zerohedge

NATO Is The Big Obstacle To Peace In Ukraine

Authored by Jacob Hornberger via The Future of Freedom Foundation,

During his recent campaign for president, Donald Trump repeatedly stated that he had a secret plan for settling the war in Ukraine. 

He suggested that he would be able to resolve the conflict within a day of so of taking office. That obviously was political hyperbole because the war is still going on. Trump and people in his administration are now talking to Russian president Vladimir Putin and Russian officials in an effort to find a way to end the war and possibly even normalize relations between the United States and Russia.

There is one great big obstacle, however, to bringing an end to the Ukraine-Russia conflict. That obstacle is NATO, the old Cold War dinosaur that should have gone out of existence with the end of the Cold War, just like the Warsaw Pact did.

Instead, NATO not only remained in existence, it also ultimately became the root cause of the war between Ukraine and Russia.

It’s that critically important point that is lost on the U.S. mainstream media. For them, the war began at the moment that Russia invaded Ukraine. Nothing that preceded that invasion matters to the mainstream media. What came before the invasion is simply considered irrelevant.

But it’s not irrelevant, especially because it might well prove to be an insurmountable obstacle to a lasting peace between Ukraine and Russia.

With the surprise end of the Cold War, the U.S. national-security establishment — i.e., the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA — lost its big official enemy — Russia (or, to be more exact, the Soviet Union), which meant the end of the big Cold War racket that had kept the national-security branch in high cotton in terms of power and taxpayer-funded largess.

The Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA were panicky. At first, they announced that they were willing to participate in the “war on drugs.” They then converted their old partner and ally Saddam Hussein into an official enemy, who they used to scare the American people for some 11 years. Then, their interventionist and deadly foreign policy in the Middle East brought about the 9/11 retaliatory strikes and they were off to the races again, with the “war on terrorism” replacing the Cold War’s “war on communism.”

But they never lost sight of the possibility of reconverting Russia into a renewed official enemy, as part of a new Cold War, especially given that the anti-Russia Cold War sentiment was so deeply embedded within the American people. That’s when they began using NATO to expand eastward toward Russia’s border by absorbing former members of the Warsaw Pact.

An important thing to note about this was that U.S. officials had promised Russia that NATO would not expand. It would stay, they repeatedly stated, right where it was.

It was a lie. Instead, NATO was used to expand eastward, which enabled NATO’s missiles, tanks, weapons, troops, and planes to get ever closer to Russia’s border. It’s worth mentioning that…

38 Attorneys General Urge FDA To Offer Protection From Fake Weight Loss Drugs

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) must act to protect Americans from fake versions of GLP-1 weight loss and diabetes drugs such as Ozempic and Mounjaro and take “decisive action” against bad actors engaged in such trade, a letter from a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from 38 U.S. states said.
Boxes of the diabetes drug Ozempic rest on a pharmacy counter in Los Angeles on April 17, 2023. Mario Tama/Getty Images

“My fellow attorneys general and I are urging the FDA to protect consumers from the growing threat posed by adulterated or counterfeit versions of these drugs,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a signatory of the letter, said in a Feb. 20 statement.

“From inspections to enforcement actions, the FDA has several important tools at its disposal to help put an end to this unlawful and deceptive conduct. A federal response is necessary because many of the counterfeit drugs are shipped from outside of the country.”

The bilateral letter, issued a day earlier, said that demand for GLP-1 medications such as Mounjaro, Zepbound, Ozempic, and Wegovy has “skyrocketed.” The high costs of these medications and supply shortages “have created opportunities for wrongdoers to cash in and endanger consumers,” it said.

Fake GLP-1 drugs have entered the U.S. supply chain from nations such as China, Turkey, and India, the attorneys general said.

“These counterfeits can contain contaminants, other unknown drugs, or dangerously high amounts of active ingredient(s). Scammers have also repackaged injectable insulin and falsely sold it as Ozempic,” they said.

Injecting counterfeit drugs “can lead to serious side effects for consumers, sometimes necessitating hospitalization,” the letter said, adding that most consumers cannot identify fake from legitimate variants.

The letter raised the issue of retailers illegally selling active ingredients of GLP-1 medications directly to consumers online without any prescriptions. These active ingredients come from unregulated sources and pose a risk of contamination, it said.

Consumers use the ingredients to formulate drugs without adequate knowledge of safely dissolving the active ingredients, drawing it into syringes, and then injecting the substance into the body, the attorneys general wrote.

There are also compounding pharmacies that produce GLP-1 medications on their own, with some choosing to “cut corners” in pursuit of profits, the letter says. Last year, Eli Lilly and Company, the manufacturer of Mounjaro and Zepbound, said it had identified compounded drugs that have “safety, sterility, and efficacy problems.”

“Some have contained bacteria, high impurity levels, different colors (pink, instead of colorless), or a completely different chemical structure than Lilly’s FDA-approved medicines,” the company said.

Novo Nordisk, which manufactures Ozempic and Wegovy, has filed lawsuits against several pharmacies, weight loss clinics, and medical spas in multiple U.S. states for selling compounded drugs claiming to contain semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic.

The letter called on the FDA to “work with federal partners like the Department of Homeland Security to intercept counterfeit GLP-1 drugs before they reach unsuspecting consumers.”

It asked the agency to…

DOGE To Confront The DoD Checkbook

Authored by R. Jordan Prescott via RealClearDefense,

With unprecedented zeal, Special Government Employee Elon Musk and his DOGE team have descended upon multiple agencies to execute its cost cutting agenda. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has said DOGE will be welcomed at the department but simply accessing its accounting systems will not provide the visibility needed. The Department of Defense has failed seven consecutive audits, its financial information systems are a disaster, and solutions have been elusive.

Thou Shalt Be Audited

In 1990, Congress passed The Chief Financial Officer Act and one provision required every agency to be audited in full. Between 1991 and 2013, DOD only subjected itself to partial audits. In 2014, Congress required DOD to comply in full by 2018.

Unsurprisingly, DOD failed this first audit. The DOD Inspector General identified 20 material weaknesses, which are shortcomings that, in simple terms, means errors will occur but they won’t be caught or corrected before it is too late.

For the next seven years, audits never reported less than 25 material weaknesses. The associated “notifications of findings and recommendations” would average almost 2,500 reissued and 850 new NFRs every between 2019 and 2023.

Big Checkbook, Antiquated Calculators 

Two major deficiencies have persisted throughout — the Fund Balance with Treasury (the department’s checking account) and Information Technology.

In the former, the department can’t balance its $800 billion-plus checkbook and lacks the tools to research discrepancies or produce the receipts.

On the latter, the department simply has too many obsolete systems; in 2021 the DODIG reported the department wouldn’t be retiring 140 legacy systems until 2036.

In 2017, the department’s Chief Financial Officer began using a data platform called Advana to build the missing universe of transactions so desperately needed to support auditability.

However, Advana is a data repository, not a tool for validating data; reliability is the responsibility of system owner from which Advana is drawing. Moreover, Advana does not have access to data across the entire department.

To overcome these challenges, the Deputy Secretary of Defense “decreed” in May 2021 that data sharing would be maximized. More pointedly, Advana would be the “single source of truth” for objective, informed decision-making.

Beginning with the 2022 audit, the DODIG began recommending the department use Advana to address the aforementioned Fund Balance with Treasury deficiency.

In May 2023, the Government Accountability Office credited the department with progress but noted its remedial plans still lacked basic details, such as interim dates to track the steps taken to achieve auditability.

Similarly, the DODIG identified problems with Advana. In October 2024, the DODIG examined whether billions of dollars in Ukraine assistance had been used in accordance with federal law.

The DODIG tersely reported “DOD did not.”

The DODIG found the department did not have documentation for $1.1 billion in outlays. More notably, the DODIG identified the amount as Questioned Costs, those transactions that may constitute legal or regulatory violations.

To date, Congress has appropriated $111 billion in Ukraine assistance

In 2025, the DOD budget totals $850 billion and the Senate Armed Services Committee Chair is aggressively pursuing a $200…

There Is A Method To The ‘Madness’

Authored by Christian Milord via The Epoch Times,

It’s common knowledge that President Donald Trump expresses original, off-the-wall statements in pressers and speeches. To some folks, this comes as a shock, although it’s a common occurrence.

Oftentimes, Trump’s ideas stun both Congressional members and foreign leaders. Why does he come up with so many out-of-the-box ideas? There likely is solid reasoning behind these zingers, although not all of the ideas pan out.

First, Trump has declared that our northern neighbor Canada could become the 51st state. 

However, Puerto Rico likely has a better chance at statehood than Canada does. In other words, “that dog won’t hunt,” as evidenced by the opposition by Canadians, their premiers, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The president appears to be applying leverage on Canada to pick up the slack in reducing drug trafficking entering the United States and urging reciprocal fair trade with America, which would obviate the need for tariffs.

Next, the president stated that he would help to rebuild Gaza and transform it into a prosperous and secure center of business.

Most are aware that America might only play a small part in the process. Trump may have floated this idea to persuade Arab leaders in the region to play a larger role in Gaza’s reconstruction and stability. Several Arab leaders claim to care about the Palestinian cause, so they can back up this claim by taking in more Palestinians and helping to rebuild Gaza with their know-how and wealth.

Third, it is also highly unlikely that Greenland will become part of the United States as Trump would like, although plenty of Greenlanders aren’t satisfied with how Denmark treats them.

Trump wants to exert more influence over Greenland to bolster the security umbrella that stretches from Alaska all the way over the Arctic to Greenland. A greater American presence could help mitigate the malign activities of China and Russia in the Arctic region.

Fourth, the president has threatened Mexico with tariffs if the government doesn’t help to halt lawless migration with its attendant drugs and human trafficking into the United States. 

President Claudia Sheinbaum responded by deploying Mexican National Guard troops to key areas of the U.S.-Mexico border, and Mexico is helping to return illegal immigrants to some Central American nations.

Fifth, Trump utilized similar threats regarding Panama and stated that if the country failed to push back against Chinese influence and charge fair prices for marine vessel transits, he would take over canal operations. 

President Jose Mulino has been open to these demands. The country has agreed not to renew its Belt and Road agreement with China due to China’s undue port influence on both sides of the canal. Apparently, Mulino will also help shut down the lawless migrant hub known as the Darien Gap.

Sixth, common sense informs us that Trump won’t halt the Russia-Ukraine war as quickly as he predicted. 

Based on historical precedent, wars are difficult to unwind. He’s likely throwing out ideas to see which ones will stick in bringing Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy to…

Russia & The US’ Diplomatic Choreography At The UN Shows Their Commitment To A “New Détente”

Authored by Andrew Korybko via substack,

Any claims of Russia “backstabbing” or “selling out” China are absurd and driven by a desire to sow discord…

The “New Détente”, which refers to the ongoing efforts between Russia and the US to enter into a rapprochement in the New Cold War similar in spirit to what they agreed to half a century ago during the Old Cold War, is no longer speculation after the US’ pivot towards Russia at the UN. The US joined Russia in vetoing a resolution from the General Assembly that condemned Russia for its special operation and then Russia sided with the US in supporting the latter’s more neutral one in the Security Council.

This diplomatic choreography was clearly coordinated between Putin and Trump to show the entire world that they’re committed to the “New Détente”. In parallel with what was unfolding on the world stage, each leader also spoke highly about the future of their economic ties, with Trump hyping everyone up to expect “major economic transactions” while Putin hinted at cooperation in the aluminum and rare earth industries. This followed their representatives discussing Arctic energy cooperation in Riyadh.

It was foreseen in early January that “Creative Energy Diplomacy Can Lay The Basis For A Grand Russian-American Deal”, which readers can learn more about from the preceding hyperlinked analysis. The two dozen compromises suggested near the end have already been agreed upon in part as proven by the US withholding Article 5 guarantees from NATO countries’ troops in Ukraine, ruling out its membership in NATO, discussing energy cooperation with Russia, and flirting with other forms of sanctions relief.

Unlike what some have claimed, Trump isn’t trying to pull a so-called “Reverse Nixon” by incentivizing Russia to turn against China like his predecessor half a century ago incentivized China to turn against the erstwhile USSR, which is unrealistic to expect in any case. Rather, as explained in the analysis about creative energy diplomacy, the purpose is to incentivize Russia into placing limits on its resource and eventually military cooperation with China in order to erode its strategic advantages vis-à-vis the US.

From Trump’s view, this will avert the scenario of Russia turbocharging China’s superpower rise and thus even the odds of reaching a grand deal with the People’s Republic that’ll be more in the US’ favor, while Putin sees this as managing the global balance of power. From his perspective, Russia is incentivizing the US into relieving pressure upon it and unofficial paying reparations for the proxy war via investments into its resource industry and economy as a whole, all while redirecting the US’ military focus elsewhere.

The Kissinger-inspired pragmatism behind this arrangement is predictably opposed by each country’s most zealous supporters, both at the civil society and state levels, but more on the US’ side than Russia’s. Furthermore, even though China officially supports the emerging Russian-US rapprochement, it’s likely still very suspicious of this process but is playing it cool for now in order to not attract negative attention. These trends must be managed by both parties…

Massie Teases Senate Run – Jewish GOP Group Threatens ‘Unlimited’ Spending To Stop Him

Kentucky GOP Rep. Thomas Massie is teasing a potential run for Mitch McConnell’s Senate seat in 2026, and a Jewish Republican group is already threatening to unleash “unlimited” spending to thwart any such bid, given his frequent opposition to legislation pushed by the pro-Israel lobby. 

On Thursday, Massie posted a poll on X, asking if he should stay in the House, run for Senate in 2026, or run for governor in 2027. A Senate campaign was the choice of 67% of the respondents.

If you were me, would you:
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) February 20, 2025
The libertarian-minded Massie opposes all foreign aid. At his own political peril, he dares to make no exception for the State of Israel, which is among the world’s richest countries. He has also voted against legislation that would infringe on free speech by, for example, punishing colleges that allow students and professors to say the wrong things about Israel.

Add it all up — and stir in the fact that he’s a member of a party whose legislators almost universally toe the pro-Israel line — and Massie is likely the House representative the pro-Israel lobby would most like to eliminate. The idea of him ascending to the Senate has pro-Israel forces racing to DEFCON1. 
In March 2020, Massie explains his effort to prevent a massive Covid stimulus package from being adopted without a recorded vote (Susan Walsh-AP) 

“If Tom Massie chooses to enter the race for US Senate in Kentucky, the RJC campaign budget to ensure he is defeated will be unlimited,” warned Republican Jewish Coalition CEO Matt Brooks in a statement to Jewish Insider. The Republican Jewish Coalition has tried to defeat Massie before. In 2020, the RJC backed Republican Todd McMurtry in challenging Massie in the GOP primary — only to see Massie trounce McMurtry in an 81% to 19% rout. 

So intense is their opposition to Massie that last year, pro-Israel forces starting preemptively spending money to weaken Massie’s Senate prospects. Despite the fact that Massie faced no viable GOP opponent nor any Democrat opponent at all, the intentionally-vaguely-named United Democracy Project — the independent campaign-spending arm of the mighty American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) — said it would spend $300,000 on ads on Fox television affiliates in Kentucky. “We are trying to shine a light on the radical anti-Israel record of Tom Massie,” said spokesman Patrick Dorton. “We want every single voter in the state of Kentucky to know about his anti-Israel actions.”  Here’s their over-the-top ad: 

https://t.co/hEJYFaBcPp pic.twitter.com/yoIdIg0pEX
— United Democracy Project (@UnitedDemocProj) May 9, 2024
In a direct challenge to the Israel lobby, Massie has pushed for the Department of Justice to compel AIPAC and its associates to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, a law that requires individuals and organizations that work to advance the policies of foreign governments to disclose their relationships, actions and compensation. 

Thomas Massie has publicly stated that every Republican member of Congress, except himself, has an “AIPAC babysitter” to ensure they vote in line with the American Israel Public Affairs…

Futures Drop As Momentum Massacre Crushes Bitcoin

US equity futures, and Asian markets are lower as the recent tech-led selloff on Wall Street accelerated, sparking further risk-off behavior and momentum liquidations, and spilling over into bitcoin which plunged to a 3 month low breaking below its post election support. As of 7:00am, S&P futures are down 0.3% and are outperforming Nasdaq futs which are down 0.5%; sentiment was dented after Trump said that Canada/Mexico tariffs would be implemented on-time. Mag7 names and semis are lower with NVDA down 1.6%; Europe’s ASML and STMicroelectronics also Bloomberg reported that the Trump admin is planning to expand efforts to limit China’s technological advancements, including tougher semiconductor curbs and pressuring allies to escalate restrictions on China’s chip industry. The ongoing stock rout sparked a rally in Treasuries that has pushed US 10-year yields down 6 bps to 4.34%. Traders also added to their Federal Reserve interest-rate cut bets with ~53 bps of easing now priced in by year end; the USD is flat. Commodities are mostly lower with crude/gasoline higher. Today’s macro data focus is on Housing, regional Fed activity indicators, and Consumer Confidence. 

Meanwhile Bitcoin tumbled 7%, dropping below $90,000 and sliding to a 3 month low of $88,000 breaking post-election support levels, as the recent momentum massacre sparked a brutal crypto selloff; meanwhile DeepSeek reopened access to its core programming interface after nearly a three-week suspension.

In premarket trading, Nvidia led premarket losses among the Mag 7 stocks after Bloomberg News reported that Donald Trump’s administration is pressuring US allies to escalate their chip restrictions on China (Nvidia -1.3%, Alphabet -0.7%, Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta and Apple were falling less than 1%, Tesla was little changed). US-listed Chinese stocks broadly rebound, with Alibaba rising 3.8% following its biggest drop since 2022; JD.com is up 1.8%, PDD +1.4%, Baidu +0.8%, Bilibili +2.8%. here are some other notable premarket movers:

Chegg shares tumble 22%, after the education technology company’s first-quarter projections for revenue and adjusted Ebitda trailed Wall Street expectations.
Hims & Hers Health shares slide 18% in premarket trading after the telehealth company reported fourth-quarter results and said it will soon stop selling some compound weight-loss drugs. While the results were solid, Piper Sandler noted that there was a high level of uncertainty for 2025.
Cryptocurrency-exposed stocks slide as Bitcoin tumbles below $90,000 to hit the lowest level since mid-November, paring the gains seen since Donald Trump’s election to the White House. MicroStrategy -5.9%, Coinbase -5.6%, Riot Platforms -4.4%, MARA Holdings -6%, Bit Digital -6.6%, CleanSpark -5.8%, Hut 8 Mining -6.7%
Zoom Communications shares fall 5%, after the communications software company gave a forecast that is modestly weaker than expected.
As broad-based selling swept markets, the VIX Index touched its highest level this year at just below 20. There didn’t appear to be a single catalyst for the selling – the suddenly pervasive pessimism was correctly described here two days ago in “Goldman Traders Hit The Panic Button: Perfect Sell Storm Of Positioning, Valuation, Breadth, Concentration And Policy”- although concerns are mounting that President Trump’s policies will hurt global economic growth. Uncertainty on trade policies has prompted investors to pare risk…

Born American? A Look At ‘Birthright Citizenship’

Authored by Richard Samuelson via RealClearPolitics,

Our political class is aflame, and our lawyer-ocracy is up in arms over President Trump’s executive order limiting the scope of “birthright” (or “soil-based”) citizenship to children of permanent legal residents. Children born to tourists, students from other countries, and others here on a short-term basis, plus people here illegally, are no longer to be regarded as citizens of the United States merely because their mothers happened to be on American soil when they were born.

Is that constitutional? Does the U.S. Constitution demand that virtually everyone born on our soil (basically everyone except for the children of diplomats who, by convention, are under their home country’s laws) be considered a citizen by birth?

Most lawyers and law professors think that the answer is yes. But is it quite so clear? The 14th Amendment reads: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” Most of the discussion of this question thus far has focused on the meaning of the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof,” and the prevailing view is that it was meant to include everyone who was, generally speaking, subject to American law. Although the Supreme Court has never ruled on the case of a child born to foreigners who are only here briefly, it has suggested that it would include them in the set of people who are citizens at birth.

Critics of this position hold that the amendment applies to cases in which the U.S. has complete jurisdiction over the person and note that there are ways that the scope of American jurisdiction over citizens and permanent residents is different than for people who are merely passing through – in being subject to the draft (and there had been a draft shortly before the amendment was ratified), to jury duty, and to many taxes (particularly since the people increased American jurisdiction by adding an income tax to the constitution in 1913), among other ways.

These discussions often turn to the debates in the Senate when they were drafting the amendment before sending it to the states so that the people, via their state legislatures, could decide if they wanted to add it to the Constitution. That’s a useful exercise, and it also would be helpful to see more discussion of what the people understood the amendment to mean when they had their state legislatures ratify it. Constitutional law is not legislation. The Constitution, including the amendments to it are the supreme law of the land because we, the people, made them so; so what we understood ourselves to be doing when we approved a text carries more weight than what senators understood themselves to be recommending to the people for approval. Our lawyers tend to think that’s too complicated. But it is not our job to make life easy for lawyers.

As a logical and grammatical matter, the full sentence…