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Oh, and we have a new kitten.
WEDNESDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 2025
PODCAST: The Duran Podcast (9/23/25)
If you really want to get a dose of right-wing British commentary, you couldn’t do better than the Duran Podcast. Alexander Mercouris, one of the hosts, who is interviewed on every podcast as if he were a guest is a disbarred attorney. His contempt for the British and European government class (“utterly incompetent people”) couldn’t be more obvious. His misogyny pervades his commentary as well.
To give you just one example of the discussion from this morning, the guest is rabbiting on about how the level of violence among the Trans community is 80%. He claims some study (not identified) established this and that ALL the other research that has been done in this area had been changed to hide the high rate of violence within Trans relationships and by Trans people against others. Just think about this: ALL THE OTHER RESEARCH, every other study that has ever been done which indicates low violence rates among Trans people has been changed. You can’t take anybody like this seriously.
I listen to the podcast periodically just to get a snoot full of what they are talking about.
They are now talking about the “globalist elite” and ubiquitous George Soros.
TRUMP:
Trump has put out a tweet or whatever that says Ukraine could take back its original borders. He points out Russia’s “paper tiger” status in not taking back the country in a week. He points out the economic woes of Russia. I am just hoping Trump takes enough of his own Ketamine to believe that he can operate outside Putin’s control. If he does, we can all hope that Putin just releases everything he has on Trump that allowed him to turn Trump into a Russian asset.
RUSSIA:
Russia continues to violate NATO airspace, testing the reaction. So far, the reaction has been nothing.
UKRAINE: EUROMAIDAN PRESS
- Russia built its war on oil money. Then Ukraine took the fight to the oilfields. Since August, drones have struck 16 of Russia’s 38 refineries. “the war machine is under economic siege.”
- Ukraine Third Army Corps radio intercept of Russians “Kill everyone indiscriminately. Except children. The Russian troops in Donetsk Oblast followed the orders. They shot the parents in a home and took the underage daughter alive. The commander added: “She must not see the dead bodies.” Russian forces use the girl as cover, preventing Ukrainian troops from firing on their positions. (The Russians have taken thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia to be adopted.)
- Military aircraft with Spanish defense minister undergoes GPS attack. This is the third time EU government planes suffered GPS interference this year. The incident occurred over the Baltic Sea near Russia’s heavily militarized Kaliningrad Oblast.
- A former Florida police officer who fled to Moscow and works with Russian intelligence, runs a massive Russian propaganda network with over 200 fake news sites, all AI generated.
UKRAINE: The Kyiv Independent
- The Russian finance Ministry proposed a value-added tax hike to boost “war-strained budget.” (quote from Independent)
FRIDAY 26 SEPTEMBER 2025
TRUMP
U.S. Attorney Halligan, appointed by Trump, because nobody in the Eastern Office would indict, indited James Comey. It is clear that it was brought because Trump demanded it. It is selective prosecution. Vindictive, retaliation. Halligan brought the charges before the court herself. She is not a prosecutor, she is an insurance lawyer.
TRUMP: THE MARK THOMPSON SHOW:
INTERVIEW WITH SARAH KENZIOR (UTube) “Trump’s Transformed GOP, a Party of Followers (9/26/25)
(Remember the woman who was right about everything and was invited back less and less to the cable news programs because she was right? This is her. Remember the women who told her podcast partner that Biden wasn’t going to do anything about the fundamental problems with Trump and Trumpism? This is her.)
- Kenzior: People talked and talked about crossing some line moving toward authoritarianism. We crossed a fundamental line when “They took control of the Supreme Court.” Trump used the tactics he has used his whole life – bribery, black mail, threats of litigation. The Republican party became more extremist because of Trump and attracted more extremists because of Trump.
- Thompson: Trump’s cabinet is incompetent.
- Kenzior: Trump’s administration is “very competent.” It just depends on what you see them as trying to do. They are extremely competent at “stripping the country down and selling it for parts.” “That’s been their explicit goal since 2016.” If you remember, in the first administration, Bannon said they aimed the “deconstruction of the administrative state.” They came up with Project 2025 which was a blueprint for stripping down the government. They “cast people” in particular parts, to lead the very departments they wanted to dismantle.
- Thompson: The corruption is just so out in the open like Tom Holman taking bag of money. The Justice Department just “looks the other way.”
- Kenzior: The Justice Department looking away is not unique to the Trump administrations. They are just forthright about it. The DOJ is not meant to “serve the public good.” Under Biden, it was portrayed as, there was the “pretense that it was” this plodding slow process, that needs to be carefully managed” “struggling to get everything right” and it accomplished absolutely nothing. “That’s how the Justice Department has been behaving for the past ten or more years.” They are not functional at holding criminal elites accountable. Mueller brought no results at holding the criminal elite responsible. They pointed out criminal behavior but did nothing about it.
- Thompson: You write about “institutions created by the elite protecting the elite, institutions slow walking processes.”
- Kenzior: “They are very brazen.” The Trump Administration, but it is a similar result. And, they have had a propaganda campaign in place to sway our opinions of institutions like the FBI. I wrote an article called “Servants of the Mafia State.” It details why Garland did what he did. He was mentored by Jamie Gorelick, who was associated with Jared Kushner. She was Kushner’s “so called” ethics lawyer. That’s who got Garland a position under Clinton as an AG. Under Biden, was fully aware of that.
- Kenzior: For Trump, it’s an “outright program of vengeance,” “the show trial way.” These are people who have probably committed crimes, but that’s not what they are being prosecuted for.
- Comey, for example, a little before the 2016 election, took the head of the Russian Mafia off the FBI’s Most Wanted List and replaced him. This was beneficial to Trump. In going after Comey, they are giving their base what they want. It’s just chum in the water.
- Thompson: (Note: Don’t make the money they would make in the private sector. Bull shit. Don’t feel sorry for them). The good people in the Justice Department are easily threatened because have families. (Note: Everybody has families).
- Kenzior: Trump was a “career criminal associate.” If the Justice Department had done its job, he wouldn’t have been eligible to run in 2016. His illicit foreign dealings were well known (and have subsequently been documented in several books). That fact that he wasn’t prosecuted gave Americans a false sense of safety. It made the Democrats look like they were lying. If Trump was that corrupt why wasn’t he in prison?
- Kenzior: Trump went after those investigating transnational crimed, gutting the investigative agencies. During the Biden administration they should have taken these problems seriously and taken care of business. They did not.
- Kenzior: “We’re kind of beyond the point of reform” with these agencies.
- Thompson: Trump gave TicToc to Larry Ellison, a colleague (note: co-conspirator). That kind of control over messaging is frightening.
- Kenzior: “There was always a gate keeper aspect to the media. You remember seeing the coverage of Iran/Contra.” And, the ability to speak freely on the internet is disappearing rapidly.
- Thompson: About the government shutdown, OMB put out a memo warning that if there is a shutdown, they will permanently get rid of people.
- Kenzior: There’s an enormous risk to the shutdown. Republicans want to shut down everything. There is the possibility of them letting a shutdown “go on forever.” They value government as a way of spying on us or controlling us, but not to supply post office, or a public school system.
- Kim McCallister: The leader of Turkey is coming to White House. Liftin the ban on some arms sales.
- Kenzior: Israel was recently threatening Turkey. There were such hopes for Erdogan. “They are two of a kind in a way.” Erdogan is looking out for Erdogan.” There was Brexit, Orban, Erdogan all kinds of soft power consolidation. “The people and the culture (of Turkey) are every different from the government.” But they are running very different dictatorships. The Republicans want to “collapse the country” “sell off the remains.” It is mafia state rule. We are in more danger than if it were the former soft power electoral dictatorship model. “Trump is just the front man not the ideologue.”
- Kenzior: I woke up one morning and “I had fewer rights than my son.” Women had no bodily autonomy. From the Democratic Party, we got well “too bad for you.”
- Thompson: “It is really a war on women.”
- Kenzior: Yes and they are “obsessed with the rapture.” Talking about the MAGA folks.
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We’re All Going to Die Anyway: Life with Republicans
One of the things that keeps be alive while trying to deal with life under Republicans, is cats. This is Sam Clemens, who recently joined our household. We found him in our front yard, screaming his head off, alone in the rain. Have no idea where he came from. He was scared when we first trapped him. We felt we had to trap him since we couldn’t bear his screaming in the yard. The trap terrified him, but as soon as we got him out and on the back screened in porch, he settled down. First, he stopped screaming. Then he stopped scrambling around the porch trying to find a place to hide. Now, a few weeks later. He thinks he owns the place. I have never seen such a tiny kitten who so completely believed himself to be just as large as the nine other adult cats we have living in our house. He fit in perfectly and quickly. He was so smart at learning the routine, breakfast, morning walk, morning nap, treats, dinner, treat time (you have to come in off the porch) then kibble time, then medicine time which is much less onerous than it sounds since it’s medicine sprinkled into either tuna or baby food. They love it. Then, bed time.
When we call them to treat time, all the cats come to the living room and assume their proper places. When their name is called out, they look up and a treat is thrown to them. They don’t go after the other cat’s treat and they wait their turn. Sam comes bouncing all over the sofa in excitement. He knows his name already. He’s not very good at chasing treats. I’m not sure his eyes are fully developed. But, if he doesn’t spot the treat, I point it out to him while he is looking for it. The older cats have adapted to him amazingly. Aside from a few hisses and a couple of whops for behavior not allowed, they have accepted him as one of the family.
Pooper (gray, Russian Blue) is extremely jealous of him, but that’s another long story. Pooper has already taught Sam that he is not to come up to the second floor. Pooper considers the second floor (as our cat sitter said) “his private suite.” If you carry Sam upstairs and put him down, even if Pooper is nowhere around, he will jump down and run back downstairs. Cats. The wonderful, funny, entertaining, baffling world of cats.
PODCAST: BAD FAITH WITH Briahna Joy Gray (9/22/25
Briahna Gray talks to UC Irvine Professor and author of Virtue Hoarders: The Case Against the Progressional Managerial Class, Catherine Liu.
- According to AOC (speaking against a House resolution to celebrate Carlie Kirk’s life), Charlie Kirk said that Jews controlled not only the colleges, but non-profits and Hollywood, called for a “patriot” to bail out Paul Pelosi’s attacker, believed the Civil Rights Act was a “mistake.”
- Kamala Harris’s new memoir is coming out soon. She got a seven-figure advance. The Atlantic first published an excerpt. During the campaign she was reluctant to criticize Biden, but not so in the book.
- (Subscribe to hear entire episode)
PODCAST: The Majority Report with Sam Seder. If you are at all interested in current events this is a must listen podcast.
RUSSIA:
The Moscow Times (9/18/25)
- Russia is already using a range of hybrid methods: “physical attacks…information-related measures like propaganda, disinformation, and influence campaigns…” “The objective is to disorient and undermine the adversary…”
- The violation of Polish airspace with Russian drones was accompanied by Russian denials of responsibility, and the mocking of “exaggerated” reactions. The Russian media was prepared for the event and “operated as part of a coordinated information campaign.”
- The drone attack was called a “Ukrainian provocation.
- The Russians are trying to acerbate tensions in Poland caused by an overburdened refugee system as well as economic problems.
RECIPE
Sweet Potato Chocolate donuts
- 1 c cooked sweet potato
- 1 c. almond flour
- 1/3 c cocoa powder
- ½ c maple syrup
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp nut butter
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
Oven 350, grease donut pan. Whisk together potato, egg, syrup, butter. Add cocoa, flour, baking powder and salt. Stir just until combined. Spoon into pan. Bake 20-25 min. All to cool 5 min. sprinkle with powdered sugar, or simple icing.
Note: Heat pecans and butter and coconut flakes and salt in saucepan. Put on top of donuts. Great.
Christina
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The Kremlin on Tuesday rejected allegations that Russia was behind unidentified drones that flew over the capitals of Denmark and Norway the night before, disrupting air traffic and forcing dozens of flights to be diverted or canceled.
— Read on www.themoscowtimes.com/The unexplained flights over Denmark and Norway come amid a rise in reported Russian drone and aircraft incursions near NATO’s eastern flank. Estonia and Poland both recently accused Moscow of violating their airspace and invoked Article 4 of the NATO treaty, which allows members to consult on threats to their security.
NATO ambassadors were scheduled to meet this week after Estonia said three Russian MiG-31 fighters entered its airspace over the Gulf of Finland last Friday.
Danish intelligence officials said Tuesday the country faced a “high threat of sabotage.”
Flemming Drejer, director of operations at the Danish Security and Intelligence Service, said the drones over Copenhagen may not have been intended to attack but rather to “stress us out and see how we react.”
Danish police said “several large drones” hovered over Copenhagen Airport for more than three hours on Monday evening. They decided not to shoot down the drones for safety reasons, adding that the aircraft eventually flew away.
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www.mediamatters.org/charlie-kirk/killing-charlie-kirk-political-violence-and-rights-response
Yet within the right-wing media bubble, long before there was even a suspect in custody, commentators cited Kirk’s killing as proof the left is at war with them. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) on Thursday called out right-wing pundits who took Kirk’s death “as an opportunity to say we’re at war so that they could get some of our conservative followers lathered up over this.” He added: “It seems like a cheap, disgusting, awful way to pretend like you’re a leader of a conservative movement.”
They are at war with us!” Fox News star Jesse Watters said on The Five, his network’s most-watched show, shortly after Kirk’s passing was announced.
“Whether we want to accept it or not, they are at war with us,” he continued. “And what are we gonna do about it? How much political violence are we going to tolerate? And that’s the question we’re just gonna have to ask ourselves.”
“THIS IS WAR,” posted Libs of TikTok. “Civil war,” wasAndrew Tate’s take. “This is war,” commented Ian Miles Cheong. “This is a war, this is a war, this is a war,” Alex Jones said on his livestream. According to Steve Bannon, “We are at war in this country.” “We’re not supposed to say this,” posted Shaun Maguire. “But the truth is we’re at War.”
Many on the right were Kirk’s friends and are mourning his death. Some of them may fear for their own safety. But the narrative they have constructed relies on ignoring the recent spate of attacks targeting Democrats, the gruesome contemporaneous response to those attacks from some of the most influential voices on the right, and the chorus of Democratic officials who have condemned Kirk’s assassination.
There is no war, no righteous, violent struggle between a “left” and a “right.” A man was killed. His killer deserves to be brought to justice. Turning that into a “war” can only make the situation worse.
MEDIA MATTERS
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x.com/euromaidanpress/status/1970141793124540636
Russia’s shadow fleet comprises 17% of world’s oil tankers. It allows Moscow to bypass Western sanctions and keep war funding flowing — New York Times.
The 940 aging vessels operate by using fake insurance, flying flags from third countries, and transmitting false location data to hide where they loaded Russian crude oil.
This shadow fleet exploded in size after Europe banned Russian oil imports in 2022 due to the full-scale war in Ukraine, forcing Moscow to find new buyers in India and China and avoid the $60-per-barrel price cap imposed by Western nations.
The poorly maintained tankers are already causing oil spills across the Black Sea and Baltic Sea, with experts warning of potential “environmental catastrophe.”
The EU has blacklisted over 500 shadow fleet ships and plans its 19th sanctions package, but enforcement remains difficult as vessels continue “flag hopping” and transferring cargo
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The village, Kindrativka, is one of two that Ukraine has retaken in the region this summer, and its forces are now pushing close to other Russian-held villages — modest gains that matter deeply to Kyiv.
But reclaiming small areas of Sumy helps Ukraine counter Moscow’s narrative that Russian advances are unstoppable and that Kyiv should settle for a peace deal now, even if it means giving up territory. Moscow’s progress has stalled in Sumy to the point that it is moving troops from that area to other fronts, analysts say, including the eastern region of Donetsk, where it is trying to encircle several key cities.
Russia’s Sumy operation “has failed,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine told reporters on Wednesday. “They suffered significant losses, primarily in manpower,” Mr. Zelensky said of Russian forces, adding that those who remained were being redeployed.
Ukraine’s step forward in Sumy draws on familiar tactics like relentless drone strikes and small-group infantry assaults. But their execution by some of Kyiv’s elite units, including airborne troops, helped explain the advance.
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Law, Power, and Justice 