German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius is in Kyiv on an unannouned visit, quite probably his last before next month's German election. He said he'd discuss continued European support, with Trump's return near in the US.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius arrived in Kyiv early on Tuesday, saying he wanted to discuss further European support for Ukraine — with a change of government imminent in the US and likely soon in Germany, too.

European members of NATO need to drastically increase their military spending or start studying Russian, the US-led bloc’s secretary-general, Mark Rutte, has said.

Rutte’s remarks came during a question and answer period at the end of the joint meeting of the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) and the Subcommittee on Security and Defence (SEDE) on Monday.

While two thirds of NATO members are now meeting the bloc’s 2014 target of spending 2% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on the military, that’s not enough to protect them from Moscow, Rutte claimed.

”We are safe now, but not in 4-5 years,” Rutte said. “So, if you don’t do it, get out your Russian language courses or go to New Zealand. Or decide now to spend more.”

AN ANAL-YSIS OF POINTS OF VIEWS IN REGARD TO POLITICIANS TELLING PORKIES......

FROM Sarah Collard (2017): Supporters of US President Donald Trump are more likely to believe what he says, and even after they are shown it is not true, they still want to vote for him, research has shown.

SUPPORTERS OF JOE BIDEN ARE MORE LIKELY TO FORGIVE HIS PORKIES BECAUSE THEY ARE RIGHT TO BE ON THE LEFT AND HE IS A CATHOLIC.

The University of Western Australia study was undertaken by researcher Briony Swire-Thompson and School of Psychological Science associate professor Ullrich Ecker in late 2015 as the US election campaign was ratcheting up in intensity and rhetoric.

Jimmy Carter

Energy and the National Goals - A Crisis of Confidence

Good Evening:

This a special night for me. Exactly three years ago, on July 15, 1976, I accepted the nomination of my party to run for President of the United States. I promised you a President who is not isolated from the people, who feels your pain, and who shares your dreams, and who draws his strength and his wisdom from you.

After Adam and Eve were created by godot, the world-order became iffy, starting with Cain killing Abel… We will skip the catalogued fictionalised story of humanity in the bible until we arrive at Jesus Christ, orator “exceptionel” who urged Christianity to go and teach the word of god to all the people on earth — and died on a bit of wood to erase our sins as long as we believe. I don’t, but this is beside the point.

How do you teach the word of god if you don’t bash people on the head first? Exactly. 

So this was an invitation to conquer the planet on behalf of a fake idea that is totally unscientific in regard to evolution of the human species from the tree of monkeys, the upwardly mobile apes. 

The Year of the Snake begins on 29 January. Over the next couple of weeks, fortune tellers will flood the press with their views, each with as much weight and reliability as the mottos in fortune cookies.

What do Panama, Canada and Greenland have in common? Could Donald Trump be getting the US back to brass tacks, to a core strategy of dominating the Western Hemisphere? Possibly, and he may be blowing away the fraudulent rhetoric about rules-based international order, territorial integrity, international law and the crusade to expand democracies. 

Trump said last week that the US is prepared to use military force to assert control over Panama and Greenland. 

US President Joe Biden has attacked Meta to drop its controversial third-party fact-checking program, stating the move was “completely contrary to what America is about.”

The president addressed the development on Friday during a rare Q&A session with reporters at the White House. He sharply criticized Mark Zuckerberg’s company, the parent of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Threads for the move. 

“The whole idea of walking away from fact-checking as well as not reporting anything having to do with discrimination regarding…I find it to be contrary to American justice. Telling the truth matters,” Biden stated, adding the move appeared to be “completely contrary to what America is about.”

Peter Dutton emerged from his summer break on Sunday to launch the Coalition’s unofficial election campaign.

In a 38-minute pre-prepared speech to MPs and party loyalists at a campaign-style rally in Melbourne, the federal opposition leader framed the upcoming contest as a “sliding doors moment” for Australia.

Here’s what we learned – and didn’t – from Dutton’s opening pitch ahead of the 2025 poll.

The blue backdrop behind Dutton during his speech was emblazoned with the Coalition’s official election slogan: “Let’s get Australia back on track”.

A video of the Assistant Chief of Los Angeles Fire Department has emerged in which she talks about the importance of having firefighters who look like the people they’re rescuing and says that if she can’t carry a man out of a fire, it’s the man’s fault. Plus, conservative CNN contributor Scott Jennings absolutely eats up a debate on DEI. Let’s watch and react. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HmSS5Ubvxg

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

         Gus Leonisky

Sir—There are few things of which the present generation is more justly proud than of the wonderful improvements which are daily taking place in all sorts of mechanical appliances. And indeed it is matter for great congratulation on many grounds. It is unnecessary to mention these here, for they are sufficiently obvious; our present business lies with considerations which may somewhat tend to humble our pride and to make us think seriously of the future prospects of the human race.

DARWIN AMONG THE MACHINES

— [TO THE EDITOR OF THE PRESS, CHRISTCHURCH, NEW ZEALAND, 13 JUNE, 1863.]

Samuel Butler, submitted under the pseudonym Cellarius

Trudeau, Biden and Ardern are done. What’s eating the global left?

Australia may be an island, but it is not immune to the systemic forces sweeping across global politics.

By Matthew Knott

When Justin Trudeau announced he was stepping down as prime minister of Canada this week, a career that had loomed large suddenly appeared shrunken and slight. After coming to power in 2015 as a progressive prince – a champion of multiculturalism, feminism and action on climate change – Trudeau was departing as a widely loathed, and even ridiculed, figure. With elections due next year, Trudeau was trailing his conservative rival Pierre Poilievre by up to 20 points and facing almost certain defeat.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and Spanish journalist Ignacio Ramonet, during the latter’s meeting with the President at the Miraflores Palace in Caracas. 

Ignacio Ramonet: Mr. President, first of all, allow me to wish you a Happy New Year.

The President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro: Thank you.

Ignacio Ramonet: And, on the other hand, I would like to thank you for agreeing to give this interview, which is interview number 10, since we began these meetings at the beginning of the year, which have become a classic. Last week, an article appeared in France, for example in a weekly newspaper, with an article against me and in particular focused on the fact that I am the journalist who interviews you every first of the year.

Nicolás Maduro: Are these people afraid of the interview?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7YE_6m2k6

Fox News host Jesse Watters discusses the destruction that Los Angeles residents are facing as the wildfires continue into a fourth day on “Jesse Watters Primetime.'

11 DEAD, MANY UNACCOUNTED FOR AND MORE THAN 10,000 HOUSES DESTROYED, INCLUDING MANY ON MALIBU BEACH... MEL GIBSON, HAVING LOST EVERYTHING, COMMENTED ON GAVIN NEWSOM... SEE THE TOON ABOVE...

On the Visit of Japan’s Foreign Minister to China

Vladimir Terehov