Bumped, because I knew the media were going to use this NYT article today:

Bottom line, we are in an expanded information war. I’ll explain.

Several years ago, in explaining some of the site challenges CTH informed people of Google’s latest information control operation that was simply called “a spider crawl.”  The spider crawl was an automated instruction to search the internet and find information that was beyond the parameters of their “trust and safety” guidelines.  The automated search would crawl through the websites and comment sections, and report violations based on key words in the search parameter.

Spider crawling is essentially AI.  A technology tool to search databases and identify results based on parameters established by the individual who launched the search.  However, now in order to push a scare narrative around the hot topic of “AI” the spider crawling is much more in depth and advanced.

Now, instead of just searching the internet, advanced AI can find information and answer questions based on lengthy attributes described by the AI user.  AI can now go into proprietary databases and retrieve information to answer complex and complicated question (instructions).

If the AI launch, now called an “AI bot”, hits a gate, like a password access point, advanced AI can find workarounds to enter the database, extract the information and return the result to the AI user.  If you understand that process, then this headline has context.

[SOURCE]

The entire article is nothing more than taking something that is easily understood and adding jargon to make it sound complicated. The word “meddling” is used to describe the AI process of trying to get passed the gate.  When there were individual people doing this, we called it “hacking” now the process is automated via instructions to the software search.

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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appears on Sunday Morning Futures now hosted by Larry Kudlow who has replaced Maria Bartiromo.  The primary topic of the conversation is the current state of the economy.

Secretary Bessent notes we have entered the phase of prior policy implementation where the economy now accelerates growth based on former policy changes including, targeted tax reductions, capital investment prioritization and expensing, regulatory changes and direct investment.  GDP growth now looks to achieve 5% or more.  WATCH:

Oil prices are the underlying friction within the economy creating higher gasoline and diesel prices.  However, when you take the energy sector out of the inflation calculation, the current rate of wage growth is exceeding inflation.

Bessent also notes, currently the only oil not coming through the Strait of Hormuz is Iranian oil.  Other than those supplies, oil flows through the Strait are at normal levels.

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Royal Airforce base Fairford, is a U.K-owned base operated by the United States under an agreement that goes back to the 1950’s cold war era. However, recently Airbase Fairford has been used by American strategic bombers for strikes against Iranian missile sites under an agreement with former British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Overnight, at 12:45 a.m British police received a warning about three suspicious vans traveling toward RAF Fairford, with a tip that a coordinated terrorist attack was planned against the American base.

U.K police alerted the base, which immediately triggered threat alerts, then police intercepted the vans and arrested five males on suspicion of terrorism.

LONDON (AP) — U.K. police said Sunday that five men arrested in the middle of the night near an air base used by the United States during its war against Iran are being held on suspicion of preparing a terrorist act that appeared to involve three trucks.

London’s Metropolitan Police, which takes the lead on potential terrorist activities, said police received a call at 12:45 a.m. related to the three suspicious vehicles that appeared to be traveling toward RAF Fairford, a U.K.-owned base that is operated by the U.S. under an agreement dating back to the Cold War.

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The state visit by Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping in combination with USTR Jamieson Greer’s responsibilities within the U.S-China trade program, meant that Greer had to defer a visit to Mexico to work on the USMCA replacement.  However, bilateral trade agreement discussions at a technical level remained on track and progressing during Xi’s visit.

The U.S. and Mexico delegations have now expanded the bilateral topics from 54 sections to 90 sections.  This indicates significant agreement on the major components of the framework and now the smaller overlapping topics that enmesh with the bigger topics are brought in.

Greer shifted focus toward the Chinese trade aspects due to the timing of the Xi-Trump summit.  USTR Jamieson Greer is expected to be returning to the Mexico trade talks in about a week.

For the interests of the Mexican side, the main focus is seeking favorable reductions in the section 232 tariffs on steel, aluminum and automobiles.  However, the digital platform section and intellectual property is also a priority being negotiated by team USA.

MEXICO CITY, Sept 23 (Reuters) – The fourth round of trade talks between Mexico and the United States will not take place next week and could instead be held in October, a senior Mexican official said on Wednesday, as the two countries juggle a shifting diplomatic calendar.

Luis Rosendo Gutierrez, Mexico’s deputy economy minister for foreign trade, said the delay was due to scheduling conflicts, including Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the United States and the upcoming G20 summit. Despite the pause in formal rounds, Gutierrez said technical coordination with the US Trade Representative’s Office (USTR) remains a “daily” occurrence.

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Promethean Action’s Susan Kokinda gives a good recap of Chinese Chairman Xi’s state visit, including the nuanced respect and policy alignment visible between President Trump and Chairman Xi.

In essence, the comments by Marco Rubio about putting USA sovereign policy ahead of prior USA multilateral global policy, are a baseline for Chairman Xi to pivot his own interpretations of Trump’s policy objective.  With U.S policy focused on America’s interests and Beijing policy focused on China’s interests, there is no room for conflict, only terms.

This episode argues that media outrage over a White House “autopen” joke and criticism of Trump’s summit with Xi Jinping obscures a deeper shift: Trump is dismantling a 50-year geopolitical framework associated with Henry Kissinger. It contrasts Chatham House’s “China Rising, America in Decline?” panel and its Thucydides Trap framing—linked to Graham Allison—with Xi’s evolution from posing the trap as an open question to asserting it “can be overcome” after Trump’s UN speech and claimed actions in Iran, Venezuela, the Shield of America, and the Greenland Treaty, alongside a push for reindustrialization.

The script also highlights a UN Board of Peace session on Gaza focused on reconstruction led by Gazans and a new security structure involving Muslim-country troops, presenting it as ending “outside forces” control. It notes Rubio’s permanent dual role as Secretary of State and National Security Advisor and frames his stance as reversing Kissinger’s legacy.  WATCH:

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Terms of Greenland Deal Here

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President Donald Trump delivered impromptu remarks to the media as he departs the White House this morning. WATCH:

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In 1986, the federal government built a computer database called SAVE, Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements. The purpose was simple – when a noncitizen applies for public benefits the state govt can check whether the applicant was legally in the country. The SAVE system worked. Nobody talked about it for 39 years.

In March 2025, President Trump signed an executive order expanding SAVE’s use. The order told DHS to use the SAVE system to verify citizenship of registered voters and people registering to vote. The order instructed the Social Security Administration to share its records with DHS for that purpose.

Two months later, DHS launched the modified version. Two changes: (1) it now checks Social Security numbers against SSA databases. (2) it allows state and local authorities to run bulk searches; the entire voter roll at once.

Blue states sued. Slowly the cases went through the lower courts, then the appellate courts, until finally the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 the SAVE system can be used in the midterm election [RULING HERE]. “While the ruling gives the Department of Homeland Security authority to use the database ahead of the midterms, the court’s conservative majority noted that the impact of the ruling was blunted by another federal law — the National Voter Registration Act — which prohibits states from purging voters within 90 days of the election.” {ABC link}

If the states use the SAVE system, but do not purge their voter rolls for 2026 based on the results, the system still can be of value. “the justices’ action came so close to the upcoming election that the records can only legally be used on a case-by-case basis — and not for the type of bulk voter-roll matching that some states want to conduct.” {Politico link}

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It should be transparently obvious by now. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has shifted his tin cup strategy from directly asking for money, to presenting himself as the world’s leading arms manufacturer.  In essence, Zelenskyy has drone pencils in his tin cup.

Keep watching and we will all start to see this grifting business model in play.

Earlier today Zelenskyy said, “President Trump and I had a meeting where we discussed general matters. After that, our negotiating teams held a separate, long meeting. The agreement is as follows: we will brief the European side and discuss these details with them; the Americans will speak with the Russians; and in ten days, we will come back with views and results in some shape or form.

As for a trilateral Ukraine-U.S.-Russia meeting, the American side proposed preparing it and meeting at the technical level. We are waiting for the United States to propose a date. The United States proposed the United Arab Emirates as the venue for such a meeting.

There are concrete agreements regarding Patriot licenses. At our meeting, President Trump stressed that he had made his final decision: Ukraine will receive licenses to produce Patriot missiles. (read more)

Now put the lead-in paragraphs as an overlay against that statement.  Zelenskyy wants to organize his corrupt financial system, specifically the income aspect, around Ukraine as the world’s leading arms dealer.

Obviously, this business model provides numerous benefits for everyone inside the Ukraine govt operation whose lifestyle and affluence are dependent on the inflow of massive amounts of money.

If Zelenskyy can get the Patriot Missile licenses, then he can expand his business operation to build and sell Patriots’ to Germany (have been begging for them) and beyond.  Zelenskyy becomes the EU hub for EU-NATO arms manufacturing and production.  He’s not stupid.  If the USA pulls back from EU-NATO, Zelenskyy steps in to fill the void.  That appears to be his overall plan.

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U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer appears on CNBC to discuss the trade aspect of the U.S-China negotiations against the backdrop of the official state visit by Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping.

USTR Greer notes the tariffs against China remain in place and extended for several months as the U.S. reviews Beijing compliance with pre-existing agreements.  This builds on what Greer previously said about ultimately the U.S. and China are in a managed situation, where the U.S. doesn’t put any focus on what China says, we are looking at what China does.

Stunningly, at 4:25 of the video CNBC pundit Kelly Evans chimes in with a weird talking point about the U.S-China trade deficit not changing. Ambassador Greer quickly corrects Ms Evans, noting her baseline is entirely false. The trade disparity between the U.S and China has reduced by 40% over the past year, in part because the U.S. is leveraging tariffs as enforcement mechanisms to previous purchase agreements.  WATCH:

In typical leftist fashion, Ms Kelly Evans says “if true” to the United States Trade Representative.  Who else, other than the USTR, would know the specifics of accuracy for the data Ms Evans is mis-citing.  Quite silly.

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After writing the lengthy outline about the problem faced by Joseph diGenova, a Reagan-era former U.S. attorney and longtime Trump ally who served as counselor to Attorney General Todd Blanche and exited over strategic differences {GO DEEP}, several people provided feedback, generally expressing understanding and agreement.

A few asked for suggestions.

Having looked at the challenges from every direction, and having a deep understanding of the complications within any prosecutorial effort on this highly complex ‘conspiracy’ case, I am going to outline my best advice.

This is how you arrange the case.

In any successful endeavor like this, you need the hook.  You need a central point of focus that brings the entire operation into a clearer view.  Stories like this are not told in a linear fashion; you need a central point of focus and then you build out the storyline from there.

So, what it that inflection?  What is that moment that establishes the point from which everything else falls into place?

First, look at the requirements.  The central event needs to encompass the foundational unlawful activity.  The event needs to be clearly unlawful in nature and highlight the mindset that existed within each of the participants.  The evidence must have a clear, distinct and actionable set of facts that can be directly proven beyond doubt.

The event needs to have been previously investigated, so that time is not wasted repeating a lengthy and exhaustive investigation around the fact pattern.  The event needs a specific set of witnesses, who cannot escape being truthful about the preexisting irrefutable facts. And the event needs to highlight a conspiracy by every participant who cannot deflect their participation by claiming they were unaware of the intent of every action within the process.

Those are the predicate requirements that establish the value of the central point of focus.  This is what makes a grand jury or criminal case jury have a consistent reference point.  If this fact pattern is demonstrably true, then that action or outcome is incontrovertibly self-evident.

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