President Trump will be interviewed by Brett Baier of Fox News shortly before the beginning of the Superbowl.  A short preview is below:

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In an interview with President Trump, the New York Post reveals President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin have begun discussions. You can read the article here. However, as would be expected, it is short on details.

This is a critical dynamic because the larger question that will not be pondered by Western media, but will weigh heavily in the background of President Trump’s perspective is, “is it too late?”

Staying in close contact with friends in Russia, it is apparent to me from the reality on the ground as well as the datapoints from all political angles, that President Putin is no longer in a position to feel any impact from non-military geopolitical pressure.  Quite simply the consideration in the mind of Russian President Putin is something entirely different than it was a few years, or even a few months ago.

The Western economic sanctions against Russia have failed.  There is no outward pressure or internal concern about Western financial and economic sanctions any longer.  The Russian economy (govt) and the Russian people (civic society) in aggregate have now organized their economy and their consumer reality without further need for Western connection.

At this point, Putin almost certainly doesn’t care if the sanctions remain.  Those pressure points are now moot to Russian interest, and in many ways the outcome has been beneficial from an economic nationalist perspective.  While the most severe Western sanctions ever delivered in history, did – at first, create a problem for Russia; those problems are now resolved.

Factually, it may sound silly but McDonalds in Russia is better without McDonald’s Inc controlling it.  Starbucks in Russia is now better delivering better products, under Russian management under a new name.  The products and systems of commerce the Russian people initially missed, have all been replaced and new connections to finance have been established with commercial allies outside the zone of western influence.

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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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Before getting to the announcement, let me first answer a repeated question. “Why is it so easy for DOGE to identify wasteful spending?” ..in simple form.

When the trillion-dollar American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was passed, those “shovel ready jobs” in fiscal year 2009, that was the last year of a full federal budget.  Every budget year thereafter has been a process of continuing resolutions and omnibus spending.  Within the CR process they use “baseline budgeting,” which essentially accepts all prior spending as the starting point for the next spending allotment within the Continuing Resolution process.

That means, the $1 trillion ARRA was not only spent in 2009 (Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi on behalf of Barack Obama), but it was also spent again in ever year thereafter.  Without a formally followed federal budget process, every year there is an extra trillion dollars (that’s a thousand billion) injected into federal spending.  That accounts for $16 trillion of the current debt.  Make sense now?

Elon Musk and DOGE announce the following:

To be clear, what the DOGE team and U.S Treasury have jointly agreed makes sense is the following:

– Require that all outgoing government payments have a payment categorization code, which is necessary in order to pass financial audits. This is frequently left blank, making audits almost impossible.

– All payments must also include a rationale for the payment in the comment field, which is currently left blank. Importantly, we are not yet applying ANY judgment to this rationale but simply requiring that SOME attempts be made to explain the payment more than NOTHING!

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In a stunning and sweeping emergency injunction that has even stunned the people who demanded it, a Manhattan-based District Judge has just removed Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent from his authority over the Treasury Department; blocked any political appointee from accessing records within the Treasury Department; blocked any “special appointee” of President Trump from records within Treasury; and demanded that all information previously extracted be destroyed.

The emergency injunction was signed by District Judge Paul Engelmayer in Manhattan, {Ruling pdf Here} determined without any input from the Trump administration and applies until Friday, February 14, 2025, when U.S. District Judge Jeannette A. Vargas will hear the full arguments of the lawsuit.

The emergency ruling comes as a result of 15 (Soros installed) attorneys general from New Jersey, New York, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Nevada, Rhode Island, and Vermont, all filed suit in New York seeking to block Elon Musk and DOGE from access to information that would reveal how activist groups in their states have been funded by the U.S. government. [Link to Press Release Here]

WASHINGTON – […] The lawsuit said Musk and his team could disrupt federal funding for health clinics, preschools, climate initiatives, and other programs, and that Republican President Donald Trump could use the information to further his political agenda.

DOGE’s access to the system also “poses huge cybersecurity risks that put vast amounts of funding for the States and their residents in peril,” the state attorneys general said. They sought a temporary restraining order blocking DOGE’s access.

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Tucker Carlson sits down with Mike Benz, one of the prominent voices who was speaking out about the corruption within the USAID, NED and CIA operation.  WATCH:

Chapters:
0:00 The USAID Rabbit Hole Runs Deep
5:29 Trump Is Performing Open Heart Surgery on the Country
9:50 Is USAID Truly a Humanitarian Operation?
19:41 What Is the Point of Funding Transgender Surgeries in Foreign Countries?
27:13 How USAID Secretly Organizes Riots Around the World

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CTH readers are several years ahead of the current news cycle, and I doubt any of the recent revelations about USAID spending and objectives are surprising to most readers here.  What we are now seeing are the receipts proving a conversation we have outlined exhaustively on these pages.

There are many ‘revelations’ certain to surface, including how the USAID priorities included the control of information on the internet through their partnerships in the private sector.  The larger objective was always information control and manipulating political outcomes both domestically and abroad. That is the impetus for the USAID spending.

The ‘humanitarian’ angle was always a cover, a ruse, tradecraft to hide how taxpayer money was gained and being distributed. That’s why none of their humanitarian endeavors ever solved anything.

Food, clean water, medicine and global aid was the visible claim by the USAID administrators; however, as you see from the surfacing receipts, that was always just a cover for their activity in political influence operations.

Do not think the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations was blind to this USAID operation, they were not.  The Senate held oversight, and they knew exactly what was going on, who was doing the orchestration of the agenda, and what the priorities of the USAID operation was all about.

Senator Marco Rubio sat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  Secretary of State Marco Rubio advanced with a confirmation vote of 99-0.  Secretary Rubio now controls USAID.

To understand the issues as they are now surfacing it is very important to retain clear context.

USAID was a sub-silo, a child of the parent organization, the CIA.  The CIA controlled the Big Picture, and USAID was the institution to carry out the objective.

When you see a controversial issue within the USAID operation reaching sunlight, always remember it is the CIA behind it.  When USAID targeted a foreign government for removal, it was the CIA behind it.  When USAID engaged with domestic and foreign media to control mis-dis-malinformation, it is the CIA behind it.  The CIA is defining the information.

When USAID pressured various global news agencies and organized advertiser boycotts against information sources averse to the interests of USAID, it is the CIA behind it.  When USAID funds the Clinton Foundation, or McCain Institute, or any of the cause celebre’ NGOs you now see in the headlines, it is factually the CIA behind them.  When USAID funds media for influence control, it is the CIA behind it.

This is also the context for the envelopes at the George H.W. Bush funeral.  An argument can be made that GHW Bush as CIA Director was the originator and architect of the CIA/USAID business model we are now discussing.  Bush knew the politicians would have to benefit from the business, in order to advance the operation.

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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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