Defense attorneys have coined the term “January 6 Jurisprudence” to describe the treatment received by the more than 1,200 defendants arrested so far in connection with the events of Jan. 6, 2021. This carve-out legal system involves the unprecedented and possibly unlawful use of a corporate evidence-tampering statute; excessive prison sentences and indefinite periods of pretrial incarceration; and the designation of nonviolent offenses as federal crimes of terrorism.

A universal feature is the requirement that a Jan. 6 defendant, usually a supporter of Donald Trump, face trial in Washington, D.C., a city overwhelmingly populated by Democrats. Federal judges have denied every change of venue motion filed in Jan. 6 cases, arguing those who protested at the Capitol can get a fair trial in the nation’s capital.

The results so far appear to contradict the court’s collective conclusion. Court records show the jury selection process has repeatedly revealed a strong degree of bias against anyone tied to Jan. 6. At least 130 defendants have been convicted at trial – not one has been acquitted by a jury – and hundreds have been sentenced to prison time ranging from seven days to 22 years. Defense lawyers say this track record helps explain why the vast majority of defendants have opted for a plea deal rather than go to trial.

This is the same environment that now awaits the former president as he prepares to stand trial in Washington on March 4, 2024 for election interference, in addition to an array of criminal and civil cases against him elsewhere.

In a surprising turn of events, the Dow Industrials achieved a new 52-week high this week, creating a buzz on Wall Street. However, beneath the surface, a Dow Theory non-confirmation has emerged as Dow Transports experienced a -1.6% decline.

Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen ordered diplomatic passports to be issued to powerful members of his Likud party who have the ability to influence where he is ranked on the party's slate in a future Knesset election, Haaretz has learned.

The step was taken against the advice of professional staff at the ministry who expressed the view that the recipients were not appropriate to receive diplomatic passports. Cohen also ordered a diplomatic passport for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's son Yair, even though he doesn't meet the normal criteria.

Cathie Wood’s ARKK Innovation fund reminds me of the Ark scene from Raiders Of The Lost Ark. “It’s beautiful” proclaims Belloch. Before it turns ugly and kills everyone.

Yes, the ARKK Innovation Fund, managed by Cathie Wood, is high risk (beta = 2.28) and low alpha (excess return) fund with a negative alpha of -0.376. Now, true the standard error of the alpha is larger than the point estimate of alpha, meaning that it is not significants. Bottom like: lots of systematic risk, little or no excess return.

"Guess we're not dead yet."

There have long been accusations saying Israel's military is seeking to push Gazans en masse into Sinai...

House Republicans are digging in with their demands to link aid to Ukraine to permanent changes to U.S. border policy.

Which will of course hurt the poor the most...

Unexpected SOFR spikes reveal financial plumbing issues linked to the Fed's balance sheet reduction and regulatory scrutiny. China's money markets show distress amid economic challenges.

The Senate on Thursday voted down a resolution that would have directed President Biden to withdraw all US troops from Syria, where US forces have come under frequent attack in response to President Biden’s support for Israel’s Gaza onslaught.

The bill failed in a vote of 13-84 and received support from seven Democrats, five Republicans, and one Independent, Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT). The resolution was introduced by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who argued the US occupation of eastern Syria risks a major regional war.

“Keeping 900 US troops in Syria does nothing to advance American security. Rather, our intervention puts those servicemembers at grave risk by providing an enticing target for Iranian-backed militias,” Paul said.

In 1996, a nest of American-born imperialists revolving around Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Richard Perle created a new think tank called “The Project for a New American Century.”

While the principled aim of the think tank ultimately hinged on a new “Pearl Harbor moment” that would justify a new era of regime-change wars in the Middle East, a secondary but equally important part of the formula involved the dominance of “Greater Israel” Likud fanatics then taking power over the murdered body of Yitzhak Rabin.

It was toward the start of the new regime of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Richard Perle wrote the report“Clean Break: A Strategy for Securing the Realm,” which outlined a series of goals that would govern the strategic vision of Washington and Tel Aviv for the next two decades. It called for:

• Canceling the foundations for the Oslo Accords that threatened to bring about a climate of peace through economic cooperation in the Middle East under a two-state solution
• Launching a new doctrine of “right of hot pursuit” justifying armed incursions into Palestinian territories
• Inducing the United States to overthrow Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq
• Armed incursions into Lebanon and possible strikes against Syria and Iran

White House is concerned an Israeli response could spark a major regional war.

A coalition of Palestinian factions has called for an international strike in support of Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip, who have been under a war of genocide by the Israeli regime for more than two months.

In a statement on Saturday, the National and Islamic Forces, which is an umbrella coalition for major factions in Palestine, called for an inclusive global strike on Monday in protest at the Israeli crimes against Palestinian people, especially in Gaza.

Starting on October 7, the occupying regime launched a devastating war on Gaza following a surprise operation by the territory's resistance groups, dubbed Operation al-Aqsa Storm. According to Gaza's Health Ministry, the war has so far killed 17,700 people and injured 48,780 others.

The United Nations children's agency has strongly slammed Israel's complete blockade of the Gaza Strip, which is under the regime’s genocidal war, calling it a death sentence for children in the territory.

Adele Khodr, UNICEF's Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, made the comment on Saturday, while explaining about the dire humanitarian situation across Gaza.

"Our team on the ground describes meeting children with missing limbs and third-degree burns, and children left shell-shocked by the continuing violence that surrounds them," Khodr said.

Iger remains a critical donor for Biden’s reelection...

Ever since Russia started its full-scale strategic counteroffensive against NATO aggression in Europe, the political West has been insisting on the idea that the Eurasian giant is supposedly “isolated” and the “international pariah”. However, time and again, Moscow keeps debunking this laughable notion. Recent events have not only confirmed this, but are showing that the opposite is happening.

The Qatar trip of German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has been mired in controversy as he was left waiting at least 30 minutes for someone to greet him during his visit on November 29. This could be partially explained by the fact that Berlin’s position is decidedly pro-Israeli, while Doha is firmly on the Palestinian side, formally at least.

However, this doesn’t explain why Russian President Vladimir Putin got virtually a hero’s welcome in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) during a visit to the Middle Eastern country exactly a week after Steinmeier’s trip to Qatar. These sharply differing, albeit seemingly unrelated events demonstrate an enormous paradigm shift in the geopolitics of the Middle East, arguably the most strategically important region on the planet. After the start of the special military operation (SMO), the political West has been trying to isolate Russia and limit its (geo)political maneuverability. However, ever since, this has only backfired, becoming a sort of litmus test for sovereignty and actual independence from the political West’s diktat.

Ukraine’s president and his ministers have spent nearly two years parroting the line that Kiev is fighting for the West’s freedom, and that if Russia is allowed to win, it will attack other European countries. But some Poles no longer buy these claims.

Kiev’s “cunning propaganda” suggesting that a Russian victory in Ukraine will inevitably be followed up with attacks on NATO countries are little more than a form of “demagoguery” and “blackmail” completely detached from reality. That’s according to an editorial published in Polish politics journal Mysl Polska.

“An Estonian military officer has formulated the following thesis: that ‘there are only two options: either Ukraine will win, or there will be World War III’. This ridiculous proposition is probably shared by a large part of Ukraine’s supporters in our country,” the alternative conservative media outlet wrote, pointing to efforts by some actors to convince the public “that a Ukrainian defeat will mean we will definitely be attacked by Russia.”

But the latter claim is little more than a “cunning propaganda move by Kiev aimed at maintaining Western policy of unconditional military and financial support,” with these kind of “demagogic statements…often used by Ukrainian politicians as blackmail (for example, during the Polish truckers’ protests). This trick is also used by the failing administration of Joe Biden, which frightens the countries of NATO’s eastern flank with the prospect of an attack by Russia,” the journal emphasized.

Webmaster addition:

Hungarian road carriers will begin protests on the border with Ukraine on Monday, as Ukrainian truckers ruin Hungarian logistics companies, Hungarian Road Transport Association (MKFE) Secretary General Tivadar Arvay said on Saturday.

"Due to the appearance of Ukrainian carriers on the EU market, several hundred Hungarian enterprises were on the verge of bankruptcy... Poles and Slovaks are talking about this, but the same thing is behind the Hungarian protests that will start on Monday," Arvay was quoted as saying by Hungarian news agency MTI.

He added that the mileage of Ukrainian trucks in Hungary increased by 30%, while the distance traveled by the Hungarian trucks decreased by 4%. Arvay noted that Ukrainian carriers come from a completely different economic and legal environment, therefore their costs differ, and they are not subject to EU rules.

"We asked the European Union - last week there was a meeting of the transport commission... to reconsider its agreement with Ukraine and take into account the interests of EU member states, including transport companies in Hungary," Arvay said.

The steps taken by Hunter to evade taxes are impressive, but not nearly as impressive as the efforts of the Justice Department to evade any direct implications for his father, President Biden.

I promise there is nothing you can say to me that will cause me to cease opposing the murder of thousands of children in Gaza. There is no name you can call me, no accusation you can scream at me, no talking point you can regurgitate at me that will ever make me shut up and accept this.

The unexamined premise behind the frenetic push to reignite outrage over October 7 using rape allegations is that if Hamas fighters did sexually assault any Israeli women during the attack, then everyone has to shut up and let Israel keep murdering children by the thousands. This is self-evidently stupid.

Western and Israeli propagandists are going to keep trying to find new reasons for you to reignite your outrage over October 7, because October 7 is their side’s only justification for a months-long mass atrocity that is far, far worse than anything that happened on October 7.

The late Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz applied the term “Judeo-Nazis” back in the late 1980s when he referred to former Supreme Court Judge Meir Landau, who effectively legalized torture, by that description. He made his arguments strongly: “The State of Israel represents the darkness of a state body, where a creature of a human form who was the president of the Supreme Court decides that the use of torture is permitted in the interest of the state.” 

I took it as a kind of moral exaggeration. It was bad — Palestinians were being tortured systematically, but somehow I thought, we’re not quite as genocidal as Nazis. 

But today, I feel differently. Yesterday, Jerusalem’s Deputy Mayor Arieh King tweeted a photo of over a hundred naked Palestinians who were kidnapped by the Israeli military in Gaza, handcuffed, and sitting in the sand, guarded by Israeli soldiers. King wrote that “The IDF is exterminating the Nazi Muslims in Gaza” and that “we must up the tempo”. “If it were up to me,” he added, “I would bring 4 D9’s [bulldozers], place them behind the sandy hills and give an order to bury all those hundreds of Nazis alive. They are not human beings and not even human animals, they are subhuman and that is how they should be treated,” King said. He ended by repeating Netanyahu’s biblical Amalek genocidal reference: “Eradicate the memory of the Amalek, we will not forget.”