Well, I have not written about the events with Wagner in Russia, in part because coincidentally I have a good source in St Petersburg who told me several days ago to look out for something with Wagner and Putin. Wagner’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was born in St Pete (Leningrad).

Born in 1961, Prigozhin grew up as a somewhat snarky Soviet Robin Hood, a street urchin who flowed invisibly between Finland and Leningrad in a black-market social circle that, well, let’s just say I am familiar with.

When he was 20, Prigozhin was arrested for a heist and federally imprisoned for 9 years while the Soviet Union collapsed. When he exited prison Russia was different, and with St Pete now becoming a tourist destination, he joined the capitalist opportunity with a street food vending business.

Prigozhin is hard as nails, snarky as hell and very tricky.

He is one of the apex gremlins and very much still connected to the streets, very connected. He was never connected to the towers of Russian politics as the West portrays. Prigozhin doesn’t have the pedigree nor the disposition for political power.

Let me put it this way, no one knows how to play gremlin mind games against the West better than Yevgeny Prigozhin. He’s a little bit like a less refined Oleg Deripaska, and much scruffier. Also remember, in February 2018, Prigozhin was one of 13 Russians indicted by Andrew Weissmann and Rod Rosenstein for interfering in the American election through the Internet Research Agency, lol {insert eyeroll}.

Here’s where it gets interesting. Don’t share this; it’s for CTH audience only. Back in April of this year, a blogger in St Pete named Vladlen Tatarsky (real name Maxim Fomin) was killed by a bomb disguised as a gift for his work reporting on behalf of free people in Russia. The bomb was inside a bust of Tatarsky given to him shortly before he was giving a speech in a cafe. A 26-year-old woman named Darya Trepova gave him the gift; she was arrested and disappeared.

Speculation, strong speculation, was that the cafe bomb was a CIA operation, because Tatarsky was considered an enemy of Ukraine. His death was a hit to the pro-Russia morale inside the region. The target, Vladlen Tatarsky, and the head of the Wagner mercenary military units, Yevgeny Prigozhin, were good friends.

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CTH has said for a year the Achilles heel Ron DeSantis carries, the weak spot that outlines his neocon nature, becomes extremely visible on the subject of Ukraine.

Twice previously, DeSantis has tried to walk the tightrope and navigate his lies surrounding the Ukraine war. Each time he outlines something that leans toward Ukraine needing to concede to Russia and NATO needing to stop meddling on Russia borders, he immediately walks back his comments.  DeSantis is stuck on the issue of Ukraine because DeSantis cannot be honest about his position on Ukraine.

Today in South Carolina [Forbes got the state wrong in the title] the issue of Ukraine surfaced in a public Q&A (video below), and both times DeSantis ducked, obfuscated, distracted and refused to answer the question.  The second person asked more directly, “What are you going to do about the war in Ukraine?”, because DeSantis never answered the first questioner. WATCH [prompted to 01:08:23]

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Only Donald Trump has the solution to the Ukraine war.  (1) Stop NATO, namely U.S. created, from provoking nonsense antagonisms on Russia’s border; and (2) Force Zelenskyy to the negotiation table of reality.  The Ukraine war stops immediately the day after the 2024 election, if Trump wins.

However, Ron DeSantis cannot take that attitude or foreign policy approach.  DeSantis must maintain the approved Republican pro-war narrative as outlined by Democrats, Republicans, UniParty, and the DC political leadership writ large.  The DC position on the Ukraine war is all about money; DeSantis must maintain that policy.

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In this podcast interview between former HPSCI Chairman Devin Nunes and journalists Margot Cleveland and Lee Smith, the discussion begins with the recent revelations provided by Senator Chuck Grassley about audio tapes as evidence in the Biden bribery scandal. {Direct Rumble Link}

As the story has unfolded, the Confidential Human Source who tipped off the FBI to Joe Biden taking bribes from foreign governments, also claims to have audio tapes of himself talking to Joe Biden about the issues when Biden was vice-president.  The FBI has been sitting on this Biden bribery knowledge for multiple years.

The most common opinion of the FBI motive was their intent to burying or capture negative information about Biden.  However, with the institutional corruption of the domestic national security apparatus being very visible within DOJ and FBI, Lee Smith ponders whether the FBI/DOJ might be holding back the Biden bribery material as part of their leverage against the White House.  It is an interesting angle to consider. WATCH:

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Lee Smith is very wise in the ways of the Deep State.

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Amid all the furor of the corrupt and political indictment against President Trump, Congress was permitted to read the witness statement from a Confidential Human Source who outlined allegations of bribery in testimony to FBI agents.

The FD-1023 report was written by FBI investigators in July of 2020.  It became an issue after the FBI seemingly took no action, and then recently claimed to be “investigating” the claims of the “highly credible” FBI source.  Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) reviewed the report and then gave her impression to the media.  Video and Transcript below. WATCH:

Transcript: Reading this form (FBI’s FD-1023) today shows the pure distinction.

This information this source that came forward. It’s a paid informant by the FBI. This has nothing to do with Giuliani. This has nothing to do with the information that he brought forward in 2020. It’s totally separate and it’s extremely incredible because he’s a paid informant.

I made some notes after I left the skiff based on the information and I’ll share that with you guys right now.

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Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson is locked in a contract dispute with his former network who took him off the air, but continues to enforce the contract he signed with them.  As the contract battle wages, and while litigation with the network continues, Carlson is limited in his options for platform broadcast.

As a result, Tucker Carlson’s personal Twitter account which existed prior to his Fox contract and is not subject to the terms and agreements, remains an outlet for him to use while not violating his non-compete clause.  Almost all other platforms represent what would be considered online competition to Fox Digital, so broadcasting a new show on any of those digital platforms would represent a potential legal issue and not an option. {Direct Rumble Link}

Tonight, Tucker Carlson aired a 10-minute monologue, what he calls “episode 1” from his Twitter account. While Tucker does not financially benefit from the Twitter platform, for the social media owner Elon Musk the broadcast represents much needed content oxygen. Tucker states at the end of his monologue that if Twitter suppresses or uses their internal fact-check mechanism known as ‘Community Notes‘ to control his content, he will exit the platform. WATCH: 

(Reuters) […] Ukraine and Russia blame each other for the collapse of the massive dam on Tuesday, which sent floodwaters across a swathe of the war zone and forced thousands to flee.  Ukraine said Russia committed a deliberate war crime in blowing up the Soviet-era Nova Kakhovka dam, which powered a hydroelectric station. The Kremlin blamed Ukraine, saying it was trying to distract from the launch of a major counteroffensive Moscow says is faltering. (more)

Elon Musk, who not coincidentally entered an ideological alignment with Fox News CEO Rupert Murdoch on behalf of Ron DeSantis, has a vested financial interest in making sure his Community Notes police do not attach warnings and citations to the “controversial” dialogue of Carlson.  While there appears to be an ongoing CN notes war in the background, so far the Musk administrators have been able to keep the platform control agents from impeding the broadcast.

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Last night on Sean Hannity television show, House Oversight Chairman James Comer made the first admission that both he and Senator Chuck Grassley had seen the FD-1023 form filled out by an FBI agent based on allegations of Joe Biden taking bribes as outlined by an FBI CHS (Confidential Human Source).  {Backstory HERE}

FBI Director Christopher Wray refused to admit the document existed until Comer and Grassley informed Wray they had already seen it.  However, the FBI is still refusing the release the document to congress. During a Fox News interview today, Senator Chuck Grassley gives his opinion of what is contained within the six-page document {Direct Rumble Link}.  The comments about the FD-1023 happen after the 02:00 mark. WATCH:

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An interesting series of updates to the FBI whistleblower case of Joe Biden taking a $5 million bribe payment which now looks to have originated in Ukraine.

The background claim is pretty basic. A whistleblower approached congress stating the FBI had a report, an unclassified FD-1023, detailing a conversation with a ‘confidential human source’ (CHS) that outlined Vice President Joe Biden taking a $5 million payment from a foreign national to affect a U.S. policy decision.  The FBI agent responsible for investigating the CHS claim was FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten, a sketchy character from the Trump-Russia probe.

The investigative events took place in June and July 2020 during the presidential election year.  The claim is that FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Auten reportedly buried the CHS allegation saying it could not be corroborated, and then wrote an assessment that it was Russian disinformation.  However, the FBI investigative team didn’t see any effort by any FBI member to substantiate it.  Hence a whistleblower, with specific knowledge of the details in the allegation, surfaces and tells congress the FBI is hiding the FD-1023 that outlines the confidential human source allegation of bribery.

Congress requested the FD-1023, the FBI refused to provide it.  House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer then set a compliance deadline while he coordinated with Senator Chuck Grassley.  The FBI still refused to turn it over, saying they would neither confirm nor deny the FD-1023 existence, and said releasing any information like that would potentially compromise Confidential Human Sources (CHS’s).  The proverbial sources and methods excuse.

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Led by Chairman James Comer, Republican members of the House Oversight Committee hold a press briefing on alleged new information they’ve discovered about the Biden family’s business deals.

The committee alleges Joe Biden and members of his family received payments from foreign nationals and businesses through a complex structure of limited liability corporations (LLC) in order to purchase assistance in the form of influence from the United States government for their financial interests.

In the press conference, the committee members outlined how Romanian and Chinese individuals paid shell corporations controlled by Biden associates. The Biden associate LLC’s (shell corporations) then transferred funds to other companies, who then transferred the funds to the Biden family members. Each step in the process was created to hide the originating source of the payments. WATCH:

[ House Oversight pdf Summary ]

HOUSE OVERSIGHT – We have now established a network of over 20 companies formed by the Bidens and their associates. Most of these companies were LLCs and formed when Joe Biden was Vice President.

Based on the financial records we have obtained via bank subpoenas, we can now confidently trace at least $10 million in total from foreign nationals and their related companies going to the Biden family, their business associates, and their companies.

What services did the Bidens provide in exchange for this money?

It is unclear what they provided other than access and influence.

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By now most Americans realize the United States government is conducting a proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.  The foundation for the U.S. effort started in 2014 with the buildup of weapons provided by the Obama-Biden administration, and the Russian response to the NATO encroachment in February 2022 was quickly framed as the Russian war against Ukraine.

As part of this effort, and after threatening to destroy Russian natural gas pipelines, the United States then followed through and destroyed a main artery in the Nordstream pipeline system.  The Biden administration then denied involvement and tried to blame Russia; as if Vladimir Putin would destroy his own infrastructure.  Keeping with this continuum of escalating conflict, NATO has sent depleted uranium weapons into Ukraine.  Then, last night, a drone attack on the Kremlin was carried out.

Ukraine is denying any involvement in the drone strike against Moscow, which would imply the United States -likely the CIA- carried out a direct attack against Russia without informing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.   Regardless of which partner is lying, Ukraine or the U.S, one of them carried out the attack.

This is a good time to remind everyone of President Trump’s words and policy toward this escalating conflict:

“Every day this proxy battle in Ukraine continues, we risk global war,” President Trump said. “We must be absolutely clear that our objective is to IMMEDIATELY have a total cessation of hostilities. All shooting has to stop. This is the central issue. We need PEACE without delay.”

[Transcript] – We have never been closer to World War III than we are today under Joe Biden. A global conflict between nuclear-armed powers would mean death and destruction on a scale unmatched in human history. It would be nuclear Armageddon. NOTHING is more important than avoiding that nightmare. We will avoid it. But we need new leadership.

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The professional Republican Party is totally and completely disconnected from the average MAGA voter within it.  Cue the visual demonstration from today:

[Source Tweet]

This disconnect between the Republican establishment and the base voter has always been frustrating and annoying, but now they are taking it to entirely new levels of ridiculousness.   There must be multiple siphons and financial laundry operations from this Ukraine policy.  Nothing else makes sense.

Seriously.  Go ahead and tell me how the professional Republican Party is worth saving.  I’ll be over here, supporting President Trump.

Also, there’s a Twit video of Mitch McConnell below (from today) that everyone must see.  You tell me what’s going on. Something weird.

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