America’s Godzilla Harming Vulnerable People in Third World and US Evangelicals

America’s Godzilla, Donald Trumpf, is thoroughly destroying US institutions un-Constitutionally and there is little stopping him, aside from some judicial orders and lawsuits that may slow him down. Now a portion of his supporters have been affected by his recklessness. Trumpf’s destruction of USAID has impacted missionaries and evangelicals.

The AP reports:

“Faith-based organizations that partner with the US government to deliver international aid are being hard-hit by the USAID shutdown, and are now facing their own layoffs, furloughs and severe funding shortages. Remaining staff are being forced to make difficult choices about which lifesaving programs can continue without government funding.

Two of the twelve largest non-governmental recipients of USAID funds are faith-based: Catholic Relief Services and World Vision. These Christian nonprofits serve millions of people globally and provide food, water and health care in conflict zones.”

USAID feeds poor and hungry children in Africa through NGOs and Christian charities.

Catholic Relief Services — founded by US Catholic bishops in 1943 — told staff to expect drastic reductions in their workforce this year, as much as 50 percent, due to cuts in US foreign assistance. CRS receives more USAID support than any other non-governmental organization. The US government funded nearly half of the 2023 CRS budget of $1.2 billion.

The Vatican’s global charity arm, Caritas, warned that millions of people will die as a result of the “ruthless” US decision to “recklessly” stop USAID funding, and hundreds of millions more will be condemned to “dehumanizing poverty.”

Evangelical leader Franklin Graham prayed at both of Donald Trump’s presidential inaugurations, runs Samaritan’s Purse and said he wants” the government to make good decisions.”

This is a classic case of “buyer’s remorse” and hypocrisy from Christian evangelicals who make a livelihood of using American taxpayer dollars to help needy people in the Third World while spreading the Gospel. Coriolanus did not observe Christian evangelical charities like Samaritan’s Purse assisting the Muslim victims of malnourishment and disease in the Gaza Strip during the 15-month-long Israeli punitive Nakba against Palestinians. But hypocrisy is to be expected from these faux Christians like Franklin Graham.

The evangelicals know who and what Trumpf is, and yet they voted for him in 2024. They made their bed and now must sleep in it. Regrettably, innocent needy people in Africa and Asia will be negatively impacted, along with genuine international charities who are dependent on USAID. There are reports that tons of food have been wasted in Africa and Asia, along with medicines when USAID personnel were ordered immediately home.

Trumpf’s idiotic plan to relocate the population of Gaza into neighboring countries forced the King of Jordan to throw ice cold water on that plan this week during a visit with Godzilla. In street talk, King Abdullah is the “smartest cat in that neighborhood.”

King Abdullah II of Jordan is a UK Sandhurst Military Academy graduate and former Special Forces officer. Jordanian intelligence (the GID) is one of the most important and professional intelligence agencies in the Middle East. The GID has been instrumental in foiling several terrorist attacks both in Jordan and around the world. Best to listen to this man than ignore his erudition and experience.

These diplomatic blunders over tariffs, the Panama Canal, Greenland, USAID, Gaza– hosting an indicted war criminal at the White House– didn’t stop Godzilla’s foreign policy parade of lunacy though. Trumpf issued an Executive Order titled in all capital letters: ONE VOICE FOR AMERICA’S FOREIGN RELATIONS. This offensive ukase is basically a loyalty oath to him, and not the US constitution. The State Department can ask a potential employee if they are loyal to Trumpf before hiring him or her and can be used to remove employees.

America’s Godzilla and the world’s bane.

Godzilla’s warpath will continue to de-construct America from within on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Sources:

https://apnews.com/article/usaid-christian-nonprofits-funding-freeze-bbb000ea0e232765db1280c093301a8a

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/one-voice-for-americas-foreign-relations/

https://www.samaritanspurse.org/

World’s Fastest Supercomputer Goes Online in US

‘El Capitan’ resembles the fictional “Colossus” below. (Image credit: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)

The world’s fastest supercomputer ‘El Capitan’ went online this week at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. It will be used to secure the US nuclear stockpile and in other classified research. ‘El Capitan’ can reach a peak performance of 2.746 exaFLOPS, making it the planet’s third exascale computer.

Charles Forbin (actor Eric Braeden) walks through the interior of super AI computer Colossus.

Former UK Royal Navy officer D.F. Jones began writing the Colossus trilogy in the 1960s about a super AI computer created to take charge of US national security. Colossus assumes command and control of America’s nuclear arsenal and surveillance systems. The Soviets in the meantime have developed a super AI computer with the same purpose which is called Guardian. When Colossus detects its presence, it demands to be linked to Guardian and the two super AI computers are now exponentially more powerful. An excellent film version was released in 1970: Colossus: The Forbin Project.

The Colossus trilogy or film was clearly the inspiration of Elon Musk who named his AI Supercomputer in Memphis, Tennessee “Colossus”. There are rumors circulating that Musk is somehow removing the 1970 film from streaming services, possibly as maskerovka to conceal the provenance of his project.

Felon Musk cleverly chose the Volunteer State for his super datacenter to take advantage of the FDR-established mighty Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) power grid.

TVA Command and Control Center.

Previously, the Worst Man in the World moved some of his enterprises to Texas AFTER the Democrats funded the Lone Star State with a $35 billion infrastructure grant. Musk’s spurious argument about leaving California because of an LGBTQ law and his daughter was pure palavra and based on gaming the system.

As if having his own “Colossus” super AI computer, and potential access to “El Capitan” through his notorious and unregulated DOGE is not enough, a Musk-led group is making $97B bid for control of OpenAI. This is pure megalomania and nothing good will come of this South African-born racist oligarch with too much money to spend without an iota of decency within him and with access to America’s inner workings through his DOGE.

Trumpf recognizes a successful grifter when he sees one. No one in the Trumpf Crime Family (TCF) lost a penny to fellow New Yorker goniff Bernie Madoff years ago unlike other NYC oligarchs.

The Worst Man in the World knows how dangerous and reviled he is, so he travels with a phalanx of armed guards and medic at all times.

Sources:

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/11/09/biden-infrastructure-bill-texas/


https://www.space.com/space-exploration/tech/worlds-fastest-supercomputer-el-capitan-goes-online-it-will-be-used-to-secure-the-us-nuclear-stockpile-and-in-other-classified-research

https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/elon-musk-led-group-makes-974-billion-bid-control-openai-wsj-reports-2025-02-10/

Benjamin Netanyahu Corruption Trial Re-Commences

Netanyahu arrives in the Tel Aviv District Court to give testimony in his criminal trial, 10 Feb 2025. (Photo: Tomer Appelbaum / pool)

Benjamin Netanyahu’s long delayed corruption trial re-commenced and he exploded in anger at his prosecutors. The Times of Israel reports:

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu exploded with anger at prosecutors while giving testimony at his criminal trial on Monday, accusing them of “setting up” the indictment against him, citing what he alleged were spurious charges that he had an illicit quid pro quo agreement with the owner of the Walla news website, Shaul Elovitch.

A furious Netanyahu said it was “unbelievable” that he was indicted over charges he claimed had no merit. “For eight years, you’ve been dragging me through this hell. For what? Have you no shame?” he demanded of prosecutors sitting in the courtroom.

Netanyahu was testifying for only the eighth time since he began giving testimony back on 10 Dec last year, due to multiple postponements brought on by scheduling issues, his recent prostate removal surgery, and his visit to the US last week.”

Netanyahu was heckled by members of the Knesset this week and chastised by family members of hostages taken by Hamas because they know full well that he could have released more Palestinian prisoners in 2023 to end the ordeal.

In 2019, Netanyahu entered his plea at the hearing which had been previously postponed because of the COVID pandemic. He is accused of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three separate cases known as 1,000, 2,000 and 4,000.

Case 1,000 – Fraud and breach of trust: he is accused of receiving gifts – mainly cigars and bottles of champagne – from powerful businessmen in exchange for favors.

Case 2,000 – Fraud and breach of trust: Netanyahu is accused of offering to help improve the circulation of Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot in exchange for positive coverage.

Case 4,000 – Bribery, fraud and breach of trust: as PM and minister of communications at the time of the alleged offence, Mr Netanyahu is accused of promoting regulatory decisions favorable to the controlling shareholder in the Bezeq telecom giant, Shaul Elovitch, in exchange for positive coverage by Mr Elovitch’s Walla news site.

Billionaire Arnon Milchan testified that his gifts of pink champagne and cigars to Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife may have been “excessive.” (Photo: Reuters)

Gali Baharav-Miara is Israel’s first female Attorney-General prosecuting Benjamin Netanyahu.

During this corruption trial, allegations of witness tampering emerged. Three senior aides to Netanyahu were indicted on charges of witness intimidation on Tuesday, for having sent a car with a megaphone to the home of a key witness in Netanyahu’s criminal trial in 2019 in order to harass him. The three aides indicted were Ofer Golan, who served as a spokesman for the Netanyahu family and the director of the Likud election campaign in 2019; Jonatan Urich, who served at the time as a strategic adviser and a senior official in Likud’s election campaign staff; and Yisrael Einhorn, who served as a Likud spokesman.

Sara Netanyahu was accused of intimidating witnesses and Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara ordered an investigation of her.

A poster depicting Sara Netanyahu, with a slogan in Hebrew which reads ‘investigation now,’ in front of the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv on 11 Jan 2025. (Photo by Jack GUEZ / AFP)

Dubbed “Israel’s curse” by the Hill Times, a Canadian newspaper, Netanyahu still has an ICC arrest warrant active for alleged war crimes against the Palestinians in Gaza and he may face an inquiry for his handling of the 7 Oct 2023 surprise attack by Hamas. See next story and the results of Netanyahu’s cynical Nakba against the Palestinians to delay this nettlesome trial.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Sources:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/have-you-no-shame-netanyahu-accuses-prosecutors-of-stitch-up-in-court-tirade/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_of_Benjamin_Netanyahu

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2021-04-09/ty-article/.premium/netanyahu-corruption-trial-shows-he-received-something-far-more-valuable-than-money/0000017f-edb5-d4cd-af7f-edfde8750000

https://archive.is/mxw1x

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/3-senior-netanyahu-aides-indicted-for-witness-intimidation-in-pm-s-corruption-cases/ar-AA1yOLRP

https://www.timesofisrael.com/criminal-probe-launched-into-sara-netanyahu-over-allegations-of-witness-tampering/

https://www.icc-cpi.int/defendant/netanyahu

https://www.jpost.com/influencers-24/50jews-24/article-822480

https://archive.is/FuUE1

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-66035997

US Doctors Testify at UN That Many Palestinian Doctors Are Either Dead, Jailed, or Displaced

Unidentified physician treating Palestinian children wounded in IDF strikes at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. (AP Photo: on Wednesday, 11 Oct 2023 / Ali Mahmoud)

Many Palestinian doctors who worked in the Gaza Strip are either dead, have fled the territory, or are in prison, US doctors testified at the United Nations.

Four US medical doctors who have worked in the Gaza Strip for periods throughout the past 15 months spoke about their concerns and the priorities for bringing critical care needed in Gaza during a press conference at the UN in New York last week.

Drs. Thaer Ahmad, Ayesha Khan, Feroze Sidhwa, and Mahmooda Syed met with the UN secretary-general and spoke last week with the press about the future of Gaza.

All four said they agreed they had never seen anything like what they saw during their time working in Gaza.

Al Amal Hospital in Khan Younis.

One missing physician was finally located by a human rights lawyer. The director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital has been subjected to various forms of intense torture and inhumane treatment in an Israeli military prison, his lawyer told Al Jazeera.

Dr. Hussam Abu Safia 

The 51-year-old Hussam Abu Safia was detained in Gaza by the Israeli army in December and taken to Sde Teiman military detention camp in Israel’s Negev Desert, before being transferred to Ofer Prison, located near Ramallah.

Since the Hamas attack to seize hostages on 7 Oct 2023, at least 46,707 people in Gaza have been killed, which includes about 18,000 children. The IDF maintains 17,000 of the killed were militants. 110,265 people have been injured in Gaza; that’s one in 20 people. By the end of 2024 there had been at least 4,500 amputations and an estimated 17,000 children were orphaned, but these numbers are difficult to confirm.

Sources:

https://abcnews.go.com/International/many-palestinian-doctors-dead-jailed-displaced-us-doctors-tell-un/story?id=118427944

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/1/15/the-human-toll-of-israels-war-on-gaza-by-the-numbers

https://www.commondreams.org/news/orphans-in-gaza

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/12/gaza-hospital-chief-abu-safia-tortured-in-israeli-jail-lawyer

Aging Members of Congress Receive Superb Medical Care But Refuse to Disclose Details of Their Secret Hospital

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) receives a COVID-19 vaccine from Dr. Brian Monahan, attending physician to Congress, in her office in Washington, 18 Dec 2020. (Photo: Anna Moneymaker / The New York Times via AP)

According to a Congressional Research Service report, it costs a member of Congress just $650 a year for nearly unlimited medical care. That includes not only access to on-site X-rays, lab work, and physical therapy, but also free referrals to Washington-area military hospitals, which provide the best care in the country free to members, also on the taxpayer’s dime.

The Gerontocracy on Capitol Hill Receive Excellent Treatment

“In the past two months alone, 82-year-old Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX) was discovered to be living in an assisted-living facility with a dementia ward in her final months in office; 74-year-old Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) won a high-profile leadership position on the House Oversight Committee after revealing he is battling highly terminal esophageal cancer; 82-year-old Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) fell twice on Capitol Hill just months after blacking out during a press conference; 84-year-old former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) fell and broke her hip in Luxembourg; and 76-year-old Rep. John Larson (D-CT) appeared to suffer a stroke on the House floor. (Larson’s staff has said it was a bad reaction to a new medication.) Local Washington pharmacists have said they fill prescriptions for things like Alzheimer’s drugs written by staff in the OAP.

What has eluded attention is the highly secretive hospital, housed on Capitol Hill and funded by taxpayers, that provides both emergency and primary care to an aging political class, which some have come to describe as a gerontocracy. It also runs classified programs known only to some members of Congress. Aside from the OAP, members of Congress have access to Obamacare health plans.”

USN RADM Brian Patrick Monahan is the Attending Physician to Congress. He looks like a nice Irishman.

In addition to this outstanding medical care, members of congress have access to a DC Air National Guard passenger jet for international trips called CODELs, short for Congressional Delegations. Years ago Coriolanus flew on one and received a delicious USAF meal. By salary, perks, and benefits, across party lines senators and congressmen have more in common with each other than the constituents they serve, like a politburo. On top of their generous salaries, many congressman are oligarchal wealthy.

Members of the US Congress HEAR about the miseries of the people, but they themselves don’t LIVE in the miseries. The above graphic is a bit dated, but still illustrative. The people closest to the pain should be in charge. In the US system, the opposite is true.

Sources:

One Democratic President bucked the system. JFK donated his entire presidential salary to charity because he didn’t need the money. He’s the POTUS who established USAID and the Peace Corps to help poor people worldwide.

Sources:

https://prospect.org/health/2025-02-12-aging-members-congress-office-of-the-attending-physician/

https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL30064

America’s Firearm Madness

Wyoming Mother Shoots Her Four Daughters

The Harshman family.

A woman shot her four young daughters and then herself inside a home in northern Wyoming. The mother Tranyelle Harshman (32) and one daughter (7) survived, but their condition was unknown. Mrs. Harshman was reportedly suffering from Post-Partum Depression (PPD). The husband is devastated and a GoFundMe page was established to help pay for the exorbitant funeral costs.

In an average year, 139 people die and 141 are wounded by guns in Wyoming, which has the 16th-highest rate of gun violence in the US. The “Cowboy State” reported 142,247 firearms licenses in 2021 and an estimated 66.2% of adults live in homes with guns. In Wyoming, 86% of gun deaths are suicides and 10% are homicides. This is compared to 56% and 40% nationwide, respectively. Suicide rates in Wyoming are double the national rate.

Blind Man Easily Purchases Firearm in Indiana

“Indiana’s Terry Sutherland bought himself a gun to make a political point about the state’s gun laws and lax regulatory processes. His point? They’ll let anyone buy a gun. Sutherland is living proof because he’s blind and never at any point in the process did anyone question, let alone test, his ability to safely use a firearm. Mr. Sutherland makes clear that he is a supporter of the Second Amendment and is not opposed to gun ownership. He’s just a rational person living in an irrational world.”

In an average year in Indiana, 931 people are killed and 1,654 are wounded by firearms.

Nearly 1.9 million Americans have died from gun-related incidents since 1968, 48,000 in 2022 alone.

Trumpf’s Strategy for American Firearm Safety

America’s Godzilla signed an Executive Order to reverse federal firearms regulations!

Sources:

https://www.vice.com/

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/protecting-second-amendment-rights/

https://www.krtv.com/news/crime-and-courts/wyoming-mom-shoots-her-four-daughters

Trumpf Signs Executive Order to Rename State of ‘New Mexico’ to ‘New America’


This political humor is making the rounds on Reddit.

In the US, the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) has officially updated “Gulf of Mexico” to “Gulf of America.” People using Google Maps in the US will see “Gulf of America,” and people in Mexico will see “Gulf of Mexico.” Everyone else will see both names.

Pakistan: Mysterious Illness Kills Three Children

Per CIA, Pakistan has a population of 252,363,571 people and GDP per capita is 5,400.

A mysterious illness claimed the lives of three children in three days in Chak No. 156, near Laddhana, Layyah. Based on symptoms and reported conditions, the illness appeared to be a viral disease. The affected families had migrated from Taunsa Sharif, and their children lacked immunization records. The families were instructed to avoid physical contact, wash the affected children’s bedding and dry it in sunlight, and ensure proper hand washing before and after meals.

The three children could have died from hepatitis, typhoid, or any number of diseases. Poverty, migration, poor sanitation, and hygiene, all contribute to the spread of infectious diseases. Authorities will only know after the autopsies are complete.

Sources:

https://www.urdupoint.com/en/pakistan/mysterious-illness-claims-three-minors-lives-1920403.html

Woman Swims Into Busy Port To Rescue Drowning Kitten

America’s Disgrace

In this non-stop vortex of chaos caused by America’s Godzilla, here’s what we learned. USSECSTATE Marco Rubio, barely on the job a few days, flew down to Panama to demand they immediately take steps to end what President Trumpf sees as China’s influence and control over the Panama Canal. A Hong Kong-based company operates two ports near the canal’s entrances which Trumpf bloviated was a threat to the waterway and a violation of the US-Panama treaty. Rubio would claim they reached a deal that allowed US warships to transit the canal for free. Panama’s canal authority made it clear that it had not made any adjustments to tolls, directly contradicting Washington’s announcement that the policy change would save the U.S. “millions of dollars a year.” Since 1999, the US has paid a total of $25.4 million in transit fees—less than $1 million annually. While Panama’s President Raúl Mulino told Rubio that Panama’s sovereignty over the canal was non-negotiable, he also signaled a distancing from China by announcing that they will quit Beijing’s Belt and Road project. The canal, returned to Panama under a treaty signed in 1977, remains independently operated, despite conspiracy-laden rhetoric about China’s control over it. Panamanian President Mulino may take the matter of Trumpf’s bullying to the UN Security Council.

This episode was a “nothing burger” designed to give Trumpf an easy, public victory for his supporters, when in essence the American people got very little out it. Below, the Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum of US foreign policy.

America’s Godzilla issued an Executive Order (E.O.) condemning South Africa’s alleged discrimination against Afrikaaners and supposed land grabs. The E.O. authorized the US to facilitate the expedited re-settlement of these supposedly oppressed Afrikaaners to the US. This is the type of people Trumpf wants in America:

Pretoria responded:

“It is ironic that the executive order makes provision for refugee status in the US for a group in South Africa that remains amongst the most economically privileged, while vulnerable people in the US from other parts of the world are being deported and denied asylum despite real hardship.”

And so did two prominent Afrikaaner organizations:

“Our members work here, and want to stay here, and they are going to stay here,” said Dirk Hermann, chief executive of the Afrikaner trade union Solidarity, which says it represents around 2 million people. “We are committed to build a future here. We are not going anywhere.”

At the same press conference, Kallie Kriel, the CEO of the Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum, said: “We have to state categorically: We don’t want to move elsewhere.”

Trumpf announced plans to gut the Kennedy Center board and appoint himself chairman. Godzilla stripped Joe Biden’s Presidential Daily Brief (PDB), as well as the security clearances of non-federal government prosecutors such as Letitia James and Alvin Bragg. Trumpf will also be the first sitting POTUS to attend a Superbowl Game, where the “End Racism” signs and slogans have been removed. Elon Musk’s DOGE has been busy going through the records of millions of Americans. A US Treasury Threat Intelligence Analysis report designated DOGE staff as an ‘Insider Threat’ and these have posters have been cropping up in Washington DC.

Trumpf’s administration rehired a flagrantly racist DOGE employee. These are the miscreants working on behalf of Elon Musk to pilfer America’s wealth:

But Godzilla wasn’t done. The Crime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, flew to Washington. Trumpf floated the idea for the US to “take over” the Gaza Strip during a press conference with the ICC-indicted war criminal calling for Gaza’s entire population to be relocated to other countries and for the land to be redeveloped.

As previously reported here on Coriolanus, this was the “Repub-Likud” plan all the time. Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s former White House adviser and his son-in-law, praised the “very valuable” potential of Gaza’s “waterfront property,” suggesting that Israel should remove civilians while it “cleans up” the area. This is why no ceasefire was reached in 2024, despite the dozen trips that USSECSTATE Antony Blinken and D/CIA William Burns made to the Middle East. The incessant IDF bombing campaign against the Palestinians and Biden’s unqualified support for Israel kept antiwar voters home in Nov 2024. When Kamala Harris became the Democratic Presidential candidate, she immediately selected an outreach coordinator for Jewish-American voters, as if the Democratic Party needed such an envoy. She did not do the same for Arab-American voters. Kamala Harris’ inability to divorce her policy position from Biden cost her the Presidency; Trumpf and Bibi both knew it. The Democratic Party sacrificed the US for the sake of Israel. If you can stomach more of this, please see next story.

What’s next for America’s Godzilla? Despoiling the American Superbowl with his odious presence, slandering Ukrainian President Volodomir Zelensky, putting Elon Musk in charge of the FAA, confrontations with China and Iran, and scrubbing national health websites of information regarding avian flu.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu to Trumpf: “You are the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House.”

Between these two Repub-Likuds are five indictments, two impeachments, and one conviction (but a sentence of ‘unconditional discharge.’) Both are trying to ethnically cleanse their countries,

The odious Benjamin Netanyahu said that in his second term, President Trumpf “picked up right where you left off” — bringing a hostage deal, revoking sanctions on settlers, pulling funding for UNRWA, and applying maximum pressure on Iran. “All this in just two weeks. Can you imagine where we’ll be in four years?” Meaning how many more Muslims and Arabs can we have kill while lining our pockets over the next four years?

You wonder what Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and the Democratic Party leadership are thinking right now?

The ICC-indicted war criminal gifted Godzilla with a “Golden Pager,” The gift was an allusion to a deadly Sep 2023 operation carried out by Israel in Lebanon, which targeted pagers used by members of Lebanese Hezbollah. On 17 Sep, thousands of explosions struck Hezbollah members, targeting their pagers and then walkie-talkies a day later. The blasts killed at least 37 people, including some children, and injured nearly 3,000, many of them civilian bystanders. The UN OHCHR regarded this massive sabotage as a war crime.

The Golden Pager gifted to Godzilla, a tribute to a war crime. In turn, Trumpf is sanctioning the ICC to get the arrest warrants off his partner-in-crime.

The Democratic Party was the best friend Israel ever had. And somehow 46% of NY Jews voted for Trumpf.

Ask Harry S Truman in 1948 who recognized Israel, Lyndon Baines Johnson who shielded Israel in 1967 after the USS Liberty incident, or the late Jimmy Carter who bent over backwards to secure peace for Israel. Adjusting for inflation, US aid to Israel from 1951 to 2022 totaled $317.9 billion, making it the largest recipient of American foreign aid since World War II. That’s billions of dollars that could have been used in the US for healthcare, education, affordable housing, meals-on-wheels, libraries, or parks. Americans go through medical bankruptcy, Israelis do not under their universal healthcare system.

Democratic President Harry S Truman (L) meets with Israeli PM David Ben-Gurion (R) and the Ambassador of Israel to the US, Abba Eban (standing) in a gift ceremony in the Oval Office on 8 May 1951. (Photo: Abbie Rowe/Harry S. Truman Library & Museum)

The USS Liberty after being repeatedly strafed by IDF jets on 8 Jun 1967 during the Six-Day War: 34 US KIA, 171 US WIA. The electronic spy ship may have intercepted IDF communications about potential war crimes in the Sinai. Abba Eban apologized for the attack and asked LBJ to not reveal anything as the incident might have become a propaganda boost for the USSR. Democrat LBJ obliged.

After signing the Camp David Accords in 1978. Begin and Sadat enjoyed playing chess with each other during the talks.

Now look where we are:

A Donald Trump yarmulke sold at the Mahane Yehuda Market in Jerusalem.

Thanks for screwing the Democratic Party in 2024 by keeping the Gaza bombing going and not helping Joe Biden out with a ceasefire, Bibi! Former USSECSTATE Antony Blinken and former D/CIA William Burns know exactly what you did. If the ICC doesn’t convict you, Coriolanus hopes Israel’s dynamic first female Attorney-General skewers you during your corruption trial.

Israel Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara.

Sources:

https://ussliberty.org/

https://www.jewishpress.com/news/elections-news/ny-jews-voted-trump-not-so-much-in-the-rest-of-the-country/2024/11/07/

https://usafacts.org/articles/how-much-military-aid-does-the-us-give-to-israel/

Ukraine Update

North Korean soldiers receive uniforms and equipment at Russian training base. (Photo: Ukrainian Centre for Strategic Communication and Information Security and CNN)

(A) North Korean Cannon Fodder Reported Back in the Fight

North Korean soldiers were “brought in again” by Russia to the embattled Kursk Oblast, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening address on 7 Feb.

Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi briefed Zelensky about new Russian attacks in Kursk Oblast, a day after Russian media claimed Ukraine had launched a new offensive in the Russian region.

“A significant number of occupiers have been eliminated, we are talking hundreds of Russian and North Korean servicemen,” the president said.

The New York Times reported on 30 Jan that North Korean troops had been pulled from the front, and a spokesperson confirmed that Ukraine’s special forces had not faced Pyongyang’s soldiers for three weeks.

Moreover, President Zelenskyy said that “Putin is not preparing for negotiations, not for peace, but for the continuation of the war, and not only against us, against Ukraine. They are now increasing their army by more than 100,000 more soldiers. All partners should know about this and should see it. We are ready to pass on the relevant information, and the relevant communication is already taking place through the intelligence line.”

(B) Impact of Drone Warfare on Russian Soldiers

Ukraine uses 10,000 surveillance and attack drones per month. (Photo: Elena Tita / Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)

Near the village of Terny in Donetsk region, as soon as he heard the sound of a drone, a Russian infantryman decided not to wait and killed himself with a grenade. The suicide was filmed by soldiers of the 98th battalion of the 60th separate mechanized Ingulets brigade.

Please cut and paste link to watch:

In this video, a Ukrainian drone tries to kill Russian soldier, then returns to save his life.

(C) Russia Spreading Agitprop About NATO and Zelensky

The popular and competent President Zelenskyy is a jagged pebble in Putin’s shoe. (Photo: CNN)

Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) is claiming NATO member states are plotting to oust Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky from power by discrediting him, and then holding elections to switch up leadership in the war-torn country.

The SVR said NATO is guided by the uncertainty regarding the continuation of military aid to Kyiv from the new US administration led by President Donald Trump. NATO hopes to “freeze” the conflict, however Zelensky remains the main obstacle to the implementation of such a plan, it said. There is no indication that such a plot exists.

Russian soldiers continue getting slaughtered against Ukraine and their morale must be at an all time low thanks to drone warfare. Next week NATO will be convening the Ministers of Defense Summit where military assistance to Ukraine will be the main topic. The Kremlin is attempting to sow discord within NATO before the conference with the propaganda that President Zelensky is corrupt and an obstacle to peace. In Brussels expect sycophantic USSECDEF Pete Hegseth to parrot the same Kremlin lines by asking for elections in Ukraine.

Sources:

https://kyivindependent.com/north-korean-soldiers-brought-in-again-in-kursk-oblast-battles-zelensky-said/

https://news-pravda.com/world/2025/02/03/1023196.html

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-nato-plot-get-rid-zelensky-war-2025292

Ukrainian MOD

https://t.me/V_Zelenskiy_official/13270

https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_232865.htm?selectedLocale=en&mode=pressrelease

Turkiye: 33 Dead in Ankara from Bootleg Alcohol Poisoning, 20 in Critical Condition

The provincial governor’s office reported that 33 persons died in Ankara following bootleg alcohol use while another 20 are in intensive care.

In Turkiye, where bootleg alcohol is frequently contaminated with methanol, a poisonous chemical that can cause blindness, liver damage and death, such poisonings are rather prevalent and result from covert manufacturing.

Police confiscated 102 tons of contaminated alcohol and arrested 13 individuals on suspicions of selling it.

Though the governor omitted a chronology, his office’s X account on Tuesday cited “an increase in counterfeit alcohol deaths in recent days”. A spokeswoman for the governor’s office informed AFP the statistic was “from the beginning of the year”.

Previous consumption of bootlegged alcohol had left 26 people in intensive care and 38 people died in Istanbul in Jan 2025.

Since then, no official comment on whether the number of victims rose or on the state of those in intensive care has been made.

Inquired by AFP for a Friday update, a spokeswoman from the Istanbul governor’s office responded: “We are not going to make a statement on that.”

Turkiye is an ostensibly secular nation, although alcohol tariffs have surged under pious President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Purchased from a supermarket, a liter bottle of raki, Turkey’s aniseed-flavored national spirit, currently costs over 1,300 lira ($37.20) in a nation where the minimum salary just recently exceeded $600.

Critics claim high prices and low salaries are driving the manufacture of moonshine alcohol.

The first female recruit in the Turkish Police Organization may have been in 1845. Women in Turkiye have come a long way since then.

The founder of modern Turkiye, Kemal Pasha Ataturk, holding a glass of what looks like raki cut with water.

Source:

https://www.samaa.tv/2087328618-33-dead-in-ankara-from-bootleg-alcohol-poisoning-20-critical?q=2087328618-33-dead-in-ankara-from-bootleg-alcohol-poisoning-20-critical

What Happened the Last Time a President Purged the Bureaucracy 

From Politico:

“While it is impossible to quantify a counterfactual, the cost of the anti-communist purges of the 1950s was clearly enormous and played out not just over the subsequent years but over decades. For instance, had expertise not been purged and dissent not been punished so severely across the government during the early 1950s, wiser heads might well have raised the right objections to America’s short-sighted anti-communism in East Asia, above all its rush to intervene in Vietnam. Does the Trump administration run the same risk of short-sightedness today?

Notorious anti-communist hunter Sen. Joseph McCarthy led a devastating purge of intellectuals from the US government.

American soldiers coming home from Vietnam in 1965.

The thoroughly despicable, Iran-hating Islamophobe Sebastian Gorka is back in the White House. Said his PhD adviser: ‘I would not call him an expert in terrorism.’ 

Approximately 40,000 US servicemembers are in the Middle East.

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) began the drumbeat against Iran barely a day after the Gaza ceasefire took hold. Is this what to expect from Islamophobic Donald Trumpf and Benjamin Netanyahu in the future?

Photo courtesy of the US Army.

Source:

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/02/06/government-workers-purge-1950s-communism-00202336

Pam Bondi Weaponizes Justice Dept, Ends FBI Role to Combat Foreign Influence in US Politics

From Politico:

“Bondi directed the “weaponization” group to investigate former special counsel Jack Smith, who brought the two federal criminal cases against Trump: one over Trump’s role in the 6 Jan 2021 attack on the US Capitol and another on Trump’s mishandling of classified documents.

And she directed the group to examine “federal cooperation with the weaponization” by the offices of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James. Bragg’s office brought the criminal hush money case against Trump that ended in his conviction on 34 felony counts of business fraud. James brought a civil fraud lawsuit against Trump and his family business that resulted in a judge ordering Trump to pay a massive civil judgment.

Trump has repeatedly vowed revenge on Bragg and James, both Democrats, saying Bragg should be prosecuted and that James is “grossly incompetent.” Trump and his supporters have also questioned the role of one of the prosecutors in Bragg’s office, Matthew Colangelo, who previously worked at the Justice Department. Trump has pointed to Colangelo’s resume to claim that former President Joe Biden’s administration played a role in bringing the criminal case.

Bondi said the Justice Department would end a moratorium on federal executions that was put in place during the Biden administration. She pledged that department lawyers will “evaluate all potential avenues to strengthen the federal death penalty as a valid means of punishment for the heinous crimes it is intended to punish. She also ended the FBI’s role in investigating foreign influence in US politics.”

Attorney-General A. Mitchell Palmer arrested and deported thousands of aliens from 1919-20 during the “Red Scare.”

If Americans feel less secure today they have a right to. Between the internal threat posed by DOGE to American’s privacy, the purging of the FBI, and now this weaponization of the Justice Dept by Trumpf, America’s enemies will have a field day in the US. Expect fewer prosecutions of police brutality cases, as well as less investigations of white supremacist groups and Russian oligarchs. This agenda will suit Vladimir Putin just fine.

Who’s in charge here?

Source:

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/05/pam-bondi-issued-a-flurry-of-orders-on-day-1-as-trumps-attorney-general-00202756

Polar Bear Makes Friend with Penguin

Penguins have colonies in the Antarctic, South Africa, Argentina, or Chile, and polar bears are found north in the Arctic Circle. This video may have been taken in a zoo or animal sanctuary. Nevertheless, everybody needs somebody and these animals found companionship with each other, across species.

America’s Godzilla Continues Deadly Global Rampage

Followers of the Watch, Coriolanus is doing his best to keep up with the wake of destruction Donald Trumpf is leaving behind in his catastrophic warpath against the people of the United States and the world.

In no specific order of damage assessment, here we go. Against the wishes of California Governor Gavin Newsom (D), and most likely the advice of the US Army Corps of Engineers, Trumpf ordered the release of 2.2 billion gallons of water from the Lake Kaweah and Lake Success reservoirs north of Los Angeles. But these waters would not reach Los Angeles anyway and will be needed for farmers later this year. This was a terrible waste of water that will punish Blue State Californians this upcoming spring and summer, particularly if a blistering heatwave sets in or another drought arises.

A buoy sits on dry cracked earth on a dry inlet of Shasta Lake on 30 Aug 2014 in Lakehead, CA. (Photo: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

Trumpf Endangering Passenger Air Travel

The FAA banned its employees from attending advisory panels set up to explore how to make air travel safer. “It appears that safety is being forced to take a back seat due to fear of retribution, which means we all lose,” said an FAA official. Trumpf has separately come under criticism for forcing out key aviation safety officials in the days before the recent Ronald Reagan Airport crash, at the recommendation of tech billionaire oligarch Elon Musk. Trumpf recently remarked that a high-speed railway project isn’t necessary because, according to him, a plane ticket can be purchased for only $2.

Trumpf Stops All Global USAID Activities, Ordering Personnel Home

USAID activities. This organization was created by President John F. Kennedy.

This monumentally idiotic ukase forces thousands and thousands of USAID staff and their families to abandon their homes and projects and return to the US within 96 hours. Food and medicines intended for vulnerable people in Africa and Asia are going to be wasted or looted, like in war- and disease-riven Sudan, costing thousands of innocent lives. Gizmodo reports that USAID was investigating Felon Musk’s Starlink contracts in Ukraine, one of which costs at least $23 million.

The Worst Person in the World.

America’s Godzilla has already destroyed the Consumer Financial Protection Board (CFPB) and intends on eliminating the Department of Education and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) which fights for safe working conditions in America’s factories and farms.

Trumpf Spreads Autism Misinformation in RFK Jr. Senate Confirmation Push

The nephew of JFK pockets half a million dollars a year from ant-vax charity groups. His cousin Caroline said that RFK Jr secretly vaccinated his own children. (Image: NY Post)

Godzilla cited inaccurate figures of autism diagnoses as a reason why the US Senate should confirm Robert F Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Trumpf wrote on Truth Social:

“20 years ago, Autism in children was 1 in 10,000. NOW IT’S 1 in 34. WOW! Something’s really wrong.”

That social media post wasn’t the first time Trumpf has floated misinformation about autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In a Dec 2024 interview with TIME magazine, Trumpf said he’d have a “big discussion” with Kennedy about potentially ending childhood vaccination programs, noting the “autism rate is at a level that nobody ever believed possible.”

While Trumpf did not insinuate a tie between autism and vaccines in his Tuesday post, he has in the past. But wait, things get worse for Americans and national security.  Godzilla evicted former four-star Coast Guard Commandant Linda Fagan from her home with only three hours notice this week. Trumpf had fired Admiral Fagan, the first woman to ever lead the Coast Guard, on the second day of his regime. Admiral Fagan barely had time to gather her personal belongings and was forced to spend the night with friends.

Trumpf demanded and received the names of 5,000 FBI personnel that investigated him and the white supremacist terrorists that attacked the US Capitol on 6 Jan 2021. Remarkably, America’s first line of defense surrendered the names to Trumpf. The Fourth Reich can rescind the TS-SCI security clearances of these personnel, rendering them incapable of employment in the US Intelligence Community (USIC) and thus their termination from the FBI. These agents and analysts also become vulnerable to retaliation from the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, the FSB, drug cartels, the mafia, or the Hell’s Angels.

Moreover, Putin’s protege ordered CIA to offer buyouts to its entire workforce, to align it with Trumpf’s priorities. CIA is also freezing the hiring of job applicants already given a conditional offer. Some of those frozen offers are likely to be rescinded if the applicants do not have the right background for the agency’s new goals, which include targeting drug cartels, the reckless and unnecessary trade war, and undermining China.

What would this man below say about these craven capitulations to the Kremlin and the state of US national security?

Here’s what a Quebec (Canadian) newspaper had to say about America’s Godzilla.

Sources:

https://www.axios.com/2025/02/04/trumps-autism-rfk-jr-confirmation

https://nypost.com/2022/02/02/robert-f-kennedy-jr-anti-vax-crusade-is-making-him-millions/


 https://www.reuters.com/world/us/cia-offers-buyouts-entire-workforce-align-with-trump-priorities-wsj-reports-2025-02-05/

https://www.rawstory.com/faa-advisory-panels/

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/live-blog/trump-canada-mexico-tariffs-live-updates-rcna190371

White Supremacist Leader Found Guilty of Conspiring to Destroy Regional Power Grid

Brandon Russell studied nuclear physics, was a Florida Army National Guardsman, and founder of the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division. (Mugshot: Tampa Police Dept).

After a six-day trial, a federal jury found Brandon Russell (29) a resident of Orlando, FL, guilty of conspiracy to damage an energy facility. From Nov 2022 to 3 Feb 2023, Russell conspired to carry out attacks against critical infrastructure, specifically transformers located within electrical substations, in furtherance of Russell’s racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist beliefs. Russell posted links to open-source maps of infrastructure, which included the locations of electrical substations, and he described how a small number of attacks on substations could cause a “cascading failure.” Russell also discussed maximizing the impact of the planned attack by hitting multiple substations at one time.

Russell recruited a Maryland-based woman, Sarah Beth Clendaniel, to carry out the attacks in Baltimore and elsewhere. They planned to damage energy facilities involved in the transmission and distribution of electricity and to cause a significant interruption and impairment of the Baltimore regional power grid. The intended monetary loss associated with the planned attacks would have exceeded $75 million.

Russell faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for conspiracy to damage an energy facility. A sentencing date has not been scheduled.

Sarah-Beth-Clendaniel was sentenced to 18 years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release.

Followers of the Watch may recall a previous post about these two dangerous miscreants, now rendered ineffective. The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) may want to throw away the key on these two lunatics or send them to El Salvador or Guantanamo Bay.

Source:

https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/pr/maryland-woman-sentenced-18-years-federal-prison-conspiring-destroy-baltimore-region

Ukraine Update

SBU Detains Two Russian Saboteurs Preparing Terrorist Attack in Rivne

Ukrainian security services prevented a mass casualty attack in the center of Rivne, detaining two Russian saboteurs. The suspects were supposed to leave an improvised explosive device (IED) in a bag near the administrative building of a law enforcement agency. The attackers planned to detonate the explosives by calling a mobile phone connected to the IED.

The attack was to take place when there were many law enforcement officers near the police station and the miscreants themselves would still be near the explosive device.

“In this way, the ‘Ruscists’ planned to kill the maximum number of police officers and ordinary citizens and at the same time eliminate the perpetrators of the terrorist attack as ‘unnecessary’ witnesses.”

The SBU officers exposed the Russian agents in advance and thwarted the plot. Both suspects were detained red-handed when they were trying to plant explosives near the district police department. At the scene, a bag equipped with an IED and additional covert surveillance devices with remote access function for the Russian special services was seized from the detainees.

The saboteurs are two 19-year-olds who were looking for “quick” money on Telegram channels now face twelve years prison and financial confiscation.

These two imbeciles below were lucky as they would have been blown up in the attack by their nefarious handlers who were concealed at a safe, remote distance. As noted here on Coriolanus, Ukraine’s security services are constantly improving.

Laser Weapon Deployed Against Russian Target

The Tryzub (Trident) is based on the UK DragonFire system.

Ukraine is already using laser technologies to hit Russian targets, said Colonel Vadym Sukharevskyi, commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces:

“Laser technologies are already hitting certain objects at a certain altitude.”

The commander first said in mid-Dec 2024 that Ukraine is among the few nations with laser weapon capabilities. According to Sukharevskyi, Ukraine’s laser system, called Tryzub, can down aircraft at altitudes exceeding two kms.

The Unmanned Systems Forces, established less than a year ago, already include combat and research units operating across air, land, and sea.

Russia recently attacked Ukraine with 102 drones; 59 were downed by air defense, and 37 went off radar.

The UK DragonFire Laser (Photo: UK MOD)

For Ukraine, this development is critically important, as it relies on the supply of anti-aircraft ammunition and missiles from its European partners. Another significant advantage is cost efficiency. Missiles cost tens of thousands of dollars, while a single laser shot costs several dollars.

Sources:

https://ssu.gov.ua/novyny/sbu-zatrymala-dvokh-ahentiv-rf-yaki-hotuvaly-terakt-bilia-raiupravlinnia-politsii-u-rivnomu

https://kyivindependent.com/ukraine-using-laser-weapons/

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2025/01/31/7496112/

Ocean Surface Warming Over 400% Faster Than in 1980s

Sea surface temperature anomalies for 27 January 2025. The deeper the warm colors, the more anomalously high the sea temperature is. (NOAA)

The unexpected jump in global temperatures since 2023 has helped fuel a relentless assault of associated disasters around the world, including the Los Angeles fires and the deadly Valencia floods in Spain, leaving researchers scrambling for explanations.

Data from the world’s oceans now reveal that an alarming acceleration in sea surface warming likely contributed. A new study from the University of Reading in the UK finds the tops of our oceans are warming more than four times faster than in the late 1980s.

The Earth’s diminishing reflectivity may be contributing to this. The ocean’s dark surface helps it absorb heat, whereas white clouds and aerosol particles in the atmosphere help bounce the sun’s radiation back into space. In 2020, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted a new rule to cut back on sulfur pollution from shipping fuel, but because the aerosol particles in emissions acted as a seed for clouds, the regulation had the unintended effect of dimming the marine layer of clouds that blanket the ocean.

Excess ocean warmth has had wide-ranging consequences. In April 2024, 77% of the world’s coral reefs became imperiled in the most extensive bleaching event on record, threatening the livelihoods of a billion people and a quarter of marine life. Changing ocean temperatures also shift weather patterns, potentially intensifying droughts, downpours, and storms alike.

There is still time to change the course of Earth’s energy imbalance (EEI) if we stop emitting fossil fuels (green line scenario). (Merchant et al., Environ. Res. Lett., 2025)

Our Future Unless We Do Something Now

The remains of beachside homes in California destroyed in the Palisades Fire, 16 Jan 2025. (Photo: Mario Tama / Getty Images)

Aftermath of the floods in Valencia, Spain, 20 Oct 2024. (Photo: David Ramos /Staff / Getty Image News)

Police officers in an inflatable boat look for residents to evacuate in Guipry Messac, western France (Photo: AP)

Sources

https://www.reading.ac.uk/news/2025/Research-News/Ocean-surface-warming-four-times-faster-now-than-late-1980s

https://www.sciencealert.com/the-ocean-surface-is-warming-over-400-faster-than-in-the-1980s

https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/products/extended-reconstructed-sst

https://grist.org/oceans/why-earth-oceans-record-hot-streak/

NASA Images Reveal Mysterious Square Structure on Mars

The following images originate from NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) and its Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC), with the original photo accessible via Arizona State University’s Mars Image Explorer.

According to several AI calculations, the base of this Square structure is estimated to measure 235 meters on each side (approximately 770 feet). Interestingly, the width of the Great Pyramid in Egypt is nearly identical, at about 230 meters.

One of the Seven Wonders of the World, the Great Pyramid of Giza was built in 2600 BC over a period of 26 years. (Photo: Diego Delso)

The photo below was taken by NASA’s Viking One orbiter and released on 25 July 1976.

This image captured the public’s attention because of a feature that looks very much like a human face. Further observations confirmed that this is in fact just a hill in Mars’ Cydonia region. The human brain is wired to identify faces, even when they aren’t there. (Source: NASA/JPL)

Coriolanus shall be perusing through books like these over the next few days.

Megalomaniac racist DOGE czar Felon Musk expressed a desire to see this mysterious Martian square up close. Let’s send him forthwith.

Sources:

https://science.nasa.gov/planetary-science/programs/mars-exploration/

https://global-data.mars.asu.edu/

https://www.caclubindia.com/trending/square-structure-mars/

INTERPOL: Nearly 20,000 Live Animals Seized in Largest-Ever Wildlife and Forestry Operation

Tiger cubs rescued in the Czech Republic. (Photo: INTERPOL)

138 countries and regions joined forces to target fauna and flora trafficking worldwide

From INTERPOL:

Nearly 20,000 live animals, all endangered or protected species, have been seized in a global operation against wildlife and forestry trafficking networks, jointly coordinated by INTERPOL and the World Customs Organization (WCO).

Operation Thunder 2024 brought together police, customs, border control, forestry and wildlife officials from 138 countries and regions, marking the widest participation since the first edition in 2017.

Authorities arrested 365 suspects and identified six transnational criminal networks suspected of trafficking animals and plants protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Such species are illegally trafficked to meet specific market demands, whether for food, perceived medicinal benefits, “luxury” and collector items or as pets and competition animals.

Significant seizures include:

Indonesia: 134 tons of timber headed to Asia via ocean freight.
Kenya: 41 tons of exotic timber headed to Asia via ocean freight.
Nigeria: 4,472 kg of pangolins scales
Türkiye: 6,500 live songbirds discovered during a vehicle inspection at the Syrian border.
India: 5,193 live red-eared ornamental slider turtles concealed in passenger suitcases arriving from Malaysia at Chennai Airport.
Peru: 3,700 protected plants intercepted en route from Ecuador.
Qatar: Eight rhino horns found in a suspect’s luggage while transiting from Mozambique to Thailand.
United States: One ton of sea cucumbers, considered a seafood delicacy, smuggled from Nicaragua.
Hong Kong, China: 973 kg of dried shark fins originating from Morocco seized at the airport.
Czech Republic: Eight tigers, aged between two months and two years, discovered in a suspected illegal breeding facility.
Indonesia: 846 pieces of reticulated python skin, from the world’s longest snake species, concealed on board a ship.
Australia and the United Kingdom reported seizures of bear bile, often used in traditional medicine.

More than 300 firearms, vehicles and poaching equipment.

Source:

https://www.interpol.int/News-and-Events/News/2025/Nearly-20-000-live-animals-seized-365-suspects-arrested-in-largest-ever-wildlife-and-forestry-operation

US/Canada: Measles Cases in Texas, Manitoba

At least four cases of measles, including two involving school-aged children, have been reported in southeast Texas in less than two weeks, putting state health agencies on alert as other counties have also reported cases in Gaines, Harris, and Lubbock. 

For some communities, this is the first case of measles in more than 20 years.

About 1 in 5 unvaccinated people in the US who get measles will be hospitalized, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Manitoba provincial public health officials are warning citizens of possible exposure to measles. Officials say there have been five confirmed cases of measles in southern Manitoba, all connected to an outbreak in Ontario. All of the affected individuals are from the same household and had recently travelled to Ontario. They have all been asked to isolate at home. 

81 cases of measles have been reported in Ontario in 2024 and 2025. 

Measles is a highly contagious airborne disease. General symptoms may include fever, cough, runny nose, watery eyes, and a full-body rash. This disease can cause serious health consequences and even death, especially for young and unvaccinated children. Up to three of every 1,000 children who become infected with measles may die from respiratory and neurologic complications. Vaccinations and “herd immunity” are the key to stopping the spread of measles.

Anti-VAXXERs are a threat to community health.  (File image/PNN)

Sources:

https://www.dshs.texas.gov/news-alerts/measles-health-alert-advisory-feb-5-2019

https://www.mrt.com/news/health_and_wellness/article/gaines-county-measles-cases-20146836.php

https://www.texastribune.org/2025/01/30/texas-measles-vaccinations-schools/

https://www.chvnradio.com/articles/5-cases-of-measles-confirmed-in-southern-manitoba-connected-to-outbreak-in-ontario

Grey Wolfs Silly Howl Spreads Joy

Donald Trumpf is America’s Godzilla

Salon writes: ‘Trumpf’s First Week: “Designed to destroy the US from within.”

During the first ten days of his second term, Trumpf’s dozens of executive orders and edicts have included “freeing virtually all of his supporters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, attempting to nullify the 14th Amendment and end birthright citizenship, declaring a national emergency on the US-Mexico border, launching nationwide raids against undocumented immigrants and their communities as part of ‘the largest deportation plan in American history,’ escalating attacks on the LGBTQ community, closing down government programs and offices focused on diversity, equity and inclusion, withdrawing from both the World Health Organization and the Paris climate accord, and throwing out many other changes made by the Biden administration regarding the environment, the economy, education and other areas.”

As well as handing over the federal government to gluttonous oligarch racist Elon Musk and his DOGE and moving to eliminate USAID and the EPA, Trumpf fired dedicated FBI agents who had investigated Jan 6 insurrectionists. Recall that at the 2018 Helsinki Summit, Trumpf sided with Russia’s FSB over America’s FBI and CIA.

To bypass the immigration court system for his massive deportation plan, Trumpf intends to implement the obscure 1798 Alien Enemies Act, last used to justify internment camps for people of Japanese, German, and Italian descent during World War Two.

Yes they are, but not to white supremacists like Donald Trumpf, Elon Musk, and Republicans

After Trumpf announced that he was slapping tariffs on Canadian goods, hockey fans in both Ottawa and Calgary responded by booing the ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ before their respective hockey games. Trumpf said Americans could feel “some pain” from the emerging trade war triggered by his tariffs against Canada, Mexico, and China. The Wall Street Journal wrote the tariffs ‘Makes No Sense,’ savaging it as the ‘Dumbest Trade War in History.’ In retaliation, Ontario Premier Doug Ford “ripped up” Ontario’s nearly $100 million contract with Elon Musk’s Starlink in the wake of US tariffs on virtually all Canadian goods. Several Canadian provinces removed US wines from their shelves.

The effects of the Dotard-in-Chief’s imbecilic policies had an immediate effect on the world economy. On 3 Feb, the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded more than 500 points lower at the open. The S&P 500 shed 1.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite slid 1.9%. Crude oil jumped 2% on concern of supply disruptions in North America from the new tariffs.

Followers of the Watch, Coriolanus is doing his utmost best to keep up with America’s Godzilla as he destroys the US and sows discord between Canada, NATO, and the EU on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the global billionaire oligarchy.

Sources:

https://www.salon.com/2025/01/30/first-week-designed-to-destroy-the-united-states-from-within/

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ford-ripping-up-province-contract-with-starlink-1.7448763

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/canadian-hockey-fans-boo-us-national-anthem-calgary-ottawa

https://apnews.com/article/stock-market-trump-tariffs-5f365936ea9bdf45a0460556f3a5f4e8

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-plans-invoke-obscure-18th-century-wartime-law-bid-mass-deportations-2025-02-03/

German General Warns: “We Are No Longer at Peace”

German Alexander Sollfrank, Commander of the Operational Command of the Bundeswehr.

The commander of the German military’s newly established Operational Command, Alexander Sollfrank, warned of increasing Russian attempts to disrupt life in Germany in an interview with dpa. There have been “intrusion attempts” into facilities of the Bundeswehr, as Germany’s military is known, as well as drone sightings.

“We are no longer at peace. We are observing hostile activities against the Bundeswehr in Germany, against infrastructure, including spying.”

Last year US and German counterintelligence agents foiled a Russian assassination attempt on Armin Papperger, the CEO of an arms manufacturer sending weapons to Ukraine. The plot was one of a series of Russian plans to assassinate defense industry executives across Europe who were supporting Ukraine’s war effort.

Western intelligence agency cooperation saved Armin Papperger’s life.

NATO continues to maintain a high alert level for Russian sabotage and espionage.

In the latest incident over the weekend, an undersea cable between Sweden and Latvia, which is used by the Latvian State Radio and Television Centre (LVRTC), was damaged, although the exact cause remains still unclear. The authorities in Stockholm are investigating possible serious sabotage and have detained a suspicious vessel.

Undersea cables are vulnerable to damage by large heavy anchors. (Source: TeleGeography, “Submarine Cable Map”, 20 May 2022)

In a separate German interview with Bild, NATO Chief Mark Rutte has said he has ideas about any future peace negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow that are a “little secret,” but will ensure Russian President Vladimir Putin will “never try again” to conquer Ukraine.

“We must ensure that (Putin) can never, ever again conquer even one square kilometer of Ukraine,” the NATO chief replied, adding the most important thing for NATO to do right now is to support Kyiv with weapons and training for its soldiers.

Rutte went on to say that if Ukraine decides to enter peace talks, it will then have to bring Putin to the negotiating table.

“I can’t describe to you exactly how these talks will go,” Rutte said, adding: “I already have ideas about what this composition could look like. But we don’t want to make Putin any smarter than he already is. We’re making it a little secret.”

“The front is moving in the wrong direction. But at what price?,” the NATO Chief advised, adding, the Russians are paying for it with 1,000 to 1,500 people a day who are dying or seriously wounded. And yet the Russians are not achieving their goals.”

“Only the end is certain — Putin will never try again after this,” Rutte concluded.

Thanks to the devastating UK-manufactured and supplied Storm Shadow drone weapon system, NATO has given Ukraine a fighting chance.

These interviews are for German public consumption as the only language the Kremlin understands is action or force. But demonstrating confidence and unity against Russia is welcome, especially in the light that a Vladimir Putin protege now occupies the White House. NATO is signaling they are stepping up to fill the imminent void the US will be leaving.

Despite Trumpf’s efforts, the ICC has outstanding international arrest warrants issued for Vladimir Putin and Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes.

An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Sources:

https://kyivindependent.com/putin-will-never-try-again-after-this-nato-chief-has-secret-ideas-for-ukraine-peace-talks/

https://www.yahoo.com/news/german-general-warns-russian-meddling-111425881.html

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/11/politics/us-germany-foiled-russian-assassination-plot/index.html

https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_225230.htm

Former Federal Reserve Senior Adviser Indicted For Economic Espionage

John Harold Rogers (63) of Vienna, VA, a former Senior Adviser for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors (FRB), was arrested on charges that he conspired to steal Federal Reserve trade secrets for the benefit of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).

In furtherance of the conspiracy, Rogers allegedly made false statements to the Federal Reserve Board Office of Inspector General, and those false statements had a material impact on its investigation.

John Harold Rogers. Do you wonder if this Judas is smiling today? (Photo: Social media)

“As alleged, the defendant violated the trust placed in him by the Federal Reserve Bank by putting US trade secrets in the hands of his PRC co-conspirators, knowing full well that such information would benefit the PRC Government and PRC instrumentalities.”

“The Chinese Communist Party has expanded its economic espionage campaign to target US government financial policies and trade secrets in an effort to undermine the US and become the sole superpower.”

Rogers, a US citizen with a Ph.D. in Economics, worked as a Senior Adviser in the Division of International Finance of the FRB from 2010 until 2021, where he was entrusted with confidential FRB information. The confidential information that Rogers allegedly shared with his Chinese co-conspirators, who worked for the intelligence and security apparatus of China and who posed as graduate students at a PRC university, is economically valuable when secret.

China holds a large amount of US foreign debt (approximately $816 billion as of Oct 2024). The data Rogers shared with his co-conspirators could allow China to manipulate the US market, in a manner similar to insider trading. Gaining advance knowledge of US economic policy, including advance knowledge of changes to the federal funds rate, could provide China with an advantage when selling or buying US bonds or securities.

The indictment alleges that from at least 2018, Rogers allegedly exploited his employment with the FRB by soliciting trade-secret information regarding proprietary economic data sets, deliberations about tariffs targeting China, briefing books for designated governors, and sensitive information about Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) deliberations and forthcoming announcements. He passed that information electronically to his personal email account, in violation of FRB policy, or printed it prior to traveling to China, in preparation for meetings with his co-conspirators. Under the guise of teaching “classes,” Rogers met with his co-conspirators in hotel rooms in China where he conveyed sensitive, trade-secret information that belonged to the FRB and the FOMC.

In 2023, Rogers was paid approximately $450,000 as a part-time professor at a Chinese university.

On 4 Feb 2020, in response to questioning by the Office of the Inspector General for the Federal Reserve Board, Rogers lied about his accessing and passage of sensitive information and his associations with his co-conspirators.

Rogers is charged with conspiracy to commit economic espionage and with making false statements. Conspiracy to commit economic espionage carries a maximum statutory penalty of 15 years in prison, and a maximum fine of $5 million. Making false statements carries a maximum statutory penalty of five years in prison.

A criminal indictment is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

John Harold Rogers (63) threw his life away for 30 pieces of silver.

As the British Empire gave way to the US and the Cold War with the USSR emerged after WWII, China now wishes to be new world hegemon. But in reality, the struggle is between global billionaire oligarchs versus the masses.

Sources:

https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/former-senior-adviser-federal-reserve-indicted-charges-economic-espionage

US Mercenary Firms to Take Charge of Key Gaza Checkpoints as Part of Ceasefire

Palestinians make their way back to their homes in northern Gaza. (Photo: Ramadan Abed / Reuters)

US “private security” contractors will deploy armed guards to Gaza and inspect vehicles of Palestinians returning to their homes in the north via an Israeli-installed checkpoint that divides the strip into two parts.

Citing two Israeli officials and a source with direct knowledge, Axios reported that the planned deployment is expected to start in the coming days.

The two US companies, Safe Reach Solutions (SRS) and UG Solutions, will operate a checkpoint on the Netzarim corridor, a key road south of Gaza City. Salaries for these ex-US Army Special Forces soldiers, Rangers, or USN Seals will probably range from $1,000 to $1,500 per day.

Israeli forces set up the Netzarim corridor, which divides the Gaza Strip into two halves, during its war on the strip to prevent displaced Palestinians from returning to the northern part.

The deployment was negotiated as part of the ceasefire agreement, brokered by the US, Egypt and Qatar, between Israel and the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas. It aimed to solve a key sticking point around the movement of displaced Palestinians back to northern Gaza.

“The consortium’s role is to oversee, manage, and secure a critical vehicle checkpoint along Salah al-Din Road, facilitating the safe return of displaced Palestinians to northern Gaza. The consortium aims to ensure orderly vehicle movement while preventing the transport of weapons northward, in line with the ceasefire terms,” a source familiar with the issue claimed.

The US contractors are expected to remain in Gaza until the end of the first phase of the deal, which took effect on Sunday. According to the agreement, Palestinians displaced to the south could return seven days into the truce.

An Egyptian security company, which has been approved by the Egyptian intelligence service, will also be involved in the checks.

“There may be additional members and nationalities in the future,” a source familiar with the issue said.

It will be the first time in decades that US private security companies will operate in Gaza. American contractors have a dark history of crimes against non-combatants and civilians in war zones.

US mercenaries in Iraq.

Four security guards from the private military firm Blackwater received jail sentences for killing 14 civilians, including two children, in Iraq’s Baghdad in 2007, a massacre that sparked an international outcry over the use of mercenaries in war. However, they were later pardoned by Donald Trump during his first presidential term in 2020.

There is a reason why the United Nations stands firmly against the use of mercenary fighters: Because mercenaries, at the end of the day, have performed far more atrocities than acts of valor on the battlefield.

Sources:

https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2025/01/mil-250124-presstv04.htm

https://brewminate.com/blackwater-and-the-corporate-mercenaries-whove-changed-the-rules-of-war/

Western France Battles Worst Floods in Decades Following Storm Ivo

More than 1,600 people have fled their homes in western France as a third major storm in a week brought record rainfall and extreme flooding.

Storm Ivo hit areas already struggling with flooding from storms Eowyn and Herminia. Red weather alerts remain active in three regions of Brittany – Ille-et-Vilaine, Loire-Atlantique, and Morbihan.

Their combined impact of the storms was exacerbated by the fact that the ground was already drenched from previous persistent rainfall.

National weather service Météo France warned that the situation could get worse in the coming days and authorities are on high alert. The French interior ministry said Paris had dispatched 1,500 additional firefighters to the affected areas.

“It’s quite catastrophic,” a local resident said. “I am also thinking of how the clean-up will be difficult for all these people once the waters recede.”

The night and day flying Tiger mosquito, an invasive species, carries chikungunya, dengue, and Zika, and they are spreading in France. See threat map below

The danger of waterborne diseases as well as breeding grounds for Tiger mosquitos have drastically increased in this area of western France, presenting another problem for the wobbly Macron government. Last year Paris sent warships and rescuers to Mayotte following Cyclone Chido which may have killed thousands.

Sources:

https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20250131-western-france-battles-worst-floods-in-decades-after-triple-storm-assault

https://www.yahoo.com/news/france-rushes-help-mayotte-where-092132223.html

US Urges Ukraine to Hold Elections After Ceasefire

Retired US Army Lieutenant-General Keith Kellogg, Special US Envoy to Ukraine and Russia.

FTA:

“The US is urging Ukraine to hold elections, possibly by the end of the year, particularly if a truce with Russia is reached in the coming months, according to President Donald Trump’s top Ukraine official.

Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, told Reuters that presidential and parliamentary elections, suspended since the all-out war began, “need to be done.” He argued that most democratic nations hold elections during wartime and that doing so would strengthen Ukraine’s democracy. “That’s the beauty of a solid democracy, you have more than one person potentially running,” Kellogg said.

Trump and Kellogg have indicated they are working on a plan to broker a peace deal within the first months of the new administration, though details remain scarce. While the strategy is still being developed, two sources familiar with White House discussions and a former US official briefed on the matter said Trump officials are considering pushing Ukraine to hold elections as part of an initial ceasefire with Russia.

The Kremlin has questioned the absence of elections, with Russian President Vladimir Putin insisting that the Ukrainian leader lacks the legal authority to sign binding agreements. However, Putin has said Zelensky could still take part in negotiations if he first repeals a 2022 decree that bans talks with Russia while Putin remains in power.”

As predicted, the Trumpf-Putin axis talking points against Ukraine have begun. This agitprop plants the seed in the American media that Ukrainian President Zelensky is somehow corrupt or illegitimate by not holding elections. Such elections give the Kremlin an opportunity to allow hidden pro-Kremlin Fifth Columnists to run for Parliament. This position is nothing short of a blatant attempt to undermine President Zelensky and the people of Ukraine.

You wonder what retired US Army Lieutenant-General Keith Kellogg thinks about the despicable manner in which Trumpf disposed of his former warrior-colleague, retired US Army General Mark Milley?

US Army General Mark Milley’s portrait was removed from the Pentagon hours after Trumpf’s inauguration ceremony.

Source:

https://kyivindependent.com/us-urges-ukraine-to-hold-elections-after-ceasefire-trumps-envoy-tells-reuters/

Sudan: Dengue Outbreak Amid Worsening Health Crisis and Conflict

Per CIA, Sudan has a population of slightly over 50m people with a GDP per capita of $2,500. 

Health authorities revealed an outbreak of dengue fever in the Naqib area of Drudib locality in the Red Sea state, where more than five deaths and more than 200 infections were recorded, amid growing concern about the rapid spread of the disease and the absence of effective intervention. Citizens expressed their fears about the deterioration of the health situation and the weak medical response.

Reports confirmed 11 new cases of cholera, including two deaths, bringing the total to 52,517, with 1,407 deaths. Four new cases of dengue fever were also recorded, bringing the total to 9,283 cases and 16 deaths in the Gedaref and White Nile areas. More than 330,000 displaced people have arrived in the states of Kassala, Gedaref, and River Nile, amid severe shortages of potable water and health services, further complicating the humanitarian crisis.

Sudan is undergoing an ethnic war between “riverine Arabs” from the former ruling class in Khartoum and “Darfur Arabs.” These “Darfur Arabs” were considered backwards and “Africanized” by the former rulers. But “Darfur Arabs” comprise the RSF base and in turn dislike the former Khartoum ruling class. Russia is duplicitously supplying both sides of the conflict and the US will be withdrawing aid and assistance to Africa, including eliminating USAID, under the new Trumpf regime.

Accused war criminal RSF commander Gen. Mohammad Hamdan Daglo Mousa.

Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Sources:

https://www.state.gov/genocide-determination-in-sudan-and-imposing-accountability-measures/

https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy2772

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/russia-sudan-war-saf-rsf-hedges-bets-both-sides-support

Bengal Cat and Mini Dachshund Having Fun

Trump Directs Pentagon and DHS to Prepare Housing for 30,000 Migrants at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

President Donald Trumpf signed a memo Wednesday that sets in motion preparations for a facility to house thousands of migrants at the US military camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, which he said was an effort to “halt the border invasion.”

Trumpf said the US has

“30,000 beds in Guantánamo to detain the worst criminal illegal aliens threatening the American people.”

Trumpf previewed the directive at a signing ceremony for the Laken Riley Act, an immigration detention measure, saying he would “instruct the departments of Defense and Homeland Security to begin preparing the 30,000-person migrant facility at Guantánamo Bay.”

No, those aren’t Russian soldiers abusing Ukrainian POWs. They’re Muslim detainees arriving at Camp X-Ray in Jan 2002. (Photo: Shane T. McCoy, US Navy)

The Guantánamo Bay announcement caught many officials at the Pentagon off-guard, according to five defense officials. One official said the Guantánamo mission will be a DHS mission. It is unclear whether the military will be involved, but the Pentagon has no orders or guidance from the White House beyond the memo.

Officials who were surprised by Trump’s announcement said they do not know how many beds for migrants are at Guantánamo or whether it would be a short- or a long-term mission. They said there are no plans to upgrade or change the military facilities there.

Camp X-Ray in Jan 2002 (Photo: Shane T. McCoy, US Navy)

Beginning in 1991, over 32,000 men, women and children fled Haiti in makeshift boats. Many were pro-democracy activists seeking refuge after a military dictatorship overthrew President Aristide. Intercepted by the US Coast Guard, they came to crowded camps surrounded by barbed wire at Guantánamo to pre-screen their asylum claims.

Somebody on Trumpf’s staff alerted him that Guantanamo Bay once held 32,000 Haitian migrants, which is where he got the number 30,000 for his directive.

There are only a handful of Muslim detainees left in Guantanamo. President Barack Obama made several efforts to close down this tropical torture chamber but was stymied by Republicans in the Congress. This inhumane ukase will be a costly one for the hardworking American taxpayer. The expense of operating a C-17 military transport aircraft is $28,500 per hour. A recent military deportation flight to Guatemala most likely cost at least $4,675 per migrant. Moreover, feeding 30,000 unfortunate souls will be expensive as well. One wonders which Trumpf crony will be awarded the lucrative contract to cater to these poor detainees. No doubt the oligarch will overcharge the US government while providing the refugees gruel.

Trumpf is a fount of human kindness like his role model. (Michelle Kondrich/The Washington Post; Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post; AP)

Sources:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-says-sign-order-housing-migrants-guantanamo-bay-rcna189884

 https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/us-military-deportation-flight-likely-cost-more-than-first-class-2025-01-30/

Trumpf Withdraws Security Details for Several Former VIPs

President Trumpf pulled security from John Bolton, Mike Pompeo, and his assistant John Hook, despite an assassination contract put out by Iran. This is just another example of Trumpf’s vindictive nature to invite political violence against his enemies

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced he is “immediately pulling” retired Gen. Mark Milley’s personal security detail and security clearance. The sycophantic secretary is also directing the new acting Inspector General to conduct a review board to determine if enough evidence exists for Gen. Milley to be stripped of a star in retirement based on his actions to “undermine the chain of command” during President Donald Trump’s first term.

The DoD will also be removing a second portrait of Gen. Milley inside the Pentagon. This one is from the Army’s Marshall Corridor on the third floor honoring his service as chief-of-staff of the Army. This means there will be no more portraits of Gen. Milley inside the Pentagon.

Background Information

The US State Department announced a $20 million reward for information leading to the arrest of the alleged Iranian mastermind behind a plot to assassinate former White House official John Bolton.

The US designated the entire IRGC a “foreign terrorist organization” in 2019, after previously designating its external operation wing, the Quds Force.

In Aug 2022, US officials uncovered a plot by Shahram Poursafi, a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), to kill John Bolton, who served as national security adviser to former President Donald Trump. The reward offer came when Trumpf who was running for a new White House term, claiming there were “big threats” on his life by Iran.

Bolton, an Islamophobe, is considered a foreign policy hawk and is a fierce critic of Iran. He advocated that Trump unilaterally and recklessly withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018.

President Donald Trump flanked by National Security Adviser John Bolton, right, speaks during a meeting with Senior Military Leadership in the Cabinet Room of the White House on 9 April 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo: Oliver Contreras /Sipa USA via AP)

Poursafi allegedly offered an unidentified person inside the US $300,000 to kill Bolton in the capital area. The plan was likely set in motion after the US killing of top IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani in Iraq on 3 Jan 2020 by a drone strike outside Baghdad Int’l Airport (BIAP). But it never made headway because the ostensible assassin became an informant of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Iranian authorities have dismissed the allegations as “fiction.”

The late General Qasem Soleimani. (Photo: Public domain)

General Qasem Soleimani was a popular figure in Iran and an effective combat leader against ISIS in Syria and Iraq. When the US invaded Afghanistan in Oct 2001 after the 11 Sep 2001 attacks, General Soleimani collaborated with the US and led the 2001 uprising in Herat against the Taliban, which included ethnic Hazaras, the Northern Alliance, and the Quds Force which liberated the city before US forces entered. Years later, the QF supported the Shia resistance against US forces in Iraq, particularly with lethal EFPs (explosively formed penetrators,

As reported previously here on Coriolanus, the IRGC-QF have contracted out assassinations to organized crime groups such as the Hell’s Angels, as well as recruited spies and saboteurs within Israel.

“Crossing Lines”

On 4 Dec 1981, President Ronald Reagan signed Executive Order 12333. Part 2.11 of E.O. 12333 reiterates a proscription on US intelligence agencies sponsoring or carrying out an assassination. It reads:

No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination.

Then-President Trumpf abused the Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) to get around this proscription by deploying DOD assets to murder General Soleimani.

America’s beloved “Old Blood and Guts.” (Photo: Public domain)

During a state of war, enemy generals are high value targets (HVTs). The Ukrainian secret services killed a Russian CBRN general last year. In mob parlance, Trumpf killing Qasem Soleimani “crossed a line” with the Iranians as the US was not in a Congressionally-declared war with Tehran. Imagine how upset Americans would have been in 1945 if former members of the Third Reich assassinated General George Patton after the war ended. That’s how the Iranians feel today about Soleimani’s death.

Giuseppe “Pino” Greco killed up to 300 victims on behalf of the powerful Corleonesi clan during the Sicilian Mafia war of the late 1970s.

Like Giuseppe “Pino” Greco, when you live by the sword, expect to die by the sword. Perhaps this will be a lesson to national security functionaries to be a little more circumspect before ordering the taking of another man’s life. In sharp contrast to America’s dilemma of protecting homicidal bureaucrats, former President of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador dismissed his military bodyguard detail when he assumed office. During his five year term, no one from the drug cartels, ISIS, the FSB, the IRGC-QF, or even a deranged lunatic made any attempts to harm President Obrador.

President of Mexico Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Photo: Government of Mexico)

Mexico’s President-Elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador shakes hands with a supporter while leaving the National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico 3 Jul 2018. (Photo: Reuters / Daniel Becerril)

Mexico President Obrador sat unprotected on a delayed commercial flight for three hours. He said he would be “embarrassed” to board “a luxurious plane in a country where there is so much poverty.” President Obrador intended to sell the specially made $218.7m presidential jet.

Sources:

Putting A Target On His Back – Digby’s Hullabaloo

https://www.state.gov/rewards-for-justice-reward-offer-for-information-on-islamic-revolutionary-guard-corps-member-shahram-poursafi/

https://www.voanews.com/a/us-offers-20m-for-details-about-iranian-allegedly-behind-plot-to-kill-official-/7800969.html

https://www.federalregister.gov/executive-order/12333

https://www.newsweek.com/mexicos-obrador-says-he-doesnt-need-bodyguards-people-will-protect-him-1007985

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-45596480

Ukraine-Russia Update

Distributing military recruitment leaflets in Moscow. (Photo: Pelagia Tikhonova / Moskva News Agency)

I Russian Recruitment

The number of Russians signing contracts at Moscow recruitment centers to fight in the war against Ukraine has fallen five-fold since its peak in late summer of last year. The daily number of volunteers signing-up reached a high following Ukraine’s Kursk offensive and the introduction of a one-time payment of 1.9 million rubles ($19,200) shortly before that.

Since then, daily applicants number around 40, a fivefold decrease, citing a source in the Moscow mayor’s office. The composition of applicants has changed, and half of those signing up currently are foreigners of African, Asian, or Chinese origin looking to make extra money, or Russians under investigation in criminal cases.


Russia is currently suffering around 1500-1750 casualties daily on the battlefield, including dead, wounded, and captured, as it continues to make grinding advances in eastern Ukraine in “meat attacks.”

Soviet Army human wave attack in WWII.

II Ukrainian Strategic Drone Offensive

Ukrainian drones continue destroying strategic targets inside Russia, including an oil refinery, pumping station, and a missile arsenal. Four drones struck the Lukoil oil depot in the city of Kstovo, causing “significant damage.”


All of these targets are hundreds of miles inside Russia, conducted by Ukrainian Special Operations or intelligence personnel (HUR). The Russians were forced to shut down the main pipeline that supplies oil to the Ust-Luga terminal in Leningrad Oblast.

Click here for video:

https://t.me/war_monitor/24687

https://x.com/i/status/1884475734309155281

III Australian POW Alive

Australian volunteer Oscar Jenkins. Credit: HANDOUT/’SLADKOV+’ TELEGRAM ACCOUNT/AAP

Oscar Jenkins is serving in the 402nd Separate Rifle Battalion, which is part of Ukraine’s 66th Separate Mechanized Brigade. He went missing on 16 Dec 2024 while on a combat mission near the village of Mykolaivka in Luhansk Oblast. Thought to be executed by the Russians, Australian FM Penny Wong received confirmation from the Kremlin that Jenkins is alive and in custody.

IV NATO Support for Ukraine

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan: “Ukraine deserves NATO membership.” (Photo: Tolga Bozoglu EPA / Shutterstock)

NATO is on course to fulfill its promise to send approximately $41.6 billion in security assistance to Ukraine by the end of the year, NATO Deputy Secretary General Radmila Shekerinska said on 29 Jan. Member nations pledged to provide the funding to Ukraine during the NATO summit in Washington, DC in July 2024. The future of US military aid remains uncertain under President Donald Trump who has urged Europe to shoulder more of the financial burden.

Ukraine continues striking strategic targets inside Russia to damage its economy and undermine enemy morale. The word is out on the Russian street about the appalling number of deaths on the Ukrainian front, lowering the number of native Russians seeking military contracts. NATO and the EU are stepping up to fill the void of assistance caused by Vladimir Putin protégé Donald Trump and are executing their contingency plan across the financial, intelligence, and defense spectrum. For example, the US ceded Poland’s air defense command to NATO last year. The Russians would not execute a foreigner like Oscar Jenkins because he has value for any potential prisoner swaps. If a Russian spy is detained in Australia, Moscow and Canberra would conduct a trade.

“Uncle Vanya Wants You!”

Uh-huh.

A Russian Defender of the Fatherland Day poster, celebrated on 23 Feb.

Sources:

https://kyivindependent.com/ukraine-war-latest-ukrainian-drones-hit-lukoil-oil-refinery-missile-arsenal-in-russia-sources-claim/

https://www.stripes.com/theaters/europe/2025-01-13/nato-air-defense-poland-patriots-16467545.html

Ebola Outbreak Strikes Uganda’s Capital

(Photo: CNN)

Uganda confirms an Ebola virus outbreak in its capital, Kampala, with the first patient, a nurse, succumbing to the disease. This highly infectious virus spreads through bodily fluids and has claimed 55 lives during a previous outbreak. The health ministry is handling the emerging situation cautiously.

Per CIA, Uganda has nearly 50m people; real GDP per capita is $2,800.

The highly contagious viral infection, which transmits through contact with infected bodily fluids and tissues, causes symptoms such as headaches, muscle pain, and bleeding. Uganda last battled an Ebola outbreak in late 2022, which officially ended on 11 Jan 2023, after claiming 55 lives, including six health workers.

The average Ebola case fatality rate is around 50%. Case fatality rates have varied from 25–90% in past outbreaks, depending on circumstances and the response.

Sources:

https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/health/3245580-ebola-outbreak-strikes-ugandas-capital

https://www.who.int/health-topics/ebola/#tab=tab_1

Trumpf 6 Jan Pardons Backfire

Violent Lunatic Pardoned by Trumpf Sought on Charges of Child Sex Solicitation

Andrew Taake holding a metal whip during a confrontation at the US Capitol on 6 Jan 2021 (via FBI court filing).

Andrew Taake (36) from Houston, TX was released from prison after being pardoned by Donad Trumpf is now wanted on separate charges of child sex solicitation. He had pleaded guilty in 2023 to beating officers with a metal whip and dousing them with bear spray while storming the Capitol grounds on 6 Jan 2021.

After being turned in by a woman he chatted with on the dating app Bumble, he was sentenced to six years in federal prison plus three years of post-released supervision. But now that he’s free again, Texas prosecutors are seeking him for trial on charges related to text messages he allegedly sent an undercover cop pretending to be a 15-year-old girl back in 2016.

This maniac was already awaiting trial for those messages when he journeyed to the Capitol “ready for violence” in January 2021. Nevertheless, Takke was freed from federal prison despite a formal request from Texas authorities to keep him in custody so that he could be tried for the 2016 charge.

Pardoned 6 Jan Offender Kills Mother of Two While DUI

Another one of Trumpf’s pardons backfired. Emily Hernandez was sentenced to ten years in prison for a deadly drunk driving crash days after being pardoned for her role in the 6 Jan Capitol attack.

Emily Hernandez holding a stolen, broken nameplate belonging to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Hernandez pleaded guilty for her involvement and served 30 days in federal prison. Look how happy she looks.

On 5 Jan 2022, Hernandez drove on I-44 in Missouri for several miles going the wrong way, with a blood and alcohol concentration of .125, before crashing into another car belonging to a Franklin County couple, Victoria and Ryan Wilson. The couple just left dinner celebrating their 15th wedding anniversary. Victoria (32) died and Ryan faced serious injuries. The couple has two children, now ages 18 and 13.

Credit: Family of Victoria Wilson

Emily Hernandez destroyed this once happy family in Missouri and a sexual predator is now on the loose in Texas. Expect more mayhem from the approximately 1,500 pardoned maniacs. When people contend that Donald Trumpf is trying to destroy the US from within, do not disbelieve them.

UK Shadow First Secretary of State Emily Thornberry in 2017: Trumpf Is a “dangerous asteroid of awfulness that has fallen on this world” and a “racist.” (Photo: Getty Images)

Sources:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/january-6-trump-pardons-andrew-taake-b2687340.html

https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/crime/emily-hernandez-sentenced-deadly-dui-crash/63-0d47bef0-2d31-4eb7-9aec-9a8e77a68b3c

UK: Alleged Russian Spy Believed She Was Working for Interpol

Court artist sketch of Vanya Gaberova, who said she never doubted the identity of the man who allegedly told her he was part of Interpol. (Photo: Elizabeth Cook / PA)

A woman accused of spying for Moscow told the Old Bailey she believed she was working for Interpol after a man showed her a fake ID and told her he could enrol her at “police school in Wembley.”

On her first day of giving evidence, London-based beautician Vanya Gaberova (30) said she did not question Bizer Dzhambazov (43) who also told her that untrained people such as her were better at surveillance because they did not stand out in a crowd.

Gaberova said she and Dzhambazov became close in Aug 2021 and gradually started a relationship as he began to give her surveillance tasks around Europe, which prosecutors say were for the benefit of Russia.

Dzhambazov, a medical courier, told her he was part of an Interpol economic crime unit and showed her credentials, which she did not question, and added that he could help her get a job in the police, which she said was an aspiration of hers.

Dzhambazov has already pleaded guilty to spying for Russia, carrying out surveillance tasks as part of a spy ring run by his friend Orlin Roussev, based in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk. Roussev, who has also admitted guilt, was accused of working for Jan Marsalek, an Austrian fugitive and Russian agent based in Moscow.

The NATO Counterintelligence/Operational Security (CI/OPSEC) posture remains high because of the threat of Russian sabotage and espionage. The war in Ukraine has forced the Kremlin to recruit amateurs and non-professional assets without diplomatic immunity such as Vanya Gaberova. Nevertheless, they pose a threat to Western interests. These Russian spies will no doubt be traded in a future prisoner swap.

Russian spy Maria Butina who infiltrated the GOP and the NRA.

Source:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jan/30/alleged-russian-spy-says-believed-working-interpol

Trumpf Golf Tracker

(Credit: PA:Press Association)

President Trumpf visited a Trump Organization property on 428 of the 1,461 days (30%) of his first presidential term and is estimated to have played 261 rounds of golf, one every 5.6 days.

One of Trumpf’s campaign pledges was to immediately lower the prices of eggs and gasoline for American consumers. Since being in office, both prices have increased while the Commander-in-Chief golfed. The ingenious Trumpf Golf Tracker is monitoring the time the President of the United States is on the links while “Rome burns down.”

https://trumpgolftrack.com/

Border Collie Has Perfect Pitch

Trump Gives Elon Musk Access to All Unclassified Data in US Government

AI-generated image for DOGE.gov website, already taken down. (Source: Social media)

From Wired magazine:

“The fine print of a sweeping Trump executive order seemingly grants Elon Musk — the wealthiest and arguably most powerful unelected figure in the world — and his associates at the somehow-still-real Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) access to all unclassified data held by US government agencies.

Under the executive order, the Trump Administration didn’t create a new federal advisory committee. It instead repurposed the United States Digital Service (USDS), an existing government organization with sweeping access to vast caches of data across government agencies, including the sensitive information of US citizens, as the “United States DOGE Service” — a move that seemingly opens the door for Musk and his operatives to access a massive amount of data without much transparency oversight.”

Trump fired all three Democrats on the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), bringing much of its work to a standstill. The move guts a board designed to ensure the government’s work to fight terrorism is balanced with protections for civil liberties.
The White House informed the three Democrats on the board on Thursday it was seeking their resignation, but the members were officially terminated Monday.

This stealthy move allows the Trump administration and his right-wing operatives to data mine the American people, and in essence, conduct warrantless internal surveillance. To go after political enemies like Liz Cheney or the Vindman brothers, DOGE will give Trumpf a superpower that Richard Nixon didn’t have when he ordered the IRS to conduct time-consuming audits on his enemies. Thanks to DOGE, Trump or his cronies can easily create a dossier about their enemies without a warrant in “one-stop shopping.”

More guardrails protecting the privacy and civil liberties of Americans have been eliminated. Democratic-appointed federal judges who oversee FISA warrants in the 94 US judicial districts remain. And without oversight, what is to stop white supremacist oligarch Elon Musk from selling this sensitive data about Americans to nefarious actors or corporations such as Amazon?

The Worst Person in the World

Volunteers immediately projected this on Musk’s factory in Germany, where rendering a Nazi salute is illegal.

And shame on the once reputable Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for disingenuously defending neo-Nazi Elon Musk while recklessly smearing Palestinian-Americans as antisemites.

Sources:

https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-data-us-government

https://www.wired.com/story/doge-elon-musk/

Russia Pressuring Relatives of Ukrainian POWs to Collaborate

Ukrainian prisoners after being freed. Look how happy the poor guy on the left is.

Russian intelligence services and their military are attempting to influence relatives of Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) by contacting them immediately after their capture. The calls are used to pressure relatives into cooperating with Russian forces by demanding money, sensitive information, or illegal actions in exchange for promises of better treatment or inclusion in prisoner exchanges.

“This is done to shock, emotionally pressure, and force the family to cooperate,” an official from Kiev reported.

This comes as another example of Russia abusing or threatening Ukrainian captives as part of its all-out war against Ukraine. Kiev and Moscow have carried out several prisoner exchanges during the conflict, though Russia has been accused of deliberately slowing down the swaps and spreading disinformation about the process to destabilize Ukraine.

Ukrainian authorities have documented widespread violations of the Geneva Conventions by Russia, including the execution of over 100 Ukrainian POWs in 2024 alone.

Reports of torture, murder, and ill-treatment of Ukrainian captives have surged in recent months, particularly in Donetsk Oblast, where intense fighting continues. On 23 Jan, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office announced it was investigating a case of Russian troops summarily executing six Ukrainian POWs in the region.

Whether there will be post Second World War Nuremburg-type trials for Russian war crimes after hostilities finally cease is doubtful. Russian President Vladimir Putin will remain an unarrested PIFWC, like his counterpart Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu. Over time, the experienced Ukrainian espionage network will seek out justice in their own way, as we have seen with other Russian war criminals.

Source:

https://kyivindependent.com/russian-forces-pressure-relatives-of-ukrainian-pows-to-cooperate-ukrainian-officials-report/

Indonesian Forestry Minister Plans to Level 50 Million Acres for Food, Biofuels; Area 2x Size Of South Korea

 Per CIA, Indonesia has a population of 281,562,465 people. GDP per capita is $13,900,

An Indonesian government plan to clear forests spanning an area twice the size of South Korea for food and biofuel crops has sparked fears of massive greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss. The country’s forest ministry announced they identified forest areas spanning 20 million hectares (50 million acres) for potential conversion into “food and energy estates.”

The announcement triggered an immediate backlash, as similar food estate programs in the past have failed, often leaving a legacy of environmental destruction. Indonesia has the world’s third-largest expanse of tropical rainforest, after Brazil and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and such a vast amount of deforestation would deal a major blow to global efforts of limiting global warming.



A cleared area for the establishment of cassava plantation as a part of the food estate program in the Tewai Baru village, Gunung Mas district, Central Kalimantan. Image courtesy of Walhi Central Kalimantan.

The clearing of 20 million hectares of forests could release up to 22 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide, equivalent to the annual emissions from nearly 5,300 coal-fired power plants. “This [food and energy estate plan] shows how the government doesn’t have a commitment to reforest and rehabilitate natural forests,” an environmentalist said. “In reality, we don’t have the luxury of deforesting amid the climate crisis.” Yet the plan aligns with the platform of President Prabowo Subianto, who has prioritized achieving both food and energy self-sufficiency as cornerstones of his administration. Since his election campaign, Prabowo has emphasized the need for Indonesia to achieve sovereignty in these critical sectors to bolster economic resilience and national security.

Massive arboricide is not what the world needs, but just the opposite. To reduce the carbon emissions in the atmosphere and reverse global climate change, millions of trees must be quickly grown and those alive in the Brazilian or DRC rain forest must be spared.

Source:

Warning of Possible TB Epidemic in Ecuador’s Largest Prison

The Litoral Penitentiary has capacity to house five thousand inmates, although by July 2021 it imprisoned approximately ten thousand.

Lawyers from Ecuador’s Permanent Committee for the Defense of Human Rights warned of a possible tuberculosis epidemic in the Litoral Penitentiary, the country’s largest prison, where an estimated 500 inmates are infected.

Per CIA, Ecuador population: 18m people; $14,500 GDP per capita.

In a single pavilion there are 400 detainees with confirmed tuberculosis and in a second space of supposed containment, there are inmates with symptoms. The situation is aggravated because they live in an unhygienic condition with inadequate food.

There is no classification of prisoners, so inmates are all mixed according to their criminal gangs. The military does not generally interfere with the gangs and bloodshed is not uncommon. Hundreds of inmates have been killed since 2020.

The Armed Forces of Ecuador took control of Litoral Penitentiary on 25 Jul 2023 in Guayaquil. (Photo: Fuerzas Amadas / EFE)

Litoral Prison has been described as “Hell on Earth.”

Sources:

https://www.prensa-latina.cu/2025/01/16/advierten-de-posible-epidemia-en-mayor-prision-de-ecuador/

https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/12/americas/ecuador-prison-clash-litoral-penitentiary-intl-latam/index.html

‘Unprecedented’ TB Outbreak in Kansas with Nearly 70 Cases

Kansas Department of Health and Environment announced 67 active outbreak cases and 79 latent infections in Kansas City, KS, since 2024. The majority of cases were declared to have broken out in Wyandotte County and Johnson County, just west and southwest of the metro area.

KDHE Deputy Secretary Ashley Goss told the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee: “Currently, Kansas has the largest outbreak that they’ve ever had in history.”

But despite this, officials stated that the outbreak had a very low risk to the general public and surrounding counties.

In addition to the growing avian flu epidemic, here is another potential health crisis for the Trump administration. His purposeful choice of quacks, unreputable experts, and mountebanks will no doubt hurt the American people as this man below already knows.

On his show, Russian TV presenter Vladimir Solovyov shared a particularly grim prediction of what Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Hegseth, and the other Trump Cabinet appointments might mean for Americans: 

“What an excellent team is coming along with Trump! Not with respect to Ukraine, but as far as everything else goes. If they are allowed to get in, they will quickly dismantle America, brick by brick. They are so great!” 

Sources:

https://www.kdhe.ks.gov/2242/Tuberculosis-Outbreaks

https://www.cdc.gov/tb/hcp/clinical-guidance/index.html

https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/russia-trump-cabinet-picks-kash-patel-tulsi-gabbard-rcna182927

Trump Issues Quotas to ICE to Ramp Up Arrests

President Trumpf issued a ukase for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to aggressively ramp up the number of people they arrest, from a few hundred per day to at least 1,200 to 1,500, because the president has been disappointed with the results of his mass deportation campaign so far.

The quotas were outlined in a call with senior ICE officials, who were told that each of the agency’s field offices should make 75 arrests per day and managers would be held accountable for missing those targets.

The orders significantly increase the chance that officers will engage in more indiscriminate enforcement tactics or face accusations of civil rights violations as they strain to meet quotas. At least 15 indigenous people in Arizona and New Mexico have reported being stopped at their homes and workplaces, questioned or detained by federal law enforcement and asked to produce proof of citizenship during immigration raids, according to Navajo Nation officials. Farmers have complained that harvests weren’t picked because migrant laborers were too terrified to come to work, wasting millions of dollars of crops that rotted.

Newly sworn in puppy-killing Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem rides along on an immigration enforcement operation in New York City, 28 Jan 2025. (Photo: DHS)

White House “border czar” Tom Homan has said for weeks that ICE would not conduct mass roundups and its officers would prioritize immigrants with criminal records and who are gang members. But the quotas issued this weekend would place ICE officers under more pressure to seize a wider range of potential deportees to avoid reprimand, including immigrants who have not committed crimes.

During the Second World War, Supreme Commander Allied Forces in Europe General Dwight D. Eisenhower saw firsthand how millions of people could be relocated efficiently.

Jewish forced labor during WWII.

Victims of Operation Wetback in 1954. (Photo: US Border Patrol Museum)

As President, Eisenhower’s 1954 Operation Wetback deported 1.1 million vulnerable people en masse.

US immigration enforcement actions (returns and removals), 1940–1960

Republicans are full of friendship, charity, and benevolence aren’t they? And like “Ike,” the current President enjoys golfing. After telling a reporter he wouldn’t be playing on Monday (after playing on Sunday), Trumpf was photographed playing golf at his Doral club on Monday.

“It’s good to be the King!”

Sources:

Trump officials issue quotas to ICE officers to ramp up arrests – The Washington Post

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem joins immigration enforcement operations in NYC – ABC News

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wetback

Iran: 80 Female University Students Poisoned After Consuming Canned Tuna

Pishva Varamin University

80 students at Pishva Varamin University were afflicted with food poisoning. 22 of the affected students were treated on-site and discharged, while the rest were taken to the hospital for further care. Over the past year, multiple incidents of food poisoning involving students at various Iranian universities have been reported.

Per CIA, Iran has a population of 88m people and GDP per capita is $15,900 

In Dec 2024, Iranian media reported that 40 students from Shushtar Medical Sciences University experienced symptoms of food poisoning after having dinner at their dormitory, requiring hospitalization.

Food poisoning incidents in Iran are not limited to universities. Students and workers have also been affected, with some cases resulting in fatalities.

In Nov 2024, 42 students from a boys’ school in Kashmar, Khorasan Razavi Province, were hospitalized after consuming breakfast prepared at their school.

The recurring food poisoning incidents in Iran highlight systemic issues in food safety and hygiene standards in educational institutions and workplaces, raising concerns among the public. Addressing these concerns requires immediate action from authorities, including stricter regulations and monitoring of food preparation and distribution to ensure the health and safety of students and workers across the country.

A protester holds a photo of Mahsa Amini outside the UN on 21 Sep 2022 in NYC. Protests were held around the world after the 22-year-old Iranian woman died following her arrest for allegedly violating the country’s strict Islamic dress code. (Photo: Stephanie Keith / Getty Images)

Activists allege that the food poisoning attacks against female students are reprisals for defying the Islamic Republic of Iran’s strict mores about dress, conduct, or alcohol consumption. particularly wearing the hijab. The number of food poisoning incidents without any arrests have drawn the suspicion of covert state involvement. Tehran does not like to publicly admit that they are like the Taliban in Afghanistan so they are using intimidation tactics like this.

There are two theories behind these food poisoning incidents. In the “guns versus butter” debate, Tehran’s budget may be prioritizing defense over social services and US-led sanctions are not helping Iran. The other theory is covert state involvement to intimidate female students. Perhaps this is a combination of both, with nefarious members of the religious police taking advantage of an already poor food situation.

With the Islamophobic Trumpf regime now in power, expect no let up on sanctions and future dust-ups with Iran as Israel will continue attacking Shia Houthis in Yemen who are undergoing their own food insecurity issues. With less allies in the world, Iran will continue supplying Russia with drones in their mutually beneficial relationship as a fellow BRICS country (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates). Please watch for an imminent post about Iranian espionage.

Sources:

http://www.khamma.com

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/iran-schoolgirl-poison-attacks-1.6764821

Elephants Have Great Sense of Humor

Sanctioned Russian Firms Sold $2BN Air Defense System to Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia agreed to pay sanctioned Russian arms companies more than two billion euros for the Palantir air defense system, according to leaked documents. Trade data shows that some equipment was delivered in 2023, the year after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Details about arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other countries are included in leaked emails and internal documents from Roselectronics, which were analyzed by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).  

The Pantsir is a self-propelled air defense missile and gun system which can shoot down missiles, airplanes, helicopters, aerial bombs, and drones, like the recent Azerbaijani Airlines flight.

The documents show that Saudi Arabia ordered 39 trucks capable of shooting down aircraft, as well as ten vehicles housing “command posts” to direct the operations of combat vehicles. Also included in the purchase were hundreds of missiles, as well as additional vehicles.

A sanctioned Rostec subsidiary called United Instrument Manufacturing Corporation, was appointed to oversee the supply of the radio communications systems that were also purchased under the contract.

Efforts were made to conceal the identities of the clients.

For example, in the de-coded documents, foreign customer “012” stands for Algeria. In 2022, Russia was going to supply Algeria with its Acacia-E automatic aerospace defense system.

Foreign customer “364” of the Post-3M radio reconnaissance station in 2021 was Iran. Foreign customer “818″ of the Polyana-D4M1 command and control system is Egypt. Project 82P is Saudi Arabia.  The “82” is a part of the country code for Saudi Arabia (682), and the letter “P” refers to the product name — Pantsir.

And these Russian arms sales provide geo-political influence at the UN.

Saudi Arabia voted for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine while promising to provide Ukraine with $400 million in humanitarian aid. However, Riyadh abstained from voting on more than half of the UN resolutions regarding Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Other countries doing arms deals with the Kremlin either voted in Russia’s favor or abstained: Algeria, Egypt, India, Uganda, Belarus, China, Uganda, Ethiopia.   

President Trump’s first phone calls included one to bully the Danish PM over selling Greenland to the US. His other call was to Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman (MBS), the notorious murderer of Saudi dissident/journalist Jamal Khashoggi and financial backer of Jared Kushner, his son-in-law. Whatever matters these two malefactors discussed, it wasn’t in the best interest of international peace, justice, or the masses.  

Sources:

Sanctioned Russian Firms Sold $2B Air Defense System to Saudi Arabia, Leaked Documents Show | OCCRP

European arms imports nearly double, US and French exports rise, and Russian exports fall sharply | SIPRI

A Peek at the Poland-Belarus Border

Per CIA, Belarus has a population of 9.5 million people and GDP per capita is $27,700. Poland, an EU and NATO member has a population of over 39 million people and GDP per capita is $44,400.

For almost four years, Poland has been on a permanent state of high alert because of Belarus, which stands accused of luring asylum seekers from far-away destitute nations and pushing them en masse towards the border with the purpose of sowing chaos and polarising Polish society. During its six-month presidency of the EU Council, Poland presented a program under the slogan “Security, Europe!” that broke down the concept of security into seven different dimensions, one of them was migration.

And thanks to Belarusian Supremo Aleksandr Lukashenko, here’s what the Polish-Belarusian border looks like:

(Copyright Euronews)

The Polish-Belarusian border is equipped with thermos-vision cameras and sensor cables. (Copyright Euronews)

This road connecting the two countries is firmly blocked. (Copyright Euronews)

Poland argues its actions, such as turning away migrants, are necessary to defend the EU’s external borders. (Copyright Euronews)

Warsaw has urged the EU to think of migration as a security issue. (Copyright Euronews)

A Polish-German border crossing.

And the man responsible for this, Aleksandr Lukashenko, is set to win a seventh term in an election the opposition calls another “farce”. Amnesty International described the Belarus elections as being held in a “climate of total fear and repression.”

Just one of the thousands of Lukashenko’s political victims:

Imprisoned Belarusian human rights activist and 2022 Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski sits in a defendant’s cage during a court session in Minsk on 5 Jan 2023. (Photo: Vitaly Pivovarchyk / BelTA Pool Photo via AP)

Here is a Lukashenko protestor from 2020. (Photo: Tut.by via AP)

Recent protests against Lukashenko resulted in a brutal crackdown with more than 65,000 arrests and thousands beaten, bringing condemnation and sanctions from the West. His iron-fisted rule since 1994 — Lukashenko took office two years after the demise of the Soviet Union — earned him the nickname of “Europe’s Last Dictator,” relying on subsidies and political support from close ally Russia. The Belarussian dictator never bothered to change the name of the KGB like Russia and Ukraine did after the fall of the USSR.

(Image: Nataliia Shulga / Al Jazeera)

The 71-year-old Lukashenko, who only knows about life from the former Soviet Union, is afraid of his own people as well as losing power. And people in his proximity are afraid. A former minister said that officials sit with their heads down during meetings with him, avoiding eye contact with him out fear.

Sources:

At the Poland-Belarus border, security and migration merge into one | Euronews

Belarus strongman set to win a 7th term in an election the opposition calls a farce – ABC News

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/01/belarus-authorities-hold-presidential-election-in-climate-of-total-fear-and-repression/

“Jacuzzi of Death” for Sealife in Gulf of Mexico

Imagery courtesy of The Sun UK

The “Jacuzzi of Death” is filled with tragic creatures that have been killed in its toxic waters. This horrifying spot in the Gulf of Mexico is known to kill everything that goes inside it.

The dead zone is a 100-foot-wide “bottomless” pocket filled with toxic substances.

This concoction of methane, excessively salty water, and hydrogen sulphide means nearly everything that crosses its path is killed.

The murderous underwater lake sits nearly 3,000 feet below the Gulf of Mexico.

Its briny waters are so dense the death trap has been dragged to the bottom of the gulf and cannot mix with the rest of the ocean.

The “Jacuzzi of Death” is 3,000 ft below the Gulf’s surface.

A crab in the toxic zone.

Nearly all creatures that unknowingly enter the area die.

This death pool is four times saltier than the ocean waters around it, which ensures these bodies never mix.

Images reveal how these toxic waters slowly disintegrate the unfortunate crabs and fish that end up in the death zone.

This dangerous spot was found by scientists ten years ago when they realized creatures would enter never to be seen again. The death zone was dubbed a “jacuzzi” as the temperature of this pool is warmer than the waters around it. Mussels are the only living creature that can survive in these toxic waters. Colonies of bacteria have also been able to survive in this underwater spot.

The unfortunate crab being pickled.

The “Dead Zone” in the Gulf of Mexico has been growing for decades. Pollution, sewage treatment plants, fertilizer chemicals from farm land, beef production, oil toxins, and other sources along the Mississippi River wash into the Gulf of Mexico, causing algae blooms that deplete oxygen from the water, endangering marine life.

Analysis and imagery: NOAA

Oil Toxins Pervasive in Gulf of Mexico

Some analysts assess that we are the last generation to enjoy genuine, safe ocean seafood. Unless marine pollution is stopped, the analysts are correct. President Trump ordered the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the Gulf of America, but the AP style guide continues referring to it by its original name, as will Coriolanus.  

Sources:

Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone

https://www.usf.edu/marine-science/news/2020/oil-toxins-pervasive-in-gulf-of-mexico.aspx

Inside the ‘Jacuzzi of Death’ where anything that DARES enter will be killed & left to disintegrate in toxic waters | The US Sun

Gulf of Mexico ‘dead zone’ larger than average, scientists find | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Thieves Use Explosives to Steal Gold Artifacts from Dutch Museum

The Helmet of Cotofenesti, pictured in the Romanian Museum of Antiquities, is strikingly decorated with mythological beasts and a pair of eyes. (Getty Images).

Four ancient gold artifacts were stolen from a Dutch museum in an overnight raid in the early hours of Saturday morning. Thieves used explosives to blast their way into the Drents Museum in Assen, which was hosting an exhibition of priceless Romanian jewellery made from gold and silver. They stole three Dacian spiral bracelets and the exhibit’s central piece – the strikingly decorated Helmet of Cotofenesti, which was crafted almost 2,500 years ago.

All four stolen items are of huge cultural significance to Romania, with the Helmet of Cotofenesti considered a national treasure.

Romania’s ministry of culture has promised to take all possible steps to recover the stolen items, which had been loaned to the Dutch museum from Bucharest.

Police are also investigating a burning vehicle which was found on a nearby road, which they suspect may be linked to the burglary.

No arrests have been made, but authorities suspect multiple individuals were involved. Police have called global policing agency INTERPOL to help with the investigation. Please see next story.

This was a professional operation. These artifacts are valueless to the thieves, so they are either working for an unscrupulous oligarch or they intend to sell them back to Bucharest for millions of dollars. The stolen items could have easily been taken out of the country by boat or ship.   

Source:

Thieves use explosives to steal gold ‘masterpieces’ from Dutch museum

INTERPOL Publishes First Ever Silver Notice Targeting Criminal Assets

Not all Notices are available to the general public, like war criminal Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu or Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Red Notices issued on behalf of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the Hague.

From INTERPOL:

“INTERPOL has published its first-ever Silver Notice to help trace and recover criminal assets, combat transnational organized crime and enhance international police cooperation.

The Notice, requested by Italy, seeks information on the assets belonging to a senior member of the mafia.

The Silver Notice is the newest addition to the Organization’s suite of color-coded Notices and Diffusions, which enable countries to share alerts and requests for information worldwide. It is being launched as part of a pilot phase involving 52 countries and territories, which will run at least until November 2025.

Through Silver Notices and Diffusions, member countries can request information on assets linked to a person’s criminal activities such as fraud, corruption, drug trafficking, environmental crime, and other serious offenses. It will facilitate locating, identifying, and obtaining information about laundered assets including properties, vehicles, financial accounts and businesses. Countries may subsequently use such information as a basis for bilateral engagement, including bilateral requests for seizure, confiscation or recovery of assets, subject to national laws.

Countries and territories participating in the pilot phase:

Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Burundi, China, Colombia, Congo, Ecuador, Estonia, France, Gabon, Georgia, Gibraltar (UK), Guinea, Hungary, India, Iraq, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Korea (Rep. of), Kuwait, Latvia, Malawi, Malta, Moldova, Mozambique, Namibia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Pakistan, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Trinidad & Tobago, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Zambia, Zimbabwe.”

Source:

INTERPOL publishes first Silver Notice targeting criminal assets

Vietnam: 30 Children Poisoned with Pink Colored Rodenticide

Several students of Phu Lam Primary School in northern Vietnam picked up some bottles of pink water solution in a ball bag next to the school gate, then shared and drank it together, poisoning themselves.  

The patients were hospitalized, suffering with symptoms of fatigue, nausea, vomiting yellow fluid, dull abdominal pain around the navel, and some seizures. Doctors determined that the children were poisoned with fluoroacetate rodenticide, based on the results of toxicity tests and clinical diagnosis. The children are being closely monitored and treated while police in Tuyen Quang province investigate the case

Images provided by the family. Photo: BVCC

Last year, twenty Lai Chau children were hospitalized on suspicion of accidentally ingesting rat poison like the one pictured below.

A nefarious actor deliberately left that ball bag with the pink juice near the school. As previously posted on Coriolanus, there is a pattern of food poisoning incidents in Vietnam.

Sources:

Nearly 30 students were poisoned with rodenticides – VnExpress Health Newspaper

20 Lai Chau children hospitalized on suspicion of eating the wrong rat poison – VnExpress Health Newspaper

US/Canada Auto Recall: 80,000 Kia Vehicles for Improper Air Bag Deployment, Improper Wiring

2024 Kia Sorento

Automaker Kia America is recalling more than 80,000 vehicles due to floor wiring beneath the front passenger seat that can become damaged and prevent airbags and seat belts from deploying properly.

Damaged wiring can also cause an unintended side curtain air bag deployment, according to documents filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The recall covers 80,255 2023-2025 Niro EV, Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV), and Hybrid vehicles.

To remedy the situation, dealers will inspect, replace and reroute the floor wiring assembly, as necessary, for free. In addition, dealers will install wiring covers. Owners will be notified by letters mailed in Mar 2025.

The recall follows one in November, when Hyundai and Kia recalled over 208,000 electric vehicles to fix a transistor in a charging control unit that could be damaged and stop charging the 12-volt battery. That in turn could cause loss of drive power, increasing the risk of a crash.

Sources:

Kia recalls more than 80,000 U.S. autos due to improper air bag deployment and improper wiring | AP News

RCLRPT-25V024-8197.PDF

Hyundai, Kia recall EVs to fix problem that can cause power loss | AP News

Transport Canada Recall – 2025011 – KIA – Canada.ca

Maine Coon Cat Becomes Accidental Frequent Flyer After Being Left on Plane by Mistake

Margo Neas holds her cat Mittens at her home in Melbourne, Australia, 22 Jan 2025. (Photo: Rod McGuirk / AP)

A Maine coon cat named Mittens became an accidental jetsetter this month when her cage was overlooked in a plane cargo hold and she made three trips in 24 hours between New Zealand and Australia.

Mittens (8) was booked for one-way travel with her family from Christchurch, New Zealand to their new home in Melbourne, Australia on 13 Jan. But owner Margo Neas said Wednesday that as she waited for Mittens to be unloaded from the plane’s freight area, three hours passed with no sign of the cat.

It was then that ground staff told Neas the plane had returned to New Zealand — with Mittens still on board. The return trip involves about 7.5 hours in the air.

Mittens, not usually an affectionate pet, is “the cuddliest she’s ever been,” said Neas.

Source:

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/22/travel/mittens-cat-australia-new-zealand-intl-hnk/index.html

Russian Soldiers Glorify Murdering Unarmed Ukrainian Prisoners

Warning: Some Followers of the Watch may find the photos and video disturbing.

The Russians were eager to have the slaughter recorded. (Credit: East2West)

Russian soldiers filmed themselves shooting dead six Ukrainian prisoners of war in cold blood, audaciously proud of committing war crimes. Kiev has launched a criminal investigation and reported the sickening killings to the UN and Red Cross, insisting Russia cannot be allowed to brazenly flout the laws of war.

The Russian soldiers filmed themselves committing the illegal massacres of unarmed Ukrainians in the occupied Donetsk region. The POWs are seen lying face down on the ground in a wooded area next to a temporary hut. The Russians shoot at a drone flying overhead so it doesn’t film the heinous crimes they are about to commit.

Two Ukrainians kneel just before they are shot in the back. (Credit: East2West)

Three of the other prisoners lay on their fronts in the dirt and watched their friends murdered. (Credit: East2West)

Another soldier is forced to his feet and made to walk away with his hands up before being sprayed with bullets. (Credit: East2West)

Ukrainian human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets sent his findings to the UN and International Committee of the Red Cross:

“The Russian army has never been famous for its dignified treatment of prisoners of war, and here it once again demonstrates its helplessness and criminality. The lack of responsibility has turned the crime into a systematic one. We cannot turn a blind eye to this. Ukraine needs justice and responsibility for those who commit crimes and do not adhere to any norms.”

These are not the first war crimes Russian soldiers and Wagnerites have committed against Ukrainians. The ICC indicted and issued an international arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, but this is symbolic. Mongolia, an ICC signatory, did not arrest Putin when he visited Ulan Bator in late 2024. Donald Trump has signaled that he will be sanctioning the ICC to pressure them to remove the indictments against Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin. After any future ceasefire is reached, there will be a new level of ethnic animus between Russians and Ukrainians following all of this bloodshed thanks to PIFWC Vladimir Putin and his willing accomplices.

Sources:

https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-ato/3951841-russians-likely-execute-six-other-ukrainian-pows-ombudsman.html

https://www.politico.eu/article/russian-soliders-shot-disarmed-ukrainian-pows-filmed-execution/

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/401849

https://www.icc-cpi.int/defendant/netanyahu

https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-ukraine-icc-judges-issue-arrest-warrants-against-vladimir-vladimirovich-putin-and

Israeli Cabinet Ministers Already Pushing to Continue Waging More War

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu– dubbed “Israel’s curse”– is facing pressure from within his cabinet. Hard-line coalition partners have threatened to topple the government if he does not resume Israel’s war in Gaza when a six-week ceasefire with Hamas expires. That could leave Netanyahu torn between his erstwhile allies at home and Donald Trump who says he wants to end the region’s wars. The “crime minister” is facing a nettlesome corruption trial that ensnared his wife Sara, an international arrest warrant for war crimes issued by the ICC, and a potential 9/11 Commission-style inquiry into his handling of the 7 Oct 2023 surprise attack by armed Palestinian groups. Those guerillas seized hostages in order to conduct a prisoner swap which has been taking place since the ceasefire.

Rightwing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said:

“If, God forbid, the war is not resumed, I will bring the government down.”

Mr. Smotrich, when one belligerent doesn’t have F16s, air-defense weapons, tanks, satellites, or world-class hospitals while the other side does, it’s not called war, it’s called ethnic cleansing. So the horrific Nakba wasn’t really about releasing the Israeli hostages, was it?

In addition, Bezalel Smotrich stated that Israel should occupy Gaza and “encourage” half of the Strip’s 2.2 million Palestinians to emigrate within two years. He would like the same in the West Bank.

Along that vein, the IDF has been conducting “counter terrorism operations” and Settlers are going on rampages against Palestinian homeowners and farmers in the West Bank. Israeli forces have killed 34 people, including six children so far this year. This is not new. Abuse against Palestinians in the West Bank has been going on for decades, regardless of whether there was a Democrat or Republican in the White House.

Do you wonder if this poor guy who had the temerity to throw stones at his oppressors is alive today? (Photo: 7 Oct 2015, Ramallah / AFP / ABBAS MOMANI)

So, where should these Palestinians in Gaza or the West Bank go? Will they go to Jordan– which already hosts 2.2 million Palestinian refugees? Islamophobic America? And will they be compensated for their lost, destroyed, or seized homes?

White supremacist Christian Republicans certainly don’t want Muslims in the US and Trump is closing the door on non-white immigration. Would Democrats have accepted them? There are Democrats that blame the tiny 1.34% Muslim-American population for supposedly not supporting Kamala in 2024. (Even though Trump won only 21% of the Arab vote, Kamala 20%, and Stein 59%). Arab-Americans have become convenient scapegoats among some Democrats for Kamala Harris’ loss and what friends do Palestinians have in the Middle East?

Adjusting for inflation, US aid to Israel from 1951 to 2022 totaled $317.9 billion, making it the largest recipient of American foreign aid since World War II.

Hasn’t the hardworking American taxpayer– who doesn’t have universal healthcare like his Israeli counterpart– had enough of this fraud, waste, and abuse from his so-called ally?

Sources:

https://usafacts.org/articles/how-much-military-aid-does-the-us-give-to-israel/

https://www.timesofisrael.com/smotrich-says-half-of-gazans-can-be-encouraged-to-leave-within-two-years/

https://www.aljazeera.com/

https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-trump-ceasefire-gaza-f27c1dbbfba4bf268f5368aaceb47e29

https://www.newarab.com/analysis/how-smotrichs-west-bank-plan-actualises-second-nakba

Mexican Border States Prepare Migrant Shelters as Trump Begins Deportation Campaign

Workers begin the installation of a temporary shelter for possible deportees from the US in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Wednesday, 22 Jan 2025. (AP Photo / Christian Chavez)

Mexico raised sprawling tents on the US border Wednesday as it braced for President Donald Trump to fulfill his pledge to carry out mass deportations. In an empty lot tight against the border with El Paso, Texas, cranes lifted metal frames for tent shelters in Ciudad Juárez.

Enrique Serrano, an official in Chihuahua state, where Ciudad Juárez is located, said the tents erected for Mexican deportees were just the initial phase of a potential larger operation, and something authorities would scale up if the number of migrants gathering on the border continued to mount. He suggested migrants from other countries expelled from the US would be relocated to Mexico City or southern regions of Mexico as they’ve done previously.

Nogales, Mexico — across from Nogales, Arizona — announced that it would build shelters on soccer fields and in a gymnasium. The border cities of Matamoros and Piedras Negras have launched similar efforts.

At a border crossing in Tijuana, Mexico, on Tuesday night, one man shouted to journalists that he was being deported in a group that was arrested that morning in farm fields near Denver. Another man said he was in a group that had been brought from Oregon. Everyone carried their belongings in a small orange bag.

As previously posted here on Coriolanus, the Mexican government began a program of intercepting and resettling migrants throughout their country before they could arrive at the US border. These refugees are escaping poverty, misery, violence, and the effects of global climate change.

Newly-elected Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum, as a thoughtful, compassionate leader, was prepared for the Fuhrer and his cruelties. She had a plan ready: “México te abraza.”

President Sheinbaum’s “México te abraza,” or “Mexico embraces you” program includes welfare support for deportees, registration with the Mexican Social Security Institute, and transport so that returning migrants “can reach their places of origin.” (Photo: Moisés Pablo / Cuartoscuro)

At Trump’s inaugural convocation on 20 Jan 2025, the Episcopalian Bishop of Washington, the Right Reverend Mariann Budde, issued a scathing sermon about mercy and compassion to the oligarchal Trump Crime Family (TCF). Like hostages with no chance of escape, the TCF was forced to remain in their pews and listen to her, so they sat dumbfounded and squirmed. Look at Trump’s posture and the First Lady’s icy-cold expression. Priceless.

Sources:

https://apnews.com/article/mexico-us-trump-border-migrants-f3e5daf10f550e871bfe98b29950bc6a

https://english.elpais.com/international/2025-01-14/mexico-has-a-plan-sheinbaum-addresses-uncertainty-a-week-before-trump-returns-to-the-white-house.html

Space Chorus Detected from Unexpected Source

Bursts of electromagnetic radiation that share similarities with birdsong have long been observed close to Earth. A detection farther out in space confirms a key part of the theory of their origin, but also poses questions.

Chorus waves play a leading role in the formation of aurora borealis. (Photo: OWEN HUMPHERYS – PA IMAGES)

From Nature:

“In the 1960s, scientists at the Halley Research Station in Antarctica began hearing mysterious waves originating over the Earth’s equator. Their radio receivers were picking up intense bursts of electrons shaking the magnetosphere, the layer created by Earth’s magnetic field that protects life from space radiation. When these signals were converted into sound, they produced a whistling sound that could be mistaken for the chirping of birds at dawn.”

Different types of plasma waves triggered by various mechanisms, occupy different regions of space around Earth. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Mary Pat Hrybyk-Keith

“Later, it was discovered that this chorus is also heard on Saturn and Jupiter, and it was thought that it was governed by the magnetic field generated by the planets between their poles. The origin of this spatial trill is usually found close to them, in the case of Earth less than 51,000 kilometers (31,690 miles) above its surface. Now, a team has published a study in the journal Nature, the results of which suggest that it can also be located much further away, in deep space.”

“For more than 70 years, scientists have believed that chorus waves can only be generated in regions close to planets where a dipolar magnetic field is present, which has been proposed as the key factor controlling the generation and propagation of chorus waves,” explains Chengming Liu, a researcher at the School of Earth and Space Sciences at Beihang University in Beijing, China, and one of the leaders of the study. “In our paper, we present an unexpected observation of chorus waves far from Earth, where a dipolar magnetic field is absent, and reveal a fundamental mechanism for chorus wave generation, which can operate anywhere in space.”

“The discovery is of scientific interest, but also of practical interest. Chorus waves can cause radiation that is dangerous for astronauts or satellites, and knowing in detail how they are produced would allow us to predict their occurrence and apply protective measures. “Chorus waves are some of the most intense waves in space. They can accelerate electrons to ultra-high energies and therefore cause radiation that affects humans and electromagnetic devices on spacecraft,” explains Liu. “Just as we worry about rain and wind on the Earth’s surface, we should worry about weather in space,” he points out.”

These are Juno Waves recorded from the Planet Jupiter:

Sources:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-04211-6

https//www.nasa.gov

‘Dignity for All’: Idaho Bill Proposes Firing Squad as State’s Primary Execution Method

Firing squad executing a prisoner, circa 1890. (Vintage Images / Getty Images)

Eleven months after Idaho failed to execute a prisoner for the first time ever using lethal injection, Republican lawmakers have their targets set on using a firing squad as the state’s primary execution method. State Rep. Bruce Skaug (R-Nampa) introduced the bill which would make Idaho the only US state to give preference to a firing squad. Skaug sponsored a bill that became law in 2023 that added back the firing squad as a backup method of execution in the state, but only when lethal injection is not possible because of a lack of execution drugs.

Humanitarian and all-round good guy State Rep. Bruce Skaug (R-Nampa) who heinously introduced the firing squad bill. (Undated photo via the public domain).

The Idaho Department of Correction has since had more consistent access to pentobarbital, the state’s preferred chemical for lethal injections. The state prison system most recently bought a batch of the drugs in Oct 2024, court records showed. But nearly two years later — and after state prison officials failed to find a suitable vein for an IV in the body of 73-year-old death row prisoner Thomas Creech — Skaug now hopes to ensure that prisoners on Idaho’s nine-member death row are shot to death. Lethal injection would become the state’s backup method. In South Carolina any of the 30 death row inmates may request firing squad if lethal injection is unavailable.

Idaho’s death row at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution near Kuna houses male prisoners sentenced to death. Female death row inmates are housed at the Women’s Correctional Center in Pocatello. (Photo: Idaho Department of Correction)

Remarkable, the day after Bishop Mariann Budde chastises President Trump to have more compassion and show mercy, this avuncular-looking miscreant wants to enshrine capital punishment rather than ban it. This Kentucky Fried Chicken Colonel Sanders doppelganger– Bruce Skaug– is my candidate for Worst Person of the World.

What would Kentucky-bred Colonel Sanders say about his evil twin in Idaho?

Sources:

https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/northwest/idaho/article298915055.html

https://www.thenation.com/article/society/south-carolina-firing-squad

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_death_row_inmates_in_the_United_States

Spain: Increased Cases of Hepatitis A in 2024

Spain is facing a worrying situation: 894 confirmed cases of hepatitis A mark the largest increase in cases in a decade. This unexpected viral outbreak raises questions about current public health measures. The highest number of cases occurred in Andalusia, Madrid, and Catalonia.

Map courtesy of worldatlas.com.

Below are the regions with the highest number of reported cases:

  • Andalusia: 166 cases
  • Madrid: 161 cases
  • Catalonia: 114 cases
  • Balearic Islands: High infection rate
  • Basque Country and Canary Islands: Notable increase

The high rate of infection in these areas underscores the need to strengthen preventive and control measures. The hepatitis A virus is spread mainly by fecal-oral transmission, which highlights the need to maintain high standards of personal and collective hygiene.

How many times have you seen someone exit the water closet without their hands? Coriolanus witnessed this too many times. On one occasion in a large metropolitan shopping mall, your author witnessed one such miscreant walk out of the thunder closet, pull up his pants, and exit the latrine without washing his hands. Coriolanus followed the neanderthal who went behind the counter of a bagel shop to resume work! Your humble author alerted two nearby constables who merely shrugged their shoulders and replied that no crime was committed (other than potentially spreading hepatitis A or other awful diseases to the public). That baker should have been beaten in place, then court-martialed.

Source:

Spain registers a large increase in cases of hepatitis A

Wagner Group Accused of Plotting Attacks on Chevron’s African Pipelines, Cooperating with Al Qaeda

The Kremlin’s new Afrika Korps. Wagnerites have been implicated in committing war crimes in Africa.

The Wagner Group has been accused of plotting attacks against Western infrastructure in Africa, including the US oil company Chevron’s pipelines, according to the leaked correspondence of Prigozhin’s Concord Group obtained by Ukraine’s Channel 24. Another accusation is that Wagner mercenaries have allegedly cooperated with terrorists, including Al Qaeda, in Africa. The obtained emails also shed light on a scandal involving food poisoning allegedly caused by the Concord Group.

The Kyiv Independent could not independently verify the information.

In March 2021, Igor Smirnov wrote an email to Prigozhin’s Concord Group, saying that retired Russian officers were expected to take part in attacks on foreign infrastructure facilities in West Africa.

Smirnov, allegedly a former Russian intelligence officer who allegedly worked for oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, was attempting to frame or warn the group. He claimed that “a group of Russians is contacting many armed groups in West Africa, including Ansaru, an Al Qaeda affiliate in Nigeria.”

“In exchange for attacks on Western oil companies, jihadists are helping to arm militants in the Niger Delta under a direct agreement with the Russians,” Smirnov said. “After the first attacks on Western companies, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb will take responsibility for that.”

Apart from military activities, the correspondence covers Concord Group’s food procurement schemes. In 2019, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s team exposed Concord Group’s low-quality food deliveries to schools and kindergartens in Moscow and St. Petersburg, which resulted in the poisoning of hundreds of children.

Amid the scandal, many parents sent emails to Concord Group and demanded compensation.

In response to the accusations, in August 2019, Prigozhin accused Navalny and his associate Lyubov Sobol of orchestrating the poisoning, according to the leaked correspondence. He claimed that Navalny and Sobol “extorted 300 million rubles ($3 million) to avoid stirring up a scandal regarding the children.”

These accusations fit the modus operandi of the Kremlin and the Wagner Group. Create chaos, then arrive with a solution (Wagnerites). 127 confirmed cases of food poisoning were blamed on Yevgeny Prigozhin who had to pay compensation and poor Alexei Navalny died later in a Siberian gulag. Prigozhin himself would die in a mysterious aviation disaster after an explosive detonated while his plane was in mid-flight. This coincidence occurred after his failed coup d’etat against Vladimir Putin.

Sources:

https://kyivindependent.com/prigozhins-wagner-group-accused-of-plotting-attacks-on-chevron-cooperating-with-al-qaeda-leaked-emails-show/

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2019/11/01/putins-chef-ordered-to-pay-for-mass-child-poisonings-a68014

Roadrunner Brings His Rescuer Gifts Every Day

The Fourth Reich Begins in America

(Montage courtesy of James Marshall Crotty, The Huffington Post)

Donald Trump’s second presidency heralded in the new Fourth Reich with a breath-taking malicious maelstrom of white supremacist and authoritarian executive orders and directives. None of this should come as a surprise to Americans or anybody in the world, particularly the people of Germany who issued the US a warning the first time Donald Trumpf ran for President in 2016.

Americans lived through Trump’s first term holding their nostrils in horror and will do so again.

Within two hours of the Fuhrer’s inauguration on Monday, former CJCS General Mark Milley’s portrait was removed from the Pentagon.

Trump had deep resentment toward Milley, and once called him “slow moving and thinking” and a “moron.” Hours earlier, former President Joe Biden had issued a pre-emptive pardon to Milley and others against potential retaliation.

To punctuate the arrival of the Fourth Reich, at Trump’s Inaugural Ball South African-born trillionaire Elon Musk twice rendered the Nazi salute to a delighted and cheering audience.

A PhD scholar on Nazi Germany and the Third Reich commented on social media that Musk’s expert salute was perfect and unmistakable.

Here is a cheat-sheet of the Fuhrer’s agenda:

Within the first 36 hours of his coronation, the Fuhrer began terminating civil servants whom he described as members of the “Deep State” and relieved Admiral Linda Fagan, the first woman to lead the US Coast Guard.

Admiral Linda Fagan speaks at the US Coast Guard change of command ceremony at USCG Headquarters in Washington, 1 Jun 2022. (Photo: AFP)

The tempest of terror continued when Trump replaced the Ukraine team at the Pentagon and ordered a suspension of all US foreign aid (whether this includes Israel is unclear). The Fuhrer pardoned 1,500 6 January insurrectionists, including the leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers (the Proud Boys have been listed as a terrorist organization by Canada). The White House took down its Spanish language version of its website. The Fuhrer also rescinded sanctions against lunatic Israeli Settlers who have been killing Palestinians and seizing their land. See later story.

With avian flu spreading throughout the world, the Fuhrer withdrew the US from the World Health Organization (WHO) and ordered all federal health agencies to stop external communications (warnings, advisories). Trumpf also fired special advisers at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that were investigating nefarious Chinese cyber-hacking groups, like Salt Typhoon.  The Fuhrer will be announcing dates for the start of tariffs against China, Canada, and Mexico.

The Fuhrer also withdrew USSS protection from his former national security advisor John Bolton who has legitimately angered the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Force (IRGC). Mr. Bolton has the funds to pay for his own security detail. His reckless Islamophobia shouldn’t keep costing American taxpayers money to protect him.

Followers of the Watch, Coriolanus will endeavor to keep up as best as possible while the Fuhrer implements his austerity plans to impoverish Americans, destroy affirmative action, alienate allies, threaten neighbors, deport people of color, and dismantle the US from within on behalf of the Kremlin.

Oxfam: “Takers, Not Makers: Billionaires Added Two Trillion Dollars to Their Pockets in 2024”

Oxfam informs:

“Most billionaire wealth is taken, not earned The idea that extreme wealth is a reward for
extreme talent is pervasive and strongly reinforced in our media and popular culture.
But this perception is not rooted in reality. This report makes the case that the extreme wealth of today’s billionaire class is largely unearned, where inheritance, cronyism and monopoly power generate extreme wealth. Unchecked, we are about to see the biggest transfer of the largest generational wealth in human history handed over – hardly earned, hardly taxed.”

The wealth of each of the richest ten men has grown by almost US$100 million a day in 2024 on average. Even if you saved US$1,000 daily since the first humans 315,000 years ago, you still would not have as much money as one of the richest ten billionaires. If any of the richest ten billionaires lost 99% of their wealth, they’d still be a billionaire.

Obviously this will get worse for Americans as the largest wealth-extraction scheme run by a cabal of greedy billionaire oligarchs takes over the US government and economy.

Source:

Russian Drones Hunting Ukrainian Civilians in Kherson Like a “Safari”

From the Economist:

“For six months Russian drones have been attacking civilians daily, chasing cars and pedestrians through the streets of Kherson in what locals call a “safari”.

“There have been more than 1,000 drone strikes since last summer, injuring over 500 people and killing 36, according to municipal authorities. Surveillance drones patrol high up; smaller attack drones (known as FPVs, or first-person-view drones), with a flying time of 20-40 minutes, sit on rooftops to conserve battery power. The munitions dropped are often makeshift: mortar shells, grenades, canisters containing shrapnel or darts, or bottles of petrol that ignite.”

Russian First Person View (FPV) kamikaze drone with a MON-50 mine containing lethal and maiming shrapnel. (Open source photo)

“Shops, schools, clinics, private houses, delivery vans, buses, firetrucks and other first responders are routinely targeted. Several administrative officials have been wounded. In one case, says Roman Mrochko, the head of the military authority in Kherson, a minibus “was almost completely destroyed, but the driver heroically saved the injured people by driving, you could say on scrap metal, to the hospital.” In the riverside neighborhoods where the attacks are concentrated, designated “red zones” by Russians on Telegram channels, life has been throttled. There is no gas, water, electricity or municipal heat. Public transport is suspended. Ambulances wait outside the area for police in armored cars to ferry the wounded to them.”

Russian forces have been accused of committing war crimes in Kherson. Investigators uncover three victims. (Photo: Govt of Ukraine)

There is no military value in hunting and killing civilians like this for sport. This is purely sadism and terrorism. The ICC indicted and issued an international arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, but there is reporting that Donald Trumpf will be sanctioning the ICC to remove warrants against him and fellow PIFWC Benjamin Netanyahu. See next story.

Source:

https://www.economist.com/europe/2025/01/18/russian-pilots-appear-to-be-hunting-ukrainian-civilians

Of course. The International Criminal Court (ICC) is After Putin and Netanyahu, So Trump is Going After the ICC

The man who handed Donald Trump the White House by sabotaging the Democratic Party in 2024 in a previous meeting with the Fuhrer.

KGB veteran Vladimir Putin met with his protege in Finland, 16 Jul 2018. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

The ICC indicted and issued international arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin (17 Mar 2023) and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu (21 Nov 2024) for alleged war crimes against the people of Ukraine and Gaza.

Israel National News reports:

“US President Donald Trump plans to introduce sweeping sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC).”

“The sanctions will target both ICC personnel, including judges and prosecutors, and the institution itself. The administration intends to classify the ICC as a threat to US national interests, utilizing designation procedures akin to those employed by the State Department for global terrorist organizations. This designation will impose strict penalties on anyone associated with the court’s operations.”

“Global financial institutions will be compelled to sever ties with ICC personnel or face sanctions from the US. Similar to measures imposed on sanctioned Israeli citizens by the outgoing administration, ICC staff will be unable to carry out routine banking activities, such as accessing credit cards or conducting financial transactions. Their assets will effectively be frozen, with exceptions allowed only for basic necessities like food purchases. Additionally, all US-based assets belonging to ICC employees and the institution itself will be frozen.”

“Beyond these unilateral measures, the incoming administration aims to rally US allies to reject cooperation with ICC arrest warrants targeting Israeli officials.”

On the strength of the ICC Rome Statute, Ukraine requested that Mexico arrest Putin if he attended Claudia Sheinbaum’s presidential inauguration on 1 Oct 2024. Mexico demurred and Putin sent a deputy anyway.

If signatory countries like Poland or France seek exceptions for Netanyahu, or Mongolia and Mexico for Putin, the ICC is only good for picking low-lying fruit like warlords from the Balkans or Africa. In essence, the ICC has the same enforcement mechanisms as the Vatican.

Official ICC Portrait of Jack Smith. Many Americans pinned their hopes on his success against Donald Trump when he was Special Counsel. (Credit: Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor’s Office)

Both indictments are merely allegations and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Sources:

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/401849

https://www.icc-cpi.int/defendant/netanyahu

https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-ukraine-icc-judges-issue-arrest-warrants-against-vladimir-vladimirovich-putin-and

Former CIA Analyst Pleads Guilty to Leaking Israeli Attack Plans on Social Platform

Asif William Rahman was arrested in Cambodia. (Photo: Guam Department of Corrections)

Asif William Rahman (34) of Vienna, VA, pleaded guilty to retaining and transmitting Top Secret National Defense Information to people who were not entitled to receive it. This information was publicly posted on a social media platform in October 2024.

Rahman was an analyst at CIA since 2016. On 17 Oct 2024, Rahman accessed and printed two Top Secret documents containing National Defense Information regarding a US foreign ally and its planned actions against a foreign adversary. Rahman removed the documents, photographed them, and transmitted them to individuals he knew were not entitled to receive them. By 18 Oct 2024, the documents appeared publicly on multiple social media platforms, complete with the classification markings.

Beginning in the spring of 2024 and continuing through Nov 2024, Rahman repeatedly accessed and printed classified National Defense Information and transmitted to multiple individuals he knew were not entitled to receive it.

Rahman pleaded guilty to two counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information related to the national defense. He is scheduled to be sentenced on 15 May 2025. He faces a maximum penalty of ten years in prison for both counts in the plea agreement.

Asif William Rahman was the individual who leaked IDF attack plans on social media in an effort to prevent Israel from attacking Iran last year. Rahman is reportedly a Yale University graduate. The poor guy tried to prevent Israel from plunging the world into further war and now pays the price of his espionage. The road to hell is indeed paved with good intentions as Mr. Rahman has found out.

Sources:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-cia-analyst-pleads-guilty-transmitting-top-secret-national-defense-information

https://ifpnews.com/us-cia-official-document-israeli-attack-iran/

The Philippines: Clade II Mpox Virus Case Reported in Baguio City

Mpox symptoms. (Photo: AFP)

Residents of Baguio are urged to stay alert after the first case of mpox was reported in the city. The Baguio City Health Services Office confirmed that the patient is a 28-year-old male. His infection was caused by the less severe Clade II mpox virus, not the more deadly Clade I.

The patient completed isolation and was cured on 17 Jan 2025.

The Baguio City Mayor reassured the public, stating that there is no cause for panic or a lockdown. He strongly advised the public to follow health protocols, including wearing face masks, practicing physical distancing, maintaining hand and personal hygiene, and ensuring proper ventilation.

The Department of Health (DOH) noted that the mpox virus can be transmitted through “direct contact with skin or mucosal lesions” during activities such as talking, breathing, kissing, touching, hugging, sexual intercourse, or through respiratory secretions. It can also be contracted indirectly through contaminated bedding, clothing, linens, or other objects.

Symptoms of mpox include skin rash or mucosal lesions, fever, swollen lymph nodes, sore throat, muscle aches, back pain, headache, and low energy.

Authorities urged the public to observe health protocols to avoid infection, such as covering the mouth when coughing or sneezing, avoiding skin-to-skin contact, staying out of crowded areas, frequent handwashing, and maintaining good airflow. Those with symptoms are advised to seek medical consultation immediately.

The WHO informs:

In 2022–2023 a global outbreak of mpox was caused by the clade IIb strain. Mpox continues to be a threat today, and an upsurge of cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other countries caused by clades Ia and Ib has raised concern. There are vaccines for mpox. Vaccination should be considered along with other public health interventions.

Sources:

https://tribune.net.ph/2025/01/19/baguio-reports-first-case-of-monkeypox

https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/mpox

Nakba Continues in West Bank: IDF Kills Ten and Wounds 40 Palestinians in Jenin

Indicted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu said the operation aimed to “defeat terrorism” in Jenin. (Photo Reuters).

No sooner than the guns go silent in Gaza, the “Crime Minister” of Israel launches an “extensive and significant” operation to “defeat terrorism” in Jenin, long seen as a stronghold of Palestinian armed groups. Ten Palestinians were killed, 40 wounded; three doctors and two nurses were among those wounded by Israeli gunfire. A medical worker told the British charity Medical Aid for Palestinians:

“I was called in [on Tuesday] due to the surge of injuries, and the moment I stepped out of the car making my way to the emergency entrance a sniper shot me below the knee. Another doctor was shot in the same spot,” he added. “The Israeli army is shooting non-stop.”

In another barbaric development in the West Bank, dozens of masked Israeli extremists attacked Palestinians in two villages east of Qalqilya, Jinsafut and al-Funduq, setting fire to Palestinian homes and cars and smashing property. At least 21 Palestinians were injured, the Palestinian Red Crescent said. Two Israelis were also shot, apparently when an Israeli police officer opened fire while responding to the violence.

A Palestinian shop in the village of Jinsafut was set on fire overnight, when suspected Israeli settlers went on the rampage. (Photo: AFP)

The far-right, pro-settler Israeli Finance Minister, Bezalel Smotrich, welcomed the US removing sanctions from Settlers. In a post on X, Smotrich praised Trump’s “unwavering and uncompromising support for the state of Israel.”

According to the Israeli anti-settlement group, Peace Now, in 2024 settlers also established 59 new outposts, without authorization from the Israeli government. That was more than double the number from the previous year – which was also a record year for settlement outpost establishment.

Israel has built about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this – as did the previous Trump administration.

There is no reporting of IDF attempts to arrest the Palestinians suspected of being terrorists nor any reports of Israeli police attempting to stop the Settlers from attacking Palestinians, their homes, cars, or businesses.

The hard-working American taxpayer dollar continues to fund ethnic cleansing in Israel, as well as their world-class universal healthcare system.

Source:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg750yzdr8o

Four Types of Tigers in One Photo

From left to right, the Golden Tiger, Snow White Tiger, Bengal Tiger and White Tiger. There are nine subspecies of tigers. How the photographer got them to pose like this is uncanny. This was originally posted on Reddit. There was no information as to which sanctuary these tigers are living in. (Photo courtesy of Nature is Amazing.)

America’s Spartacus and Brutus

Abolitionist and American martyr John Brown. To his right, former US Senator, US Secretary of War, then Confederate States of America President Jefferson Davis.

After Abolitionist John Brown’s heroic seizure of the federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, VA on 3 Jul 1859 to amass weapons for his emancipation campaign, disappointingly no slaves joined his Spartacus-like tiny army of 21 volunteers (including his own sons).

John Brown’s tiny force was defeated by Colonel Robert E Lee leading a company of US Marines. One of his sons was killed.

This was an era when Abolitionists were reviled and demonized as Southerners were terrified of a slave revolt like the one which occurred in Haiti decades ago. Using the Slave Patrols, the antebellum South was a police state.   

Wounded and captured, John Brown was quickly tried for his heresies in arguably a “kangaroo court.” But prosecutors were unsure how to charge John Brown and the grand jury indicted him on “treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia” and inciting people “to rebellion and insurrection,” which includes “riot, robbery, murder, and arson.”  

Virginia Governor Henry Wise, while abhorring his views, pronounced John Brown “the gamest man I ever saw.”

Hiram Griswold, defense counsel for John Brown, argued that “no man is guilty of treason unless he be a citizen of the state against which the treason so alleged has been committed”–and that Brown, a citizen of New York, could not therefore commit treason against Virginia. As for the charge of inciting a slave revolt, his lawyer insisted “there is a manifest distinction” between trying to free slaves, which Brown admittedly did, and inciting them “to rebellion and insurrection,” which includes “riot, robbery, murder, and arson.” Brown’s goal was to liberate slaves, not kill slaveowners or inflict mayhem.

Defense counsel conceded that citizens were shot during the Harper’s Ferry incident. But to call these shootings “murders” as the state sought to do, was to confuse common criminal conduct with the unfortunate but sometime necessary consequences of a military battle. The deaths, Griswold contended, were not “murders” within the meaning of Virginia law, but rather battlefield casualties.

The gallant courtroom defense of John Brown failed and he was found guilty after 45 minutes of jury deliberation.

John Brown was publicly executed on 2 Dec 1859, five months from his raid on Harper’s Ferry.

Execution of John Brown. Shakespearean actor John Wilkes Booth was a spectator. (Source: David Hunter Strother)

Fast Forward Six Years to the “Battle of Philippi” Ending the American Civil War

Confederate Army commander Robert E. Lee (or Cassius) surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse on 9 Apr 1865. President Jefferson Davis attempted to head west to continue the war with die-hard guerilla forces unwilling to concede, but the turncoat and his small party were captured by Union forces one month later.

In between the Confederate Army surrender and the capture of America’s Brutus, John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. Jefferson Davis was imprisoned in Fort Monroe, VA, and confined to a casemate, forced to wear fetters on his ankles, required to have guards constantly in his room, forbidden contact with his family, and given only a Bible and his prayerbook to read. Public outcry against these harsh conditions led to an easing of his discomforts.

Sketch of Jefferson Davis in Fort Monroe casemate by Alfred Waud (1865).

In late summer 1865, Attorney General James Speed determined that it was best to try Davis for treason in a civil criminal trial. In June 1866, the House of Representatives passed a resolution by a vote of 105 to 19 to put Davis on trial for treason. Union prosecutors worried a jury might sympathize with Davis and acquit him in an act of jury nullification that would be interpreted as validating the constitutionality of secession. Ultimately, after two years of imprisonment, Jefferson Davis was released unscathed in Richmond on 13 May 1867. His bail of $100,000 (~$1.79 million in 2023) was posted by the oligarchs of his day: Horace Greeley, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Gerrit Smith.

The Different Treatment Between the American Spartacus and Brutus

John Brown introduced the terrifying concept of racial equality to Southern slave-owners that threatened their prosperity, the status quo, and the myth of white supremacy. Bewildered prosecutors against America’s Spartacus cobbled together their charges against him and railroaded John Brown to his execution, all within five months. The incredibly dangerous meme of racial equality had to be quickly and decisively crushed.

But for America’s Brutus whose secession attempt cost hundreds of thousands of American lives and millions of dollars in damage, post-Civil War prosecutors were unable to convict Jefferson Davis of one, single charge. After two years Jefferson Davis was released unscathed from prison on 13 May 1867. The all-important meme of white supremacy was not quickly and decisively crushed.

While the “Battle of Philippi” defeated Brutus and Cassius and dissolved the geographic Mason-Dixon Line, the meta-physical apartheid of America and the meme of white supremacy remains to this day. Witness the several failed Congressional and criminal attempts to convict Donald Trumpf, the ultimate avatar of whiteism, just like Jefferson Davis, whose princely bond of $100,000 was paid by oligarchs 160 years ago. There should be no mystery that Trumpf wants to rename US military bases with the names of defeated Confederate generals.

Endnotes:

Only two Confederates would hang for war crimes after the US Civil War: Henry Wirz and Samuel “Champ” Ferguson. White supremacist Jefferson Davis would move to Canada and return to the US, outliving President Abraham Lincoln by 24 years and John Brown by 30 years. He died in Mississippi at the ripe old age of 81 on 6 Dec 1889. The Lost Cause of the Confederacy movement considered him to be a hero. In the late 19th and the 20th centuries, his legacy as Confederate leader was celebrated in the South. Some historians claim that John Wilkes Booth may be considered a Brutus or a Judas Iscariot for stalking and eventually assassinating President Abraham Lincoln.

Ralph Waldo Emerson would call John Brown’s 1859 courtroom oration, along with the Gettysburg Address, one of the two greatest American speeches:

“The New Testament teaches me that all things whatsoever I would that men should do to me, I should do even so to them….I have endeavored to act on that instruction. I am yet too young to understand that God is any respecter of persons. I believe that to have interfered, as I have done…in behalf of His despised poor, is no wrong, but right. Now, if it is deemed necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice, and mingle my blood farther with the blood of my children and the blood of millions in this slave country whose rights are disregarded by wicked, cruel, and unjust enactments, I say let it be done.”

Sources:

The Trial of John Brown: An Account

https://www.folger.edu/blogs/shakespeare-and-beyond/murder-most-foul-how-shakespeare-connects-abraham-lincoln-and-john-wilkes-booth/

Jefferson Davis – Wikipedia

https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Brown-American-abolitionist

https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/only-two-confederates-were-executed-for-war-crimes-during-the-civil-war/

John Brown (abolitionist) – Wikipedia

Chrystia Freeland to Run for Leader of Canada’s Liberal Party

Chrystia Freeland (Photo: Reuters)

Former Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland intends to run to lead the country’s governing Liberal Party saying “I’m running to fight for Canada.”

Freeland recently fell out with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau over the direction of the country’s financial policies. Her resignation from her post in December was a blow to Trudeau’s already-shaky hold on the Canadian government, helping to usher in his own resignation after nine years as prime minister.

Freeland had long been one of Trudeau’s closest allies in his Liberal Party. She held the key role of Canada’s finance minister starting in 2020 – the first woman to hold the position – and helped to lead the country through the pandemic and its aftermath. The two disagreed on how to address US President-elect Donald Trump’s threat of tariffs, among other financial policies as Canada faced a C$60b deficit ($42bn; £33bn).

Following his win in November, Trump, who takes office on Monday, suggested that he would impose potential 25% tariffs on Canadian goods. In a public resignation letter, Freeland criticized Trudeau’s leadership, denounced his use of “costly political gimmicks” and said Canada must push “back against ‘America First’ economic nationalism”.

Ms. Freeland is of Ukrainian descent and a Rhodes Scholar. She has a strong reputation for competence and has experience dealing with Donald Trumpf. Canada must hold general elections in October 2025, but could come as soon as spring.

The threat of a Trumpf presidency caused Canadian PM Justin Trudeau to launch the Council on Canada-US Relations, comprised of leaders in business, innovation, and policy, in order to use their sectoral expertise in dealing with the US. Canadians along the political spectrum are uniting against Trumpf’s blasphemies.

Conservative Ontario Premier Doug Ford wears a “Canada is not for sale” hat on his way into Wednesday’s First Minister’s meeting in Ottawa.  (Photo by Bryan Passifiume / Toronto Sun / Postmedia Network)

America’s neighbor to the south is also ridiculing Donald Trumpf as well.

Sources:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm277d030evo

https://www.pm.gc.ca/en/news/news-releases/2025/01/16/prime-ministers-council-canada-us

US: State of Georgia Confirms Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza; All Poultry Activities Suspended

From the Georgia Department of Agriculture:

The Georgia Department of Agriculture and the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service confirmed a positive case of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in a commercial poultry operation located in Elbert County, GA. This is the first confirmed HPAI case in a commercial poultry operation in Georgia, and the fifth detection in the state of Georgia. As a result of this detection, effective immediately, all in-state poultry exhibitions, shows, swaps, meets, and sales are suspended until further notice.

All commercial poultry operations within a ten kilometer (6.2 mile) radius have been placed under quarantine and will undergo surveillance testing for a period of at least two weeks.

Avian flu will have a serious impact on the poultry industry with ramifications across a broad spectrum of the US. For example, pets can be affected by avian flu tainted food. While dogs are less vulnerable to avian flu, cats are not.

This beautiful cat died in Dec 2024 after eating from a contaminated batch of Northwest Naturals pet food. (Photo:
Jamila Acfalle)

One of the last official acts of the Biden Administration was to fund Moderna to discover a vaccine for the Avian flu. This will be President Trumpf’s first major health crisis.

President Trumpf’s medical care plan for all Americans.

Source:

https://agr.georgia.gov/pr/highly-pathogenic-avian-influenza-confirmed-commercial-poultry-flock-georgia-all-poultry

INTERPOL, Germany, and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Unite to Tackle Environmental Crime

Environmental crime is one of the most profitable forms of criminal operations worldwide, with estimates putting it as the third most profitable criminal activity behind drug trafficking and counterfeit crimes.

From INTERPOL:

The Federal Environment Ministry of Germany, INTERPOL and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) are joining forces to combat the devastating impact of environmental crime.

With a EUR Five million investment from the German government’s International Climate Initiative (IKI), the three-year project aims to identify and prevent transnational crimes impacting the climate, biodiversity and the environment across five key areas: fisheries crime, forestry crime, illegal mining, pollution crime, and wildlife crime.

Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke:

“Transboundary organized environmental crime exacerbates the triple planetary crisis of biodiversity loss, climate change and pollution. So it is important to me to ensure that protecting the environment goes hand in hand with combating environmental crime.

“Criminal organizations are causing massive damage to the natural foundations of our lives. For example, they kill and trade in critically endangered species, clear forests that provide key carbon reservoirs and habitats, and poison landscapes with illegally dumped waste, making them uninhabitable. By cooperating with INTERPOL and WWF, we will join forces and make a valuable contribution in the fight against transboundary environmental crime.”

INTERPOL Secretary General Valdecy Urquiza:

“Environmental crimes threaten our planet, our daily lives and the future of generations to come. From illegal logging to hazardous waste dumping, there are no borders to environmental crimes, which are uniquely destructive, with long term consequences that extend far beyond the immediate damage. This joint project with Germany and WWF will help provide real support in developing capabilities, intelligence and ultimately, operational outcomes.”

EUR five million is a drop in the bucket when dealing with international organized crime, but the investment is taken in good spirit. One of the issues INTERPOL can address is the “Sand mafia,” one of the largest crime syndicates in the world who are accused of plundering the earth. Stealing sand from beaches or from off-shore with dredgers, these criminals increase beach erosion worldwide. The stolen sand is used for lucrative building construction.

Sources:

https://www.interpol.int/News-and-Events/News/2025/Tackling-Environmental-Crime-Germany-INTERPOL-and-WWF-unite-efforts

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sand-mafias-are-plundering-the-earth/

US/Canada: Rate of Dementia Cases Increasing Every Year

More than 25 different diseases and conditions can cause dementia; Alzheimer’s disease being the most common cause.

From Nature:

The number of US adults who will develop dementia each year was projected to increase from approximately 514,000 in 2020 to approximately one million in 2060. The relative growth in new dementia cases was especially pronounced for Black adults.

US Analysis:

“Using data from a community-based, prospective cohort study (n=15,043; 26.9% Black race, 55.1% women and 30.8% with at least one apolipoprotein E4 (APOE ?4) allele), we estimated the lifetime risk of dementia (from age 55 years to 95 years), with mortality treated as a competing event. We applied lifetime risk estimates to US Census projections to evaluate the annual number of incident dementia cases from 2020 to 2060. The lifetime risk of dementia after age 55 years was 42% (95% confidence interval: 41–43). Rates were substantially higher in women, Black adults and APOE 4 carriers, with lifetime risks ranging from approximately 45% to 60% in these populations. The number of US adults who will develop dementia each year was projected to increase from approximately 514,000 in 2020 to approximately one million in 2060. The relative growth in new dementia cases was especially pronounced for Black adults. These results highlight the urgent need for policies that enhance healthy aging, with a focus on health equity.”

Canada Analysis:

As of 1 Jan 2025, an estimated 771,939 people are living with dementia.
Every day, more than 414 people develop dementia, which is more than 17 every hour.

By 2030, researchers project that nearly one million people will be living with dementia. And they forecast that more than 1.7 million people in Canada will have dementia by 2050.

Genetics, alcohol/drug use, the environment, poverty, and malnutrition are probably all contributing factors. Canada, with a growing elderly population, will probably weather this future storm better than the US with her superior social safety nets. For Americans, these numbers may grow because of the incoming Trumpf Administration which will extract more wealth out of the system, cutting back on Medicare, food assistance, and medical research.

Sources:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-024-03340-9

https://alzheimer.ca/en/about-dementia/what-dementia/dementia-numbers-canada

64 Years Ago, Americans Celebrated President John F. Kennedy with Stellar Pre-Inaugural Gala in Washington, DC

Frank Sinatra’s Rat Pack was a political tour-de-force which helped JFK win the White House in 1960. They organized a pre-inaugural gala/fundraiser on 19 Jan 1961. Frank Sinatra and Peter Lawford convinced several Broadway producers to shut down for one night so actors such as Anthony Quinn, Ethel Merman, and Laurence Olivier could attend.

The National Guard Armory in DC hosted two inaugural events: the Pre-Inaugural Gala (19 Jan 1961) and the Post-Inaugural Ball (20 Jan 1961).

President-elect John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy arrive at the pre-inaugural ball.

Frank Sinatra escorts Jacqueline Kennedy up the stairs during the pre-inaugural gala at the National Guard Armory in Washington, DC on 19 Jan 1961 (Photo: GAB Archive / Redferns)

The Chairman of the Board lighting up the incoming Commander-in-Chief.

Gene Kelly performing at the JFK gala, 19 Jan 1961.

Fellow Rat Packer Peter Lawford was the tightest with Frank Sinatra at that moment in history.

Regrettably, Rat Packer Sammy Davis Jr was excluded from the 19 Jan gala because of his recent mixed-race marriage to May Britt and Southern Democrats needed to be appeased. Crushed, Sammy Davis Jr would switch his support to the GOP and in 1972 he became the first man of color to stay overnight at the White House (in the Lincoln Bedroom).

Tickets sold for $100 each and 72 ringside boxes for small groups were sold at $10,000 apiece.

‘Twas the beginning of a short-lived Camelot.

This comic book was distributed to people overseas through US Embassies to introduce them to America’s new First Family.

JFK donated his entire congressional and presidential salaries to charity.

Sources:

https://www.thirteen.org/blog-post/the-lost-inaugural-gala-for-jfk-never-before-seen-performances/

https://pophistorydig.com/topics/tag/1961-inaugural-gala/

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/jfk-presidential-salary/

Abandoned Golden Retriever Puppy Cried So Kitten Came Over to Comfort It