Klaus Schwab has not been found in any of the Jeffrey Epstein files released by the U.S. Department of Justice, including flight logs, contact books, emails, or other documents made public as of February 2026. There is no evidence of direct contact, meetings, communications, or any personal involvement between Schwab and Epstein. Schwab has also vehemently denied claims by current World Economic Forum CEO Børge Brende that Schwab was informed in 2019 about Brende’s own contacts with Epstein (which included three business dinners in 2018–2019 and exchanged messages). Schwab stated he was never told—neither verbally nor in writing—and insisted he would never have approved such interactions, calling them unacceptable and reserving the right to pursue legal action if the allegation is repeated or treated as fact.

Posted by: Princess Bodica | Feb 7 2026 23:53 utc | 703

Posted by: John Gilberts | Feb 7 2026 23:54 utc | 706
 
Yeah, even if that part about Jimmy Lai is exaggerated, the irony is colossal. During the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, many activists openly supported Donald Trump, seeing him as an external counterweight to Beijing and a defender of Hong Kong’s autonomy. U.S. legislation and policy moves at the time were widely interpreted as backing that distinction between Hong Kong and mainland China.
 
By Trump’s second term in 2025–2026, that distinction has effectively disappeared in U.S. policy. Hong Kong is now treated the same as the PRC in trade, tariffs, and visa scrutiny, with economic pressure taking precedence over human rights or political autonomy. Although the Hong Kong national emergency has been extended, there have been no new sanctions and little public response to developments such as the conviction of Jimmy Lai, while Washington has pursued tariff truces and warmer rhetoric toward Beijing.
 
The irony is clearest in the Panama Canal episode. In an effort to counter alleged Chinese influence, the U.S. applauded Panama’s move to void a long-term port concession held by Hutchison Ports, a Hong Kong–based company. Once celebrated by protesters as distinct from China, a Hong Kong entity was removed under anti-China measures, underscoring how current U.S. policy now lumps Hong Kong entirely into the China category, erasing the autonomy that once defined the cause.

Posted by: Princess Bodica | Feb 8 2026 0:20 utc | 705

Posted by: John Gilberts | Feb 8 2026 0:31 utc | 708
 
Sure, and again, here is the female French composer Lili Boulanger with some sacral music:
https://youtu.be/eLxrA8cG2ZI?si=gnidEAGUbt5Met4e

Posted by: Princess Bodica | Feb 8 2026 0:44 utc | 707

It is only four minutes long. Thanks for info on Lai. 

Posted by: Princess Bodica | Feb 8 2026 1:02 utc | 709

Princess Bodica@711:
 
“It is only four minutes long…”
 
Then perhaps a little qawwali to follow which seems to have caught my ear’s fancy of late. Thanks again..
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v38w5djsbXM

Posted by: John Gilberts | Feb 8 2026 1:25 utc | 711

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Feb 8 2026 1:35 utc | 714
If its style vs substance i always prefer substance.
Fuentes is a bit shouty and too Catholic for my liking. However, he did a good job of hammering home the pointed not noticing in the MSM the obvious link between Epstein and the bulk of his associates as well as their continued predominance in the Trump administration.
Not so interested in internecine wars amongst the podcast community – i don’t find them relevant.

Posted by: ChatNPC | Feb 8 2026 1:42 utc | 713

@715 chatnpc
 
Fair.
 
He did do an exemplary job on connecting the white board points like a deranged maniac.
 
I sometimes wish he utilized pictures or graphics in his presentation, but there is a charm in him going off the cuff for two hours. Very impressive and exhibit A as to why he truly is a generational talent.
 
As a fellow Catholic, I think his faith-takes are 50/50. Sometimes penetrating, sometimes just uncouth.

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Feb 8 2026 1:59 utc | 715

Anyone else worried about the election results in Japan?

Posted by: joey_n | Feb 8 2026 3:10 utc | 717

John Gilberts | Feb 8 2026 2:59 utc | 718
*** “An inside look at Jeffrey Epstein’s demonic New York mansion.” ***
 
The narrator is almost as boring as Keir Starmer. 
By the authorities, there is so much “redaction” as to become rather absurd.
 

Posted by: Cynic | Feb 8 2026 3:30 utc | 719

Here’s an unusual insight I was allowed to share with readers, Dr. Hudson on Xi Jinping Thought: The Governance of China, Volume V. 
 
Now to see about the election in Japan.  

Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 8 2026 4:18 utc | 721

Yandex is reporting Takaichi’s LDP party gained more seats than it had previously but was otherwise vague on the results. There’re no reports in the Chinese media I consulted, which was surprising. Olympics coverage is dominant. Russian media is also silent.

Posted by: karlof1 | Feb 8 2026 4:30 utc | 723

Garland Nixon talked with Harley Schlanger again the other day.
Below are a few excerpts of the interview in which Harley provides his view of the bigger picture within which the Epstein suppuration of debauchery might be fruitfully framed.
 
An unfolding story of the betrayal of humanity, the quashing of sovereignty, the scheming of “the Epstein class”…
 
 
~~
 
PERFIDIOUS ALBION EPISODE VII – EPSTEIN AND THE BRITISH THRONE – W/HARLEY SCHLANGER
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mzvnIOXudg
 
~~
 
(12:28)
 
…one of the things that was never really satisfactory answered is where did Epstein get his money?
 
how did he have enough money so he was able to pal around with the the rich and famous?
 
And there were two names in particular, although there were a lot lot of others involved, but two in particular, Les Wexner, who was from Victoria’s Secret…and Leon Black.
 
Now, what do they have in common?
 
Wexner was the first one who not only brought Epstein in but gave him power of attorney over his multi- billion dollar fortune.
 
Now Wexner was is a part of the Zionist lobby called the Meta Group and Wexner got his start through networks that were tied to the junk bond mafia of Michael Milken.
 
Now, as you track this through, the second person, Leon Black, where did he get his millions? He was the junk bond king working for Milken at Drexel Burnham.
 
So, here now, what is it that Milken’s network has that makes it a suspicious part when you look at Epstein?
 
It was a money laundering operation for organized crime.
 
And this goes back to people like Michulum Ricklas, Max Fischer of
Detroit, Lansky. These were all people who poured money into the so-called rogue traders that Milken collected around him, the Nelson Pelts,
the people of that sort who were were were considered unsaavory, but
because they had so much money, they were sought after as renegades who
were coming in and taking a run at the the establishment, but they were doing it on behalf of the establishment.
 
And what they did was they were at the center of the shift of the United States
from an American physical productive economy to the United States as a
casino, a speculative system.
 
Now, where does that idea come from? That’s the British system.
 
They were involved in attacking the American system of Hamilton, of Lincoln, of Franklin Roosevelt, and turning it into a speculative colonial power, turning the United States into the center of that.
 
So that’s how Epstein got his start.
 
And who was the the person who found him?
 
Well, it was Donald Bar who was an OSS guy who’s the father of the William Bar who was the attorney general for Donald Trump.
 
So, the same names keep popping up, the same networks.
 
And so, when you look at Epstein, instead of saying, “Ah, this guy’s in all sorts of stuff. It’s too much.”
 
No, you’ve got to follow the trail.  And it’s not just a money trail.
 
It’s a trail of betrayal of the American system
and the future of the potential for peace.
 
And that’s what their job was and that’s what the British brought them in to do.
 
So I think this is one of the elements of the Epstein case which is reflected in the policies of the British Empire…
 
~~
 
(30:01)
 
…when when you read about something like Ehud Barack, the former
prime minister of Israel meeting with Epstein, I think it’s 16 times staying at his apartment in in his mansion in New York City.
 
And what are they talking about?
 
They’re talking about the latest advance in surveillance technology and getting him together with Peter Thiel so they can get it produced and put out there.
 
This this is not a conspiracy.  It’s something bigger than that.
 
It really is the way these guys think the world should be run. And at heart, deep down, it’s characterized by a racist hatred of anyone who’s not part of the oligarchy.
And it it’s not just race, it’s religion, it’s tribal, but it’s based on this idea that they think they’re better.
 
And this is why it’s important to make the connection of this to Nazism, to fascism.
This is why they’re supporting the the fascists in the Ukrainian nationalist movement.
 
This is why they have a record of supporting the destruction of states where you have
governments that are trying to do something to uplift the population.
 
That’s the what’s missing in the discussion besides the the connection of Epstein to all these things is what’s their goal?
 
Why is it they oppose sovereignty of nations?
 
And it goes back to British geopolitics.
 
Goes back to the idea that only a handful of people are capable of running the world. And they can’t let governments get in the way of that. You can’t let dogooders or or
people who want to build things, you can’t let that happen.
 
And therefore, you need to have a power over and above governments like private central banks that coordinate and that have technocrats who make the policy that will work as opposed to letting the people who vote for the parliaments decide what they want.
 
And so that’s why the question of sovereignty is so important.
 
And again, that’s been lost.
 
No one’s talking about that very much in terms of what these Epstein operations
are all about.
 
And you know, that’s the other thing. That’s a big part of the censorship
thing because they can’t have people talking…
 

Posted by: suzan | Feb 8 2026 5:39 utc | 725

De Groene Amsterdammer is a long-established Dutch weekly (founded 1877) known for in-depth reporting, historical context, and a generally progressive, pro-EU, liberal-internationalist outlook. It has been consistently critical of Putin, Orbán, and Russian aggression since 2022. Against that background, a recent long read by Thor Rydin on Austria and Hungary is notable for its analytical tone and historical depth rather than polemics.
 
The article examines why pro-Russian sympathies persist in Austria and Hungary, arguing that this is not primarily about short-term foreign policy (gas, trade, neutrality), but about national identity formation. In both countries, Russia functions as a mirror through which political elites reinterpret history, trauma, and sovereignty—often at Ukraine’s expense.
 
In Hungary, Viktor Orbán reframes key historical moments (1848, Trianon 1920, 1945, 1956) as repeated betrayals by the West, not as lessons about Russian domination. Even the 1956 uprising—crushed by Soviet tanks—is presented less as evidence of Russian violence than of Western abandonment. This narrative supports Orbán’s claim that Hungary must resist liberal Western pressure and embrace an “illiberal” path. Russia is useful not because Hungarians admire Putin, but because it legitimizes a worldview in which Hungary is neither Western nor Eastern, but a distinct “veerbootland” (ferry-boat country) navigating between both. Ukraine, in this framing, becomes a reckless “Slavic family quarrel” that Hungary should stay out of, while Orbán uses minority politics in Transcarpathia and disinformation campaigns to mobilize domestic support and discredit opponents.
 
In Austria, the roots are different but parallel. After WWII, Austria rebuilt its identity around the idea of being the “first victim” of Nazism (per the 1943 Moscow Declaration), externalizing guilt to Germany and anchoring national pride in permanent neutrality (no NATO membership since 1955). Soviet monuments in Vienna commemorate “liberation,” not occupation, and Russia historically appealed across the spectrum: to the left as an alternative system, to the right as a traditionalist power, and to business as an economic opportunity. This legacy feeds a widespread belief that Austria is “far from the war” in Ukraine and need not choose sides—an attitude reflected in FPÖ rhetoric and even mainstream politics.
 
Across both cases, the article shows how architecture, museums, monuments, and commemorations actively produce these narratives. Russophilia works as a “cosmetic” adjustment to national self-image, allowing elites to reject Western liberalism while avoiding a direct reckoning with past complicity or present moral responsibility. Ukraine emerges as the immediate casualty of this identity politics: framed as an aggressor, a provocation, or simply expendable.
 
What makes this piece stand out is not sympathy for Orbán or Putin—it is sharply critical—but its willingness to explain rather than simply condemn. Instead of moral binaries, it treats Austrian and Hungarian positions as coherent (if deeply problematic) responses to post-1989 disillusionment with Western neoliberalism and EU dominance.
 
Taken cautiously, this does suggest a subtle shift in tone within parts of Western European progressive media: not toward pro-Russian sentiment, but toward a more sober, historically grounded attempt to understand why anti-Western and “neutralist” narratives resonate. It reflects less moral fatigue than analytical realism—an acknowledgment that the political struggle over Ukraine is also a struggle over memory, identity, and the meaning of Europe itself.
 
https://www.groene.nl/artikel/schipperen-tussen-oost-en-west?

Posted by: Princess Bodica | Feb 8 2026 6:29 utc | 727

https://nitter.poast.org/MenchOsint/status/2020253180462825584
India pirated 3 Iranian Oil tankers in international waters, claiming they were conducting illegal activities such as oil-smuggling racket.
The 3 Iranian oil tankers operating to the dismay of the US empire since 2025 were owned by the same company:
– Stellar Ruby
– Al Jafzia
– Asphalt Star
 
India contributing its part to international piracy in international waters. I assume it was at the behest of Israel instead of the US or maybe both. I also assume the 3 tankers were on their way to China who’s having an increasingly insecure flow of hydrocarbons. From Russia, Venezuela and Iran… because of Western piracy, obviously.

Posted by: xor | Feb 8 2026 8:39 utc | 729

Princess Bodica That name. You must be a woman. Is that correct.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 8 2026 1:18 utc | 710
 
*************
 
Ahhh… Peter, Peter… maybe you need to polish those beer goggles? Either way, you can be sure that ‘The Princess’ has a brain. At my advanced stage of life that factor seems to have risen in importance over a lot of other things that once seemed so important. That, and my purple bib… Now, where was I? 

Posted by: General Factotum | Feb 8 2026 10:39 utc | 731

Seen on a US protest sign
 
IMPRICK THE PEACH

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 8 2026 11:30 utc | 733

@ Nokaz | Feb 8 2026 11:36 utc | 734 with the follow up about Japan…thanks
 
Thanks for the perspective about current Japan politics and the indoctrination that Japan has been subject to since the end of WWII.
 
I think that Japan attempting to change its constitution to allow militarization will be met with overwhelming resistance by China, Russia and potentially other nations remembering the aggression of Japan and Germany in WWII.  As part of the settlement of WWII both Japan and Germany agreed to never remilitarize which they are now both trying to do as attack dogs for empire.
I think those remilitarization efforts by both nations will fail as part of the bigger geopolitical restructuring that is going on in front of us.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 8 2026 11:53 utc | 735

General Factotum | Feb 8 2026 10:39 utc | 731
 
War gets a bit boring at times. That old saying – curiosity killed the cat. I’m generally just looking for the larger factors in geo-politics that cause noticeable change – game changers. A lot of small things Russia china and Iran are doing to cause change. Its slow but accumulative death but a thousand cuts.
 
The Epstein files – less than half of them released so far and some of that redacted. Its difficult to tell how far that will go at the moment though I suspect that what will occur is a few sacrifices of some expendables to the gods of propaganda and the brainwashing of the peasants then it will be business at usual for that class in the west.
The British wurlitzer is screaming “Its the Russians, its the Russians”…….
 
What does need to be done is name searches of the file database. I was thinking that files need to be created on any and every name found there.  Some will turn to be just peripherals and not part of that class, though the vast majority are. All six million unredacted would likely bring down the entire western political establishment.
 
Patrick Armstrong in one of his pieces wrote something about how it feels when you find out everything you have been told is a lie.
 
There is all the cold war propaganda. It turns out that we are the axis of evil not ‘those others’. Just things like looking at the military posture of both the Soviet Union and US in this post WWII period. Soviet military strategy and technology was heavily focussed on defending their borders, where as American military strategy and technology was primarily focus on projecting power and breaking through those defenses.
 
Tiananmen Square was a big one for me. That was 89 so I would have been about 29. I remember hearing on the news one night that the sudents were being machine gunned and run over by tank and were calling for help from the outside. Blah blah bullshitery as it turns out.
 
As I began researching China, I found that it had changed greatly after the death of Mao and had been on a constant trajectory to bring the people to prosperity. Tiananmen Square was something of an outlier, an oddity (can’t think of the correct word at the moment) in that trajectory.
 
When researching it, I found the websites of two journalist who had actually got out in the streets rather than being sternographers for the US embassy.  Then I found an article written but Gene Sharpe, the father of the American orchestrated colour revolutions plus a video of a talk he had given. 
 
He was there in Beijing to organise the protests then riots that occurred in the suburbs. By the time the riots began the students had left the square peacefully and there was zero violence at the square.
The account of one of those American journalists out on the streets. His account was particularly good. He was on the streets with his interpreter when the riots started took shelter during the riots then immediately back out on the streets taking photos after the crowds had been dispersed.
 
Of particular note was his account of when peaceful protest turned to riot and fire bombs. Some men that looked quite different from the peaceful protestors began thrown Molotov cocktails. He asked the interpreter who they were and the interpreter said he did no know but they were not from Beijing.
 
As the Gene Sharpe colour revolutions where an unknown thing at that time, the Chinese government did the right thing in dispersing the crowds with force. Many military vehicles had been burned and many soldiers killed by the time the order was given to disperse the crowds.
 
Since the 2014 colour revolution in Ukraine, the methods are now known and it is a matter of trying to separate the peaceful protestors that have been brought out by American or British psyops from those hired trained and equipped for the violence.
 
Everything in our media against other countries, I have found is projection. We project onto other countries what we ourselves are doing.
 
Take for example the American kangaroo court called the international criminal court charging Putin and and the head of their children department with kidnapping 20,000 Ukraine children. Again projection. 13,000 children are known to be missing from the primarily ethnic Russian regions of Bandera Ukraine. 
As 20,000 was the propaganda number, the true number of children that have been shipped off to the Epsteins of this world is likely that or higher.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 8 2026 12:39 utc | 737

Behold A Pale Horse @BeholdPaleH0rse
I knew Tony Hawk was rigged when I saw they were putting blood drops in his skateboards, look at that face. It’s all of them.
https://x.com/beholdpaleh0rse/status/2019483699708912048
 
Mario Nawfal @MarioNawfal
Epstein Files: The Tony Hawk wedding on Little St. James Island
This redacted interview dropped one of the most surreal celebrity cameos yet: the claim that Tony Hawk didn’t just visit Little St. James, but actually got married there.
The witness, allegedly trafficked from Ireland at age 13, places herself on the island during a timeline that includes both a visit from Prince Edward and the legendary skater’s nuptials.
The report takes a darker turn when describing the island’s exit policy, where the witness states that the only way to leave was to “pose for naked photos.
https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/2019289709462118755

Posted by: GreatLakesObserver | Feb 8 2026 14:08 utc | 739

General Factotum
 
That book by Tom Cole, I would have to read it again as its a long time since I read it. What I saw in the north, far from towns at times. 
The bygone days of the axemen, the pick and shovel miners and the horseback stock camps. A different mindset, a different people.
 
There was something come to mind. One book I read on WWI. Messines ridge, the Brits got the Cornish miners in to dig down deep and go under the enemy lines. Once they had got under the enemy lines, infantry blokes carted in the sack of explosive. In one account I read, they would arrive at the mouth of the mine in a group and stand around as the went down the shaft to the tunnel in single file. They were quite oblivious to enemy artillery barrages and just stood around with sacks of explosive on their shoulders. One day a shell landed in the midst of them and they all went up with a bit of a bang.
 
Reading my grandfathers diaries I found the same thing. After a time, they became immune to fear.
 
You see old photos of those involved in the physical work of the day and none carried any body fat. I read the account of I think a British bloke that emigrated here. He got a job in a fettlers camp and it nearly killed him. His hands got a bit rough so the others told him to piss on his hands to toughen them up. Seems to have been a bit of a remedy for soft hands in those days.
 
A long time ago since I read all those books and your memories for them is certainly better than mine. My grandfathers diaries however were more recent and coupled with the records at the Australian war memorial. Talk about no fear. Him and his mates were scouts, their job was to find gaps in the enemy wire. One day it was decided there would be a double raid. His battalion first then the battalion the rotated with who would hit the engineers that came in to repair the defences after the first raid. That day, they had to go out to the wire in daylight instead of after dark. The Dumb bastards just walked up to the wire like it was a peaceful Sunday walk. When a machine gun opened up, his mate went down and the were pinned there. Then on time the barrage comes in to cut the wire. His mate died seven days later after having his leg and arm chopped off. That was before penicillin. That stuff occurred at Messines. Grandfather spent two years in the trenches of France and Belgium and only one day in casualty. Some live, some die.
 
I have no idea of your early life. I grew up on a farm in the southwest then headed north. Just a kid, a shitkicker. But we have read many of the same books it appears.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 8 2026 14:18 utc | 741

steiniplatte | Feb 8 2026 14:19 utc | 742
 
Yes. Catalonia I also took notice of. The Biden EU bullshit of democracy vs authoritarians.  Our glorious leaders are the authoritarians and they attack countries and people that are actually democratic.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 8 2026 14:30 utc | 743

“Protesters thank Trump for support, sing US national anthem.” 
Canada supported this but now has a similar Trump-backed problem in Alberta…
 
Posted by: John Gilberts | Feb 7 2026 23:54 utc | 704
——————–
Lai’s conduit to Washington/London was Mark Simon of Naval intel.
 
Enuff said.
 
There was even a gringo ‘field commander’ directing the street battles!
 
The case of treason was so obvious,Lai might as well had ‘quisling’ tatooed on is forehead !
 
Yet the entire G7 frame this as ‘persecution of democracy activist’ and clamour for his release
 
Such is the west disdain for international law and the middle kingdom !

Posted by: denk | Feb 8 2026 16:43 utc | 745

Dont forget the weeb !

Posted by: denk | Feb 8 2026 16:53 utc | 747

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s chief of staff resigned Sunday over the furor surrounding the appointment of Peter Mandelson as the U.K. ambassador to the U.S. despite his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
 
Morgan McSweeney said he took responsibility for advising Starmer to appoint Mandelson, 72, to Britain’s most important diplomatic post in 2024.

Posted by: Princess Bodica | Feb 8 2026 17:40 utc | 749

The Associated Press (AP) published its investigative review on February 8, 2026, drawing directly from newly released internal Justice Department and FBI records made public under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The reporting—based on a close examination of millions of pages including bank records, seized videos/photos from Epstein’s properties, emails, prosecutor memos, and victim interviews—concludes that while Epstein’s personal sexual abuse of underage girls was well-documented and horrific, investigators found scant evidence of a broader sex-trafficking ring specifically designed to serve or “lend” victims to powerful men or elites. No “client list” existed (explicitly confirmed by FBI agents and supervisors in 2024–2025 internal correspondence), no incriminating videos or photos showed third-party abuse or implicated influential figures, financial transactions to models and others showed no criminal ties to prominent individuals, and many wider allegations (including some from Virginia Giuffre) lacked sufficient corroboration from other victims or hard evidence to support federal charges against additional people. This is not necessarily a “deep state” spin or cover-up narrative; it reflects what the released investigative files themselves show after years of diligent pursuit of leads—some of which were referred to local authorities when federal thresholds weren’t met. The AP’s account is straightforward, source-based journalism from primary documents, disseminated through various outlets and it stands as the clearest public picture to date of why the federal investigation ultimately closed without prosecuting a larger network of powerful co-conspirators.
 
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/jeffrey-epstein-client-list-sex-trafficking/2026/02/08/id/1245320/?
 

Posted by: Princess Bodica | Feb 8 2026 18:10 utc | 751

Posted by: malenkov | Feb 8 2026 18:32 utc | 752
 
#####
 
The investigation is always the cover-up.
 
Always.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 8 2026 18:53 utc | 753

Russia is routinely blamed for high-profile events like the Nord Stream sabotage and the Epstein files, even when evidence is thin, inconclusive, or missing. Maria Zakharova has repeatedly highlighted this pattern, and it points to a real, recurring Western reflex: blame Moscow first, investigate later—or not at all.
In Nord Stream, Western media immediately fingered Russia after the 2022 explosions. By 2024, Sweden and Denmark closed their investigations with no suspects, and Germany’s probe only produced minor Ukrainian arrests—no state actors named, no joint investigation with Russia. The calls for transparency and cooperation were ignored.
In the Epstein case, some Western voices suggested Russian intelligence involvement based on circumstantial links. Yet DOJ/FBI releases in 2025–2026 revealed no “client list,” little evidence of a broader elite trafficking network, and no grounds for prosecuting powerful third parties. Meanwhile, investigations of U.S. and allied elites stalled, opaque, or ended inconclusively.
The pattern is obvious: Russia is blamed by default, while Western actors get a pass. Pipeline sabotage, alleged blackmail operations, or other high-profile scandals are quickly pinned on Moscow, while NATO-linked actors and domestic elites avoid scrutiny. This isn’t paranoia—it’s a repeated, one-sided treatment.

Posted by: Princess Bodica | Feb 8 2026 19:28 utc | 755

The above bio excerpt is from her Wikipedia entry.

Posted by: John Gilberts | Feb 8 2026 20:00 utc | 757

In some ways, “Melania,” the new documentary about Melania Trump, feels almost avant-garde. It rejects everything we normally associate with the commercial success of a bio-pic: narrative, suspense, authenticity, even one unguarded moment. But in another way it’s bracingly honest. President Donald Trump and his wife have made no effort to hide that, over a dinner at Mar-a-Lago shortly after the 2024 election, she personally pitched the project to Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, who has vast financial interests in government contracts and antitrust policy. Nor have the Trumps dissembled about Amazon’s payment of forty million dollars for the rights to the film—more than twice as much as the second-highest bid—with twenty-eight million reportedly flowing directly to the First Lady.
 
President Trump has been less up front about a far larger payment—negotiated at about the same time that his wife was pitching “Melania” but revealed on its opening weekend—from the ruling family of the United Arab Emirates. That payment came through World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency business announced by Trump and Steve Witkoff, his friend and now his Middle East envoy, with five of their sons and two other executives, in September, 2024. (Trump and Witkoff are currently listed as “emeritus” co-founders.) World Liberty billed itself as “inspired by ‘Chief Crypto Advocate’ Donald J. Trump” with a mission “to leverage the global reach and recognition of the Trump brand” to get internet users into crypto. But its business plan was vague.
 
—
 
In the run-up to the 2020 election, Bob Bauer, who was a lawyer in the Obama White House, and Jack Goldsmith, an Assistant Attorney General under President George W. Bush, published a book, “After Trump: Reconstructing the Presidency.” In it, they offered reforms to curtail the opportunities for the abuse of executive power that Trump’s first term had exposed—opportunities that his second term has taken to extremes. To address potential financial conflicts of interest, one proposal would require Presidents to certify that they have fully removed themselves from any role in any private businesses in which they own stakes, with no access to information about them that is not also available to the public. A second would force any such business to disclose its assets, liabilities, and other stakeholders (precluding a secret investment by a foreign government). A third would give teeth to the emoluments clause: any business connected to a President would be required to publicly report any expected payment or benefit from an arm of a foreign state. If Congress did not consent to it within sixty days, a President would be forced to sell off that interest.
 
Such measures are, of course, out of the question as long as Trump has a veto. But most of our current government ethics rules date back to a bipartisan backlash after the Watergate scandal. It is hardly impossible that Trump’s self-enrichment, at four billion dollars and counting, might yet trigger a similar wave. 

Posted by: Princess Bodica | Feb 8 2026 20:21 utc | 759

From what I’ve been able to gather, all the new Right political parties and movements in the West (AfD, Reform UK, MAGA, Sweden Democrats, FN, PVV etc) have turned out to be hugely pro-Israel, even more than the traditional conservatives and more than the liberals ofc.
Right now, pretty much the entirety of the Western Right is Zionist, with the exception of (some) US libertarians and a handful of literal Nazis here and there.
What is the explanation for this? How much was the lobbying money involved and how much was it “spontaneous”? Some of them really seem to almost worship Israel (and Jews).
What are the implications for the future? Are these attitudes sustainable? Do they have the support of their voting base (I doubt it)?
PS. I think Fidesz fits here as well, although it’s an old party. And Pauline Hanson down under.

Posted by: gatehosner | Feb 8 2026 20:55 utc | 761

Two reasons:

• The donor and intellectual class that gloms about conservatism had a rear guard action early on when RW populism began taking off to make sure core policy goals of the neocon era were maintained; this is why RW populist run as populists but govern as slightly more rhetorically harsher versions of their mainline conservative counterparts. The prime example of this in British politics is someone like Douglas Murray who very early on positioned himself as a “populist” intellectual despite, until about the late 2010s, writing articles and books espousing the virtues of neoconservatism, the Iraq War etc. The donor class isn’t going to risk a RW populist gov going rogue and accidentally harming the way things are.
• Culture war bullshit. Lots of right wingers support Israel because supporting Palestine is a thing leftists do. They support Israel for no other reason and often have nothing but the vaguest familiarity with the conflict and express very little real interest in learning about it. They just want to piss off the “woke libtard blue hairs” who they see have Palestine flags, so they need to be pro Israel. Think of this like the reverse of the idiotic leftist wave militantly supporting Remain in the EU just because Leave was poor white people-coded.

Posted by: Evangelical ✞ | Feb 8 2026 21:22 utc | 763

Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy former Hong Kong media tycoon and a fierce critic of Beijing, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Monday, after being convicted on national security charges late last year.

Posted by: Princess Bodica | Feb 9 2026 2:58 utc | 765

It is diverse. You’ve …The anglophileThe americanophileThe anglophileTaiduFLGGangduThe nationalistsLast but not lease…CIA/MI6 planted bots So it could be planted by any of the anti Chinese bots to stir the pot Or genuine nationalists who see Japan as an existential threat since the days of Ming dynasty, an unrepentant thorn in China’s side that has to be removed sooner or later Cant say I blame them !

Posted by: denk | Feb 8 2026 16:50 utc | 746
How would those nationalists act if they realized that the USA has controlled Japan over the past 80 years – including their mainstream media?
How would they react to the notion that Takaichi is a US puppet and her hawkishness is a trap set by the USA to pit the two countries against each other?
If not mutually exclusive, I can see if, how and where the “Americanophile” and “CIA/MI6 planted bot” come into play if applicable.

Posted by: joey_n | Feb 9 2026 12:05 utc | 767

Posted by: Princess Bodica | Feb 8 2026 6:29 utc | 727
 

Taken cautiously, this does suggest a subtle shift in tone within parts of Western European progressive media: not toward pro-Russian sentiment, but toward a more sober, historically grounded attempt to understand why anti-Western and “neutralist” narratives resonate. It reflects less moral fatigue than analytical realism—an acknowledgment that the political struggle over Ukraine is also a struggle over memory, identity, and the meaning of Europe itself. https://www.groene.nl/artikel/schipperen-tussen-oost-en-west?

 
Thanks Princess for this insight, proving we still have a few patrons with the ability to synthesize.
Another comment worth sharing, from Suzan, summarizing a Garland Nixon video which is incisive. 
 

Posted by: suzan | Feb 8 2026 5:39 utc | 725
PERFIDIOUS ALBION EPISODE VII – EPSTEIN AND THE BRITISH THRONE – W/HARLEY SCHLANGER https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mzvnIOXudg
Now, what do they have in common? Wexner was the first one who not only brought Epstein in but gave him power of attorney over his multi- billion dollar fortune. Now Wexner was is a part of the Zionist lobby called the Meta Group and Wexner got his start through networks that were tied to the junk bond mafia of Michael Milken. Now, as you track this through, the second person, Leon Black, where did he get his millions? He was the junk bond king working for Milken at Drexel Burnham. So, here now, what is it that Milken’s network has that makes it a suspicious part when you look at Epstein? It was a money laundering operation for organized crime. And this goes back to people like Michulum Ricklas, Max Fischer ofDetroit, Lansky.

Posted by: jonku | Feb 9 2026 20:43 utc | 769

“Larry Johnson: Decision Has Been Made to Attack Iran”
 
Glenn Diesen talked to Larry Johnson in a video podcast, posted on Diesen’s Substack website. I received a notification form Diesen’s website just a few minutes ago. Didn’t have the time to watch it yet. Too busy for the next few hours. Also think: Iranian oil province called Khuzestan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khuzestan_province
 
 
https://glenndiesen.substack.com/p/larry-johnson-decision-has-been-made

Posted by: WMG | Feb 10 2026 12:38 utc | 771