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Per quanto di facciata la Cina possa essere un avversario degli Stati Uniti, l'avversario più grande rimane l'Europa. E lo è stata sin dalla Battaglia di Yorktown, potremmo dire. A tal proposito i dazi, oltre a limitare il flusso di dollari che scorrono all'estero e smantellare quell'arbitraggio commerciale contro gli USA che rifiutava di chiudersi, rappresentano il tentativo consapevole di isolare le élite europee dal resto del mondo. Siglare nuovi accordi bilaterali coi singoli Paesi lasciando fuori l'Europa e annullare la sua vecchia rete di privilegi e connessioni. Questo a sua volta significa costringere la cricca di Davos a venire allo scoperto, con i suoi membri e connessioni, e successivamente fare in modo che metta sul tavolo le sue di risorse di capitale, dato che adesso non ha più accesso facile alla stampante americana tramite l'eurodollaro. A tal proposito la presunta “confusione” di Trump sui vari temi spacciata dalla stampa generalista rappresenta un suo modo di intorbidire le acque affinché la sua amministrazione possa portare avanti il piano sopraccitato. Infatti come ci ha ricordato di recente Dimon, bisogna guardare a quel che fa e non a quel che dice. Suddetta “confusione”, inoltre, è un modo per testare la lealtà dei membri nel suo partito, perché, come in tutti i Paesi del mondo, ci sono fazioni che ne governano il percorso politico ed economico. Infatti esistono, in seno agli USA, quelle fazioni che fanno gli interessi di Europa e Cina, ad esempio, e sono perlopiù radicate in California. Non scordatevi, cari lettori, che questa è una guerra e al momento viene combattuta con i generali che vediamo e col piano che viene spiegato continuamente su queste pagine. Non saranno perfetti, ma è quello che abbiamo e speriamo che saranno sufficienti a ridimensionare la cricca di Davos.

______________________________________________________________________________________

da Zerohedge

(Versione audio della traduzione disponibile qui: https://open.substack.com/pub/fsimoncelli/p/scontro-sul-bilancio-dellue-solo)

Il giorno dopo la presentazione del nuovo bilancio pluriennale da parte della Commissione europea, il cancelliere tedesco Friedrich Merz si è autoproclamato il suo più accanito oppositore. Ciò a cui stiamo assistendo, tuttavia, non è altro che una lite orchestrata tra alleati.

Merz è stato il primo politico europeo di alto livello a respingere ufficialmente la proposta di mega-bilancio della Commissione europea. Ha definito le ambizioni di Bruxelles “inaccettabili” e ha concluso con il classico luogo comune politico secondo cui bisogna arrangiarsi con le risorse disponibili. La stessa persona, tuttavia, presiede un governo tedesco indebitato: quindi la massima si applica anche a lui?

La proposta della Commissione prevede una spesa di €1.816 miliardi tra il 2028 e il 2034, con un incremento di ben €750 miliardi.

Tattiche diversive e intenti strategici

Ciò a cui stiamo assistendo è una messa in scena, un rituale ben consunto, concepito per il consumo pubblico. L'obiettivo dichiarato delle élite europee è incoronare Bruxelles con la piena sovranità fiscale ed espandere l'organismo centrale dell'UE in un fulcro gravitazionale di potere geopolitico. Il risultato finale è un governo dei governi, una mega-struttura sovranazionale.

Ma per raggiungere questo obiettivo il consenso pubblico deve essere granitico. Non diciamo “manipolato”, diciamo: plasmato. Così le élite mandano in scena teatrini politici e distrazioni mediatiche. Il copione è semplice: Bruxelles pretende il massimo. Ne consegue un'indignazione prevedibile – come da parte di Merz – e alla fine entrambe le parti “scendono a compromessi” su una cifra che permetta a tutti di salvare la faccia e cantare vittoria.

Anche se Merz dovesse tagliare dal bilancio €100-200 miliardi, è probabile che ciò faccia ancora parte della strategia di pubbliche relazioni di Bruxelles.

Consolidamento fiscale: che ci piaccia o no

Gli stati membri dell'UE sovraindebitati, in particolare quelli del sud, stanno cercando di consolidare le proprie passività sotto l'egida protettiva della Commissione e hanno trovato nella Banca Centrale Europea il veicolo ideale. Con la BCE che sostiene il debito attraverso interventi continui e il controllo della curva dei rendimenti, l'illusione di solvibilità può essere mantenuta... a spese dei contribuenti europei.

Questo segnerebbe la fine di un mercato obbligazionario europeo frammentato. La piena integrazione eliminerebbe le ultime vestigia della concorrenza fiscale tra gli stati membri. Da quel momento sarà “fuoco a volontà”, tanto per citare lo stile del Segretario generale della SPD tedesca.

Se Bruxelles riuscisse a mettere in atto la sua innaturale trinità – consolidamento del debito, sovranità fiscale attraverso imposte sulle emissioni di CO₂ e sulle aziende, e introduzione di un euro digitale per arginare la fuga di capitali – allora ben poco potrebbe impedire alla visione di un'Europa totalitarista di materializzarsi.

Stati Uniti d'Europa

Bruxelles si crede vicina a raggiungere il suo obiettivo a lungo perseguito. Questo spiega la crescente ostilità verso i partiti nazional-conservatori, l'ultimo vero baluardo contro il sogno di un governo totale dei centralizzatori. Gli Stati Uniti d'Europa vengono costruiti su una volgare economia keynesiana, sostenuti dal controllo dei media e sulla più becera propaganda.

In fondo, è grottesco. Con leggi come il Digital Services Act e il Digital Markets Act i burocrati dell'UE confermano il loro timore: che il loro attacco frontale all'autonomia nazionale e alla libertà economica possa alla fine fallire. I segnali politici di Bruxelles sono difensivi e questa bozza di bilancio è un tentativo preventivo di consolidare la sua autorità in rovina.

Le braccia dello zombi

Una rapida occhiata al bilancio conferma la diagnosi: €131 miliardi sono destinati a progetti militari europei. Si tratta di un aumento di cinque volte, cosa che si aggiunge alle massicce espansioni militari nazionali. L'organismo centrale dell'UE, che si trova nelle prime fasi di una crisi fiscale, si sta ora ritirando nel militarismo.

Il panico mediatico nei confronti di Putin serve da giustificazione per attivare questo nuovo ramo dell'economia artificiale dell'euro.

L'altro ramo – il cosiddetto Green Deal – è mantenuto in vita da altri €700 miliardi in sussidi. Il 30% dell'intero bilancio dell'UE sarà ora destinato a far girare la macchina dei sussidi, iniettando denaro nelle fantasie verdi e nel rispetto della biodiversità degli anemici pianificatori dell'Eurozona.

È bizzarro. Mentre la Commissione cerca di infilare il Green Deal nelle narrazioni dei media generalisti, i gruppi ambientalisti attaccano di riflesso la bozza di bilancio, definendola incoerente. Com'era prevedibile, i sussidi non potranno mai soddisfare la crescente dipendenza della società dalla droga del denaro “gratis”. L'UE-Europa è diventata lo spacciatore, iniettando tale droga nel continente senza riguardo per le conseguenze sociali o economiche.

L'intero dibattito è slegato dalla realtà economica. È come se Bruxelles cercasse di affogare ogni critica nel denaro a buon mercato e di comprare il sostegno delle ONG con finanziamenti statali. Se gli oppositori dell'eurocentralismo non trovano finalmente il vento in poppa, altri anni persi ci attendono. Una cosa è particolarmente allarmante: la militarizzazione strisciante, sia nella retorica che nelle politiche.

Il fatto che la sinistra rimanga sostanzialmente in silenzio su questo argomento segna un cambiamento politico significativo. La competizione tra partiti è stata sostituita da un cartello di interessi.

Il militarismo come fine dei giochi

Dal punto di vista storico la militarizzazione è spesso sintomo di regimi che entrano nella loro fase terminale, un segno che hanno perso il controllo interno. L'offensiva di Bruxelles non è una dimostrazione di forza, ma una confessione di debolezza: l'edificio dell'UE si sta incrinando. La sua facciata di unità è tenuta insieme solo da fiumi di credito e da una crescente repressione del dissenso.

La spinta militarista non solo segnala una nuova corsa agli armamenti, ma inaugura anche un'UE post-sovietica. Gli interessi nazionali vengono sacrificati: in materia di energia, migrazione e sovranità fiscale. Il prezzo politico: un malcontento latente, un crescente sentimento anti-sistema e un crollo della fiducia nelle istituzioni.

Lo scontro di bilancio inscenato continua nella politica migratoria, dove voli di espulsione sfarzosi e controlli di frontiera simbolici offrono l'illusione di una risposta adeguata, ma nulla di più. Anche in questo caso, gli interessi di Bruxelles e la volontà della maggioranza europea divergono nettamente.

Diciamo la verità: Bruxelles, con l'aiuto dei suoi avamposti nazionali, sta portando avanti un programma globalista. Risolverne le conseguenze definirà il futuro politico e culturale del continente.

[*] traduzione di Francesco Simoncelli: https://www.francescosimoncelli.com/

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Well, it took long enough for the White House and the policy cliques to notice even the existence of the BRICS, the group of non–Western nations named for its first members.

For many years after Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa coalesced to form this loose but formidable association, in the last years of the last century, it was as if Washington were trying to will the group and all it represented out of existence.

And now look. The first thing the United States does as it acknowledges the BRICS, whose members currently number 11 and counting, is to announce that it will punish those nations belonging to it for … for belonging to it.

Earlier this month President Donald Trump — always the one to get this kind of nitwittery done — announced that he would impose blanket tariffs of 10 percent on all BRICS members — a threat he reiterated two weeks later, with the promise of more to come should the group’s members determine to exercise their sovereignty in the cause of common interests.

The Trumpster on this question said July 6:

“When I heard about this group from BRICS, six countries [sic], basically, I hit them very, very hard. And if they ever really form in a meaningful way, it will end very quickly. We can never let anyone play games with us.”

How’s that for the statecraft of a self-confident nation?

This display of juvenile impetulance coincided with the opening of the BRICS group’s 17th summit, hosted July 6–7 in Rio de Janeiro, as Brazil now holds the group’s rotating presidency.

The agenda included the usual sorts of things for these occasions: trade and investment, inclusive global governance, a global security architecture. This year’s summit also condemned the Israeli–American bombing runs against Iran three weeks prior to the session as “a violation of international law.”

Maybe Trump for once read the briefing papers the C.I.A. delivers to the Oval Office each morning and saw this coming, as he moved instantly to hit very, very hard a second time. Here he is on Truth Social, his digital bullhorn, even before BRICS leaders had checked out of their hotels:

“Any country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10% tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy.”

So clumsy, so off the mark, so utterly unaware of where the hands are on history’s clock. It is funny how often what the late-phase imperium intends as displays of strength turn out to be displays of uncertainty, weakness and impotence.

Here I must correct, and not for the first time, a misunderstanding among U.S. officials so common I conclude it is willful. There is not a damn thing the BRICS as a group has ever said, done, or stood for that is anti–American.

This group is about the construction of a world order built on a foundation of parity, the common good and international law. It would welcome the participation of all nations in this world-historical project, not least, given their capital and technology, the U.S. and the other Western powers.

It is anti–American only insofar as it opposes hegemonic power and— putting the point another way — insofar as the United States stands foursquare against all three of the above-noted principles.

I am surprised to note the extent of Washington’s insecurity as the BRICS nations move forward, especially given the lukewarm review the Rio summit got afterward from commentators straight across the board.

Lydia Polgreen, a New York Times columnist, termed the statements coming out of the Rio summit “milquetoast.” The group condemned the Iran bombings but did not name names, Polgreen argued.

On the other side of things, Chas Freeman, the distinguished ambassador emeritus, gave an interesting interview with Glenn Diesen 10 days ago under the headline, “The Old World Is Dying and the New World Struggles to be Born.”

Freeman lauded the BRICS for its accomplishments, among these its work creating alternative financial systems, the New Development Bank, launched in 2012, its outstanding achievement. But, in my interpretation of his remarks, Freeman was critical of the group for not acting more in concert — for not making itself a greater presence in geopolitical affairs.

Russia & Iran’s Nuclear Deal

In this connection I was struck by a report The Times of London carried July 13 under the headline, “Why is Putin pushing Tehran towards Trump’s nuclear deal?” “Russia is leaning on Iran,” Tom Parfitt reported, “to accept a deal that denies it the right to enrich uranium for any purpose.”

It is a good question, coming not quite a month after what we are now calling the Twelve–Day War against Iran.

Citing an earlier report in Axios, Parfitt noted, “Experts said that Moscow was probably pushing for a deal because it is wary of Iran disintegrating under renewed assault, which could threaten Russia’s economic interests.”

It was not clear at the time what Iran thought of Moscow’s advice on this point, but it seems plainer now: Iran is now preparing to reopen talks on its nuclear programs this Friday with Britain, France, and Germany, signatories to the accord the U.S. abandoned during Trump’s first term in 2018. This simply must be taken as an exploratory session to see if renewed talks with Washington may be possible.

Given that Iran is a BRICS member, and that Moscow and Tehran signed a wide-ranging strategic partnership last January, the questions raised are obvious. What are the BRICS and what are they not, or not yet? What do they expect of one another and what ought the rest of the world expect of them?

With its current membership, and excluding a dozen or so “partner countries,” BRICS members account for slightly more than 40 percent of the global population and a roughly similar proportion of global output as measured by purchasing power parity, known in the trade as PPP. Three of its members, China, India and Brazil, count among the world’s 10 largest economies.

O.K., but let’s note right off our frame of reference. This is a group whose shared interests are fundamentally economic as against strategic or geopolitical. This has been so from the first. The BRICS got their name indeed, from a Goldman Sachs economist who was specialized in middle-income nations, a.k.a. emerging markets.

Read the Whole Article

The post Washington Takes on the BRICS appeared first on LewRockwell.

Refugees International issued on July 23rd, signed by 115 NGOs and humanitarian organizations, the following notification:

https://www.refugeesinternational.org/advocacy-letters/joint-statement-as-mass-starvation-spreads-across-gaza-our-colleagues-and-those-we-serve-are-wasting-away/

https://archive.ph/IIJXD

“Joint Statement: As Mass Starvation Spreads Across Gaza, Our Colleagues and Those We Serve are Wasting Away”

As the Israeli government’s siege starves the people of Gaza, aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families. With supplies now totally depleted, humanitarian organisations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away [die, be murdered — but indirect passive terminology was preferred, for some reason, perhaps so as “not to offend” their largest donors] before their eyes.

Exactly two months since the Israeli government-controlled scheme, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, began operating, 100+ organizations are sounding the alarm, urging governments to act: open all land crossings; restore the full flow of food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter items, and fuel through a principled, UN-led mechanism; end the siege, and agree to a ceasefire now.

“Each morning, the same question echoes across Gaza: will I eat today?” said one agency representative.

Massacres at food distribution sites in Gaza are occurring near-daily. As of July 13, the UN confirmed 875 Palestinians were killed while seeking food, 201 on aid routes and the rest at distribution points. Thousands more have been injured. Meanwhile, Israeli forces have forcibly displaced nearly two million exhausted Palestinians with the most recent mass displacement order issued on July 20, confining Palestinians to less than 12 per cent of Gaza. WFP warns that current conditions make operations untenable. The starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is a war crime.

Just outside Gaza, in warehouses – and even within Gaza itself – tons of food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter items and fuel sit untouched with humanitarian organisations blocked from accessing or delivering them. The Government of Israel’s restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death. An aid worker providing psychosocial support spoke of the devastating impact on children: “Children tell their parents they want to go to heaven, because at least heaven has food.”

Doctors report record rates of acute malnutrition, especially among children and older people. Illnesses like acute watery diarrhoea are spreading, markets are empty, waste is piling up, and adults are collapsing on the streets from hunger and dehydration. Distributions in Gaza average just 28 trucks a day, far from enough for over two million people, many of whom have gone weeks without assistance.

The UN-led humanitarian system has not failed, it has been prevented from functioning.

Humanitarian agencies have the capacity and supplies to respond at scale. But, with access denied, we are blocked from reaching those in need, including our own exhausted and starved teams. On July 10, the EU and Israel announced steps to scale up aid. But these promises of ‘progress’ ring hollow when there is no real change on the ground. Every day without a sustained flow means more people dying of preventable illnesses. Children starve while waiting for promises that never arrive.

Palestinians are trapped in a cycle of hope and heartbreak, waiting for assistance and ceasefires, only to wake up to worsening conditions. It is not just physical torment, but psychological. Survival is dangled like a mirage. The humanitarian system cannot run on false promises. Humanitarians cannot operate on shifting timelines or wait for political commitments that fail to deliver access.

Governments must stop waiting for permission to act. We cannot continue to hope that current arrangements will work. It is time to take decisive action: demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire; lift all bureaucratic and administrative restrictions; open all land crossings; ensure access to everyone in all of Gaza; reject military-controlled distribution models; restore a principled, UN-led humanitarian response and continue to fund principled and impartial humanitarian organisations. States must pursue concrete measures to end the siege, such as halting the transfer of weapons and ammunition.

Piecemeal arrangements and symbolic gestures, like airdrops or flawed aid deals, serve as a smokescreen for inaction. They cannot replace states’ legal and moral obligations to protect Palestinian civilians and ensure meaningful access at scale. States can and must save lives before there are none left to save.

Signatories:

American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)

A.M. Qattan Foundation

A New Policy

ACT Alliance

Action Against Hunger (ACF)

Action for Humanity

ActionAid International

American Baptist Churches Palestine Justice Network

Amnesty International

Asamblea de Cooperación por la Paz

Associazione Cooperazione e Solidarietà (ACS)

Bystanders No More

Campain

CARE

Caritas Germany

Caritas Internationalis

Caritas Jerusalem

Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD)

Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM)

CESVI Fondazione

Children Not Numbers

Christian Aid

Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP)

CIDSE- International Family of Catholic Social Justice Organisations

Cooperazione Internazionale Sud Sud (CISS)

Council for Arab‐British Understanding (CAABU)

DanChurchAid (DCA)

Danish Refugee Council (DRC)

Development and Peace – Caritas Canada

Doctors against Genocide

Episcopal Peace Fellowship

EuroMed Rights

Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL)

Forum Ziviler Friedensdienst e.V.

Gender Action for Peace and Security

Glia

Global Legal Action Network (GLAN)

Global Witness

Health Workers 4 Palestine

HelpAge International

Human Concern International

Humanity & Inclusion (HI)

Humanity First UK

Indiana Center for Middle East Peace

Insecurity Insight

International Media Support

International NGO Safety Organisation

Islamic Relief

Jahalin Solidarity

Japan International Volunteer Center (JVC)

Justice for All

Kenya Association of Muslim Medical Professionals (KAMMP)

Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation

MedGlobal

Medico International

Medico International Switzerland (medico international schweiz)

Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP)

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC)

Medicine for the People – Belgium (MPLP/GVHV)

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

Médecins du Monde France

Médecins du Monde Spain

Médecins du Monde Switzerland

Mercy Corps

Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA)

Movement for Peace (MPDL)

Muslim Aid

National Justice and Peace Network in England and Wales

Nonviolence International

Norwegian Aid Committee (NORWAC)

Norwegian Church Aid (NCA)

Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA)

Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)

Oxfam International

Pax Christi England and Wales

Pax Christi International

Pax Christi Merseyside

Pax Christi USA

Pal Law Commission

Palestinian American Medical Association

Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF)

Palestinian Medical Relief Society (PMRS)

Peace Direct

Peace Winds

Pediatricians for Palestine

People in Need

Plan International

Première Urgence Internationale (PUI)

Progettomondo

Project HOPE

Quaker Palestine Israel Network

Rebuilding Alliance

Refugees International

Saferworld

Sabeel‐Kairos UK

Save the Children (SCI)

Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund

Solidarités International

Støtteforeningen Det Danske Hus i Palæstina

Swiss Church Aid (HEKS/EPER)

Terre des Hommes Italia

Terre des Hommes Lausanne

Terre des Hommes Nederland

The Borgen Project

The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM)

The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (GCR2P)

The International Development and Relief Foundation

The Institute for the Understanding of Anti‐Palestinian Racism

Un Ponte Per (UPP)

United Against Inhumanity (UAI)

War Child Alliance

War Child UK

War on Want

Weltfriedensdienst e.V.

Welthungerhilfe (WHH)

This article was originally published on Eric’s Substack.

The post Public Letter on Starvation of Gaza appeared first on LewRockwell.

In a stunning expression of the Globalist-Fascist takeover of the Netherlands, the Netherlands police have arrested Arno van Kessel, the lead attorney suing Bill Gates, Albert Bourla, Mark Rutte et al. for COVID-19 vaccine injuries.

The civil process was scheduled to begin on July 9; Mr. van Kessel was arrested in a Gestapo-reminiscent early morning raid by paramilitary police on June 11, where he was reportedly blindfolded, bound, and taken into detention, where he remains almost two months later.

Readers will note my tardiness in reporting this stunning story. The reason is because both the European and the American press have completely ignored both the civil trial against Gates, Bourla, Rutte et al. and van Kessel’s arrest.

I knew nothing about van Kessel’s arrest until last night, when my co-author, Dr. Peter McCullough, forwarded to me a report by INFOWARS journalist, Adan Salazar. Once again, the so-called “conspiracy theorist” Alex Jones has proven to be one of the first guys to report the shocking reality of what is going on.

Salazar’s report prompted me to do a Google Netherlands search with the key words Arno van Kessel gearresteerd — that is, “Arno van Kessel arrested”—and I got one search result for a June 27 report in an independent online journal called Der Andere Krant (The Other Newspaper). The following is an English translation.

Arno van Kessel will be held in custody for an additional ninety days because the Public Prosecution Service continues to designate him as a “suspect in an investigation into a criminal network,” yet without presenting any evidence. This means the Leeuwarden lawyer will definitely not be present at the public hearing on July 9th in the Leeuwarden District Court, where the first substantive hearing in the internationally high-profile case against, among others, the State of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, and Bill Gates is scheduled. His partner, Peter Stassen, is on his own, but says he will “appear fully equipped.”

In early June, this newspaper reported that there was finally some progress in the internationally high-profile lawsuit by Leeuwarden lawyer Arno van Kessel https://deanderekrant.nl/nieuw-hoofdstuk-in-rechtszaak-tegen-bill-gates-en-mark-rutte/and his Eindhoven colleague Peter Stassen. In 2023, the legal duo announced they would file legal proceedings against Bill Gates, Mark Rutte, and the Dutch State, among others. On behalf of their clients, they want to force the judge to issue a clear ruling on the question: was the COVID-19 mRNA injection a vaccine for the benefit of the population’s health, or a bioweapon? Van Kessel said: “It’s one or the other, and there’s no in between.”

The Northern Netherlands District Court, Leeuwarden location, announced in early June 2025 – finally – that the first substantive hearing of the case is scheduled for July 9th. On Wednesday morning, June 11th, there was a completely unexpected turn of events. Arno van Kessel was dragged from his bed early in the morning by a special intervention team with a considerable display of force. The lawyer, his daughter, and his wife were even briefly held at gunpoint.

A day later, the police published a report on the website politie.nl linking Van Kessel to “a criminal network.” According to a press release issued by the Public Prosecution Service, eight people were arrested that morning for “adhering to anti-institutional ideology and possibly intending to use violence.” One of them was quickly released, while the other seven were held in restricted custody for two weeks, meaning the suspects were not allowed any contact with the outside world. Van Kessel – as was announced last week – was being held in a cell in Vught.

In recent weeks, several stories have appeared in the mainstream media about a network of so-called sovereigns. These “anti-institutionalists” may have been planning something related to the NATO summit. Weapons and explosives may have been found, but any hard evidence or substantiation remains lacking to this day. The suggestion that Van Kessel is also part of a dangerous criminal group has been raised. The charges have since been partially withdrawn. The AD newspaper reported last week that the Public Prosecution Service has been unable to substantiate a plan to disrupt the NATO summit. “We have investigated whether there is an imminent threat. This has not been proven.”

On Thursday, June 26, the Public Prosecution Service released more news after a long silence. One suspect has been released, but “six suspects in the investigation into a criminal network, in which a large proportion of the arrested suspects espouse anti-institutional ideology and may have the intention to use violence, will remain in custody for an additional 90 days,” the Public Prosecution Service announced. Van Kessel is one of those suspects who will remain in custody for another 90 days. The Public Prosecution Service states that it needs more time for the investigation and that “given the state of the investigation, it is not possible to respond substantively to questions about the progress, suspicions, and findings,” according to the Public Prosecution Service.

It’s remarkable that the mainstream media continues to use the “sovereign” frame. This is despite the fact that it was already clear in the first days after the arrest that Van Kessel is not a sovereign. As a lawyer, he is following the institutional path with his case. Van Kessel is also not known for being violent. He openly and unashamedly proclaims his faith in Jesus Christ everywhere, which implies that he opposes violence. The media writes nothing about this. They also ignore the story of Van Kessel’s partner (see box).

Peter Stassen – who is temporarily acting as head of Van Kessel’s law firm – told De Andere Krant that he, too, has not had any contact with his partner since June 11th. According to Stassen, restraining a suspect is one of the most severe measures the Public Prosecution Service has at its disposal, “so they have to produce very strong evidence.” So far, he has seen nothing. The Public Prosecution Service told this newspaper that “the Public Prosecution Service realizes that this is a very serious instrument and should not be used lightly,” but declined to comment further on the case.

The Eindhoven lawyer has since received word from the chairman of the Dutch Bar Association, the body responsible for overseeing the legal profession, that suspension proceedings have been initiated against Van Kessel. One way or another, it is therefore certain that Van Kessel will not be present on July 9th. Stassen did, however, make it very clear that despite his inadequate preparation, he “will be fully equipped.”

Stassen will also give a lecture in Groningen on July 1st about the latest developments. “It will go ahead as planned. I will explain a great deal in it, including addressing the State’s defense, in which they very clearly make personal attacks on the experts we want to speak,” says Stassen. More information about this can be found at Rechtoprecht.online.

Many suspect that attorney Van Kessel has gotten too close to the truth in the coronavirus case. This has led to the case being associated with the prosecution of German lawyer Reiner Fuellmich. We will discuss the case in more detail in the next edition of De Andere Krant.

The case strikes me as another example of how Globalist gangsters no longer even try to conceal that they have gone Full Fascist. Arresting a plaintiffs attorney in a late night raid of his home and detaining him for months on vague accusations of “espousing an anti-institutional ideology” is so crassly totalitarian as to be almost beyond belief.

Not surprisingly, the hopelessly fallen New York Times hasn’t reported van Kessel’s arrest. Once widely regarded as the thoroughbred of U.S. news reporting, the Times now resembles an old, swayback donkey covered with manure. The English language is insufficient for me to express the depth of my contempt for that useless rag, unworthy of being used as ersatz toilette paper in a subway station public restroom.

The German press is no better. A Google Germany search for niederländischer Anwalt Arno van Kessel verhaftet (“Netherlands attorney Arno van Kessel arrested”) yielded not a single report from a single major German newspaper. How is this possible?

I thought I’d grown accustomed to being presented with evidence that a cabal of globalists and their puppets—such as former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who is now Secretary General of NATO—run the world, but it occurs to me this morning that this story beats them all. Please forward this critically important report to your friends.

Author’s Note: If you found this report interesting and informative, please consider being a paid subscriber to the Focal Points. For just $5 per month, you can support us in our efforts to investigate and report the reality of what is going on in our world. During these languid days of summer we have lost many of our paid subscribers who have—understandably—grown fatigued with many of the themes we’ve been reporting since we started our newsletter in October 2022. I hope the above story will serve as a reminder of the importance of supporting independent, investigative reporters like us.

Postscript: The arrest of Arno van Kessel is yet another stunning example of how vaccines have been a remunerative religion that was first erected in the 18th century. Belief in vaccines is a matter of strict orthodoxy. As we show in our new book, Vaccines: Mythology, Ideology, and Reality, those who question their safety and efficacy have long been treated like those branded as heretics during the religious wars of Europe between approximately 1517 and 1648.

When it comes to imposing vaccines on the public, those in power have consistently acted as though the ends justify the means, no matter how ruthless and even criminal the means may be. What is happening to Mr. van Kessel is merely the latest persecution in what may be characterized as a vaccine religious war that has been going on for three hundred years. Please click on the image below to check out the Amazon page for the book, whose official publication date is this Tuesday, July 29.

This article was originally published on Courageous Discourse.

The post Lawyer Suing Gates & Bourla for Covid VAX Injuries Arrested and Imprisoned in Netherlands appeared first on LewRockwell.

People are drowning in the shallow waters of self-esteem. For decades, the high priests of pop psychology and the wardens of politics have peddled a dangerous gospel: that feeling good about oneself is the highest good.

This therapeutic tyranny, whispered from leather couches, insists that self-worth is a prize to be given, not an honor to be earned.

Has the public been sold a bill of goods? Our elites swap the cheap sugar of affirmation for the red meat of character. This isn’t a mere misstep but poison that is corrupting the national soul.

The architects of this grand deception deliberately confuse two distinct concepts: self-esteem and self-image. Self-esteem is a fleeting emotional vapor. Self-image is a clear-eyed reckoning of what you are and what you can become.

The pioneers who carved a nation from wilderness weren’t burdened by chasing warm fuzzies. They stood firm on an honest self-image, aware of both strengths and faults.

Achievement springs not from narcissism but from relentless self-critique. The humble man, conscious of his flaws, builds empires. The peacock, strutting on inflated pride, accomplishes nothing.

This obsession with internal validation spawns a rotten public counterpart: the cult of nice. In the parlors of power and Ivy League lounges, a new commandment reigns: Thou Shalt Be Nice. But—as this writer’s First Law decrees— “Nice is not a virtue.”

Nice is cowardice masquerading as courtesy, silencing plain truths for fear of offense.

This pathology can be seen in some of the forward-facing “celebrities” within the Church hierarchy. In the case of wolves in sheep’s clothing like James Martin, S.J., pastoral agreeableness trumps doctrinal truth and, in doing so, it sacrifices centuries of wisdom on the altar of accommodation.

Another favorite pastime of Martin’s is to weaponize the term “inclusion” to silence dissent, while hurling the bizarre tag of “othering” at faithful Americans, casting them as outsiders in their own land.

Forgotten Americans, however, are aware of the difference. They demand truth over therapy and justice over tolerance. This isn’t a debate over manners but a battle for civilization’s moral foundations.

The classical virtues are not “nice.” They are demanding. Saint John the Baptist did not offer Herod a lifestyle dialogue when he delivered the righteous rebuke that cost him his head.

Charity lives in truth’s strong embrace, not relativism’s flimsy hug. While it isn’t kind to let a man wander in darkness, it is an act of love to show him the harsh light of reality. Our culture’s revival must begin by shattering the mirror of self-esteem and embracing the stark reflection of an accurate self-image.

This is our fight—and it’s not merely against bureaucrats or globalists this time around. The battle is against a weakness within.

The choice? It’s between the fleeting comfort of “nice” and the enduring strength of virtue.

The truth, as a wise man once said, is like a lion. We need not defend it. It needs only to be unleashed.

This article was originally published on The O’Leary Review.

The post The Tyranny of Nice: How We Traded Virtue for Vibes appeared first on LewRockwell.

President Trump has recently suggested that, unless Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell cuts interest rates, the president might revert to his The Apprentice days and tell Powell, “you’re fired.”

President Trump backtracked on firing Powell after the president’s comments caused stock markets to fall. However, it is almost certain that President Trump will not reappoint Powell when Powell’s term ends in May.

Media reports indicate the leading candidates to replace Powell include Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, former Federal Reserve Board Governor Kevin Warsh, and National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett.

A more interesting question than who will replace Powell is why would anyone want to, since the next Fed chairman will likely face another Fed-caused meltdown.

The national debt is over 37 trillion dollars and rising. Yet few in Congress are serious about cutting federal spending. This puts pressure on the Fed to keep interest rates low to limit the cost of ongoing debt interest payments. So, the Fed continues monetizing the debt, pumping more money into the economy, weakening the dollar’s purchasing power, and eroding the American people’s standard of living. The Federal Reserve’s low interest rate policy also distorts the market, leading to the bubble-boom-and-bust business cycle that has plagued the American economy since the last link between the dollar and gold was severed in 1971.

The Fed’s job is also made more difficult by a reduced demand for Treasury securities among investors, causing the Fed to increase its purchases. This pumps more money into the economy, further eroding the dollar’s value.

Concerns about the national debt’s effect on monetary policy are a key factor behind the recent increase in gold prices and the interest in cryptocurrencies. The danger posed by the national debt is one reason why foreign countries are increasing their gold holdings and considering challenging the US dollar’s world reserve currency status.

Whoever succeeds Jerome Powell as Fed chairman will face a no-win choice. He could try to keep interest rates low to ensure the federal government’s interest payments remain manageable, at the cost of making it more likely the US economy will face another Federal Reserve caused meltdown. Instead, he could try increasing rates to limit price increases thus raising the cost of managing government (and private sector) debt to unsustainable levels, throwing the economy into a severe downturn.

Congress members and President Trump are attacking Chairman Powell for spending over two billion dollars on Federal Reserve headquarters renovations. This is a waste of taxpayer money, but it pales in comparison to the harm suffered by the American people because of the Federal Reserve’s inflationary policies.

Treasury Secretary Bessent has suggested expanding the investigation beyond the costs of renovating the Fed headquarters to examination of “the entire Federal Reserve institution” to determine if the Fed has “succeeded in its mission.” This suggests Secretary Bessent would support passing the Audit the Fed legislation, which is a step toward returning to a constitutional and sound monetary policy. However, anyone who understands Austrian economics knows a fiat money system managed by a secretive central bank can never succeed in creating lasting prosperity and will eventually crash the economy.

No person or persons can know the “correct” interest rates, and the Federal Reserve’s attempts to control interest rates are destructive like other central planning. The proper answer to who should be Fed chairman is…nobody.

The post Nobody for Fed Chairman appeared first on LewRockwell.

The Firestorm Over Trump’s Refusal to Release the Epstein Files

Several months ago, the Trump Administration fulfilled one of its campaign pledges and declassified a large batch of JFK Assassination files, finally making them publicly available after sixty-odd years.

Few of these unredacted documents seemed to contain anything new or interesting, with the most dramatic memo being the report that longtime CIA Counter-Intelligence Chief James Jesus Angleton had a very close relationship with the Israeli Mossad, and was believed by some to have assisted Israel in developing its nuclear weapons program. That item quickly went viral on Twitter and was heavily emphasized by those bloggers discussing the document-dump.

While these facts were certainly interesting, I hardly regarded them as shocking discoveries. For example, renowned investigative journalist Seymour Hersh had revealed Angleton’s extremely close relationship with Israeli intelligence in his 1991 bestseller The Samson Option, while Michael Collins Piper’s seminal 1994 book Final Judgment had fingered Angleton as a likely Israeli asset who had greatly abetted that country’s nuclear weapons development effort. Indeed, shortly after Angleton’s death more than 37 years ago, an article in the Washington Post revealed that he had “reportedly aided Israel in obtaining nuclear data.” So if certain facts had already been widely known or suspected for more than 37 years, their apparent confirmation in a declassified government document could hardly be regarded as revolutionary.

But the huge wave of renewed public interest in the JFK Assassination prompted Mike Whitney to interview me about that subject. This provided me an opportunity to summarize my previous half-dozen years of investigation in a lengthy piece that soon received quite a lot of readership and attention.

• How Israel Killed the Kennedys
  Ron Unz and Mike Whitney • The Unz Review • March 24, 2025 • 11,500 Words

Then earlier this month, Trump reversed himself on his pledge to declassify and release all the government files related to a different high-profile criminal case, and this surprising U-turn provoked an even larger storm of public controversy.

Back in 2019, a mysterious wealthy financier named Jeffrey Epstein had been arrested on charges of molesting minors and sex-trafficking them to many dozens of America’s richest and most powerful individuals, amid widespread suspicions that he had been running a sexual blackmail ring on behalf of a foreign intelligence agency. According to media reports, an enormous trove of sexually-incriminating photographs and videos had been found in the safe of his huge New York City mansion.

Six years ago this Tuesday, soon after Epstein’s arrest, I’d published a long article on the case, placing it in the broader context of the crucial role that blackmail seemed to play in secretly controlling many of America’s top political leaders.

• American Pravda: John McCain, Jeffrey Epstein, and Pizzagate
  Ron Unz • The Unz Review • July 29, 2019 • 6,400 Words

In that piece, I’d explained that I’d never paid any attention to the wild Epstein stories circulating on the Internet, dismissing them as just too bizarre to possibly be true.

For many years, reports about Epstein and his illegal sex-ring had regularly circulated on the fringes of the Internet, with agitated commenters citing the case as proof of the dark and malevolent forces that secretly controlled our corrupted political system. But I almost entirely ignored these discussions, and I’m not sure that I ever once clicked on a single link.

Probably one reason I paid so little attention to the topic was the exceptionally lurid nature of the claims being made. Epstein was supposedly an enormously wealthy Wall Street financier of rather mysterious personal background and source of funds, who owned a private island and an immense New York City mansion, both regularly stocked with harems of underage girls provided for sexual purposes. He allegedly hobnobbed on a regular basis with Bill Clinton, Prince Andrew, Harvard’s Alan Dershowitz, and numerous other figures in the international elite, as well as a gaggle of ordinary billionaires, frequently transporting those individuals on his personal jet known as “the Lolita Express” for the role it played in facilitating illegal secret orgies with young girls. When right-wing bloggers on obscure websites claimed that former President Clinton and the British Royals were being sexually serviced by the underage girls of a James Bond super-villain brought to life, I just naturally assumed those accusations were the wildest sort of Internet exaggeration.

Moreover, these angry writers did occasionally let slip that the fiendish target of their wrath had already been charged in a Florida courtroom, eventually pleading guilty to a single sexual offense and receiving a thirteen month jail sentence, mitigated by very generous work-release provisions. This hardly seemed like the sort of judicial punishment that would lend credence to the fantastical accusations against him. If Epstein had already been investigated by law enforcement authorities and given the sentence one might expect for writing a bad check, I found it quite unlikely that he was actually the Goldfinger or Dr. No that deluded Internet activists made him out to be.

But once Epstein’s arrest and the resulting media coverage confirmed the reality of those astonishing stories, a huge blizzard of political agitation erupted. This became far greater when Epstein was suddenly found dead in his maximum security prison cell, having allegedly committed suicide while the guards tasked with checking his safety had happened to fall asleep and the video cameras monitoring his cell had strangely malfunctioned. Many very powerful people surely breathed a huge sign of relief at Epstein’s sudden demise, so all but the most credulous became extremely suspicious at this strange turn of events.

During the half-dozen years since then, the Epstein case and its many conspiratorial elements had become a huge issue in political activist circles, especially those on the far right. Perhaps partly as a consequence, bizarre theories involving networks of elite pedophiles later became the heart of the wildly popular QAnon movement.

Most of the groups and individuals holding those views regarded Donald Trump as their great hero and paladin, the leader who would defeat those diabolical villains and bring them to justice if he somehow managed to regain the White House, and his promise to release all the Epstein files energized many of his supporters. Leading right-wing influencers in the Trump camp such as Dan Bongino had made the Epstein files one of their signature issues, so Bongino’s appointment as Deputy Director of the FBI seemed proof that Trump would soon honor that pledge.

But then three weeks ago, the Trump Administration reversed its position and declared that no additional Epstein files would be released, even suggesting that much of the material didn’t actually exist. This naturally produced howls of outrage by Trump’s erstwhile supporters. Elon Musk ridiculed Trump in an insulting meme that was viewed more than 63 million times:

With no further Epstein files released, no new facts existed. So I fully stood by the analysis I’d originally presented in my 2019 article. But now that this enormous outpouring of public controversy has returned the issue to the center of national attention, I’ve decided to expand and extend what I had previously written.

Former FoxNews host Tucker Carlson is probably the biggest figure in today’s fragmented media landscape and a crucial supporter of Donald Trump. But he and many others like him have strongly denounced the administration’s reversal on the release of the Epstein files.

The largest youthful pro-Trump organization is called Turning Point USA, and Carlson happened to give a speech to the huge audience at their annual convention a few days after Trump’s decision. He dramatically declared that that not a single person he knew in DC doubted that Epstein had been running a blackmail operation on behalf of the Israeli Mossad, and despite that controversial statement his speech drew widespread cheers. This suggests that his remarks—and the positive reaction they attracted—may themselves mark “a turning point” in what had been decades of uniformly pro-Israel sentiments among American conservatives. So ideas once marginalized or considered entirely forbidden may now apparently be freely discussed, sometimes even attracting widespread support, and this may be the most important lasting legacy of the current political firestorm over the Epstein files.

Video Link

Indeed, given Carlson’s words only the most willfully blind could fail to connect such Mossad operations with the unwavering levels of support that Israel has long enjoyed from our members of Congress. Over the last couple of years, nearly the entire rest of the world has come to regard Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as one of modern history’s worst war-criminals, now under indictment by the International Court of Justice for his horrific ongoing massacre of Gaza’s helpless civilians. But when he has visited Congress, the trained barking seals of that political body have provided him endless standing ovations. Obviously the money and media deployed by the Israel Lobby explain most of this behavior, but the powerful role of blackmail has almost certainly supplemented those factors.

The notion that many of our own elected officials are being ruthlessly blackmailed by a foreign power must surely outrage most patriotic Americans, and the increasing circulation of these ideas may eventually have important consequences. Just a few days after Carlson’s remarkable speech, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of the fiercest MAGA partisans in Congress, surprisingly joined with Democrats Reps. Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, two of her most leftwing colleagues, in voting to cut U.S. funding for Israel. This resolution only attracted a handful of supporters, but small cracks in a dam sometimes presage much larger breaks.

Epstein’s operation has widely been described as a Mossad “honeytrap,” the term for intelligence projects that use women to ensnare prominent, unsuspecting men in sexual blackmail, but there seemed to be some puzzling aspects to this picture.

Given the enormous scale of Epstein’s operation and the decades that it had remained in place, it’s difficult to believe that so many wealthy, well-connected individuals could have naively fallen into his clutches. Surely the stories of all his underage girls and the rumors of his hidden cameras would have gotten around. And billionaires strongly interested in such illicit pleasures could easily have arranged these for themselves rather than risking Epstein’s blackmail demands.

The answer to this puzzle is an obvious one, though I’ve only seen it explained by Internet provocateur Andrew Anglin, whose key explanatory phrase was “voluntary blackmail.”

He pointed out that the dark, secret forces such as Mossad that control much of American politics would only lend their support to those persons whom they considered fully under their control, and powerful blackmail evidence was the surest means of establishing such control. In effect, those individuals who wanted to advance their careers or gain powerful hidden allies would knowingly use Epstein’s services to create a blackmail tape of their illegal sexual activity with underage girls, thereby marking themselves as “safe” recipients of support. He stated all of this in his usual crude, insulting style:

So, it’s definitely not a “conspiracy theory.” Let’s make sure we don’t get lost here. The government has a lot of information on what certainly and definitely appears to be a “Mossad blackmail ring,” which involved people, presumably voluntarily, allowing themselves to be recorded having sex with underage girls.

That’s another point to be clear on: you would have to be retarded to do it just because you were horny. Prince Andrew appears to have actually done that, but he also appears to clearly suffer from mental retardation. Normal people who we would be talking about here would knowingly have illicit sex on video for the Mossad to keep so that powerful Jews would know they were loyal and give them promotions…

However, whenever you’re talking about a “blackmail ring,” you’re talking pretty much exclusively about voluntary blackmail. Any kind of systematic blackmail is necessarily voluntary, as you are not going to set up a system of seducing people and tricking them into having sex on video. It has been a thing since forever that criminal gangs require someone to do some crime, such as murder, and then keep some evidence on them. It’s just common sense that if you have evidence of someone committing a serious crime, or something that would otherwise destroy their life, you’re going to trust them, because no such person is going to betray you.

Anglin may have regarded the point he was making as a totally obvious one, and perhaps that’s correct. But I hadn’t really considered it myself, nor had I seen anyone else make it in such explicit fashion.

Over the centuries, many secret societies have similarly inducted their members with extreme initiation rituals, and the traditional mafia supposedly required its candidates to commit a murder in order to become “a made man.” As Anglin later explained, the popular 1973 crime film Serpico was based upon real life events, and the corrupt NYC officers it portrayed required all of their colleagues to join them in taking bribes and payoffs, fearing that those who refused might eventually decide to report their illegal activities.

Ironically enough, a sentence I’d published a decade ago had made exactly that point, and I’d quoted it again in my 2019 Epstein article. But I’d never followed through on the idea nor considered its full implications:

I have sometimes joked with my friends that perhaps the best career move for an ambitious young politician would be to secretly commit some monstrous crime and then make sure that the hard evidence of his guilt ended up in the hands of certain powerful people, thereby assuring his rapid political rise.

Read the Whole Article

The post Jeffrey Epstein, the Franklin Scandal, Pedophilia, and Political Blackmail appeared first on LewRockwell.

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The post Ana Kasparian: Epstein Cover-Up, Israel Strikes Gaza Church, & the Great American Political Shift appeared first on LewRockwell.

We’re back at the part of the news cycle where Israel tells the world it’s going to allow a bit more aid into Gaza in order to mollify its allies and reduce the public outcry as images of starving children draw objections from the west.

This is just Israel giving the Kier Starmers and Anthony Albaneses of the western world just enough of an excuse to go silent about the starvation of Gaza again. They will then continue starving Gaza. This psychopathic python-like suffocation tactic is how Israel has gotten Gaza to the point it’s at now.

And of course it’s worth noting that Israel’s announcement that it will allow more food into Gaza so people don’t starve completely debunks all its claims these last few days that people in Gaza are starving because of Hamas and the UN. They’re starving because Israel is starving them.

❖

Israeli officials have told The New York Times that there has never been any evidence of Hamas stealing aid from UN trucks in any significant way, a claim Israel and its apologists have been falsely asserting for two years. They lie about everything. They never stop lying.

We’ve been asked to believe a lot of intensely stupid narratives throughout this genocide, but “it’s actually HAMAS who’s starving Gaza” has got to be the dumbest one yet. The fact that Israel and its supporters tried to blame the UN and Hamas for Israel’s extensively documented starvation campaign makes it clear that these freaks intend to keep lying about this thing until the last dying gasp of the last Palestinian.

❖

Gideon Levy has a new article out titled “Denying Gaza’s Starvation Is No Less Vile Than Denying the Holocaust”. Personally I’d take it much further and say it’s vastly worse than denying the Holocaust, because it’s helping to kill people right this very moment.

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I’m sorry if this is antisemitic but I think it’s wrong to deliberately starve thousands of children to death.

❖

If you found out someone was trapping small children in a confined space and then intentionally starving them to death, what words would you use to describe that person?

Think about how fucked up you’d need to be inside to starve a baby, or to support someone who is doing so. Think how many millennia of evolutionary conditioning you’d have to override as a human, as a primate, as a mammal, to stifle the screaming you feel inside when you see a skeletal infant. You’d have to make yourself less of a human inside to support the inhumanity.

❖

The worst thing Donald Trump has ever done is commit genocide in Gaza. Everything else pales in comparison. He could end the Gaza holocaust with a phone call just like Biden could have, and he hasn’t. For that reason alone he deserves to die in a cage.

❖

Children’s Youtube star Ms Rachel has announced that she won’t be working with anyone who doesn’t publicly oppose Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

The thing I love about Ms Rachel is that nobody was pushing her to speak out about Gaza. Not one person was out here saying “Ms Rachel’s silence on Rafah is deafening!” She could’ve gotten away with being silent on Gaza forever and suffered no professional consequences, but she spoke out anyway because she’s a genuinely good person.

❖

Today I got my first comment telling me I was wrong to oppose Israel in October 2023 but now I’m right because things have changed. I expect to receive many more such comments going forward as people navigate the difficult cognitive dissonance terrain of realizing they’ve been wrong this entire time.

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Israel apologists love using circular reasoning to dismiss outlets and organizations which criticize Israel. If you’ve ever argued with them online you know what I’m talking about.

It’s basically this —

Normal person: Here’s evidence of Israel doing bad things. 

Israel apologist: You can’t cite THAT outlet! That outlet is Hamas propaganda! 

Normal person: What? What makes them Hamas propaganda? 

Israel apologist: They’re always saying Israel does bad things!

Or this —

Normal person: Israel is committing genocide.

Israel apologist: Nuh-uh, that’s blood libel.

Normal person: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and UN human rights experts all say it’s genocide.

Israel apologist: Those groups are antisemitic!

Normal person: What? Why do you say that?

Israel apologist: They’re always spreading antisemitic lies about Israel!

Normal person: Such as?

Israel apologist: Such as saying Israel is committing genocide!

❖

Everyone spreading lies today to help Israel carry out the final stages of its final solution knows exactly what they’re doing. We see you, you sick fucks. We’ll remember you forever.

__________________

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The post They Intend To Keep Lying About Gaza Until They’ve Emptied It Out appeared first on LewRockwell.

Travel back in time to the year 2021 and you might find yourself in the middle of a bizarre debate over the virtues of “cancel culture”. At the time the political left was aggressively trying to secure long term power within the US through a multi-pronged psychological offensive – A war on the minds of the masses designed to force Americans into submission.

A big part of their strategy relied on the fundamentals of Cultural Marxism: The combination of Marxist mob tactics, artificial consensus and the exploitation of minority grievances as a vehicle for controlling speech. This was the rise of the “woke movement” to the halls of government.

The root of their power was not martial. In fact, the political left is weak and largely astroturf with minimal ability to project power in a physical way. If conservatives wanted to destroy them tomorrow the task would be relatively easy. We don’t because many of us still have hope that our problems can be solved through peaceful discourse.

What the leftists did have at their disposal was a massive institutional apparatus of government agencies, corporations, Big Tech and NGOs. The full might of the establishment cabal was on their side, which meant they had the means to enforce “cancel culture” and silence their ideological opponents.

I don’t think there has ever been a psychological war on a population that was more pervasive and tyrannical. Not since Mao’s Cultural Revolution in China has a citizenry been under such a siege by their own government. The fact that we survived this event, defeated the onslaught and actually grew a grassroots anti-woke movement without the use of social media forums is truly mind blowing.

Very few people today realize the level of victory that was achieved. We thwarted perhaps the largest 4th Generation “mind war” ever devised and we did it without any institutional access. We won by simple truth and word of mouth.

Another tool that the leftists and globalists used was the mobilization of illegal migrants, gays and minorities as a shield against criticism or counter-protest. If conservatives and moderates fought back with superior debate or our own protest groups, we were immediately accused of racism, xenophobia and homophobia. Merely presenting an opposing view to the progressive machine was considered an act of evil.

Large contingents within all of these groups were happy to go along with the agenda for numerous reasons. First and foremost, DEI allowed them to easily game the system. They could snatch up grants, subsidies, welfare, and leapfrog over more talented and more intelligent competitors in education and business simply because of their “marginalized status”.

Secondly, the system under progressives was two-tier; leftists activists, illegals and minorities were given preferential protection while breaking the law and causing chaos. Conservatives were labeled terrorists for any act of defiance. We were banned from the largest web platforms. Some of us were targeted by the online mob and lost our jobs. Others were “de-banked” and threatened with ostracism from the economy. Still others were imprisoned.

This imbalance of the law bred a culture of entitlement, especially within the LGBT cult and the black community. Illegal aliens were given carte blanche to enter the country and feed like parasites. Not only that, but they were treated like heroes coming to save the US from “population decline” and “labor shortages”.

They all participated in the game willfully and joyfully. They were ALL part of the problem. But, of course, none of them ever thought the party would end or that they might end up facing consequences for their behavior. They joined in the feeding frenzy without considering the inevitable clap-back.

The primary argument that leftists would often use to defend the application of cancel culture was that there was “no such thing as cancel culture”, only the righteous utilization of “consequence culture”. This was, of course, a misdirection. The word “consequence” suggests that a person deserves punishment for wrongdoing and that the leftists canceling him (or her) have the right to do so.

Cancel culture was never about justice or karma, it was about suppression of anyone who disagreed with the political left. A corrupt group of psychopathic people with no support from the majority is in no position to dole out consequences. They can dole out harassment and intimidation, but not justice.

In recent months, however, I think these people are finally beginning to understand what “consequence culture” really is and clearly they don’t like it.  I touched on this issue when it comes to Hollywood and liberal entertainment media in my article ‘Conservative Creators: Don’t Let The Liberal Entertainment Crisis Go To Waste’, but I wanted to expand on the idea of payback for the political left and what it will mean going forward.

For example, I have to admit I can’t help but laugh over the Stephen Colbert controversy and leftists crying about violations of “free speech”. Keep in mind that a multitude of journalists and celebrities were fired, banned from public platforms and silenced for not going along with the establishment narratives on covid, open borders, the 2020 election outcome, January 6th, etc.

Leftists celebrated when FOX was pressured to fire their biggest name, Tucker Carlson, over his skepticism of the 2020 election and the “insurrection” claims surrounding J6. Carlson was mostly correct in his positions, but that didn’t matter.  The progressive view?  “It’s a private company, they can fire whoever they want…”

Now they are raging over Stephen Colbert getting the boot and losing his time slot (it’s a sign that most leftist late night hosts are facing the chopping block). Never mind that the guy’s show was bleeding around $40 million per year and his audience in the coveted 18-34 age range was shrinking into oblivion. Never mind that Colbert was acting as a shameless shill for Big Pharma. Liberals demand that his show remain in place. They demand that he never face any consequences for selling out and acting as a propagandist instead of a comedian.

Too bad. He’s toast, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Welcome to REAL consequence culture.

Within the black community there is another form of accountability taking place. The BLM movement basked in their privileged status, rampaging through cities and doing as they pleased under the protective hand of Democratic governments. In the process they destroyed whatever social capital they had left and ended decades of “white guilt” in the span of a few years.

Now, white conservatives and moderates just don’t care anymore. We don’t care about being called racist. We’re not interested in the supposed trespasses of previous generations. We’re NEVER going to pay reparations (you’re never going to see a dime), and we’re not going to tolerate ghetto behavior in shared public spaces any longer.

The term “black fatigue” has gone viral in the past month for a reason: White people are done with passively accepting bad behavior from a certain subset of blacks (many black Americans are also tired of ghetto culture and want it to end). The magical accusation of “racism” holds no power over us anymore.

Interestingly, we’re seeing this change culminating across the board, even in the corporate world. We see cruise lines banning typical ghetto habits on their ships. We see retailers abandoning predominantly black neighborhoods because of unfettered crime. We see DEI being dumped in hiring and blacks (and women) say they are being overtly affected. Well, this is what happens when you spend the last several years acting increasingly more unhinged, entitled and violent.

You were protected by a liberal narrative of historical shame, but that’s dying out. Which means people are going to start expecting you to display manners and self control. Otherwise, there will (finally) be consequences.

Illegal migrants might be the most entitled group of all. I can’t fathom a bunch of Americans entering another country illegally and then demanding access to their jobs market and welfare programs while also carrying around Americans flags in protest and asserting that they have no intention of assimilating. They would be shot in the streets in most places and no one would tolerate them.

The same standards are being enacted in the US after years of open borders. The illegals are outraged…and no one cares. There is some moderate empathy for agricultural workers, but they represent a tiny minority among the tens-of-millions of alien migrants that have invaded the US. And honestly, I really don’t care if they sweep up the farm workers, either.

America needs an immigration reset, at least for the next decade so that we can figure out what the hell happened and repair the damage done to our job markets, housing markets and wages. The media publishes sob stories regularly about illegal immigrants living within the US for 20 years or more that are suddenly facing deportation. Meaning, we’re supposed to care more about illegals that broke the law for 20 years compared to illegals that broke the law for 20 days?

No, consequences must be handed down and no one gets a pass. Not anymore.

I was also greatly amused by the recent interview with a slobbering, raving and classless Hunter Biden. Let’s not forget that Joe Biden was probably mentally vacant for a much of his presidency and ostensibly Jill Biden and Hunter were running things with their advisors behind the scenes. Is it any wonder that America was falling apart? We had a degenerate crackhead and his psychopath mommy at the helm.

The moron STILL acts as if he could officially be president one day. But if it is proven that Joe Biden was mentally incompetent during his term and most of his pardon signatures were forged by aids without his cognitive understanding, then ole’ Hunter is in for some legal consequences of his own. In the meantime, the fact that the family has fallen from grace and Hunter is a national laughing stock is enough.

When I witness the wide-eyed astonishment of these people as they finally face punishment, I think of the legacy of the western world. I think of the generations of good men that worked tirelessly to institute a sense of order, principle and the conventions necessary for our society to succeed. I am reminded, time and time again, how difficult is it to create a thing vs. how easy it is to destroy a thing.  I’m reminded that our forefathers never would have put up with this shit.

In the end, civilization cannot survive and thrive unless consequences are exacted upon people who deserve them. I believe we are entering a new epoch when any person or any group, no matter their purported circumstances, will face automatic retribution for seeking to tear down the west. This is the way things used to be, and deconstructionists had best prepare themselves for the returning swing of the pendulum.

Reprinted with permission from Alt-Market.us.

The post Lefties, Illegals, and Minorities Are Finally Experiencing ‘Consequence Culture’ appeared first on LewRockwell.

I find it absolutely fascinating how died-in-the-wool statists simply cannot bring themselves to accept that their beloved national-security establishment orchestrated and carried out the assassination of President Kennedy.

The statist mindset can be summed up with what I call the “Inconceivable Doctrine.” Statists believe that it is just inconceivable that the national-security state would assassinate a U.S. president, even if protecting “national security” required it. Therefore, no matter how much circumstantial evidence — with the fraudulent autopsy that the military conducted on JFK’s body being the best example — establishes guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, the statists continue to hew to the national-security state’s official lone-nut theory of the JFK assassination.

For example, consider the recent revelations regarding former CIA operative George Joannides. It has now been revealed that ever since the assassination, the CIA has been knowingly, deliberately, and intentionally lying about Joannides’s relationship with an organization called the DRE, which the CIA was secretly funding and which Joannides was secretly supervising.

Why would the CIA lie about that? Why would the CIA spend more than 10 years litigating in federal court on the taxpayer dime to keep that lie covered up? Why would preserving that lie be so important to the CIA?

The statists don’t ask those questions. They don’t want to know. Reflecting the Inconceivable Doctrine, their standard response is simply to exclaim “Conspiracy theory!” and then tell everyone that it’s time to “move on.”

Or consider that during the time the House Select Committee on Assassinations was reinvestigating the Kennedy assassination, the CIA appointed Joannides as a purported “liaison” to the committee. In fact, as things turned out, his real role was to serve as an obstructor, one whose job was to prevent committee investigators from accessing relevant CIA records.

To the statist, that’s just CIA “business as usual.” Nothing to see here, folks. More conspiracy theories. Time to move on. In other words, no demands that the CIA explain why it did this. To the statist, it simply is inconceivable that the CIA’s and Joannides’s conduct was intended to cover up the national-security state’s assassination of JFK. Their statist mindset simply will not permit them to entertain that possibility.

Consider the fact that the CIA intentionally, knowingly, and deliberately kept Joannides’s role with the DRE secret from the Assassination Records Review Board in the 1990s. Why would it do that? Statists say that it’s just because lying is an essential part of what the CIA is. Their minds simply will not entertain the thought that the lie might be part of a cover-up.

Consider the remarkable documentary that Douglas Horne, a former staff member of the Assassination Records Review Board and the author of the watershed book on the JFK assassination, Inside the Assassination Records Review Board, just posted on the Internet. It  establishes that there were three separate casket entries into the Bethesda military morgue on the very evening of the assassination. What would the statists say about that? One possibility is nothing because they know that there is no conceivable innocent explanation for sneaking the president’s body into the military morgue prior to the official start of the autopsy. But even if they did say something about that documentary, it would simply be something along these lines: “Folks, this is just another standard conspiracy theory. We need to move on.”

What these people cannot bring themselves to see is that the national-security state is a very nasty governmental structure, one that engages in some very malignant actions, many of which do, in fact, involve conspiracies — all in the name of protecting “national security.” Let’s consider some examples and also how statists would likely respond to each one:

1. MKULTRA. Statists would undoubtedly say that there is no way that the CIA would ever engage in secret damaging and possibly fatal drug experiments on people and certainly not on American citizens. Conspiracy theory!

2. The intentional destruction of MKULTRA records so that the American people could not see the extent of the damage and possible deaths unleashed by MKULTRA. Conspiracy theory!

3. The CIA’s hiring of Nazis after World War II. Conspiracy theory!

4. State-sponsored assassinations of political leaders, such as Chilean Gen. Rene Schneider, Congo leader Patrice Lamumba, Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani, and Martin Luther King. Conspiracy theory!

5. Repeated state-sponsored assassination attempts against Cuban president Fidel Castro, in partnership with the Mafia. Conspiracy theory!

6. A state-sponsored invasion of Cuba, a country that has never attacked the United States. Conspiracy theory!

7. State-sponsored acts of terrorism inside Cuba. Conspiracy theory!

8. A CIA coup that destroyed Iran’s democratic system. Conspiracy theory!

9.  A CIA coup in Guatemala, along with a secret official assassination list. Conspiracy theory!

9. A CIA-Pentagon-inspired coup that installed a brutal rightwing military dictator in Chile and left Chile’s democratically elected president dead. Conspiracy theory!

10. The national-security concoction of WMDs to garner support for the invasion of Iraq. Conspiracy theory!

11. The brutal torture of both foreigners and Americans as part of the “war on terrorism.” Conspiracy theory!

12. The intentional destruction of videotapes showing the torture of prisoners. Conspiracy theory!

13. The Iran-Contra affair. Conspiracy theory!

14. COINTELPRO. Conspiracy theory!

15. Operation Northwoods. Conspiracy theory!

16. Operation Condor. Conspiracy theory!

Yes, everyone knows that our beloved national-security establishment would never do anything bad in its efforts to protect “national security.” It’s all just “conspiracy theory.”

Reprinted with permission from Future of Freedom Foundation.

The post Statists and Conspiracy Theories appeared first on LewRockwell.

Israelis do not see the images of skeletal corpses of Palestinian children who they have starved to death as a curse. They do not see the slain families they gun down at food hubs — designed not to deliver aid but lure starving Palestinians into a massive concentration camp in the south of Gaza in preparation for deportation — as a war crime. Israelis do not look at the savage bombing and shelling that kill or wound dozens of Palestinian civilians, where an average of 28 children die daily, as anything extraordinary. They do not see the wasteland of Gaza, pulverized by bombs and methodically being torn down by bulldozers and excavators, leaving virtually the entire population of Gaza homeless, as barbaric. They do not see the destruction of water purification plants, decimation of hospitals and clinics, where doctors and medical staff are often unable to work because they are weak from malnutrition, as savage. They do not blink at the assassinations of doctors as well as journalists, 232 of whom have been murdered for trying to document the horror.

Israelis have blinded themselves morally and intellectually. They view the genocide through the lens of a bankrupt media and political class that tells them only what they want to hear and shows them only what they want to see. They are intoxicated by the power of their industrial weapons and license to kill with impunity. They are drunk on self-adulation and the fantasy that they are the vanguard of civilization. They believe that the extermination of a people, including children, condemned as human contaminants, makes the world, especially their world, a happier and safer place.

They are the heirs of Pol Pot, the killers that carried out the genocides in East Timor, Rwanda and Bosnia and, yes, the Nazis. Israel, like all genocidal states — no population since World War II has been dispossessed and starved with such speed and ruthlessness – has a final solution that would have earned the stamp of approval from Adolf Eichmann.

Starvation was always the plan, the preordained final chapter of the genocide. Israel methodically set out from the beginning of the genocide to destroy sources of food, bombing bakeries and blocking food shipments into Gaza, something it has accelerated since March, when it severed nearly all food supplies. It targeted the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) — on which most Palestinians depended on for food — for destruction, accusing its employees, without providing evidence, of being involved in the attacks of Oct. 7. This accusation was used to give funders such as the United States, which provided $422 million to the agency in 2023, the excuse to halt financial support. Israel then banned UNRWA.

Over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers and U.S. mercenaries in the chaotic scramble to get one of the few food packages distributed during the brief blocks of time, usually an hour, at the four aid sites set up by the Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, according to the U.N. Human Rights Office.

Once Gaza was turned into a moonscape after 21 months of saturation bombing, once Palestinians were forced to live in tents, under crude tarps or in the open air, once clean water, food and medical aid became nearly impossible to find, once civil society was obliterated, Israel began its grim campaign to starve the Palestinians out of Gaza.

One in three people in Gaza are going multiple days without eating, according to the U.N.

Starvation is not a pretty sight. I covered the famine in Sudan in 1988 that took an estimated 250,000 lives. There are streaks in my lungs — scars from standing amid hundreds of Sudanese who were dying of tuberculosis. I was strong and healthy and fought off the contagion. They were weak and emaciated and did not.

I watched hundreds of skeletal figures, ghosts of human beings, trudge at a glacial pace across the barren Sudanese landscape. Hyenas, accustomed to eating human flesh, routinely picked off small children. I stood over clusters of bleached human bones on the outskirts of villages where dozens of people, too weak to walk, had laid down in a group and never got up. Many were the remains of entire families.

The starved lack enough calories to sustain themselves. They eat anything to survive — animal feed, grass, leaves, insects, rodents, even dirt. They suffer from constant diarrhea. They have trouble breathing because of respiratory infections. They rip up tiny bits of food, often spoiled, and ration it in a vain attempt to hold off the gnawing hunger pains.

Starvation reduces the iron needed to produce hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen from the lungs to the body, and myoglobin, a protein that provides oxygen to muscles, coupled with a lack of vitamin B1, which affects heart and brain function. Anemia sets in. The body, in essence, feeds on itself. Tissue and muscle waste away. It is impossible to regulate body temperature. Kidneys shut down. Immune systems crash. Vital organs atrophy. Blood circulation slows. The volume of blood decreases. Infectious diseases such as typhoid, tuberculosis and cholera become an epidemic, killing people by the thousands.

It is impossible to concentrate. Emaciated victims succumb to mental and emotional withdrawal and apathy. They do not want to be touched or moved. The heart muscle is weakened. Victims, even at rest, are in a state of virtual heart failure. Wounds do not heal. Vision is impaired with cataracts, even among the young. Finally, wracked by convulsions and hallucinations, the heart stops. This process can last up to 40 days for an adult. Children, the elderly and the sick expire at faster rates.This is the future Israel has preordained for the two million people in Gaza.

But it is not the future Israelis see. They see paradise. They see an ethno-nationalist Jewish state where Palestinians, whose land they stole and occupied and whose people they have subjugated and forced into an apartheid existence, do not exist. They see cafes and hotels rising up where thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of bodies lie buried under the rubble. They see tourists frolicking on the Gaza beachfront, a vision enhanced by an Artificial Intelligence-generated video uploaded to social media by Israeli Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Gila Gamliel. It is what a Gaza devoid of Palestinians would look like, echoing the absurdist AI video posted by Donald Trump.

In the new video, carefree Israelis eat at seaside restaurants. Anchored in the sparkling Mediterranean are luxury yachts. Gleaming hotels and office high rises, including a Trump Tower, dot the beachfront. Attractive residential neighborhoods stand where now there are broken, jagged mounds of concrete. The video shows Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, as well as Trump and Melania, strolling along the seaside.

Gamliel, like other Israeli leaders and Trump, cynically uses the term “voluntary emigration” to describe the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. This omits the stark choice Israel actually offers the Palestinians — leave or die.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for a “security annexation” of the northern Gaza Strip and vowed that Gaza will become an “inseparable part of the State of Israel.” He made the remarks at a Knesset conference called “The Gaza Riviera — from vision to reality,” which presented proposals for the building of Jewish colonies in Gaza. Smotrich said Israel would “relocate Gazans to other countries,” and that Trump endorsed the plan.

Israeli Minister of Heritage Amichai Eliyahu, who once proposed dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza, declared that “All Gaza will be Jewish.” The Israeli government “is racing ahead for Gaza to be wiped out,” Eliyahu said. He described Palestinians as Nazis. “Thank God, we are wiping out this evil. We are pushing this population that has been educated on ‘Mein Kampf.’”

Genocidal killers embrace fantasies of eradicating a native population and expanding their ethnonationalist state. The Nazis carried out their genocidal assault, which included mass starvation, on Slavs, Eastern European Jews and other indigenous people, dismissed as Untermenschen, or subhumans. Colonists were then to be shipped to Central and Eastern Europe to Germanize the occupied territory.

These killers do not reckon with the darkness they unleash. The upscale beachfront properties dreamt of by Israel will never appear, just as the modern, exclusively Serb capital, with its golden domed cathedral, imposing presidency building, 15-story clock tower, state-of-the-art medical center and national theater with a 72-foot revolving stage was never built on the ruins of Bosnia.

Rather, there will be ugly apartment blocks, populated by the usual miscreants, proto-fascists, racists and mediocrities who live in the Jewish colonies in the West Bank. These ultranationalists, who have formed rogue militias to seize Palestinian land and joined the Israeli army in murdering over 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank since Oct. 7, will define Israel. They are the Israeli version of the 3-million-strong Pancasila Youth — Indonesia’s equivalent of the Brown Shirts or the Hitler Youth — that in 1965 helped carry out the genocidal mayhem that left half a million to one million dead.

These rogue militias, equipped with automatic weapons provided by the Israeli government, lynched Saifullah Musallet, a 20-year-old Palestinian-American, who was attempting to protect his family’s land two weeks ago. He is the fifth U.S. citizen killed in the West Bank since Oct. 7.

Once these Israeli goons and thugs are done with the Palestinians, they will turn on each other.

The genocide in Gaza signals the abolition, for Israelis as well as Palestinians, of the rule of law. It marks the obliteration of even the pretense of an ethical code. Israelis are the barbarians they condemn. If there is any warped justice in this genocide it is that Israelis, once they finish with the Palestinians, will be forced to live together in moral squalor.

This article was originally published on The Chris Hedges Report.

The post The Gaza Riviera appeared first on LewRockwell.

This outcome places the US on the path of restoring its unipolar hegemony via sequential lopsided trade deals as it likely sets its sights on the Americas next before finally taking on Asia.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen agreed to a framework deal with the US whereby the EU will be charged 15% tariffs on most imports, commit to purchasing $750 billion in US energy exports, and invest $600 billion into the US economy, some of which will be military purchases. US tariffs on EU steel and aluminum exports will remain at 50% while the EU agreed not to tariff the US at all. The alternative to this lopsided arrangement was for Trump to impose his threatened 30% tariffs by 1 August.

The EU’s macroeconomic strength was greatly weakened over the past 3,5 years as a result of the anti-Russian sanctions that it imposed in solidarity with the US on what had hitherto been its cheapest and most reliable energy supplier. It was therefore already at a critical disadvantage in any prospective trade war. The EU’s failure to reach a major trade deal with China since Trump’s return to office, such as during their most recent summit late last week, made Sunday’s outcome a fait accompli in hindsight.

The end result is that the EU just subordinated itself as the US’ largest-ever vassal state. The US’ 15% tariffs on most imports will reduce EU production and profits, thus making a recession more likely. The bloc’s commitment to purchasing more expensive US energy will become more onerous in that event. Likewise, its pledge to buy more US arms will undermine the “ReArm Europe Plan”, with the combined effect of the aforesaid concessions further ceding the EU’s already reduced sovereignty to the US.

This can in turn embolden the US to press for better terms in its ongoing trade negotiations with others. On the North American front, Trump envisages reasserting the US’ hegemony over Canada and Mexico via economic means, which can enable him to more easily expand “Fortress America” southward. If he succeeds in subordinating Brazil, then everything between it and Mexico will naturally fall in line. This series of deals along with last week’s one with Japan would bolster Trump’s hand with China and India.

He ideally hopes to replicate his Japanese and European successes with those two Asian anchors of BRICS, which together represent around 1/3 of humanity, but it can’t be taken for granted that he will. Trump’s best chance of coercing them into similarly lopsided arrangements requires him placing the US in the most advantageous geo-economic position possible during their talks, ergo the need to rapidly build “Fortress America” via a series of trade deals, and then proving that his tariff threats aren’t bluffs.

“The Sino-Indo Rivalry Will Shape Trump’s Anti-Russian Secondary Sanctions Decision” as explained in the preceding analysis, with this variable and the US’ Kissingerian triangulation policy most significantly determining the future of their trade talks. If he fails, then Trump might not impose 100% tariffs on China and/or India, but some would still be expected. Nevertheless, with Japan, the EU, and likely “Fortress America” on his side, this “Global West” could insulate the US from some of the consequences.

The grand strategic importance of the EU subordinating itself as the US’ largest-ever vassal state is therefore that it places the US on the path of restoring its unipolar hegemony via sequential trade deals as it likely sets its sights on the Americas next before finally taking on Asia. There’s no guarantee that the US will succeed, and a series of lopsided trade deals with major economies would only partially restore US-led unipolarity, but Trump’s moves still represent a possibly existential threat to multipolarity.

This article was originally published on Andrew Korybko’s Newsletter.

The post Von Der Leyen Just Subordinated the EU as the US’ Largest-Ever Vassal State appeared first on LewRockwell.

It is imperative that the newer generation of LRC readers become cognizant of, and acquainted with, the chain of historical events which led up to today’s National Security State and the American empire. From Harry Truman to Donald Trump, we have seen an out-of-control executive branch wage unconstitutional, undeclared wars by centralizing power in the presidency. How did this all come about? Here are three exceptional documentaries which introduce that crucial history.

The first film is the 1987 PBS documentary, The Secret Government: The Constitution In Crisis, narrated by Bill Moyers.

It explores the comprehensive background of the secret covert government established in 1947 by the National Security Act. In particular, this powerful video compares and contrasts the Iran-Contra affair of the Reagan era with that of the Watergate scandal of 12 years earlier which brought down Richard Nixon.

The second documentary is the exceedingly rarely seen 1988 Coverup: Behind the Iran Contra Affair, narrated by Elizabeth Montgomery.

The post “To Be Ignorant of what Occurred Before You Were Born is to Remain Always a Child,” Observed Marcus Tullius Cicero appeared first on LewRockwell.

The post Trump Blows Up At Putin: ‘Stop Fighting In 10 Days…Or Else!’ appeared first on LewRockwell.

Meeting with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Scotland, President Trump announced his decision to scrap his 50 day deadline for an end to the Ukraine war and instead make it a 10 day deadline. But what will he do? Trash the US economy with 100 percent secondary sanctions on China and India? Green-light deep strikes into Russia – Biden-like – and bring us back to the brink of WW!!!? What’s the plan?

The post Trump Blows Up At Putin: ‘Stop Fighting In 10 Days…Or Else!’ appeared first on LewRockwell.

Dallas ’63: A Brilliant Synthesis Regarding the November 22, 1963 Coup d’état, by Charles Burris

Once again, the intrepid Peter Dale Scott takes us into that claustrophobic wilderness of mirrors where the criminal underworld meets the establishment upperworld in the sub-rosa labyrinth of the Deep State. Scott is the premier synthesizer unearthing all the various seemingly unconnected strands of hard documentary factual evidence and counterfactual hypothesizing concerning the November 22, 1963, coup d’état.

Dallas ’63: The First Deep State Revolt Against the White House, by Peter Dale Scott

He begins by addressing head-on the seminal question of “Who was Lee Harvey Oswald?” in a brilliantly sketched portrait we have not seen before. The intelligence services (especially the CIA’s chief of counterintelligence James Jesus Angleton – Associate Deputy Director of Operations for Counterintelligence (ADDOCI) suspected a Soviet mole had penetrated the dank bowels of the Deep State and obtained highly secret information concerning the U-2 spy plane. Soon an elaborate multilayered mole hunt began.

Abroad, the CIA/State Department “dangled” Oswald as a US Marine radar operator “defector” to the Soviets, while in the US they compiled a byzantine, contradictory and ever-shifting documentary “legend” of manipulated and altered biographical data concerning Oswald as a trap to snare whom among the various interagency intelligence personnel who accessed his files was the possible mole. Upon his return to the US, Oswald continued his counterintelligence role as agent provocateur, informer, and ultimately as “patsy.”

Mentioned almost in passing was Pyotr Popov, a Soviet military intelligence (GRU) officer who had been passing secrets to the Americans for seven years. In April 1958, Popov had alerted his Soviet Russia Division (SRD) case officer George Kisevalter that clandestine technical information regarding the CIA U-2 spy plane had reached Soviet intelligence via a Soviet mole. Thus began Angelton’s elaborate efforts to discover and out this treacherous mole. We journey deeper within the Wilderness of Mirrors as a young Marine radar operator, Lee Harvey Oswald, soon attempts defection to the USSR, entering the cloistered labyrinth of decades of lies, disinformation, duplicity, and deception regarding this mysterious individual.

That disturbing aspect of the story is fleshed out in John M. Newman’s Countdown to Darkness: The Assassination of President Kennedy, Volume II, Uncovering Popov’s Mole: The Assassination of President Kennedy Volume IV, and in Peter Dale Scott’s Dallas ’63: The First Deep State Revolt Against the White House. (.pdf) Angelton was in the epicenter of events which led to the November 22, 1963 coup d’état and savage murder of President John F. Kennedy.

As he was dying from lung cancer, the Machiavellian CIA head of Counterintelligence, James Jesus Angleton, provided author Joseph J. Trento (also cited by Morley in his book) this startling candid and diabolic confession:

You know how I got to be in charge of counterintelligence? I agreed not to polygraph or require detailed background checks on Allen Dulles and 60 of his closest friends . . . They were afraid that their own business dealings with Hitler’s pals would come out. They were too arrogant to believe that the Russians would discover it all . . .

Fundamentally, the founding fathers of U.S. intelligence were liars. The better you lied and the more you betrayed, the more likely you would be promoted. These people attracted and promoted each other. Outside of their duplicity, the only thing they had in common was a desire for absolute power. I did things that, in looking back on my life, I regret. But I was part of it and loved being in it . . . Allen Dulles, Richard Helms, Carmel Offiie, and Frank Wisner were the grand masters. If you were in a room with them you were in a room full of people that you had to believe would deservedly end up in hell. I guess I will see them there soon.

In my personal library I have several thousand books, hundreds relating to the covert and overt background concerning the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. From every chapter, from every page of Dallas ’63, leaps long forgotten names and events from these shelved volumes which Scott has masterfully woven into a head-spinning narrative describing the sinister milieu of intriguers from that period.

This concise volume is unlike any previous work on the subject in its magisterial detail of facts and scrupulous documentation of sources. I highly recommend it to the experienced JFK Assassination research community.

Revisiting the “Legend” of Lee Harvey Oswald

[With the onrush of contradictory information/disinformation being put out concerning the alleged attempted assassin of President Donald Trump, Thomas Matthew Crooks, let us briefly take a look at the “patsy” in the November 22, 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy.]

The “Legend” of Lee Harvey Oswald, by Charles Burris

Because so many of my LRC articles/blogs over the years have focused upon the November 22, 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy and the insidious coup d’état by Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and the highest echelons of the National Security State, many readers have inquired again and again what was my assessment of Lee Harvey Oswald, targeted by the Warren Commission as the sole assassin. I have over 100 books in my personal library on these matters. Here briefly are my thoughts and reflections on this controversial subject.

The “Legend” of Lee Harvey Oswald

Our story begins with Petr Popov. Popov was a Soviet military intelligence (GRU) officer who had been passing secrets to the Americans for seven years. In April 1958, Popov had alerted his Soviet Russia Division (SRD) case officer George Kisevalter that clandestine technical information regarding the CIA U-2 spy plane had reached Soviet intelligence via a Soviet mole. The intelligence services (especially the CIA’s chief of counterintelligence James Jesus Angleton – Associate Deputy Director of Operations for Counterintelligence (ADDOCI) suspected a Soviet mole had penetrated the dank bowels of the deep state and obtained highly secret information concerning the U-2 spy plane.

Thus began Angleton’s elaborate efforts to discover and out this treacherous mole. It will ultimately lead to his downfall within the CIA.

We journey deeper within the Wilderness of Mirrors as a young Marine radar operator, Lee Harvey Oswald, soon attempts defection to the USSR, entering the cloistered labyrinth of decades of lies, disinformation, duplicity, and deception regarding this mysterious individual. That disturbing aspect of the story is fleshed out in John M. Newman’s Countdown to Darkness: The Assassination of President Kennedy, Volume II, and in Peter Dale Scott’s Dallas ’63: The First Deep State Revolt Against the White House.

Angleton was in the epicenter of events which led to the November 22, 1963 coup d’état and savage murder of President John F. Kennedy.

Soon an elaborate multilayered mole hunt began. Abroad, the CIA/State Department “dangled” Oswald as a US Marine radar operator “defector” to the Soviets, while in the US they compiled a byzantine, contradictory and ever-shifting documentary “legend” of manipulated and altered biographical data concerning Oswald as a trap to snare whom among the various inter-agency intelligence personnel who accessed his files was the possible mole.

Upon his return to the US, Oswald continued his counterintelligence role as agent provocateur, informer, and ultimately as “patsy.”

History has recorded Lee Havey Oswald as the “lone nut assassin” of President John Kennedy. But perhaps he is someone substantially different than what “official history” has made of him.

His favorite TV show as a kid was, I Led Three Lives about a double agent for the FBI, Herbert Philbrook, who secretly spies on the Communist Party in the US (I have a signed edition of Philbook’s book by the same name). Oswald was a ninth-grade dropout who joined the Marines in 1956 and became a radar operator with a top security clearance who worked on projects related to the secret U-2 spy planes for the CIA. Oswald was assigned first to Marine Corps Air Station El Toro in July 1957, then to Naval Air Facility Atsugi in Japan in September as part of Marine Air Control Squadron 1. He learned to speak Russian while a Marine at a secret CIA/ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence) training base at Nags Head, North Carolina.

Like all Marines, he was trained and tested in shooting and scored 212 in December 1956, slightly above the requirements for the designation of sharpshooter. In May 1959 he scored 191, which reduced his rating to marksman. He was a poor shot.

Oswald obtained a hardship discharge from the Marines allegedly because of his mother’s poor health, left the United States, and tried to defect to the Soviet Union in 1959. The Soviets were immediately suspicious of his intentions believing he was one of many such agents sent to spy on them. He tried to commit suicide. He was then sent to the city of Minsk to work as a lathe operator at the Gorizont Electronics Factory, which produced radios, televisions, and military and space electronics. He was under constant surveillance by the Soviets. Oswald met a young 19 year old girl, Marina Nikolayevna Prusakova, who was the niece of a Soviet intelligence official. Marina thought he was a Russian because he spoke the language like a native Russian. He married Marina and later petitioned the US State Department for permission to return to the United States. It was granted. The State Department loaned them the money to come to the US in 1962. This was quite unusual for the State Department to grant permission to return and loan money to someone who tried to renounce his US citizenship as a “defector.”

Although he was someone who tried to defect to the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War, he traveled in right-wing, anti-Communist circles of former Russian émigrés. His new best friend was George de Mohrenschildt, a petroleum geologist with international business connections who was a CIA contract agent and colleague of George Herbert Walker Bush.

Oswald held a series of odd jobs.

He moved to New Orleans and became the sole member of the New Orleans chapter of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. Oswald ordered the following items from a local printer: 500 application forms, 300 membership cards, and 1,000 leaflets with the heading, “Hands Off Cuba” establishing a paper trail of his pro-Castro activities. He visited anti-Castro militant Carlos Bringuier at a store he owned in New Orleans offering his services as a former Marine. Bringuier was the New Orleans delegate for the anti-Castro organization Directorio Revolucionario Estudantil (DRE). This was a CIA front group.

In 1963 the group was financed by the CIA with $25,000 per month, under a CIA program named AMSPELL run by George Joannides, the chief of the psychological warfare branch in Miami’s JM/WAVE station. The money went to Luis Fernandez Rocha, the DRE’s leader in Miami, and supported the DRE’s activities in a variety of cities, including New Orleans. Joannides also provided non-financial support, including reviewing military plans and briefing them on how to handle the press. Joannides worked with the group from December 1962 to April 1964; CIA monthly reports on the group from 1960 to 1966 have been declassified, except for this period. It was this group which first spread to the media after the assassination disinformation concerning Oswald’s Cuban connections.

In 1978 the CIA summoned Joannides out of retirement to serve as the Agency’s liaison to the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations, in specific regard to the death of President Kennedy. Former Washington Post reporter Jefferson Morley writes “the spy withheld information about his own actions in 1963 from the congressional investigators he was supposed to be assisting. It wasn’t until 2001, 38 years after Kennedy’s death, that Joannides’ support for the Cuban exiles, who clashed with Oswald and monitored him, came to light.”

Bringuier would later tell the Warren Commission that he believed Oswald’s visits were an attempt to infiltrate his group, when they were actually used to establish his “legend” or cover as a Marxist supporter of Cuba.

On August 9, Oswald turned up in downtown New Orleans handing out pro-Castro leaflets. His Fair Play for Cuba leaflets had the address “544 Camp Street” hand-stamped on it. This was actually the address where the anti-Castro, anti-Communist groups were headquartered. Bringuier confronted him claiming he was tipped off about his leafleting by a friend. A well-publicized scuffle ensued and Bringuier, Oswald, and two of Bringuier’s friends were arrested for disturbing the peace. Before leaving the police station, Oswald asked to speak with an FBI agent. Agent John Quigley arrived and spent over an hour talking to him.

Oswald later appeared on New Orleans TV and radio interviews claiming to be a Marxist supporter of Castro and the Cuban regime, further establishing his “legend” or cover identity persona, just as Herbert Philbrick did as a double agent for the FBI in his favorite TV show as a child.

In 1961-62, the New Orleans chapter of the Cuban Revolutionary Council, a CIA front group, occupied an office in the Newman Building at 544 Camp Street. This was the building where anti-Castro activist and accused JFK Assassination conspirator Guy Banister had his office. Banister also had worked in Naval Intelligence and continued his intelligence connections. This was also the address Oswald had stamped on his pro-Castro flyers.

Banister’s office was within walking distance of the New Orleans offices of the FBI, CIA, Office of Naval Intelligence and the Reily Coffee Company where Oswald worked. Reily was Oswald’s employer and a supporter of anti-Castro Cubans. During this period, Banister associate Sergio Arcacha Smith was the “official delegate” for the New Orleans chapter of the CRC.

Banister’s secretary, Delphine Roberts, told author Anthony Summers that Oswald “…seemed to be on familiar terms with Banister and with [Banister’s] office.” Roberts said, “As I understood it, he had the use of an office on the second floor, above the main office where we worked…. Then, several times, Mr. Banister brought me upstairs, and in the office above I saw various writings stuck up on the wall pertaining to Cuba. There were various leaflets up there pertaining to Fair Play for Cuba.”

Later Oswald is going to be accused of shooting at right-wing former Major General Edwin Walker in his home, although both Walker and the Dallas police stated he was shot at with a 30.06 rifle, a firearm Oswald never owned. The Dallas police claimed that the bullet was a 30.06 caliber; the bullet shells from the Texas School Book Depository were 6.5mm. The Walker bullet was too severely deformed to allow a conclusive analysis of its pattern of grooves. A spectrographic examination by Henry Heilberger of the FBI laboratory found that the lead alloy in the bullet was different from that of bullet fragments found in President Kennedy’s car.

Oswald’s wife Marina was the Warren Commission’s chief witness to the alleged shooting at both General Walker and President Kennedy. She later fully renounced her testimony stating it was achieved under duress and threats of sending her back to the Soviet Union to face reprisals.

Although Oswald never spoke of any hostility or dislike towards President John Kennedy he is going to be accused of shooting the most protected man in America.

Oswald is going to be accused of ordering a cheap mail order rifle so there is a paper trail, instead of simply going to a local gun shop in Texas to purchase the rifle incognito. In Texas no identification was needed, and no incriminating paper trail would exist. An incriminating paper trail was created when purchasing a weapon from a different state by mail order. The 6.5×52mm Mannlicher-Carcano ordered from Chicago allegedly by Oswald using the name of “A. Hidel.” The rifle portrayed in the ad and which Oswald allegedly received were not the same.

He is going to be accused of taking pictures of himself with the rifle he is going to use. Then he is going to be accused of shooting the president from the place where he works, the Texas School Book Depository.

The Texas School Book Depository (TSBD) building was owned by D. H. Byrd, co-founder of the Civil Air Patrol (in which Oswald served in as a youngster in New Orleans) and was a strong financial supporter of Lyndon Johnson. After World War II Byrd helped incorporate CAP and have it designated as an Auxiliary of the Air Force, helped initiate the International Air Cadet Exchange, and established or supported cadet scholarships. For his work with the CAP Byrd was awarded the US Air Force’s Air Force Scroll of Appreciation on 24 May 1963. Byrd and fellow Dallas right-wing billionaire H. L. Hunt were personal friends of Air Force Chief of Staff General Curtis Lemay, a rabid Kennedy hater who later flew hundreds of miles to be in the operation room gallery at JFK’s autopsy at Bethesda Naval Hospital on the day he was murdered

D. H. Byrd also employed LBJ’s personal hitman Malcolm Wallace at his defense company LTV. LTV got a big defense contract in January, 1964. Wallace’s fingerprint was found in the sniper’s nest on the Sixth Floor of the Texas School Book Depository (TSBD). Byrd had the so-called “sniper’s window” removed from the TSBD which he kept as a souvenir. Byrd was a big game hunter and had the trophy heads of all sorts of animals in his house. Some persons suspect the TSBD sniper’s window was right next to those mementos.

Oswald was not in that window at the time of the assassination but was downstairs eating lunch. In that window just prior to the assassination was TSBD employee Bonnie Raye Williams eating a chicken bone sandwich.

Oswald is going to be accused of taking off from the TSBD and shooting a cop, Officer J. D. Tippit, and leaving his wallet on the scene so he could be found.

On November 24, 1963, Oswald is going to be shot by Dallas night club owner Jack Ruby in the garage of the Dallas Police headquarters in full view of television cameras broadcasting live to millions and die at Parkland Hospital. Ruby had stalked Oswald at police headquarters all weekend since his arrest.

Jack Ruby had long standing connections to organized crime figures, all the way back when he was a numbers runner for Al Capone’s mob in Chicago while a youth. He later worked for Congressman Richard M. Nixon, at the urging and recommendation of Lyndon Johnson. In the weeks prior to the assassination, Ruby had been in contact with major crime figures from around the country.

While watching Jack Ruby shooting Oswald on Sunday morning on TV, Richard Nixon voiced his recognition of Ruby as the man who once worked for him.

This Oswald/Dallas assassination “plot” is one of several other uncovered such plots.

There were two uncovered in Chicago, one involving a group of Cuban men with high-powered rifles and scopes, and one involving a former Marine Thomas Arthur Vallee who, like Oswald, had served at the Naval Air Facility Atsugi in Japan.

Abraham Bolden, the first African-American Secret Service agent, claimed that in October, 1963, the Chicago Secret Service office received a teletype from the Federal Bureau of Investigation warning that an attempt would be made to kill President John F. Kennedy by a four-man Cuban hit squad when he visited the city on the 2nd of November. Armed with high-powered rifles, the men were from “a dissident Cuban group”. According to investigative journalist Edwin Black, the Secret Service arrested two suspects, however, they were eventually released.

Bolden later discovered that this information was being kept from the Warren Commission. When he complained about this he was warned “to keep his mouth shut”. Bolden decided to travel to Washington where he telephoned Warren Commission Counsel J. Lee Rankin. Bolden was arrested and taken back to Chicago where he was charged with discussing a bribe with two known counterfeiters. He was eventually found guilty of accepting a bribe and spent six years in prison. When he tried to draw attention to his case, he was placed in solitary confinement. Mr. Bolden has steadfastly maintained his innocence, arguing that he was targeted for prosecution in retaliation for exposing unprofessional and racist behavior within the U.S. Secret Service.

Mr. Bolden chronicles his experiences in his book The Echo from Dealy Plaza. He has been recognized through numerous platforms for his ongoing work to speak out against the racism he faced in the Secret Service in the 1960s, and his courage in challenging injustice. In 2022 Bolden received a full pardon from President Joe Biden,

Another plot involved an assassin in Tampa, Florida who was to be situated in a high-rise building while the presidential motorcade passed. The Tampa gunman would have fired from a window of the Floridan Hotel, then the tallest building in the city. (In Dallas, Lee Harvey Oswald was accused of shooting from a window on the sixth floor of a book depository.)

The post Dallas ’63: A Brilliant Synthesis Regarding the November 22, 1963 Coup d’état appeared first on LewRockwell.

La stragrande maggioranza dei canali di informazione che la maggior parte delle persone legge sono redatti e scritti da chi fa gli interessi della cricca di Davos/City di Londra. Sono pochi quelli ufficiali e nella cosiddetta “controinformazione” che scrivono negli interessi degli USA. Questa situazione tira al suo interno anche analisti e commentatori indipendenti, che in buona fede, finiscono per essere dei megafoni involontari di una narrativa fasulla. La Lagarde sta cercando di abbassare il costo del capitale in Germania? Sì. Sta cercando di abbassare il costo del capitale in tutta Europa? Sì. I tagli dei tassi sono così virulenti in Europa prima di tutto perché la principale economia del continente, quella tedesca, è in condizioni peggiori di quelle del 2008 e, in secondo luogo, perché sta affrontando un problema di deflazione alimentato dalle politiche monetarie restrittive della FED sull'offerta di dollari offshore. La devastazione europea è tutta qui: la chiusura dei rubinetti del mercato dell'eurodollaro. La Lagarde sta cercando di tappare i buchi nei bilanci delle banche commerciali europee e delle banche centrali nazionali che sono emersi quando è stata costretta a seguire Powell quando ha iniziato a rialzare i tassi. Mentre la curva dei rendimenti americana è indirizzata a scendere sul lato lungo, quella europea, nonostante i numeri ridicoli e inverosimili, è inclinata verso l'alto. Quindi prima di parlare dei buchi di bilancio nella FED, meglio preoccuparsi prima di quelli nella BCE. Senza contare che fare affari con l'UE significa esporsi alla sua linea di politica commerciale estorsiva, mentre gli USA trovano accordi invece. E per chi sventola il feticcio della “forza dell'euro”, vorrei ricordare che la prima fase di una crisi monetaria è l'aumento della stessa. Pensate davvero che l'euro arriverà a 1.22 e il dollaro a 70? Con dazi potenzialmente al 50% per l'UE? Con quanto descritto da Lacalle nell'articolo di oggi? Un altro tema sono i pronti contro termine inversi che, starnazzano gli analisti indipendenti, saranno quelli che la FED userà presa dal panico. Ok... perché invece non sento una parola riguardo l'RRP usato a tutto gas dalla Banca d'Inghilterra già adesso per tenere solventi le banche inglesi? Solo la scorsa settimana erano $83 miliardi. E il default dell'Ucraina su tranche di debito coperte dall'Europa il mese scorso? La vera guerra è finanziaria come ho descritto nel mio ultimo libro, Il Grande Default.

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di Daniel Lacalle

(Versione audio della traduzione disponibile qui: https://open.substack.com/pub/fsimoncelli/p/i-keynesiani-si-sono-sbagliati-sulleconomia)

Negli ultimi sei mesi un coro di analisti e commentatori ha lanciato l'allarme per un imminente crollo dell'economia statunitense.

Molti avevano previsto che l'inflazione persistente, i tassi d'interesse alti e l'aumento dei deficit pubblici avrebbero arrestato la crescita e innescato una recessione.

Invece i dati raccontano una storia diversa: gli Stati Uniti dimostrano forza economica, controllo fiscale e aspettative di inflazione in miglioramento.

Le stime di crescita in aumento smentiscono i pessimisti

All'inizio del 2025 le previsioni dipingevano un quadro cupo. Il primo trimestre ha visto una contrazione del PIL, con l'economia statunitense in calo dello 0,5%. Tuttavia quel calo era determinato da una minore spesa pubblica e da maggiori importazioni, mentre il settore privato aveva continuato a rafforzarsi. Poco dopo la narrazione è cambiata. A metà anno i principali modelli economici e analisti hanno iniziato a rivedere al rialzo le loro stime di crescita. Trading Economics, ad esempio, prevedeva un robusto tasso di crescita del PIL al 3,5% per il secondo trimestre, una netta inversione di tendenza rispetto al precedente pessimismo. Il modello GDPNow della FED di Atlanta annunciava un analogo cambiamento positivo, stimando una crescita al 2,6% per il secondo trimestre. Inoltre le stime del consenso economico sono salite al 2,1% per il secondo trimestre, rispetto all'1,3% precedente, mentre le stime di inflazione sono diminuite.

Questa inversione di tendenza è stata alimentata da diversi fattori:

• Le famiglie americane hanno continuato a spendere, soprattutto perché la crescita dei salari ha superato l'inflazione.

• Gli investimenti fissi sono aumentati del 7,6% all'inizio del 2025, il ritmo più forte sin da metà 2023.

• Le aziende hanno anticipato le importazioni in vista dei nuovi dazi, stimolando l'attività economica; le successive revisioni hanno evidenziato esportazioni positive e importazioni normalizzate.

Queste revisioni al rialzo hanno colto di sorpresa molti commentatori e hanno costretto a rivalutare le precedenti previsioni ribassiste.

Le aspettative di inflazione stanno calando

Un altro ambito in cui gli analisti hanno valutato erroneamente l'economia è l'inflazione. Dopo anni di forti pressioni sui prezzi, molti si aspettavano che le aspettative di inflazione rimanessero ostinatamente elevate. Invece i dati recenti mostrano una chiara tendenza al ribasso: l'inflazione dei prezzi al consumo è diminuita su base mensile, trimestrale e semestrale. Le aspettative di inflazione al consumo negli Stati Uniti per l'anno a venire sono scese al 3% a giugno 2025, in calo rispetto al 3,2% di maggio, il livello più basso degli ultimi cinque mesi. Anche le aspettative di inflazione a tre e cinque anni sono scese leggermente, rispettivamente al 3,0% e al 2,6%.

I costi energetici sono diminuiti significativamente, con i prezzi della benzina in calo del 12% su base annua a maggio e i prezzi del gasolio in calo dell'8,6%. Anche l'inflazione degli immobili, un fattore chiave dell'indice dei prezzi al consumo complessivo, si è attenuata, con il tasso sceso al 3,9% a maggio dal 4% di aprile. Gli aumenti mensili dei prezzi sono stati modesti, con l'indice dei prezzi al consumo in aumento solo dello 0,1% a maggio e le previsioni per giugno indicano un aumento mensile dello 0,23%, mantenendo l'inflazione al livello più basso degli ultimi cinque anni e, secondo Truflation, a un tasso annuo dell'1,7% a giugno.

Il calo generalizzato delle aspettative di inflazione riflette la solidità della catena di approvvigionamento statunitense, un rallentamento dei costi degli immobili e un calo dei prezzi dei prodotti alimentari essenziali.

Il surplus di bilancio di giugno: una sorpresa fiscale

Forse la prova più eclatante della sottovalutazione dell'economia statunitense da parte degli analisti si è avuta a giugno, quando il governo federale ha registrato un surplus di bilancio di oltre $27 miliardi, il primo surplus mensile sin dal 2017. Le previsioni più ottimistiche prevedevano un deficit di oltre $40 miliardi.

Il surplus è stato determinato da due fattori chiave:

• Una forte riduzione della spesa, poiché la spesa pubblica è calata di $187 miliardi a giugno a causa di misure aggressive di riduzione dei costi e di una riduzione delle dimensioni della forza lavoro pubblica.

• I dazi sono saliti a $27 miliardi a giugno, rispetto ai $23 miliardi di maggio e sono più che quadruplicati rispetto all'anno precedente.

Le entrate sono aumentate del 13% rispetto al giugno dell'anno scorso, mentre le spese sono diminuite del 7%.

Tagli alla spesa e contenimento fiscale

La svolta fiscale è stata alimentata anche da una significativa riduzione della spesa discrezionale non destinata alla difesa. La proposta di bilancio 2026 del Presidente Trump ha ridotto le spese non destinate alla difesa di $163 miliardi, pari al 23% rispetto all'anno precedente, portando la spesa al livello più basso sin dal 2017.

Sebbene il deficit federale più ampio rimanga elevato – oltre $1.340 miliardi da inizio anno – è in gran parte un retaggio delle politiche della precedente amministrazione e si prevede un calo significativo entro la fine dell'anno. Il deficit inferiore di maggio, insieme ai consistenti surplus di aprile e giugno e ai tagli alla spesa, ha offerto un respiro positivo e ha messo in discussione la narrazione di una irresponsabilità fiscale incontrollata.

Una lezione di umiltà

Gli eventi del 2025 ci ricordano i rischi delle previsioni economiche keynesiane e l'errore dell'analisi ceteris paribus (a parità di condizioni). Sebbene le sfide permangano, soprattutto per quanto riguarda il debito a lungo termine e il costo degli interessi, l'economia statunitense si è dimostrata ancora una volta più dinamica e adattabile di quanto molti esperti avessero previsto, e l'attenzione dell'amministrazione alla responsabilità fiscale è chiara.

L'aumento delle stime di crescita, il calo delle aspettative di inflazione, il controllo di bilancio e i tagli disciplinati alla spesa evidenziano che le precedenti stime allarmistiche erano motivate da motivazioni ideologiche. La lezione che si può trarre da questa esperienza è quella di affrontare le previsioni economiche con cautela. Le stime keynesiane spesso si rivelano eccessivamente ottimistiche riguardo a crescita e inflazione quando la spesa pubblica aumenta e prevedono pessimismo quando accade il contrario.

L'economia statunitense è più forte ed è probabile che il settore privato cresca più rapidamente poiché i tagli fiscali e la deregolamentazione alleggeriranno gli oneri sugli investimenti e sull'occupazione.

[*] traduzione di Francesco Simoncelli: https://www.francescosimoncelli.com/

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Substantial parts of the world are at war, The Mideast and Ukraine attract the most attention, but there are others as well. Our traditional foreign policy calls for non-intervention in foreign wars, but even those who do not fully accept this policy should agree on one thing. America should not ship weapons to troubled areas. Wars are bad things, and we shouldn’t make them worse by making it easier to kill people.

Unfortunately, that’s just what we are doing. When he ran for President, Trump made statements in favor of a non-interventionist policy. He especially seemed eager to disengage from Ukraine.

But once he took office, he continued the policy of massive arms shipments to Israel of brain-dead “President” Biden and his gang and his gang of neocon controllers. He went even further with Iran, actually sending American bombers to drop bunker busting bombs on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

At first, Trump partially fulfilled his campaign rhetoric about cutting off military aid to Ukraine. But he has now restored it, and he threatens to impose sanctions against Putin. This risks nuclear war.

Let’s look first at American arms shipments to Israel. According to an article in The Times of Israel in May 2025, “The US State Department told Congress on Friday that it plans to sell nearly $3 billion in weapons to Israel, including thousands of bombs and $295 million worth of armored bulldozers that had been held up by the previous administration over human rights concerns that US President Donald Trump has largely eschewed. The prospective weapons sales were notified to US Congress on an emergency basis, meaning they will not be subject to review by the House and Senate’s foreign relations committees. Trump’s predecessor, US President Joe Biden, also utilized the measure to approve arms sales to Israel during the war in Gaza. In a statement, the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ‘has determined and provided detailed justification that an emergency exists that requires the immediate sale to the Government of Israel of the above defense articles and defense services in the national security interests of the United States, thereby waiving the Congressional review requirements.’”

Here is Rubio’s statement in full, from the Department of State website: “I have signed a declaration to use emergency authorities to expedite the delivery of approximately $4 billion in military assistance to Israel. The decision to reverse the Biden Administration’s partial arms embargo, which wrongly withheld a number of weapons and ammunition from Israel, is yet another sign that Israel has no greater ally in the White House than President Trump. Since taking office, the Trump Administration has approved nearly $12 billion in major FMS sales to Israel. This important decision coincides with President Trump’s repeal of a Biden-era memorandum which had imposed baseless and politicized conditions on military assistance to Israel at a time when our close ally was fighting a war of survival on multiple fronts against Iran and terror proxies. The Trump Administration will continue to use all available tools to fulfill America’s long-standing commitment to Israel’s security, including means to counter security threats.”

Now let’s turn to Iran and the bunker-buster bombs. Here is what American bombers did according to the USNI: “A bomber mission of seven B-2 Spirit bombers and more than 30 Tomahawk Attack Missiles fired from an Ohio-class guided-missile nuclear submarine struck three Iranian nuclear sites at Natanz, Isfahan and Fordo, Pentagon officials confirmed on Sunday. ‘Iran’s key nuclear enrichment facilities have been completely and totally obliterated,’ President Trump said in a Saturday night address at the White House. The main strike package of seven bombers began the more than day-long round trip from Whiteman Airbase, Mo., on Saturday. The B-2s ultimately dropped 14 GBU-57/B Massive Ordnance Penetrators on the enrichment facilities at Natanz and Fordo early Sunday morning Iranian time, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said in a Pentagon press briefing. The MOP is a 20-foot-long, 30,000-pound munition capable of tunneling through more than 100 feet of concrete and is thought to be the only weapon in the U.S. or Israeli arsenal capable of destroying Iran’s underground uranium enrichment facilities.”

When he ran for office, Trump said he favored non-intervention. In September 2024, he said he was going to cut off military aid to Ukraine: “Donald Trump on Tuesday praised Russia’s military record in historical conflicts and derided U.S. aid to Ukraine as he again insisted he would quickly end the war launched by Moscow’s invasion if elected president. Speaking in Savannah, Georgia, Trump mocked President Joe Biden’s frequent refrain that the U.S. would back the Ukrainian armed forces until Kyiv wins the war. He raised two long ago conflicts to suggest Moscow would not lose — the former Soviet Union’s role in defeating Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in World War II in the 1940s, and French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte’s failed invasion of Russia more than a century earlier. Trump insisted that the U.S. had ‘to get out,’ though he did not specify how he would negotiate an ending to U.S. involvement in the war. “Biden says, ‘We will not leave until we win,’” Trump said, lowering his voice to mimic the Democratic president. ‘What happens if they win? That’s what they do, is they fight wars. As somebody told me the other day, they beat Hitler, they beat Napoleon. That’s what they do. They fight. And it’s not pleasant.’”

When he became President, Trump at first did cut off arms shipments to Ukraine: The New York Times said on March 3, 2025: President Trump on Monday temporarily suspended the delivery of all U.S. military aid to Ukraine, senior administration and military officials said, just days after Mr. Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine had an explosive confrontation at the White House. The order affects more than $1 billion in arms and ammunition in the pipeline and on order. It resulted from a series of meetings at the White House on Monday between Mr. Trump and his senior national security aides, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The officials said the directive would be in effect until Mr. Trump determined that Ukraine had demonstrated a good-faith commitment to peace negotiations with Russia. Mr. Trump’s decision dramatically escalates the breach between Washington and Kyiv, at a critical moment in the conflict. The most immediate beneficiary of the move is President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. If the suspension is lengthy, he can use the time to press for further territorial gains. And he may well decide to hold back from any negotiations at all, figuring that any prolonged dispute between Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky will only strengthen his position, either on the battlefield or when cease-fire talks ever take place.”

But Trump restored the military aid after only a week and denied he had ordered a pause at all: According to PBS News “The Trump administration has resumed sending some weapons to Ukraine, a week after the Pentagon had directed that some deliveries be paused, U.S. officials said Wednesday. The weapons heading into Ukraine include 155 mm munitions and precision-guided rockets known as GMLRS, two officials told The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to provide details that had not been announced publicly. It’s unclear exactly when the weapons started moving. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed the pause on some shipments last week to allow the Pentagon to assess its weapons stockpiles, in a move that caught the White House by surprise. Affected was Patriot missiles, the precision-guided GMLRS, Hellfire missiles, Howitzer rounds and more, taking not only Ukrainian officials and other allies by surprise but also U.S. lawmakers and other parts of the Trump administration, including the State Department. It was not clear if a pause on Patriot missiles would hold. The $4 million munition is in high demand and was key to defending a major U.S. air base in Qatar last month as Iran launched a ballistic missile attack in response to the U.S. targeting its nuclear facilities. President Donald Trump announced Monday that the U.S. would continue to deliver defensive weapons to Ukraine. He has sidestepped questions about who ordered the pause in exchanges with reporters this week.”

Let’s do everything we can to discourage Trump from sending arms to troubled hot spots!

The post Don’t Ship Weapons to Troubled Hot Spots appeared first on LewRockwell.

In these uncertain times, when the world seems to go mad, you can’t help but wonder how long until we will experience a martial law scenario.

One day we might have to live under such a scenario since it seems there are many SHTF events that would impose it. The current pandemic is just an example, and personally, I believe we were lucky so far that things didn’t lead to further chaos and social upheaval.

The United States has a certain history when it comes to martial law, and like many other nations, it will do whatever is necessary to defend its integrity (and protect?) its citizens. I believe we should all have a survival strategy if martial law will be upon us in the near future.

What is martial law?

To put it simply, martial law is the imposition of military rule and the occupation of the government over a specific region. It is declared when an imminent threat disturbs peace and order. Martial law can be declared during a state of war when natural disasters are too much to handle for local authorities, when a coup is developing or even when uncontrollable riots and protests affect an entire region.

When martial law is declared, everyone is expected to follow the same rules, no questions asked!

It doesn’t matter if you think what’s happening is right or wrong, and you have to give up certain civil rights for the good of the nation/state.

What Survival Secret We Lost To History

There are certain rights that will be suspended if martial law hits, such as:

• Right of Information
• Freedom of Expression
• Right to privacy
• Right of Habeas Corpus
• Right to make choices

Those that are prepared and organized should be able to survive such a scenario without having their lives turned upside down. However, even for them, there are certain things that become mandatory under martial law.

How to survive martial law:

Being self-reliant

As preppers, we are already prepared to outlast various scenarios that may cut us off from the major supply chains. For most of us, it will be rather easy to survive when the government takes full control of food and supplies and their distribution.

As an average Joe, you should avoid waiting for handouts during a disaster or hope that some military rations will find their ways towards you, and you must have your own supply of food and water. Your supplies should last for at least six months if you don’t want to stay in line for help. Also, all your supplies will become government property if you don’t stockpile smart (more on that in the next paragraphs).

Being self-reliant under martial law means that you must have a method of producing your own electricity, the means to prepare and cook food, ways to sterilize water, and everything else that will assure the same level of comfort you were used to before martial law was declared.

Be ready to bug out

In certain cases, when you see the first signs of an impending scenario when martial law is imminent, you might want to bug out to a safe location, if you have one. If you manage to do so before roadblocks and checkpoints are installed, you might be one of the lucky few. If you’re not so lucky, hunkering down may be the safest choice for you and your family. This will be the norm for most folks living in densely populated areas.

If you plan to bug out, you should have everything ready to make a successful trip. This means that your bug out bag should be properly packed and updated for the season. Also, your bug out vehicles should be in good shape to handle the road ahead and eventual obstacles. I won’t get into details about what to pack in your bug out bag or vehicles since these are distinctive cases from one person to another. What I will stress is the need to have everything updated and make sure they function properly.

Stay safe during martial law

We love our freedom and liberty, and certain folks will not bow down and take it easy when martial law is declared. For some, being stripped of certain civil rights is unthinkable and unacceptable. Most Americans fear that giving someone absolute power will lead to mistreatments against the general public.

That being said, the safest course of action would be to avoid areas that are exposed to social upheaval and other scenarios that may lead to dangerous escalations. You will first need to protect yourself and what’s yours before handling any other thing.  There are various ways to protect your home when civil unrest is developing, and you can find a lot of information on Survivopedia.

Keeping a low profile is also recommended before you will get involved in matters that may not be a priority for you and yours. You will have the time needed to plan and act following your own belief system if you stay out of sight. You have to think before you act and decide on an individual case if you follow the rules or rebel against them. Don’t go with the herd and follow the curfew under martial law. Make sure you have all the means to protect yourself and survive whatever scenario unfolds.

Get informed

When martial law is declared, the media and all the information channels will be controlled by the federal government. You might not get all the required information, and the truth may be filtered to avoid creating mass panic. While listening to official broadcasts will provide you with information and updates regarding the imposed rules, you might need to have a backup source of information.

A HAM radio is a great alternative, and the HAM radio community will take care of its own. They will provide all the “unofficial” information, and they will tell you things as they see them. It’s better to know both sides of a story before you decide if its ending is the proper one. We are bombarded by media propaganda on a daily basis, and the last thing you need is to have filtered information being delivered and remain misinformed during martial law. Information is key to your survival during an SHTF event, and you must always be aware of what happens around you.

Always be alert and improve your skills

This is a general rule for us preppers, and staying in shape, constantly learning, and improving our skills proves useful in any type of crisis scenario. Preparedness and our will to survive have to be backed up by proper knowledge and a good set of survival skills.

If you run out of food and water, or if you run out of guns and ammo, what will you do then? What happens if you get hurt by accident, or otherwise?

You need to be able to handle the above scenarios, and these are not things you can learn on the spot. One needs to prepare in advance and challenge his or her skills with every occasion or opportunity provided.

Take a first aid course, learn to cook without your stove, try to fish or hunt and practice any skill that you may think, one day, will come in handy. You will have to survive on your own during martial law, and the skills you have will make your life much easier. Also, consider that all the activities you do will leave you weak and tired if you’re not in good shape. You don’t need to become a couch potato when dealing with martial law, and you need to be ready for anything.

When you are tired and stressed, your judgment will get clouded, and you may end up making mistakes that will leave you injured or worse. You must avoid this at all costs!

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