Out Of The Loop,
Ellen Brown: Unaudited Power: The Military Budget Nobody Controls Under the Constitution, the military budget should not be paid at all, because the Pentagon has never passed an audit. Expenditures of public funds without a public accounting violate Article 1, Section 9, Clause 7 of the Constitution, which provides:
No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time... ..The Department of Defense’s $885.7 billion budget for 2025, approved by the House of Representatives, dwarfs the military spending of China ($296 billion), Russia ($84 billion), and the next eight nations combined. Managing $4.1 trillion in assets—from aircraft carriers to secret drones—along with $4.3 trillion in liabilities (e.g. personnel costs and pensions), the federal government’s largest agency overseesa military empire spanning over 4,790 sites worldwide. Yet it operates with minimal oversight... ..As observed in a January 2019 article in Rolling Stone by Matt Taibbi, openly secret budgets were first legalized in 1949 with the passage of the Central Intelligence Agency Act, which exempted that newly created agency from public financial disclosure... ..The Audit the Pentagon Act of 2023, backed by Sens. Bernie Sanders and Chuck Grassley, proposes docking 0.5–1% of budgets for audit failures, but the measurehas not received a vote.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), launched with promises to strip waste, fraud, and abuse from federal agencies, has conspicuously sidestepped the Pentagon... ..The Pentagon’s audit failures mask not just inefficiency and waste but pervasive fraud and corruption. Between 1998 and 2015, Inspector General reports show that the DoD could not account for $21 trillion in spending—65% of federal spending during that period... ..In 2017, former HUD official Catherine Austin Fitts collaborated with Mark Skidmore, an economics professor at Michigan State University, to document the missing $21 trillionin unsupported journal voucher adjustments at the DoD and HUD. In a June 2025 article published in Fitts’ journal The Solari Report titled “Should We Care about Secrecy in Financial Reporting?,”Dr. Skidmore discussed how the government responded to the publication of his research with Fitts. Its response was to immediately eliminate the paper trail leading to its covert financial operations. In particular, “Pentagon officials turned to the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board(FASAB) for advice. Several months later, FASAB posted a new document (FASAB 56), which recommended that the government be allowed to misstate and move funds to conceal expenditures if it is deemed necessary to protect national security interests.”... ..In a widely-viewed interview by Tucker Carlson on April 28, 2025, Fitts expressed her belief that the missing trillions had been funneled into classified projects involving advanced technologies, including massive underground bunkers to protect elites from a “near-extinction event;” and that they were using advanced energy systems and hidden transit networks possibly linked to extraterrestrial tech. She discussed “interdimensional intelligence” and a secret space program linked to a “breakaway civilization.” The latter term was coined by UFO researcher Richard Dolan and is defined by Google as “a theoretical, hidden society that operates outside of mainstream civilization with advanced technology, often linked to UFO phenomena and secret space programs.”
In a Danny Jones interview in May 2025, Fitts alluded to Deep Underground Military Bases (“DUMBs”), perhaps used for “advanced technology or off-world operations.” Existence of these bases was confirmed two decades earlier by whistleblower Philip Schneider, a U.S. government geologist and engineer involved in their construction. In his last presentation in 1995, Schneider said there were 131 of these cities connected underground by mag-lev rail, built at a cost of $17-26 billion each. According to his biographer, Schneider was assassinated in 1996 by a U.S. intelligence agency for disclosing the government cover-up of UFOs and aliens... ..The Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) contends that no verifiable evidence supports extraterrestrial activity. But other prominent figures support the UFO/UAP narrative. In 2017, the New York Times exposed the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), said to be a $22 million DoD initiativerun by Luis Elizondo investigating UAPs from 2007–2012.
According to BBC News, Haim Eshed, former head of Israel’s space security program, claimed in a 2020 interview with the Yediot Aharonot newspaper that the U.S. government has an “agreement” with a “Galactic Federation” of extraterrestrials. He alleged aliens have been in contact with the U.S. and Israel, with secret underground bases where they collaborate on experiments. Eshed claimed the United States was on the verge of disclosing this under President Trump but withheld it to avoid “mass hysteria.” The claims were unverified but provocative.
In recent years, Congress has increased its focus on UAPs, with high-profile hearings in 2022, 2023, and 2024.In 2023, whistleblower David Grusch, a former intelligence officer, testified that the U.S. possesses “non-human origin” craft and “dead pilots,”based on classified briefings. On November 13, 2024, theHouse Oversight Committee’s hearing, “Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena: Exposing the Truth,” featured testimony from Luis Elizondo, retired Navy Rear Admiral Tim Gallaudet, journalist Michael Shellenberger, and former NASA official Michael Gold, who claimed the U.S. possesses UAP technologies and has harmed personnel in secret retrieval programs... ..With $21 trillion unaccounted for historically, $165 billion in F-35 overruns, and $125 billion in buried waste, the DoD’s financial mismanagement needs urgent reform. Congress is primarily responsible for overseeing the DoD budget, exercising its constitutional “power of the purse” under Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution. So why isn’t it enforcing this mandate?
The chief excuse given is the need for secrecy for security reasons, but a congressional committee could be given access to the Pentagon’s financial data in closed session in order to exercise public oversight and enforce accountability. Other factors are obviously at play, including political influence, lobbying, campaign contributions from the defense sector, and a lack of penalties for noncompliance.
To restore accountability, Congress needs to enforce the Audit the Pentagon Act, modernize DoD systems, and investigate contractors profiting from lax oversight. UAP transparency is also critical, whether to debunk myths or uncover truths. https://scheerpost.com/2025/08/26/ellen-brown-unaudited-power-the-military-budget-nobody-controls/
Escape Key, Patterns of Capture: How Systems Theory Explains Control Systems theory isn't abstract mathematics — it's the grammar behind everything that surrounds us, from the internet packets carrying this text to the banknotes in your wallet, from the ecosystems outside your window to the institutional frameworks that govern them.Understanding systems theory means understanding the deep structures that shape power and control in our world.
At its heart lies a fundamental tension between two visions of organisation: Ludwig von Bertalanffy's networks and Kenneth Boulding's hierarchies. Bertalanffy saw systems as webs of interconnected nodes, robust through distribution. Boulding saw the necessity of layered organisation, coherence through structured levels.
This tension explains why clearinghouses exist, why they capture power, and why the question of control appears to haunt every system we build including governance... ..The tension between Bertalanffy's networks and Boulding's hierarchies isn't an abstract theoretical debate. Cash or CBDCs? ARPANET or platforms? Distribution or domination? These aren't technical questions but civilizational ones.
Every system we design embodies this choice: do we organise for adaptability or control? Do we distribute power or concentrate it? Do we enable peer-to-peer interaction or force everything through mediating institutions?
Networks alone become chaotic; hierarchies alone become tyrannical. The art lies in combining them properly — hierarchies that serve networks, mediators that facilitate rather than capture, clearinghouses that coordinate rather than control.
Understanding how systems theory explains control is the first step toward designing systems that serve human interest rather than human submission. In that choice lies the future of human organisation itself.
The Honest Sorcerer, The End of Post-Industrial Nations There can be only one… then none? As the global south slowly began to decolonize itselfby looking for alternatives to Western financial systems designed around their exploitation, and as global energy and raw material extraction approached planetary limits, the post-industrial, high value added model of the West began to crumble. Emerging economies have realized that once the basic industries are secured — providing these nations with the iron, coal, copper etc. needed for their development — they can start training the engineers and scientists of their own, turning these resources into bridges, railways, dams, factories and the like. The industrialization of many global south countries have naturally created a competition for resources between these rapidly developing and the already developed nations. (Unfortunately, meanwhile the size of this planets natural reserves didn’t grow in line with the ambitions of its inhabitants.) So far the global race for energy and raw materials was held back by IMF and World Bank policies demanding wages to be suppressed and austerity measures introduced in targeted nations, and thereby preventing competing markets from being built up. With the weakening of the dollar’s status and the development of an alternative system (BRICS) the picture has started to change substantially.
Europe’s sanctioning of Russian energy has acted as a release valve, though. Thanks to the deeply depleted status of the continent’s own fossil fuel and mineral resources, many companies left the EU in search for cheaper energy inputs after the 2022 price shock,lowering competition for resources on the long run by de-industrializing the economic bloc and creating a permanent cost-of-living crisis in what used to be one of the world’s wealthiest regions. The EU’s plummeting energy demand in the wake of natural gas, diesel and coal price hikes has thus not only prevented a global squeeze on energy but also ensured that the problem of high prices for the rest of the world will be avoided for some time to come. (As for the EU: falling wholesale energy prices invited a substantial increase in taxes on energy, keeping prices high for businesses no matter what.) Germany, as a result, is forecast to experience a 0.3% recession in 2025, but adjusting for state spending, the real decline could be closer to 4-5%.
War, Trump’s New $500 Note & Volcanos -Martin Armstrong Ukraine is about ready to fall apart. . .. I spread this to Washington and that is President Zelensky was sending $50 million per month to UAE. So, Zelensky has been preparing to leave. There is no way this guy could possibly retire in Ukraine. They will kill him.”
Does this mean the war may be over? Zelensky and nearly all of Europe’s leaders came to Washington recently to meet with President Trump, but it really was not to talk peace. Armstrong says, “The fact that all those leaders came to Washington—uninvited, they all met with Zelensky before they went to meet with Trump. Why did they come? Because they need war. I have warned Washington.”
So, if Europe starts a wider war with Russia, will Trump stay out of it? Armstrong says, “Yes, Trump said no American troops from what I have been told. Trump refuses to send any American troops to Ukraine as peacekeepers—period.”
Reading between the lines, does this mean Trump is putting the EU on notice we are not going to Article 5 in if you start a war? Armstrong says, “Article 5 is voluntary. I have made this very clear to them in Washington. You don’t have to participate. . .. I can’t stop the war. The best I can do is reduce the amplitude. If I can keep America out of this war, that is our best outcome. . .. Europe knows it’s in trouble financially. They have $335 billion of Russian assets frozen. France has about $71 billion. . .. The rumor going around right now is if there is a peace deal and they have to release those frozen assets, France can’t because they have been dipping into them. Europe is a complete mess. When it comes down to handing back $335 billion in Russian assets, I am not sure Europe is prepared to do that.”
Armstrong says forget all the talk of the elite wanting to get rid of cash and replace it with digital currency. Armstrong says, “No, no, no. Why is Trump talking about a $500 note. . .. Trump would not even contemplate doing a $500 bill if he was going to cancel the currency. Everybody else is cancelling currency and putting in capital controls, and Trump is going in the opposite direction. . .. Gold is still projected to go much higher because it is anticipating war.” https://usawatchdog.com/war-trumps-new-500-note-volcanos-martin-armstrong/
Moon of Alabama, Ukraine - Zelenski Rejects Giving Land As Fascists Promise To Kill Him The London Times continues to make propaganda for Nazis. After a recent whitewashing interview with Azov Nazi leader Biletsky (archived) it yesterday published an interview with theformer leader of the fascist Right Sector in Odessa Serhii Sterneneko.
‘Russia has repeatedly tried to kill me — I must be doing something right’(archived)
Sterneneko had a leading role in the 2014 massacres in Maidan Square and at the Trade Union's House in Odessa.The Times is whitewashing his participation in those events. It does not mind to publishhis threats against Zelenski:
[A]mong Ukraine’s younger generation of soldiers and civilians, Sternenko’s brand of truth to power has wide popularity. “I say what I think, and people like what I say.”
His views on President Putin’s demand for Ukraine to cede the territory it defends in the eastern Donbas region as a precondition for possible peace are typically direct.“If [President] Zelensky were to give any unconquered land away, he would be a corpse — politically, and then for real,” Sternenko said. “It would be a bomb under our sovereignty. People would never accept it.”
Sternenko, who himself has avoided the draft, wants the war to go on forever. https://www.moonofalabama.org/2025/08/ukraine-zelenski-rejects-giving-land-as-fascists-promise-to-kill-him.html#more
Trump envoy sets new timeframe for ending Ukraine conflict
Steve Witkoff hopes to find the “ingredients” of a peace deal by the end of the year https://swentr.site/news/623561-witkoff-ukraine-peace-deal/
2 Kinzhal missiles hit one building on video. What was that? ‘Massive’ Russian attack on Ukraine’s Kyiv kills at least 21, wounds dozens An overnight Russian drone and missile attack on Ukraine’s capital has killed at least 21 people, including four children, and wounded dozens of others, officials said.
Powerful explosions rocked Kyiv into the early hours of Thursday morning, as Russian projectiles damaged buildings in 33 locations across all 10 districts of the city, including the headquarters of the European Union mission to Ukraine and the British Council... ..Also affected were a Turkish enterprise and the Embassy of Azerbaijan, according to Zelenskyy. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/8/28/massive-russian-attack-on-ukraines-kyiv-kills-at-least-4-dozens-hurt
Has Ukraine just declared war on Hungary?
The Zelensky regime’s attacks on a key pipeline are hurting an EU member – and he chooses to add insult to injury The immediate spark was the Druzhba (“Friendship”) oil pipeline that still delivers crude from Russia to Central Europe. Several Ukrainian drone strikes targeted the pipeline in recent weeks, halting supplies to Hungary and Slovakia. A Ukrainian commander, known by the call sign Madyar, publicly admitted involvement.
For Hungary and Slovakia, this was more than an economic disruption. Both countries rely heavily on the pipeline, and in response, their leaders called on the European Commission to guarantee supply security. Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, a frequent critic of EU policy on Ukraine, accused Brussels of serving Kiуv’s interests over those of member states. His frustration boiled over further when he described Vladimir Zelensky’s quips about “friendship” as thinly veiled threats. Zelensky’s remark – “We have always supported friendship between Ukraine and Hungary, and now the existence of this ‘Friendship’ depends on Hungary” – was apparently meant as a pun on the pipeline’s name, but to Hungary it sounded like a mafia-style threat. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s reaction was uncompromising: “Zelensky openly threatened Hungary. He admitted that they hit the Druzhba pipeline because we don’t support their EU membership. This proves again that Hungarians made the right decision.”
The timing is telling. Strikes on the pipeline coincided with Zelensky’s Washington visit alongside EU leaders. Either Brussels tacitly encouraged him to punish Orbán, an ally of Donald Trump, or the EU simply looked away as Zelensky acted on his own. Both explanations sound outrageous, but there hardly seems to be a third option... ..Hungary has also quietly carried a humanitarian burden. In 2022 alone, over 1.3 million Ukrainians crossed into Hungary – second only to Poland and Romania. Budapest accepted them with little fanfare, though later tightened its asylum rules to restrict new arrivals to those from active war zones. At the same time, Hungary supplies a significant share of Ukraine’s electricity, a fact Szijjártó reminded Kiev of when rebuffing Ukrainian accusations. https://swentr.site/news/623532-ukraine-hungary-war-druzhba/
Hungary sues EU over frozen Russian assets sent to Ukraine
Budapest’s lawsuit targets the European Council’s decision to tap the immobilized funds for military aid In a case first filed with the EU Court of Justice and later transferred to the General Court, Hungary is demanding to “annul the decision... on allocating funds to assistance measures for supplying military support to the Ukrainian Armed Forces” and to “order the defendants to cover the costs.”
Budapest contends that the EPF acted unlawfully by bypassing its veto, arguing that Hungary is not a “contributing member state.” https://swentr.site/news/623618-hungary-frozen-assets-eu-lawsuit/
Trump threatens Ukraine with sanctions and tariffs
Russia will not be the only one to face restrictions if no progress in settling the conflict is made, the US president has warned https://swentr.site/news/623558-trump-threatens-ukraine-sanctions/
Trump Administration Considers Taking Stakes in Major US Weapons Firms
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says Lockheed Martin is already essentially an 'arm of the US government' https://news.antiwar.com/2025/08/26/trump-administration-considers-taking-stakes-in-major-us-weapons-firms/
Explanation of Drone Kill-Zones, where no man can set foot, a new feature of war: The War Enters a New Stage - Russians Advance Near Siversk - Military Summary For 2025.08.26
Thanks Eleni, for this article explaining how any ideology can bend around completely to meet the requirements of Power and Domination: Gaza to Donbass: How Israel and Ukraine Built a Fascist, Transnational War Machine The war in Ukraine and the genocide in Gaza are not separate conflicts. They are parallel theaters of the same civilizational confrontation: East vs. West. In both, a militarized ethno-state backed by the West targets an Eastern people whose only crime is refusing to vanish. In Donbass, it was the people who resisted the Maidan coup, who refused to bow to a NATO-aligned regime built on racialized nationalism and historical amnesia. In Gaza, it is the people who refuse to surrender their land, their dignity, and their right to exist to a Western-backed settler state that sees them as demographic threats. Since 2014, both have been bombed, blockaded, starved, and slandered, framed as terrorists for daring to survive.
The West calls this order. But it’s an order built on siege.
Those who insist that Russia is secretly aligned with Israel misunderstand both history and the present moment. Russia may be cautious, even shifting in some diplomatic arenas, but it has not embraced the West’s logic of annihilation. It has not signed onto the project of fortress ethno-states wielding AI-powered drones against refugee camps or school basements. On the contrary, Russia stands, with all its contradictions, as a major brake on that world order.
If Israel is Ukraine, then Gaza is Donbass: two peoples on the wrong side of the Western empire, trapped behind barbed wire and digital crosshairs. https://www.defenddemocracy.press/gaza-to-donbass-how-israel-and-ukraine-built-a-fascist-transnational-war-machine/
Thanks Eleni: Israeli women report abuse in ‘sadistic sexual rituals’ by Knesset members Jun 3, 2025
A number of Israeli women testified in a Knesset session about being assaulted in “sadistic sexual rituals” in religious ceremonies attended by Knesset members and other senior figures.
“You have no idea what ritual abuse is. The human brain cannot comprehend,” Yael Shitrit, one of the victims, said in her testimony cited by The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.
“You can’t imagine what it means to program a three-year-old girl through rape and sadism so they can do whatever they want without anyone knowing.” Shitrit said that she was trafficked across the country, “from ceremony to ceremony,” where “naked men stood in a circle.” https://www.defenddemocracy.press/what-kind-of-society-is-israel/
Horrifying testimonies seek to lift shroud of silence around ritual sex abuse claims 26/08/2025 Survivors tell Knesset lawmakers of organized assaults on children by those claiming mantle of religion, alleging longstanding phenomenon made worse by official indifference
Police have opened an investigation into multiple allegations of organized ritual sexual abuse after accusers relayed harrowing testimony of torture, rape and other horrors to lawmakers late last month.
The July 27 hearing included testimony from alleged victims, now adults, regarding abuse they had experienced as children, primarily in the ultra-Orthodox and national-religious communities in Jerusalem, Bnei Brak, Haifa, Safed and elsewhere. https://www.defenddemocracy.press/horrifying-testimonies-seek-to-lift-shroud-of-silence-around-ritual-sex-abuse-claims/
Moon of Alabama, Australia Breaks With Iran - Sign Of A New War Coming? The Aussies just trashed their relations with Iran based on nothing but obscure say-so.
Australia throws out Iran ambassador over alleged antisemitic attacks
Canberra expelled Tehran’s ambassador after accusing Iran of masterminding at least two antisemitic attacks on Australian soil.
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the country’s intelligence services had linked Iran’s military to arson attacks in Sydney and Melbourne, throwing out an ambassador for the first time since World War II, a move The Sydney Morning Herald’s national affairs editor dubbed “the diplomatic equivalent of the nuclear option.”
Iran rejected the charge.
I have searched and read several news pieces on this issue and have found no mention of any fact that would connect two months ago arson incidents in Australia with Iran.
The whole thing came out of nowhere based solely on the say-so from the Australian spy service ASIO... ..There is no mentioning on what, if anything, ASIO's alleged conclusions are based on... ..How is Iran supposed to profit from arranging criminal arson attempts against some random synagogues in Australia?
One might assume that the whole thing is coming up now to calm Zionist anger at Australia which has become more aggressive after ten-thousands of Australians had expressed outraged over Israels ongoing genocide of Palestinians: Albanese was just last week labeled “weak” by his Israeli counterpart after he said Australia would recognize a Palestinian state: The two countries have seen relations nosedive, with Canberra barring an Israeli far-right politician from entering Australia and Israel revoking the visas of Australian representatives to the Palestinian Authority... ..If Israel decides to again attack Iran the question is when, and to what extend, the Trump administration will again jump in. https://www.moonofalabama.org/2025/08/australia-breaks-with-iran-sign-of-a-new-war-coming.html#more
Australia Holds Largest-Ever Pro-Palestine Protests amid Gaza Famine Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched across Australia on Sunday in what organizers described as the country’s largest coordinated pro-Palestine protests. Rallies took place in more than 40 cities and towns, just days after the United Nations confirmed famine in parts of Gaza, amplifying scrutiny of Israel’s ongoing siege. https://www.defenddemocracy.press/australia-holds-largest-ever-pro-palestine-protests-amid-gaza-famine/
Caitlin in Oz: 21 Questions About The Claim That Iran Orchestrated Antisemitic Attacks In Australia The Israeli government has publicly claimed credit for pressuring Albanese to take these actions, after Netanyahu personally inserted himself into Australian affairs by repeatedly publicly expressing outrage about alleged antisemitic incidents in Australia.
Poll: Americans Are Now More Sympathetic to Palestinians Than Israelis https://news.antiwar.com/2025/08/25/poll-americans-are-now-more-sympathetic-to-palestinians-than-israelis/
Usually with people inside: 90% of Gaza’s schools destroyed by Israel, UNRWA says https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20250825-90-of-gazas-schools-destroyed-by-israel-unrwa-says/
Israeli Forces Kill 75 Palestinians in Gaza Over 24 Hours
Gaza hospitals recorded another three starvation-related deaths due to the Israeli siege https://news.antiwar.com/2025/08/26/israeli-forces-kill-75-palestinians-in-gaza-over-24-hours/
This was a "double tap" strike at the top of a stairwell, where journalists would climb to get cellphone reception. Strike, wait a few minutes for help to arrive, and strike the help. Israel Hits Gaza Hospital Twice, Killing at Least 20 People, Including Five Journalists https://english.aawsat.com/arab-world/5178802-israel-hits-gaza-hospital-twice-killing-least-20-people-including-five
‘We are painted as targets’: How a secret Israeli unit puts Gaza journalists in the crosshairs:
Israel’s army is using a secret unit to shape narratives around Gaza, portraying Palestinian journalists as Hamas operatives to justify strikes. Analysts say the tactic silences reporters and controls the story in one of the world's deadliest conflicts for journalists. https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20250825-legitimisation-cell-israel-shadow-unit-targeting-gaza-journalists-war
Homeless, bereaved, starving and further displaced: More than 36,000 displaced in Gaza amid latest Israeli attacks: UN 'People continue to flee in fear for their lives, seeking safety wherever possible,' says spokesperson https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/more-than-36-000-displaced-in-gaza-amid-latest-israeli-attacks-un/3669950
Christian Priests and Nuns Refuse To Leave Gaza City Despite Israel’s Planned Offensive
Hundreds of civilians are sheltering at the two churches in Gaza City https://news.antiwar.com/2025/08/26/christian-priests-and-nuns-refuse-to-leave-gaza-city-despite-israels-planned-offensive/
UNRWA chief condemns Israel’s denial of Gaza famine as ‘shameful’
'Gaza today is like hell. People are not only dying under bombardments, they are dying of hunger,' says Philippe Lazzarini https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/unrwa-chief-condemns-israel-s-denial-of-gaza-famine-as-shameful-/3669912
SCOTT RITTER: We're seeing Israel in its final spasms of genocidal policies - Israel faces new backlash over its deadly strike on Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza. Scott Ritter, the former UN weapons inspector, told The Trends Journal in an interview Monday that the IDF’s strike on Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza was an example of a country in the “final spasms of genocidal policies,” and the Trump administration will continue to face more isolation for supporting the ongoing atrocities in Gaza. Ritter also discusses what to expect next in Ukraine.
Washington confirmed steep new tariffs on Indian goods, effective from Wednesday.
The move, announced by President Donald Trump and detailed in a Homeland Security notice, adds an additional 25% duty, taking total tariffs as high as 50%—among the highest imposed by Washington. The measures come in retaliation for New Delhi’s increased purchases of Russian oil, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.
A commerce ministry official said there was “no hope for any immediate relief or delay” but noted exporters would receive financial assistance and be encouraged to diversify into markets such as China, Latin America, and the Middle East.
The new duties will apply from 12:01 a.m. EDT on Wednesday (9:31 a.m. IST). Shipments already in transit, humanitarian aid, and items under reciprocal trade programs will be exempt.
The Indian rupee slid to a three-week low of 87.68 per dollar, recovering slightly after suspected central bank intervention. Benchmark equity indexes NSE Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex each fell 1%, their worst session in three months.
Wednesday’s tariff escalation follows five rounds of failed talks. Both sides have blamed political missteps and missed signals for the breakdown, despite optimism earlier that tariffs could be capped at 15%.
White House trade adviser Peter Navarro and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent accused India of indirectly funding Russia’s war in Ukraine through a surge in oil purchases. Russian crude now makes up 42% of India’s total oil imports, up from less than 1% before the war.
Industry groups estimate nearly 55% of India’s merchandise exports worth $87 billion could be hit, with sectors such as engineering, textiles, and chemicals most exposed. https://news.az/news/steep-us-tariffs-set-to-hit-indian-exports-from-wednesday
Nobody could ever bring India and China together... Washington's nightmare: Modi and Xi break the ice, M.K. Bhadrakumar A potential India–China border breakthrough could mark a turning point in Asia, easing decades of hostility while undermining Washington’s grip on New Delhi. This week, India and China have taken a great leap of faith in their mutual efforts to incrementally advance the normalization process in their bilateral relationship. This may assume the nature of a rapprochement when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation [SCO] summit in the port city of Tianjin in northeast China on 31 August–1 September... ..The most sensational development is that the two countries are exploring an “early harvest” in delimitation of boundaries and have agreed on new mechanisms on border management, which will also work towards de-escalation. This is a highly sensitive issue, as Indian public opinion is shaped by self-serving narratives that emerged after the 1962 war and by the idea of establishing a border that never historically existed.
This is where Modi’s leadership becomes crucial. Modi is probably one of the only leaders today who has the credibility, decisiveness, and vision to navigate a border settlement with China... ..Wang has signaled that Beijing is as eager as New Delhi to improve the relationship against the backdrop of an increasingly reckless and belligerent Trump administration. Both sides sense that they have common interests. Inevitably, a China–India working relationship anchored on a strategic understanding will do wonders for BRICS. This prospect is already worrying Trump, who has threatened BRICS more than once for allegedly working to dethrone the dollar as the world's currency... ..Make no mistake, the Trump administration’s frustration with India is geopolitical. None other than the famous White House counsellor for trade and manufacturing and Trump’s close aide, Peter Navarro, blurted out in a Financial Times (FT) op-ed this week that the US should not transfer “cutting-edge” military technology to an India which is “cozying up to both Russia and China.” https://thecradle.co/articles/washingtons-nightmare-modi-and-xi-break-the-ice
Fed Issues Statement Over Trump Firing Of Governor Cook, Dems Play Race-Card “Lisa Cook has indicated through her personal attorney that she will promptly challenge this action in court and seek a judicial decision that would confirm her ability to continue” on the Board of the Federal Reserve System, the Fed says in a statement. “As always, the Federal Reserve will abide by any court decision” https://www.zerohedge.com/political/trump-fires-lisa-cook-potentially-criminal-conduct-creating-another-opening-fed-board
"We Haven't Heard Her Say She Didn't Do It": Bessent Burns Cook Over Mortgage Fraud Fiasco "She keeps saying Trump doesn't have the authority to fire her, but we haven't heard her say that she didn't do it," he told host Maria Bartiromo - calling for Cook to be investigated and prosecuted if true. https://www.zerohedge.com/political/we-havent-heard-her-say-she-didnt-do-it-bessent-burns-cook-over-mortgage-fraud-fiasco
Fed's Lisa Cook Sues Trump, Doesn't Deny Mortgage Fraud https://www.zerohedge.com/political/feds-lisa-cook-sues-keep-job-amid-mortgage-fraud-fiasco
Bolton Probe Focuses On Emails Obtained By Hostile Foreign Spy Service During Biden's term, the US government found that an adversarial government's spy agency had come into possession of emails that Bolton appeared to have sent to close associates, using an unclassified delivery method. The emails seemed to include information that Bolton had learned from classified documents, and he was sending the emails to various people who were helping him gather information for use in his 2020 memoir, “The Room Where It Happened.” https://www.zerohedge.com/political/bolton-probe-focuses-emails-obtained-hostile-foreign-spy-service
Vigilant Fox: DNI Tulsi Gabbard tells President Trump she’s EXPOSED some of the worst cases yet of weaponized intelligence.
Then Trump dropped a jaw-dropper about the 2020 election. Gabbard: “Mr. President, you have charged me with the mission of finding the truth and telling the truth to the American people, and we’ve exposed some of the worst examples of the weaponization of intelligence in the last several weeks.” “I will continue down that mission and that path, wherever it leads. Transparency, telling the truth is what will drive true accountability for the American people who deserve nothing less.” Trump: “And you’ve also found many bags of information, I think they call them burn bags. They’re supposed to be burned and they didn’t get burned having to do with how corrupt the 2020 election was, and when will that all come out?” Gabbard: “Mr. President, I will be the first to brief you once we have that information collected. But you’re right—we are finding documents literally tucked away in the back of safes, in random offices, in these bags and in other areas, which, again, speaks to the intent of those who are trying to hide the truth from the American people and trying to cover up the politicization that was led by people like John Brennan and James Clapper and others that have caused immeasurable harm to the American people and to our country.” https://x.com/VigilantFox/status/1960397959717175428/
Trump just DOUBLED DOWN and said that the Autopen pardons are WORTHLESS! They should all be voided and then every last person pardoned should be PROSECUTED! "All those pardons he gave to some very bad people, very unpatriotic people, very evil people, it looks to me like those pardons are worthless." https://x.com/GuntherEagleman/status/1959996874892378315
Trump Calls For RICO Charges Against Soros Over Violent Protest Support; Gates Foundation Abruptly Severs Ties With Rogue Arabella Advisors https://www.zerohedge.com/political/gates-foundation-cuts-ties-arabella-advisors-linked-funding-radical-leftist-causes
Trump Mulls Travel Ban for EU Officials Over 'Orwellian' Censorship Law According to sources familiar with the matter cited by Reuters,the State Department is considering visa restrictions targeting senior EU policymakers responsible for the legislation. A decision hasn’t been made, but discussions inside the administration intensified after a high-level meeting last week.
The move would directly punish foreign officials for domestic policies Washington says undermine U.S. free speechrights.
The EU’s DSA aims to compel tech giants to crack down on illegal content, but the Trump administration argues the policy amounts to government-driven censorship,accusing Brussels of forcing U.S. companies to muzzle American users under the guise of combating misinformation.
“We are monitoring increasing censorship in Europe with great concern but have no further information to provide at this time” a State Department spokesman told the Telegraph... ..Tensions aren’t limited to Brussels. The Trump administration has also targeted the UK’s Online Safety Act, calling it “Orwellian.”
During Trump’s visit to Scotland last month, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer defended the legislation, insisting London remains committed to protecting free speech while tackling online harms.
The debate is expected to intensify next month when Nigel Farage testifies before Congress on threats to free expression in Britain. Farage is set to highlight the case of Lucy Connolly, who was jailed for 31 months over a social media post related to the Southport attacks, before being released earlier this month. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trump-mulls-travel-ban-eu-officials-over-orwellian-censorship-law
Reform’s Plan for Dealing with Illegal Migrants is a Good Start In a recent interview with the Times, Reform leader Nigel Farage unveiled his plan for dealing with Britain’s illegal migration crisis. It involves four key elements:
Leaving the ECHR and suspending other relevant treaties
Banning those who arrive through irregular channels from claiming asylum
Moving illegal migrants from hotels and rented accommodation to disused RAF bases, and keeping them there
Striking deals with migrants’ home countries, or failing that, deporting them to third countries or British overseas territories like Ascension Island
Predictably, the plan has been criticised by Farage’s political opponents. One Tory MP claimed that he “is just recycling many ideas the Conservatives have already announced”. Which would be easier to take seriously if the Tories hadn’t had 14 years in government to implement some of those ideas. https://dailysceptic.org/2025/08/25/reforms-plan-for-dealing-with-illegal-migrants-is-a-good-start/
Why Wouldn’t This English Pub Let This Englishman In? An Englishman walks into a pub… and the joke ends there because this one didn’t even get through the front door.
Why? Well because he was carrying a dangerous object that this establishment has deemed to be grounds for entry refusal.
No, it wasn’t a knife or any other weapon. It was the English flag. The Saint George’s Cross. The flag of the nation where the pub is located. The flag that adorns the kit of the England football and Rugby teams. https://modernity.news/2025/08/26/why-wouldnt-this-english-pub-let-this-englishman-in/
Aluminum in childhood vaccines and mercury in vaccines are known causes: Attention Parents: RFK Jr. Links Autism to "Certain Interventions," Says Big Announcement Next Month https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/attention-parents-rfk-jr-links-autism-certain-interventions-says-big-announcement-next
So much data here: Review of FOI F23-1799 and BC Public Health’s Handling of COVID-19 Vaccines AEFI – Part 2 “HHS Senior Adviser Dr. Steven Hatfill revealed that RFK Jr. pulled mRNA funding after the data showed getting vaccinated was MORE dangerous than COVID itself.”1 Dr. Hatfill said,
“NO BENEFIT TO RISK RATIO for taking a messenger RNA vaccine.”
“It wasmore dangerous to take a vaccine than it was to contract COVID-19 and be hospitalized with it.”
“The side effects for this essentially gene therapy was so enormous and progressive it was difficult to fathom.”
“Some of the detailed biochemistry studies started to appear in the literature and the sudden flood of messenger RNA it appears irrespective of what the messenger RNA is coding for,just the sheer amount of, number of, millions of molecules of messenger RNA entering the cell is creating biochemical havoc.”
“It’s interfering with tumor suppressor genes.”
“IT [Covid vaccine] HAD TO BE STOPPED.”... ..On January 28, 2025, Senator Ron Johnson subpoenaed HHS for COVID-19 vaccine safety records, including high-adverse-event lots and Dr. Anthony Fauci's communications.
In April 2025, reports revealed that, CDC's vaccine safety team lead, Dr. Tom Shimabukuro—implicated in concealing an 82% miscarriage rate in a NEJM study—had records that were lost or possibly destroyed,4 prompting scrutiny from Johnson, Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and HHS watchdog Juliet Hodgkins.
By March 2021, U.S. regulators knew of vaccine harms but concealed them5 to advance mass vaccination, likely quietly halting harmful lots. BC CDC data in the "Systematic Harm Management" section below illustrates this pattern of curtailing distribution of high-AEFI lots.
A cohort of closely watched and previously healthy men:Sudden deaths, incapacitations soar among COVID-jabbed airline pilots: report
Since 2021, deaths of ‘younger’ airline pilots have risen markedly, long-term disabilities have surged, and near-miss incidents at airports have skyrocketed. https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/sudden-deaths-incapacitations-soar-among-covid-jabbed-airline-pilots-report/
How the American Academy of Pediatrics Betrayed Children Everywhere, Clayton J. Baker MD In retrospect, the AAP cannot claim that they “didn’t know” enough to push for school reopening. Their July 2020 document proves they knew the correct course of action – before caving in to the establishment’s false narrative, and then subsequently devolving into just one more shameless shill organization, pushing for the mass inoculation of children with the toxic Covid mRNA injections.
Why would the AAP have done such a thing?
Money, for one thing. And plenty of it.
As the Covid vaccine push intensified, the AAP became one of the trusted legacy medical associations that was handsomely rewarded to “push vaccines and combat ‘Misinformation’.” By 2023, the year for which data is most available, the AAP was absolutely raking it in.
As journalist Michael Nevradakis explains:
AAP… received $34,974,759 in government grants during the 2023 fiscal year, according to the organization’s most recent tax disclosure. https://brownstone.org/articles/how-the-american-academy-of-pediatrics-betrayed-children-everywhere/
Meryl Nass MD, COVID vaccine EUAs are finally gone. Actually, the Biden administration issued an unjustified LICENSE for the COVID vaccine on Aug. 23, 2021 in order to impose the broad mandates, fearing they could not impose mandates legally under an EUA. Two top FDA officials were fired because they refused to approve the license without at least going through their usual processes: Marion Gruber and her deputy, Philip Krause. And Marion put it all in writing, in a memo to the acting FDA Commission, the crook Janet Woodcock.
COVID vaccines remain on the childhood schedule, albeit with provisos. I think they need to be removed from the childhood schedule completely, and then the liability shield for the manufacturers will go away.
Physicist Anastassia Makrieva, On Human Thinking and Longevity - Why we won't live long if we delegate thinking to robots
Pole shift is underway. (Under 8 min): Magnetic Pole Shift Causes Extinctions
Delaying Extinction with Okra
The Vaxx Industry should not exist...It was based on lies from the start. Vaccine manufacturers claimed that injecting their vaccines into the bloodstream created greater immunity. They said that their vaccines created a great immune response. I believed this kind of information, when I permitted the doctor to inject my son with so-called vaccines back in the 1950s. When my child started running a 106 degree temperature and screaming non-stop I called his doctor. The doctor said that this was to be expected, it showed the vaccine was working...Just bring your child into my office tomorrow morning. I walked with him in my arms all night praying he would survive. It was a miracle... he survived, but i didn't realize until years later how it affected his mind and body immensely. If I had known the items in these injections (like aluminum and mercury), I would never have permitted the child to get injected. In 2010, I came across a book entitled Vaccination is NOT Immunization by Dr. Tim O'Shea, which listed every toxic item in the childhood vaccines...and I was shocked. How could medical doctors accept these so called, vaccines, when they contained matter that was poisonous to the human body? My sick child had contributed to awakening me in 1961, when a friend handed me books and told me to start reading you are listening to the wrong people. On opening the first book, I saw that my child's pediatrician had created his health problems ...and i set out to find answers myself. However, it took until 2010, before i found out what matter was in these vaccines. The updated version of Vaccination is NOT Immunization includes the substances in the current 'vaxxes." The bloodstream was designed to carry nutrients from unprocessed foods to every organ, gland and cell to nourish them and provide energy. Injecting any kind of lab-created matter into the bloodstream will break down every organ, gland and cell....It will destroy the natural immune system.
Seems Kunstler is optimistic that Americans are returning to "reality", I pray he's right:
"The War On Reality is Over ~ The essence of all that was a gigantic (Democrat) game of pretend, a broad and deliberate dissociation from reality for the purpose of maintaining a political racketeering operation, which is what the Democratic Party had become. Pretend that men can become women. Pretend that Covid vaccinations are safe and effective. Pretend that national borders don’t matter. Pretend that crime is not a social problem. Pretend that riots are mostly peaceful. Pretend that our elections are free and fair. Pretend that “Joe Biden” is president. Pretend that Ukraine is fighting for democracy. And so on. All pretend."
https://www.kunstler.com/p/the-war-on-reality-is-over
Personally, while believing several steps have been made in the "right" direction, my perspective is that "War On Reality" is still far, FAR from being defeated, as that would require copious amounts of spiritual sanity to heal/counteract the pride & EG0 (mind-made me!) prevalent as the guiding principle in the USofA.
Without recognizing the devaluation of humanity to the equivalent state of disposable toiletries, little "real" progress can & will be achieved...
America has the potential to self-correct & lead humanity as the "light on a hill", but that would require a spiritual revival on an historical basis, in the face of the opiate of technofeudalism, that would be unprecedented in Our short time on this muddy ball.
I haven't watched and/or taken serious the mindfuckery of main stream media since Clinton/Reno burned children alive @ Waco, I wonder how many even here suffer from MSM's stupefying gaze?
Watching friends & family trapped within it's grip is nauseating, to the point I can no longer associate, their loss of agency a fatal condition that sadly pervades American CULTure...
Who wants to surrender freewill & thinking, even for a moment, to tap into their true self via meditation & prayer, to perhaps catch an intuitive glimpse of the "bigger" picture?
Then there's the social media disease, with it's attendant algorithms, which maximize endorphin/dopamine levels for self-gratification stimmies...
The left/right curse/paradigm can only be evaded through moments of spiritual clarity, should I hold my breath?
As always, words fail & Love is a verb,
Gary