An American investor with a history of dealmaking in Russia has asked the U.S. government to allow him to bid on the sabotaged Nord Stream Pipeline 2 if it comes up for auction in a Swiss bankruptcy proceeding.
Miami Financier Stephen P. Lynch Is Quietly Trying to Buy Nord Stream 2 Gas Pipeline
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[2016] US INVESTORS IN RAID AGAINST DMITRY FIRTASH – STEPHEN LYNCH ATTEMPTS TAKEOVER OF UKRAINIAN GAS PRODUCER, MISEN ENERGY (archived)
Read More »A recent simulation conducted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) paints a stark picture of the U.S. defense industrial base, revealing critical vulnerabilities in its ability to support military operations in the event of a large-scale conflict. The findings underscore the urgent need for public-private partnerships, increased investment in manufacturing capacity, and reduced reliance on foreign components.
CSIS Simulation Highlights Urgent Need to Strengthen U.S. Defense Industrial Base
Good luck with that! The U.S. “defense industrial base” is beholden to profits!
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Mike Gallagher says that the Pentagon Has Two Years to Prevent World War III
The Pentagon is running out of missiles. After December 1, that will be a big problem.
Trumpism, NATO and the Ukraine war (original)
“Two years ago, General Mark A. Milley, then President Biden’s chief military adviser, suggested that neither Russia nor Ukraine could win the war. A negotiated solution, he argued, was the only path to peace. His comments caused a furor among senior officials. But President-elect Donald J. Trump’s victory is making General Milley’s prediction come true,” wrote The New York Times in an article published last week, part of a growing line of arguments by those who fear that the arrival of the new Republican administration will mean leaving Ukraine to its own devices. These articles, present in all major American and European media, take literally Trump’s desire to end the war and his lack of interest in the situation in Ukraine. This has also been helped by the words of JD Vance, who, from his ignorance of the conflict, has proposed a plan that can only satisfy Russia, or the exalted response of Donald Trump Jr. after the confirmation of the American permission to use Western missiles against targets on the territory of mainland Russia. Sometimes, think-tankers and experts also add Trump’s disdain for NATO or his desire not to rescue member countries that do not meet the minimum investment required by the Alliance in the event of a Russian attack.
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Maksym Tkachenko, a Ukrainian MP from Servant of the People party, states that over 150,000 internally displaced people (IDPs) have returned to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, with approximately one-third of those who fled during the full-scale war returning to Mariupol.
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Details: The main reason for the return of internally displaced individuals to the occupied territories, according to Tkachenko, is that they were unable to start a new life in Ukrainian-controlled territory because they “did not receive proper assistance from the state – no housing, no social support, compensation, work, etc.”
According to him, a big percentage of IDPs “could not find work because of the sceptical attitude of employers towards them, and all those offers that are provided to IDPs are actually very low-paid.”
He asserted that these people face prejudice in the labour market. According to Tkachenko, their incomes seldom reach UAH 8,000-12,000 (US$194 to US$290), while the cost of renting housing in Ukraine’s relatively safe districts begins at UAH 10,000. At the same time, when IDPs start working, they lose their entitlement to receive state assistance to cover the expense of renting accommodation. At the same time, there are very few sites that provide “acceptable living conditions” for free.
150,000 IDPs have returned to occupied territories, 70,000 to Mariupol alone – Ukrainian MP
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The incoming Trump administration is poised to pick up where the Biden administration has left off on the decades-spanning centerpiece of US foreign policy ‒ the encirclement and containment of China.
US Foreign Policy vs. China Continues Under Trump (archived)
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AFPI: America First Policy Institute
The Walton Family Foundation, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and a coalition of fishermen’s associations and environmental institutions join forces to promote responsible fishing practices.
China’s A2/AD (ACE Concept/Joint All-Domain Operations)
Protracted wars in the Middle East and Ukraine are draining the US arsenal of interceptor missiles. The problem is especially severe in Palestine and in the Red Sea, where dozens of missiles are launched monthly against incoming rockets and drones.
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Greenlighting deep strikes inside Russia is all risk, no reward
“The Biden administration’s decision to allow Ukraine to use longer-range ATACMS to launch strikes deep inside of Russia is strategically unwise and operationally unnecessary. The move will not meaningfully improve Ukraine’s military position, but it will intensify U.S. and NATO entanglement in the conflict and worsen the risk of Russian escalation—including possible retaliation on U.S. or European targets.
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Leaked files show top UK military figures conspired to carry out the Kerch bridge bombing, covertly train “Gladio”-style stay-behind forces in Ukraine, and groom the British public for a drop in living standards caused by the proxy war against Russia.
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Project Alchemy’s proposed schemes spanned every conceivable field of warfare, from cyber attacks to “discreet operations” to outright terrorism. The secret cell even put forward a plan to “aggressively pursue” and “dismantle” independent media outlets – including The Grayzone – through an aggressive campaign of legal harassment and online censorship, so they “would be forced to close.” The incendiary blueprints were fed to the highest levels of the British state and national security structure, where they were apparently well-received.
Leaks expose secret British military cell plotting to ‘keep Ukraine fighting’
Pentagon Has Two Years to Prevent World War III
By China Hawk Mike Gallagher, Palantir
Xi Jinping has ordered the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to seize Taiwan by 2027. Whether he launches an invasion may depend on President Trump’s defense secretary. If confirmed by the Senate, Army National Guard veteran and Fox News host Pete Hegseth, Mr. Trump’s nominee, will have to confront the collapse of deterrence in Europe and the Middle East, resource constraints on Capitol Hill, recruitment challenges, and a deteriorating balance of power in the Indo-Pacific. The only way to promote peace is to go to war on day one—not with China, Russia or Iran but with the Pentagon bureaucracy.
Gallagher wants a wartime economy while leaving the financing to the private sector. It won’t work. 👇👇👇
Related:
US Seeks “Super Weapons” to Reign as Sole Superpower
In reality, Russia and China’s industrial bases are larger than America’s because of a number of factors, including factors no amount of American political will, can overcome. China in particular has a population four times greater than the US. China graduates millions more each year in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics than the US, and the physical size of its industrial base – military or otherwise – reflects this demographic disparity.
Even if the US had the political will to reform its military industrial base, stripping away profit-driven private industry and replacing it with purpose-driven state-owned enterprises, even if the US likewise transformed its education system to produce a skilled workforce rather than squeeze every penny from American students, and even if the US invested in its national infrastructure – a fundamental prerequisite for expanding its industrial base – it still faces a reality where China has already done all of this, and done so with a population larger than it and its G7 partners combined.
FYI, Gallagher is with Palantir, as well as the Hudson Institute.
Hudson Institute’s funding
Trump taps Hegseth as defense secretary, vows ‘no Marxism, no communism’ in military
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Pentagon report warns of threat from white supremacists inside the military
A Defense Department report highlights disturbing examples of white supremacy inside the military, calling for changes in how the department screens recruits for possible ties to domestic extremism.
The report, which the Trump administration drafted last year before the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, was sent to Congress in October, but it has not been made public until now.v
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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