The terms Ukraine and government corruption are synonymous regardless of who is funding the schemes.  After Volodymyr Zelenskyy grabbed more power by stripping two key anti-corruption agencies, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP), of their independence, protests erupted.

European leaders immediately noticed the intent of the power move and threatened Zelenskyy with a withdrawal of support. The current dictatorship of Zelensky and his small team then quickly reversed course.  However, the damage is done, and once again Ukranian corruption is center stage.

It doesn’t matter how much western intelligence agencies and pro-Ukraine western govt officials try to hide the nature of the duck represented by Zelenskyy by calling him a swan, eventually the quacking returns – the mask drops.

UKRAINE – […] Some also cautioned that the agitation could spark a popular uprising like the one that toppled then-President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. “We are now in the face of the most dangerous development in all the years since Maidan,” wrote Sevgil Musayeva, editor-in-chief of the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper. And like others, she hazarded that Zelenskyy’s powerful Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak was behind the move, amid signs that NABU is preparing cases against presidential insiders.

Eventually, with public uproar mounting, Ukraine’s president bowed to the pressure and agreed to restore the independence of the agencies — a new law turning back the clock is meant to be voted on Thursday.

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President Trump announces that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer have successfully concluded three-days of topline trade negotiations with their Chinese counterparts.

President Trump and Chairman Xi will now evaluate the successfully negotiated details and institute the topline strategy as part of the overall future trade agreement. According to the Truth Social post, there will be a 55% tariff on Chinese imports and a 10% tariff on U.S. goods to China.

[SOURCE]

At a 55% tariff rate against Chinese finished-goods imports, there will be ZERO inflationary pressure to the U.S. consumer.

None. Zero. Zippo. Zilch.

I will explain why below.

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CONTEXT for Los Angeles Riots:  Approximately 12.3 million Mexicans live abroad, both legally and illegally, with 97% of them living and working in the United States, according to BBVA Research.  Last year Mexicans living abroad sent $64.75 billion back home in remittances, largely from Texas and California to states in central and western Mexico.

According to data recently released, in April of this year remittances back to Mexico dropped 12.1%.  The Mexico central bank said April saw 8.1% fewer transactions than a year earlier, that’s down to 12.4 million transactions. For Mexico this is a devastating outcome.

How dependent is the Mexican Govt on these remittances?  Remittances sent home by Mexicans working outside the country surpassed petroleum revenues in 2015. {link} Oil Revenue in 2015 was 23.4 billion; remittances were $24.8 billion.  Last year in 2024 remittances were $64.75 billion…. and in April of this year the remittances dropped by 12.1%.

If you don’t think there is a critical financial motive in this, think again.

CALIFORNIA – About 700 U.S. Marines were mobilized Monday to support the California National Guard to protect federal personnel and property in Los Angeles during protests there, officials said.

The mobilization of the Marines from their base in Twentynine Palms, California, is temporary, to give time for additional National Guard troops to arrive.

Earlier Monday, President Donald Trump said he would support arresting California Gov. Gavin Newsom for purportedly obstructing federal immigration enforcement actions in Los Angeles.

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California Governor Gavin Newsom has announced it is not his job to enforce the law, protect the citizens of California or provide for domestic tranquility.  He is giving the rioting mob carte blanche to continue the chaos:

[SOURCE]

As a consequence of the mayor, police commissioner and now Governor abdicating their responsibility to retain law and order, President Trump is now coordinating a full federal response to assist the citizens of Los Angeles.

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Anyone who was following politics in 2007 and 2008 knows exactly what role the SEIU (Service Employees International Union) played in supporting candidate Barack Obama.

As Obama and Hillary Clinton battled for control of the Democrat apparatus, Barack made a deal with SEIU President Andy Stern. If the purple orcs would activate -violently if needed- on Obama’s behalf, when he became President Obama would remove the healthcare liability from the union retirement by creating nationalized healthcare, Obamacare.

Andy Stern agreed to the deal, marshalled his orcs and that was the army the Chicago machine used to defeat the Clinton machine. It was a bloody battle, and in the aftermath the PUMAs were born (Public Unity My Ass). SEIU President Stern became the #1 White House visitor to see Obama in 2009 and 2010, and the rest as they say is history.

The Chicago machine behind Obama is deeply enmeshed with classic communist objectives. In descending level of ideological severity, you will note: SEIU, AFSCME, AFL-CIO and the UFCW. All of these labor organization are open borders activists, radical leftists with severe ideological leadership who know how to weaponize their membership to act as ‘shock troops’ within the U.S. political system.

That’s the background for the SEIU to align with La Raza and attack the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials on Los Angeles yesterday and today.

With Democrats out of power in DC all the foot soldiers have once again been activated to achieve political objectives.  ICE is the convenient target, but the larger objective is to create street level crisis similar to the BLM riots in 2020 and get back into power.  Violence is once again accepted in order to achieve their political goals.  The media runs cover for the violence, continually downplaying it – even as it gets worse.

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The sense that this is not good expands when you consider the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the current conflict between the United States and China.  Two Chinese researchers in Michigan have been charged with smuggling into the U.S. a fungus that devastates agricultural crops.

Was this an ‘agroterrorism’ operation intended to unleash a serious problem in the U.S. farming system?  That intent cannot be dismissed easily.

MICHIGAN – Two Chinese nationals have been charged with allegedly smuggling into the U.S. a fungus called “Fusarium graminearum, which scientific literature classifies as a potential agroterrorism weapon,” the Justice Department said Tuesday.

Yunqing Jian, 33, and Zunyong Liu, 34, citizens of the People’s Republic of China, were allegedly receiving Chinese government funding for their research, some of it at the University of Michigan, officials said.

“The complaint also alleges that Jian’s electronics contain information describing her membership in and loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party,” a DOJ press release said.

“It is further alleged that Jian’s boyfriend, Liu, works at a Chinese university where he conducts research on the same pathogen and that he first lied but then admitted to smuggling Fusarium graminearum into America — through the Detroit Metropolitan Airport — so that he could conduct research on it at the laboratory at the University of Michigan where his girlfriend, Jian, worked,” according to the press release.

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Ancillary to the takeover of the Columbia University library ¹yesterday that led to the subsequent arrest of dozens of campus chaos agents, Acting Columbia University President Claire Shipman has announced a decision to terminate 180 paid research staff.

The termination of employment comes as a result of the Trump administration withdrawing funding for the University.

COLUMBIA PRESS RELEASE – […] “Across the research portfolio we have had to make difficult choices and unfortunately, today, nearly 180 of our colleagues who have been working, in whole or in part, on impacted federal grants, will receive notices of non-renewal or termination. This represents about 20% of the individuals who are funded in some manner by the terminated grants.”

Instead of using their endowment to retain staff, the University terminates them.

¹Additionally, it is now being reported that Columbia University leadership knew in advance of the pro-Hamas protest group that planned to take over the school library.  The University chose to allow the confrontation on campus that ended with the arrest of the group.

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White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett appears on Fox Business to discuss President Donald Trump’s tariff agenda, semiconductor imports, the administration working on new trade deals and the impact of the global trade reset on China.

Happy warrior Kevin Hassett notes numerous countries are ready to sign new deals with the USA and there will likely be some group announcements very soon.  WATCH:

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Hassett also answered questions outside the White House to the media pool.

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On Sunday, when CBS’s Margaret Brennan shockingly claimed that “free speech” was the cause of the German holocaust and rise in Naziism, a stunned Secretary of State Marco Rubio simply replied, “I have to fundamentally disagree with you, Margaret.”  The reaction from American observers toward the interview, and in particular Vice-President JD Vance, was much less diplomatic. “This is a crazy exchange,” Vance said.

However, a few hours later the background context for Brennan’s position surfaced, when CBS 60 Minutes broadcast a defense of German laws that make it illegal to say something that can be construed as “insulting.”  The CBS segment is naturally alarming to people who will not accept definitions of approved speech determined by government officials; especially for most Americans who have experienced the extreme online control operations by govt interests around the COVID-19 fiasco.  Watch (prompted):

This is the mindset that JD Vance encountered following his honest remarks to the Munich Security Conference.  The Vice-President outlined in his remarks that Europe was devolving into a totalitarian state, destroying democracy and using the power of government against the freewill and liberty of the European people.

Vance was pointing out the big picture of liberty, freedom and the value of democracy.  After citing examples of oppressive EU action that included the nullification of the Romanian election, Vice-President Vance noted in his comments, “there is no security if you are afraid of the voices of your own people,” he said.  Continuing, “if you are running in fear of your own voters, there is nothing the American people can do to assist you.”  The EU collective, and specifically the German political leadership immediately decried the brutally honest remarks.

There is a particular irony in Germany saying that controversial speech is not protected speech, arresting people for what the state considers online antagonism, and then decrying Vice-President Vance for calling them out.  The need for control is a reaction to fear (inherent insecurity), and the actions by the German government are extreme.  However, for Germany this is particularly ironic.

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Big Panda has a problem, and his name is President Donald Trump.

CTH went (proactively) directly into the heart of the Chinese Potemkin Village, much like my trip to Russia, to specifically see what the reality is on the ground in the region of all Beijing influence.  Where the East meets the West you will find a hot mess of propaganda, kept in place by widespread geopolitical pretending.

Never was that reality clearer, than in the example of the retaliatory tariffs announced in response to President Trump’s trade tariffs.

(Via AP) – China said it would implement a 15% tariff on coal and liquefied natural gas products as well as a 10% tariff on crude oil, agricultural machinery and large-engine cars imported from the U.S. The tariffs would take effect next Monday. {link}

First, tariffs on energy products are pure propaganda.  Coal, LNG and crude oil are fungible. In the case of China the energy products arrive from a global market, there is no identifiable way to tariff American energy products.  This is not like Canada where the Candian energy products are entirely dependent on pipelines into the USA, and therefore unavoidably easy to tariff by Trump.

Chairman Xi gets most of the Chinese imported energy resources from Russia, specifically Coal, LNG and Crude Oil.  So, this subset of tariffs against American energy products is pure propaganda, essentially moot.

You know who buys USA-made “large-engine cars” (Chevy Tahoe, GMC Yukon and Ford Raptors) in China?  People well connected to the Chinese Communist Party, that’s who.  If you are not a member of the elite ruling class in China, you do not buy large-engine cars.   So, what exactly is the intent on this one?  The target is a domestic internal political apparatus, in combination with narrative creation that Beijing believes will create the biggest splash headlines in the West.  That’s it.  Again, pure political propaganda.

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