This is the political season to be thankful for small favors of optimism, and in this edition of Scheer Intelligence, host Robert Scheer and guest Joe Lauria, editor of the Consortium News website, are excited to have found a gift of striking significance to what remains of the practice of serious journalism on the internet. It is Donald Trump’s delivery on a promise in his inauguration address that “After years and years of illegal and unconstitutional federal efforts to restrict free expression, I will also sign an executive order to immediately stop all censorship and bring back free speech to America.”

 

For Once Trump Gets It Right

 

It’s January in Australia and so the annual Australia Day political circus has rolled into town. It started much earlier this year, with Peter Dutton and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price working to grab some headlines before the upcoming election. Their followers have declared January is now “Australia Month” and have washed through social media with absurd lies and conspiracy theories about Aboriginal people. Yes, that crock about Aboriginal people wiping out the original pygmy race has been dug out again.

FOR GUS Leonisky, this is a personal issue. When JFK was assassinated, Gus was visiting someone who had been working for the family. The person is long dead, but the tears are still alive. GUS has been waiting 62 years to find out WHO killed JFK…

I think the files won’t reveal who did it… The CIA and the Secret Service wouldn’t have squealed or reported on one of their own. The files might contain the missing forensic pieces of the puzzle which we have explored in UNCLE GEORGE…

But we might be surprised....

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Jack Schlossberg, the only grandson of John F. Kennedy (JFK), has lashed out at US President Donald Trump for his decision to declassify files related to JFK’s assassination in 1963.

Donald Trump’s return to power for a second term has sent ripples across the globe. On his first day in office, he wielded executive authority with vigour, signing many executive orders, including withdrawing the US from the Paris Agreement for the second time. This move reversed the country’s climate commitments yet again, signalling Trump’s prioritisation of energy dominance and domestic interests.

 

Donald Trump’s return: gloves off reset    By Christine Loh

 

The inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States is this week’s main news story, not only in America but also in domestic Russian politics. Though all eyes on that day were fixed on Trump, it is telling that he also became the subject of intense discussions in this country, ranging from political circles to ordinary kitchen conversations. This is no anomaly — it is entirely logical.

 

Russia and the Trump Doctrine: Adapting to the ‘Rules of the Strong’     The Kommersant columnist outlines what Donald Trump’s return means for Russia and the world

    By Sergey Strokan

 

Just hours into his second presidency, Donald Trump was already bulldozing congressional Republicans.

He granted clemency to some 1,500 Jan. 6 offenders, some of them convicted of violent assaults. He flouted a bipartisan TikTok ban, ordering it to remain unenforced. And he moved to cancel some of his predecessor’s energy programs over the pleadings of some in the GOP who wanted him to wait — to name just a few of the ways he undercut members of his own party.

 

 

Russia intervened militarily in Ukraine to denazify the country. But, according to Westerners, there are no Nazis in Ukraine. Russia wants to invade and annex this country. This mutual incomprehension caused the Russian special operation to degenerate into open war.

However, several identical facts, which have occurred in the Baltic countries since 2005 and in the European Parliament since 2016, demonstrate that this is not a misunderstanding, but a deliberate NATO strategy.
This mobilizes 53 states to oppose the adoption by the United Nations of a traditional resolution against the glorification of Nazism.

 

Should we condemn or not the glorification of Nazism?
by Thierry Meyssan

 

The play Don’s Party premiered on August 11 1971 at Carlton’s Pram Factory, home to the radical theatre ensemble, the Australian Performing Arts Group. 

Established four years earlier in 1967, the group would nurture some of the most passionate Australian voices of a generation, including Max Gillies, John Romeril, Kerry Walker, Geoffrey Milne and Jenny Kemp. 

Until this point, there was very little original Australian theatre. With the exception of Ray Lawler’s Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1955), Australian stages were dominated by scripts imported from the UK and America.

This new generation was interested in creating a muscular, fiercely nationalistic form of theatre preoccupied with “staging the nation”.

Sam Jacobs is Editor in Chief at TIME where he leads TIME’s global newsroom and its journalism across all platforms. Since joining TIME in 2013, Jacobs has held a variety of senior editorial leadership positions. Previously, he was national political correspondent at Reuters, associate editor at Newsweek and staff reporter for The Daily Beast. His writing has appeared in the Boston Globe and New York Observer.

 

World Economic Forum President Borge Brende on Planning for a ‘Geopolitical Recession’

 

Do you think 2025 will be politically more or less stable than 2024? 

EU commissioner hopes Ukraine conflict continues
By arming Kiev, NATO member states may have granted themselves valuable time to “grow stronger,” Andrius Kubilius has stated...

As the fighting continues in Ukraine, NATO states may be gaining additional time to prepare for a potential military confrontation with Russia, Andrius Kubilius, EU commissioner for defense and space, has said.

Kubilius, a noted hawk on Russia and two-time prime minister of Lithuania, was approved by the European Parliament in November as the EU’s first-ever defense commissioner. He made the remarks on Wednesday during an address to the annual conference of the European Defense Agency. 

Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) called his preemptive pardon from former President Biden, announced Monday for all past members of the now-defunct House. Jan. 6 committee in the final moments of his presidency, “unnecessary” and “unwise.”

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday issued a thinly-veiled ultimatum to Russia, urging it to bring the Ukraine conflict to an end and strike a “deal,” or face new sanctions and high import tariffs.

Trump issued the warning in a post on his Truth Social online platform, proclaiming his “love” for the Russian people and insisting he was “not looking to hurt Russia.”

“We must never forget that Russia helped us win the Second World War, losing almost 60,000,000 lives in the process,” he wrote, exaggerating the estimated Soviet Union losses more than twofold.

“All of that being said, I’m going to do Russia, whose Economy is failing, and President Putin, a very big FAVOR. Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE,” Trump asserted.

Trump's Message BACKFIRES As Russia And China Get Closer Xi

Jinping and Vladimir Putin have had a telephone conversation in which they stressed the importance of deepening their cooperation. This comes in the light of Donald Trump threatining more sanctions on Russia. General Mike Elviss has stated that once the conflict in Ukraine stops, there will be a Russian resurgence and the Russian Army will become much stronger. Viktor Orban has accused Brussels of the fact that the EU has become uncompetitive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY6zy9SqOQw

 

Trump's Message BACKFIRES As Russia And China Get Closer

 

Wearing his clearly marked press vest, and flanked by his older colleagues, 22-year-old former soccer commentator and `accidental journalist’ Abubaker Abed earlier this month indicted the negligence and hypocrisy of international media organisations regarding reporting of the genocide in Gaza: `You’ve seen us killed in every possible way. We’ve been immolated, incinerated, dismembered, and disembowelled. And recently we’ve been starving to death. What more ways of killing will it take for you to move and stop the hell inflicted upon us?’