Chancellor Friedrich Merz, President Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister Kier Starmer and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met in London to discuss their collective next steps in their plan for opposition to Russia.

Politico is reporting that Germany is going to replace the United States as the direct contact for negotiations with Russia; that’s according to a spokesperson for Merz. However, if you read the actual printout from their collective agreement there is nothing of the sort mentioned [SEE HERE].

Instead, what actually exists within the statement are five terms they have agreed upon in order to start direct discussions between Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.  At least two of the terms are non-starters for Russia:

[…] Conditions that would need to be in place for a just and lasting peace. 

• • First, a stop to the fighting. They called on President Putin to agree to an immediate and complete ceasefire. 
  • Second, the current line of contact should be the starting point for negotiations. International borders must not be changed by force, and Ukraine’s sovereign right to choose its own security arrangements and alliances must be fully respected.  
  • Third, Ukraine must have robust and legally binding security guarantees in place once a ceasefire enters into force, building on commitments made in Berlin in December 2025 and Paris in January 2026. This includes the deployment of the Multinational Force – Ukraine.  
  • Fourth, Russian assets will remain immobilised until Russia ceases its war of aggression and compensates Ukraine for the damage caused by the war. 
  • Fifth, that European security interests must be safeguarded in any deal.  Elements of any negotiation related to the EU and NATO would need the consent of the EU and its Member States and NATO Allies respectively. 
  • [SOURCE]

The #3, #4 and #5 points are not going to go anywhere.

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The California bespoke ballot process is unique in the nation and developed with a previous legal partnership between California politicians and former Attorney General Eric Holder.

It has been one week since election day and there are likely many more days of ballot curation ahead.  As a consequence, the republican candidate, Steve Hilton, who carries President Trump’s endorsement, is likely to be pushed into third place eliminating him from the general election.  The creation of California ballots takes time and resources.

Locally sourced, artisanal ballots can take much longer to be created and curated than in other states.

[SOURCE]

As the bespoke process now unfolds, Democrat billionaire Tom Steyer will begin the process of gaining a higher percentage of mail-in ballots than previously assigned.  Many people have questioned the length of time; however, Steyer has to make up about 300,000 votes, so the ballot counting will take longer.

Each subsequent batch now needs a controlled lift in the progression. If the ballot counting closed the gap all at once, it would look sketchy. So, the counters need to elevate Steyers percentage a little more with each batch of ballots counted. A slow climb to eventually eclipse Hilton will enable the media to justify a few more weeks of ballot curation effort.

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**BUMPED**

The authority for the United States government to capture the electronic records of all Americans without warrant falls under the auspices of FISA-702.  Reauthorization of the current authority is being debated.  This is a deep walk into why this issue is so important to our government.

Having researched almost every aspect to the construct and the argument, I am confident FISA-702 authority underpins a much bigger, quasi-constitutional justification for the collection of U.S. citizen metadata.  Without the 702 authority the legal justification for the apparatus of surveillance no longer exists.  It really is that simple.

It is not the just the illegal searching of the NSA database that presents the issue, although that aspect has received the majority of attention, the capture itself violates the Fourth Amendment. The only way the government can justify the capture of U.S. Citizen data is if there is some quasi-constitutional or national security reason for it.  That’s where FISA-702 comes in.

Take away “702” search authority, and the data collection argument collapses. Any “incidental” search of the database then loses any plausible legal justification.  702 is the camel’s nose under the privacy tent that forms the baseline for all data records to be intercepted, stored and ultimately available for review.

♦ Only one legal case has ever pushed into the sphere of challenging this unconstitutional exploitation. A 2025 decision in the U.S. v. Hasbajrami in Brooklyn, New York, where Eastern District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall identified the misuse of FISA-702 “backdoor searches” regarding defendant, Agron Hasbajrami.

Hasbajrami plead guilty to charges of attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization, alleging that he intended to travel to the Federally Administered Tribal Area of Pakistan, where he expected to join a terrorist organization, receive training, and ultimately fight against U.S. forces and others in Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, after his guilty plea, while he is serving time in prison, prosecutors admitted some of the evidence against him came as a result of privacy violations, unlawful FISA-702 searches.

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In an effort to keep the Daily Open Thread a little more open topic we are going to start a new daily thread for “Presidential Politics”. Please use this thread to post anything relating to the Donald Trump Administration and Presidency.

This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.

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Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name. Thy kingdom come. THY WILL BE DONE, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but DELIVER US FROM EVIL.

For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen †

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Representative Jim Himes is the ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI).  During an interview on Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan, Himes looks forward to the political benefit he predicts following terrorist attacks inside the USA as soon as the FISA (702) program expires next Friday.

Elimination of FISA (702) authority is not a bad outcome; in fact, many of us want that outcome because FISA (702) is warrantless surveillance of American citizens.  However, watching Himes be gleeful at the possibility of terrorist attacks resulting from FISA (702) expiring, is, well, a little weird.

In the non-pretending world, we fully understand a terrorist attack is highly unlikely. However, if there was a terrorist attack, it would likely originate from our own intelligence community organizing it in an effort to get FISA (702) authorized again.  It’s far more likely the FBI would be motivated to create a false flag, than the odds of an actual terrorist attack.

[TRANSCRIPT] –  MARGARET BRENNAN: We turn now to the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, Representative Jim Himes, who joins us this morning from Greenwich, Connecticut. Welcome back to Face the Nation.

REP. JIM HIMES: Good to be with you, Margaret.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Congressman, President Trump appointed the Federal Housing Finance Agency head, Bill Pulte, to be the next Director of National Intelligence. The President said it is temporary, but even in that acting role, he could stay in it for over 200 days, and it would bypass Congressional approval. Pulte himself was Senate-confirmed for the housing job. Three Democrats voted for him. Do you know if he has a security clearance to do the intelligence work?

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Here’s the full interview between President Trump and NBC’s Kirsten Welker. The video and transcript:

[Transcript] – KIRSTEN WELKER:President Trump, welcome back to Meet the Press.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP: Thank you.

KRISTEN WELKER: Thank you so much for being here. We are going to talk about your visit, why you’re here in Wisconsin. But I’d like to start off by talking about the major issue that you are focused on every day which is Iran. Sunday will mark 100 days since the first strikes. Your secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said that the war had concluded. And yet, just this week, Iran attacked U.S. allies in the region, calling it retaliation for a set of U.S. air strikes. Is the United States at war with Iran?

PRES. DONALD TRUMP: Well, they’ve been largely decapitated. And I call it a military exercise because people would rather have it called that. It’s not a big war for us. It’s not. We have the most powerful military in the world. I built it, frankly. I built it in my first four years. And I’m using it a little bit in my second four years. Their navy is gone. Their air force is gone. Their anti-aircraft is gone. They might’ve built it up a little bit over the last four weeks during this little ceasefire that we did at the request of some very good people, very, very fine people from — actually from numerous places, as you know. You know, there are a lot of people involved. But from Pakistan in particular, the field marshal and the prime minister. And we’re very close to having a deal. And if we don’t have a deal, we’ll do it one way or the other. Either way, we win.

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President Trump abruptly ended and walked out of a combative interview with NBC’s Kirsten Welker, who will now receive the praise and adulation that Margaret Brennan so emphatically wanted. Kirsten Welker is now the leading Democrat Presidential Candidate for 2028.

During an NBC interview, Welker continually interrupted President Trump and challenged his assertion of government weaponization against J6 protest attendees and voter fraud. President Trump was making the case that the current California vote counting of mail-in ballots, still taking place 5-days after election day, was representative of voter fraud within the U.S. election system.

Welker demanded President Trump provide the evidence. President Trump emphasized the evidence is in the process that is taking place in front of your eyes. Welker again demanded President Trump provide the evidence. Eventually Trump gave up in frustration. The Video and Transcript is Below:

I will post the full interview and transcript in a separate post.

[TRANSCRIPT] – KRISTEN WELKER: This $1.8 billion so-called anti-weaponization fund that’s going to compensate people who say the federal government weaponized the legal system against them. It’s been blocked by the courts, met with opposition from Republicans .

PRES. DONALD TRUMP: And Democrats.

KRISTEN WELKER: – in Congress, and Democrats.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP: Most, excuse me, mostly Democrats.

KRISTEN WELKER: Mostly Democrats and some Republicans.

PRES. DONALD TRUMP: Some. Very few Republicans.

KRISTEN WELKER: Just to be very clear, are you backing off the fund completely as your acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has said, or are you looking for another avenue to revive the fund?

PRES. DONALD TRUMP: So let — let me explain what the fund is. People have been hurt so badly by radical left lunatics that worked for the Biden administration and Sleepy Joe. They’re vicious. They’re violent, what they did to people. And of course they went after me more than anybody else. They raided Mar-a-Lago and all the other things. But people have been badly hurt. They’ve committed suicide. They’ve lost their jobs. They’re lost their families. They’ve lost their wives. They’ve lost everything. They’ve lost everything over a fake weaponization of government. Now, let me just tell you –

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The context and details of the Nowak murder case continue highlighting what cultural Marxism does in policing when combined with aggressive Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) demands.

The British publication Sunday Times (paywall) is now reporting that three days after the trial of Vickrum Digwa began; as the police began facing scrutiny and needed to get out in front of the massive public outrage that was coming toward them; the police wanted to produce a statement telling the public Nowak’s death wasn’t really their fault, they were trained to believe the voices of racial minorities over the voices of white people.

The police wanted to issue a statement essentially telling the public of their intent to clarify things once the trial was completed.  [This sounds like “a guilty conscience.’] However, the prosecution team stopped the police from issuing any statement.  This expanding context is making the issues within the U.K even more toxic and more explosive.

U.K Independent […] –Hampshire Police planned to put out a statement challenging “disinformation” during the trial of Henry Nowak’s killer, but were warned by the Crown Prosecution Service it could jeopardise the case.

It is understood there had been concern about online commentary and potential public disorder, so Hampshire Police sought the CPS’s views on issuing a message telling people it would address questions once proceedings were complete, according to The Sunday Times.

Prosecutors advised the force that it could risk impacting the “integrity” of the case against Vickrum Digwa. (more)

I still think the worst part of this legal dynamic was the judge in the case ruling the video taken by the killer as he murdered his victim was, “too disturbing to be shown” as evidence.  The killer recorded himself doing the killing, and that evidence could not be shown to the jury because it was “too disturbing,” yet the jury was tasked with making a decision on whether the accused was guilty or not.   Think about it.  Beyond insane judicial logic.

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California ballot counting will continue until the key republicans in each race are pushed into 3rd place.  That’s when ballot counting will conclude.

At a certain point, the pretending gets ridiculous.  This X message from the First Asst U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of California is a case study in pretending not to know things.

[SOURCE]

Former Attorney General Eric Holder was hired by California govt to advise on the election changes created by linking DMV database to Secretary of State database.

The tech team that wrote the code to link the DMV and SOS were given specific instructions. The affirmative flag, the checkbox in the DMV system that says the applicant is legally eligible to vote, was neutralized.

Meaning, if the checkbox is left blank, the computer system accepts the application from the DMV as affirmative. The DL applicant data is transferred to the SoS office, and the applicant is registered to vote.

Illegal Aliens, unlawful migrants, were allowed to get California Driver’s Licenses and State IDs. The Motor-Voter process now registers those drivers and ID recipients as legal voters and ballots are created.

Those illegal ballots form the core of the voter fraud in California and were first used in the November 2018 midterm election as the beta test for national rollout.

Not a single person in Sacramento politics doesn’t know this. They are all aware. All the USAO has to do is go check and they will see.  The fraud is impossible to prosecute. The fraud is built into the system. Go look. Everyone knows.

We originally outlined this activity a decade ago.

Nothing has been done to stop it.

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