US President Donald Trump has issued an ultimatum to Hamas, demanding the release of all remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza by midday Saturday, and warning that failure to comply would result in “all hell”breaking out.

On Monday, Hamas threatened to halt the release of additional hostages, accusing Israel of violating the terms of the fragile ceasefire agreement by preventing displaced Palestinians from returning to northern Gaza, restricting the delivery of humanitarian aid, and delaying negotiations for the second phase of the deal.

The Trump administration is turning up the heat on George Soros’ soft power empire amid revelations of his Open Society Foundations’ close-knit links to and alleged profiteering off USAID. Is there a case for convicting the 94-year-old benefactor and beneficiary of the US imperial project? If so, where does it lie?

 

Financial Crimes

Soros was found guilty of insider trading in France in 2002 for profiteering off the privatization of state-owned companies in the late 80s.

US President Donald Trump has said he wants to secure a deal with Kiev to ensure Washington gets its money back by trading aid for Ukraine’s rare-earth minerals – regardless of whether “they may be Russian someday.”

In an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier, Trump claimed that “the United States is in for more than $300 billion, probably 350” in various forms of aid to Ukraine, adding that it would be “stupid” for Washington to continue bankrolling Kiev without receiving anything in return.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz, of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), and his main rival, Friedrich Merz, of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), have faced off in the first major debate in the lead-up to Germany's federal election.

About 59.2 million people are eligible to vote on February 23, with migration and economic stability among the key issues. 

The standoff at 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue was not much of a spectacle. On the first day of February, a handful of men working for Elon Musk had come to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), a few blocks from the White House, demanding full access to its headquarters. The agency’s staff refused. No guns were drawn. No punches thrown. Nobody involved the police. But in these early days of the Trump Administration, perhaps no other scene revealed more clearly the forces reshaping America’s government. 

 

Last Friday 79 nations signed a statement condemning the announcement 24 hours earlier by genocide enabler US President Donald Trump, that he was imposing sanctions on officials of the International Criminal Court because they had issued a warrant for the arrest of architect of genocide of the Palestinian people, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

 

Australia’s silence on Trump’s ICC sanctions is nothing but shameful    By Greg Barns

 

According to George Bernard Shaw, the most popular method of distributing wealth is the method of the roulette table.

As a result of rapid deregulation and mesmerizing technological change, such a spinning round of fortunes has recently reached epic proportions in the US, where revenues from gambling (which is euphemistically called “gaming” by its respective lobbying associations) has exploded in a short span of time. Bearing in mind that the Irish playwright’s aphorism constitutes one of his “Maxims for Revolutionists,” considerable upheaval and possibly a powerful backlash, too, may thus well be in store for the so-called land of opportunities. 

 

Rise up people and fast. Tyrant Trump and his Musk-driven gangsters are launching a fascistic coup d’état. Much of everything you like about federal/civil service for your health, safety, and economic well-being and protections is being targeted.

 

We Must Rise Up to Stop This Corporate Coup—and Fast

 

By Ralph Nader / Nader.org

 

The billionaires, Christian fascists, grifters, psychopaths, imbeciles, narcissists and deviants who have seized control of Congress, the White House and the courts, are cannibalizing the machinery of state. These self-inflicted wounds, characteristic of all late empires, will cripple and destroy the tentacles of power. And then, like a house of cards, the empire will collapse.

 

Chris Hedges: The Empire Self-Destructs

 

There is a marked immaturity in the reporting of opinion polls and other political developments in Australia at the moment. I see problems in two main categories.

First is the seemingly endless pursuit of uniquely Australian explanations for what are obviously global trends.

The second is the tendency to ignore the historical reality that polls three months out from an election can be important signposts, but do not justify attempts to forecast likely election outcomes with any specificity.

 

Australian electoral prospects    By Bob McMullan

 

The catastrophic conflict between Israel and the Palestinians (the present “ceasefire” notwithstanding) has done nothing to relieve the centuries-old contradictions that exist between and within our three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

 

Why doesn’t God save the day?     By Eric Hunter

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paNpI6zfnpM

Richard Wolff: The FALL of the US Empire–US Denial, Europe Burns, BRICS & China Rise

 

Richard D. Wolff exposes the hard truth for the US empire and its client states in the West: their economic decline is fast becoming a crash that no amount of sanctions or tariffs can reverse. In this must-watch video, Prof. Wolff explains how BRICS & China's rise is giving way to a new economic order which is shaking the US's economic foundation to its knees.

 

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

 

         Gus Leonisky

The catastrophe of the Ukraine War will leave a long trail of painful questions. Because this hubristic proxy confict has become such a pie-in-the-face fiasco for the West, there will be plenty of resistance to honest answers for a very long time.

But facts undermining self-serving Western narratives have started emerging already during the war. Most recently, revelations about the activities of USAID have delivered another hard blow to Western – and official Ukrainian – deception and self-deception.

 

Trump’s USAID purge has revealed US scheming in Kiev, but won’t stop it
It’s fun to watch “independent” media and NGOs get outed, but Washington will always find ways to manipulate others

BY Tarik Cyril Amar

 

In recent decades, the West has witnessed a growing trend among increasingly hubristic US leaders to proclaim the United States as “indispensable.” This rhetoric reflects a mindset often seen in declining empires: the belief that their peak is yet to come, despite mounting evidence of decay.

 

America and the forgotten memento mori (remember you are mortal)    By Les MacDonald

 

...These ideologies – and they include catastrophic climate change, diversity politics, #MeToo feminism and transgender rights, as well as critical race theory – are, in fact, deeply conservative, especially in their economic and political effects.

Graham Hryce — Australian journalist and former media lawyer…

 

THIS IS A “SUBPRIME” BUNDLE OF IDEOLOGIES. BY SUBPRIME, I express what happened when the AMERICAN  financiers sold below-par bundles of properties at PREMIUM values — an act of robbery that led to the 2008 financial crash which still influences the strange steps of the “market”. We expect better from Graham…