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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According to Senator Markwayne Mullin, the Senate is anticipated to hold a confirmation vote for U.S. Secretary of Commerce nominee Howard Lutnick later today.
Immediately following the Lutnick vote, in this executive session of the Senate, Senator Mullin anticipates the cloture vote to end debate on FBI Director Kash Patel will also follow. That would put the full senate vote for Patel’s confirmation on a timeline for final vote Thursday.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has cancelled his planned trip to Saudi Arabia, citing his anger that he was not a participant in the U.S-Russia discussions which took place in Riyadh, earlier today. [SEE REUTERS REPORT]
“We want no one to decide anything behind our backs…No decision can be made without Ukraine on how to end the war in Ukraine,” Zelenskiy told reporters during a visit to Turkey where he held talks with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. (more)
I am not going to say much about this, except to remind readers what I mentioned yesterday morning. Things are about to get very sketchy.
[YESTERDAY] Zelensky said in an interview Sunday that his country would “never” accept a peace deal struck by the United States and Russia if Ukraine was not involved in the talks.
If Zelenskyy is in the region (UAE), watch President Trump -through Rubio- to use those recent statements by Zelenskyy and say, ‘well then, get in here and talk.’ If that were to happen, Zelenskyy would reject the move because he is entirely unprepared to operate from a position of independent leadership.
Watch this part closely because President Trump seems increasingly close to exposing the truth about the Ukraine war and how U.S. politicians are motivated in their influence positions by the financial benefits of the conflict. Sparks could fly if the pretending stops. [END]
Zelenskyy was in Poland, Germany, the UAE and Turkey since last weekend. For a nation “at war” President Zelenskyy has a lot of time to travel to various countries outside his own.
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A high-level diplomatic meeting between USA and Russia has not happened in more than three years. The first goal was to figure out how to talk to each other again, what processes to use and what the consultation mechanism would be for when peace negotiations would begin. That ‘deconfliction’ goal seems to have been achieved.
Additionally, in a very positive sign, both the USA team and the Russian team agreed to return to normal embassy operations, in diplomatic speak “missions,” in both Moscow and Washington DC, that includes staffing support to reestablish contacts and communications. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff spoke to reporters after their meeting with the Russian delegation in Saudi Arabia.
Pay close attention to the specific words Marco Rubio uses at 14:40 of the video, in the bigger of the big pictures, that is the goal of President Trump and President Putin. WATCH:
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia – […] The U.S. team was led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz. The Russian negotiating delegation included Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund.
State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the U.S. team agreed to establish “a consultation mechanism to address irritants to our bilateral relationship with the objective of taking steps necessary to normalize the operation of our respective diplomatic missions.” Rubio told the Associated Press the two sides agreed to restore embassy staffing as part of this normalization.
This thread will refresh daily and appear above the Open Discussion Thread.
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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The ‘leaders’ of Europe got together in Paris, France at the request of French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss how to handle a peace agreement if Putin, Trump and eventually Zelenskyy come to terms. The outcome perfectly encapsulates the EU.
After essentially saying the United States would not send military troops into Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping mission, President Trump sent a communique to each of the leaders, “asking them to spell out what they would be prepared to offer to enforce a peace agreement, as well as what they would expect from the U.S.” However, there was no consensus from the EU meeting.
Instead, the Germans, French, British, Polish and EU leaders from Brussels said they would not send military assistance to Ukraine, without the leadership of the United States, and specifically without U.S. military troops to lead them. {Insert belly laughter here} Of course, they didn’t.
Politico outlines the story of the meeting: […] “A French-led effort by European leaders to present a united front on Ukraine in the face of rising fear over U.S. President Donald Trump’s intentions fizzled Monday as they failed to agree on sending troops to police a possible peace deal.
French President Emmanuel Macron had called the emergency meeting in Brussels after European leaders were left reeling by news the U.S. would start negotiations with Russia to end its war on Ukraine, but without inviting any representatives from Europe or from Ukraine.
But after a 3.5-hour huddle at the Elysée presidential palace, the response of leaders to the biggest security calculus shift in decades was underwhelming. “We realize that such meetings do not end in decisions,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said after the meeting.
Leaders came up with no new joint ideas, squabbled over sending troops to Ukraine, and once again mouthed platitudes on aiding Ukraine and boosting defense spending.
When Elon Musk asked how Norm Eisen could be financed, I replied, “If the United States govt gave money to Qatar, knowing Qatar was going to send that money to organizations within the USA intended to carry out an objective of a small group in U.S. govt., what would that be called?”
Qatar is a major source of funding for the Brookings Institute. Brookings funds various Lawfare operations, including Norm Eisen. The extended process is quite simple. If elements within the U.S. Govt., wanted to indirectly fund Brookings, could they do it by sending funds to Qatar?
The question is not supposition, because this was the exact process Hillary Clinton and Leon Panetta used for the State Dept to send weapons to the Libyan “rebels,” aka Operation Zero Footprint.
Operation Zero Footprint was the State Dept/CIA sending funds to Qatar, and the Qatari govt then purchasing missiles from the CIA to give to al-Qaeda affiliates in Libya. We can consider the historic Iran-Contra scandal under a similar framework. However, the nuanced difference is about sending money toward a foreign govt (via USAID), while knowing the money would return to fund a domestic agenda inside the USA.
Example: USAID sends money to the U.K, and then British political allies send political operatives into the USA to support Kamala Harris. We know the latter part of that sentence happened. So, did the Biden administration (Samantha Power) fund the Labour Party operation?
Are the various political NGOs and activist groups in the USA actually funded, indirectly, by U.S. taxpayers? Many signs point to, yes.
Against this high likelihood, it becomes just a natural extension of the process if U.S. politicians are beneficiaries of the circular laundry operation. That is what Representative Tim Burchett believes will surface if the DOGE team follow the money trail. WATCH:
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Democrats and allied media are pushing a hard narrative that Elon Musk and his DOGE review team may have access to sensitive systems at the IRS, creating what they call “privacy concerns.”
In a letter Monday to IRS Acting Commissioner Douglas O’Donnell the lawmakers wrote that the proposal raises “serious concerns that Elon Musk and his associates are seeking to weaponize government databases containing private bank records and other confidential information to target American citizens and businesses as part of a political agenda.” (source)
The quote (emphasis mine) attributed to Senator Ron Wyden, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Finance, and Senator Elizabeth Warren, Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, is more than a little ironic.
DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz testified on April 27, 2023, that more than 3.4 million search queries into the NSA database took place between Dec. 1st, 2020, and Nov. 30th, 2021, by government officials and/or contractors working on behalf of the federal government.
Within that data set, approximately 30% of those 3.4 million search queries were outside the rules and regulations that govern warrantless searches, what the politically correct government calls “non-compliant searches.”
That means more than 1 million searches of private documents and communication of Americans were illegal. IG Horowitz also admitted that somewhere north of 10,000 federal employees have workstation access to conduct these searches of the NSA database; a database which contains the electronic data of every single American, including emails, text messages, social media posts, instant messages, direct messages, phone calls, geolocation identifiers, purchases by electronic funds, banking records and any keystroke any American person puts into any electronic device for any reason. {GO DEEP}
Suddenly, Senators Ron Wyden and Elizabeth Warren are concerned about ‘privacy.’
Earlier today, Elon Musk highlighted millions of people “marked in Social Security as “ALIVE” when they are definitely dead – a HUGE problem.”