Remembering Christmas
Christmas Spirits,
UNRWA: Israeli occupation kills child every hour In a statement on Tuesday, UNRWA said: "Since the beginning of the war 14,500 children have been reported killed in Gaza according to UNICEF." https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/24/12/2024/unrwa-israeli-occupation-kills-child-every-hour
Israeli forces place explosive-laden box near northern Gaza hospital, video shows
Kamel Adwan Hospital director shares video of Israeli explosives placed near hospital gates in northern Gaza https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/israeli-forces-place-explosive-laden-box-near-northern-gaza-hospital-video-shows/3432303
Israeli drone strikes cause power outage at northern Gaza hospital Israeli drones struck power generators and fuel tanks at the hospital in the town of Beit Lahia, leaving it entirely without power.
Marwan Al-Hams, the director of field hospitals in Gaza’s Health Ministry, described the situation at the hospital as “dire,” saying that communication with medical staff has been cut off.
On Saturday, the hospital’s director, Hussam Abu Safiya, said that the medical facility was facing “unprecedented” Israeli shelling, causing extensive damage. https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241222-israeli-drone-strikes-cause-power-outage-at-northern-gaza-hospital/
Israeli army forces patients out of Indonesian Hospital in Gaza, doctors say
The Kamal Adwan hospital, one of the few still functioning in the area, was targeted by Israeli troops who claim it is a Hamas stronghold Israeli troops forced the evacuation of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza and many patients, some of them on foot, arrived at another hospital miles away in Gaza City, the territory’s health ministry said on Tuesday.
https://www.scmp.com/news/world/middle-east/article/3292200/israeli-army-forces-patients-out-indonesian-hospital-gaza-doctors-say
‘We will leave when the last Palestinian leaves’: The defiant last stand of the doctors of Kamal Adwan Hospital
For 75 days, doctors in this north Gaza hospital have withstood the Israeli army's attempts to forcibly evacuate them and their patients. In the face of death, the doctors are still refusing to leave, even as the army steps up its attacks. https://mondoweiss.net/2024/12/we-will-leave-when-the-last-palestinian-leaves-the-defiant-last-stand-of-the-doctors-of-kamal-adwan-hospital/
‘These kids need to be killed’: Israel ‘losing its humanity’ in Gaza Israeli soldiers are increasingly engaging in acts of brutality and war crimes in Gaza, with the appearance of more “callous” and “ideologically violent” troops, according to a detailed analysis published in Haaretz by Professor Yoel Elizur, former chair of the Council of Psychologists and emeritus professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The article documents disturbing incidents, including one commander’s unprovoked attack on a four-year-old child. “The commander suddenly starts running, grabs the boy, and breaks his arm at the elbow and his leg here. Stepped on his stomach three times and left,” the article quotes soldiers as saying. When questioned, the commander responded: “These kids need to be killed from the day they are born.” https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241224-these-kids-need-to-be-killed-israel-losing-its-humanity-in-gaza/
Over 20 People Killed in Gaza Strip Due to Israeli Strikes in Past Day (Christmas Day) "During the past 24 hours, the Israeli occupation committed three massacres of families in the Gaza Strip, with 21 dead and 51 being admitted to hospitals," the ministry said.
Overall, since the start of the conflict in 2023, the death toll in Gaza has risen to 45,338, with more than 107,000 people injured, the ministry added. https://sputnikglobe.com/20241225/over-20-people-killed-in-gaza-strip-due-to-israeli-strikes-in-past-day---health-ministry-1121262633.html
Just 12 trucks delivered aid in northern Gaza since October, Oxfam says
Only 12 trucks have distributed food and water in northern Gaza since October, Oxfam reported Sunday, accusing Israel of systematic delays and obstruction amid the worsening humanitarian crisis. The aid group highlighted incidents where aid-receiving shelters were shelled within hours. https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20241223-just-12-trucks-delivered-aid-in-northern-gaza-since-october-oxfam
Israel provides full support for theft of aid to starve Gaza people Israel has provided full support for the theft of humanitarian aid and kills security personnel to starve the besieged people of the Gaza Strip, says a new report.
The regime's forces have murdered at least 723 policemen and aid security personnel guarding aid shipments in the besieged territory since October 2023, according to the latest statistics published by the Gaza media office.
It said that armed gangs are fully protected by Israeli forces "to loot the humanitarian aid as part of a deliberate starvation strategy imposed as collective punishment on Gaza's civilian population." https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/12/24/739655/Israel-support-aid-theft-Gaza-police
Baby freezes to death overnight in Gaza as Israel and Hamas trade accusations of ceasefire delays https://www.arabnews.com/node/2584272/middle-east
Government and corporations close rank to censor & punish Americans: It’s Becoming Harder to Protest Gaza War on Campus—and Also to Teach About It https://scheerpost.com/2024/12/21/its-becoming-harder-to-protest-gaza-war-on-campus-and-also-to-teach-about-it/
Mossad chief urges direct strike on Iran in response to Houthi attacks - report During high-level discussions within Israel’s political and security leadership, Mossad chief David (Dedi) Barnea reportedly called for a direct strike on Iran following recent attacks by the Houthi militia. https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-834483
The New York Times: Iran is experiencing a severe energy crisis after Israeli sabotage https://en.topcor.ru/54873-the-new-york-times-iran-posle-izrailskih-diversij-perezhivaet-tjazhelyj-jenergokrizis.html
Israel’s Netanyahu orders military to ‘destroy’ Houthis “I have instructed our forces to destroy the infrastructure of Houthis because anyone who tries to harm us will be struck with full force. We will continue to crush the forces of evil with strength and ingenuity, even if it takes time,” Netanyahu told the Israeli parliament. https://www.arabnews.com/node/2584076/middle-east
On Christmas Eve: Defiant Yemen strikes Israelis again The Israeli military claimed to have intercepted a missile on Wednesday that was launched from Yemen and crossed into Israeli territory, despite media reports indicating the missile evaded Israeli air defense systems.
Israeli media reported that Yemen launched a ballistic missile at central Israel, with sirens sounding in Tel Aviv and its surroundings. Reports indicate that about nine settlers were injured while heading to shelters. https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/507930/Defiant-Yemen-strikes-Israelis-again
US almost shot down second friendly plane – Fox News
A missile cruiser reportedly targeted two of its own F/A-18 jets during an operation against Yemen’s Houthis https://www.rt.com/news/609905-us-navy-second-jet-yemen/
'Easy target': Yemen warns 4th US carrier within reach A senior Yemeni official has warned the United States against further aggression against the Arab country, vowing that Yemeni forces can easily destroy American warships near Yemeni waters.
Mohammad Ali al-Houthi, a member of Yemen’s Supreme Political Council, made the remarks during an address in the Yemeni capital, Sana’a, on Tuesday. He was responding to the US military's announcement of deploying a fourth aircraft carrier to Yemen and stockpiling ammunition for potential strikes. “Take lessons from the three carriers that already left Yemeni waters. Their withdrawals are documented, influenced by Yemeni armed forces, drone strikes, missile attacks, and naval operations,” he said, referring to repeated attacks by Yemeni forces on American warships in the region.
Those strikes, carried out in response to British-American aggression against Yemen, led to the withdrawal of three American aircraft carriers: the USS Abraham Lincoln, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, and the USS Theodore Roosevelt.
Earlier this week, the US military announced it was sending USS Harry S. Truman to replace the previous carriers. https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2024/12/24/739677/Easy-target-Yemen-warns-fourth-US-carrier-within-their-reach
Alastair Crooke, The “king-makers” pull the rug from Syria, yet again… A “Greek tragedy” begins Syria has been disintegrated and pillaged in the name of ‘liberating’ Syrians from the threat of ISIS, which they – Washington – had installed in the first place. James Jeffrey, former U.S. Ambassador to Iraq and Turkey, in a March 2021 interview with PBS Frontline, laid out very plainly the template for what has just happened in Syria this month:
“Syria, given its size, its strategic location, its historical importance, is the pivot point for whether [there can be] an American-managed security system in the region … And so you’ve got this general alliance that is locked in with us. But … the stress point is greatest in Syria”.
Jeffrey explained (in the 2021 interview) why the U.S. shifted its to support to Jolani and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS):
“We got Mike Pompeo to issue a waiver to allow us to give aid to HTS – I received and sent messages to HTS” -The messages coming back from HTS were: “We [HTS] want to be your friend. We’re not terrorists. We’re just fighting Assad””.
The PBS Frontline interviewer asks: The U.S. was “supporting indirectly the armed opposition”? To which Jeffrey responds:
“It was important to us that HTS not disintegrate … our policy was … was to leave HTS alone … And the fact that we haven’t targeted [HTS] ever, the fact that we have never raised our voice to the Turks about their cohabitation with them — in fact, I used this example the last time I was talking to very senior Turks – when they started bitching about this relationship we [the U.S.] have with the SDF [in eastern Syria]”.
“I said to them, “Look, Turkey has always maintained that you want us in northeast Syria, which they do. But you don’t understand. We can’t be in northeast Syria without the platform, because we only have hundreds of troops there”; … I said: “It’s just like you in Idlib …”.
“We want you to be in Idlib, but you can’t be in Idlib without having a platform, and that platform is largely HTS. Now, unlike the SDF, HTS is a UN-designated official terrorist organisation. Have I ever, or has any American official ever, complained to you about what you’re doing there with HTS? No”... ..Turkish press accounts largely confirm this Jeffrey scenario was the current gameplan: Ömer Önhon, former senior Ambassador and Deputy Under-Secretary in charge of Middle East and Asia at the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, writes that: “the operation to overthrow Assad’s regime in Syria was meticulously planned for over a year, with coordinated involvement from Turkey, the United States, and several other nations. Through various statements it has become clear that Assad’s departure resulted from an intricate web of agreements between virtually all stakeholders. Whilst HTS is actively working to rebrand itself – this transformation remains to be proven.”.....Syria has been from the outset – from 1949 – ‘the balancer’ to Israel in the region. That is now over, leaving only Iran to balance the Israeli thrust to a ‘Greater Israel’. It is no surprise then that the Israelis are agitating for the Americans to join with them in another orgy of destruction – this time to be visited on Iran. https://strategic-culture.su/news/2024/12/23/the-king-makers-pull-rug-from-syria-yet-again-a-greek-tragedy-begins/
Big Serge, The Big Happening Ultimately, the fall of the Assad regime is owed to inherent instabilities in Syria’s construction, particularly in the absence of consolidated control over the entire former territory of the state. Without oil exports and the growing regions around the Euphrates, Syria cannot sustain itself, and the belt of oasis cities becomes doomed to an impoverished half-life. Assad’s biggest problem is also Turkey’s problem: the millions of refugees languishing in Turkey are closely connected with Assad’s underpaid and unmotivated soldiers, in that both are a manifestation of a starving and exhausted country.
The Problem of Syria, as such, is that the fiscal-economic viability of the state is tenuous at best and relies on consolidated control of the state’s former territory, but this in turn requires welding together an amalgamation of ethnic and sectarian groups, combustible in the best circumstances, at the same time that foreign powers are trying to set them alight.
Putin weighs in on the Syrian situation by Melkulangara Bhadrakumar Russia has outmanoeuvred the Biden administration in Syria. Putin implied that a working relationship with the new leadership in Damascus is steadily developing. He said, “I do not know, we must reflect on how our relations will evolve with the political forces currently in control (in Damascus) and those that will govern this country in the future –- our interests must align. Should we remain, we must act in the interests of the host nation.”
Putin noted: “What will those interests entail? What can we do for them? These questions demand careful consideration on both sides. We are already capable of offering assistance, including utilising our bases… while challenges remain, our position firmly aligns with international law and the sovereignty of all nations, including respect for Syria’s territorial integrity. This extends to supporting the stance of the current authorities governing the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic. In this regard, we stand with them.”
This is a big statement and it will resonate across the Arab world. Make no mistake, Russia’s transition from the Assad era is well under way. The contours of a pragmatic policy approach are emerging. Russian intelligence would have done the spade work in this transition.
Putin remarked tauntingly that “the groups that were fighting against the Assad regime and the government forces back then have undergone internal changes. It is not surprising that many European countries and the United States are trying to develop relations with them now. Would they be doing this if they were terrorist organisations? This means that they have changed, doesn’t it? So, our goal (Russia’s intervention in Syria in 2015) has been achieved, to a certain degree.”
From behind the scene, Turkey is tacitly encouraging Russia’s partnership with HTS. Significantly, Putin dwelt on the ramifications of the Kurdish problem where Turkey may need Russia’s cooperation to navigate the tricky pathway going forward.
Turkey’s concerns have four main templates: one, ensure Turkey’s border security with Syria; two, create conditions for the return of Syrian refugees from Turkey; three, push Syrian Kurdish forces away from the border regions; and, four, counter the covert European and US-Israeli support for an independent Kurdish state. Putin underscored “the gravity of the Kurdish issue.” There is no conflict of interests here between Turkey and Russia.
While Putin spoke with understanding and some sympathy for Turkey’s legitimate concerns, he did not mince words to condemn Israel’s naked land grab in Syria. In his words, “I believe that the main beneficiary of the developments in Syria is Israel… In the Golan Heights, Israel has advanced along the front by 62–63 kilometres and to a depth of 20–25 kilometres. They have occupied fortifications originally built for Syria by the Soviet Union, strong defensive structures comparable to the Maginot Line.
“It seems there are already several thousand (Israeli) personnel stationed there. It appears not only that they have no intention of leaving, but they may also be planning to further reinforce their presence.”
Putin warned that “further complications down the line” are to be expected, as the Israeli occupation could “ultimately result in the fragmentation of Syria.” https://ronpaulinstitute.org/putin-weighs-in-on-the-syrian-situation/
Kyle Young asks and further explores: Is the War In Syria a Cartel Drug War? As I pointed out in the previous post, the fall of the countries in the Middle East, previously referred to by the establishment media as the Arab Spring, has been in the works since LBJ stole the White House in 1963. As I also pointed out, Brzezinski, Yinon, Netanyahu and others have been telling us the Arab countries that surround Israel were going to be toppled.
I missed something in that previous run down. In his 1969 book The Game of Nations, former CIA agent Miles Copeland pointed out that in 1949 he participated in a coup to overthrow the government of Syria. The point being, the US has been interfering in Syria on behalf of Israel for 75 years... ..As I pointed out in my last post, the fall of Syria leaves only one more domino to fall, Iran. As I also pointed out in that post, this has all been planned for decades by Brzezinski, Yinon, Netanyahu, LBJ and the pro-Israel neocon think tank A Project for a New America to benefit Israel's long term project to expand it borders from the Nile river to the Red Sea in what it calls Greater Israel.
In addition to that and the control of the illicit drug trade, there are, of course, numerous other goals. A look at a resource map of the region helps to determine why the energy sector of the deep state has been backing the Kurds. Because their traditional homeland sits atop vast oil fields, we can look for this part of Syria to remain war-torn for some time... ..At this point, it looks like Ukraine will be a big loser from a war in which it played no part.
Iran is also a big loser. The Muslims in Iran are mostly Shia. The Shia make up only 10% of the worlds Muslim population. The Shia crescent, which runs from the Hezbollah in Lebanon, through Syria, Iran and then to Yemen, has been greatly weakened by US backed Muhuammed al-Jawlani and his Sunni forces... ..As has been planned from the get-go, Israel will be the big winner.
Gilbert Doctorow, Transcript of ‘Dialogue Works’ edition of 24 December Well, your listeners of this program certainly know that Fico has been in the news. Yesterday’s papers, today’s papers in the West are speaking about his two-hour meeting, tete-a-tete with Vladimir Putin in Moscow... ..It caught everyone by surprise, in fact. And he was coming precisely before the deadline expires on the pipeline that carries Russian gas across Ukraine and serves markets in three central European states, his own Slovakia, plus Hungary and Austria. That pipeline is going to be shut down on December 31st by Ukrainians as part of their their war on Russia, economic side of it, and also playing into the hands of the European institutions who want to shut off Russian hydrocarbons to the EU. Well, so this was an issue of very big importance to Mr. Fico, enough for him to fly in and discuss the consequences and what could be done about it with Vladimir Putin.
But preceding that, in the last week, he Fico was in public exchanges of what you can call insults, trading insults, with Vladimir Zelensky. And that was about this issue. And also as part of his payback to Zelensky, he mentioned in passing that Zelensky had offered him a $500 million, now I got the zeros correct, $500 million bribe for for he and Slovakia to change their position on Kiev’s application to join NATO, and instead of opposing it– which kills it in effect, because there has to be 100 percent unanimity on the admittance of any new country– instead of opposing it, to join with everybody else and greet Ukraine as a newest member. Well, he says he declined that... So I take it for accurate. There’s no reason for a person who’s honest, who has come through as much threat in his public life as Mr. Fico, who narrowly survived an assassination attempt less than six months ago, for him to exaggerate or misstate his relations with Zelensky... ..What could be going on was suggested in a kind of cartoon fashion by Donald Trump in the last week when he showed that we ship money to Kiev and it goes to this and that and finally comes back to what? Comes back to Biden’s pocket. Well, that is a crude way of looking at it. But why just Biden’s pocket? ... ..I haven’t heard anybody raise a peep about the possibility that American foreign policy on Ukraine is being bought with bribes coming from the funds that the US and the EU have extended to Kiev. And that is something which I expect will come out when Musk goes after the money, the money trail, to find out where it actually ended up. So there should be some interesting news in our papers in the months ahead when this activity gets going. https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2024/12/25/transcript-of-dialogue-works-edition-of-24-december/
EU candidate’s president eyeing attack on Russian peacekeepers – Moscow
Moldova’s Maia Sandu has proposed taking control of the breakaway region of Transnistria, Russian intelligence officials have claimed Sandu “categorically refused to discuss this issue with Ukraine and unequivocally pinned the blame on Russia,” threatening to “take it out on Transnistria” if Moscow fails to deliver gas to Moldova. She reportedly ordered criminal cases against the breakaway region’s leaders for “separatism” and instructed officials to harass residents crossing the border.
The SVR claimed the EU is deeply alarmed by Sandu’s alleged plans. “The meeting ended with Sandu discussing the need for a military operation to seize control over Transnistria and remove Russian peacekeepers,” leaving EU officials visibly shocked, the SVR alleged.
Adrian Balutel, Sandu’s chief of staff, dismissed the SVR statement as “dangerous disinformation, designed to sow panic and mistrust.” He stressed that “Chisinau remains firmly committed to the peaceful resolution of the conflict” while demanding a “complete and unconditional withdrawal of Russian troops” from Transnistria.
Transnistria declared independence from Moldova in the early 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union. A brief war in 1992 ended with a ceasefire and the deployment of around 400 Russian peacekeepers. Moldova does not recognize Transnistria's independence and has periodically sought to reintegrate the territory. https://swentr.site/russia/609810-moldova-sandu-attack-transnistria/
Gilbert Doctorow, Transcript of ‘Judging Freedom’ 24 December edition Napolitano: In your recent article on the new sovereignty, you advance the idea that there may very well be tension between the foreign policy and defense unity of the EU on one hand and the sovereignty of individual member states on the other. Can you elaborate on that please?Doctorow:
Well, going back to 1992, there was a trade, there were various, let’s say, abandonment or surrender of or ceding of sovereignty in various dimensions from individual member states of the EU to the European institutions in Brussels. And the foreign policy and defense policies were the first of these important normal attributes of a sovereign state which were transferred from these nation-states to a super-national organization, the European Union institutions in Brussels.
The consequence of that did not seem to be very great when this was going forward in 1992. These compromises were made to provide the way for a unified European currency and for the free travel and right to work of European citizens of separate states throughout the whole geography of the European Union. Very positive gains and didn’t seem too much of a compromise, of a loss.
The losses have become clear now, when 27 nations or 25 of the 27 nations stand up and all repeat the same utter delusional statements about the Russian threat that they face, about the state of the war and prospects for Ukrainian victory. Now we understand that these states do not have the competent bureaucracies. They don’t have their own personnel who are sufficiently trained to give them the basis for opposing what the people in the European Commission, the people who are serving Ursula von der Leyen, have usurped as the powers of 400 million people.
Napolitano:
Well suppose it is clear that, and I’m just going to make a hypothetical here, that the people of Italy and the government of Italy want to have nothing to do with arming Ukraine, that in fact they support the special military operation for various cultural, social, and historical reasons. What can they do about it? Can they hold back their share of monies that go to the European Union to crimp its ability to fund the Ukrainian war?
Doctoorow:
I think they can go across the party lines in the European parliament, for example, and join the forces of Viktor Orban’s Patriots for Europe and vote as you just suggested, against what the European Commission has been foisting on them, a commission that is headed by Ursula von der Leyen. That is within– to keep in mind, that the European Parliament is not a full legislative institution in the sense of the US Congress. It has no power of initiative, its resolutions are not binding and so forth. But nonetheless, by taking a stand, if the one-third of members of parliament who are in the fraction you can call Orban’s grouping were to pick up more, then they could, by moral strength, take power away from Von der Leyen without her actually being impeached or removed for crimes against the Constitution. They have so far not done that, but I think it will be coming, particularly if Mr. Trump pursues a peace policy in his early days in office.
Napolitano:
Is the snuffing-out of the foreign policy of nation states in deference to the collective will, a step toward peace or a step toward totalitarianism, or just depend which side of the aisle you’re on?
Doctorow:
We’re speaking ideology now, and that is very important to bear in mind. Just as in the States, it is commonly accepted that nationalism breeds aggressiveness, that totalitarian or autocratic governments are fragile and therefore look to maintain their population under their control by waging wars. These are assumptions that are not backed by any facts, but they are assumed by 99 percent of the American political science community.
So it is here in Europe that the assumption was that individual states and the tensions that come out of them, the ambitions that come out of them, were the cause of two civil wars in Europe that were completely self-destructive. The first civil war was called World War I, and the second civil war in Europe was called World War II. And that the way to get out of this trap is for the states to pool their sovereignty in a supranational organization. All of this was wonderful when the constitution of the EU was written by some very intelligent, very progressive, very well-read and very humane political scientists and statesmen. They did not anticipate that the institutions [that] were created would be taken over by the very primitive and warlike people who run the EU today. So the institutions have no checks and balances. https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2024/12/25/transcript-of-judging-freedom-24-december-edition/
Democracy Dies in the EU: Romania Edition, Conor Gallaher Let’s start with a timeline of events in Romania and then look at why the country is so important to NATO Black Sea plans, as well as the larger significance of the election cancellation... Timeline
The weeks running up to the election: a campaign called #BalanceAndIntegrity begins on TikTok. Roughly 130 influencers follow a similar script to make videos describing qualities of a future unnamed president. Some of the influencers do, however, write in the comments of the video: “Călin Georgescu.”
Nov. 24: The presidential election. Georgescu — a relative unknown who runs on a Christian conservative, economic populist and non-interventionist policy towards Project Ukraine — surprisingly comes out on top. Disaffected working class voters back him strongly as he wins more than 2 million votes (23 percent) in the first round. As no candidate achieved an absolute majority, a second round was to be held on Dec. 8.
Nov. 28: Romania’s Supreme Country Defense Council (CSAT) announces that “cyber attacks with the aim of influencing the correctness of the electoral process” took place and, separately, that “a candidate for the presidential elections benefited from a massive exposure due to the preferential treatment that the TikTok platform granted him by not marking him as a political candidate.”
Despite CSAT alleging that “some state and non-state actors, in particular the Russian Federation,” were behind cyber attacks, Romania’s Special Telecommunication Service (STS), a military agency which is tasked with securing the communication infrastructure for the electoral process, said that no cyberattack was spotted during the first round of the presidential elections...
..Dec. 6: Just two days ahead of the second round vote Georgescu looked sure to win, the Constitutional Court of Romania annuls the results of the first round of the election, claiming that a Russian influence operation impacted the vote. A new election will supposedly happen in the Spring.
Dec. 16: The European Commission announces it is opening a formal proceeding against TikTok over its role in Romania’s election...
..Dec. 19: The 27 leaders of the European Union meet in Brussels. The summit is dominated by Ukraine, but Romanian President Klaus Iohannis who is staying on as president due to the annulled election is welcomed with open arms and offers his insight into the Russian menace... EU leaders thanked Iohannis for his warnings, and everyone went back to making bold proclamations about “supporting” Ukraine and the threats posed by Putin evidenced by his TikTok wizardry in Romania.
There was a problem, however. A bombshell Dec. 21 report from the Romanian investigative media outlet Snoop.ro revealed that the TikTok campaign allegedly orchestrated by the Russians that threw Romanian democracy out of whack was actually funded by the centrist National Liberal Party...
..While the media spent weeks suggesting that the alleged influence operation in Romania was “eerily similar” to alleged Russian campaigns in Ukraine and Moldova, it turns out it’s much closer to the Clinton campaign’s pied piper strategy in 2016, which led to a shock loss and subsequent blaming of Russia for that defeat. And it continues even after being debunked:.. One key difference, obviously, is that in Romania the election was formerly overturned while in the US Trump was greeted into office by Russiagate... In this case Georgescu cannot be allowed to win because he takes the common sense approach that confrontation with Moscow does much more harm to Romanians than to Russia. And Romania is simply too important to NATO and the effort to weaken Russia. Washington and Brussels are already dealing with wayward governments in Hungary and Slovakia...
..The US has expanded its military presence in Romania to brigade size, and is pushing for NATO forward defense in Romania to include a multinational combined arms formation focused on the Danube Delta...
..The EU has long used lawfare, economic sabotage, and threats to bend national elections in its direction. And even if the outcome didn’t go the way Brussels wanted, it usually had enough “tools” as von der Leyen calls them to force the new government to fall in line... The actions in Romania, however, mark something altogether different. In just a few short years we’ve gone from tools to pressure elected representatives to tools to simply cancel election results because of TikTok videos, and the use of the courts to enforce Brussels’ idea of “democracy” is noteworthy... Ultimately Brussels wants courts that are in line with its idea of democracy and a “Juristocratic” Europe rather than an expression of the “national will.”... ..Lawfare, economic sabotage, color revolutions, and threats. Across the EU — even in the bloc’s biggest countries like France, Italy, and Germany — efforts to subvert the voters’ will have been steadily increasing as economic problems mount and voter anger rises with governments that continue to dig deeper by clinging to the centrist dogma of neoliberalism and transatlanticism. https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/12/democracy-dies-in-the-eu-romania-edition.html
The money has been found: it has become known in what year the launch of Nord Stream 2 is planned While the proceedings on the bankruptcy of the Nord Stream 2 operator or the preservation of the project with the payment of debts are ongoing, the company itself plans that the gas pipeline can be restored and supplies can begin in the near future. During the court hearing, deadlines were even announced to convince the court and investors to wait with the repayment demands. This is reported by the Swiss online publication ZentralPlus.
Nord Stream 2 AG still believes in future operation, as evidenced by the negotiations. According to Transliq AG, the gas company is planning a scenario in which the pipeline will start operating in 2030 and will last for 50 years. https://en.topcor.ru/54888-dengi-nashlis-stalo-izvestno-v-kakom-godu-planiruetsja-zapustit-severnyj-potok-2.html
German right-wing chancellor candidate tops poll – Bild, AfD leader Alice Weidel has the support of 24% of those surveyed, the newspaper has reported
The results of the poll, published by the tabloid newspaper on Sunday, showed that Weidel has the support of 24% of respondents, putting her ahead of the leader of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Friedrich Merz, who received 20%.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who represents the Social Democratic Party (SPD), was reportedly backed by 15% of respondents. His coalition partner and Green Party leader, Robert Habeck, was favored by 14%.
The AfD named Weidel, 45, as its first chancellor candidate on December 7. https://swentr.site/news/609801-germany-right-wing-lead-poll/
Russian dry cargo ship Ursa Mayor may have been the victim of sabotage On December 23, in the western Mediterranean Sea, between Aguilas (Spain) and Oran (Algeria), sank cargo ship Ursa Major (translated from Latin as "Big Dipper"). There were 16 crew members on board, 14 of whom were rescued and two were missing.
It should be noted that this was the flagship of the fleet of Oboronlogistics LLC under the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and the largest vessel in its composition - a universal dry cargo ship of the Ro-Ro/Lo-Lo class (horizontal and vertical loading), designed for the transportation of cargo of various classes: general (including oversized), containers and rolling equipment (cars, Euro trucks, etc.). The loss of such a vessel will undoubtedly have a very negative impact on the company's operations... ..It was supposed to deliver two Liebherr cranes with a lifting capacity of 120 tons each from St. Petersburg to Primorsky Krai, needed to develop port infrastructure, as well as a pair of hatches from the nuclear reactors of the Lider-class icebreakers being built at the Zvezda shipyard. The vessel sank as a result of an explosion in the engine room area. Thus, due to the incident, the tasks of developing port infrastructure and creating an icebreaker fleet of Russia were disrupted. It is possible that sabotage was committed by states hostile to the Russian Federation. https://en.topcor.ru/54949-rossijskij-suhogruz-ursa-major-mog-stat-zhertvoj-diversii.html
Owners Of Russian Ship Ursa Major Declare Sinking An "Act Of Terrorism" On Monday, Ukraine's main intelligence directorate reported the cargo vessel was "sent by Russia to retrieve its weapons and equipment from Syria, broke down off the coast of Portugal due to a malfunction in the fuel pipe of its main engine." The ship tracking website Marine Traffic shows Ursa Major's last location was drifting on the high seas near Portugal before sinking on Tuesday. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/owners-russian-ship-ursa-major-declare-sinking-act-terrorism
"Drill, baby, drill" The American Shale Patch Is All About Depletion Now U.S. shale production peaked in late 2023 and is now declining.
Geological depletion rather than market dynamics poses the biggest challenge. Trump has repeatedly vowed that he’ll push shale producers to ramp up output, even if it means operators “drill themselves out of business.” But it’s not clear how he intends to accomplish this feat since U.S. oil is produced by independent companies and not a national oil company (NOC).
Last month, Exxon Mobil’s (NYSE:XOM) Upstream President Liam Mallon dismissed the notion that U.S. producers will dramatically increase output under a second Trump term. However, Trump’s drilling ambitions might be thwarted by an even bigger challenge: U.S. oilfields could be nearing their final act. https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/The-American-Shale-Patch-Is-All-About-Depletion-Now.html
Are they doing something which is not readily apparent? Elon Musk: "The Fed Is Absurdly Overstaffed" About 23,000 people work at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington and 12 regional reserve banks across the US. "But there's more to it than that. The financial statements reveal that the Board of Governors expenses and currency costs were $2 billion. If this constitutes salaries, then total salaries and pension costs at the Fed become closer to $7 billion. Dividing this figure by 23,000 people equals around $304,000 per employee," Mises said. https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/elon-musk-fed-absurdly-overstaffed
Musk makes startling AI prediction, Machines will become more intelligent than people by 2030 with a 100% probability, according to the tech mogul https://swentr.site/news/609821-musk-ai-prediction/
Luigi Mangione Pleads Not Guilty To State Murder, Terrorism Charges In UnitedHealthcare CEO's Assassination https://www.zerohedge.com/political/luigi-mangione-pleads-not-guilty-state-murder-terrorism-charges-unitedhealthcare-ceos
41% Of College-Aged Voters Consider UnitedHealthcare CEO Killing "Acceptable"; New Poll Finds https://www.zerohedge.com/political/41-college-aged-voters-consider-unitedhealthcare-ceo-killing-acceptable-new-poll-finds
RFK Jr Asks Why Bill Gates & the CIA Were Hosting Event 201 Together in 2019 “You have in New York City Bill Gates hosting a coronavirus pandemic simulation. His co-host is Avril Haines, the Deputy Director of the CIA. What is the CIA doing at a public health forum? They don’t do public health. They do coup d'états.” https://x.com/TheChiefNerd/status/1870763310821285976
Russian MoD Reveals U.S. African Biolab Complex, Sponsored by the Gates and Clinton Foundations
“American specialists capable of enhancing the pathogenic functions of microorganisms are actively operating in Africa.”
Steve Kirsch calculates Case Fatality Rate for Pfizer-vaccine trial: The CFR from the Pfizer trial show the vaccines make you 14x more likely to die from COVID
A Midwestern Doctor, Why Does the COVID Vaccine Persist In The Body? The consequences of the questionable decisions made to manufacture the mRNA vaccines
Recently, new data emerged showing that the COVID vaccines persist for up to 700 days within patients (and likely longer)...
..Finally. even if a vaccine “works” it still has to be manufactured, and there are numerous cases of the tradeoffs being made resulting in a disaster. For example:
•To make the inactivated polio vaccine, the live polio virus had to be exposed to formaldehyde. However, the challenge with this was that if too much formaldehyde was used, it would damage the antigens on polio to the point they no longer matched those on the poliovirus, whereas if too little was used, some of the polioviruses would remain active and could then give the vaccine recipient polio. The creator of the vaccine (Salk) opted to prioritize efficacy over safety, which the government in turn supported, even when one of their own scientists (Bernice Eddy) warned them against releasing the vaccine (as it caused polio in her lab). That 1955 vaccine then infected at least 220,000 people with live polio virus in Cutter's vaccine, of whom 70,000 developed muscle weakness, 164 were severely paralyzed, and 10 died.
Note: an identical issue had happened on a smaller scale (9000 infections, 12 severe cases, 6 deaths) in 1935 with an earlier version of the inactivated polio vaccine. Likewise, (as I showed here) there have been dozens of incidents where an insufficiently inactivated or attenuated diphtheria, rabies or yellow fever vaccines severely injured hundreds of people (as the attenuated vaccines faced a similar issue with it being easy to over or under attenuate).
•Growing viruses for vaccines requires having a cell culture to grow them in. Monkey kidney cells were chosen because they worked well for doing this, but unfortunately were contaminated with the cancer causing SV40 virus. In 1962, Eddy again warned the government about the vaccine, but they still chose to give it to the public (and retaliated against her for speaking out), which in turn led to a wave of cancer sweeping through America, which until the COVID-19 vaccines was unprecedented:
Note: many other viral vaccines (particularly the live ones) also have had harmful viral contaminants identified within them, but unlike SV40, that contamination has not been acknowledged. Most noteably, a strong case can be made that HIV emerged from virally contaminated vaccines (that had been grown in monkey tissues)...
... •There was a finite amount of time the lockdowns could be sustained (which made people want to vaccinate so they could be “free”) and it was very likely the population would rapidly develop herd immunity to COVID-19—so they was a limited window to get a vaccine to market.
•It was extraordinarily difficult to make a safe and effective vaccine for SARS (e.g., decades of work had not yielded a viable product).
Fortunately for the industry, the WHO (and Bill Gates), in 2010, had enacted their “Decade of Vaccine” plan, and with the World Economic Forum (between 2014-2016) had developed a framework for pushing through emergency vaccines that could bypass the regulatory process in the event of a health “emergency.” This framework gave lavish lavish fiscal incentives for vaccine manufacturers and positioned unaccountable organizations like the WHO, Gates foundation, or the World Economic Forum as the directors of a future pandemic response.
Shortly after that framework was finished, the FDA on January 13, 2017 released extremely detailed regulations for obtaining emergency use authorizations, and five days later, Gates publicly announced his plan to the world. This framework was endorsed by pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer Moderna and J&J, and when Operation Warp Speed was finally conducted in 2020, it mirrored the framework Gates had previously developed.
Note: Event 201, a Gates funded “simulation” exercise modeling the release of a dangerous SARS virus from China was conducted on October 18, 2019. Reading through it in December of 2019 allowed me to accurately predict how COVID-19 would play out. Likewise, on 9/4/2019, Gates invested 55 million in the company that produced Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine—which in two years was worth 550 million.
So as you might expect, the industry chose to adopt the fastest possible production pathway, and was quickly granted the legal immunity (and lavish funding) necessary to accomplish that.
Pfizer SV40 DNA has now been found in the blood of Australians. This is a slap with a wet fish for the TGA…. right after their emails demonstrate they know this DNA is a nuclear targeting sequence. They are up the spout as they have assured the public this can not happen and they just rolled out the green and gold for Moderna to build a few vaccine manufacturing plants down under.
CATASTROPHIC BOMBSHELL UPDATE: 75 Australians Confirmed with SV40 Promoter DNA in their Bloodstream from "Vaccine" DNA "Contamination"
Evidence of Synthetic DNA Contamination in Blood While DNA vector containing SV40 cancer promoter was wittingly used to manufacture the mRNA used in these “vaccines,” the far safer process to express mRNA for vaccine production would have used bacterial DNA vectors, such as T7 vector inserted into the E.coli bacteria.
For historical context, the T7 vector - a DNA vector with sequences designed to integrate into bacteria only has been used since 1986 — should have always been used from day one to manufacture the mRNA in these “vaccines” so that they would have been significantly safer. Not that these “vaccines” could ever be “safe and effective,”
Ralph Baric referenced a 2017 molecular blueprint for COVID-19 Andreas Martin Lisewski is a computational biologist at Constructor University in Bremen, Germany. Among other topics, he also studies “computational methods to tell synthetic from natural genomes.” Andreas recently published a bombshell paper that found a 2017 “precise molecular blueprint for SARS-CoV-2.”
Pre-pandemic artificial MERS analog of polyfunctional SARS-CoV-2 S1/S2 furin cleavage site domain is unique among spike proteins of genus Betacoronavirus
Avoiding Foreseeable Risks (pictured with some family members on Christmas)
These accounts of Israeli barbarism are too painful to even read. The UN has clearly abandoned its charter, its members should abandon it as some rotten thing. That the American press ignores this situation degrades it. Even the Western public is numb. How is it we accept, even allow, Israel to continue? Are we monsters by complicitness?
Apparently even Christmas cannot prevail against this horror.
I might have thought Trump would have at least studied the shale gas situation, or fracking or the expense of ultra deep water drilling in the gulf before he used his big mouth to threaten the whole world about tariffs, etc, etc,,America might be in trouble now if it wasn’t importing Russian gas via third parties to sell to those criminals in the EU. As usual it’s us citizens in Europe and maybe even America now who’re bearing the brunt of our leaders enormous egos.