All_Pro_Bills

I expect a good deal of Zelensky's reluctance to accept any type of "peace deal" is the difference between the public nature of this conflict and the "secret" activities and drivers under the covers. In essence, Pentagon/CIA war planners were running the show and using Ukrainian forces to execute the plan. Given the war in such a scenario belongs just as much if not more to the US and its objectives (not the support for democracy theme many continue to fall for), why should his country that bore cost of casualties and lost territory agree to Trump's demands for mineral rights and other concessions for US support. In reality, the war was the child of America. Some excerpts from the NYT story (and interesting timing on this revelation too!). Americans overseeing "kill chain" One European intelligence chief recalled being taken aback to learn how deeply enmeshed his N.A.T.O. counterparts had become in Ukrainian operations. “They are part of the kill chain now,” he said. The partnership’s guiding idea was that this close cooperation might allow the Ukrainians to accomplish the unlikeliest of feats — to deliver the invading Russians a crushing blow. Biggest battlefield feats were actually the CIA/Pentagon An early proof of concept was a campaign against one of Russia’s most-feared battle groups, the 58th Combined Arms Army. In mid-2022, using American intelligence and targeting information, the Ukrainians unleashed a rocket barrage at the headquarters of the 58th in the Kherson region, killing generals and staff officers inside. Again and again, the group set up at another location; each time, the Americans found it and the Ukrainians destroyed it. Farther south, the partners set their sights on the Crimean port of Sevastopol, where the Russian Black Sea Fleet loaded missiles destined for Ukrainian targets onto warships and submarines. At the height of Ukraine’s 2022 counteroffensive, a predawn swarm of maritime drones, with support from the Central Intelligence Agency, attacked the port, damaging several warships and prompting the Russians to begin pulling them back. Overreach The Ukrainians sometimes saw the Americans as overbearing and controlling — the prototypical patronizing Americans. The Americans sometimes couldn’t understand why the Ukrainians didn’t simply accept good advice. Where the Americans focused on measured, achievable objectives, they saw the Ukrainians as constantly grasping for the big win, the bright, shining prize. Failed 2023 counteroffensive actually hatched at American HQ Yet at arguably the pivotal moment of the war — in mid-2023, as the Ukrainians mounted a counteroffensive to build victorious momentum after the first year’s successes — the strategy devised in Wiesbaden fell victim to the fractious internal politics of Ukraine: The president, Volodymyr Zelensky, versus his military chief (and potential electoral rival), and the military chief versus his headstrong subordinate commander. When Mr. Zelensky sided with the subordinate, the Ukrainians poured vast complements of men and resources into a finally futile campaign to recapture the devastated city of Bakhmut. Within months, the entire counteroffensive ended in stillborn failure. Biden banned clandestine operations in public, while crossing red lines in secret Time and again, the Biden administration authorized clandestine operations it had previously prohibited. American military advisers were dispatched to Kyiv and later allowed to travel closer to the fighting. Military and C.I.A. officers in Wiesbaden helped plan and support a campaign of Ukrainian strikes in Russian-annexed Crimea. Finally, the military and then the C.I.A. received the green light to enable pinpoint strikes deep inside Russia itself. In some ways, Ukraine was, on a wider canvas, a rematch in a long history of U.S.-Russia proxy wars — Vietnam in the 1960s, Afghanistan in the 1980s, Syria three decades later. Task Force Dragon The defense secretary, Lloyd J. Austin III, and General Milley had put the 18th Airborne in charge of delivering weapons and advising the Ukrainians on how to use them. When President Joseph R. Biden Jr. signed on to the M777s, the Tony Bass Auditorium became a full-fledged headquarters. A Polish general became General Donahue’s deputy. A British general would manage the logistics hub on the former basketball court. A Canadian would oversee training. The auditorium basement became what is known as a fusion center, producing intelligence about Russian battlefield positions, movements and intentions. There, according to intelligence officials, officers from the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency were joined by coalition intelligence officers. The 18th Airborne is known as Dragon Corps; the new operation would be Task Force Dragon. All that was needed to bring the pieces together was the reluctant Ukrainian top command. Debate over plausible deniability Soon the Ukrainians, nearly 20 in all — intelligence officers, operational planners, communications and fire-control specialists — began arriving in Wiesbaden. Every morning, officers recalled, the Ukrainians and Americans gathered to survey Russian weapons systems and ground forces and determine the ripest, highest-value targets. The priority lists were then handed over to the intelligence fusion center, where officers analyzed streams of data to pinpoint the targets’ locations. Inside the U.S. European Command, this process gave rise to a fine but fraught linguistic debate: Given the delicacy of the mission, was it unduly provocative to call targets “targets”? Some officers thought “targets” was appropriate. Others called them “intel tippers,” because the Russians were often moving and the information would need verification on the ground. The debate was settled by Maj. Gen. Timothy D. Brown, European Command’s intelligence chief: The locations of Russian forces would be “points of interest.” Intelligence on airborne threats would be “tracks of interest.” “If you ever get asked the question, ‘Did you pass a target to the Ukrainians?’ you can legitimately not be lying when you say, ‘No, I did not,’” one U.S. official explained. CIA and assassinations of Russian top officers The White House also prohibited sharing intelligence on the locations of “strategic” Russian leaders, like the armed forces chief, Gen. Valery Gerasimov. “Imagine how that would be for us if we knew that the Russians helped some other country assassinate our chairman,” another senior U.S. official said. “Like, we’d go to war.” Similarly, Task Force Dragon couldn’t share intelligence that identified the locations of individual Russians. The way the system worked, Task Force Dragon would tell the Ukrainians where Russians were positioned. But to protect intelligence sources and methods from Russian spies, it would not say how it knew what it knew. US operations room directly oversaw HIMARS strikes Wiesbaden would oversee each HIMARS strike... HIMARS strikes that resulted in 100 or more Russian dead or wounded came almost weekly. Russian forces were left dazed and confused. Their morale plummeted, and with it their will to fight. And as the HIMARS arsenal grew from eight to 38 and the Ukrainian strikers became more proficient, an American official said, the toll rose as much as fivefold. “We became a small part, maybe not the best part, but a small part, of your system,” General Zabrodskyi explained, adding: “Most states did this over a period of 10 years, 20 years, 30 years. But we were forced to do it in a matter of weeks.”

Its like a Rugby scum and I wonder if some football guy watching a match got the idea for it there?

Truth about the "sides" is the only difference between Nazi's and far-left organizations like Antifa is the uniform. Neither are desirable.

Interesting in the Le Pen case the court stated per the misuse of EU funds. "It was found that all these people actually worked for the party, that their deputy did not commission them any tasks,” said the judge. Assistants then “passed from one deputy to another.” A violation that sounds awfully similar to what the US Democratic party has done with putting party workers and political activists on the Federal payroll. No arrests here though. Yet....

Last night 60 Minutes did a lengthy and detailed story on cuts at VOA. It would be nice to see them commit the same amount of time and effort to laying out the case for what appears to be billions in systemic fraud, waste, and abuse going on at SSA. But I suspect the bosses at CBS network have no desire to give Trump anything close to a "win".

Not treasuries. Energy stocks like CNQ, SU, XOM, some funds, recently PR. Gold miners like AEM. NEM, GDX, NGD. Royalty streamers WPM, RGLD, OR. Utilities fund. Hard asset funds. Solid dividend payers. Growth and income funds. Emerging market funds. And sure some SP500 and NASDAQ exposure. Raised cash to about 20% to take advantage of opportunities like Friday. The theme, higher and longer inflation is here to stay. We went through a 40+ year deflation phase, that's over. The reverse of that started in earnest in 2021. The street with few exceptions hasn't caught on yet. They think it's transitory. It's not. It's permanent.

Not wanting to influence the election means withholding the truth from the American public and robbing them of the ability to make up their own minds armed with facts rather than inaccurate and false opinions.

Because those leftist maniacs controlling the party wouldn't allow it.

Whining posters don't care about a recession. They're upset that their personal investment portfolios loaded up with overvalued stocks trading at huge multiples to earnings are taking a hit.

No I rely on expert market sources and my own experience and knowledge of the financial world and economics. You just want it to be about Trump so bad to the point of an obsession that your mind can't process or consider alternatives or other factors. Its hatred driven by pure emotions.

I believe today's sell off was about the PCE number coming in hotter than expected. Being what's been stated, the Feds favorite indicator of future inflation the market experienced the consequences of a new expectation of fewer rate cuts. Fact is the markets are one big speculation on the number and size of Fed rate cuts rather than a proxy for economic activity. Why else do stocks growing at single digit rates trade at huge multiples. There's severe overvaluation problem that will eventually be resolved with either lower rates and higher profits or lower PEs and lower stock prices.

Russia, Iran and China now know that our military and intelligence officials communicate on Signal - like they didn't know that already? Come on. They hack us, we hack them. That's the game. This incident doesn't change the rules of the game or how its played. And yes, some adjustments in tactics are needed. And for the record, I am not MAGA. I'm a disenfranchised Democrat that the party forgot about when the nuts took over and the agenda shifted far-left. People such as me, formed the core of the party in the past. And the abandonment of voters that share my views and the dumping of the traditional core values of the party are the main reason Trump won and Harris didn't. She was too far out there and a real dummy to boot.

Most of your ramblings are irrelevant to my assessment. And your questions about tipping off the target or intelligence methods could be asked of any operation or plan. Known risks without answers.

It was a screw-up and a breach of protocol and shouldn't have happened. I don't think texting is an appropriate form of communications for these types of military and intelligence operations. They might want to think about dumping that practice and limit the number of participants to those actually having some role in the execution and eliminate the "spectators" from the conversation. But at this point its a big nothing burger. The texts should not have been shared but the information was time sensitive and the value of that information to anyone expired after the attack was completed. By the time the reporter announced he was included in the chat group the contents were worthless intelligence.

He's giving the troops a pep talk so he can't tell them our ideas are bad and we lost because a majority of the voters didn't like them. Its like what we hear at the football coach post-game press conference where he says "we had a great game plan but we just didn't execute it very well". When the truth might be he got out-coached by the other guy and the other team has better football players. That's why they lost.

I recall they developed a proficiency at indiscriminate high body count drone strikes against wedding party's in Pakistan claiming to target 1 o 2 unidentified individuals. Maybe it was the year Barrack ironically won the Nobel Peace Prize?

Pretty much everything on this topic is conjecture and absent a statement from the Pentagon or NATO, which I haven't seen, we don't know the facts around the situation with what's reported as 4 American soldiers on a training mission either dead or missing in Lithuania. And unless you plan on traveling over there and conducting your own personal investigation its doubtful you'll ever know the whole truth. These military outfits operate under no obligation to reveal the truth or the facts surrounding their activities. Sometimes because they're classified or secret and others when they just don't feel a need to be transparent. So far the posts have been a psychology experiment on what posters believe or don't believe based on their preconceived political positions along with what they've been conditioned over time to believe or not believe.

They act like spoiled children right after they get told "no" for the first time. Throw a temper tantrum and piss themselves.

Maybe some district court judge is going to place an injunction on his EO and proclaim himself President.

There's that 'due process' thing again. Like what all those J6 trespassers got when judges, including this very same clown in about 60 cases, denied bail and held prisoners for up to 18 months while awaiting trial. And many laughed when some brought up this injustice. And now when due process is applied to illegals we should be sympathetic? Wow. And news flash. The law was already ignored when Biden let them in.

That attitude is the exact reason why Democrats lost the last election and why they'll continue to lose until the party disintegrates into irrelevancy.

The way I look at it there's a major political and social transition taking place where the needs of America the country are now being prioritized over the needs of America the Empire. This is what the voters have demanded. As we've all lived under a system where those in power served the Empire its something many do not understand or many that are dependent on the Empire do not want.

They're really not our allies but rather vassal States dependent on the US for protection which have traditionally towed the line on US policy positions. Recently its become clear, many are controlled by politicians that are intent on censorship and outlawing popular political parties and individuals that pose a threat to their control. An objective person might conclude they fear their own citizens, and a populist uprising similar to what America is experiencing, more than any foreign threat. Countries such as Germany, Romania, the UK to name a few, that stand in opposition to Putin should look in the mirror. Absent their ability for self-awareness they can't see there's little difference between the actions of the Russian President and themselves. My personal view is European societies are in decay and dying a slow death as their leadership destroys their traditional culture. America was on the same path before the voters decided they had enough.

Recessions are a component of the economic system. We've had them before, mild and severe, and we'll have them again. If you want to focus on problems I would recommend the national debt and the trillion dollar annual interest on it. And the US dollar that has lost most of its purchasing power. Add in personal and private debt levels, and these problems guarantee most people a lower standard of living in the future. No president to going to fix this as its too late unless we stop deficit spending, run a surplus, and start paying down the debt. No chance of that. Sadly, maybe 1 in a 1,000 are cognizant of this and most lack preparations for it.

I never felt anything Biden did or what Trump is doing impacts or interferes with my ability to go about my life. Anyone that feels either President is causing them anxiety with their life must either have little to no control over their affairs or suffering from some problem such as depression.