Day: October 29, 2023

Russia would likely confiscate the assets of European Union countries, if the bloc takes frozen Russian funds to finance Ukraine’s reconstruction, according to Vyacheslav Volodin, chairman of Russia’s lower house of parliament and an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

Last week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that she was crafting a proposal that would take the profits from Russian frozen state assets to finance Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction. 

“Such a decision,” Volodin said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app, “would require a symmetrical response from the Russian Federation.  In that case, far more assets belonging to unfriendly countries will be confiscated than our frozen funds in Europe.” 

Russia said Sunday that it shot down 36 drones overnight over the Black Sea and the Crimean Peninsula.  Ukraine, which has stepped up its campaign against Russia, has not commented on the overnight attack. 

From their meeting in Japan Sunday, G7 trade ministers issued a joint statement on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, calling it a “brutal, unprovoked, unjustifiable and illegal war of aggression.”

Russian universities have reportedly been instructed to stop any negative discussions during academic activities about any Russian political, economic and social trends, the British Defense Ministry said Sunday,

This move marks yet another “restriction of the information space in wartime Russia,” the ministry said, “making it more difficult to openly discuss policy issues.”

This restriction, the ministry said, will likely further add to “the trend of Russian policy-making taking place in an echo-chamber of politically acceptable, pro-Kremlin perspectives” in the runup to President Vladimir Putin’s anticipated bid for reelection in March, the British ministry said. 

As Israel expands its military action in Gaza, the U.S. calls for the protection of civilians and Egypt’s president warns against expanding the conflict within his country’s borders. Plus, western Mexico after Hurricane Otis and the U.S.-China relationship amidst several global disagreements.

Hundreds of people stormed into the main airport in Russia’s Dagestan region and onto the landing field seeking passengers arriving from Tel Aviv, Israel, according to Russian news agencies.

New York is losing its grip as the nation’s financial services capital as the population of high income residents plummets amid high taxes and housing costs, a sobering new study reveals.

Israel-Hamas war live: Israeli forces strike targets in Syria and Lebanon; ICC investigating alleged war crimes in Israel, Gaza and West Bank  The Guardian

These days Donald Trump isn’t so much giving speeches as he’s attempting to give speeches and failing miserably at it. In the same way that you wouldn’t pat yourself on the head and call it a karate move, the random strings of words coming out of Trump’s mouths aren’t actually “speeches.”

Worse, Trump is just straight up malfunctioning at this point:

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This isn’t a guy periodically getting tongue tied. This is a guy who’s too senile to even be able to read what’s on the screen in front of him without completely botching it. The guy’s a total goner – and it’s time for the mainstream media to finally admit it.

The post Donald Trump suffers malfunction during speech appeared first on Palmer Report.

Pro-Hamas Rioters Searching For Jews At Russian Airport, Go Door …  View from the Wing

Ever since Donald Trump left the hospital while still very ill with COVID an returned to the 2020 campaign trial, he’s never been the same. During the final days of that election he came off as someone who was in physical and cognitive decline. After he lost the election he mostly went into hiding for two and a half years, so most people didn’t notice how badly he was declining. But if you paid attention his occasional public appearances during that stretch, you saw just how bad of condition he was in.

Now that Trump is frequently putting himself out there under the guise of running for future office, everyone is starting to see it. Not only that, Trump’s ongoing decline is now accelerating at a rather jarring pace.

Over the past few weeks Trump has consistently come off as a dementia patient who doesn’t know what’s going on, can’t remember much of his own history, and lacks the cognitive ability to even read what’s on his teleprompter.

The Shallow State said it best: “Trump is in Las Vegas, and he is discombobulated. He sounds like he’s talking with an accent. He’s a physical mess, medicated to the max, narcissistically beaten to a pulp. He’s desperate for adulation, attention, applause, any kind of narcissistic energy before his kids testify … He is absolutely in decline.”

The question continues to be why nearly the entire mainstream media is continuing to completely ignore the fact that Donald Trump sounds like he’s three quarters senile and half dead.

The post Donald Trump is “absolutely in decline” appeared first on Palmer Report.

After Donald Trump appealed his gag order in his Washington DC federal criminal trial, Judge Tanya Chutkan temporarily stayed her own order while she considered his appeal. This shouldn’t have been a big deal. But if Trump wanted any chance of winning his appeal, he’d have needed to behave while the stay was in place. He did not, and now he’s lost.

Judge Chutkan lifted the stay this evening, meaning the gag order is officially back in place. We’ll see if Trump decides to violate it, or if he decides to meekly cower like he so often does. That’ll be his choice. Either we won’t have to hear him ranting about the things that are covered by the gag order, or we’ll get to see him hit with penalties, and either of those things will be fine and dandy.

It’s important to understand that Trump didn’t “get away” with anything here. His social media posts about Mark Meadows this past week were textbook felony witness tampering, regardless of any gag order. If Jack Smith thinks he can get a conviction on it, he’ll tack on witness tampering charges against Trump for the trial.

If Trump mistakenly thought that the temporary stay on the gag order meant that it was legal for him to make social media posts about Meadows, then Trump is very, very stupid. Trump still seems to have no idea what it is to be a criminal defendant, and he just keeps digging himself a deeper hole.

The post Donald Trump’s gag order is back appeared first on Palmer Report.

A federal judge on Sunday reinstated a gag order she imposed on Donald Trump in the Washington case accusing him of trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat, denying his bid for a stay pending appeal.

The order prohibited Trump from targeting the special counsel prosecuting his case or witnesses who might be called to testify about his efforts to upend his election loss.

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan imposed the gag order at the Justice Department’s request. She temporarily lifted it on Oct. 20 after Trump’s lawyers appealed. And she reversed that decision on Sunday evening, according to the court’s docket.

A copy of the judge’s order reinstating the gag was not immediately available.

Trump in the past has called Special Counsel Jack Smith a “deranged lunatic” and a “thug,” among other insults. Trump is facing four criminal cases and has made disparaging comments about prosecutors in each of them, as well as against the New York state attorney general who brought civil fraud charges against him.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges that he plotted to interfere unlawfully in the counting of votes and block the congressional certification of his 2020 loss to Democrat Joe Biden.