The only people who deny financial corruption in Ukraine are those who benefit from it.  That group includes U.S. politicians who gleefully send billions of taxpayer funds into the country of Ukraine while capturing returns in the process.

U.S. advisors and consultants, along with private sector contractors and multinational corporations like Blackrock, are all beneficiaries of the vast sums of money being dumped into Ukraine. We all know this.  So, on one hand it is simple to see why the Ukraine government officials would use the same opportunity to enrich themselves

After all, U.S. taxpayers are not only buying bombs, missiles and bullets with the money sent to Ukraine, we are also paying the salaries and pensions of the same government officials who are skimming the proceeds.  The corruption is everywhere, and every entity is participating in the graft, in one form or another.

Zelenskyy’s wife goes shopping in Paris during the war.  Where exactly do politicians think she is getting the money to spend on glitzy holiday vacations?  Everybody knows exactly what is going on.  The glaringly obvious theft is a large part of the contention the American people have with this insufferable effort to fund Ukraine.

During a lengthy Time Magazine article, one of the close and key advisors to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy admitted that the corrupt stealing of US funds is widespread.   In addition to the theft, the overall tone of the Time Magazine article paints the war effort in Ukraine, what we have always called ‘World War Reddit’ for its mostly theatrical value, as a lost cause.  This is not surprising; however, for Time Mag to make such an admission, that does indicate a narrative shift in the overall effort.

TIME – […] Since the start of the invasion, Ukraine has refused to release official counts of dead and wounded. But according to U.S. and European estimates, the toll has long surpassed 100,000 on each side of the war. It has eroded the ranks of Ukraine’s armed forces so badly that draft offices have been forced to call up ever older personnel, raising the average age of a soldier in Ukraine to around 43 years. “They’re grown men now, and they aren’t that healthy to begin with,” says the close aide to Zelensky. “This is Ukraine. Not Scandinavia.”

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At this point, I am writing this for a whole bunch of people, and it’s ridiculous.

(1) – No, Mark Meadows never told Jack Smith that President Trump didn’t declassify records.  That was the Lawfare leak to ABC News in August – intended to dilute the defense of declassification in the Mar-a-Lago documents case.  It was made up by Jack Smith, and leaked to ABC for a specific purpose.

(2) – No, Mark Meadows never told the DC grand jury (under immunity) that he informed President Trump that Joe Biden’s election was legitimate. Again, that was a Lawfare leak to ABC News this week – intended to undermine President Trump’s DC defense (mens rea, know it) that Trump’s state of mind was such that he knew he was violating the law by saying the election was stolen.  This story was made up by Jack Smith and leaked to ABC for a similar specific purpose.

In reality, Meadows was questioned under oath, during the grand jury, and asked if Joe Biden was the legitimate President.  Meadows responded (encapsulated), “Well, he’s president isn’t he”?  The rest is a manufactured narrative.

(3) – No, Mark Meadows never wore a wire as a confidential informant while he was President Trump’s Chief of Staff.  Again, yet another Lawfare fabrication to the alt-right media, via layers of plausible deniability – intended to get President Trump to attack Mark Meadows and provide fuel for Jack Smith to request the reinitiation of a currently suspended gag order against President Trump.  The ABSURD story is pure Lawfare bait.  The absurdity of the story is why even ABC News couldn’t be used.

And right on cue….

(NYP) – Special Counsel Jack Smith has implored a judge to revive the partial gag order in the federal election interference case against Donald Trump — citing the ex-president’s “threatening” social media posts about former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.

Smith’s team argued in a filing late Wednesday that Trump, 77, is capitalizing on a stay in the gag order “to send an unmistakable message to a foreseeable witness in this case… with knowledge that it would reach him.” (read more)

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Anthony Blinken appears on CBS Face the Nation to discuss the U.S. response to the Israeli war against Hamas terrorists. Margaret Brennan clutches her pearls and gives her best defense of Hamas/Palestinian terrorists. But the babies and the children, or something; all of that is propaganda. WATCH:

[Transcript] – MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is at the State Department. Good morning to you, Mr. Secretary.

SECRETARY OF STATE ANTONY BLINKEN: Morning, Margaret, good to be with you.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Tension is very high in the region. Are you changing your security posture? Are you pulling any US personnel out of the area?

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Margaret, we are concerned at the possibility of Iranian proxies, escalating their attacks against our own personnel, our own people. We’re taking every measure to make sure that we can defend them and if necessary, respond decisively. Not at all what we’re looking for, not all we want, but we’ll be prepared, if that’s what they choose to do.

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CTH readers don’t need to spend too much time digging into the granules of this recent New York Times article about how Christina Pushaw organized an online “influencer campaign” for Ron DeSantis that has failed miserably [SEE HERE].   However, it’s still funny to see the confirmation, and the people from inside the operation telling the NYT the group gets daily email instructions.

I wrote about the obvious transparency of the effort well over a year ago, and then continued to track it as the operation unfolded and grew just before the “official launch” of the DeSantis campaign.  “In late 2021, early 2022, Ms. Pushaw invited a group of “influencers” to spend time with Governor DeSantis.  It’s not a debatable event. Factually, the collective group took gleeful pictures of their first visit on January 6, 2022, and continued to post frequent pictures on their social media of events throughout last year.”{link}

As the DeSantis operation collapses into a parody of itself, some of the recruited influencers are now speaking about how the astroturf operation was organized.  Everyone who watched it unfold, knows it was the stupidity of Pushaw who tried to fake the support system, built the operation on fraud and then sold it to a bunch of billionaires who now -according to the Times reporting- have major regrets.

(New York Times) – In early May, as Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida prepared to run for president, about a dozen right-wing social media influencers gathered at his pollster’s home for cocktails and a poolside buffet.

The guests all had large followings or successful podcasts and were already fans of the governor. But Mr. DeSantis’s team wanted to turn them into a battalion of on-message surrogates who could tangle with Donald J. Trump and his supporters online.

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In the New York case against President Trump’s business operations, far left Judge Arthur Engoron previously issued a gag order forbidding President Trump from criticism of any court employee.  Today, Judge Engoron levied a $5,000 fine against President Trump because a Truth Social media post made prior to the order was visible on the Trump campaign website.

This judge is nuts.  Literally, nuts.

(Reuters) – Donald Trump was hit on Friday with a $5,000 fine by a New York judge for violating a gag order barring the former U.S. president from disparaging court staff during a civil fraud trial in which he is accusing of unlawfully inflating his net worth to dupe lenders.

Future violations by Trump could be punished by steeper fines and possible imprisonment, Justice Arthur Engoron said in an order. The judge noted that the violation appeared inadvertent, but added, “Make no mistake: future violations, whether intentional or unintentional, will subject the violator to far more severe sanctions.”

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Today, Hamas says it has 200 hostages, and that 50 more are held by other armed terror groups in Gaza {link}.  Keep in mind, the motives of all the participating actors to twist the truth.  If the Hamas claim is accepted, and considering how these groups operate, the 50 held by “others” are better off dead.

That said, today two of the USA hostages held by Hamas were released.  I’ll get into the predictability, the non-pretending version, of this play after the media outline of the release.  The White House also took a victory lap {SEE HERE}.

(CBS) – Two U.S. hostages, a mother and a daughter, have been released by Hamas, officials announced Friday. The freed hostages were identified as Judith Tai Raanan and Natalie Shoshana Raanan, according to a spokesperson for the Israeli prime minister’s office.

Additional details about the release weren’t immediately available. The pair are with the Red Cross, “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan reported.  A message posted to a Hamas-affiliated Telegram channel said the release was made for “humanitarian reasons.”  (read more)

♦ Non-Pretending Predictability.  Hamas, Qatar, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Biden administration are all working together.  This is a geopolitical dynamic of merged interests aligned in common cause against the nation state of Israel.  The transparency of a slow-drip hostage release, and the Western media spotlight upon it is predictable.

Everything is being done to stall, impede, slowdown and interfere in the Israeli War against Hamas.  Within this dynamic the Brotherhood, Qatar, Hamas and the White House have the same objective.  Trust me; Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia can see it very clearly.

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In advance of Biden’s national address, here’s my take on the policy agenda and what they won’t say.

Obama/Biden et al, want a Two State solution for Israel and the Palestinians.  I believe all efforts are underway to exploit the 10/7/23 terrorist attack to advance that agenda.  Netanyahu is being carefully painted into a position where the survival of Israel will be contingent upon accepting this two-state solution, which essentially means -in the long picture- the elimination of the Israeli state.

Biden will give the outward face of complete support toward Israel; however, the background work will be to protect Gaza, and thereby Hamas, and controllably expand -if needed- the regional conflict, such that a two-state solution becomes the only viable option for the survival of Israel.  Efforts by Hamas, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood and by extension Iran, will appear to be confronted by Biden, but only insofar as the need for USA military support becomes more important and that process paints Netanyahu into a corner.

If I’m right, things are going to get really ugly/sketchy as Biden walks this ridiculous tightrope, and King Abdullah, President al-Sisi and MbS can see it coming.  FUBAR. Pray for the nation state of Israel.  Remember, with disposable one-term Biden in the White House, team Obama have no downside.

UPDATE: VIDEO ADDED

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On the issue of foreign policy influence, and on the issue of rebranding his political campaign Joe Biden’s trip to Israel was abject failure. Jordan, Egypt and even the Palestinian Authority refused to meet with him. The only thing left for the team in control of Joe Biden to do, was shift the purpose of the trip into a dynamic of magnanimous Joe wanting to fly around the world to provide moral support.  Because Zoom and phone calls were not an option. lol

I’ll have more on this in a few minutes.  In the interim here’s the officially prepared speech that Joe Biden read as prepared for him by the people in charge of foreign policy. WATCH:

[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. Please have a seat. I come to Israel with a single message: You are not alone. You are not alone.

As long as the United States stands — and we will stand forever — we will not let you ever be alone.

Most importantly, the — I know the recent terrorist assault on the people of this nation has left a deep, deep wound.

More than 1,300 innocent Israelis killed, including at least 31 American citizens, by the terrorist group Hamas.

Hundreds — hundreds of young people at a music festival of — the festival was for peace — for peace — gunned down as they ran for their lives.

Scores of innocents — from infants to elderly grandparents, Israelis and Americans — taken hostage.

Children slaughtered. Babies slaughtered. Entire families massacred.

Rape, beheadings, bodies burned alive.

Hamas committed atrocities that recall the worst ravages of ISIS, unleashing pure unadulterated evil upon the world.

There is no rationalizing it, no excusing it. Period.

The brutality we saw would have cut deep anywhere in the world, but it cuts deeper here in Israel.

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The intent of the RFK Jr. independent campaign, as an operation to support Biden and hurt Donald Trump, becomes even more obvious when you look at the recent Marist Polling [SEE HERE].

• In a three-way contest with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. running as an independent, Biden opens up a 7-point lead over Trump. 44% of registered voters support Biden. 37% back Trump, and 16% are for Kennedy.
• With Kennedy in the race, Biden’s support dips 5 percentage points among Democrats while Trump loses 10 points among Republicans.

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As noted, since before he officially made the change, this outcome is by design.  RFK Jr. is running as an independent for one specific purpose – block Trump.  That’s it folks.

That’s also the reason why RFK Jr. fired his campaign manager, Dennis Kucinich, and replaced him with his daughter-in-law, a former CIA operative.

{…] “Mr. Kennedy’s new campaign manager is Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, a former C.I.A. agent, memoirist and documentarian who in 2018 married Mr. Kennedy’s son, Robert F. Kennedy III.” (link)  Those who do not accept things as they are, are doomed to be victims of the ‘six-ways to Sunday’ group.

Keeping in direct alignment with the agenda, Robert Kennedy Jr. announced a rather radical proposal today, he is now in favor of reparations for black Americans.  The transparent intent?  Cut down the growing block of Trump supporters within the black community.

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Good grief, if the stakes of this issue were not so high, I probably would not have watched this. Alas, a review was necessary to judge the competency of policy.  What follows is beyond sad.

I know many readers here will not like the thought of watching pudding brain mutter his way through a carefully edited and controlled interview by a corporate outlet intent on presenting Biden in the best possible light.  However, you only really need to watch the introduction by CBS host, Scott Pelley.

Never before have I seen a more transparently pathetic political defense presented as the introduction to an interview of a U.S. president. Pelley was apologetic toward Biden in the extreme, leading the viewer into an interview with prescripted justification and excuses for the content that would follow.  Watching Pelley set up this interview elicits a sense of embarrassment that such a set-up is needed.   When he gets into the interview, Pelley actually constructs the talking points for Biden, with explanations and outlines that provide simple yes/no answers from Biden.  This interview is so soft, it becomes pathetic to watch:

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