Update from Ryan Grim on the SECDEF Signals/Groyper Group Chat/Washington WhatsApps:

So the leak was either intentional by the National Security Advisor, or he didn’t realize what he was doing by sharing a Signal group chat with Goldberg. Waltz is a retired colonel who served with the Green Berets. I wonder if parts of the Pentagon are in revolt/trying to reign Trump in. Goldberg is burning a very high placed source by running this story.

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro (who is already ineligible) becomes defendant in coup investigation. Bolsonaro complains after the verdict, accuses the Chinese government, the University of São Paulo, the Workers’ Party (Lula’s party) and Supreme Court Minister Alexandre de Moraes of persecuting him.

Bolsonaro says that Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes personally attacked him by mentioning the day Bolsonaro got up on a stage and shouted that he was “infuckable”. And Bolsonaro also insists that there was fraud in the 2018 and 2022 elections, in the case of 2018, he says he won in the first round, but never presented proof. Bolsonaro also said that Lula da Silva and Vice President Geraldo Alckimin were terrorists because they had both met with members of Hamas in Iran. He also said that Lula sold Brazil to China and that he needs support from the United States.

He also accuses the Chinese government and the Brazilian left of having lobbied to block any attempt to grant amnesty to him, his sons and his allies who were arrested for the January 8th coup attempt. Bolsonaro once again calls Lula corrupt and says that Lula’s voters are criminals who take government handouts instead of working. He also says that his last demonstration in Rio de Janeiro had 3.5 million people present there in favor of amnesty, while the University of São Paulo said there were only 18,000 people.

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Chuck Schumer: “My Job is to Keep the Left Pro-piSSrael”

Trump to impose 25% tariff on countries that buy oil, gas from Venezuela - Reuters

Negro Veras Condemns Human Rights Violations in Bukele’s Prisons - Telesur English

German Greens want to force people of all ages to serve the state in a new Freedom Service™. Either military or some community service.

“It is time to ask the question: What can you do for you country?”, Schulze said to Deutsche Presse-Agentur. The threats are growing.

“In order make our society more robust, to defend our freedom, and to strengthen cooperation, we need everybody. The Freedom Service is a collective project for Germany, by all and for all. Through the Freedom Service, we will to bring together generations and milieus, strengthen our society, and defend what is important to us.”

I’m not making this up btw.

They’re no longer in government of course, that’s just their contribution to the debate about re-introducing conscription.

In my experience, those who say Israel and Palestine are both bad tend to really fucking hate Palestine but not mind Israel all that much.

If Democrats bend over to appease Republicans being upset about Jasmine Crockett making fun of Greg Abbott (using nickname that Texans have called him for years) they honestly should just pack it up.

How Much Does It Cost To Replace A King?

One million dollars — at least that is the number given in the Danish monarchy’s yearly financial statement.

Let’s talk Qatar.

I have been always fascinated by Qatar. Their weird contradictory political position, together with their ruthless ambition makes them a genuinely interesting country to observe. I spent a few weeks touring the Middle East before covid and getting married and settling down. Of all the Gulf states, Qatar was the country that gave me the biggest feeling of “living here wouldn’t be bad you know”. The UAE is of course the posterchild of Gulf states, but everything about it felt artificial, but Qatar is authentic in a way that I can’t describe. The Friday sermon in the Doha mosque that I went to talked in detail about a Muslim’s duty to defend other Muslims, while the UAE mosque talked about a Muslim’s duty to honor his leaders. Qatar is in some way committed to what I can only describe as Islamic populism, which doesn’t put the country as a natural enemy to Iran’s Islamic republicanism.

Their projects are also more successful than expected. They were the only committed Arab nation to toppling Assad by 2024, and succeeded in that. They managed to stabilise Tripoli in Libya and their areas are way more successful and stable than the UAE-backed warlord government in Benghazi. They weathered the storm from Western media and hosted a successful FIFA World Cup. They built a good metro system that doesn’t just serve the Disney Land style straight line developments like the Dubai Metro. They integrated the sons of immigrants to Qatar in a way that the UAE completely failed in doing, which is why the Qatari football team is now filled with Yemenis, Egyptians and Iraqis fighting for the team and winning cups while the UAE plays Brazilian boomers and gets embarrassed. They overcame the dumbass siege that the UAE and Saudi Arabia put on them in 2017 with an incredible resilience that strengthened their national identity. Their media investments has made Al Jazeera the undisputed number one news channel in the Arab World, BeIN Sports the number one sports network in the world, and almost every good Arab journalist has spent some time in Qatar. Their only big L is perhaps losing the battle with the UAE in Egypt when they failed to protect the MB against the military coup in 2013.

I have some strange admiration for them that is completely illogical and contradictory compared to my political beliefs. They’re in tune with the Arab public in a way that the UAE and Saudi could never achieve. They’ve leveraged their relations with Hamas, Israel, the Taliban, Iran and Hezbollah into something that generated some kind of material benefit unlike the UAE’s disgusting endless cucking for American Republican and Israeli interests. In the end, yeah, they’re an American client state with a massive military base in Al Udaid, but their million sins can perhaps be slightly washed away by the fact that a random Sudanese civilian can wear a Sinwar hoodie on their way to a Friday sermon about the slaughter of civilians in Gaza, while watching Al Jazeera’s coverage of Israel’s bombing of South Lebanon.

I’m just rambling here, so I hope it’s at least semi-coherent.

Reporter: Are you worried about stagflation?

Trump: I haven’t heard that term in years. I don’t know anything about it… this country is going to boom. We’re going to have boomtown. We’re going to boom

its going to boom nerds

Four U.S. soldiers have died during a training exercise in Lithuania, their bodies were found near the border with Belarus, after they disappeared with a military transport vehicle earlier today. Lithuanian media outlets state the 4 U.S. soldiers ‘may have been killed’ Other reports state that they likely entered a swamp and drowned.

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Grok’s woke

https://x.com/AssLatam/status/1905054127173836848

French court finds far-right leader Marine Le Pen guilty in embezzlement case - NPR

PARIS — A French court found Marine Le Pen guilty on Monday in an embezzlement case but didn’t immediately say what her sentence might be and how it might impact the far-right leader’s political future.

Le Pen, sitting in the front row in the Paris court, showed no immediate reaction as the chief judge declared her guilty. She later repeatedly nodded her head in disagreement as the judge went into greater detail, saying Le Pen’s party had illegally used European Parliament money for its own benefit. “Incredible,” she whispered at one point.

The judge also handed down guilty verdicts to eight other current or former members of her party who, like her, previously served as European Parliament lawmakers. Le Pen and her co-defendants face up to 10 years in prison. They can appeal, which would lead to another trial.

The biggest concern for Le Pen is that the court may declare her ineligible to run for office “with immediate effect” — even if she appeals. That could prevent her from running for president in 2027. She has described such scenario as a “political death.” The verdict was shaping up as a resounding defeat for Le Pen and her party. As well as finding her and eight other former European lawmakers guilty of embezzling public funds, the court also handed down guilty verdicts to 12 other people who served as parliamentary aides for Le Pen and what is now the National Rally party, formerly the National Front.

The chief judge, who read the ruling delivered by her and two other justices, said Le Pen had been at the heart of “a system” that her party used to siphon off EU parliament money. The judge said Le Pen and other co-defendants didn’t enrich themselves personally. But the ruling described the embezzlement as “a democratic bypass” that deceived the parliament and voters.

Le Pen and 24 other officials from the National Rally were accused of having used money intended for European Union parliamentary aides to pay staff who worked for the party between 2004 and 2016, in violation of the 27-nation bloc’s regulations. Le Pen and her co-defendants denied wrongdoing.

Le Pen, 56, was runner-up to President Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections, and her party’s electoral support has grown in recent years. During the nine-week trial that took place in late 2024, she argued that ineligibility “would have the effect of depriving me of being a presidential candidate” and disenfranchise her supporters.

“There are 11 million people who voted for the movement I represent. So tomorrow, potentially, millions and millions of French people would see themselves deprived of their candidate in the election,” she told the panel of three judges. If Le Pen cannot run in 2027, her seeming natural successor would be Jordan Bardella, Le Pen’s 29-year-old protégé who succeeded her at the helm of the party in 2021.

Le Pen denied accusations she was at the head of the system meant to siphon off EU parliament money to benefit her party, which she led from 2011 to 2021. She argued instead that it was acceptable to adapt the work of the aides paid by the European Parliament to the needs of the lawmakers, including some political work related to the party.

Hearings showed that some EU money was used to pay for Le Pen’s bodyguard — who was once her father’s bodyguard — as well as her personal assistant. Prosecutors requested a two-year prison sentence and a five-year period of ineligibility for Le Pen. Le Pen said she felt they were “only interested” in preventing her from running for president.

“Israeli” jets pummel Gaza from north to south killing dozens | The Cradle

Nearly 800 Palestinians have been killed in one week by “Israel’s” renewed war against the Gaza Strip