of nature. Things are born, they grow, they peak, they decline, they die. The difference this time is the scale of everything we do is so enormous that the wreckage is also epic. It’s happening in Western Civ at the moment, led by its biggest nation state, us, the USA, but it will eventually go global, spread to the BRICs and the many countries that will never actually “develop.”

I started writing about the fiasco of suburbia decades ago, and now the endgame of that living arrangement is in view. The dissolving middle class has gotten priced-out of motoring. Motoring is the basis of the suburban living arrangement. No motoring, no suburbia. It’s that simple. There was widespread belief among idealistic reformers that suburbia could just be “retrofitted” for “smarter” daily life, but that dream is over. The capital (money) is not there to fix it, and there’s no prospect that we’ll somehow come up with it as far ahead as we can see. So far, the collapse of suburbia has happened in slow motion, but the pace is quickening now and it’ll get supercharged when the bond markets go down, as they must, considering the country’s catastrophic fiscal circumstances. That will produce exactly the zombie apocalypse telegraphed in all those movies and TV series over recent years: normality overrun by demonic hungry ghosts. Every day in suburbia will be Halloween, and not in a fun way.

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The House Oversight and Accountability Committee just got themselves a new star witness.

• Hunter Biden Rushed To Erase His Delinquent Taxes (JTN)

As Joe Biden marched toward the presidency in 2020 with a promise to force the wealthy to pay their “fair share” of taxes, his son Hunter was scrambling behind closed doors to clean up a trail of his own delinquent taxes before they became an election scandal, according to once-secret IRS memos made public recently by Congress. IRS agents would soon discover that the future first son was continuing to allegedly misrepresent his income and deductions to the very accountant he had hired to help, the memos show. The documents reviewed by Just the News show that Jeffrey Gelfound, an Edward White & Company tax accountant hired by Hunter Biden, was a cooperating witness in the IRS criminal probe of the first son and is likely to be a key witness if the younger Biden is charged with tax crimes by Special Counsel David Weiss.

Gelfound also could become a witness of interest to the House Oversight and Accountability Committee as it digs deeper into the Biden family finances as part of the ongoing impeachment inquiry in Congress. Buried in the mountain of 700 pages of IRS whistleblower documents released in September by the House Ways and Means Committee are interview reports, affidavits and case summary memos chronicling Hunter Biden’s efforts at the height of the 2020 presidential campaign to remedy his delinquent income taxes dating to 2014 and the income he made from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings. Gelfound told agents the efforts in 2020 to pay off Hunter Biden tax debts became a priority because of fears the IRS and other tax authorities would place liens that would become public, a potential embarrassment for the Biden family.

“Yeah, if there was going to be media attention because they were going to lien,” Gelfound told IRS agents in an April 2021 interview when asked whether erasing the tax debts had become prioritized. In another later interview conducted by IRS agents in November 2021, Gelfound revealed that his firm signed an unusual representation letter with the younger Biden just days after the 2020 election, in which Hunter attested that the information that he provided was truthful. Gelfound told investigators that this was the first time he had ever seen a representation letter like it. “Yeah, when would you typically sign the representation?” the IRS investigators asked Gelfound. “This is- any type of representation, it’s not standard,” Gelfound answered. “When we typically prepare returns, there’s an engagement letter that’s different than this one,” Gelfound said, explaining to investigators why this representation letter was different. “[T]his is a first that I’ve seen and had a client sit down and sign a letter of this type,” he said.

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“Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.”

• The House ‘Concentrates the Mind’ of Hunter Biden (Turley)

The great English writer Samuel Johnson once told a friend, “Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” The quote came to mind after reading the response of Abbe Lowell, legal counsel for Hunter Biden, to the issuance of subpoenas for Hunter and other family members by the House Oversight Committee. Lowell said that “Hunter is eager to have the opportunity, in a public forum” — but premised that on the condition that it be “the right time” for Hunter to speak. He also dismissed the committee investigation as a “political stunt.” It appears that further concentration is warranted. A congressional subpoena is really not an invitation for a sit-down at a convenient time. Hunter has spent years relying on denial and delay to fend off inquiries.

With this subpoena, he will now have to choose between cooperation or contempt … on the committee’s schedule. The issuance of subpoenas to Hunter, his uncle, James Biden, and Biden family associate Rob Walker, changes the entire threat — and the range of options — for the Bidens. Attorney General Merrick Garland moved quickly and aggressively to prosecute Trump associates such as Steve Bannon who failed to appear or cooperate with Congress. The public will demand the same vigorous prosecution in the face of any similar contempt by Biden associates. Moreover, Hunter has tried a wide array of approaches to these allegations of influence peddling, from a plea for sympathy to threats of litigation. Too many in the media have been willing enablers of these shifting claims, including figures like Jimmy Kimmel who conducted a softball interview that portrayed Hunter as a hero rather than an alleged influence peddler.

That may now change. If Hunter lies to congressional investigators, he can be charged with a federal crime. While the Justice Department allowed the statutes of limitations to run on various felonies, Hunter would be faced with a new set of charges with years for criminal charges to be brought by prosecutors. The situation is equally serious for the president’s brother, James, who has long been accused by House Republicans of influence peddling. Most recently, House investigators disclosed that, in 2018, James Biden received two loans totaling $600,000 from Americore Health, which they described as “a financially distressed and failing rural hospital operator.” The company has been referenced in past reports of alleged influence peddling by James Biden.

According to the company’s bankruptcy proceedings, it made the loans “based upon representations that his last name, ‘Biden,’ could ‘open doors’” to new overseas investors. On the day he received the second loan transfer, James Biden allegedly sent a check for the same amount — $200,000 — to Joe Biden as a “loan reimbursement.” The House committee also reports finding a $40,000 check from James Biden and his wife to Joe Biden. Again, it was marked as a “loan reimbursement. Congressional interviews can be perilous, but they are far more so when your client’s interview will cover years of transactions and statements. It presents a target-rich environment for investigators and ample opportunities to make misleading or false statements for witnesses.

Hunter and his uncle may soon have company. In addition to a subpoena for Biden family associate Rob Walker, the House committee has requested voluntary transcripted interviews with Sara Biden, Hallie Biden, Elizabeth Secundy, Melissa Cohen and onetime Hunter business associate Tony Bobulinski. Figures like Bobulinski are likely to cooperate. He already has accused President Biden of lying about his lack of knowledge of foreign dealings, including giving detailed accounts of meeting with Joe Biden in a hotel.

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“Judge Engoron’s lawlessness sends an ominous and illegal warning to New York business owners: If New York judges don’t like your politics, they will destroy your business, the livelihood of your employees, and you personally.”

• Stefanik Hits “Radical Leftist” Trump Judge With Ethics Complaint (ZH)

While the jury is still out over whether the wife of Judge Arthur Engoron made anti-Trump posts on X, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) has filed an ethics complaint against judge himself, accusing him of displaying “inappropriate bias and judicial intemperance” towards the former president in his civil fraud trial taking place in New York. “I filed an official judicial complaint against Judge Arthur Engoron for his inappropriate bias and judicial intemperance in New York’s disgraceful lawsuit against President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization,” Stefanik told NBC News. “Americans are sick and tired of the blatant corruption by radical Leftist judges in NY. All New Yorkers must speak out against the dangerous weaponized lawfare against President Trump.”

Scott Adams

According to the complaint, Engoron has exhibited “clear judicial bias” against Trump, including telling Trump’s attorney that the former president is “just a bad guy,” who NY Attorney General Letitia James “should go after.” “Simply put, Judge Engoron has displayed a clear judicial bias against the defendant throughout the case, breaking several rules in the New York Code of Judicial Conduct,” reads the letter. “Judge Engoron entered summary judgment against the defendant before the trial even began, without witnesses, other evidence, and cross-examination,” she continued, noting that this was “despite the fact there’s disputed material evidence–and there’s no victim of the defendant’s supposed fraud. ”

Stefanik also notes that Engoron and his staff are “partisan Democrat donors,” and that Engoron himself, as recently as 2018, “donated to the Manhattan Democrats.” “If Judge Engoron can railroad a billionaire New York businessman, a former President of the United States, and the leading presidential candidate, just imagine what he could do to all New Yorkers,” the letter continues. “Judge Engoron’s lawlessness sends an ominous and illegal warning to New York business owners: If New York judges don’t like your politics, they will destroy your business, the livelihood of your employees, and you personally. This Commission cannot let this continue.” “Section 100.2(A) states: ‘A judge shall respect and comply with the law and shall act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.’ Judge Engoron has grossly failed to do this,” she wrote.

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Meryl Nass

 

 

 

 

James Taylor

 

 

 

 

Farage

 

 

Dog stairs

 

 

Kookaburra
https://twitter.com/i/status/1722901256610381932

 

 

 

 

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Georgia Is Targeted For Regime Change

Mar 092023
 
 March 9, 2023  Posted by at 2:30 pm Finance Tagged with: , , , , , ,  7 Responses »


Fred Stein Le gaz 1935

Andrew Korybko:

The former Soviet Republic of Georgia experienced a serious Color Revolution attempt Tuesday night after radical pro-Western rioters tried to storm parliament in response to its passing of a bill requiring all organizations with at least 20% foreign funding to register with the authorities. The US-led Western Mainstream Media (MSM) artificially manufactured the false narrative in the run-up to events alleging that the law is based on Russia’s related system even though it’s explicitly inspired by the US’.

This well-intended attempt to protect Georgia’s fledging and admittedly imperfect democracy from foreign meddling per its sovereign right was subsequently exploited as the pretext for organizing a violent regime change against Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili. The West wants to punish him for his pragmatic refusal to open up a “second front” in the US’ proxy war on Russia after he publicly exposed this plot in early December while also pledging never to arm Kiev either.

President Salome Zurabishvili, who was visiting the UN in New York during the unsuccessful regime change against Garibashvili on Tuesday night, threw her full support behind the riots in a video that peddled the West’s false information warfare narrative alleging that the bill is backed by Russia. Readers should be aware that she served most of her career as a French diplomat after having been born there and was previously that country’s Ambassador to Georgia up until 2004.

She only received Georgian citizenship at that time due to a deal between those two governments proposed by Mikhail Saakashvili following his successful Color Revolution the year prior in order for her to become his Foreign Minister. For all intents and purposes, Zurabishvili has since functioned as one the Golden Billion’s top “agents of influence” in Georgia. Despite the Prime Minister nowadays holding more power due to prior reforms, the Presidency still provides her with some sway over society.

It was within this context that Tuesday night’s violent seizure of power against Garibashvili was attempted, though Russia was already prepared for this scenario after Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned in early February that something foul was indeed afoot in that former Soviet Republic. He told a popular TV anchor at the time that “The fact that they would like to turn Georgia into another irritant, to roll the situation back into the aggressive condition of the Saakashvili era is beyond doubt.”

It also deserves mentioning that the West’s latest Color Revolution attempt in the region took place amidst continued Russian gains around Artyomovsk/“Bakhmut”, which prompted Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to warn that Russia could roll through the rest of Donbass if it captures that city. Earlier that same day and just hours before the attempted storming of parliament in Tbilisi, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu confirmed that a victory there would smash Kiev’s regional defenses.

To summarize the strategic dynamics on the eve of Tuesday night’s unsuccessful regime change in Georgia, the MSM had already manufactured the false narrative ahead of parliament voting on that country’s US-inspired foreign agents bill alleging that it symbolizes the country’s tilt towards Russia. This information warfare campaign is waged against its premier for his refusal in early December to open up a “second front” against that Eurasian Great Power to relieve pressure upon the US’ Ukrainian proxies.

The Georgian President, who’s arguably always functioned as one of the Golden Billion’s top “agents of influence”, happened to be in New York when everything unfolded and threw her full support behind those regime change riots. Earlier that same day, both Defense Minister Shoigu and Zelensky informed everyone that Russia could roll through the rest of Donbass if it captures Artyomovsk/“Bakhmut”. The stage was therefore set for attempting to violently overthrow Zurabishvili on Tuesday night.

It would be premature to declare that he’s secure in his position despite the security services successfully defending parliament from the rioters since a lot could still happen to advance the US’ regime change agenda. Georgia is a deeply divided country that’s been under immense Western influence for the past two decades, during which time the Golden Billion managed to manipulate a sizeable proportion of the population into doing its geopolitical bidding.

There’s no dearth of “useful idiots” who can easily be misled into destabilizing their country to the detriment of its objective national interests due to their liberal–globalist ideology. This means that Georgia is therefore expected to become the latest front in the New Cold War seeing as how it’s unlikely that its latest crisis will be resolved anytime soon. The situation is extremely serious and the outcome of the US’ undeclared Hybrid War on Georgia could directly affect developments in Donbass.

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