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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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In a two-week period right after the 2024 election, the most energy expended by the transition team putting a cabinet together was toward Main Justice or the Dept of Justice. As a consequence, those around Lutnick and Wiles spent an incredible amount of time thinking about the Attorney General pick.
Following an insider discussion, I spoke with several people about positions and appointments, focused on pointing out that the transition’s priorities were misplaced. The AG needed to be someone with exceptional moral character, capable of gathering information and presenting it for public consumption, with the option of supporting criminal referrals if necessary.
The Attorney General wasn’t going to be the tip of the spear in any operation to confront the Deep State, because if Main Justice wanted to confront Lawfare they needed to confront the Intelligence Community first. The IC controls all of the activity within the Dept of Justice.
Read that again for emphasis. For the issues of greatest importance, the Intelligence Community controls all of the activity within Main Justice. The IC is in control of the source material. The IC is above the DOJ. If you don’t strategize a confrontation with the IC first, it doesn’t matter what you do with the Dept of Justice.
The best example I could reference at the time was the Mar-a-Lago documents case and Judge Aileen Cannon. In that example the Executive branch was targeting Trump through the DOJ/FBI, and representing the Judicial branch Judge Cannon was the firewall ensuring the appropriate administration of justice.
Trump’s defense, through Cannon, pushed back against the DOJ (Jack Smith) while Smith leveraged all his Lawfare tools back against Cannon. You might remember the “classified document” issue went to the 11th CCA.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the government position that any documents defined as “classified” by the executive branch that claimed, “national security,” should not be disclosed to the defendant, Trump. The 11th CCA said when it comes to matters of national security, the judicial branch must defer to the determinations of the executive.
Basically, if the intelligence community decides certain information is tied to national security and labels it as classified for the DOJ, that decision can’t be challenged. The U.S. Supreme Court has backed this view. As a result, when it comes to national security issues, the judicial branch has to defer to the executive, giving the IC significant control over the DOJ.
If you drag former CIA Director John Brennan into court and Brennan’s lawyers argue ‘national security’ as a defense against indictment, inquiry or questioning, it’s not the DOJ (Attorney General) who matters – it’s the ‘national security’ determination of the Intelligence Community (Tulsi Gabbard) who controls the outcome.
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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They stopped their oil and gas exploration. They chose to chase ‘net zero’ academic pontifications. They closed their refining operations. They took apart their coal-fired electricity plants. They disassembled their nuclear power capabilities. Then, the absolute cherry on the proverbial cake, they voted to stop purchasing oil and gas from Russia.
The EU is now in the Find Out stage of their FAFO positioning.
Gasoline prices have skyrocketed. The last shipments of jet fuel have arrived. Major airline carriers are cancelling flights due to lack of fuel. Faster than the EU can organize meetings to discuss their position, EU destined LNG shipments have diverted to southeast Asia and India as the ASEAN nations bid higher purchase prices for the vessels literally on the water.
Folks, it’s quite an article written by EU Politico as they outline how each of the leaders from the nation states are now discussing how vulnerable they are to the changed oil/gas environment with the mid east conflict ongoing. The entire energy sector in Europe is now in crisis mode with leaders predicting it will get much worse within days, not weeks.
EU Politico – “Germany’s Friedrich Merz warns the economic fallout from the war in Iran is on track to rival that of the Covid pandemic or the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
[…] With the war in Iran threatening to choke off energy flows for the foreseeable future, Europe is facing a supply shock that promises to cripple manufacturing, ground airlines, hike up the price of food, spike borrowing costs and send inflation spiraling back to crisis levels.
As the last tankers carrying fossil fuels from the Persian Gulf pull into European ports, the scale of what is about to hit seems to be dawning on the continent’s leaders.
Today NASA is once again sending astronauts around the Moon for the first time in 50 years. NASA’s Artemis II mission is scheduled to lift off from Kennedy Space Center today. The two-hour launch window starts at 6:24 p.m. EDT (2224 UTC).
Livestream Links are Below:
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Four astronauts — three from NASA and one from the CSA (Canadian Space Agency) — make up the Artemis II crew:
– NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, Artemis II commander
– NASA astronaut Victor Glover, Artemis II pilot
– NASA astronaut Christina Koch, Artemis II mission specialist
– Canadian Space Agency (CSA) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, Artemis II mission specialist
After launching into space atop NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, the crew will journey around the Moon and back in their Orion spacecraft, named Integrity, on an approximately 10-day mission. Artemis II will be the first crewed flight test of SLS and Orion, testing the technologies we’ll need for long-term lunar exploration and human missions to Mars.
Three days ago, the Australian government was downplaying reports of a serious shortage of fuel. Today the Australian Prime Minister gives a national address and warns Aussies to conserve fuel, or else things will get sketchy.
In non-pretending terms: it’s Australia – PREPARE FOR THE SKETCHY!
The leaders of Canada, Great Britain and now Australia have delivered national addresses in the past 36-hrs about Iran, the subsequent energy issues and the geopolitical shifts currently underway they cannot control. Keep in mind, the other thing these countries have in common is they are four (count NZ in AU) of the Five-Eyes countries. The remaining eye is the USA, and President Trump is scheduled to deliver his national address tonight at 9:00pm Eastern.
For the folks down under it is worth remembering their COVID-19 experience. When the government starts saying, ‘we hope you will voluntarily consider doing XXX’, the next thing that comes in the ‘conservation’ effort are government mandates, travel restrictions, lockdowns, rations and severe authoritarian control mechanisms. It’s the Australian way.
For this example, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese delivers “a rare address to the nation” outlining his government’s response to the Middle East conflict and fuel crisis. “The months ahead may not be easy. I want to be up front about that,” Albanese warns. He then continues, “we will deal with these global challenges, the ‘[¹]Australian way’,” which should forewarn every person in Australia that government control mechanisms are being planned immediately. Good luck! WATCH:
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I always found it rather remarkable that the countries who pushed the Build Back Better agenda the hardest; the countries who pushed climate change and complete restructuring of energy policies the most; were the exact same countries who triggered the expansive sanction regime against Russia. (reminder map below)
Secretary of State Marco Rubio appears on Fox News to discuss the various goals and objectives of the U.S. military operation against Iran. As part of the interview Secretary Rubio was asked about the strategic conflicts and hypocrisies now flowing from NATO member states.
The U.S. supports our NATO posture in Europe in part because it provides us with strategic military bases and operations that are considered vital to our national interests. However, as outlined in the Iran conflict, when we need to use those strategic bases the NATO member states withdraw previous permissions. France has blocked us from flying over their airspace, Spain and Italy have said the U.S. cannot use our military bases on their soil for operations. The U.K has refused to protect and/or escort their own energy assets.
The NATO membership is now a one-way street where they demand our military protection, but Europe blocks us from using our own military assets for our independent operations.
Europe, while hiding behind the NATO protection skirt of the U.S, is simultaneously telling the U.S. what we can and cannot do with our own military. Secretary Rubio and President Trump are now confronting this very visible one-way benefit head on. WATCH (prompted).
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Against the backdrop of the Iran conflict, crisis in the Middle East and the disruption of energy supplies due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, U.K Prime Minister Keir Starmer held an urgent meeting with British business leaders, finance and bankers as well as U.K insurance leaders. At the conclusion of that meeting, he informed media of a national address.
During the national address to the people of Great Britain, Prime Minister Starmer emphasized that events in the Middle East have forever changed the landscape of U.K. economic and geopolitical policy. Signaling an inflection point crossed, the British prime minister announced that urgent actions were being taken to mitigate a national crisis.
Additionally, accepting the U.S. position toward NATO, and the U.K appears to be permanently shifted, Starmer said the British relationship with Europe now becomes critical to their vital national security interests. Against the backdrop of an end to the “special relationship” with America, the Brexit independence from the European Union is now a threat.
The United Kingdom must find a way to reunite with the European Union, because if it remains alone, without key support and protection from the USA, the British Empire is at risk of collapse. WATCH:
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President Trump is also scheduled to deliver a national address at 9:00pm Wednesday. Secretary of State Marco Rubio gave an interview with Fox News last night specifically centered around a changed U.S.-NATO relationship (that interview coming next).