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Debt Rattle November 15 2024

Nov 152024
 
 November 15, 2024  Posted by at 9:50 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,  53 Responses »


Arnold Böcklin The Isle of the Dead III 1883

 

• Trump Picks RFK Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services (PCR)
• Trump’s Foreign Policy Team May ‘Double Down on Stupid’ – Larry Johnson (Sp.)
• Trump Team Members Irritated By Musk – NBC (RT)
• Will Gabbard Be Able to Direct the Intelligence ‘Community’? (Ray McGovern)
• Has America Lost Its Mind Or Will Trump Get It Right This Time? (Ryumshin)
• Make Money Free Again (Ron Paul)
• Infowars Auction Thrown Into Chaos After Judge Investigates Malarkey (ZH)
• What Are Trump’s Chances to Make American Great Again? (Paul Craig Roberts)
• Trump Team To Nuke EV Tax Credit As Musk’s Price-War Endgame Looms (ZH)
• Tucker Carlson: Joe Rogan Has “Changed American History” (MN)
• FEC Chairman: Biden DOJ Broke Federal Policies with Letter Targeting Musk (AmG)
• Trump Vows To ‘Work Very Hard’ On Ukraine (RT)
• Will Trump Stop Ukraine From Joining NATO? (van den Ende)
• Ukrainian State-run Agency Scrubs Posts Bashing Tulsi Gabbard (RT)
• Electric War Moves Beyond Putin Pause Button To Power Off Button (Helmer)
• The State-Backed Settler War To Annex The West Bank (Inlakesh)
• Some Elections Will Never Be ‘Democratic’ Enough For The West (Behanzin)
• French Prosecutors Seek Prison Term And Election Ban For Le Pen (RT)

 

 

 

 

Rogan

Kirk

Gaetz

Barrack

Enten

Eva

CIA
https://twitter.com/i/status/1856754040505602131

Homan

Thiel Musk

 

 

 

 

“I am astonished and delighted. I hope it isn’t fake news.”

“It will be ironic if Kennedy restores our health but Trump’s foreign policy team destroys us in war.”

• Trump Picks RFK Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services (PCR)

I am astonished and delighted. I hope it isn’t fake news. President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday said he is “thrilled to announce” Robert F. Kennedy Jr as his nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) in a statement on social media. “For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,” Trump wrote on platform X, along with his announcement. “HHS will play a big role in helping ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming Health Crisis in this Country,” Trump wrote on Nov. 14.

If this is real, the media and Trump Transition Team certainly misled me about the impossibility of Bobby Kennedy in a power position that can bring down the criminal pharmaceutical industry. This is a victory even if Big Pharma, wielding its campaign contributions, forces the Senate to refuse to confirm Kennedy in office. Trump can go to the public with the names of the bought-and-paid-for corrupt Senators and ask why Americans elect people who knowingly serve corporate criminals who knowingly damage the health of the American people. The nomination of Kennedy is the most powerful of all of Trump’s appointments, with Matt Gaetz’s being second.

We will now see if the Republican Senate is with Trump or against Trump and the American people. If the Senate consents to recess appointment of Trump’s team, they are with the President. If they do not, they are against him and are part of the deadly enemy he and we must defeat. Kennedy’s nomination restores my hope that Trump might achieve something. Trump, Kennedy, Gaetz, and Gabbard are fighters, a rarity in a Republican administration. But I still have concern about what seems to be a foreign policy/military team that is too committed to Israel to achieve peace. It will be ironic if Kennedy restores our health but Trump’s foreign policy team destroys us in war.

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“They still believe, foolishly, naively, that they can easily split Russia from China..”

• Trump’s Foreign Policy Team May ‘Double Down on Stupid’ – Larry Johnson (Sp.)

Days after his election victory over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris, Republican President-elect Donald Trump began filling Cabinet positions and other key roles inside his future administration. Donald Trump’s foreign policy appointments for his incoming administration show that “he didn’t learn a thing during his first term,” Larry Johnson, retired CIA intelligence officer and State Department official, told Sputnik. “He talked one thing during the campaign about ending needless wars. And yet he is staffing himself with really a lot of young people who are locked up with old ideas,” Johnson noted. In his opinion, Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, is just an absurd joke. Florida Congressman Michael Waltz, tapped as Trump’s national security advisor, is also a disaster, Johnson argued, underscoring that he “represents everything that Donald Trump said that Donald Trump stood against.”

New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, tapped to serve as US ambassador to the United Nations, “comes in with a very strident pro-Zionist point of view,” the expert remarked. With a foreign policy team like that, Johnson said, Trump is “going to double down on stupid” when it comes to most important international areas, such as Ukraine, the Middle East, and China. “He doesn’t understand that the world has changed. They still believe, foolishly, naively, that they can easily split Russia from China, that there’s no natural alliance between Russia and China so that we can we can manipulate Russia into joining with us to defeat China. They just don’t get it,” the ex-CIA analyst underscored.

“They believe that they can boss people around in the Middle East and control what they do. Not recognizing the fact that Saudi Arabia and Iran, who were at odds two years ago, have now reestablished diplomatic relationships, are exchanging defense ministers to visit each other’s capital, and are planning joint military exercises. The Organization of Islamic Countries has made it quite clear that there should be no normalizing any relations with Israel until there is a Palestinian state and the Palestinians are secure. The Trump team doesn’t get that… And they’re going to probably have to get punched in the face to wake up and grasp the new reality,” said Johnson.

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Oh yeah, they all hate him, right, NBC?!

“Trump joked that “Elon won’t go home. I can’t get rid of him.”

• Trump Team Members Irritated By Musk – NBC (RT)

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk is overstaying his welcome at US President-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate and “behaving as if he’s a co-president,” sources close to the election winner have told NBC News. Trump’s team has denied that there is any tension between the pair. Musk joined Trump at Mar-a-Lago on election night and has spent much of the last week at the Florida resort assisting the transition team. The tech tycoon has weighed in on Trump’s cabinet appointments, and was present when Trump held phone calls with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reportedly speaking directly to Zelensky at one point. Musk’s closeness to Trump has apparently irritated some of the president-elect’s transition staff, a source at Mar-a-Lago told NBC News on Wednesday.

“And he’s sure taking lots of credit for the president’s victory. Bragging about America PAC and X to anyone who will listen. He’s trying to make President Trump feel indebted to him. And the president is indebted to no one,” the source added. A second source said that Musk has an “opinion on and about everything” and that his insistence on sharing these opinions has started to annoy Trump’s most senior aides and advisers. “He wants to be seen as having a say in everything (even if he doesn’t),” the source said, adding that Musk’s aggressive lobbying may hurt his standing with the president-elect in the long run. Over the last week, multiple sources close to Trump have fed a steady stream of transition-related gossip to the media. It is unclear how accurate this gossip is, particularly in the case of Musk, who Trump speaks glowingly about.

“Elon Musk is a great guy, loaded with personality and ‘brainpower’,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday. “He is definitely a high IQ person, which is the reason that his really strong endorsement meant so much to me, and to MAGA. He’s at a beautiful Mar-a-Lago concert right now, and the crowd absolutely loves him,” Trump continued, adding that Musk’s contribution to his win “will never be forgotten.” “Elon Musk and President Trump are great friends and brilliant leaders working together to Make America Great Again. Elon Musk is a once in a generation business leader and our federal bureaucracy will certainly benefit from his ideas and efficiency,” a spokesperson for Trump told NBC.

At a meeting with House Republicans on Wednesday morning, Trump joked that “Elon won’t go home. I can’t get rid of him.” However, Trump went on to praise Musk for dedicating so much time and money to his campaign, and Republican lawmakers told NBC that his statement on how Musk “won’t go home” was made in jest. On Tuesday, Trump nominated Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Although not an actual federal agency, DOGE will “provide advice and guidance” to the White House and Office of Management and Budget on how to eliminate regulations, slash government spending, and restructure other agencies, Trump said in a statement.

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“It would take a courageous and politically astute person and strong backing and trust from the president for any DNI to be able to fulfill the duty to “oversee and provide advice … on covert action programs.”

• Will Gabbard Be Able to Direct the Intelligence ‘Community’? (Ray McGovern)

President-elect Donald Trump’s selection of Tulsi Gabbard to be director of national intelligence (DNI) will cause shockwaves in and among the 18 fiefdoms that now comprise the U.S. intelligence community. Gabbard will be fighting an uphill battle if she tries to herd those 18 cats into a cohesive whole and restore integrity to intelligence analysis. The hill’s incline will be still steeper, if she takes seriously her duty to warn the president of the frequently noxious blowback of C.I.A. covert actions. I cannot overcome the urge to quote from “The Princess Bride”: Good luck stormin’ the castle, Tulsi … It will take a miracle! In short, the odds are against her. Whether she succeeds depends, first and foremost, on how strongly the president backs her. Unlike most former DNIs, she has already demonstrated uncommon courage, as well as smarts and political skill. On the other hand, she has had virtually no experience managing a large institution, much less a “community” well versed in internecine warfare to protect individual rice bowls, and populated with careerist bureaucrats all too accustomed to telling the ultimate boss, the president, what he wants to hear.

Important Duties The DNI is in charge of preparing The President’s Daily Brief (PDB), National Intelligence Estimates and the annual Threat Assessment required by Congress. What is less well known is her role in covert action — a favorite of the C.I.A.’s clandestine service. Executive Order 12333 (July 2008) stipulates: “The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) shall oversee and provide advice to the President and the NSC with respect to all ongoing and proposed covert action programs.” Thus, what the EO says. My own experience suggests that this covert-action-related duty has been more honored in the breach than in the observance, so to speak. Director of Central Intelligence William Colby was, in my personal experience, the only director to give intelligence analysts a look at some covert action proposals and ask for comment. I served directly under Colby as an acting national intelligence officer in the mid-70s. Will DNI Tulsi Gabbard (assuming she is confirmed by the Senate) step up to this task? It would take uncommon courage. Was the current DNI, Avril Haines, informed beforehand that the C.I.A. would blow up the Nord Stream pipelines? If so, did she give it her blessing? Or was she kept in the dark?

Blowing Up Pipelines … My guess is that DNI Gabbard would have promptly recognized the folly in that C.I.A. “can-do” attitude/escapade and would have briefed the president on its longer-term implications. She is a good listener to analysts who she asks to brief her. I know that, too, from personal experience responding to her questions when she was one of Hawaii’s representatives in the House. It would take a courageous and politically astute person and strong backing and trust from the president for any DNI to be able to fulfill the duty to “oversee and provide advice … on covert action programs.”

… and Blowing Off the Analysts Sizable covert action programs require a sanity check from analysts with substantive expertise, as sad experience has shown. Recall the Bay of Bigs operation of April 1961. At President John Kennedy’s request, historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. investigated the affair. His conclusion, set down in a MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT dated June 30, 1961, speaks for itself: “The trouble with the Cuban [Bay of Pigs] operation, for example, was not that the intelligence and operations were combined, but precisely that the Cuban operation evaded systematic intelligence judgment. The Intelligence Branch (DDI) of the CIA was never informed of the existence of the Cuban operation. The Office of National Estimates was never asked to comment on the assumption, for example, that discontent had reached the point in Cuba where a successful landing operation would provoke uprisings behind the lines and defections from the Militia. I gather that if its opinion had been invited, DDI would have given quite a different estimate of the state of opinion in Cuba from that on which the operation was based. … The Bureau of Intelligence and Research of the Department of State knew even less about the Cuban operation.”

Tulsi

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“..one of the biggest comebacks since Lazarus..”

• Has America Lost Its Mind Or Will Trump Get It Right This Time? (Ryumshin)

[..] .. there are indications that Trump’s new four-year term will at least be more meaningful than the previous one. Firstly, no one will dare question the legitimacy of the elected president. In 2016, Trump’s victory seemed unnatural (Clinton won the popular vote). This led people to see his presidency as a failure of the system and to speculate about foreign interference. Now Trump has safely won both the electoral and popular votes. The Democrats are unlikely to dispute this. There could be a flare-up of political tensions if Trump starts taking revenge on all those who have wronged him (which the Democrats are very afraid of). But I think a truce is more likely. The Democratic Party is facing a massive internal showdown, with a search for those responsible for its electoral woes. The president-elect has never been particularly eager to follow through on his threats (remember: Hillary Clinton wasn’t jailed).

Second, the Trump of 2024 is not the same as the Trump of 2016. Eight years ago, a somewhat naive businessman who thought running a government was as easy as building skyscrapers in Manhattan entered the White House. Since then, however, Trump has matured politically, learned to compromise and completely taken over the Republican Party. The bitter experience of his first administration, filled with random and often disagreeable people, suggests that this time he’ll have a clear plan of action and a suitable team under him. For Russia, the positions of Secretary of State and National Security Advisor are of particular interest. These are the people who will determine the foreign policy of the second Trump administration – and whether he will keep his promise to end the conflict in Ukraine. There is the former US ambassador to Germany, Ric Grenell. He hangs out in European right-wing circles, opposes Ukrainian membership in NATO and favors the creation of ‘autonomous zones’ there (i.e. recognizing Russia’s control over the south-east). Grenell is being considered for Secretary of State or National Security Adviser – if he takes either position, it would be rather good news for us. It would be doubly good if other foreign policy positions were filled by people with similar views (Marco Rubio or Bill Hagerty).

There’s also Trump’s former national security adviser, Robert O’Brien. He’s also a contender for the top job, but is seen as a ‘hawk’. O’Brien supports military aid to Ukraine, and his selection could be a sign that potential negotiations between Moscow and Washington will be difficult. Of course, whoever Trump picks, we should not expect a ‘‘ceasefire in 24 hours’ — that is, to put it mildly, an unrealistic exaggeration. But I believe that under him, serious settlement talks could actually begin in 2025. Well, at least there will be an attempt to start a peace process. The other question is what methods will the president use to achieve this? What will his proposal be and what will he ask of Russia in return for concessions? But it is probably too early to speculate about that. For now, let’s look at the new US president-elect’s first steps.

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“President Trump should work to eliminate the need for the Fed to keep interest rates low. He can do this by fighting for massive spending cuts, starting with the military-industrial complex..”

• Make Money Free Again (Ron Paul)

Two days after Donald Trump became the first American since Grover Cleveland to win nonconsecutive presidential elections, the Federal Reserve announced a quarter percent cut in interest rates. Following this announcement, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell held a press conference where he said that he would not comply with any presidential request that he step down before his term ends in May of 2026. Powell claimed that the president lacks the legal authority to fire the Fed chairman. So, if President Trump tells Chairman Powell “you’re fired,” Powell could bring suit asking a court to review Trump’s action. President Trump and Chairman Powell are at odds over President Trump’s desire to require the Federal Reserve to consult with the president before changing interest rates or taking other significant actions. Powell is likely to do all he can to convince Congress to reject any legislation giving the president any type of official role in setting monetary policy.

After all, Chairman Powell is so protective of Fed autonomy that he opposes auditing the Fed on the grounds that it could threaten the Fed’s independence, even though there is nothing in the Audit the Fed legislation giving the president or Congress any new authority over the Fed’s conduct of monetary policy. Requiring the Fed to consult with the president regarding monetary policy would likely increase price inflation and dollar devaluation. Politicians usually like low interest rates because they associate low rates with economic growth. Politicians also want the Fed to keep rates low so the federal government can keep racking up huge amounts of debt. Without a central bank that is ready, willing, and able to monetize the federal debt, the welfare-warfare state would not exist.

Despite the claims of Chairman Powell and other central bank apologists, the Fed has never been free of political pressure. Presidents were trying to influence the Federal Reserve long before Donald Trump began posting “mean tweets” about Jerome Powell. Requiring the Fed to consult with the president would at least make the president’s efforts to influence monetary policy open and transparent. President Trump and other Fed critics such as Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren think they are more capable of determining the “correct” interest rate than the Fed. This ignores the fact that interest rates are the price of money and like all prices are shaped by a variety of constantly changing factors. When the Fed manipulates interest rates, it distorts the signals sent to investors. The result is the boom- bust business cycle.

The fiat system is also responsible for rising income inequality and the decline of the dollar’s purchasing power, which has lowered most Americans’ standard of living. President Trump should work to eliminate the need for the Fed to keep interest rates low. He can do this by fighting for massive spending cuts, starting with the military-industrial complex. He should also push Congress to pass the Audit the Fed bill. Additionally, President Trump should support legalizing all competing currencies. The forthcoming tax bill should include a provision exempting precious metals and cryptocurrencies from capital gains taxes. The key to making America great again is to make money free again.

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The trustee stiffed the Sandy Hook families to keep Jones’s frieds from buying his company.

• Infowars Auction Thrown Into Chaos After Judge Investigates Malarkey (ZH)

(Update 2020ET): Just when you thought the least funny website on the planet, The Onion, had prevailed in the Infowars auction, the judge in the case put the brakes on the sale after it was revealed that the (anti-Jones) bankruptcy trustee did not accept the highest bid, and instead allowed the Sandy Hook families to ‘assist’ by pledging their massive judgement towards the auction – which Jones says is illegal. According to Jones, there should be some sort of a hearing to discuss this early next week. He believes that the judge is likely to order a new auction for sometime in January, where a Jones-allied group will have the opportunity to buy the company without the trustee picking their own winner regardless of actual bid. The saga continues…

(Update 1130ET): Hours after yesterday’s auction, Infowars.com is now down. We wish Alex Jones well on his next endeavor, which we’re guessing is going to be massive. The leftist-satirical rag The Onion announced on Thursday that it had won a bankruptcy auction to acquire Infowars – the website founded and operated by Alex Jones since 1999. On Wednesday, Jones said that the auction’s trustee could choose any bidder it wanted – not necessarily the high bidder. Jones announced the sale on X Thursday morning. “I just got word 15 minutes ago that my lawyers and folks met with the U.S. trustee over our bankruptcy this morning and they said they are shutting us down even without a court order this morning,” he said. “The Connecticut democrats with The Onion newspaper bought us.”

The Onion told the NY Times that the bid was sanctioned by the families of the victims of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, who won a $1.4 billion defamation lawsuit against Jones. The Onion did not disclose the price it paid for Infowars and its assets, including Jones’ production studio and supplement business. Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion parent company, Global Tetrahedron, says he plans to relaunch Infowars in January as a parody of itself, mocking “weird internet personalities.”

Infowars

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“Gaetz is no milk toast. He is a strong individual, the kind of person needed in such a critical office. My question is: does he have the seasoning..”

• What Are Trump’s Chances to Make American Great Again? (Paul Craig Roberts)

No, MAGA Americans, I am not a party pooper. I am a realist. No, I am not trying to make Trump look bad. I was Trump’s defender against all the false accusations and indictments. I insisted that we had to stand up for Trump and elect him or never again would a presidential candidate take the side of the people against the Establishment. I warned over and over that Trump does not know Washington, and he has again proven me correct with his appointments of a war cabinet of Washington insiders, with no executive authority for Elon Musk and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Today (November 13) Trump’s announcements of appointees was a little better in the cases of Tulsi Gabbard and Matt Gaetz. When I say a little, I don’t imply any criticism of these two Americans. In Gabbard’s case, I don’t know what the executive power of the Director of National Intelligence is. Is Gabbard above the CIA, NSA, State Department, or is she a coordinator of information that she does not originate and control?

The Director of National Intelligence is a cabinet-level agency or department created in 2004 during the orchestrated hysteria of “Muslim terrorists.” It advises the president, the National Security Council, and the Homeland Security Council. Apparently, it has taken over the CIA’s function of providing the president’s daily briefing. Where it gets its information from is unclear. Is the National Intelligence Agency just a mouthpiece for the CIA? Regardless, Tulsi Gabbard’s voice is important, and the position gives her a voice. The same for Matt Gaetz’s appointment as US Attorney General. Gaetz is no milk toast. He is a strong individual, the kind of person needed in such a critical office. My question is: does he have the seasoning. I certainly don’t object if he does. I would have thought that some of Trump’s attorneys, illegally prosecuted by Biden’s totally corrupt Attorney General, would have been a better choice.

I think my choice would have been the Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton. He has experience as an attorney general, and he has challenged the Biden regime criminals on several fronts. This doesn’t mean that Gaetz can’t be successful. Perhaps Gaetz should insist that Paxton be appointed deputy attorney general. That would be a strong team, a team that could guarantee the Trump administration’s success. If Trump is to return America to the rule of law, those who weaponized law must be punished. Also on the 13th Trump appointed the Treasury Secretary. His name is Scott Bessent. He is a hedge fund manager who created a global investment fund. He might be a good pick. I don’t know. Bessent is a Southerner and, thereby, possibly possesses integrity. But his background indicates a man out for himself at the expense of other people: Yale University, George Soros Fund Management, a successful Soros destabilizer of the British pound and Japanese yen. In other words, a person out for his own benefit.

Perhaps he has reformed. But there is no indiction that he has any grasp of economic policy. Will he see his Treasury seat as a way to build relationships and to expand his opportunities to make money? Trump’s view seems to be that making money is what makes America great again. In my day the US Treasury Department was a policy organization. Today it is a police agency at work imposing sanctions and stealing the central bank reserves of “enemies.” When I was in the US Treasury, I had to tell my executive secretary that I did not want any more appointments with lobbyists telling me how I was to formulate policy to serve them. Being of years of experience, she told me: you won’t get the directorships, you won’t get the consultant fees. I told her I was there to serve the president and that was our job.

It is going to be a challenge for the administration Trump has assembled to make America great again. Trump is there to be tough for America. War is a likely outcome. The threatened world already sees it coming. Mohammed bin Salman, the ruler of Saudi Arabia has been conducting naval exercises with Iran. The Saudi ruler recently had talks with Putin about preventing Israeli/US attacks on Iran. It seems that the US has lost the Saudis and is on the verge of losing a war, the loss of which will disappoint Trump supporters looking to be made great again. My hope is that Trump can get enough done peacefully that the American people don’t give up hope, thereby empowering the ruling elite with the gift of a demoralized population.

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“..Tesla – the largest EV automaker in the US and the only one not reliant on EV credits for survival..”

• Trump Team To Nuke EV Tax Credit As Musk’s Price-War Endgame Looms (ZH)

The final chapter of the electric vehicle price war, sparked by Tesla’s Elon Musk, hinges on President-elect Donald Trump’s plan to eliminate the $7,500 consumer tax credit. Sources with direct knowledge told Reuters that the Trump team has discussed ending the EV tax credit as part of broader tax reform legislation. Sources indicated that Tesla – the largest EV automaker in the US and the only one not reliant on EV credits for survival – told the Trump transition committee that it fully supports the federal government ending the subsidy. Here’s more from Reuters: Repealing the subsidy, which has been a signature measure of President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), is being discussed in meetings by an energy-policy transition team led by billionaire oilman Harold Hamm, founder of Continental Resources, and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, the two sources said.

The group has had several meetings since Trump’s Nov. 5 election victory, including some at his Florida Mar-a-Lago club, where Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has also spent considerable time since the election. In mid-July, Trump stated at a campaign rally that he would “end the Electric Vehicle Mandate on Day One — thereby saving the US auto industry from complete obliteration, and saving US customers thousands of dollars per car.” On X, around that time, Musk explained to the Whole Mars Catalog why repealing the tax credit would only benefit Tesla: In October, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group representing all automotive brands besides Tesla, penned a letter expressing to lawmakers in Congress how crucial the EV tax credit is in “cementing the US as a global leader in the future of automotive technology and manufacturing.”

In the markets, Rivian shares tumbled by 10% in the early afternoon, while Tesla shares fell by 3.5%. We knew the playbook in July. Here it is again: “Musk’s strategy to win the EV price war: Build the largest EV business with taxpayer dollars, popularize EVs, allow other startups and OEMs to enter the market, and then support politicians who want to end EV subsidies, crushing the competition and leaving Tesla reigning supreme.”

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“Rogan is just willing to just sit there with interesting people and talk for three hours. That was the most affirming, reassuring thing I’ve seen in 35 years of media — that that worked.”

“I’m thrilled and proud to be Rogan’s friend. I admire him more than anybody in media — by far..”

• Tucker Carlson: Joe Rogan Has “Changed American History” (MN)

During a recent discussion with Joe Polish, at the Genius Network Annual Event, Tucker Carlson heaped praise on Joe Rogan, going as far to say that the podcast king has changed American history. Tucker noted that “Rogan created the genre of podcasting. I’ve been in the media my whole life. Rogan used to be a sitcom actor, a standup comedian, and an MMA fighter. So he starts this thing called a podcast where he talks for like three hours.” Carlson admitted “I’m in television at a big network and I thought it was dumb. No one is going to listen to a three-hour podcast from some MMA fighter?” “I know, right?” Carlson said as the audience began to chuckle. “And this guy’s not even in our business! What’s he doing?” Carlson related, explaining his feelings at the time. “He completely changed not only American media but also American history.

He created a whole new genre — it would be like if one guy invented the newspaper or television, that’s how big what he did was,” Carlson urged. He continued, “And I will admit I did not see it coming, I did not understand it, I did not think it would work. And the fact that it did work says something so great and important about Americans. Rogan proved that Americans really want to learn.” “They’re not learning in school, they’re not learning in the rest of the media. It’s all shallow and dumb, about race and gender, it’s all lying,” Carlson further asserted. He continued, “Rogan is just willing to just sit there with interesting people and talk for three hours. That was the most affirming, reassuring thing I’ve seen in 35 years of media — that that worked.” “I’m thrilled and proud to be Rogan’s friend. I admire him more than anybody in media — by far,” Carlson concluded.

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“..an attempt “to intimidate and chill private citizens and organizations from campaigning on behalf of President Trump.”

• FEC Chairman: Biden DOJ Broke Federal Policies with Letter Targeting Musk (AmG)

On Wednesday, the chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC) admitted that the outgoing Biden-Harris Department of Justice (DOJ) violated federal policies and illegally targeted “perceived political opponents” by sending a threatening letter to Elon Musk. According to the Washington Examiner, FEC Chairman Sean Cooksey sent a letter to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, saying that the letter to Musk concerning his efforts to encourage people to support freedom of speech constituted an attempt “to intimidate and chill private citizens and organizations from campaigning on behalf of President Trump.” Cooksey also recommended that Horowitz, along with the DOJ’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), open investigations into the incident and “hold accountable any individuals responsible for any violations of federal law or department policies.”

The letter in question was sent to Musk by the DOJ just weeks before the election on November 5th. In it, DOJ officials warned Musk’s America PAC that the pledge to give away $1 million every day to a randomly-selected voter who signed the PAC’s petition in support of freedom of speech was allegedly a violation of federal law. The letter also accused Musk of making “a mockery of democracy.” Musk defended his PAC’s actions, pointing out that participants at the time did “not need to register as Republicans or vote in the Nov. 5 elections.” “The underlying motivation behind this stunt is obvious,” said Cooksey in his scathing letter to the DOJ. “Employees of President Biden’s Department of Justice wanted to stop an independent political committee from campaigning for President Trump in crucial swing states just prior to election day.”

Cooksey further accused the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section of deliberately leaking the Musk letter to the New York Times, which was a violation of the department’s media policies. “Writing such a letter and then leaking it also violates the department’s long-standing policy against the identification of uncharged parties and the disclosure of prejudicial information,” Cooksey continued. Elon Musk, the founder and owner of Tesla and SpaceX, as well as the owner of the social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), is the wealthiest man in the world.

He was previously a Democrat who supported politicians such as Barack Obama, but has shifted further to the right in recent years, due primarily to the Democrats’ increasingly radical stances, including support for censorship and transgenderism. Musk gave his official endorsement of President-elect Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign following the assassination attempt against him on July 13th. President-elect Trump has since announced that Musk, alongside businessman and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, will lead an entirely new federal agency called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), with the purpose of significantly reducing the size of the federal government over the course of the next two years. The agency plans to complete its work by July 4th, 2026, which will be the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.

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“..the goals of its military operation – including Ukrainian neutrality, demilitarization, and denazification – must be met..”

• Trump Vows To ‘Work Very Hard’ On Ukraine (RT)

US President-elect Donald Trump has promised that his team will work hard to resolve the Ukraine conflict to prevent further bloodshed. Trump made the remarks at the America First Policy Institute gala at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida on Thursday. “We’re going to work in the Middle East, and we’re going to work very hard on Russia and Ukraine.” He went on to say that the conflict “has got to stop,” adding that he has seen a report claiming that “thousands of people… were killed” over the past three days. “They happen to be soldiers but whether they’re soldiers or they’re people sitting in towns, we’re going to work [on] it,” Trump said, without elaborating further. In the run-up to the presidential election, the Republican – who has been critical of unconditional US support for Kiev – promised to end the Ukraine conflict within 24 hours if elected, even before being sworn into office.

While that pledge remains far from fulfilled, media reports have claimed that Trump is already reshaping US policy on Ukraine. A Wall Street Journal report earlier this month indicated that one potential peace plan would force Ukraine to suspend its ambitions to join NATO for at least 20 years and would freeze the conflict along the current front lines in exchange for continued US military assistance to Kiev. In addition, Trump has nominated several critics of Ukraine aid for top government positions, including Senator Marco Rubio for secretary of state, Tulsi Gabbard for director of national intelligence, and Matt Gaetz for attorney general. The nominations must be confirmed by the Senate, which the Republicans regained control over in this year’s election.

Moscow has said it is open to dialogue, but has ruled out freezing the conflict, insisting that the goals of its military operation – including Ukrainian neutrality, demilitarization, and denazification – must be met. President Vladimir Putin has signaled that Russia is willing to immediately declare a ceasefire and start peace talks as soon as Kiev begins withdrawing troops from the regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye, which voted in referendums to join the country in autumn 2022. Moscow has also ruled out talks with Kiev as long as Ukrainian troops occupy part of the border region of Kursk.

Bowes

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“President Biden could push the process of admitting Ukraine to NATO, and the current Congress or a future Congress could vote on it even after he is no longer in office.”

• Will Trump Stop Ukraine From Joining NATO? (van den Ende)

President-elect Trump bragged during his election campaign that he could solve the Ukraine conflict in 24 hours once he is installed in the White House. Trump’s bombast is, of course, unrealistic. No war can be solved within 24 hours. There must be peace talks and, above all, a treaty to secure territory and people. And what about the thorny issue of Ukraine joining NATO? For Russia to make a durable peace, that issue must be erased. Will Trump stop Ukraine from joining NATO? For Ukraine to join NATO, the U.S. Senate must approve its membership, as must the other 31 NATO member states. Russia is adamant that Ukraine will not be permitted to join the U.S.-led military bloc. But let’s just consider how the U.S. and its NATO allies might procedurally attempt Ukraine’s membership.

Trump’s “America First” policy will have consequences for NATO. At this point, it is unclear whether a new Republican-dominated Congress will even vote on Ukraine’s admission to NATO. With the recent U.S. elections, the American people have chosen to change course, but will a change of course be allowed by the powers that be? Does it matter which party, Democrats or Republicans, are in Congress and governing America? Will the war hawks win again, perhaps? Trump is not in the White House yet. That won’t be until January 20, and there could be surprises from the outgoing Biden administration during the next two months. President Biden could push the process of admitting Ukraine to NATO, and the current Congress or a future Congress could vote on it even after he is no longer in office.

The U.S. Senate could also vote on a treaty to approve Ukraine’s membership in NATO as early as the next few weeks, although it could take years for the country to become a full member. Both Democrats and some Republicans hope that this solution would still allow Ukraine to join NATO. Many people forget in the “heat of the election show” that we’ve seen in recent weeks and the election hype around Donald Trump that both Democrats and Republicans support the proxy war against Russia and would like to see Ukraine join NATO. It was recently revealed that primarily Republicans in the House of Representatives — who chair the national security committees — have formally filed a request pressuring President Biden to lift remaining restrictions on Ukraine’s use of U.S.-supplied Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) long-range missiles.

Although Trump’s son, Donald Jr, recently said that there is no place for “war hawks” in the new government, there will probably be pro-Ukraine figures in cabinet positions. This includes Senator Lindsey Graham, a prominent member of the GOP and a big Trump supporter, who might be given a ministerial post. Graham candidly told CNN and CNBC that the Donbass is full of mineral resources that America wants its hands on and that access to such natural wealth was central to the conflict. The hawkish senator has also said, and make no mistake, he is a close political friend of Trump and will have a lot of influence in the next administration, that “Trump will give Ukraine a lot of leverage to end the war.” So, are Americans being fooled again? Thinking now that Trump is elected, the proxy war against Russia will be over quickly, only for the American warmongers to start another war, say, against Iran.

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“..someone who “for several years, has been working for foreign audience for the Kremlin money.”

• Ukrainian State-run Agency Scrubs Posts Bashing Tulsi Gabbard (RT)

Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD) has quietly removed its news bulletins accusing former US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of spreading fake news on behalf of Russia. The change came after US President-elect Donald Trump nominated Gabbard, a lieutenant colonel of the US Army Reserve, to oversee the CIA and the NSA as the director of national intelligence. Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council set up the CCD in March 2021 with the stated goal of fighting disinformation in news reports and on social media. In practice, the agency focuses on flagging and “debunking” stories that are critical to Ukraine and has accused many Russian and Western officials of spreading “fake news.” According to the news website Strana.ua, the CCD took down four of its bulletins mentioning Gabbard from social media, including one from April 2022 that described her as someone who “for several years, has been working for foreign audience for the Kremlin money.”

In a bulletin from June 2024, Gabbard was accused of spreading disinformation about Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky, and a bulletin from February 2023 said that the politician was “espousing pro-Russian rhetoric.” The posts were removed on Thursday morning, Strana.ua said. As of the time of writing, the CCD’s 2022 post accusing Gabbard of taking “the Kremlin money” is still up on the National Security and Defense Council’s account on X. The link to the CCD bulletin is inactive, however. Kiev has repeatedly lashed out at Western public figures critical of Ukraine, including journalist Tucker Carlson and tech billionaire Elon Musk.

Gabbard, who has long opposed US military interventions in the Middle East and has accused Washington of warmongering, left the Democratic Party in 2022. Last month, she announced that she had joined the Republican Party and was backing Trump. In 2022, Gabbard argued that the conflict in Ukraine could have been avoided if the US “had simply acknowledged Russia’s legitimate security concerns” regarding Kiev’s aspirations to join NATO. She has since insisted that the conflict should be resolved through negotiations and that Ukraine should become a neutral country. Gabbard slammed Zelensky last year, accusing him of seizing “absolute control of Ukrainian media, outlawing opposition political parties.”

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“The temperature is dipping below freezing at night, the daylight hours are shorter, the electrical lighting and heating loads are going up.”

• Electric War Moves Beyond Putin Pause Button To Power Off Button (Helmer)

This week’s announcements of emergency electricity rationing and scheduled power supply cuts in the farwestern Ukrainian regions of Volyn, Ivano-Frankivsk and Transcarpathia indicate that pinpoint drone targeting by the Russian General Staff is a new stage in the electric war since President Vladimir Putin put on pause long-range missile attacks on western Ukrainian power generation plants since August 26. On Tuesday, the regional Ukrainian media reported “restrictions will apply to businesses in the Ivano-Frankivsk and Volyn oblasts starting on 13 November, in five phases, and will be scheduled from 07:00 to 20:00. The restrictions are being implemented due to damage to critical infrastructure by Russian forces and decreasing temperatures.” The national utility Ukrenergo announced that from November 13 “GOPs [power limit schedules] are being introduced due to a shortage in the energy system in the Carpathian region”.

The deficit in the current demand-supply balance for electricity has also been compounded by the decline reported in the Ukrainian press of imports of power from cross-border sources in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Moldova. The reported cutback this week defies the European Union (EU) agreement at the end of October for “an increase of the export capacity limit to Ukraine and Moldova to 2,100 megawatts (MW) during this winter. It represents an increase of 400 MW from the previous value [1,700 MW]…The 2,100 MW export capacity limit will apply from 1 December 2024.” “This is a temporary situation,” Ukraine’s energy minister Herman Halushchenko announced on Wednesday. “ ‘Unfortunately, restored generation facilities can occasionally fail. This has happened, but all these issues will be resolved, and the situation will stabilize,’ he stated. The minister also pointed to a significant reduction in electricity imports to Ukraine, which are currently down to about 100 MW.”

A military source comments: “The damage from the August attacks has not been repaired – just patched up. There have been strikes on transformer stations since. They’ve been smaller in scale but indicative of the [Russian] General Staff’s knowledge of the [Ukrainian] distribution grid vulnerabilities. The General Staff’s moves have complicated Ukrainian efforts to keep the power on. The Ukrainians are hiding how bad the situation is, including in terms of getting spares. The temperature is dipping below freezing at night, the daylight hours are shorter, the electrical lighting and heating loads are going up. The jury-rigged grid is unable to handle it without curtailments.”

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“..this attack will be particularly focused on completely erasing Palestinians from what is known as Area C, which constitutes roughly 60 percent of the West Bank. That escalation has already begun.”

• The State-Backed Settler War To Annex The West Bank (Inlakesh)

Despite Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and military aggression against Lebanon, Tel Aviv is preparing to unleash its fanatical Jewish settlers in a coordinated war against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, aiming to ethnically cleanse what remains of the territory and pave the way for further annexation. Adding fuel to the fire, billionaire Miriam Adelson, the wealthiest Israeli in the world, bankrolled Donald Trump’s “huge victory” in his successful presidential campaign with one clear condition: support for annexing the West Bank. Last month The Times of Israel noted that the wealthy widow “is carrying on a legacy she built with her late husband, casino magnate Sheldon Adelson,” and that “The Adelson family has long been one of the largest sources of campaign money for Republican candidates and has backed Trump during each of the last three general elections.”

Speaking to The Cradle, Ubai al-Aboudi, executive director of Palestinian rights group ‘Bisan Center,’ says that “the Israeli settlers are preparing to carry out a major attack, to ethnically cleanse the Palestinian population,” adding that this attack will be particularly focused on completely erasing Palestinians from what is known as Area C, which constitutes roughly 60 percent of the West Bank. That escalation has already begun. On 4 November, armed settlers launched a brazen assault on the Palestinian city of Al-Bireh, marking a surge in the violence that has gripped the West Bank. In October alone, settlers carried out at least 1,490 attacks against Palestinians, their property, and their land – often under the supervision and protection of occupation soldiers. In the past, extremist settler attacks against Palestinians were characterized by their spontaneous nature and uncoordinated thuggery, but this has begun to change.

During a recent interview with Israel’s Channel 7 News, West Bank Settlement Council leader Israel Gantz commented on a meeting he had with the recently sacked Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant: “We asked that the West Bank be treated as Jabalia, Rafah, and the villages of southern Lebanon were treated, which means displacing the residents, killing the terrorists in these villages, cleansing the terrorist infrastructure, confiscating the weapons and then returning them to their villages.” While the statement includes the idea of returning Palestinians to their villages, if such an operation replicated Gaza and southern Lebanon, there would be no village to return to. Gantz also requested that Palestinian villages bordering illegal Jewish settlements be ‘cleansed’ due to the potential security threat posed to Israelis living there – both ideas reportedly opposed by Gallant.

On 5 November, however, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu replaced Gallant and handed the defense minister position to long-time ally Israel Katz. While serving in his previous role as Israel’s foreign minister, Katz openly called for expelling Palestinians from their homes in the West Bank, unlike his predecessor.

Huckabee

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“It seems that this is less about fraud or malfunctions and more about disappointment over the defeat of their pro-Western Georgian political allies.”

• Some Elections Will Never Be ‘Democratic’ Enough For The West (Behanzin)

We have witnessed a strong reaction from the United States and the European Union following the elections in Georgia held late last month. Their pro-Western candidate suffered a defeat, and these Western powers – particularly Washington and the European Council – have expressed doubts about the election’s legitimacy, even calling for an investigation into its conduct. It is legitimate to ask whether the right to validate the election results in this sovereign country lies in the hands of Washington or Brussels, while the Georgian people have expressed themselves democratically. This situation once again raises the crucial issue of foreign powers intervening in the internal affairs of sovereign nations. For several years, the United States, often followed by its European allies, has taken the liberty of intervening in the electoral processes of various countries under the pretext of ensuring “democracy.”

However, this posture of self-proclaimed guardians of democracy becomes inconsistent if it only applies to elections that serve their interests. In Georgia, the people voted and chose to place their trust in Georgian Dream, a local party which seeks to build pragmatic relations with Russia and managed to gather broad popular support. The Georgian Dream party secured 54% of the votes. International observers present noted that the electoral process adhered to democratic standards, despite unfounded accusations made by some external actors. So why, in this context, do Washington and Brussels suddenly feel the need to question the results? It seems that this is less about fraud or malfunctions and more about disappointment over the defeat of their pro-Western Georgian political allies.

In short, for some Western powers, when they do not win an election, they adopt a strategy aimed at delegitimizing the results through unfounded doubts and calls for investigations. This eerily recalls similar situations, such as the one experienced during the presidential election in July 2024 in Venezuela. US interference in the internal affairs of other countries is well-documented, but it is paradoxical to see Europe blindly following this path. In recent decades, Europe, once proud of its independent stance on the global stage, seems, with its puppet leaders in Brussels, to have gradually aligned itself with American policies, to the point where it is now perceived as merely a relay for Washington’s interests. This trend is visible in its foreign policy, particularly during major crises, where Brussels seems increasingly dependent on the American line.

In the Georgian case, the European reaction is particularly troubling. Why is the European Union, which claims to promote peace and international stability, suddenly seeking to question a democratic election simply because the results do not align with its political expectations? This attitude reflects a deep contradiction between the so-called “democratic values” that Europe claims to defend and the actual practices on the ground. If the Georgian situation is such a problem for Brussels, perhaps the president of the European Council should personally travel to Georgia to conduct this much-demanded investigation. More seriously, is it truly the mandate of the European Union to question the sovereignty and the will expressed by the Georgian people? What about respecting the democratic processes it claims to uphold?

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Germany, France, they do the same thing. AFTER sinking their economies.

• French Prosecutors Seek Prison Term And Election Ban For Le Pen (RT)

French prosecutors have asked a judge to slap former National Rally party leader Marine Le Pen with a five-year prison term and a ban from running for public office in an embezzlement case. Le Pen and 24 other current and former members of the right-wing National Rally are accused of using €3 million ($3.3 million) in European Parliament money intended for payments to parliamentary assistants to fund work on internal party business from 2004 to 2016, in violation of EU law. All of the defendants have denied any wrongdoing. During the proceedings in Paris on Wednesday, the prosecutors argued that Le Pen should receive the harshest punishment as she was a member of the European Parliament and the leader of the National Rally when some of the alleged violations took place. She led the party, which was previously called the National Front, from 2011 to 2021 and still remains a member.

Three years of Le Pen’s sentence would be suspended, and the other two could be served with an electronic bracelet, the prosecutors said. They also asked for her to be fined €300,000 ($316,000). The prosecutors said the five-year ban on running for office should be implemented immediately, before the defense can appeal the ruling. This means that if found guilty, Le Pen would be disqualified from the presidential election in 2027. During the trial, which began in late September, she announced plans to run for president for the third time. “It is clear that the only thing the public prosecutors wanted was Marine Le Pen’s exclusion from political life,” Le Pen told reporters after the hearings.

National Rally leader Jordan Bardella, who is not a defendant in the case, took to X to accuse the prosecutors of an “assault on democracy,” saying they are “seeking to persecute and take revenge on Marine Le Pen.” The prosecutors also requested that the National Rally be fined €2 million, and that all of the others who are accused receive bans from running for public office from one to five years. The defense will now present its arguments to the judge until the trial concludes on November 27. A verdict is expected in early 2025. In the 2022 election, Le Pen lost to President Emmanuel Macron in the second round 58.55% to 41.45%.

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