CTH noted several months ago, end the Marshall Plan for Europe and things will change quickly.

Germany is in a tight economic place as a result of: (1) former leftist Chancellor Olaf Scholz alignment with climate change policy, radically changing the German energy base and driving up costs; (2) the financial support for Ukraine; (3) the financial burden of mass African/ME migration, and (4) the new Trump-era EU tariffs that effectively end the Marshall Plan.

Put all four elements together and the German economic contraction is only forecast to worsen. This is the reality that current German Chanceller Fredrich Merz is facing. Thus, as a non-pretending former businessman, Merz recently told his party and the German electorate that current financial conditions no longer support the expansive entitlement state.

Pensions, benefits and even healthcare are potentially going to be impacted. Germans are not happy.

GERMANY – The German welfare state is no longer financially sustainable, Friedrich Merz said on Saturday. The chancellor argued for a fundamental reassessment of the benefits system as spending continues to soar past last year’s record of €47bn (£40bn).

In a state-level party conference meeting on Saturday, Mr Merz said: “The welfare state as we have it today can no longer be financed with what we can economically afford.”

Once the export champion of Europe, Germany’s economy has slowed dramatically since 2017, with GDP growing by only 1.6 per cent since then versus 9.5 per cent for the rest of the eurozone.

Germany’s economy shrank by 0.2 per cent last year following a 0.3 per cent dip in 2023 – the first time since the early 2000s the economy has retreated two years in a row.

Industrial production fell under the Left-leaning “traffic light” coalition of Olaf Scholz and continues to slide under the new government, with GDP declining by 0.3 per cent in the second quarter of 2025.

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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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Vice President JD Vance appears on Meet the Press for an extensive interview about current events and the Russia-Ukraine negotiations.

The beginning of the interview starts with questions about the FBI investigation of former National Security Advisor John Bolton.  WATCH: 

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov appears on Meet the Press (NBC) to outline the Russian position on further discussions for a peace agreement with Ukraine.

Lavrov notes the working group from the Russian delegation is willing to meet in Istanbul to further negotiate the parameters for any principal meeting between President Putin and President Zelenskyy. WATCH:

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I have been asked to recap some of my research into cited formats of what I believe to be criminal conduct, with specific statutes against them. This is the fifth.

DNI Tulsi Gabbard is not a lawyer. While I may be wrong, I find Tulsi Gabbard to be a patriot. Mrs. Gabbard is focused on providing evidence to the DOJ that essentially forces action. I support Tulsi Gabbard’s efforts.

What is the bigger threat to our nation?

♦ Russiagate, where the Hillary Clinton campaign manufactured a dirty political story during a presidential election that was supported by Barack Obama and the DOJ/FBI?

OR…

♦ Spygate, where full spectrum political surveillance was conducted on all political opposition using government access to the NSA database that contains the private metadata of every American citizen?

If you are a person of stable and reasonable mindset, you likely identify the second issue as a much bigger threat.  Not only is using the NSA database to conduct illegal surveillance a bigger threat; but it is also a threat that remains as current declassified FISA court statements show the NSA database is still being exploited.

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, I would argue the first issue, Russiagate, is intentionally being leveraged as a shiny thing to stop people from realizing the second, much more unlawful issue took place.

Focusing on “Russiagate” leads you to a political storyline that is: harder to outline as unlawful, easily obfuscated, downplayed and subsequently dismissed.  Focusing on the use of the NSA database to spy on people is simple to understand, completely unlawful and in stunningly unconstitutional when contrast against 4th amendment protections.

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If you have followed the construct of the Trump-Russia collusion story, you are likely outraged that accountability has not followed.  There’s a very frustrating reason for that, and I will explain how two distinctly different issues are being conflated.  Separating them is the key.

The first issue is the FBI’s illegal surveillance of presidential candidates, including candidate Donald Trump.  The second issue is the Clinton campaign inspired Russia-Collusion story, that led to Crossfire Hurricane, colloquially known as “Russiagate.”  All investigative emphasis, including John Durham, has been on the latter which takes you into a DC silo construct where all tentacles lead to dead ends and inaction.

Russiagate was a Clinton-inspired political smear campaign that was given the patina of credibility by the FBI opening the investigation called “Crossfire Hurricane.”  If you focus on that storyline, you end up with zero accountability and endless talk that goes nowhere.

However, if President Trump and DNI Tulsi Gabbard reveal the first element, the FBI’s illegal surveillance of candidate Donald Trump, that path has a physical trail and documents that cannot be deflected by political obfuscation.

♦THE FBI SURVEILLANCE – The original agreement between Clinton and Obama, going back to 2008, was for Obama to take the nomination, the presidency and then eventually support Hillary Clinton’s 2016 election bid.

Obama would be President. Obama would appoint Clinton to Secretary of State, Hillary would then use her office to build wealth for herself and her family, and then HRC would exit the Dept of State to begin her presidential run.

John Podesta would enter the Obama administration as Hillary left (post Benghazi mess) in 2013.  Podesta would look out for Hillary’s interests from his position inside the Obama White House.  The Clintons and Obamas never fully trusted each other.

Barack Obama would put all the mechanisms into place that would transition his administration into Hillary Clinton’s.  That was always the plan running in the background.

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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.

(more…)

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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While speaking to Lara Trump about the ongoing Russiagate review efforts, Devin Nunes notes, “The only thing that President Trump and this administration can do, is make sure that whoever can be held accountable, are held accountable, and that this doesn’t happen again; that these people are taught a lesson, so that this doesn’t happen again.”  But there’s something even more revealing within the interview.

Context: Devin Nunes is the chair of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, an alternative mechanism to review and analyze global and domestic intelligence information – with overlay against truth and reality that underpins the issue(s).

Action: Accepting the intent of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, now insert the recent DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s directive to stop information sharing with allied countries as it specifically relates to President Trump’s efforts to create a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia.

Back to the interview:  Here’s the statement that really deserves to be emphasized @05:25: “Imagine where we sit today, with all the things going on around the world, and the President has to have the DOJ, the FBI, the CIA, his own intelligence board, all making sure the intelligence is not weaponized. I mean it’s rather incredible, this is something that is unprecedented in the United States of America.”

Think about that ¹remarkable context.  Essentially, what Nunes is saying is that Pam Bondi, Todd Blanche, Kash Patel, Dan Bongino, John Ratcliffe, Tulsi Gabbard and Devin Nunes (et al) cannot trust the operational embeds under the agency heads within the United States Intelligence Community.  Think about that, as it is said out loud.

¹This is exactly what CTH has been trying to hammer home for years.  The modern IC system is now designed to be a rogue apparatus, disconnected from the traditional framework of executive control.  The people who operate within that fourth branch of government are not constrained by the power or authority of the executive.

This is exceptionally dangerous.  We elect a President (Executive), we elect representatives (Legislative), the Executive and Legislative create the Judicial, who exactly is controlling the Intelligence Branch?

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