Puppet Masters
Elon Musk had also joked about the threat he received from former Russian space agency chief.
Elon Musk's father has said that his billionaire son could be assassinated. Errol Musk, 77, criticized a recent article in The New Yorker, which claimed that the Tesla CEO's influence weighs on government decisions around space, Ukraine, social media, and electric vehicles. The report also highlighted how crucial SpaceX's Starlink satellites had been in war in Ukraine. After Mr Musk's acquisition of Twitter last year, US President Joe Biden said his relationships with other countries are "worthy of being looked at".
Even if history truly does come as tragedy and repeat as farce, the neoconservatives' re-emergence is extraordinary, because Iraq isn't the only tragedy, or farce, on their sixty-year record. This record has nothing to do with the hard-nosed, practical, anti-communist, and anti-Iranian outlook with which it's sometimes associated — one shared by many Republicans. Instead, it flows from a broader foreign and domestic project of power accrual and social control driven by ideologues and administrators in Washington, D.C. The project's effects reach wide and deep: though the Center for American Progress and Democracy: A Journal of Ideas feed the Biden White House personnel and policies, their insider playbook was created by the neocons, whose think-tanks and magazines laid the groundwork for an insulated class of political ideologues to wreak their will on the rest of us.
Why do their moves keep working? And how can we minimize their influence?

Ukrainian soldiers fire at Russian positions from a US-supplied M777 howitzer
Kherson region, Ukraine • Jan. 9, 2023
More than 18 months into the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, NATO military aid to Kiev remains a constituent part of the war. This factor seeps into public consciousness, influences the political perception of the conflict, and affects the situation on the battlefield, whichever side of the hostilities people find themselves on. All these aspects are important in their own right, and each will influence the course of the conflict and its eventual outcome. But how long will NATO be able to provide military assistance to Ukraine?
Gloomy prospects for Ukraine
NATO began providing assistance to Kiev as soon as the conflict started in 2022, and the volume of aid increased throughout the course of last year. This assistance largely influenced the attitude of ordinary Ukrainians toward the hostilities and reinforced the myth of a speedy and inevitable "victory" for Kiev, certain to happen "because the whole world supports us."
The same attitude prevailed in the area of public policy - the aid provided by a particular country indicated whose side it was on: Ukraine's "allies" in NATO (primarily the US) provided direct military assistance, while "neutral" countries offered only financial and organizational assistance, or no help at all.
On the battlefield, NATO aid is fully responsible for the combat capabilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (UAF). If this aid is discontinued, the Ukrainian army will lose its combat capability within a few weeks, or as soon as the current ammunition stocks run out.
How likely is it that NATO assistance will continue? To answer this question, we need to understand the stocks of weapons and military equipment among members of the bloc - and it is important to note that many are lacking in this regard.
The annual G20 summit is taking place in India this weekend. Any gathering of leaders of this caliber (and the 20 largest economies are the ones that really run the world) is a major event. All the more so because, in the context of the apparent weakening of traditional institutions in recent decades, the G20 has been seen as the prototype for a new structure of international governance. Without detracting from the importance of the forthcoming forum, it can be suggested that the group has already passed its peak and that the further evolution of the world system will contribute to the strengthening of other structures.
The G20 is the product of the economic setbacks of the advanced globalization era of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. It emerged at the level of finance ministers and central bank governors in response to the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998. But it really took off ten years later, when member states came together in emergency mode to quell the panic caused by the collapse of US financial institutions and the ensuing global financial crisis. Since then, the G20 has been at the center of the international political-economic architecture.
Comment: Look how a little US financial banking woopsie turned into globe-steering dominance now in semi-dissolve and destined to fade.
See also: China's Xi Jinping likely to skip G20 summit in India, Putin has already declined invitation
In its 75-page ruling, the appeals court panel, made up of two George W. Bush nominees and one Trump nominee, said that President Biden, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the FBI and the surgeon general cannot "coerce" social media platforms to remove content it deems problematic.
However, in its ruling, the court threw out language from a Louisiana judge in July who had ruled that the government could not contact social media platforms to urge them to take content down.
Under the new ruling, the administration has 10 days to seek a Supreme Court review.

Rustem Umerov attends peace talks with a Russian delegation
Gomel region, Belarus • February 28, 2022
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov is "even more corrupt" than his predecessor Aleksey Reznikov, American journalist Seymour Hersh reported on Thursday, citing an anonymous US intelligence official.
Reznikov was dismissed by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky earlier this week, with Umerov confirmed as his replacement on Wednesday.
Reznikov and his subordinates have been implicated in numerous graft scandals, including a scheme by which his ministry purchased substandard winter uniforms for inflated prices from a Turkish supplier owned by a Ukrainian contact.
"The new guy is even more corrupt," Hersh quoted a "knowledgeable US intelligence official" as saying. "He ran the sale of government property and made a fortune. Has a huge villa in Majorca."
The source claimed that Umerov's name was not on a list of 35 corrupt officials allegedly presented to Zelensky by CIA Director William Burns in January. Zelensky fired a host of senior officials and administrators after meeting Burns, although Reznikov defied media speculation to stay in his post. The existence of Burns' list was first revealed by Hersh in April.
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The ruling was a broad rejection of arguments from Meadows that his case should be heard in federal court because he was acting in his capacity as chief of staff at the time.
It marks a major victory for Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis (D), who has pushed back on the attempt by Meadows and multiple other defendants to move their charges out of state court.
In a 49-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Steve Jones ruled that many of the allegations were instead political activities outside of the scope of Meadows's job.
Comment: The case is a farce from beginning to end, but the Democrats don't care how many lives they ruin in the process. Orange Man bad! Besides, Meadows has been a thorn in the Democrats' side since 2016, so it's personal there too.
- Fani Willis' Trump investigation started after Raffensperger's aide Jordan Fuchs lied to WaPo about president's phone call
- House Republicans launch investigation into Georgia DA Fani Willis for 'politically motivated' Donald Trump election fraud prosecution
- Documents link Georgia DA Fani Willis to massive election fraud and money laundering RICO enterprise
- Mark Meadows seeks transfer of Fulton County case to federal court, claims immunity from prosecution
- Top Trump aide Mark Meadows visits Georgia ballot signature audit
- Mark Meadows begins outlining FBI's corrupt methods (media reports) and corrupt sources (journalists)
- Mark Meadows sues Nancy Pelosi and every member of January 6 Committee: 'unconstitutional'
- Republican House Rep Mark Meadows claims he has evidence fmr AG Lynch coordinated with Comey to end Clinton investigation
- Rep. Mark Meadows: FBI was 'well aware' Dossier was a lie before spying on Trump campaign

(From L) US President Joe Biden, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky talk ahead of a working session on Ukraine during the NATO summit, in Vilnius on July 12, 2023.
Early confidence that Russia, in its current form, would collapse under the pressure of the harshest sanctions regime in history failed to materialize. Early Russian miscalculations on the battlefield were not followed by a military meltdown, but by a pragmatic display of strategic adaptability, which is begrudgingly admired in the military war rooms of the West. The Russian army, far from falling apart, has steeled itself into making bold decisions to retreat when prudent and advance when required, both of which have proven devastating for their Ukrainian opponents. It follows that, as the Western political elites that cultivated this conflict peer into another winter of political, military, and potentially economic discontent, it is now that we potentially face the most dangerous period in Europe since the outbreak of WWII.
The catalyst for a wider war in Europe isn't, in fact, a limited conflict in Ukraine in itself, one that started in 2014 and, notably, had been largely ignored by Western powers for almost a decade. The real issue is that NATO, which is currently engaged in a proxy War with Russia, is facing a 'damned if you do and damned if you don't' scenario regarding its growing military involvement in Ukraine. If the US-led bloc escalates further as defeat looms, it could likely lead to direct confrontation with Russia. If it doesn't, its proxy will collapse and leave Russia victorious, a fate once utterly unthinkable in Brussels, Washington, and London, but now becoming a nightmarish reality.

Daniel Werfel testifies before the Senate Finance Committee during his confirmation hearing to be the Internal Revenue Service Commissioner, Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington.
The IRS announced new enforcement initiatives Friday to crack down on 1,600 millionaires and 75 large companies it said owe hundreds of millions in unpaid taxes.
IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel said the agency will use Inflation Reduction Act funding to focus on high-income earners, partnerships, large corporations and promoters. He said the IRS won't increase audit rates for those earning less than $400,000 a year.
Comment: See also: