>>20392672 Joe Biden Angry Attorney General Merrick Garland Did Not Prosecute Trump Sooner – Wanted Trump Jailed Before 2024 Election (PN)

REPORT: Joe Biden (The Angry Son of a Bitch), Accuses Attorney General Merrick Garland Did Not Prosecute Trump Sooner – Wanted Trump On Trial and Potentially Jailed BEFORE 2024 Election(edited title)

by Cullen Linebarger Feb. 10, 2024 l

Joe Biden may be preparing to toss Attorney General Merrick Garland under the bus following the release of the DOJ Special Counsel Robert Hur’s damning report on his poor memory and building anger over the pace of the Trump election interference probe.

The Gateway Pundit’s Cristina Laila previously reported Biden went on a vulgar tirade following the release of Hur’s report. Biden and his cronies also partially blame Garland for not exercising his authority to demand edits to Hur’s report.

Now, a report from Politico reveals that Biden is angry Garland did not prosecute Trump sooner for “election interference.” Translation: Biden wanted the case decided before the 2024 election (which is still possible) purely to lock Trump before the 2024 election. It is an incredible yet unsurprising attempted scheme to abuse the power of the presidency.

Politico reported:

While Biden himself has not weighed in on Garland’s future,most of the president’s senior advisers do not believe that the attorney general would remainin his post for a possible second term, according to the two people

“This has been building for a while,” said one of those people. “No one is happy”

Frustration within the White House at Garland has been growing steadily.

In recent weeks, President Biden has grumbled to aides and advisers that had Garland moved sooner in his investigation into former President Donald Trump’s election interference, a trial may already be underway or even have concluded, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss private matters.

The Gateway Pundit has extensively reportedon Garland’s abuse of power. As Laila notes,Garland appointed Jack Smith as special counsel as a hired gun to jail Trump shortly after the former president announced his 2024White House run in November 2022.

He also admitted to election interference when he told CNN back in January thatthere should be a “speedy trial” as Trump seeks to delay the two trials set to begin on March 4 and May 24.

The March trial concerns January 6, where Trump is being falsely accused of four crimes: Conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding, and conspiracy against rights. The May trial concerns Smith’s attempt to lock Trump up for political purposes over holding “classified documents” at the Mar-A-Lago.

Garland has also targeted pro-life Americans, peaceful January 6 protesters, and school parents simply for exercising their constitutional rights. Yet he still has not gone far enough in the eyes of the White House.

Garland has been arguably the worst attorney general in American history.Just imagine how much scarier his replacement will be should Biden seize another term.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/02/report-joe-biden-angry-attorney-general-merrick-garland/

LEAK: Biden’s Private Profanity-Laced Rant Over Special Counsel Report’s Comments on His Poor Memory

by Cristina Laila Feb. 9, 2024

Joe Biden threw a tantrum during a private meeting with Democrats after Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report criticized him for his poor memory.

Joe Biden STOLE SCIF-designated classified documents and improperly stored them at the Penn Biden Center, his Delaware garage, his Virginia home, and his lawyer’s Boston office.

(Pictures:There house looks like shit with walmart dressers, with all the millions he’s stolen can’y they afford someone to clean up they junky house?)

Hur found that Joe Biden “willfully retained” classified information, however, he decided not to charge him. Hur said there is evidence Biden retained classified notebooks, “knowing he was not allowed to do so.”

The Justice Department defended not bringing charges against Biden because he’s a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

“We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory. Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt. It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him – by then a former president well into his eighties – of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.” according to Hur’s report which was reviewed by The Gateway Pundit.

Biden forgot when he was Vice President and also couldn’t remember when his son Beau died.

Joe Biden was furious over the special counsel’s report highlighting his poor memory.

According to the Washington Post:

Privately, Biden was also furious about the report’s comments on his memory.During a private meeting with House Democrats at their policy retreat in Virginia earlier Thursday, Biden grew especially animated when asked how he was doing.

“How the f— could I forget the day my son died? Of course I remember everything,”he said, according to two people with knowledge of his remarks who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a closed-door conversation.

The press turned on Joe Biden after Hur’s report was released. One reporter suggested Joe Biden should step aside and let another Democrat run for president against Trump.

Joe Biden was not happy about this.

Biden snapped after the reporter asked him about his age and mental acuity. Joe Biden’s gaffes during his Thursday night presser triggered 25th Amendment chatter. (Seems like the press is relieved for covering for him.)

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/02/leak-bidens-private-profanity-laced-rant-special-counsel/

Some Russian Banks May Have Swapped Gold for Dollars, Report Says. KEK

Wed, Feb 7, 2024 at 7:58 AM EST

(Bloomberg) – Some Russian banks appear to have maneuvered around a ban on shipping dollars and euros to the country by trading gold in the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, according to research from a financial-intelligence company.

The sanctions on the export of banknotes were introduced after the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine. The report compiled by Sayari found that in the first quarter of 2023, the financial institutions — which include Lanta Bank JSC, whose owners control gold miner GV Gold, and at least one lender that is not sanctioned — imported more than the equivalent of $82 million in euros, dollars and UAE dirhams. The data shows that several of the same entities used to ship cash to Russia also imported gold from Russia within similar timeframes.

Bloomberg was unable to independently corroborate all the trade and company data, and it’s not clear if the banks are still using the gold-for-cash strategy. Sayari’s data indicated that various Russian lenders kept shipping gold for banknotes through at least July or August of last year, said Zachary Tvarozna, a senior analyst at the firm. He said that gold deliveries seem to have expanded to Hong Kong, in addition to the UAE and Turkey.

The Washington-based commercial risk intelligence provider gathered the data on Russian trade from so-called bills of lading, which typically include the names of the importer and exporter as well as other details regarding the shipments. The apparent circular trades flowed through a network of intermediaries, according to the report, which noted that the data didn’t indicate who the ultimate recipients of the currencies were or if they had ties to sanctioned Russian entities.

The UAE “is fully aware of its responsibilities in protecting of the integrity of the global finance system,” a UAE official said Wednesday in an emailed statement. “It will continue to take these responsibilities extremely seriously, especially given the current geopolitical environment. The UAE strictly abides by UN sanctions and has clear and robust processes in place to deal with sanctioned entities.”

Lanta Bank’s press service didn’t respond to emailed questions. Turkey’s government declined to comment.

Russia has faced a shortage of dollars and euros as it’s increasingly shut out of the western financial system. It’s possible that some of the country’s banks sought access to the currencies to facilitate imports and other transactions.

The tactic became widespread after the European Union and the US imposed restrictions to limit Russia’s access to western currencies as part of the sanctions introduced in response to its war against Ukraine, according to Sayari’s research. The firm’s clients include several US regulators.

Russia is the world’s second-biggest gold producer, mining more than 330 tons of the precious metal annually. It used to be one of the biggest exporters, but shipments to trading hubs like London and New York all but dried up in the wake of sanctions on miners and lenders.

Since then, Russia has increased domestic sales and transitioned to alternative export routes. Early in the war, Turkey and the UAE became major hubs, but US sanctions on Russia’s top gold miners in 2023 forced a significant share of the trading to move to Hong Kong.

The UAE, Turkey and China now rank among Russia’s most important trading partners. Since the end of 2023, lenders in all three countries have increased scrutiny of transactions linked to Russia to avoid falling foul of US sanctions.

Those three jurisdictions have also been used by Moscow to get around trade restrictions imposed by the EU and US on key technologies, like advanced chips, used by Russia to produce weapons.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/russian-banks-may-swapped-gold-071338913.html

Over 60 Studies Show No Mental Health Benefits from Transgender Treatments

CATHERINE SALGADO | 2:35 PM ON FEBRUARY 09, 2024

A new review by the American College of Pediatricians(ACPeds) of more than 60 studies found no evidence of long-term mental health benefits from transgender “treatments.” The medical group is thus urging a shift away from transgender ideology in medicine to helpful therapy and treatments.

The February review of dozens of studies confirmed the lack of benefits for “gender-affirming” treatments butalso highlighted how other problems are being overlooked. For instance, a higher percentage of LGB and transgender-identifyingyouth and adults had adverse childhood experiences (ACEs),which can help explain why these individuals are at a higher risk of depression and even suicide. Ultimately, individuals with gender dysphoria — most especially children — need help overcoming trauma and loving their bodies, not ways to damage their bodies in pursuit of biological impossibilities.

In a statement about its review, ACPeds Vice President Dr. Jane Anderson (the review’s main author) urged both medical professionals and parents dealing with gender dysphoric youth “to affirm the truth about childhood gender dysphoria in the presence of harmful thoughts and address the underlying mental illness, adverse events, and family dysfunction.”

The organization’s president, Dr. Michael Artigues,meanwhile, emphasized the dangers of getting youth hooked on unhelpful medical treatments. “The studies reviewed in this paper demonstrate what many who practice medicine intuitively understand that young patients experiencing gender dysphoria deserve help in accepting and loving themselves as they are, not interventions that destroy their healthy bodies and put them on track of medicalization for life,” he said.

From the review:

Adolescents who have a gender identity not congruent with their biological sex have an increased incidence of mental health issues, including depression and suicidal ideation. Both before and after “gender affirming therapy” (GAT), adolescents who have gender-identity incongruence are at higher risk for psychopathology than their peers who identify with their biological sex. Previous adverse childhood experiences may play a major role in that psychopathology and needs to be explored in helping these patients. There are no long-term studies demonstrating benefits nor studies evaluating risks associated with the medical and surgical interventions provided to these adolescents. There is no long-term evidence that mental health concerns are decreased or alleviated after “gender affirming therapy.” Many individuals who have been treated with “GAT” later regret those interventions and seek to align their gender identity with their sex. Because of the risks of social, medical, and surgical interventions, many European countries are now cautioning against these interventions while encouraging mental health therapy.

But not America. We’re too woke.

Even the New York Times previously did an exposé on the potential severe long-term side effects of puberty blockers. “Gender-affirming” surgeries permanently mangle youth’s bodies. Woke ideology is literally destroying America’s young people.

(In other fucking words they’ve needed therapy all their lives, while 50%+ of the population need therapy for childhood experiences. I hope they are not creating a new treatment guideline when most of them were convinced it was cool to be trans.)

https://pjmedia.com/catherinesalgado/2024/02/09/over-60-studies-show-no-mental-health-benefits-from-transgender-treatments-n4926296

>>20393335

ACPeds are afraid of getting sued for medical malpractice, so lets mess them up in another way without cutting off parts of their bodies or drugs that will kill them!

BREAKING: Attorney Sues FBI for Records about CIA Asset Who Funded OKC Bombing

'The ARA was actually a front group created by the FBI in which the Bureau had embedded at least one informant…'

Posted by Ken Silva Feb 9, 20241/3

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(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Utah attorney Jesse Trentadue sued the FBI on Friday for records about a CIA asset who helped fund the Oklahoma City bombing, as well as for records about a neo-Nazi bank-robbery gang also involved in the attack—the deadliest domestic terrorism event in U.S. history.

Trentadue has been suing the U.S. government for OKC bomb-related records for nearly 30 years, ever since his brother was murdered in a federal penitentiary. The complex story of how the death of Trentadue’s brother relates to the OKC bombing can be read in this Mother Jonesarticle.

Trentadue’s latest lawsuit comes nearly a decade after he filed Freedom of Information Act requests for records on the CIA asset, Roger Moore (not the James Bond actor), and the bank-robbery gang, the Aryan Republican Army.

“It has now been 8-1/2 years since Plaintiff submitted his FOIA Request to the FBI and he has not received a single document,” he said in his lawsuit.

According to Trentadue, the FBI could be hiding one of the biggest scandals in its history. Indeed, the FBI’s interest in withholding records about Moore, who is now dead, could be because he was an FBI informant and CIA asset.

Roger Moore and the CIA

According to Trentadue’s lawsuit, Moore was an FBI informant as part of the bureau’s 1980s- and early 90s-era Operation Punchout, which was designed to identify and apprehend surplus dealers that bought and sold government property stolen from Department of Defense facilities in Utah.

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It was in the early 90s when Moore met OKC bomber Timothy McVeigh. The two would become business partners of sorts, embarking on the national gun show circuit in 1993.

In late 1994, McVeigh enlisted his accomplice, Terry Nichols—who helped build McVeigh’s truck bomb but was not in Oklahoma City when the April 19, 1995, attack occurred—to rob Moore.

Motivated by threats to his family, Nichols followed McVeigh’s orders and robbed Moore of some $60,000 in guns, gold bars and other precious metals. Investigators would later determine that the proceeds of this robbery helped fund McVeigh’s terroristic activities.

Moore would serve as a government witness against Nichols, who was convicted and is now serving the rest of his life behind bars at the Florence supermax prison in Colorado. But what wasn’t publicly known at the time was that Moore was a CIA asset.

Indeed, Moore was involved with a paramilitary group called the Civilian Military Assistance, which the CIA used as a proxy to skirt congressional restrictions on supporting the Contras in Nicaragua in the 1980s. Furthermore, Moore build patrol boats for use by the US Navy in the Vietnam War, as well as speedboats for the CIA, according to Aberration in the Heartland of the Real—historian Wendy Painting’s PhD thesis-turned-book about McVeigh.

Moore’s shadowy intelligence connections have had researchers asking for years whether he was actually involved in the bombing, as opposed to being a hapless victim of McVeigh and Nichols’s robbery.

“Moore was also exchanging cryptic messages with McVeigh months later [after the robbery], suggesting that the two men still trusted and confided in each other,” wrote investigator Roger Charles in Oklahoma City: What the Investigation Missed, and Why it Matters.

“Was the Moore robbery intended as a fundraiser for the bombing? Or was the robbery a scam orchestrated by Moore as well as McVeigh, either to defraud the insurance company or to create some plausible distance between them as they plotted an antigovernment revolution?”…

(https://headlineusa.com/breaking-attorney-sues-fbi-for-records-about-cia-asset-who-funded-okc-bombing/

>>20393401

2/3

Furthering this suspicion is a 2007 sworn declaration from Nichols himself, which Trentadue attached as an exhibit in his Friday lawsuit.

For years, Nichols has directly accused Moore of being a coconspirator in the bombing, which killed 168 people, including 19 children.

At one point, Nichols told the FBI in the mid-2000s that they could find a box of explosives that had been hidden under his home since before he was arrested in 1995. Nichols told FBI investigators that they would find Moore’s fingerprints on those explosives.

“Those explosives components are an important piece of evidence clearly linking Moore to McVeigh and the bombing,” Nichols said in his declaration.

The FBI indeed found the explosives at Nichols’s house, but they didn’t find Moore’s fingerprints. According to investigator Charles, the FBI found fingerprint traces on the box Nichols was talking about, but they did not test them for almost three years—at which point the prints were unreadable.

“I never imagined that once these explosives were seized by the FBI, Moore’s involvement would remain hidden to this day,” Nichols wrote in his sworn declaration. A more complete history of Moore and his connections to the OKC bombing can be read here.

As for the Aryan Republican Army—the other subject of Trentadue’s newly filed lawsuit—Headline USA has reported extensively on its involvement with OKC.

Aryan Republican Army

Led by Richard Lee Guthrie and a colorful character named Peter Langan—who now goes by the first name Donna, and who recently became the first federal inmate in history to receive a sex change—the ARA was the most prolific gang of bank robbers in the 90s. The neo-Nazis used the proceeds of their robberies to fund groups like the Aryan Nations.

When Guthrie and Langan were arrested for their bank robberies in 1996, observers couldn’t help but wonder if the ARA was somehow linked to the OKC bombing.

Picture: Members of the ARA bank-robber gang were arrested in early 1996. PHOTO: FBI

After all, the FBI was still hunting for “John Doe 2,” a mysterious accomplice seen by dozens of witnesses with McVeigh on the morning of the attack. Moreover, the Aryan robbers’ mission was to use the proceeds of their heists to fund right-wing terrorist attacks—and someone must have been funding McVeigh, who had been a member of the KKK, as he roamed across America throughout the early ‘90s.

Intrigue about the ARA heightened even further when it was revealed that McVeigh had placed a phone call days before the April 19 attack to Elohim City—a white supremacist compound in the Ozarks that ARA members had used as a hideout.

The link was so obvious that national outlets such as The Washington Post questioned it when covering Langan’s trial.

“One of the enduring mysteries of the Oklahoma City bombing investigation is why, two weeks before the blast, Tim McVeigh placed a 1-minute 46-second phone call to Elohim City. Whom was he calling?” the Post asked in February 1997.

However, the Post failed to pursue that lead, concluding in the same article that “there is no proof that McVeigh knew the Aryan robbers.”

But in the years after the OKC bombing and the 1997 ARA bank-robbery trial, evidence would continue to mount that the two were connected.

In 2001, then-Indiana State University criminologist Mark Hamm published a book making the case that the ARA helped carry out the bombing. Hamm’s In Bad Company: America’s Terrorist Underground detailed the movements of McVeigh and the ARA throughout 1993 and ’94, showing that the bomber was often in Arizona, Kansas and Oklahoma at the same time as Langan, Guthrie and the other ARA members.

>>20393412

3/3

“It is highly improbable—if not statistically impossible—for nine men with such violent predispositions and such deep connections within the white power movement … to randomly come together at the same time in the same geographical area,” Hamm concluded, referring to McVeigh, Nichols, Guthrie, Langan and five other Aryan members.

Hamm also identified a plausible reason for why the FBI hasn’t prosecuted ARA members for their role in the OKC bombing: Langan, it turns out, was a Secret Service informant who went rogue. As Hamm noted, revealing that its own informant participated in the attack would have cost many people in the federal government their jobs—at the very least.

Even more shocking, Trentadue later uncovered evidence that the ARA may even have been an FBI front group. Trentadue obtained an email from former FBI agent Don Jarrett—who investigated right-wing terrorism in the 1990s—saying that the Aryan robbers were thoroughly infiltrated by FBI informants.

In his Friday lawsuit, Trentadue expressed his belief that the ARA was indeed an FBI front group.

“Timothy McVeigh participated in some of those robberies and is reported to have used money obtained from these crimes to help fund the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. Members of the ARA also assisted McVeigh in carrying out the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building,” he said.

“The ARA was actually a front group created by the FBI in which the Bureau had embedded at least one informant.”

Former FBI agents who investigated the OKC bombing have also linked the ARA to McVeigh. Danny Coulson, who headed the FBI’s hostage rescue team and worked on the OKC case, recently said that McVeigh had, in fact, visited the ARA’s hideout at Elohim City—debunking the Post’s earlier claim that there was “no proof” linking the two. Coulson has publicly called for the case to be reopened.

Other Trentadue Litigation

Meanwhile, Trentadue still has another lawsuitagainst the FBI for records about the OKC bombing.

That lawsuit, which has been ongoing for decades, seeks surveillance footage of the blast. The FBI has denied that such footage exists, but Trentadue has evidence to the contrary—including a Secret Service investigative memo that describes the surveillance footage.

Trentadue’s lawsuit went to trial in 2014.

There, he was to have FBI informant-turned-whistleblower John Matthews testify on his behalf about how the bureau was monitoring McVeigh in the lead-up to the attack. However, Matthews changed his mind about testifying the night before he was supposed to take the stand, leading to Trentadue alleging that the FBI engaged in witness tampering and threatened Matthews.

Trentadue’s allegations have been subject of a court-appointed investigation for the last nearly eight years. The investigation has been conducted behind closed doors, with gag orders on all parties.

https://headlineusa.com/breaking-attorney-sues-fbi-for-records-about-cia-asset-who-funded-okc-bombing/

11 Feb, 2024 01:47

‘Terror tunnel’ found under UN agency HQ – Israel

The IDF has said that the underground compound was vital to Hamas’ activities in Gaza

The Israeli military says that it has discovered a Hamas tunnel and asecret data center underneath the evacuated headquarters of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza City.

According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the shaft leading to theunderground “terror tunnel” was located near a UN-sponsored school. The tunnel was half a mile long and 60 feet deep, passing “under the building that serves as UNRWA’s main headquarters in the Gaza Strip,” the IDF said in a statement on Saturday.

The underground compound served as “a significant asset of Hamas’ military intelligence,” the IDF said, adding that “UNRWA’s facilities supplied the tunnel with electricity.”

The Israeli army further said that “large quantities” of weapons, including rifles and grenades, were found at the UNRWA’s main office.

UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini responded to the claims by saying that the agency “did not know what is under its headquarters in Gaza.” He added that the UN staff wasevacuated on October 12, and that he is “unable to confirm or otherwise comment” on the allegations made by Israel.(thats not an excuse!)

“UNRWA is a Human development and humanitarian organization that does not have the military and security expertise nor the capacity to undertake military inspections of what is or might be under its premises,”Lazzarini wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz rejected Lazzarini’s explanationsas “an affront to common sense” and urged for his “prompt resignation.”

The UN agency tasked with assisting Palestinians in Gaza has been under scrutiny in recent weeks after Israel accused several of its employees of helping Hamas carry out its deadly October 7 attack on Israeli cities. The UN has fired nine staffers in question and launched an investigation into the matter. The allegations prompted multiple countries, including the US and UK, to suspend the funding of UNRWA.

The UN has been increasingly calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and warning that the continuing Israeli offensive creates a humanitarian “catastrophe” in the Palestinian enclave. The Jewish state has maintained that it is doing all it can to minimize the civilian death toll and has accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields.

(Did the UN set this all up, I think so)

https://www.rt.com/news/592254-hamas-tunnel-found-under-un/

10 Feb, 2024 23:44

New Jeffrey Epstein autopsy photo proves he didn’t kill himself – brother

Mark Epstein has argued that thepreviously unreported image contradicts the official storyabout the convicted pedophile’s demise

The brother of Jeffrey Epstein has revealed a previously unreported autopsy photo, arguing that it proves the convicted child-sex traffickercouldn’t have committed suicide in his jail cell.

Mark Epstein discussed the photo and other evidence in an interview on Friday with US podcast host Megan Kelly. The graphic pictureshows alarge red scar across the middle of the deceased pedophile’s neck, which his brother said wasinconsistent with reports by authoritiesthat he hung himself in his New York City jail cell.

If Jeffrey Epstein had been found hanging from the upper bunk, as reported, ligature marks should have gone up under his chin and behind his ears, his brother said. “From that picture, the ligature mark on his neck is more in the middle of his neck and sort of goes straight back,” he said. “In a hanging, it goes really high up in the front of the neck because you sink down into that noose.”

Jeffrey Epstein was found dead inside his cell at New York’s Metropolitan Correctional Center in 2019, while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. His death was ruled a suicide by the city’s chief medical examiner. A doctor hired by Epstein’s family who waspresent for the autopsy claimed that some of the evidence, including multiple neck fractures, suggested that he was murdered.

Doubts cast on the official findings stoked speculation that Epstein was killed to prevent possible exposure of the rich and politically powerful people on his client list. Previously sealed court documents from a case involving one of the pedophile’s alleged victims were released last month but didn’t contain any of the bombshell information that some observers expected.

Mark Epstein has speculated that another inmate in the section of the jail where his brother was held killed him. The camera in that section wasn’t working on the night of Epstein’s death, according to government authorities, who have refused to release footage from a camera outside the wing or to disclose the identities of the other inmates.

“All I got from them, for every question I asked, was, ‘After a thorough investigation, we determined it was a suicide,’” Mark Epstein said. “That was the answer I got to every question.” He claimed that normal investigative practices weren’t followed, such as leaving the body in place until the medical examiner arrived.

Mark Epstein also raised questions about an autopsy photo of his brother’s legs, which didn’t have lividity marks, contrary to official claims about his body position. “If he was hanging the way they said, there would be evidence of lividity in his legs and buttocks,”he said.

https://www.rt.com/news/592251-epstein-new-photo-released/

(I love that RT keeps on saying pedophile)

10 Feb, 2024 21:10

EU leaders threatened to ‘politically rape’ us – Hungary

Brussels went further in its “blackmail” campaign against Budapest than previously reported, a senior government aide has said

Several EU heads of state directly told Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban that they would crash the Hungarian economy if he blocked a €50 billion ($54 billion) economic aid package for Ukraine, his adviser, Balazs Orban, has revealed.

EU leaders signed off on the mammoth four-year aid package earlier this month, after the Hungarian leader lifted his veto in exchange for some minor concessions from the bloc’s 26 other member states. These concessions included an annual debate on its implementation and a promise to review its impact on the EU budget after two years.

Before the package was approved, the Financial Times reported that theEuropean Councilhad drawn up a plan tocut funding to Budapest and tank the Hungarian economy if Budapest maintained its veto.

Balazs Orban, who is not related to the prime minister, told Austria’s Exxpress newspaper on Saturday that multiple EU leaders phoned up Viktor Orban and “blatantly told him exactly this threat.”

“Leading politicians called my prime minister and explained this to him openly,” Orban told the newspaper. “We rejected this approach. It contradicts the basic idea of ​​the EU. This is de-facto political rape.”

Speaking to France’s Le Point news magazine after the Financial Times article was published, Viktor Orban accused the European Council of attempting to “blackmail” him. He insisted that the council’s plan was real, but did not say whether he had been threatened by any EU heads of state.

According to the Financial Times, the EU planned on pulling funding from Hungary, thereby hampering its ability to subsidize foreign direct investment and eventually crashing the value of the Hungarian forint. The European Council refused to confirm or deny the existence of the plan, telling the newspaper that it does not comment on leaks.

“We…made it clear that we are not afraid,”Orban told Exxpress. “We think the Hungarian economy is strong enough.”The concessions won by Hungary are significant, he said, as Budapest will now “get information about what’s happening with the money and we’ll be able to talk about it every year.”

Viktor Orban and his officials have repeatedly argued that Ukraine cannot hope to defeat Russia on the battlefield, and that the EU’s anti-Russian sanctions hurt the bloc more than they hurt Moscow. In a speech earlier this week, Balazs Orban accused European leaders of serving Washington’s interests rather than their own by bankrolling Kiev, declaring that“Europe has been basically brought to its knees due to the attitude of the US.”

https://www.rt.com/news/592247-eu-leaders-threatened-hungary/

10 Feb, 2024 16:27

Kremlin explains why Putin spoke to Tucker Carlson

Moscow saw the interview as an opportunity to be heard in the West, spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s interview with conservative American journalist Tucker Carlson this week provided a great opportunity tomake people in the West think, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

Speaking to TASS on Saturday, Peskov said the two-hour interview, which largely revolved around relations between Moscow and Kiev, made it possible for Putin to be heard in the West.

Asked about the interest the interview has sparked, garnering over 100 million views in just one day on Carlson’s X account (formerly Twitter) alone, the spokesman replied that thenumbers do not necessarily equate to universal support from viewers.

“We cannot expect that our point of view will receive support.The main thing for us is that our president is heard. And if he is heard, this means more people will think about whether he is right or not. They will think, at least,”Peskov stated.

The spokesman also referred to Putin’s remarks during the interview when he acknowledged that it is difficult to resist Western propaganda, claiming the US and Britain control the major media outlets.

“The Anglo-Saxons, one way or another, own all the largest broadcasters, all the largest newspapers, and so on. And against this background, the main thing is to give people the opportunity to become acquainted with our point of view. And in this regard, this is a very good opportunity.”

The interview, which was published on Thursday, was the first sit-down between a US media personality and the Russian president since the beginning of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev in early 2022. It covered a wide range of topics, while largely revolving around the ongoing hostilities. The Russian president also offered a lengthy review of the centuries of shared history between Russia and Ukraine, arguing that the latter has been long used by the Collective West to antagonize Moscow after the collapse of the USSR.

https://www.rt.com/russia/592236-kremlin-putin-carlson-explained/