https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-65131117
…”We also understand that Russia is seeking to send a delegation in North Korea and that Russia is offering North Korea food in exchange for munitions,” he said…
Month: March 2023
The Day The Republic Fell | ARLIN REPORT……………….walking this path together
https://arlinreport.com/2023/03/31/the-day-the-republic-fell/
It is a Dark Day for America. The day will be remembered as the day when the Republic Fell to Marxist democrats. We have crossed into the point of no return. The indictment of President Trump by a corrupt Prosecutor, Fat Alvin Bragg, funded by a billionaire criminal George Soros. Our justice system in this country has been weaponized against the American people. This indictment isn’t about President Trump, it’s about a corrupt evil democrat party that wants total control over this nation.
We’re moving into a period of time where I wouldn’t put it past the Marxist democrats under this regime of Pedo-Hitler Biden to declare Martial Law and enact emergency powers to completely seize power. Over the next few days will see a shift in how the FBI, CIA, and NSA will act to enforce a suppression of communications. We’re entering what third world countries do to their…
House Judiciary Committee Demands Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg Hand Over Documents and Testify Regarding Possible Donald Trump Indictment — The Gateway Pundit | Truth2Freedom’s Blog
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) sent the letter Monday morning demanding Bragg’s cooperation. Rep. James Comer (R-KY) and Bryan Steil (R-WI) also signed the letter.
As Gateway Pundit readers know, Trump announced that expects to be arrested Tuesday on specious misdemeanor charges related to an alleged affair with porn star Stormy Daniels. He is accused of providing $130,000 in 2016 to his disgraced former lawyer Michael Cohen, who then allegedly passed the money on as hush money to Daniels.
…
What If the Whole Point Is to End “The Fed Put”? By Charles Hugh Smith | STRAIGHT LINE LOGIC
Alan Greenspan initiated the “Fed Put” back in 1987 when the stock market crashed. Now, Jerome Powell may be the buy who ends it. From Charles Hugh Smith at oftwominds.com:
Choose one, and only one: a stock market that inflates and pops in an endless series of ever-more destructive bubbles, or a real economy that is no longer in thrall to the engines of wealth inequality and speculative frenzy.
“The Fed Put”–the implicit Federal Reserve policy of bailing out the stock market as soon as it swoons by unleashing a flood of monetary stimulus–is now accepted as a guarantee not unlike financial gravity. Regardless of the bleatings of Fed officials, “everyone knows” the Fed will quickly “pivot” should the market swoon, slashing interest rates and ramping up liquidity via Quantitative Easing (QE).
Recall the definition of excess liquidity: the difference between real money growth and economic growth. The Fed juices excess liquidity not to further expansion in the real economy but to force-feed new money into the stock market and other risk assets.
The only possible result of “The Fed Put” is a credit/asset bubble, which is why we’re currently experiencing the third such monumental speculative bubble in 23 years…
Former Sydney prison officer sentenced to 23 years in jail for sexually assaulting inmates – ABC News
Some of his victims told the court they were threatened into silenceThe court heard Astill would lure women into his office by promising them special treatment
(540) BREAKING: “QAnon Shaman” RELEASED from PRISON – WHAT HAPPENED?? – YouTube – Trump:The American Years
(540) BREAKING: “QAnon Shaman” RELEASED from PRISON – WHAT HAPPENED?? – YouTube
TikTok bills could dangerously expand national security state, by Marcus Stanley | STRAIGHT LINE LOGIC
TikTok, like 9/11, is a Trojan Horse rolling towards more totalitarianism. From Marcus Stanley at responsiblestatecraft.org:
…Two major bills that would impose sweeping restrictions on Chinese-owned software are working their way through the House (HR 1153) and Senate (S 686), while TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was recently brought before the House Commerce Committee for hostile questioning. The executive branch is also seeking to force ByteDance to sell the app to an American owner, against Chinese opposition.
Those raising the alarm about Chinese ownership of TikTok cite invasive surveillance practices, privacy violations created by excessive collection and exploitation of user data, addictive design features, and harmful content. But all of these disturbing characteristics are also ubiquitous features of American-owned big tech apps ranging from Google to Facebook to Instagram, and were in many ways pioneered by American Silicon Valley companies…
RIP US Republic | The Wentworth Report
https://wentworthreport.com/2023/03/31/rip-us-republic/
RIP US Republic. By John Hinderaker. So the Democrats decided to indict Donald Trump after all. (I assume that Alvin Bragg would not have proceeded without a green light from higher-ups in the party.) Here, as in so many other areas, we are in uncharted waters. The Democrats have launched a sort of blitzkrieg against…
The Indictment Of Donald Trump: The Players And A Timeline | PA Pundits International
By John G. Malcolm and Zack Smith and Hans von Spakovsky ~
The widely reported indictment of former President Donald Trump by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, headed by Alvin Bragg, doesn’t come as a surprise.
The legal case brought against former President Donald Trump by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg—seen here holding a press conference on Sept. 8 in New York City, flanked by state Attorney General Letitia James—is not helped by the recent testimony of Robert Costello, Michael Cohen’s former legal adviser. Costello told Fox News that he told the grand jury that Cohen, who would be Bragg’s chief witness on the supposed federal campaign-finance violation, is a “serial liar.” (Photo: David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
That lack of surprise, though, isn’t because he’s necessarily guilty of any crimes. Like anyone else accused of a crime, Trump is deemed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt by legal and competent evidence.
The lack of surprise stems from the fact that it’s clear he’s been the target of potential prosecution by politically ambitious local district attorneys in New York and Georgia—and by a politicized federal Justice Department—for some time.
Recently, New York Attorney General Letitia James spearheaded a civil investigation into the Trump Organization and many of its business dealings, while the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, led by then-DA Cy Vance, ran a parallel criminal investigation.
Under Vance’s successor, Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg ultimately pled guilty to a tax fraud scheme and he provided testimony against the Trump Organization, which itself was convicted of participating in that scheme.
Indictment Not Yet Released
Trump himself, though, faced no personal liability in those investigations. Now, however, Bragg, the current Manhattan DA, who came into office touting liberal nonprosecution policies, has apparently charged Trump with alleged crimes.
While the indictment itself has not been released, we know that the investigation focused on what has been labeled as “hush money” payments to adult film star Stephanie Clifford, who goes by the name Stormy Daniels.
Daniels claims she had an affair with Trump, which he has denied. Prosecutors allege that in the final days of his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump paid her $130,000 in hush money through his then-attorney/fixer Michael Cohen and reimbursed Cohen via monthly payments from his company for legal and other services that were not provided.
Cohen ultimately pled guilty to several federal offenses, including perjury and three relatively minor (when compared with the other charges to which he pled guilty) campaign finance charges related to those payments.
With respect to the campaign finance charges, in essence, the government’s theory was that when Cohen made the initial payment to Daniels, he was doing so “in order to influence the 2016 presidential election” and was, therefore, making a campaign donation in excess of the legal limit, for which he was ultimately reimbursed.
The government also claimed, and Cohen admitted, that Cohen arranged an additional $150,000 to Karen McDougal, a former Playboy Playmate, who also claimed to have had an affair with Trump. Cohen is alleged to have arranged this payment from David Pecker, a friend of Trump’s who, at the time, was the CEO of American Media Inc. and the publisher of the National Enquirer, as part of a “catch and kill” scheme to buy the exclusive rights to McDougal’s story in order to ensure that it would never get published.
Federal prosecutors granted immunity to Pecker in exchange for his cooperation, and it has been reported that Pecker testified twice before the grand jury in connection with Bragg’s investigation. The National Enquirer, however, paid a $187,500 fine to the Federal Election Commission after the FEC concluded that the $150,000 payment was an illegal corporate campaign contribution that had been arranged in coordination with people with the Trump campaign, including Cohen.
At the time of his sentencing, Cohen stated that he “acted in coordination with and at the direction of” Trump when he made and arranged those payments.
Shoehorning Allegations Into a Prosecution
Bragg, it seems, is trying to shoehorn those allegations into a prosecution against Trump for several New York state crimes. Essentially, Bragg is trying to elevate a New York state misdemeanor case for falsifying business records (under Article 175 of the New York Penal Code) related to the hush-money payments to a state felony offense by alleging that Trump acted with an “intent to defraud” by making misleading entries in the company’s business records in order to cover up another crime—in this case, the alleged federal campaign finance violation committed by Cohen to assist the Trump campaign.
As one of us explained in a 2018 article, “Those claiming that this settlement with Stormy Daniels was a campaign-related expense and a violation of campaign finance law don’t have much of a leg to stand on.”
It’s also worth noting that neither the Federal Election Commission nor the U.S. Justice Department, which are responsible for enforcing federal campaign finance laws, thought this settlement payment violated federal campaign finance laws. In fact, the Justice Department considered the matter, but ultimately closed its investigation without bringing any charges against Trump.
So did the FEC, when it closed its investigation without any finding of wrongdoing.
The Washington Post said that it “would be unusual for a state prosecutor to use an alleged violation of a federal law, rather than of a state campaign finance law, as grounds to elevate a false-paperwork case from a misdemeanor to a felony.” (Bear in mind that New York state campaign finance laws do not apply to a federal candidate running for the presidency or for Congress.)
And even The New York Times admits that the “case against the former president hinges on an untested and therefore risky legal theory involving a complex interplay of laws, all amounting to a low-level felony.”
Bragg’s case is also not helped by the recent testimony of Robert Costello, Cohen’s former legal adviser. Costello told Fox News that he told the grand jury that Cohen, who would be Bragg’s chief witness on the supposed federal campaign finance violation, is a “serial liar.”
Appealing to Bragg’s Base
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The rise of the East and decline of the West | Phil Ebersole’s Blog
https://philebersole.wordpress.com/2023/03/24/the-rise-of-the-east-and-decline-of-the-west/
The most important things going on in the world today is the rise of China to world leadership. The second most important thing is the decline of U.S. power…
…The USA is alienating the rest of the world by threats and brute force. There was a long period when Russia and Iran would have welcomed good relations with the USA. Instead we have driven them into the arms of China. Now it is too late to change…
… That’s not to say China, Russia and their allies are examples of democracy and human rights. They aren’t. I still would rather live in the dilapidated, dysfunctional U.S. democracy, under what’s left of our Constitution, than in those countries. But that’s my personal preference. Not everybody in the world shares it…
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