US Domestic Politics and internal affairs

This is not corruption, it is totally legal. But anywhere else in the World the US would regard it as corruption.

Also definitely not the prime reason for the clampdown on 'free' speech in US universities.

Western politicians are clowns and scumbags for every part of the spectrum. This is soap opera theater for the prole electorate that can't remember
what these f*ckers did three weeks before.

The US is special in its college sports business. Canada has "varsity" teams but they are not big and corporate money is not swirling around them
like in the US. Canada is similar to America, but different.

https://www.prsvre.com/articles/unspokenrealities

He was tortured into submission. He was detained illegally in nasty jails in essentially solitary confinement without any trial. It does not matter
that some country demanded his extradition. That is not an actual criminal case before a court of law. So Assange should have been free and
not even on bail.

Gonzalo Lira was murdered by prison in Ukraine.

The US is a lunatic racket. A freaking heart attack costs over $600,000. For what? The $100 per second billing fees? Insurance is not the issue.
The ludicrous service prices are truly exceptional.

So much respect for property rights in the USA. The paragon of individual liberty.

The point of all the propaganda about how exceptionally free and democratic is the USA is designed to tranquilize the brains of Americans as they are
being ass raped by their police state. A police state with capricious kangaroo courts. Note how this victim was coerced into giving up his rights
by financial burdens. The ludicrous dismissals of patently valid suits is more of the freak show. The alleged rights of Americans are irrelevant fictions
on paper. If you don't have the millions of dollars for the lawyers, then you have no rights.

Plans to deploy US missiles in Germany aimed at saving Biden’s reputation — Russian MFA, 07.11.2024.

"All this is being done to somehow distract the public from the issue that is now facing the United States of America," Maria Zakharova added.

MOSCOW, July 11. /TASS/. The announcement of plans to deploy US intermediate-and shorter-range missiles in Germany was aimed at saving US President Joe Biden’s reputation, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told the Rossiya-24 TV channel.

"Washington is taking a series of measures to save the liberal Democratic candidate after his debate failure, when the entire country was horrified and started asking how the US information policy could have made it impossible for the government and the public to get a real idea of Biden’s physical condition," she said.

"All this is being done to somehow distract the public from the issue that is now facing the United States of America," the diplomat added.

According to Zakharova, this is why drastic steps are being taken, domestic and foreign policy statements are being made and the situation around Ukraine is being hyped up.

Washington and Berlin said earlier in a joint statement that the US would begin deployments of long-range fires capabilities in Germany in 2026, "which have significantly longer range than current land-based fires in Europe."

https://tass.com/politics/1815871

This is sheer Bidenomics disguised as economic "science" and betting on the pursuit of the holy grail of Robinette's reelection:

The US will give Russia a royal gift, by Kirill Strelnikov for RiaNovosti. 07.12.2024.

When your strategic adversary thinks he has you at gunpoint, only to find a gun pointed at his own temple, it's an Oscar-worthy plot twist.

In the Russian information field, understandably fixated on the de facto hot military confrontation with the collective West, led by Washington , they rarely pay attention to such boring things as changes in the US Federal Reserve rate - this is done by nerds in glasses who shudder even at a shot of champagne.

Nevertheless, the economic side of the Russia-West confrontation is no less, and perhaps more important, than the volume of weapons sent to Ukraine and the number of square kilometers liberated by our valiant fighters with the help of our own high-tech "iron".

The Western media is discussing with growing alarm the news that the US Federal Reserve System may begin to sharply reduce interest rates starting this September and several more times during 2025 (eight times in total - from the base rate of 5.25-5.5% currently to 3.25-3.5%). Is this good or bad for Russia?

The play, entitled "Captain America Quickly Defeats Hordes of Russian Orcs with One Silver Basin," developed as follows.

Under the cover of traditional fetishes like Apple's capitalization , which is a sextillion times greater than the capitalization of the entire Russian financial market, since the beginning of the Second World War, the US authorities have very quickly effectively switched to a military budget with off-the-charts military spending and a corresponding off-the-charts budget deficit at the level of the Second World War (military spending is real money, not pretty bubble wrappers on the stock exchange).

Despite the fact that the most prominent financial theorists still claim from their favorite sofas that the owner of a printer can print as much green as he wants, the law of the Russian first printer Ivan Fedorov has inexorably led the United States to a record growth in inflation, which has begun to eat away at Biden’s ratings with the fury of Shere Khan.

By the way, the paper dollars that flooded the market sharply raised the price of real gold, thanks to which Russia, having wisely bought it for its gold reserves at half the current price (it was $1,000-1,600), with the prospect of prices rising to $5,000, $10,000 and even $15,000 per ounce, can increase its profit several times over. But that's by the way.

To tame inflation (quote: "The worst jump in 40 years"), the Fed raised interest rates 11 (!) times between March 2022 and July 2023. By July 2023, the interest rate had reached a 23-year record. But even after that, according to Fed Chairman Powell, "there is no confidence in inflation control in sight."

High interest rates with unconquered inflation (which is the growth of consumer prices) have led to rising unemployment in the US and a sharp drop in GDP (1.4% in the first quarter of 2024 versus 3.4% in the fourth quarter of 2023). According to the recent "June jobs report", the unemployment rate in the US is at its highest level since November 2021, and income growth is the lowest since May 2021. According to experts, the money in the US social security system is running out, and by 2035 it may dry up completely due to rising prices and an increase in the disabled population.

In order not to bother the impatient with other indicators, we will cite only one quote from Fortune: "The (US) economy is heading for a sharp decline." In short, the Kuzkina mother that they tried to set on the Russians kicked the Americans themselves, and now there is no other option than to turn the mincemeat back (i.e., lower interest rates).

A sharp reduction in the Fed's interest rates is a sharp weakening of the dollar. And a sharp weakening of the dollar entails a lot of freshly baked buns that Kuz'kina mother, having escaped from American captivity, brought to the hem, namely:

• the inevitable rise in oil prices (and therefore Russia’s income);

• the inevitable rise in gold prices (and therefore Russia's income);

• general growth in consumption in the world against the backdrop of more accessible loans (and hence growth in demand and prices for Russian exports);

• growth of the Chinese economy (and therefore an increase in income from Russian exports to China - let's not forget who our "main trading partner" is);

• a decline in the interest of foreign investors in the US financial market (already damaged beyond repair by American attempts to "squeeze outright" Russia's frozen assets) and a switch to new markets (including Russia).

The Americans (or rather, the American deep state) understand this, but they can’t do anything about it: Biden’s rating must be saved at any cost to be re-elected.

In other words, apparently, the Americans, cursing, are already tying a blue ribbon around a luxurious gift that we did not expect, but which will come in very handy - why not?

The US cannot strengthen its economy without strengthening Russia's economy. You wanted globalization? Get a postcard from the Kremlin "From Russia with love" and sign it.

https://ria.ru/20240712/podarok-1959075319.html

Biden’s Boast on Inflation Crashes, Burns as Department of Labor Releases Prices Report, by Ilya Tsukanov for Sputnikglobe.com. 07.12.2024.

President Joe Biden this week cited a 0.1 percent drop in the consumer price index between May and June as evidence that his administration’s policies had brought inflation under control, blasting former President Donald Trump’s proposed 10 percent tariff on all imports as an idea that would cause inflation to spike back up again.

The wholesale inflation figure released by the Department of Labor on Friday showed its highest annualized increase since March 2023, contradicting Labor data from a day earlier indicating that consumer prices are on a downward trend.

Some business media picked up on the oddity, which showed that the Core Producer Price Index had increased 0.2 percent in June – above the forecasted 0.1 percent, or 2.6 percent on an annualised basis, citing finicky food and energy prices, which increased 0.4 percent in June – double the 0.2 percent expected.

“Just this morning, we had a great economic report showing inflation is down,” President Biden said in a rare press conference with reporters on Thursday.

“Overall, prices fell last month. Core inflation is the lowest it’s been in three years. Prices are falling for cars, appliances, and airfares. Grocery prices have fallen since the start of the year. We’re going to keep working to take down corporate greed to bring those prices down further,” he said.

Biden went on to attack his 2024 rival, Donald Trump, over his proposed 10 percent tariff on imports, saying “economists tell us that that would cost the average American working family another $2,500 a year.”
The current administration’s detractors have spent years criticizing Biden’s economic and foreign policy and their role in ramping up inflation, with some alleging that the official data “significantly understate” actual price increases.

Food and housing costs remain significantly higher now than they were when Biden took office, with rent and home prices jumping 21.9 and 29.3 percent, respectively, and food costs up 21.5-22.7 percent, according to Bureau of Labor data.

Individual staple items have jumped even higher, with egg prices increasing by 85 percent between January 2021 and today.

“He’s done a poor job and inflation is killing our country. It is absolutely killing us,” Trump said during last month’s presidential debate with Biden, claiming that during his term “everything was rocking good.”

Over the years, Biden has blamed the inflation situation on Trump, coronavirus, Vladimir Putin and corporate greed.
Inflation has steadily remained above five percent for over half of Joe Biden’s term, and above three percent for all but the first three months of his presidency. Under Trump, the maximum inflation rate never surpassed the two percent threshold.

High US inflation has been attributed to an array of factors, including the pumping of trillions of dollars into the economy during Covid under the pretext of economic stimulus, and the Biden administration’s massive spending program, like the $1 trillion infrastructure spending package. Other factors, including Western powers to rapidly halt the purchase of Russian energy in 2022 amid the Ukrainian crisis, have also played a role, causing energy costs to surge, and gas prices to temporarily hit a historic high of over $5 a gallon.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240712/bidens-boast-on-inflation-crashes-burns-as-department-of-labor-releases-prices-report-1119354709.html

From Clinton Fraud to Trump-Zelensky Call: Recalling CrowdStrike’s Shady Politics Amid IT Outage, by Ilya Tsukanov for Sputnikglobe.com. 07.20.2024.

A sloppy update to software made by US cybersecurity giant CrowdStrike has taken PCs and servers used by airlines, railways, banks, broadcasters and even medical facilities around the world offline. For anyone following US politics over the past decade or so, the company’s name should be eerily familiar.

CrowdStrike is making global headlines (and causing global headaches) this week after an update released Friday morning afflicted thousands of corporate machines running Microsoft products with the infamous blue screen of death error.

While the company has already put out a fix, the buggy update is expected to cause billions of dollars and hours in lost productivity, and experts say it may take “weeks” for businesses and governments worldwide to fully recover.
But behind the company’s reputation as a major provider of endpoint security products is the odd routineness of its name popping up in US politics.

During the 2016 US presidential election, the Clinton campaign asked none other than CrowdStrike for help investigating the hack attack against the Democratic National Committee – which had revealed embarrassing info about the party’s efforts to rig the nomination process in Mrs. Clinton’s favor.

CrowdStrike’s probe gave rise to the very first claims that Russia was behind the DNC hack, and the company provided its “forensic evidence and analysis” to the FBI, starting the ball rolling on the Russiagate conspiracy theory that Donald Trump was colluding with Russia to “steal” the election.

CrowdStrike executive Shawn Henry admitted under oath in congressional testimony in 2017 that the company had no “concrete evidence” to back up its “Russian hackers” story, but by that point it was too late, and Trump would spend virtually the entirety of his term in office dogged by the “collusion” claims.

CrowdStrike’s name also came up in the infamous 2019 phone call between Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky, with the then-US president asking Zelensky to “do us a favor” and “find out what happened” with CrowdStrike’s server, which Trump said was in Ukraine. The Trump team was convinced that CrowdStrike planted evidence on the DNC server to frame Russia while covering up Ukraine’s own efforts to “weaken the Trump bandwagon” during the 2016 race. Democratic politicians and anti-Trump media dismissed the president’s suspicions as groundless.

The Trump-Zelensky phone call, in which he also asked Kiev to look into then former vice president Joe Biden’s role in firing of a prosecutor probing his son Hunter Biden’s alleged corrupt activities while working for Ukrainian energy company Burisma, wound up sparking the first Trump impeachment in 2019.

CrowdStrike was also one a handful of firms tapped by the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in 2021 to work out a ‘whole-of-nation’ cyber defense plan. The initiative has been criticized as an attempt to strengthen the US intelligence and Big Tech’s surveillance powers using cybersecurity as a cover.

The same year, CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz blamed Russian hackers for the 2020 SolarWinds hack attack on the US Federal Government, but curiously admitted the company had no information of its own “to corroborate that finding.”

'PR Nightmare’

“The PR aspect is of course a nightmare for CrowdStrike,” veteran independent cybersecurity expert Lars Hilse told Sputnik, commenting on Friday’s outage and the impact it’s had on the company’s image and stock price.

CrowdStrike’s market cap plunged by $12.5 billion, and its CEO George Kurtz saw over $320 million shaved from his personal fortune. The company stock’s price fell from about $343 to $302 per share, signaling that about 12 percent of the company’s market value has been wiped out.

Interestingly, not everyone in the company came out of the outage in the red, with Chief Security Officer Shawn Henry selling off 4,000 shares of CrowdStrike Holdings’ common stock on July 15 for $371.32 per share, or $1.49 million total, according to Security and Exchange Commission data.

Hilse says the main “lesson” from the CrowdStrike mess will be the demand that cybersecurity companies improve testing before rolling out critical updates – something especially important if they’re done as “a single update being pushed to a plethora of customers running cloud-based solutions, including those responsible for the flawless operation of critical infrastructure like airports, banks, etc.”

“With increasing reliance on technology comes exponentially increasing impact on society if these technologies fail, whether through a deliberate/targeted attack, or a faulty piece of software, like in this case,” Hilse emphasized.

Russian cybersecurity specialist Alexei Lukatskiy told Sputnik Russia has been able to dodge CrowdStrike bullet thanks to strong homegrown cybersecurity companies. Friday’s outages thus serves as another important “lesson” for Russia, which has been “gradually switching away from products by foreign vendors to Russian ones,” that it’s on the right track, he said.

Another important takeaway, according to Lukatskiy, is the modern world’s increasingly critical level of dependence on computers. “IT has penetrated into a wide array of different areas, and the owners of companies working in critical industries must understand all the consequences and evaluate the unacceptable events that may occur due to the seeming failure of an ordinary computer...,” he said.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240720/from-clinton-fraud-to-trump-zelensky-call-recalling-crowdstrikes-shady-politics-amid-it-outage-1119442359.html

Biden has body doubles. The US government is a criminal clown show.