An interesting interview between Tucker Carlson and Former CIA Counterintelligence Operations Officer John Kiriakou about being targeted by the CIA and FBI after telling the truth about CIA torture ops.

Kiriakou outlines how no U.S. President ever controls the CIA, and why politicians are seemingly afraid of holding them accountable. WATCH:

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction
1:41 Speaking Out Against the CIA’s Torture Program
7:20 Why the CIA Loved Obama
19:05 Why John Brennan Hated Kiriakou
23:23 The CIA’s Torture Techniques
32:01 How the FBI Tried to Bait Kiriakou Into Committing Espionage

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If you have walked the deep political weeds with us, you will likely remember the warnings.  Thomas Massie, Chip Roy, Rand Paul and other fellow republican travelers will join with Elon Musk and the alligator emoji network to oppose President Trump as soon as they can get back into the minority.

There is an intention behind this alignment of interests, which includes the Tech Bros (and Sea Island), that ends with a Vance-DeSantis promoted effort in 2028.  The only thing standing in their way is MAGA.  As a result, MAGA must be fractured.

The money center behind the strategy is working on a learning curve.  Having failed with prior launches of similar approaches (ref. DeSantis ’23/’24), they are now doing much more proactive seeding.

Yeah, I know, I know; some will say I’m crazy.  I’m not. I’ve watched this exact group’s constructs for over 14 years now.  All the data indicates this approach; the only unknown variables are the names of the political representatives who will participate.  Today, Thomas Massie is asking Elon Musk to fund primary challengers against the House republicans who support Donald Trump.

WASHINGTON DC – Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said Elon Musk should fund primary challenges against almost every Republican who voted for President Donald Trump‘s “big, beautiful bill” last week.  “I don’t primary my colleagues, but I feel pretty good about him doing it,” Massie told Fox News Digital on Wednesday.

“There’s a few others that should be spared,” when asked to clarify if he meant all 215 House Republicans who supported the legislation. “But people want term limits, right? Elon can bring term limits.”

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Today, President Trump signed an executive order [SEE HERE] restricting the entry of foreign nationals from a number of countries identified as national security and public safety risks. The goal is to prevent terrorists and other dangerous individuals from entering the United States and to pressure foreign governments to improve cooperation and information-sharing about their citizens.

Full Suspension: Nationals from 12 countries—including Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen—are now subject to a full suspension of entry, both for immigrants and most nonimmigrant visas.

Partial Suspension: Nationals from 7 other countries—including Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela—face a partial suspension, affecting specific visa categories and requiring reduced visa validity.  WATCH:

[Executive Order HERE]

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President Trump and the trade team have made specific requests of Vietnam in order to negotiate a trade agreement.  Unfortunately, just like Canada, Vietnam’s problem is not an unwillingness to comply, it’s their inability.

CTH was in the manufacturing base of Vietnam in January; their factories are loaded with component parts from China used to produce finished goods sent to the USA (and globally).  President Trump is telling Vietnam they need to reduce their reliance on Chinese imported component goods, but China has spent billions in advanced positioning and contracts, influencing Vietnam.

Vietnam is a very poor country, and their population cannot afford to purchase the products they manufacture.  They do not have a domestic consumption base. They are reliant on exports to more wealthy nations to keep their manufacturing base afloat.  Practically, it is easy to have sympathy for Vietnam due to their economic dependence on both China (for imported raw materials) and the USA (for exported finished goods).

VIETNAM – The US has sent a “long” list of “tough” requests to Vietnam in its tariff negotiations, including demands that could force the country to cut its reliance on Chinese industrial goods imports, two people briefed about the matter told Reuters.

Washington wants Vietnam-based factories to reduce their use of materials and components from China and is asking the country to control more carefully its production and supply chains, one of the people briefed on the talks said, without elaborating on whether quantitative targets were included.

The list is part of an “annex” to a framework text prepared by US negotiators, according to four people familiar with the matter.

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It is at moments like this when I wish General Michael Flynn had not comprehensively compromised his ability to provide advice and counsel to President Donald Trump. This is great advice shared via Twitter:

“1. While most of America remains blissfully uninformed by our establishment press, the world’s two greatest superpowers are being manipulated by Dark Forces inside and outside our government, into a major military confrontation that no country wants, and no sane person would ever want.

2. I have no role in the Trump Administration, but over a long career in the active uniformed military, specifically military intelligence, I have made it a point to cultivate many sources of information around the world. From what I can piece together, I want to share my deep concerns about who is behind this march to war, and my recommendations for how our nation and the West can avoid a major military confrontation with Russia.”

“3. I believe that the American Deep State is staffed by those with a deep, visceral, and irrational hatred for Russia, and these persons have conspired to box in President Trump’s decision making through the Russiagate Hoax. During the time the Soviet Union was expanding and infiltrating our government, I was an outspoken anti-communist, but, despite the lies told by our Deep State, Russia is not the Soviet Union and Putin is not Stalin. Even today, years after the Russiagate Hoax has been exposed, President Trump’s efforts to bring peace are met with resistance. The Establishment Press, deeply influenced and even sometimes controlled by our Deep State, labeled President Trump and those who work for him “Putin’s Puppets” to goad him into taking unwarranted and aggressive steps against Russia. These voices from the establishment press reflect the views of the Deep State, not the American People, and not the MAGA movement, and should be completely disregarded, if not mocked.”

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Cut through all the chaff and countermeasures deployed by the professional DC system intended to convolute and keep Trump and Putin at arm’s length, and you can see the outline of what we have discussed on these pages for several months.

There are geopolitical benefits to President Trump and President Putin having a strategic alignment.  However, the elements against them are massive, entrenched and highly Machiavellian.

President Trump shares the following message after a phone call with Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin.

[SOURCE]

…”It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace. President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields.”…

As Ukraine officials huddle together with their co-dependent enablers in the U.S. Senate, the implied message from the second half of Trump’s statement is for the senators to stop messing with U.S. foreign policy because Putin can help solve the Iran problem.

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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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Senators Richard Blumenthal (U-DC) and Lindsey Graham (U-DC) have scheduled a delegation of Ukraine officials to come to the Senate tomorrow and help organize the pro-Ukraine narrative. The Senate is debating the anti-Russia sanctions package and key players are coordinating retention of the Ukraine payment system.

According to Politico all 100 senators have been invited to the lobbying/narrative engineering meeting, and almost all of them are likely to attend. From obvious indications, including Blumenthal and Graham supporting the recent Ukraine attacks against strategic Russian airbases, it would appear the Senate is prepared to dispatch President Trump’s efforts to organize a ceasefire.

As with all things Washington DC, to find the motive follow the money.

WASHINGTON DC – A Ukrainian delegation is set to brief U.S. senators Wednesday as lawmakers weigh a sweeping sanctions bill targeting Russia and its biggest energy customers, China and India.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said in an interview that he organized the meeting with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and noted all 100 senators were invited to attend the closed-door session.

“It’s a pivotal moment in Ukraine — and crunch time for the Senate on this bill,” said Blumenthal, noting that the legislation now has 82 co-sponsors, evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans.

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The sense that this is not good expands when you consider the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the current conflict between the United States and China.  Two Chinese researchers in Michigan have been charged with smuggling into the U.S. a fungus that devastates agricultural crops.

Was this an ‘agroterrorism’ operation intended to unleash a serious problem in the U.S. farming system?  That intent cannot be dismissed easily.

MICHIGAN – Two Chinese nationals have been charged with allegedly smuggling into the U.S. a fungus called “Fusarium graminearum, which scientific literature classifies as a potential agroterrorism weapon,” the Justice Department said Tuesday.

Yunqing Jian, 33, and Zunyong Liu, 34, citizens of the People’s Republic of China, were allegedly receiving Chinese government funding for their research, some of it at the University of Michigan, officials said.

“The complaint also alleges that Jian’s electronics contain information describing her membership in and loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party,” a DOJ press release said.

“It is further alleged that Jian’s boyfriend, Liu, works at a Chinese university where he conducts research on the same pathogen and that he first lied but then admitted to smuggling Fusarium graminearum into America — through the Detroit Metropolitan Airport — so that he could conduct research on it at the laboratory at the University of Michigan where his girlfriend, Jian, worked,” according to the press release.

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