Tucker on Twitter, Episode 8: ‘Fat Guy In A Costume,’ Accept His Lie or Pay the Consequences, Bigot

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“Rick from Boston is telling us he wants to be known as female Admiral Rachel Levine. Accept his lie or pay the consequences, bigot.”

‘Fat Guy In A Costume’: Tucker Carlson Mocks Rachel ‘Rick’ Levine For Pushing Trans Ideology

By: Nicole Silverio, Daily Caller, June 30, 2023:

Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson mocked Rachel Levine, the assistant secretary for health in President Joe Biden’s administration, in Friday’s episode of “Tucker on Twitter.”

Carlson called out Levine, who was born Richard “Rick” Levine, for shifting from being a husband and father of two to pushing transgender ideology by identifying as a woman and wearing feminine clothing while being well into adulthood. Levine is the father of a daughter, Danya, and a son, David.

“Few Americans in our history have come as far as Rick Levine. Here’s a fat guy in a Halloween costume who somehow became the federal health minister. … What we have here is living proof that in this country, you really can be whatever you want to be,” Carlson said. “If Rick Levine can become ‘Admiral Rachel,’ why can’t you be Napoleon? Or Lord Mountbatten, the last viceroy of India? Ever see that guy’s uniform?”

The Daily Caller co-founder said Levine’s “personal journey” is not to empower people, but rather to become more powerful.

“The point of Rick Levine’s amazing transformation is not to free you from the inflexible husk that you were born in, so you can be more fully yourself, whatever you decide that is. No, that’s not the point,” he said. “Rick Levine’s personal journey has nothing to do with you. It’s about him, it’s his journey. Your fantasies about becoming something totally new and different have not been approved yet. In fact, they’re weird.”

“Shut up and be proud of Admiral Rachel,” he continued. “She’s the one who has smashed glass ceilings, and you’ve just got some kind of weird fetish. So actually, now that we’re saying this out loud, it’s pretty clear that Rick Levine has no interest in liberating you from anything. This is not about liberation, it’s just the opposite. It’s just another religious war, same as all the others. The people who think they’re God versus everybody else.”

Read more.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

ALAN DERSHOWITZ: The Case For Impeaching Joe Biden

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When I defended former President Trump against a Democratic effort to impeach and remove him on grounds that I believe are unconstitutional, I predicted that when the Republicans gained control of the House, they would use that precedent as a justification for trying to impeach the next Democratic president.

Sure enough, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) has introduced articles of impeachment that replicated what the Democrats had done just three and a half years earlier.

In December 2019, Democrats charged Trump with “abuse of power” and “obstruction of Congress.” I argued, successfully, that these articles did not satisfy the constitutional criteria for impeachment: treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors.

Nearly all the Republicans in both Houses of Congress agreed with my argument that criminal-type behavior akin to treason or bribery is required, and they voted against the articles of impeachment passed by the Democratic House.

Now some of these same Republicans are supporting Biden’s impeachment on grounds similar to the ones they rejected when they were directed against the Republican president: “Abuse of power” (Article I), and “dereliction of duty.” (Article II).

These alleged grounds do not appear in the Constitution, and the second one was implicitly rejected by the Constitutional Convention when proposals to include “malpractice for neglect of duty,” “neglect in the execution of his office” and “maladministration” were withdrawn at the insistence of James Madison, the father of our Constitution.

Once again partisanship trumps principle, and consistently is regarded as a weakness in the game of political hardball.

The irony is that there might actually be constitutionally valid grounds for impeaching President Biden under two possible circumstances: 1) if it turns out that Biden’s son, Hunter, was actually sitting next to his father and was aware that he invoked the former vice president’s name when he communicated a threat to a Chinese businessman; and 2) if a high crime committed by a former vice president and future president during his interregnum as a private citizen can satisfy the criteria for impeachment. The first is a question of fact; the second is a matter of constitutional interpretation.

I personally doubt that Joe Biden was aware that his son was invoking his name and power when and if he sent that possibly extortionate message. But if that message is real, it certainly requires that Hunter Biden be placed under oath to A) admit or deny he sent the message; B) admit or deny that he was telling the truth when he said his father was sitting next to him; C) admit or deny that his father was aware he was sending the message; D) admit or deny that his father was aware of the content of the message.

The allegation that a former vice president and current president may have been complicit in an arguable extortion plot is a serious one that requires further investigation. In the unlikely event that it were to be confirmed, it would raise a profound, difficult and unresolved question of constitutional interpretations: namely whether a president can be impeached and removed for a high crime committed before he assumed the presidency.

Extortion or attempted extortion is a high crime akin to bribery and thus – if proved – would be a constitutional ground for impeachment if it had been committed by a sitting president during his presidency. But what if it had been committed earlier?

Vice President Spiro Agnew was accused of engaging in extortion and bribery. Although the accusation was made during his vice presidency, the alleged bribery occurred while he was still governor of Maryland (though he allegedly received some of the payments while vice president).

He pleaded no contest to a tax felony as part of a plea bargain that included his resigning the vice presidency. Accordingly, we do not know whether he could have or would have been impeached for conviction while vice president of a serious felony he committed before assuming that office.

It is unlikely that this question will be presented in the Biden case, because credible evidence may not exist proving that Biden committed any impeachable offenses between the time he served as vice president and president — or at any other time. But we won’t know that unless the current allegations, which include claims of incriminating recordings, are thoroughly investigated.

If Republican House members are determined to impeach Biden, they should focus their investigative resources on specific allegations of serious crimes which, if true, may rise to the level of possibly impeachable offense, rather than on vague partisan accusations of misconduct which, even if true, they themselves recently argued would not satisfy the criteria for impeaching and removing a duly elected president.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

AUTHOR

ALAN M. DERSHOWITZ

Alan M. Dershowitz is the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Emeritus at Harvard Law School, and the author most recently of The Price of Principle: Why Integrity Is Worth The Consequences. He is the Jack Roth Charitable Foundation Fellow at Gatestone Institute, and is also the host of “The Dershow” podcast. This is republished from the Alan Dershowitz Newsletter.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Supreme Court Strikes Down Biden’s Student Loan ‘Forgiveness’ Plan

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The Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s student loan “forgiveness” plan Friday.

The nation’s highest court heard arguments in February in two cases: Biden v. Nebraska and Department of Education v. Brown.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion in Biden v. Nebraska, 6-3, striking down Biden’s plan. The court unanimously denied standing in the Brown case.

Biden announced plans last August to cancel $10,000 of debt for individual student loan borrowers who make less than $125,000 per year ($250,000 for households) and to forgive $20,000 of debt for borrowers who received a Pell Grant.

Biden’s Education Department relied on a post-9/11 law known as the HEROES Act of 2003 that grants the U.S. secretary of education the authority to allow military troops to delay their student debt obligations during national emergencies. (HEROES is an acronym for the Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions.)

Roberts ruled that “the HEROES Act provides no authorization for the Secretary’s plan even when examined using the ordinary tools of statutory interpretation—let alone ‘clear congressional authorization’ for such a program.”

“The Supreme Court justices halted President Biden’s abuse of executive authority by holding that his plan to cancel student loan debt for 40 million borrowers was unlawful,” Jack Fitzhenry, a Heritage Foundation legal fellow, and Lindsey Burke, director of The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy, said in a statement Friday. “They rightly found that this was an issue for Congress, not the administrative bureaucracy, to decide.” (The Daily Signal is The Heritage Foundation’s news outlet.)

“The astronomical cost to American taxpayers of this ill-conceived program was only surpassed by its unfairness—since it would have punished millions of Americans who dutifully paid off their student loans as well as those who never took out loans in the first place,” Fitzhenry and Burke added. “If we want to help students deal with the increasing cost of getting a degree, giving a bailout to the very colleges and universities that hike prices is not the answer.”

“Breaking up the monopoly of college accreditors and offering students more higher education options, while simultaneously cutting off the open spigot of federal higher education subsidies, is a start,” the Heritage experts added. “Ultimately, students should be equipped with the knowledge and certainty that the student loans they take out can be repaid in future employment.”

“In the [Biden v. Nebraska] case, several states argue that they have standing primarily because if Biden cancels student loan debts, state agencies that the federal government pays to service those loans will lose revenue because they are paid on a per-loan basis,” GianCarlo Canaparo and Fitzhenry of The Heritage Foundation’s Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies wrote in a commentary for The Daily Signal, adding:

That loss of revenue, in turn, could diminish funds available for scholarships and other education programs meant to benefit citizens of those states. In response, U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, representing the Biden administration, argued that those state entities are not really arms of the states that they serve, and thus, the states cannot sue on behalf of the agencies.

Canaparo and Fitzhenry also wrote:

In the [Department of Education v. Brown] case, two borrowers who did not qualify for debt cancellation argued that by creating this program in secret and pursuant to emergency powers, the administration denied them the procedural right to participate in the decision-making process.

In response, Prelogar argued that the law did not require the government to involve anyone in this process.

EJ Antoni, a research fellow for regional economics in Heritage’s Center for Data Analysis, weighed in on the implications of canceling student loan debt, especially the cost.

“The Biden administration’s estimated cost for student loan ‘forgiveness,’ which is actually transference, is laughably low. More reliable estimates, including dynamic estimates which account for incentive effects and behavioral changes, have a price tag north of $1 trillion,” Antoni told The Daily Signal in a written statement. “Not only is there an upfront cost to taxpayers of assuming current student loans, but there are future costs as well.”

“Debt transference incentivizes futures students to borrow more, in anticipation of future transference,” Antoni added. “Additionally, people who wouldn’t have borrowed at all will take out loans for the same reason. That will lead to tuition increases and higher costs of attendance, as has happened every time student loan programs were expanded and borrowing increased.”

Elaine Parker, president of the Job Creators Network Foundation, reacted to Friday’s ruling.

“JCNF’s lawsuit played an integral role in today’s victory. Our case, brought in Texas, blocked the entire program at the district level and stopped the application process, allowing the legal challenge to go to the Supreme Court,” Parker said in a written statement.

“We are all winners today now that this illegal program has been struck down. JCNF looks forward to driving the conversation around meaningful higher education reform to address the root cause of this crisis and make college affordable,” Parker added.

AUTHOR

Samantha Aschieris

Samantha Aschieris is a senior news producer for The Daily Signal. Twitter.

This is a breaking story and may be updated.

The Daily Signal’s Virginia Allen and Fred Lucas contributed to this report.

Have an opinion about this article? To sound off, please email letters@DailySignal.com and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Remember to include the url or headline of the article plus your name and town and/or state.

The Daily Signal depends on the support of readers like you. Donate now

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Signal column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

GIs: Quit yer Bitchin’ or Face Charges!

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When Erich Honecker (1912-1994) ruled East Germany, it was a crime to say or print anything critical of him. Now, we learn the U.S. Army has a Protective Battalion to watch over key active and even retired general officers. The mission of the Protective Battalion includes monitoring social media for “direct, indirect, and veiled threats” and identifying “negative sentiments” regarding the generals under its protection. Could Herr Honecker have desired anything more chilling?

Those who have served know that it is a favorite pastime of GIs to complain about military martinets, rear-echelon staff officers, and phony heroes like John Kerry and his paper-cut-Owie Purple Hearts. But now, if a GI e-mails his girlfriend to tell her his weekend pass was pulled because that jerk General X restricted everyone to the base, the Protective Battalion could charge that GI for calling General X a jerk. Actually, some are jerks.

I have to ask those of the Greatest Generation, the Silent Generation, and the Boomer Generation who, along with their families, sacrificed so much to defeat Communism and win the Cold War: Was this what we were fighting for? Did we and our families suffer the loss of loved ones and endure our own wounds and hardship so the U.S. Army could act like the former East German dictator Erich Honecker?

Granted the Ministry of State Media (MSM) will not dig into the horrifying implications of the missions assigned to the Army’s Protective Battalion, but where is the outrage from those of us who won the Cold War? Complaining to the Biden* White House will do no good. But is anyone contacting their Congressperson? If the GI’s right to bitch (“express negative sentiments”) about those above him or her is not written in bold letters in the U.S. Constitution, it should be.

Okay. Was it really that bad behind the Iron Curtain? Or, was that just Hollywood hype, back when Hollywood was on our side? Wonder Wife and I were behind the Iron Curtain three times. Once, on the sealed, blacked-out night-only Duty Train jolting on neglected tracks across East Germany to West Berlin. Twice via Lufthansa into the USSR and internally twice within the USSR via Aeroflot, the airline with the world’s worst safety record.

We know first-hand what it is like to live under 24/7 electronic surveillance, to talk only outdoors with brave (foolish?) locals who covered their lips to thwart lip-reading KGB or Stasi snitches. Yes, life within the USSR and East Germany was just as scary, sterile, and joyless as reported in the insightful novels by Joseph Kanon, John le Carré, and many others.

It is also shocking to learn that Pentagon officials think retired generals cannot take care of their own personal security. What kind of warriors are they? A better use of tax-payer dollars would be to allow generals to retain their issued sidearm, that compact automatic pistol that comes with their Flag Officer Kit. Or, they could exercise their 2d Amendment rights and buy something really useful like a M1911 or a Glock 17.

Protective Battalion nota bene: I did NOT say General X is a jerk.

* Election disputed.

Suggested reading: The Berlin Exchange by Joseph Kanon, 2022. Or, any of the espionage novels by John le Carré.

©2023. William Hamilton. All rights reserved.

RELATED VIDEO: Is Woke Culture Ruining The Military?

Pride Messaging Down 40% from 2022 as Boycotts Explode

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It was a normal Wednesday commute, crawling across the 14th Street Bridge with thousands of other frustrated D.C. drivers — until out the corner of my eye, I saw the metro glide across the tracks next to us. There, suspended above the Potomac, were eight cars — all wrapped in transgender and rainbow flags — speeding into the most powerful city in the world. Even now, weeks into this contrived celebration, it was a jarring picture of how insufferable the Pride movement has become. Deep into June, you can’t blame Americans for wondering: When will this train of extremism end?

Like me, Free Republic’s Kristinn Taylor was annoyed to see that even commuters can’t escape the LGBT oversaturation. “DC Metro cars [have] transformed into rolling ‘Pride’ struggle sessions,” she protested on Twitter. And according to a new poll, she’s not alone. Pride fatigue is real, The Trafalgar Group found, and it’s across the board.

In a new survey, Robert Cahaly’s group asked more than 1,000 people (who leaned Democratic by 4%) if they’re sick of the public LGBT pandering. A whopping 62% said yes, they just wished companies would stay neutral. Only 23% think corporations should continue on with their extreme political themes.

Equally as damning — at least for the CEOs still clinging to their offensive activism (think Nike, Target, Kohl’s) — are the massive swaths of consumers who are avoiding leftist brands. While 41% of all voters say they’ve “personally boycotted a company that took a public stance on a cultural or political issue they disagree with,” almost 70% are Republicans, who’ve refused to shop with “progressive” businesses. Forty percent of non-affiliated voters admitted to doing the same.

That’s a sizeable gap in pushback compared to Democrats, who are much less likely (45%) to punish “conservative or MAGA-leaning” businesses. Interestingly, 14% of Joe Biden’s party admitted to joining Republicans in abandoning overly woke companies — a surprisingly high cross-over rate that shows just how much radical CEOs have overplayed their hand on issues like transgenderism.

And the farther we get into June, the more intense the backlash has become. Shoppers everywhere have made punching bags out of Bud Light and Target — forcing several of American brands to reconsider just how much capital they’re willing to sacrifice. As the losses to those brands dip into the multi-billions, there’s a growing sense that businesses are getting the message.

According to Bloomberg, brands are dramatically toning down their Pride promotion from last year. In the wake of the Dylan Mulvaney scandal in April, “references to ‘Pride Month’ in filings, presentations and transcripts from April to June at more than 900 of the largest US companies dropped almost 40% from this time last year, the first decline in five years. Other LGBTQ terms showed similar declines, the analysis found.”

That’s a seismic shift for the U.S. market and an enormous victory for grassroots Americans who’ve finally put their dollars where their values are. As Dr. Ben Carson said on Wednesday’s “Washington Watch,” these big brands have finally been forced to reevaluate their purpose — and, just as importantly, their loyalties. “Corporate America has a very important purpose, and that is to reward their stockholders. Now, they can’t necessarily do that if they have another agenda — like being social manipulators. And I think they’re starting to recognize that. And I’m glad to see also that the people are pushing back.”

The Bud Light disaster, Target’s trans outreach, “all of these things,” Carson pointed out, “are wake-up calls for corporate America to get back to doing what they’re supposed to be doing and stop meddling. You know, one of the reasons that our country was established is because people wanted to come to a place where they could live the life that they wanted to live without it being manipulated and without all kinds of mandates. And whether those mandates come from the government or from corporate America, they still have a deleterious effect on the freedoms that people experience.”

“And the only people who can change that is we the people. … We have to put our foot down and say, this is America. This is where we are free to live the way that we want to, to worship the way we want to, to say what we want to say. And we’re not going to stand for government or corporate America to try to dictate [what we think and believe].”

No one has been in that bullseye more than Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth, who called the crashing and burning of his brand a “challenging few weeks” on Fox. And while he has yet to apologize for the firestorm that Bud Light started by embracing transgenderism, he does accept the blame for the devastating consequences of that decision. “We have to understand the impact that it’s had … on our employees, the impact on our consumers, and as well the impact on our partners,” he said. “One thing I’d love to make extremely clear is that impact is my responsibility and as the CEO, everything we do here I’m accountable for.”

“There’s a big social conversation taking place right now,” Whitworth acknowledged, “and big brands are right in the middle of it. And it’s not just our industry or Bud Light. It’s happening in retail, happening in fast food. And so for us, what we need to understand is — deeply understand and appreciate — is the consumer and what they want, what they care about and what they expect from big brands.”

What they expect, the polls have shown since 2021, is neutrality. When a good 40% of your consumer base ups and walks away, there should be plenty of motivation for corporations to sit down and rethink their politics.

“Most Americans respond to relentless, preachy marketing from businesses trying to virtue signal their progressive bona fides like they respond to street preachers thumping a Bible,” Family Research Council’s Joseph Backholm told The Washington Stand. “But the LGBTQ movement, like the street preacher, doesn’t care because they have simply decided anyone who rejects their message is going to hell. The LGBT movement has become what they claim to hate, but they haven’t recognized it yet.”

In the meantime, what they and everyone else can’t help but recognize is Americans’ buying power. May it continue to be the bridle that holds the woke in check.

AUTHOR

Suzanne Bowdey

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.

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EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2023 Family Research Council.

The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

Biden Family Received Over $40 MILLION in Bribes, ‘This Was Organized Crime’

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And what exactly did that $40 million buy?

Overseas payments to Biden family could exceed $40M, Comer says: ‘This was organized crime’

By Victor Nava, NY Post, June 28, 2023:

Allegations against Biden and his family are too credible to wipe away with ‘father’s love’ sob story

Members of President Biden’s family may have accepted in excess of $40 million from foreign nationals in exchange for favorable policy decisions, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer suggested Wednesday.

The Kentucky Republican said that his panel has identified “six specific policy decisions” where Biden, 80, took actions that indicate he may have been “compromised,” during an appearance on John Catsimatidis’ “Cats & Cosby Show” on WABC 770 Wednesday.

Comer noted that of the six policy decisions, four of them “were made while Joe Biden was president early on — [where] we cannot come to any other conclusion as to why these decisions were made, other than the fact that this president is compromised.”

“This was organized crime. There’s no other way to define it,” Comer alleged.

The Oversight Committee chairman explained that as recently as “in the last five days” his panel has obtained banking statements and suspicious activity reports that show “more bank accounts, more shell companies and more Bidens” being involved in the family’s overseas influence peddling scheme.

“We’re going to try to determine how much money the Bidens took, and what role Joe Biden played in all of this … It’s a huge puzzle,” Comer said of the GOP-led committee’s investigation.

“Around 30 to 40 different banks, and about that many different shell companies. This is an organized attempt by the Biden family to hide the source of money going into these shell companies, and to distract from the IRS so they wouldn’t have to pay taxes on it. And that’s exactly what the IRS whistleblowers alleged in the transcribed interview with the Ways and Means Committee — that the Biden family never paid money on any of these wires that came into these shell companies,” he added.

IRS whistleblower Gary Shapely told Fox News host Bret Baier on Wednesday that in 2017 and 2018 alone, first son Hunter Biden ducked a $1.2 million tax bill, and that there is likely hundreds of thousands of dollars more in income from previous years that he failed to report.

“I mean to this day, there’s still around $400,000 of unreported income from Burisma [Holdings] in 2014,” Shapley said. “Hunter Biden was told by his partner, Eric Schwerin, that he needed to amend his returns, and he never did.”

Keep reading.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Trump’s Lead Grows Over DeSantis After New Indictment: Poll

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It’s no contest. Republican voters want President Trump to be our nominee to take on the Left in 2024.

Governor DeSantis should suspend his campaign and endorse President Trump. President Trump should not participate in the primary debates. Have a Trump rally instead.

Trump’s Lead Grows Over DeSantis After New Indictment: Poll

By Daily Beast, June 28th, 2023

Donald Trump’s federal indictment doesn’t seem to be hurting him in the polls. In fact, his lead over rival Ron DeSantis is only growing, according to a new national poll from NBC News. “This is still Donald Trump’s party. The federal criminal indictment did nothing, changed absolutely nothing in this,”

Chuck Todd said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Donald Trump’s lead has nearly doubled—he had a 15-point lead over Ron DeSantis in a multi-candidate field in April.

Read more.

AUTHOR

Geller Report Staff

RELATED ARTICLE: Hunter Biden Text Demanded $10 Million, “Bidens Are The Best I Know at Doing Exactly” What Chinese Communist Party Wants, “Let’s Not Quibble Over Peanuts.”

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

71 Percent of Illegal Aliens Sent to ‘Republican Congressional Districts’: Study

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The whole point of the invasion!

71 Percent of Illegal Aliens Sent to ‘Republican Congressional Districts’: Study | Facts Matter

By: Roman Balmakov, The Epoch Times, June 29, 2023:

According to a deep dive investigation, there is a massive network of different organizations, NGOs, and religious centers that take illegal immigrants from the U.S. southern border and transport them to the interior of the United States—with the vast majority of these illegal immigrants winding up in Republican congressional districts.

🧶 Border Deception Documentary here.

🔵 Full Report here.

🔵 Texas Census Data here.

Read more.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

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EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

American Marxism vs. American Stalinism

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“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” — Joseph Goebbels

I have been writing about Russian and Chinese espionage for the last forty years to educate the American people with my deep concern over American national security in the 20th century. Yes, our national security is at stake, because Russia, China, and the “Axis of Evil” under Russia’s umbrella continue attacking us in the 21st century. Turmoil in Russia puts the World in an additional high risk. The revolt of Wagner was an effective force with active Military and Intel Apparatus–the revolt was a part of the coup with 25.000 000 mercenaries. Putin maneuvered very fast and successfully; Wagner’s boss was exiled to Belarus. I don’t know why Evgeniy Prigozhin has surrendered. It can be a game of Russian disinformation as well…

The crack in Russia is not occidental, on the contrary, it is normal and regular. The country under several different names has been living in Soviet Socialism, which are lies, deceit, fabrication, and fraud. Soviet Socialism has very little to go with Marxism—Marxism is Theory. I have been studying Marxism at Law School for four years. Soviet Socialism has been invented by Comrade Stalin in contrary to Marxist Theory and its ideas. Here is the prove:

Creating the Theory of Socialism and Communism as a means of rooting out the exploitation of man by man, Marx and Engels purposely divided it into two phases: the first phase was Socialism and the second –- Communism. They identified in detail the tasks, agendas, and ways to achieve them in the “Theory”, as follows:

  • First – the tasks and agenda—overthrowing the capitalist economic system and establishing Socialism as a basis for the creation of a classless Communist society in the future.
  • Second – how to fulfill the tasks and agenda—through World Revolution.
  • Third – the World Revolution would occur under the leadership of the proletariat.  “Proletariats of the world unite!” was their slogan.
  • Fourth – Marxist Theory can be applied only in industrially developed European countries.

“Pay attention to the fourth point:” Marxist Theory can be applied only in industrially developed European countries.” Russia was an agricultural country and has never been an industrially developed European country. The creation by Stalin of his system of Soviet Socialism was in direct opposition to Marxism. It was a typical Stalinist fraud. Socialism couldn’t exist without the government force. To create Soviet Socialism, Stalin used Marxist rhetoric to fabricate his own system that was completely intertwined with punitive agencies. The creation of the Soviet Mafia, Socialist modus operandi, and the KGB’s Mafia/Army had been a necessity for Stalin to help deceive and defraud people.  A devoted disciple of Stalin/Andropov, Vladimir Putin is still keeping the Soviet system of punitive agencies in Russia after the Soviet Socialism had collapsed.” The Democrat Party: A Party of Disinformation and Fraud May 21, 2023.

That is the reason, I repeatedly remind you about Soviet-Socialist Modus Operandi: lies, deceit, fabrication, and fraud. The Operation Disinformation have started in the beginning of the 20th century by Stalin, building class-warfare and never ended. America has never learned Stalinism and is unable to recognize it. By the way, if you read my columns or any of my books, you will learn that all countries overturned to Soviet Socialism, which I called Soviet fascism, had been subverted by the same exact way. If you look at America today, you will be stunned by lies, deceptions, fabrications, and fraud used by Biden’s White House and his entire administration. Welcome to Soviet Socialism in America!!! It is like in the Soviet Union—Inside a Gigantic Network of Falsehood.

I deliberately took a part of the title from my book: Socialist Revolution in America, XLIBRIS, 2021. Chapter 14 was titled: Soviet Fascism in the 21st Century: Inside A Gigantic Network of Falsehood. Yes, I was calling Soviet Socialism, Soviet Fascism during the entire forty years of my writings. My opinion has not changed. Actually, studying Soviet Socialism in Russia and America, I came to a certain conclusion: Stalinist-Soviet Socialism was built by a Dictator Stalin, he has been skillfully wailing and crafting Soviet Fascism, then spreading it across the world by the KGB’s Mafia/Army.
“Fascism is an extreme authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, … “ Wikipedia

A fascist is a follower of a political philosophy characterized by authoritarian views and a strong central government — and no tolerance for opposing opinions. Oppressive dictatorial regime.

I consider a mistake to contemplate a right-wing group as a basis of fascism. In real life, the left-wing appeared to be the bases of fascism. If you read different opinions on fascism, you will see that some individuals agree with me. By the way, I planned to title my book: Putin’s Socialist Revolution in America, but I was too late to change the title. Reading the book, you will see Putin’s personal role in destroying and ruining America in all aspects of human lives: economy, education, crime, and the school shooting…

Soviet-Socialist Modus Operandi: Lies, Deceits, Fabrication, And Fraud

Now we are awaiting the next move from Putin after the Wagner rebellion. The revolt reveals Putin’s great vulnerability. His military was demonstrating weakness and instability, Russia demonstrated a Chaos. Turmoil in Russia puts the World in high risk, but the name of Evgeniy Prigozhin opened Putin’s huge secret door. Prigozhin is the oligarch and Putin’s friend for over thirty years, look at his spectacular activities:

“Prigozhin now controls a network of influential companies, including the Russian state-backed mercenary company Wagner Group and three companies accused of interference in the 2016 and 2018 U.S. elections.[8] According to a 2022 investigation by Bellingcat, The Insider, and Der Spiegel, Prigozhin’s activities “are tightly integrated with Russia’s Defense Ministry and its intelligence arm, the GRU“.[9]   Wikipedia

Pay attention to Prigozhin’s variety of different actions “tightly integrated with Russia’s Defense Ministry and its intelligence arm, the GRU“.[9]

Watch the agency named the CRU. It is the short answer to why I have been writing about the KGB’s Mafia/Army for forty years. Russia has a centralized Military and Intel. That had been established by Stalin and his devoted disciples Andropov/Putin saved it. That has the same answer to why Wagner had the leaders from the Military and Intel. The Soviet experts in America are not familiar with this alliance between the Military and Intel, they don’t know its structure and capacity. As well as running agents, the GRU has its own spetsnaz (special ops) commandos, whose mission is to conduct reconnaissance and sabotage. In Soviet times, they were active in conflict zones around the world, and spearheaded the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979.

When the Soviet Union broke up, the GRU’s great rival, the KGB secret police, split in two – a domestic version called the FSB (which Russian President Vladimir Putin once led) and a foreign service called the SVR – but the GRU remained intact. It did change its name in 2010 from the Main Intelligence Directorate to the Main Directorate (the GU), but the GRU acronym stuck. A report for the US Congress describes the GRU as a “large, expansive, and powerful organization” but very little is known for certain about its size and operations.” Why Russia’s GRU military intelligence service is so feared, 19 April 2021, BBC News.

That was the reason for me, not knowing the GRU as well as I knew the KGB, to have united the entire Russian Intel Apparatus under familiar to the world one name–the KGB—a former secret police. Remember, Vladimir Putin was the last leader and then the leader of the same mission under the different name of the FSB. Russia has changed names of the KGB eight times in the past to cover the crime it had committed. If it needs to, Russia will change the names again, but never stop committing crime against humanity. That is the Putin secret door Evgeniy Prigozhin can open, if he survives. The Russian bad actors are not only in Europe, the Middle East, or other places causing destruction, many of them in the U.S…, some Obama/Soviet holdovers in the White House, corruptly used Biden’s name by writing what he is reading to us every day.…

Russia is a Terrorist State, for you information, Russia had orchestrated and coordinated all attacks on the 9/11 in 2001. The FBI and CIA have already been infiltrated and are now dysfunctional. Knowing Russian Intel Apparatus, the FBI was supposed to preven the attacks on 9/11 crimes. The FBI had not done that. The Durham report discredit the FBI Russia Probe. The FBI made me a Foreign Agent in 2002 by submitting my name to FAISA Court and banned my writings consequently. Only a Russian person with the awareness of the Russian Intel Apparatus could value my writings about the KGB’s Mafia/Army. Those examples show failures of both the FBI and CIA for years…

That failure had allowed the Russian KGB to infiltrate, drug, and assassinate Americans in the 20th century. Read my definition of WWIII. The Russian method of infiltration to overturn the country to Socialism is the same to all targeted countries for the last hundred years. The goal is to get your man in charge of the government. That’s exact happened to America: Putin and his KGB’s Mafia/Army have committed a coup d’état in America in 2020. With the checks and balances, at the end of the Republican Committees’ investigations, you will know more or read my columns or, at least, one book…

When I am writing, the TV translated a Judge reads the Verdict to the police officer in Portland—the officer is Acquitted. If you read my columns, you will be surprised by the reality of life—all the shooting in the schools in America have been orchestrated and coordinated by the bad actors from Socialist/Communist countries…. By the Soviets! Please, remember, you are always dealing with the KGB’s Mafia/Army, when you are connected with former Soviet Republics or with the former political satellites—you are never free from the KGB’s Mafia/Army!!!

Today is a good day for America and her people: the Supreme Court outlaws race as a college admissions factor. It was supposed to be done twenty-five years ago, but, better late than never… It is a Legal Decision for all people, returning them to colorblind tendency. The color of your skin can’t think about your future, your brain does. To finish this column, let me tell you my story, which is also connected to Marx and Stalin. When I immigrated to America, I didn’t know English. With no friends and money, I took the second language in the Church. The first words I learned were Diversity— the state of being diverse; variety. I couldn’t remember the word and asked the teacher in a month or two. Why don’t we have Black people in the class? She looked at me, like I was sick, she didn’t answer my question and I didn’t dare to insist.

Coming home, I asked my son the same question. He was laughing… “They came to America from Africa 200 years ago.” “No, I talked with our neighbor, she is an educated individual from Jamika and she had known the language for many years. I don’t know why, but I have been hated the word Diversity since. Twenty years past and I found why I didn’t like the word—it was the Soviet Disinformation. As a matter of fact, the Soviets began infiltrating the Black communities with the propaganda of “White Oppressors” “White Privileges” in the 1950-1960th and “White Supremacies” in the 2017-2023. As you can see Stalinism is alive and well in America. The angry Biden is building Soviet Socialism and the punitive apparatus to punish parents, domestic-terrorists.

To learn more about Marxism, Stalinism and Slavery, please read my column: Slavery has no Color: Karl Marx, Slavery and Stalinist/Socialist Charlatans June 23, 2020

To be continued www.simonapipko.com and at www.drrichswier.com/author/spipko/

©2023. Simona Pipko. All rights reserved.

Russian Academic Sergey Karaganov: Using Tactical Nuclear Weapons Against European Countries Will Prevent World War III; If I Were In Putin’s Shoes, I Would Do It; The U.S. Will Not Come To Europe’s Rescue

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Russian intellectual Prof. Sergey Karaganov, who is the head of the Russia-based Council for Foreign and Defense Policy, said in a June 24, 2023 interview on Russia Today that using nuclear weapons in order to stop NATO’s aggressive expansion in Europe would be a difficult moral choice for Russia, but would ultimately save humanity by preventing the outbreak of a nuclear world war. He said that America’s historical nuclear strategy suggests that the U.S. would not take the risk of retaliating against Russia if it were to use nuclear weapons against European countries, and he said that the West must be punished for using the “brotherly” Ukrainian people as cannon fodder in its campaign against Russia. It should be noted that on June 13, Prof. Karaganov had published an article similarly arguing that Russia should use nuclear weapons (see MEMRI Special Dispatch No. 10674).

Sergey Karaganov: “The decision to use nuclear weapons is a terrible moral challenge, a terrible moral decision. Morally it will hurt us, or whoever will use it, but sometimes you have to choose. The famous Dostoevsky dictum – will you sacrifice the child to save humanity… It’s a philosophically terrible choice, but I decided to become unpopular by choosing to save humanity.[…]”We have been wrong for many years by not stopping NATO expansion, because this led to war. I have been saying for 25 years – some others [have] too – that if it does not stop, it will lead to war. Now I am saying that if Western defensive expansionism and aggression is not stopped, this will lead to World War III. I was right on my first prediction, as well as many others, and I hope my voice, however weak it is, will help us all to avoid, first, a nuclear war in Europe, [where] a big war is already happening, and second, an worse, World War III, a nuclear world war which would end humanity and leave radioactive ruins [as its] remnants. That is a real possibility.[…]

“I hope, as I’ve said, that it will not [happen] if we really put this issue on the table. The West, which is losing all strategic thinking it has [unclear] over centuries, will back off, because they are running amok. They are desperate and irresponsible, and the political leadership of most Western countries has been degrading for several decades.”

Interviewer: “And you think NATO’s Article V is a sham? The U.S. would not come to the rescue if European countries were hit?”

Karaganov: “I am a historian of nuclear strategy, and I know that after the Soviet Union got reliable capabilities to strike back, the U.S. never seriously thought about attacking the Soviet Union in retaliation, for example, for a soviet attack on Europe.

[…]

“I am pretty sure that if an American president decides to use nuclear weapons against Russia in ‘defense’ of Europe, that means that he is a madman or that he hates the United States. I hope that times will not come when such a madman is installed in the White House, but we see that over the years, the degradation of the level of American elite, including those in the White House, is very obvious, and we do not know who will be there five or eight years later from now.

[…]

“Sooner or later, we have to use some kind of long-range weapons if NATO continues its war against Russia using Ukrainians as cannon fodder – so far, they are fighting to the last Ukrainian. The Ukrainians are now largely financed and armed by the West. The West is simply using Ukraine, and it’s waging a war on Russia, so sooner or later, it will be punished for that.

“I have been telling our Western colleagues [since] a decade ago that if they ever come closer to Russia’s borders… I did an interview I think 12 or so years ago for der Spiegel magazine, [and I said] that we would never fight on our own territory. And we are fighting now on Ukrainian territory, which of course breaks my heart, because they are [being] fooled and many of them [are] becoming ultranationalists and even neo-Nazis, but they are still a brotherly people. But there will be no grief when and if we strike those countries which are supporting the Ukrainians and using them as cannon fodder.”

[…]

Interviewer: “Will Vladimir Putin use tactical nuclear weapons on European countries as per the argument in your article?”

Karaganov: “I hope he won’t have to do that, and I think that we should do everything- including the things I proposed in my article – to avoid that. I know it would be a terrible moral choice, and I don’t want to be in president [Putin’s] shoes. But if this choice comes… [if] I were in his shoes, I would do that, but I would be finished as a man.”

Source: Russia Today TV (Russia)

EDITORS NOTE: This MEMRI column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

VIDEO: On Hitler and the Nazis’ Leftist Socialist Beliefs

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This video is 5 hours long. The probable reason is that the left after WW2 did everything they could to distance the horrors of the Nazis from their reputations as representatives of the left. The same thing happened after people learned about the gulags, arbitrary detentions and imprisonment and of course, more deaths than any statistician would be comfortable accurately tabulating lest he become one of them. The left also tried to distance itself from Soviet and North Korean horrors but that wasn’t quite as easy as it was to convince people that the shots are safe and effective Islam is the religion of peace aliens are attacking US military bases, the ozone hole will kill us all, Y2K bug will kill us all, killer bees will kill us all, bee colony collapse will kill us all, global warming has already killed us all the Nazis are somehow “far right wing”.

I have not seen it all yet, but based on his past videos I take it as an act of faith to post this as I do plan to watch it all over the week as his other videos have been very good. He has even found very important errors in James Lindsay’s material but still does recommend Prof. Lindsay’s videos.

I look forward to any and all comments on this video. It actually does matter if the Nazis are left or right wing because frankly, it appears that the Nazis have rebranded and are at it again.

EDITORS NOTE: This Vlad Tepes Blog column by is republished with permission. All rights reserved.

MTG Lays Out How Committees Are Working Together On Biden Family Investigation

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Three House committees are coordinating to investigate the Biden family’s alleged corruption, Republican Georgia Rep. and House Oversight Committee member Marjorie Taylor Greene told the Daily Caller.

The staffs of the Oversight Committee, Ways and Means Committee and Judiciary Committee are “talking” about the evidence on the Biden family, and beginning to “draw lines and connect our investigations,” Greene said.

Oversight has produced a report claiming that members of the Biden family received $10 million from foreign sources through a chain of LLCs while Joe Biden was vice president. The committee’s members also obtained access to a FD-1023 FBI informant report alleging that the president was directly involved in a “pay-to-play” scheme with a foreign national.

The Ways and Means Committee has released IRS whistleblower testimony accusing the Department of Justice (DOJ) of interfering in the investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes. The whistleblower also gave the committee a document that included transcript of an alleged text message in which Hunter Biden threatened a Chinese business associate by saying his father was in the room.

At the same time, the House Judiciary Committee is investigating how the FBI may have “impeded” investigations into the president’s son.

“What you’re seeing right now, is we’ve got three different committees investigating everything around Joe Biden … We can basically draw lines and connect our investigations at this point,” Greene told the Caller. “For example, with the IRS whistleblowers, bringing out all the information that Hunter Biden didn’t pay taxes on $2.2 million worth of revenue that came in from foreign countries and foreign nationals — that aligns with our work on Oversight because we produced through subpoenas — bank statements that show wire transfers to him from China, Romania, Ukraine into these fake LLCs — and then the payments get made to all these Biden family members. So we’re going to cross-reference those.”

Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, Oversight Chairman James Comer and Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan issued a statement Wednesday about their coordination efforts.

“Our committees are pursuing a thorough investigation into this misconduct to deliver the transparency and accountability that the American people demand and deserve,” the congressmen said.

The committees are specifically looking into the alleged 2017 WhatsApp message and its connection to a possible influence peddling scheme.

The timing of the WhatsApp message “cross-references some of those wire transfers from China. So there’s beginning to be some very serious overlap that is putting Joe Biden and Hunter Biden and probably more family members in the cross hairs of prosecution,” Greene said.

Oversight’s investigation is ongoing and the committee hopes to publish a report with information on Hunter Biden’s involvement with foreign prostitutes, Greene previously told the Caller.

The president has dismissed allegations about him as “malarkey,” and the White House Counsel’s office has maintained that the president “was not in business” with his son. Biden yelled “No!” on Wednesday in response to a reporter asking whether he was sitting next to Hunter Biden when he allegedly sent the message.

AUTHOR

DIANA GLEBOVA

White House correspondent.

RELATED ARTICLE: Biden Flees After Brushing Off Hunter Question With One-Word Answer

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

HATING AMERICA: Biden Regime Shuts Down 4th of July Celebration Near National Landmark

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Every act of this Democrat regime is an act of hatred and treason. Every thing we love and take pride in is canceled, obliterated, disappeared.

Un-American: Biden Admin Shuts Down 4th of July Celebration Near National Landmark

By Peter Partoll, The Western Journal, June 28, 2-23:

If you were still unclear about where Biden’s loyalties lie, look no further than his decision regarding the Fourth of July celebration at a national landmark.

On Monday, KELO-TV reported that the National Parks Service (NPS) had denied South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem’s request to have fireworks at Mount Rushmore to celebrate Independence Day.

Noem made the request for the permit last summer, but in a tweet in January of this year, she indicated that the request had been denied for the third year in a row.

“The best way to celebrate America’s Birthday is with fireworks at Mount Rushmore,” she wrote. “Today, the Biden Administration rejected them. Again.”

KELO reported that a reason has not yet been given for this most recent denial. In the past two years, the NPS has denied the permit request citing environmental concerns and the objection of local Native American tribes.

This means that the last time there were fireworks at Mount Rushmore was in 2020, when Trump was president, meaning that the Biden administration has denied it every year they have been in office.

This is obviously a very un-American decision on the part of the Biden administration. Mount Rushmore is a national icon that symbolizes everything good about the United States. A fireworks show there on the Fourth of July seems like the perfect way to celebrate America’s birthday.

Keep reading.

AUTHOR

Pamela Geller

RELATED ARTICLE: Agenda47: President Donald J. Trump Announces ‘Salute To America 250’ – A One-Year Celebration of 250 Years of American Independence

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Record 853,955 Foreigners Overstay Visa Decades after Terrorists Did it to Execute 9/11

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More than two decades after Islamic terrorists exploited the U.S. government’s inefficient system for tracking foreigners who overstay visas, the problem is only getting worse with a startling 853,955 visa overstays in fiscal year 2022. A new report issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) tries to downplay the severity of the situation by shining a light on the positive, that the overstay rate is a mere 3.67% compared to 96.33% of over 23 million nonimmigrants that departed the country on time in accordance with the terms of their admission.

The reality is that the latest available overstay figure is an alarming record-breaker for the U.S. and it indicates that national security is not being taken seriously by the government. At least four of the September 11 hijackers were in the United States with expired visas and all these years later the government—under both Democratic and Republican administrations—has not found a way to adequately track visa overstayers. After the 9/11 attacks Congress created a system to track the entry and exit of foreign nationals by using electronically scanned fingerprints and photographs. It was called the U.S. Visitor and Immigration Status Indicator Technology (US VISIT) and it was seriously flawed even though the government invested around a billion dollars over several years to get it going. It never worked properly, however.

In the meantime, a persistent crisis involving visa overstays has gripped the nation in years following the 2001 attacks. The investigative arm of Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that nearly half of the nation’s illegal aliens entered the U.S. legally and overstayed their visa undetected. Other federal investigations have revealed that the U.S. has failed to properly remove millions who overstayed their visa, including DHS losing track of hundreds of dangerous foreigners that “could pose a national security or public safety concerns.” Every year the government fails to catch hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals who overstay their visa. In fiscal year 2015 it was more than half a million, including thousands from terrorist nations like Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Libya and Syria. A few years later the number of visa overstayers increased to 702,000. Among them was a Portuguese man with an expired visa charged in the gruesome kidnap and murder of a young woman whose body was found bound in a suitcase on a Connecticut street.

The latest figures included in the Fiscal Year 2022 Entry/Exit Overstay Report illustrate that the problem is much worse than previously reported, though DHS tries to sugarcoat it by highlighting that most foreigners left when they were supposed to. The agency also uses the excuse of the “unique challenges” due to COVID-19 and temporary changes in U.S. policy that allowed travelers to file for immigration benefits while out of status. Nevertheless, DHS is forced to recognize in the document that the record-breaking figure of 853,955 “presents the overstay rates of those who remained in the United States beyond their authorized period of admission with no evidence of an extension to their period of admission or adjustment to another immigration status.” This is very disturbing and deserves congressional scrutiny.

The new data shows that 9,005 Chinese citizens overstayed their student visa last fiscal year, accounting for around 16% of student or exchange visitor overstays. India is second in the category with 5,037 followed by 2,918 Colombians and 2,427 Brazilians. Venezuelans accounted for the largest number of short-term visitors with expired visas at 172,640 followed by Mexico with 123,623. Mexicans also accounted for the biggest chunk of overstays in temporary worker visas with 131,000 followed by India with 5,800. Throughout the report DHS appears to make excuses for the security lapses, writing in one instance that “determining lawful status requires more than matching entry and exit data.” As an example, the agency offers that “a person may receive a six-month period of admission upon entry and then subsequently apply for and receive an extension for the period of admission of up to six months from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.” Identifying those extensions, changes, or adjustments of status are necessary steps to determine whether a person has overstayed the authorized period of admission, DHS stresses.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Top Biden Immigration Adviser Who Wants To ‘Abolish’ ICE

Homeland agency expanded authority to wage ‘domestic surveillance and censorship,’ House report says

White House accused of US Flag Code violation over Pride Month display

EDITORS NOTE: This Judicial Watch column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Attempted Russian Coup Shakes Moscow Politics, Ukraine War

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A crack unit of Russian mercenaries marched on Moscow Friday, the boldest challenge yet to the leadership of Vladimir Putin, which has already been tarnished by the nation’s failure to conquer Ukraine. The armed column turned around only hours from Moscow, after Belorussian strongman Victor Lukashenko negotiated an agreement between Putin and the mutineers’ leader Yevgeny Prigozhin. While the immediate crisis has passed, the aftershocks will likely continue.

Prigozhin leads a private military outfit called the Wagner Group, which National Review’s Noah Rothman described as “something like Blackwater private contractors, but far more cultish and ideologically nationalist.” The 25,000-strong organization controls its own tanks and other heavy weaponry and has seen heavy fighting on the frontlines in Ukraine. “They are very well trained for the atmosphere that they are in,” said Lt. General (Ret.) Jerry Boykin on Monday’s “Washington Watch.” “Putin’s regime has relied heavily on this group of mercenaries as a key allied fighting force in their unprovoked invasion of neighboring Ukraine,” agreed Family Research Council President Tony Perkins.

For years, Russia has employed the Wagner Group to do dirty work it wanted to keep at arm’s length. They have deployed to Syria and Libya, among other places, and Prigozhin also oversaw troll farms that sought to intervene in the U.S. election in 2016. The Wagner Group, which recruits hardened criminals out of prison, is also known for glorifying cruelty and brutality, such as performing executions by sledgehammer. “They are the most brutal. They are the ones that have killed more people, have slaughtered innocent people. They are not good guys,” said Boykin. “And that’s what we need to remember: there are no good guys here.”

In recent months, the Wagner Group has grown increasingly frustrated with the Russian military’s conduct in the war. Prigozhin “decided that his troops were not being taken care of. He decided that he was not getting the ammo, the material, the food, or any kind of priority,” Boykin explained. He also suspected that Military Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu were setting Wagner Group up to take the blame for the invasion’s failure. Apparently, the final straw came when Russian bombs hit Wagner Group’s positions — a move they saw as deliberate.

In response, Prigozhin declared a “March of Justice” Friday evening and urged his soldiers to travel directly to Moscow. He demanded the ouster of Gerasimov and Shoigu. “If anyone gets in our way, we will destroy everything,” the mercenary chief declared. From there the details get murky, with Western onlookers peeping at the internal Russian struggle through a veil of censorship and state-controlled media, or grainy, unconfirmed videos posted to sites like Telegram.

From what we have ascertained, it seems that, within hours, the Wagner Group had marched without resistance into Rostov-on-Don, a city of over one million inhabitants to the southeast of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, and which has served as a key logistics hub for Russia’s war effort. The insurgent column then turned north for Moscow, travelling nearly 500 miles overnight and circumventing most of the Russian army which remains tied down in Ukraine. They encountered light air resistance — Putin said Monday the Wagner Group had killed Russian pilots — but no other opposition on their march.

But then, only 125 miles from Moscow, the column of troops turned around. In a video message release Monday, Prigozhin denied attempting a coup, saying instead, “We didn’t march to overthrow Russia’s leadership and turned around to avoid spilling the blood of Russian soldiers. … Our march aimed to prevent the destruction of Wagner.” Boykin remarked, “I don’t think that it was a serious effort to bring down Putin. I think it was a serious effort to bring down those two people,” referring to Gerasimov and Shoigu.

Yet before the march was called off, Putin’s plane left the capital as the Moscow mayor declared Monday a “non-working day” and the city deployed troops and strengthened checkpoints.

Apparently, Putin and Prigozhin came to an understanding with Lukashenko acting as a middleman in the negotiations. Progozhin agreed to call off the armed march on Moscow, while Putin promised no prosecutions for the mutineers. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor to the infamous KGB, declared the criminal investigations closed on Tuesday. Prigozhin departed for Russian-allied Belarus, while the rank and file of the Wagner Group was given a choice between joining the regular Russian army, laying down their arms, or joining their chief in Belarus.

While individual members could choose different options, Boykin said he couldn’t see why any members of the Wagner Group would join the regular Russian army. “They don’t fight for a cause. They fight for money,” he explained. “I don’t see why any of them would do that, because they’re not going to get paid what they’re getting paid now. They’re going to be at the bottom of the totem pole. Everybody is really angry with them.” As to laying down their arms, these veteran soldiers for hire could face retribution for their war crimes from international tribunals, Boykin pointed out, and that might be made easier if they laid down their arms. However, the group was preparing to hand over their heavy weaponry, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday. On Monday, independent Russian media reported that Belarus was constructing camps for members of the Wagner Group.

That doesn’t mean the issue is settled, however. Such an anti-climactic settlement between such ruthless and ambitious figures only indicates mutual weakness. Until Putin can reassert his strength, he only makes himself a target for other unscrupulous and ambitious subordinates. Boykin said the weekend’s events would “really rock Putin. They’re going to rock him back on his heels.” He cannot afford to let “the biggest challenge to his power in decades,” as Perkins put it, go unpunished.

But Prigozhin may not accept an uneasy exile, still within Putin’s reach. “He may not even know what he’s going to do, but I don’t think he’s going to stay in Belarus,” said Boykin. “He’d better wind up buying the very best taster that he can find.”

Count on Putin to at least try to manage a quiet assassination for Prigozhin if he remains in Belarus. And if he doesn’t succeed, count on Putin to face more insurgency among his high-ranking officials.

“Most assuredly, this shows the factions” within the Kremlin, said Boykin. “This shows a couple of them. There are others too.” He suggested other mercenary outfits may step into the void left by Wagner because of the money to be made.

U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken suggested that Moscow’s disarray could give Ukrainians an advantage in their efforts to push Russian invaders out of their territory. “To the extent that Russia is now distracted — that Putin has to worry about what’s going on inside of Russia as much as he has to worry about what he has to do not successfully inside Ukraine, I think that creates an additional advantage for the Ukrainians,” Blinken said Sunday. Ukraine’s counteroffensive is attempting to take advantage of the confusion.

However, Russia’s internal turmoil is unlikely to entice Moscow to end the war, either under Putin’s hand or under any government that might replace him. Putin remains as committed as ever, and the potential replacements are also unscrupulous strongman-types. “The men who rise to the top of the Russian system tend to be like Putin and Prigozhin — egomaniacal, ruthless, brutal, paranoid, shameless — an odious combination of cold-blooded ambition and wicked comfort with violence,” remarked National Review’s Jim Geraghty.

Even aside from his incentives to punish Prigozhin, “Putin doesn’t seem to forgive very easily,” Perkins said. Most of his domestic political opponents over his long rule have spent years or decades in prison and penal colonies — and that was while Moscow was trying to win international legitimacy. Putin has even attempted to assassinate former Western spies living in Western countries as recently as 2018. On Saturday, he described the Wagner Group’s march on Moscow as an “armed rebellion” and “a stab in the back of our country and our people” that he would meet with “decisive actions.” So far, Putin has made no decisive move against Prigozhin.

The Wagner group mutiny has been brewing for some time. Ever since Putin’s first blitz in February 2022 failed to decapitate the Ukrainian government, Russia’s underperformance on the battlefield has generated pressure on the aged leader as his strongman image faced increasing contrary evidence. Combined with the semi-independent Wagner Group’s perception of mistreatment by top Russian brass, an eventual revolt seemed inevitable. Now, it has happened, and the uncharacteristically (by Russian standards) bloodless resolution strongly suggests there are more dominoes yet to fall.

AUTHOR

Joshua Arnold

Joshua Arnold is a staff writer at The Washington Stand.

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