The Automatic Earth

Salvador Dali Portrait of Picasso 1947

 

• Zelensky Gave Initial Order For Nord Stream Attack – WSJ (RT)

• Russians Volunteer in Droves as US Tries to Divert Nord Stream Blame (Miles)

• Poland Probably Involved In Nord Stream Blasts – ex-German Spymaster (RT)

• Zelensky Aide Denies Kiev’s Involvement In Nord Stream Attack (RT)

• Zelensky Aide Admits Kursk Incursion Was Discussed With Western Backers (RT)

• US Lying About Involvement In Kursk Attack – Patrushev (RT)

• Zombie Russiagate Conspiracy Persists as US Stokes Fear, Hatred of Moscow (Sp.)

• Harris Seeks to Distance Herself From Biden’s Unpopularity on Economy (Sp.)

• Kamala’s First Economic Plan Proposes Price Controls To “Combat Inflation” (ZH)

• “Would It Kill You Guys?” (ZH)

• Vance and Walz Agree to Oct. 1 Debate (ET)

• It’s Time For America To Rethink Its Relationship With NATO (Bridge)

• Want More Freedom of Speech? Try Less Government (Turley)

• Kim Dotcom Defiant After NZ Approves Extradition For US Trial (ZH)

• RFK Jr Tried To Meet With Trump, Harris In Pursuit Of Cabinet Position (ZH)

 

 

 

 

Paper

Three separate instances of Kamala Harris advocating for all paper ballot elections, because that is the only secure way to vote:
"Best and smartest way to conduct voting? Paper ballots. Paper ballots, because Russia can't hack a piece of paper."
"The best and most secure way to… pic.twitter.com/9ezXz8AexQ

— Eric Abbenante (@EricAbbenante) August 15, 2024

 

 

Dore Kamala

Someone just sent this to me. It's from 2021. I never saw it before. Jimmy Dore is awesome.

I remember posting this video, it got millions of views and even liberals were bashing Kamala in the comments. Susan Sarandon even commented that Kamala is a fraud.😂

Kamala is so fake. pic.twitter.com/b88ZccEjug

— MAZE (@mazemoore) August 15, 2024

 

 

RoganTrump
https://twitter.com/i/status/1823808656825000274

 

 

TysonTrump
https://twitter.com/i/status/1823818699708739734

 

 

TrumpSS

Here is Donald Trump telling you that he is going to pass legislation that will no longer tax Social Security benefits, because you know the person who actually drafted the bill to tax the Social Security benefits was Joe Biden.

Can we please make this a viral video because you… pic.twitter.com/Nwaaw2lHsj

— Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree) August 14, 2024

 

 

Benz
https://twitter.com/i/status/1823823666125398446

 

 

 

 

No he did not. The US is real eager not to be blamed for Nord Stream. So despite Seymour Hersh’s record, they keep coming with stories that would ‘prove’ him wrong. Now it’s a bunch of Ukrainians again. With the same story about 6 adults in a little rented sailing boat for a week, cramped enough. But they also brought deep sea scuba gear for four/five, and a whole set of bombs. Oh, and this is new: an amateur Ukrainian scuba diver named Volodymyr Z blew it all up. He has vanished, so no questions. Seymour Hersh is right. He always is. For some 60 years now. He likes that reputation. He wants to die an honest man.

• Zelensky Gave Initial Order For Nord Stream Attack – WSJ (RT)

Vladimir Zelensky approved a Ukrainian plan to sabotage the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, before trying to call off the operation under US pressure, but it was too late to do so, the Wall Street Journal has reported, citing people allegedly involved in the plot. The energy infrastructure, built to deliver Russian gas to Germany and the rest of Europe, was ruptured by blasts under the Baltic Sea in September 2022. Early the following year, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh reported that explosives were planted on the Nord Stream pipelines by US Navy divers under the cover of a NATO exercise, and detonated on orders from US President Joe Biden. Top officials in Moscow, including President Vladimir Putin, have also pointed the finger at Washington, arguing that it stood to gain the most from the disruption of Russian gas supplies to the EU.

In its article on Wednesday, the WSJ pointed to another version of events, according to which the pipelines were targeted by the Ukrainians. It was first reported by the Western media shortly after the publication of Hersh’s article. According to the outlet’s sources, the idea of blowing up Nord Stream was conceived by “a handful of senior Ukrainian military officers and businessmen” as they gathered for drinks in May 2022, a few months after the outbreak of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev. The plotters believed that it would reduce Russia’s energy revenues and make the EU less dependent on Moscow. According to the report, the Ukrainian operation involved a small rented yacht, called Andromeda, with a six-member crew, including trained civilian divers, and cost only around $300,000.

Vladimir Zelensky initially approved the attack on the pipelines, but later – when the CIA learned of the plan and asked the Ukrainian leader to abort it – ordered the operation to be called off, a Ukrainian officer who claimed to have been involved in the sabotage and three other informed people said. However, then Ukrainian commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny ignored the demand and went ahead with the attack, the sources alleged. He told Zelensky that, once dispatched, a sabotage team goes incommunicado and cannot be withdrawn, they added. When approached for comment by the WSJ, Zaluzhny, who is now Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, denied the report, calling claims of his – or Kiev’s – involvement in the destruction of Nord Stream a “mere provocation.”

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And they prepare the new story well.. Germany’s involved, and Poland..

• Russians Volunteer in Droves as US Tries to Divert Nord Stream Blame (Miles)

Support among Russians for the special military operation is at a high as Western governments scramble to cover up the United States’ increasingly sloppy crimes. Two decades from the outset of the United States’ war in Iraq a 2023 opinion survey found 61% of Americans disagree with the decision to launch the ill-fated invasion. The finding is the culmination of years of soul searching on the part of the American public, which has grown increasingly wary of US military intervention in recent years. A large majority of Russian citizens, on the other hand, have indicated they approve of the country’s special military operation against Ukraine with healthy military recruitment figures serving as the latest evidence the citizenry is united behind President and Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Putin. International relations and security analyst Mark Sleboda joined Sputnik’s The Final Countdown program Wednesday to discuss the latest developments in the Western proxy war on Russia as well as the curious case of the Nord Stream pipeline explosion as the German government claims to have found a suspect for the crime.

“The German news that broke is pretty interesting,” said Sleboda, referring to the German government’s release of the name of a supposed suspect behind the presumed sabotage of the Russo-German Nord Stream Pipeline in 2022. “This Volodymyr Z – according to German privacy laws, the full name is not released… this is the absolutely complete bull feces, cockamamie cover-up story that the United States and Germany have centered on.”“They can’t admit that the United States blew up the Nord Stream pipelines, because that would mean the end of NATO,” the analyst added. “It would be a member of NATO attacking a member of NATO. They can’t admit that. So they came up with this.” In a case of reality sometimes proving to be stranger than fiction, the German government has claimed an amateur Ukrainian scuba diver by the name of “Volodymyr Z” is responsible for the explosion that blew up the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that formerly transported cheap natural gas from Russia to Europe.

But critics claim the “discovery” of the alleged culprit, whose last name is purportedly “Zhuravlev,” is itself another fiction of Western intelligence agencies, which insist on offering an alternative explanation for the environmental disaster which is widely presumed to be the work of the United States. “It [was] a methane release,” Sleboda noted. “And methane is a greenhouse gas some 28 times more potent than carbon. So, yes, it is also the largest man-made release of carbon environmental catastrophe [of] that scale. But these things go by the wayside when geopolitics is concerned.” “As far as I’m concerned the Seymour Hersh version of events is probably very close to the actual story,” he added, referring to the investigative journalist’s analysis of the incident.

“To believe that a group of rando Ukrainians on a rent-a-day little pleasure dinghy out of Poland managed to lay serious military explosives at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, a NATO lake just off an island in Denmark that NATO routinely does military exercises [in] – in fact amazingly enough, just a week earlier, there [were] US ships involved in military exercises, military ships that may very well have actually been involved in leaving some explosives on the bottom of the Baltic Sea – I mean, this story is so ridiculous and, conveniently enough, their mysterious Volodymyr Z just disappeared.” Western governments’ refusal to implicate the United States in the incident and reluctance to investigate the matter has further damaged support for the Ukraine proxy war as European leaders fear former President Donald Trump would end US support for the conflict if reelected in November.

Meanwhile, Russian citizens remain united behind Moscow’s war effort, with Ukraine’s attempt to mount an incursion onto the Kursk region of Russia only heightening Russians’ patriotic fervor. “It’s just further cementing support for the [special military operation],” noted Slebeda. “By all domestic accounts the number of young men signing up as volunteer contract soldiers for the SMO – which was already around 1,000 a day, at least at the last word by the minister of defense – has jumped again because people feel that Russia has been attacked and Russia has been insulted.” “The statements in the press make it quite clear that the US and Europe were at some level completely behind this. So that increases Russian society’s anger and desire for getting some payback.”

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BS. The Polish may have helped the Americans, but that’s not this story.

• Poland Probably Involved In Nord Stream Blasts – ex-German Spymaster (RT)

Poland was likely involved in the underwater explosions that ruptured the Nord Stream underwater gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea in September 2022, the former president of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency has claimed. August Hanning also alleged that Warsaw has intentionally obstructed Berlin’s investigation into the incident. No one has so far claimed responsibility for the blasts, which brought an end to the supply of Russian gas to Germany via Nord Stream 1 and damaged the parallel Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which had never entered operation due to EU bureaucratic setbacks. In an interview with Die Welt on Thursday, Hanning said: “The way it seems is that it was a Ukrainian team that, as per the findings of the investigation, operated there.” However, he added, “this was of course only possible with support from the land.”

“When we look at the map… pretty evidently, the Polish agencies were engaged here, and I think not only agencies …I think that this was an arrangement between [people] at the top level in Ukraine and in Poland,” the former intelligence chief conjectured. He alleged that Warsaw might have provided logistical support to the suspected Ukrainian saboteurs. According to Hanning, “these are decisions that were made at the highest political level. And I think that there was an arrangement between [Ukrainian] President [Vladimir] Zelensky and [Polish] President [Andrzej] Duda to carry out this attack. ”He claimed that Polish authorities let one of the suspects leave the country even though Germany had already reached out to Warsaw, requesting assistance in his capture. Warsaw “didn’t exactly promote the probe. On the contrary, crucial findings were withheld, as I have heard from investigative circles,” Hanning told Die Welt.

“In short, Poland had no interest in the success of the investigation, and this is of course due to [the fact] that Poland was massively involved in the preparation of this attack,” the former senior intelligence official claimed. He concluded that such attacks do not happen without massive state involvement, going so far as to allege that the “Polish and… the Ukrainian military played a big role, and intelligence services as well.”

On Wednesday, German state broadcaster ARD, along with the Suddeutsche Zeitung and Die Zeit newspapers reported that Poland, despite EU inter-state regulations, has failed to respond to Berlin’s request for cooperation after Federal Public Prosecutor Jens Rommel in June issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian national identified as “Vladimir Z”. The suspect is reportedly a diving instructor who lived in Poland and had allegedly placed the explosive devices on the pipeline.Polish prosecutors confirmed that they had received the arrest warrant, but argued that the man was not detained as he had left the country by crossing the Polish-Ukrainian border, Reuters cited. Kiev officials have publicly denied any involvement in the destruction of the pipelines.

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Good cop bad cop. Instill doubt. Keep ’em guessing.

• Zelensky Aide Denies Kiev’s Involvement In Nord Stream Attack (RT)

Kiev had nothing to do with the explosions on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, Mikhail Podoliak, a top adviser to Ukrainian leader, Vladimir Zelensky, has said. Podoliak made the statement to Reuters on Thursday in response to a report by the Wall Street Journal, claiming that Zelensky authorized the September 2022 attack which ruptured the key energy infrastructure built to deliver Russian gas to Germany and the rest of Europe. According to the US outlet’s sources, which included officers allegedly involved in the operation, Zelensky initially approved the attack on Nord Stream. He later tried to call it off under pressure from the CIA, but then Ukrainian commander-in-chief Valery Zaluzhny told him it could not be done as the sabotage group had already been dispatched and there was no way to contact it. “Such an act can only be carried out with extensive technical and financial resources… and who possessed all this at the time of the bombing? Only Russia,” Podoliak told the agency.

Russia has ridiculed claims that it would destroy its own pipelines, which provided it with steady revenue. Top officials in Moscow, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, have previously pointed the finger at Washington, arguing that it stood to gain the most from the disruption of Russian gas supplies to the EU. “Ukraine has nothing to do with the Nord Stream explosions,” Podolyak insisted, adding that Kiev did not gain any strategic or tactical advantage from the sabotage. The report by the WSJ claimed that “a handful of senior Ukrainian military officers and businessmen” came up with the idea of blowing up the pipelines during a drinking party in May 2022, a few months after the outbreak of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev. The plotters believed that it would reduce Russia’s energy profits and make the EU less dependent on Moscow, it said.

Zaluzhny, who is now Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, told the outlet that claims of his – or Kiev’s – involvement in the destruction of Nord Stream were a “mere provocation.” A senior official in the Security Service of Ukraine, the SBU, also denied the report, insisting that Zelensky in particular “did not approve the implementation of any such actions on the territory of third countries and did not issue relevant orders.” The WSJ said its reporting is partially corroborated by the findings of the German police investigation into the Nord Stream explosions. The German Federal Public Prosecutor issued a first arrest warrant in connection with the sabotage this week, according to local reports. The suspect is believed to be a Ukrainian citizen identified as ‘Vladimir Z’. The newspaper suggested that the police investigation could “upend” relations between Kiev and Berlin, which has been Ukraine’s biggest backer in the EU amid the conflict with Russia.

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No doubt. Kiev wouldn’t move without NATO.

• Zelensky Aide Admits Kursk Incursion Was Discussed With Western Backers (RT)

Kiev discussed its plan to launch a cross-border attack into Russia with its Western backers, a top adviser to Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky has admitted. Western officials have said they supported last week’s incursion into Kursk Region, but have denied any prior knowledge of the operation. However, Zelensky aide Mikhail Podoliak has told The Independent that these disclaimers were not accurate, the British online newspaper reported on Thursday. ”There are certain things that have to be done with the element of surprise, and that have to happen on a local level,” he was quoted as saying. “But there were discussions between partner forces, just not on the public level.”

The Ukrainian official reiterated the explanations of the motives behind the operation that he previously offered on national television, stating that Kiev’s objective is to use military “coercion” against the Russian public. ”When the war proceeds into the territory of Russia, they are certainly scared. They are shocked. This has a significant impact on the psychological state of Russia,” he said. Russian officials have said that by attacking civilians in Kursk Region Kiev had killed any chance for peace talks – an objective that their Ukrainian counterparts claim the incursion brings closer. Podoliak urged the British government to permit Kiev to strike Russian territory with the long-range Storm Shadow missiles London has donated. If such attacks happen, “Russia would understand the cost of war is too high,” he told The Independent.

According to British media, London allows Ukrainian troops to use any of weapons it sends to them on Russian soil, with the exception of the cruise missiles, which the UK manufactures jointly with France. Moscow has warned that if any Western weapons are used for strikes deep inside Russia, it would share similar capabilities with parties elsewhere in the world that would use them against Western military assets. Moscow considers Kiev’s military tactics in Russia to be “terrorist.” Western nations arming Kiev share responsibility for atrocities committed by Ukrainian troops, officials have said.

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They set the whole thing up.

• US Lying About Involvement In Kursk Attack – Patrushev (RT)

Kiev would never dare to stage a large-scale incursion into Russian territory without Washington’s blessing and NATO support, former Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said. Last week, Kiev launched its largest attack on Russian territory since the outbreak of conflict in February 2022. Western officials have voiced their support for the incursion into Kursk Region but denied any prior knowledge or involvement in the operation. ”The US leadership’s claims of non-involvement in Kiev’s actions in Kursk Region do not correspond to reality… Without their participation and direct support, Kiev would not have ventured into Russian territory,” Patrushev told Izvestia in an interview published on Friday.

The adviser to President Vladimir Putin, who has recently been appointed to oversee Russia’s global maritime strategy, emphasized that the “West put the criminal junta at the head of Ukraine,” while “NATO countries have supplied Kiev with weapons, military instructors, and continuous intelligence while controlling the actions of neo-Nazis.” The operation in Kursk Region was also planned with the involvement of NATO and Western special services. The advance of Kiev’s troops was swiftly halted by Russian forces, although they maintain control over several settlements in Kursk Region. According to the local governor, at least 12 civilians have been killed and another 121 wounded due to the incursion, forcing more than 120,000 residents to evacuate.

”This criminal action stems from the premonition of the imminent collapse of the neo-Nazi Kiev regime,” Patrushev said, adding that “the residents of Ukraine are suffering for the sake of American interests, as the US has turned the country into a military anti-Russian project.” Russian officials have stated that by attacking civilians in Kursk Region, Kiev has eliminated any chance for peace talks—an objective that Ukrainian officials claim the incursion brings closer. Moscow characterizes Kiev’s military tactics in Russia as “terrorist,” while Western nations arming Kiev share responsibility for atrocities committed by Ukrainian troops, officials have asserted. ”Washington’s efforts have created all the prerequisites for Ukraine to lose its sovereignty and part of its territories, including those coveted by some American allies,” Patrushev added.

Ukraine breaching a soft spot in Russia's border was likely carried out based on US intelligence.

This was a done to create the illusion they are making progress so the DC warmongers will send them more money..

Make Peace You Fools! pic.twitter.com/NPdhJCc0k4

— Douglas Macgregor (@DougAMacgregor) August 15, 2024

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“Russia has been demonized to the point where Donald Trump has been blamed on the Russians – think what you will of that..”

• Zombie Russiagate Conspiracy Persists as US Stokes Fear, Hatred of Moscow (Sp.)

“Russiagate continues to survive like a science fiction monster, resilient to bullets,” writes former CIA analyst Ray McGovern in a piece on the website Consortium News, noting the longevity and usefulness of the conspiracy in continuing to stoke hostility towards Moscow among the American public. The notion that Russia interfered in the 2016 US presidential election or played a role in hacking leaked Democratic Party emails has persisted even after sworn testimony from the cyber security firm CrowdStrike confirmed the lack of evidence for the claim. “The mainstream media has been incredibly adept at suppressing all this stuff,” McGovern noted on Sputnik’s The Critical Hour program Wednesday. “No matter what we write in Consortium News or other outlets – it’s on antiwar.com now, too – or however much you and I share this information, we’re fighting an uphill battle.”

“Why is this important? Just to remind folks who might not reflect on this, Russia has been demonized to the point where Donald Trump has been blamed on the Russians – think what you will of that,” he continued. “And all kinds of other things have been blamed on the Russians to the point where if these not very emotionally stable people in the White House decide to go after the Russians in Ukraine or even get involved against the Russians in Syria or elsewhere in the Middle East, most of the American people say, ‘oh yeah, those damn Russians, didn’t they give us Donald Trump?’” The ingrained hostility towards Russia from the American public – and from Democratic Party supporters, in particular – has served as a useful tool in justifying continued US involvement in Ukraine’s proxy war against the country.

Former CIA head James Clapper, who presided over the agency’s illegal surveillance of the Donald Trump campaign during the 2016 election, has been instrumental in perpetuating the narrative. Clapper has made his distrust of Moscow clear, appearing to suggest nefarious qualities are somehow hardcoded into the DNA of Russian people. “[Clapper claimed] the historical practices of the Russians [make them] almost genetically driven to co-opt, penetrate, gain favor, whatever, which is a typical Russian technique,” McGovern recalled, calling him a “Russophobe extraordinaire.” A gene for dishonesty has yet to be found. But if one exists, Pompeo’s comment suggests it is most likely to predominate among CIA officials like Clapper, who have been responsible for the overthrow of dozens of world leaders and the deaths of millions of civilians.

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Oh sure. She’ll go MAGA.

• Harris Seeks to Distance Herself From Biden’s Unpopularity on Economy (Sp.)

US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris plans to distance herself from incumbent White House occupant Joe Biden’s unpopularity on the economy and other issues, Axios reported on Wednesday. While Harris does not intend to disclose this plan publicly, she wants to break with Biden on economic issues and, first of all, on rising prices, the report said, citing the vice president’s advisers. This is part of a “highly choreographed” effort aimed at portraying Harris as a different kind of Democrat, according to the report. Harris plans to share with voters how she would govern if she wins the November election during her first policy speech in North Carolina on Friday and in the address at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week, the report said. In North Carolina, she is expected to share her plans to lower costs of health care, housing and food for the middle class.

Doocy: Are you aware the VP is trying to distance herself from the Biden economy

KJP: She knows this is the Biden/Harris administration. 👀

WOW this is getting good. lol.

pic.twitter.com/U8xXYlf6fC

— Juanita Broaddrick (@atensnut) August 14, 2024

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Price gouging may have been an issue 100 years ago. Not today, not for consumer goods. For a company like Google, perhaps.

“..average costs paid by businesses have risen just as much as costs charged to consumers – if businesses are being “greedy,” they’re doing it all wrong…”

• Kamala’s First Economic Plan Proposes Price Controls To “Combat Inflation” (ZH)

After the unoriginal Vice President Kamala Harris stole former President Trump’s proposed ‘no tax on tips’ policy, she’s at it again with yet another recycled idea. This time, she’s echoing President Biden’s actions and rhetoric to crack down on sky-high food prices by proposing the first-ever federal ban on “corporate price-gouging in the food and grocery industries”—a move that reeks of socialism. “There’s a big difference between fair pricing in competitive markets, and excessive prices unrelated to the costs of doing business,” the Harris campaign wrote in a statement, adding, “Americans can see that difference in their grocery bills.” The Harris campaign said the vice president will unveil the new federal proposed ban on Friday at a campaign rally in the battleground state of North Carolina as part of a broader economic policy platform. The proposal will ensure food companies can’t exploit consumers to increase profits, according to CBS News, citing Harris-Walz campaign officials.

Harris’ policy speech will also call on the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys to examine corporations violating price-fixing rules. Her remarks are expected to echo Biden’s actions and rhetoric, especially with his war against meat processing companies that he alleges are responsible for higher burger prices at the supermarket. VP Harris’ campaign argues that lowering Americans’ costs is a function of socialist-style price controls. Yet this is the quickest way to understand that Harris’ economic team has no actual understanding of inflation. Heritage Foundation’s EJ Antoni explained, “Here’s your “price gouging” narrative: average costs paid by businesses have risen just as much as costs charged to consumers – if businesses are being “greedy,” they’re doing it all wrong…”

Instead of curbing out-of-control government spending, which debt rises $1 trillion every 100 days, and understanding that monetary inflation driven by the Federal Reserve’s money creation is the root cause of inflation, Harris deflects the actual problem: The Fed. She instead goes after big corporations for ‘illegal price gouging.’ Here’s a snippet of Money Metals Midweek Memo’s Mike Maharrey commenting on Harris’ proposed price-fixing ban on big food companies: The second “dumb” idea Maharrey discussed came from Vice President Kamala Harris, who was recently asked about her plan to combat inflation. Maharrey criticized her response, which he described as “word salad,” pointing out that she merely acknowledged the problem without offering any concrete solutions. Instead, she promised to take on “big corporations” engaging in “illegal price gouging,” corporate landlords, and big pharma.

Maharrey argued that Harris’s approach misses the root cause of inflation, which is monetary inflation driven by the Federal Reserve’s money creation. He cited the July budget deficit data, revealing that the Biden administration spent another $574 billion in just one month, running a $243 billion deficit. Maharrey emphasized that inflation is not caused by corporate greed but by the government’s excessive spending and borrowing. “Price inflation is a symptom of monetary inflation, which has everything to do with money creation by the Federal Reserve,” Maharrey explained. He warned that Harris’s proposed policies, including price controls, would likely lead to shortages and exacerbate the problem rather than solve it.

Kamala Harris's campaign claims grocery stores are price-gauging, but they're not. If they were, their annual profits wouldn't be just 1.2% when the all-industry average is 8.5%. The media will likely hide those numbers tomorrow when they fluff Harris' proposal. https://t.co/55oAOsxl1L pic.twitter.com/ysrV5Fa0SM

— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) August 15, 2024

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“She’s been taking her message to the voters and drawing large crowds. So she’s actually having those direct conversations..”

• “Would It Kill You Guys?” (ZH)

The Harris campaign’s ‘hide Kamala’ strategy may be working from a polling perspective – but it’s gone on so long that even CNN is getting annoyed. “Would it kill you guys to have a press conference?” asked the network’s Jim Acosta (of ‘shouting at Trump’ fame) during an interview with Harris communications director Michael Tyler. “I’m sure this is not going to be the first time you’ve heard this question, but the Trump campaign is also going after the vice president for not doing enough interviews, for not holding a press conference. Would it kill you guys to have a press conference? Why hasn’t she had a press conference?” To which Tyler laughed sheepishly and pivoted to robotic talking points about Harris and running mate Tim Walz being “busy” traveling around the country to multiple (teleprompter) campaign rallies.

“Michael, you know a campaign really isn’t really a press conference,” Acosta pushed back. “Why hasn’t she had a press conference? She’s the vice president, she can handle the questions, why not do it?” Tyler said Harris will sit down for a one-on-one interview before the end of the month, which Acosta said was “not a lot,” adding “can you commit to a press conference by the end of the month?” Tyler once again deflected – saying “We will commit to directly engage with the voters who are actually going to decide this election, and that is going to be complete with rallies, with sit-down interviews, with press conferences, with all the digital assets that we have at our disposal.”

From Trump War Room @TrumpWarRoom:

CNN: "Would it kill you guys to have a press conference?"

HARRIS SPOX: Kamala holds rallies so she can read from her teleprompter!

CNN: "A campaign rally is not a press conference."

HARRIS SPOX: "We're gonna be having a sit-down interview… pic.twitter.com/7yvbXG0Ubp

— Donald J. Trump Posts From His Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) August 14, 2024

CNN’s John Berman also pressed a Harris campaign spox over the VP’s lack of media presence. “The reason I was asking you about today is because it seems like she has time if she wanted to do an interview with a member of the media or do a news conference, correct? There does appear to be that time, if she wanted,” said Berman – to which Harris campaign spokeswoman Adrienne Elrod repeated Tyler’s talking point that Harris and Walz are bringing their message directly to voters. “She hit a number of battleground states. I think we had 15,000 people in Detroit last week, 12 to 13,000 in Nevada. She’s been taking her message to the voters and drawing large crowds. So she’s actually having those direct conversations,” said Elrod – before Berman cut her off. “But not today — all I’m saying is not today. She could do an interview today, I would think, you know, because she’s not out there today,” said the CNN host. Meanwhile, Trump did a lengthy press conference at Mar-a-Lago last week and had a 2 hour conversation with Elon Musk – something Harris clearly couldn’t pull off because her biggest liability, like Biden, is her brain.

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How do you avoid Walz’s (non-) service?

• Vance and Walz Agree to Oct. 1 Debate (ET)

A much-anticipated debate between Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz appears to be on as both vice presidential candidates have agreed to CBS’s proposal for an Oct. 1 face-off. The network issued a statement Wednesday indicating that it had invited both vice-presidential candidates to take part in a debate in New York City, presenting both campaigns with four dates as options: Sept. 17, Sept. 24, Oct. 1, and Oct. 8. Walz, who remains the presumptive Democratic Party nominee until the Democratic National Convention later this month, accepted the invitation in a message on X, writing: “See you on October 1, JD.” Vance, who initially told Fox News that he would most likely agree but that his team needed time to review the rules and conditions of the debate, agreed to the Oct. 1 debate and upped the ante by agreeing to another debate proposed by CNN.

“The American people deserve as many debates as possible, which is why President Trump has challenged Kamala to three of them already. Not only do I accept the CBS debate on October 1st, I accept the CNN debate on September 18th as well. I look forward to seeing you at both!” Vance wrote in a post on X. At the time of reporting, it was unclear whether Walz had agreed to the Sept. 18 debate proposed by CNN. Vance told Fox News on Wednesday after being asked whether he would agree to the Oct. 1 debate on CBS that he would most likely be there but that his campaign needed to review the conditions. “I strongly suspect we’re going to be there on October the 1st,” Vance said, but added the condition that “we’re not going to do one of these fake debates where they don’t actually have an audience there, where they don’t actually set the parameters in a way where we can have a good exchange of ideas.

“We’re going to do a real debate, and if CBS agrees to it, then certainly we’ll do it,” Vance said. The Ohio Republican drew a contrast between the large volume of media interviews that the Trump–Vance campaign has been giving compared to the Harris–Waltz campaign, adding that he wants to debate Walz several times because “it’s important for the American people to actually see us discuss our views.” Vance has criticized Vice President Kamala Harris for her lack of media availability since she became the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee. “I enjoyed sitting down with three of the major networks today to answer the tough questions any leader should answer,” Vance said in an Aug. 11 post on X, after giving three separate interviews on Sunday morning shows.

Harris has largely avoided answering questions from the press since replacing President Joe Biden as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, drawing criticism from conservatives and journalists alike. Previously, Vance said that he wouldn’t commit to a debate until Walz was officially named the vice presidential nominee, which is expected to take place at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, scheduled for Aug. 19–22. Historically, both of the major party presidential and vice presidential nominees have participated in debates. So far, Trump and Harris have agreed to one debate, which is to be hosted by ABC on Sept. 10. There has been speculation that other Trump–Harris debates could take place, though nothing has been formalized.

Walz

IT GETS WORSE FOR WALZ:

Unearthed footage from 2004 shows then-Rep. Tim Walz telling a Gold Star family that he deployed to Afghanistan and that he and the troops under his command struggled with PTSD.

WOW.pic.twitter.com/wrqIWXBcxH

— Rob Smith (@robsmithonline) August 13, 2024

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“..Dwight Eisenhower noted, “If in ten years, all American troops stationed in Europe for national defense purposes have not been returned to the United States, then this whole project will have failed.”

• It’s Time For America To Rethink Its Relationship With NATO (Bridge)

For over a century, the United States has had one overarching goal in Europe: ensuring that the continent’s economic and military power was divided among various states by preventing the rise of a European superstate that could usurp that power for itself. Now that that goal has been achieved, will Washington admit it’s time to Europeanize NATO? In the latest issue of Foreign Affairs, the influential voice of the U.S. establishment, Justin Logan and Joshua Shifrinson fire a shot across the bows of Brussels when they repeat the Trump mantra that “it’s time for Washington to Europeanize NATO and give up responsibility for the continent’s security.” “The United States should recognize that it has achieved its main goal in Europe,” Logan and Shifrinson write. “Having successfully ensured that no country can dominate the continent, it should embrace a new approach to the region.

Under a revised strategy, the United States would reduce its military presence on the continent, Europeanize NATO, and hand principal responsibility for European security back to its rightful owners: the Europeans.” As half of the U.S. electorate hopes to ‘make America great again’ with the populist Trump, that opinion is quickly going mainstream. As the soaring U.S. national debt and a souring economy become political hot-button issues in a critical election year, many Americans have come to the conclusion that Uncle Sam has been playing beat cop in Europe for far too long. In the aftermath of the Cold War, European nations made severe cuts to their military expenditures while Washington remained content to pick up the expensive slack. But as the U.S. defense budget nears $1 trillion per year, and millions of invading illegals pouring across the border from Latin America, it is becoming simply unaffordable for the U.S. taxpayer to subsidize the security of Europe any longer.

After all, Europe is quite capable of handling the task. The war in Ukraine is case in point. It boggles the mind that the 27 member states of the European Union, comprised of nearly half a billion people, should require a single American-made rifle in this regional conflict. After all, Europe is comprised of many strong and productive nations with respectable industrial centers. There is no reason why Europeans, who have been scheming about the creation of an ‘EU Army’ since the days of de Gaulle, cannot find the ways and means to handle the conflict for themselves (by comparison, Russia currently produces more than twice the number of artillery shells each month than Europe and the U.S. combined). The primary reason that Brussels has dropped the ball in Ukraine is because they have become spoiled by American largesse and have lost both the ability and the will to look after their own interests. America has been asked once again to fill the void at grave expense to its own national interests.

As JD Vance, the Republican Party’s nominee for the vice presidency, wrote in the pages of the Financial Times, “We owe it to our European partners to be honest: Americans want allies in Europe, not client states, and our generosity in Ukraine is coming to an end. Europeans should regard the conclusion of the war there as an imperative. They must keep rebuilding their industrial and military capabilities.”It’s important to keep in mind that NATO was never planned as a permanent fixture on the European continent. As Logan and Shifrinson emphasize, the Western military bloc was “expedient to protect Western European states as they recovered from World War II, facilitate Western European efforts to balance Soviet power, and integrate West Germany into a counter-Soviet coalition that would also help civilize German power.”

And as Russia has been at great pains to remind its Western colleagues, U.S. Secretary of State James Baker famously gave Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev the assurance on February 9, 1990 that the fledgling military bloc would not shift “one inch eastward.” And as far back as 1951, the supreme Allied commander in Europe, Dwight Eisenhower noted, “If in ten years, all American troops stationed in Europe for national defense purposes have not been returned to the United States, then this whole project will have failed.” Eisenhower would be shocked to see the level of American influence in Europe today. Obviously, the situation today bears no resemblance to the state of affairs fifty years ago. NATO has exploded into a 32-member fighting force, while former apprehensions of a resurgent Germany have given way to questions about Berlin’s role in the European hierarchy.

European countries and the United States no longer feel threatened by an ‘imperial Germany,’ yet there are powerful forces inside of the United States that will never cede Washington’s control over Brussels, and that largely explains the tremendous hostility that Trump faces as he makes another effort for the White House. The hawks have great disdain for this man who has shown a penchant for avoiding military conflict while threatening to leave NATO.

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“..censorship by surrogate” through which agencies did indirectly what they are barred from doing directly under the First Amendment..”

• Want More Freedom of Speech? Try Less Government (Turley)

It is time to get the United States out of the censorship business for good. In the last three years, the House of Representatives has disclosed a massive censorship system run in part with federal funding and with coordination with federal officials. A federal court described this system as truly “Orwellian.” The Biden Administration has made speech regulation a priority in targeting disinformation, misinformation or malinformation. President Joe Biden even said that companies refusing to censor citizens were “killing people.” His administration has now created an anti-free speech record that is only rivaled by the Adams Administration, which used the Alien and Sedition Acts to arrest political opponents. Jen Easterly, who heads the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, is an example of how speech controls and censorship have become mainstream.

Her agency was created to work on our critical infrastructure, but Easterly declared that the mandate would now include policing “our cognitive infrastructure.” That includes combating “malinformation,” or information “based on fact, but used out of context to mislead, harm, or manipulate.” I have testified for years about the censorship system. For much of that time, Democrats insisted that there was no proof of any coordination or funding from the government. Such evidence did indeed exist, but Democrats worked to block any investigation to confirm what we already knew about government officials targeting individuals and groups for throttling, bans, and blacklisting. Then Elon Musk bought Twitter. The release of the Twitter Files destroyed any plausible deniability of the government’s role in this censorship system. Various agencies had employees working with social media companies to target those with opposing or disfavored views. At the same time, we learned of grants from the federal government supporting blacklisting and targeting operations.

That includes efforts to quietly choke off the revenue of disfavored sites by pressuring advertisers and donors. While companies like Facebook have continued to fight to conceal their coordination with the government, the Twitter Files pulled back the curtain to expose the system. Indeed, Democrats largely abandoned their denials and turned to full-throated defenses of censorship, even calling free speech advocates “Putin-lovers” and “insurrectionist sympathizers.” In 1800, Thomas Jefferson defeated John Adams in the only election where free speech was a primary issue for voters. It should be again. Vice President Kamala Harris is known as a supporter for these censorship and blacklisting operations. She can now defend that record and convince Americans that they need to have less free speech. This debate should ideally focus on one simple legislative proposal. In my new book, I suggest various measures that can regain the ground that we have lost on free speech.

One such measure is a federal law that would ban any federal funding of any offices or programs (government, academic, or corporate) that rate, target, censor, throttle, or seek to take adverse action against individuals or groups based on their viewpoints in public forums or social media. There can be easy exceptions to this ban for individuals or groups engaging in criminal conduct or unlawful foreign interference with elections. Threatening individuals or trafficking in child pornography constitute conduct, not speech. They are criminal acts under the federal code. Nothing in this law would prevent the government from speaking in its own voice. If Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas wants to challenge claims made about him or his agency, he can do so on the agency website or make his case to the media. That is the essence of free speech. What he cannot do is create a Disinformation Governance Board to regulate the speech of citizens or groups.

In my prior testimony to Congress, I warned about the use of what I called “censorship by surrogate” through which agencies did indirectly what they are barred from doing directly under the First Amendment. This new law will not put an end to the burgeoning anti-free speech movement. It will not end the new market for groups making millions in seeking to silence or strangle sites with opposing views. However, it will create a wall of separation of the government from censorship systems. It would also offer a simple and clear line for the 2024 election. Candidates will have to take sides on free speech. If candidates like Harris want to continue to support the government in blacklisting or censoring citizens, they should own it. We spent years of politicians engaging in cynical denials of the government’s role in censorship. If these politicians are “all in” with censorship, then they should be honest about it and let voters make the same choice that was made in 1800.

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“I love New Zealand. I’m not leaving.”

• Kim Dotcom Defiant After NZ Approves Extradition For US Trial (ZH)

Internet mogul Kim Dotcom says he’s not going anywhere after New Zealand’s justice minister said on Thursday that he will be extradited to the Untied States on charges related to his defunct file-sharing website Megaupload. Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith announced that he had signed an extradition order for Dotcom, saying in a statement: “I considered all of the information carefully, and have decided that Mr Dotcom should be surrendered to the US to face trial,” adding “As is common practice, I have allowed Mr Dotcom a short period of time to consider and take advice on my decision.” The extradition order comes 12 years after an FBI-ordered raid on his Auckland mansion. In 2017, the high court in New Zealand first approved his extradition – with an appeal court reaffirming the finding in 2018. In 2020, the country’s supreme court again affirmed the finding, however they also left the door open for further judicial review.

Dotcom responded to the decision, posting on Tuesday that “the obedient US colony in the South Pacific just decided to extradite me for what users uploaded to Megaupload.” He later said: “I love New Zealand. I’m not leaving.” According to US authorities, Dotcom and three other Megaupload executives cost film studios over US$500 million by encouraging people to store and share copyrighted material – generating over US$175 million for his website. He also faces charges of money laundering and racketeering. The internet mogul says he should not be held personally liable for copyright infringement carried out on his site. “New Zealand copyright law (92b) makes it clear that an ISP can’t be criminally liable for actions of their users,” Dotcom noted in 2017 following the high court’s decision. “Unless you’re Kim Dotcom?”

Megaupload was based in Hong Kong until 2012, when the US seized the domain and shuttered the site. It relaunched in 2013 as Mega, with a New Zealand domain name, however Dotcom has had no involvement in the company since at least 2015. The company’s chief marketing officer, Finn Batato, and chief technical officer and co-founder, Mathias Ortmann, both from Germany, along with a third executive, the Dutch national Bram van der Kolk, were arrested in Auckland with Dotcom in 2012, according to The Guardian. Ortmann and Van der Kolk were sentenced to jail terms in 2023 under plea deals that avoided extradition, while Batato died in 2022 in New Zealand.

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“..the CIA is concerned that Trump did not initially take the RFK JR bait, and now they are going to run a public campaign to position their operative. I’ll say it again, Robert F Kennedy Jr is an intelligence asset.”

• RFK Jr Tried To Meet With Trump, Harris In Pursuit Of Cabinet Position (ZH)

Independent 2024 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr tried to land a meeting with Vice President Kamala Harris last week, in hopes of trading an endorsement for a top job in her administration, the Washington Post and other outlets reported Wednesday evening. So far, Team Harris has ignored RFK Jr’s pitch. “We’ve reached out repeatedly through the highest level intermediaries. We’ve been told that they have no interest in talking with me,” Kennedy told the New York Times. Separately, Kennedy expressed disappointment to the Post. “I think it is a strategic mistake for them. That’s my perspective,” Kennedy said. “I think they ought to be looking at every opportunity. I think it is going to be a very close race.” In July, Kennedy described Harris as “monumentally unpopular with her own party,” and condemned her tenure as attorney general in California, saying she worked to keep nonviolent criminals in jail in a “modern version of slavery” and thus “has one of the worst civil rights records of any public official.”

He also condemned her for being “a war hawk on Ukraine…a war hawk on China.” Kennedy’s poll numbers have sagged since the Democrats pressured President Biden into calling off his re-election campaign — which means his potential endorsement has also lost some zing. The Post says its averaging of polls in July had Kennedy backed by about 9% of voters. With Biden out and Harris in, his support has faded to around 5%. What’s more, some polls suggest that Kennedy’s presence on ballots is a net benefit to Harris. While Harris ignored the invitation, Kennedy did secure a meeting with Donald Trump last month in Milwaukee, and reportedly offered the same deal that he now wants to offer to Harris, with a specific interest in advising Trump on health and medical policy. It appears Kennedy’s top goal is a powerful position in the next administration, with little regard for whose administration it is.

[..] Some are suggesting Kennedy may not be operating in good faith…Like lawyer “sundance” at The Conservative Treehouse:

“It sounds to me like RFK Jr is trying to present a pressure point to entice President Trump to pull him closer. In other words, the CIA is concerned that Trump did not initially take the RFK JR bait, and now they are going to run a public campaign to position their operative. I’ll say it again, Robert F Kennedy Jr is an intelligence asset. Many of the low-information alligator emoji people are falling for it. A few CTH readers are also having a difficult time seeing the IC operation around RFK Jr, particularly because of the CIA involvement in the killing of his family patriarchs before. However, it is that angle of denial the IC is purposefully exploiting. RFK Jr is an intel asset. His people know we know.”

RFK
https://twitter.com/i/status/1823925998582219079

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Stone

Warning from Oliver Stone for Americans and Europeans about the misguided desire of the US to rule the world when multipolarity is rising and the fight for US supremacy is already lost. He suggests it’s better to drop a few ranks than to destroy the world. pic.twitter.com/PhJjHDcKO6

— Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) August 15, 2024

 

 

Globefish

A globefish, the sharpness of its teeth is unbelievable.

pic.twitter.com/juCQynsOzR

— The Best (@ThebestFigen) August 14, 2024

 

 

Sea lion
https://twitter.com/i/status/1824058973244330325

 

 

Seal

A seal accidentally scaring a baby polar bear is the CUTEST thing ever. 😂😭 pic.twitter.com/inhoDn8Y0k

— Nature is Amazing ☘️ (@AMAZlNGNATURE) August 15, 2024

 

 

Handsome

A handsome encountered by a man walking in the forest.pic.twitter.com/Yj7yJUA178

— Figen (@TheFigen_) August 14, 2024

 

 

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