[ConservativeTreehouse] Fox News host Bret Baier was given exclusive access to President Trump during the much-anticipated summit in Alaska.
Baier interviewed President Trump on Air Force One going to Anchorage and during the day’s events. In this interview, Baier asked President Trump what his expectations were going in. Trump noted it is not his place to negotiate the terms of a ceasefire on behalf of Ukraine, however, he is willing to be an intermediary in a focused effort to stop the conflict.
Stopping the killing is President Trump’s main priority, and peace is the elusive prize. In the background, as previously noted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the administration accepts the conflict in Ukraine is essentially a proxy war between the former Biden administration officials, NATO warmongers, international banking interests and Russia.
In a moment of genuine sunlight upon the backstory, President Trump notes he told President Putin, “There’s no way we are going to make a deal … impossible … because I have wise guys who created a phony deal, the Trump-Russia collusion hoax; and until those things are settled up, a reset in the relationship with Russia is impossible.” WATCH:
Video at the link.
This framework essentially validates what a small group of deep weeds walkers, including myself, have suspected. From the perspective of Trump and his big picture objectives, the recent Russiagate releases and declassifications are not so much to get accountability upon the perpetrators, but rather to make the backstory so well known, that a strategic reset with Russia is no longer impeded by manufactured domestic issues inside the USA.
The value in Russiagate declassification and information releases, is more about laying the groundwork for a reset – and stopping the political opposition therein. That’s the Big Picture value to President Trump.
That is quite a big and significantly magnanimous position to take by President Trump.
[MSN.com] Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General and former Commanding General of the U.S. Army Europe and the Seventh Army Mark Hertling responded to President Donald Trump greeting Russian President Vladimir Putin at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday in what was billed as a summit to discuss the Russia-Ukraine war.
Hertling, who often provides military analyst on CNN, wrote on social media on Friday: "This afternoon, I told @NicolleDWallace that I had a sense of ’dread’ about what might happen in the Alaskan ’summit.’ After watching the press conference, that dread has come to life." He added, "This whole thing is despicable."
Days before the summit, Hertling wrote: "Watching the US prep for a critically important meeting with Putin in Alaska reminds me of students who realize they had an assignment a day before it is due. Hoping I'm wrong, but concerned about the diplomatic approach & the potential outcome."
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin: See today also here, here, and here. Yesterday here and the day before the summit here
[ColonelCassad] Anchorage Talks
The Anchorage talks were an obvious success for Russia, which, by the very fact of these talks, finally destroyed the strategy of diplomatic isolation of Russia. The West had been pursuing this strategy against it for years. Now it has become obvious to everyone that it has led the globalists into a dead end, since they were the ones who found themselves isolated from the talks.
Most of the agreements reached, as well as unresolved issues, remained outside the public sphere amid a sea of rumors and speculation. From the sparse statements of the parties, it is obvious that the parties reached certain agreements on a number of issues, but on a number of other issues (obviously related to Ukraine), they have not yet been able to come to a common denominator.
Nevertheless, both sides interpret this result as a diplomatic success. Noteworthy is Trump's invitation to Minsk and Moscow, against the backdrop of the option of a trip to China in early September. Based on Lukashenko's statements, Trump has already agreed to travel to Minsk with his family, and based on Trump's statements, he is interested in the offer to come to Moscow.
But Trump views these trips as a potential opportunity to organize a trilateral summit with the participation of the cocaine Fuhrer. For example, according to the scheme - the next round of negotiations takes place soon enough in Moscow, after which Trump and Putin go to Minsk, and there, with the mediation of Lukashenko, the cocaine Fuhrer signs some conditions (although his signature is obviously legally null and void and can be easily disavowed).
It is important to understand that Russia, when it agrees on something with the United States, is responsible only for itself, and the United States is actually conducting separate negotiations, since they formally represent not only themselves, but also the EU and Ukraine. To whom Trump must convey and impose the agreements reached.
Because in addition to Trump's consent to something, the European satellites and Kiev puppets must do the same. The United States has the ability to force them. If for some reason they cannot/do not want to impose the agreements reached with the Russian Federation on them, then they can, of course, be easily sabotaged.
Well, as for the goals of the SVO, it is unclear from the public part of the negotiations whether there are already agreements reached that will allow the Russian Federation to achieve some goals by non-military means.
At the same time, the official position remains unchanged - the goals of the SVO must be achieved, the Russian Federation will not change its constitutional territories, the conditions put forward by Putin in the summer of 2024 are still in force, if they are not accepted, the next conditions will be worse.
And at the same time, Russia is sending signals that it is not against peace, but if the enemy does not want it, then Russia is ready to continue fighting and achieve its goals by military means, which is well facilitated by the August tempo of operations, which will peak in 2025.
So, overall, the summit is truly historic on the one hand and reflects the advent of a new world, but it has not become a "new Yalta" or "new Malta". If the negotiations between Trump and Putin continue, it will be perceived as a kind of first formal step towards transforming the relationship between the US and Russia. If everything fades and fails, then Anchorage 2025 will be viewed as an unsuccessful attempt and a missed chance to de-escalate the current Cold War of the West against Russia with the risks of a nuclear war.
So far, events are developing rather according to a moderately optimistic scenario. Trump, in the public arena after negotiations with Putin, began to tilt the cocaine Fuhrer, declaring that he needs to make concessions (which are fatal for him). Whether this is really so - we will see from Trump's negotiations with vassals and satellites, as well as from a possible repeat meeting between Trump and Putin.
#2
Inverse relationship. Should be "Military Regaining Control of Xi".
Posted by: ed in texas ||
08/17/2025 8:03 Comments ||
Top||
#3
There is a strong demand in some sectors for "China is about to fail" news. The Three Gorges Dam is always three weeks from breaking and it always will be.
Now that the deep state's republic-destroying crimes have been exposed and are going to grand jury, they're acknowledging they can't win in a democracy.
You think you hate the media enough, but you don't.
6-3 supermajority in the Supreme Court, the Right has a deep bench of people waiting to be president after Trump, Vance, Tulsi, DeSantis, Kanye, the Democrats are about to get redistricted and recensused out of existence and this is it. They're willing to destroy our country and our Constitution rather than admit that they suck and nobody likes them.
The first step towards recovery is admitting you have a problem.
This is them admitting they can't win fairly. Well, they've always said that but this is pulling back the curtain. The Samson Option: You will never win, I will bring the whole thing down before I let that happen. and the blame will go on us: "Look what you made me do"
#4
The Times is in the process of destroying itself and result will the loss of a decent crossword puzzle.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
08/17/2025 8:44 Comments ||
Top||
#5
I have to disagree with you, Super H. In recent years, the Sunday Crossword has gotten much too NY-centric and woke. The rest of the fishwrap is long gone.
[DailySignal] In 2018, The New York Times published an op-ed written by a self-described official in President Donald Trump’s administration who confessed to be “working diligently from within to frustrate parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations.”
Deep state actors arguably helped launch the first impeachment against Trump, and intelligence agencies pressured Big Tech to censor the Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
Trump’s second term has proved far more aggressive than his first, and it stands to reason that deep state actors within the administration may attempt to undermine him yet again.
While presidents appoint more than 3,000 people for political positions, the federal government directly employs roughly 2.3 million people, most of whom serve in purportedly nonpolitical, career positions.
The Daily Signal has worked to expose former President Joe Biden’s political appointees who took these “career” positions in the federal bureaucracy and remain in the government under Trump. These “burrowers” may represent a deep state threat to the president’s ability to fulfill the promises he made to the American people.
An April poll found that 75% of Washington, D.C.-based federal employees making $75,000 or more per year who voted for Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris in November said they would not follow a lawful Trump order if they considered it bad policy. Furthermore, a February Foundation for Government Accountability study found that Democrat employees outnumber Republican employees by a 2-to-1 margin across federal agencies, and 84% of federal employee’s political contributions went to Harris in the 2024 election.
While some “burrowers” may faithfully work for the U.S. government under any president, this poll suggests that the new administration likely faces a deep state threat, and The Daily Signal’s coverage aims to expose it before it becomes a problem.
The Daily Signal’s eight-part series on the Biden burrowers highlights the many Biden political appointees who burrowed into the bureaucracy.
The names, none of whom appear to be in the Rantburg archives — more about each at the link:
Russiagate Adviser Turns Burrower Lucian Sikorskyj, a former adviser to then-Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., appears to still be associate administrator for materials and safety at the Federal Aviation Administration.
Kamala Harris’ Lawyer and Anti-Kavanaugh Strategist Samantha Goldstein, currently associate deputy general counsel in the Department of Defense, previously called Trump “unfit to hold office.” She worked as special counsel for then-Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., in 2018, specifically advising her on the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Harris engaged in extremely aggressive tactics against Kavanaugh.
The Environmental Justice Adviser Andrea Delgado-Fink, a former “environmental justice” adviser to Biden, remains in the Trump administration as deputy regional forester at the Forest Service in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
A Biden Campaign Lawyer Sarah Scheinman, who appears to still be serving as an attorney-adviser in the Justice Department’s antitrust division, previously worked on the Biden campaign’s legal team in the 2020 presidential election. Biden appointed her as associate general counsel at the Office of Management and Budget in September 2021, and she burrowed in in 2022.
Taking the Buyout
When Jeff Baran, a member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, failed to secure Senate support to stay in his job, he found a “career” appointment in the bureaucracy and remained long enough to take the Trump administration’s buyout offer.
Eric Holder’s Protege Tina Thomas, currently an assistant U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., wrote on her LinkedIn profile that she “served as a strategic adviser and counselor to the Hon. Eric H. Holder,” Barack Obama’s attorney general. Holder, notorious for championing the Black Lives Matter movement and for getting held in contempt of Congress for refusing to hand over documents related to the Fast & Furious scandal, also launched redistricting efforts aimed at helping Democrats win elections. Thomas advised him on those redistricting efforts.
An Immigration Holdover
The final name on this list, Jeff Rezmovic, does not count as a burrower, though Biden did nominate him for a political position and he continues to work in a career role in the Trump administration.
Posted by: NoMoreBS ||
08/17/2025 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
#1
Make it a team sport to out them. Seems several are already playing that on the internet.
#2
An April poll found that 75% of Washington, D.C.-based federal employees making $75,000 or more per year who voted for Democrat presidential nominee Kamala Harris in November said they would not follow a lawful Trump order if they considered it bad policy.
Watch the court. They're starting to adhere to the Constitution as written. Can Article I, Congress, in fact, operate Article II, the executive? It's a fundamental question whether the Civil Service Act is nothing more than a 'gentleman's agreement' rather than law if it interferes with the Executive effectively carrying out its powers under Article II. Congress' fundamental power is solely the power of the purse.
[MacDonaldLaurier] War is hell. It is inhumane, destructive, and ugly. But it is not automatically a crime.
In his New York Times op-ed titled “I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It,” Omer Bartov accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. As a professor of genocide studies, he should know better. Genocide is not defined by a few comments taken out of context, by estimates of casualties or destruction, or by how war looks in headlines or on social media. It is defined by specific intent to destroy a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group in whole or in part. That is a high legal bar. Bartov did not meet it. He did not even try.
I am not a lawyer or a political activist. I am a war expert. I have led soldiers in combat. I have trained military units in urban warfare for decades and studied and taught military history, strategy, and the laws of war for years. Since October 7, I have been to Gaza four times embedded with the Israel Defense Forces. I have interviewed the Prime Minister of Israel, the Defense Minister, the IDF Chief of Staff, Southern Command leadership, and dozens of commanders and soldiers on the front lines. I have reviewed their orders, watched their targeting process, and seen soldiers take real risks to avoid harming civilians. Nothing I have seen or studied resembles genocide or genocidal intent.
Bartov claims that five statements by Israeli leaders prove genocidal intent. He begins with Prime Minister Netanyahu’s comment on October 7 that Hamas would “pay a huge price.” That is not a call for genocide. It is what any leader would say after the worst terrorist attack in the nation’s history. He also cites Netanyahu’s statements that Hamas would be destroyed and that civilians should evacuate combat zones. That is not evidence of a desire to destroy a people. It is what professional militaries do when fighting an enemy that hides among civilians.
Bartov presents Netanyahu’s reference to “remember Amalek” as a smoking gun. But this is a phrase from Jewish history and tradition. It is engraved at Israel’s Holocaust memorial, Yad Vashem, and also appears on the Holocaust memorial in The Hague. In both places, it serves as a warning to remain vigilant against threats, not as a call for mass killing.
He also highlights Defense Minister Gallant’s use of the term “human animals” to describe Hamas fighters. That is not a war crime. After the slaughter, rape, and kidnapping of civilians on October 7, many would understand or even share that reaction.
Unable to find intent among those actually directing the war, Bartov turns to far-right politicians like Bezalel Smotrich and Nissim Vaturi. These individuals do not command troops, issue orders, or shape battlefield decisions. I have studied the actual orders. They focus on destroying Hamas, rescuing hostages, and protecting civilians whenever possible. Their rhetoric is irrelevant to the legal case.
Israel has taken extraordinary steps to limit civilian harm. It warns before attacks using text messages, phone calls, leaflets, and broadcasts. It opens safe corridors and pauses operations so civilians can leave combat areas. It tracks civilian presence down to the building level. I have seen missions delayed or canceled because children were nearby. I have seen Israeli troops come under fire and still be ordered not to shoot back because civilians might be harmed.
Israel has delivered more humanitarian aid to Gaza than any military in history has provided to an enemy population during wartime. More than 94,000 trucks carrying over 1.8 million tons of aid have entered the territory. Israel has supported hospitals, repaired water pipelines, increased access to clean water, and enabled over 36,000 patients to leave Gaza for treatment abroad.
The IDF has coordinated millions of vaccine doses, supplied fuel for hospitals and infrastructure, and facilitated the flow of food and medicine through the UN, aid groups, and private partners. The U.S.–Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation alone has delivered more than 82 million meals—one to two million a day—while weakening Hamas’s control over aid. This is not genocide. It is responsible and historic mid-war humanitarian policy.
What is happening in Gaza is tragic. But it is not genocide. And it is not illegal.
Genocide requires clear, provable intent to destroy a people through sustained, deliberate actions. That burden of proof has not been met. Bartov and others have not even tried.
Likewise, the laws of war do not prohibit war itself. They require that military operations distinguish between combatants and noncombatants, that force be proportional to the objective, and that commanders take all feasible precautions to protect civilian life. I have watched the IDF do exactly that. I have seen restraint, humanitarian aid, and deliberate compliance with legal standards, often at tactical cost.
This is not a campaign of extermination. It is a war against Hamas, a terrorist army embedded in civilian areas by design.
The law matters. So does precision. And above all, truth matters.
[IsraelTimes] In leaked recordings, Aharon Haliva recounts night before Hamas attack, lambasts Netanyahu for not resigning and claims high Gaza death toll ‘required for future generations’
Former IDF intelligence chief Aharon Haliva, in a series of leaked recordings, said that the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack did not occur because of intelligence failures or a poor response time the night of the attack, but was the result of “something much deeper, spanning many years, that requires a much deeper correction.”
The tapes of Haliva, who resigned from his position as head of the Military Intelligence Directorate last year against the backdrop of October 7, were aired Friday night on Channel 12’s primetime news program.
In the recordings, Haliva is heard recounting events from the night before the Hamas attack, explaining why he chose to step down from his post, and speaking on military and policy decisions leading up to and in the wake of the October 7 attack.
According to the network, the conversations that were aired took place over the past several months.
“The intelligence failure… is not even about people; it’s something much deeper, spanning many years, that requires a much deeper correction,” the former intelligence chief said in the first recording.
“It’s not a matter of a personnel fix,” he said, criticizing the “idea that if we replace the chief of staff now, replace some other officials, that everything will just go back to to being fine.”
Agree or disagree, he has some interesting thoughts. This bit, for instance:
‘THEY NEED A NAKBA EVERY NOW AND THEN’
Turning to the war in Gaza that has been raging since October 2023, namely the high Palestinian death toll, Haliva said: “The fact that there are already 50,000 dead in Gaza is necessary and required for future generations.”
While the recording was not dated by Channel 12, current Hamas-run Gaza health ministry figures put the death toll in the war to at over 60,000. Hamas casualty figures cannot be independently verified and do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
“For everything that happened on October 7, for every person who was killed on October 7, 50 Palestinians must die,” he said.
“I’m not speaking out of revenge, I’m speaking out of a message to future generations, there’s nothing to be done,” he charged. “They need a Nakba every now and then to feel the price. There’s no choice, in this disturbed neighborhood.”
#1
Long past time for Israelis to realize.
(a) Peace with Arabs is neither possible, nor desirable.
(b) We cannot become "just another Nation among many" (the old Zionist dream) and survive.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
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