by | Feb 26, 2024 | Aggregate
It seems to be the season of crazy – but ultimately successful – moon landings.
A couple of days ago, American Nova-C ‘Odysseus’ managed a historical moon landing for a private company – but ended up lying on its side.
Now, the original space oddity, the upside-down Japanese SLIM lander, has ‘woken up’ from its formant stage during a second freezing lunar night, to the surprise and delight of mission controllers on Earth.
Japan’s first moon lander has responded to a signal from Earth in what has been hailed as a “miracle” by the country’s space agency.
Sky News reported:
“The response, received late on Sunday, suggests the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) craft survived a second freezing weeks-long lunar night, when temperatures can plunge to -170C.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said it was a “miracle” because the probe was not designed to survive the lunar night.
The SLIM probe, dubbed the “moon sniper”, made a “pinpoint” touchdown on 19 January – earning Japan a place in the history books as the fifth country to successfully place a probe on the moon.”Read more:
Read more:
SLIM IS BACK: Upside Down Japanese Moon Lander Recharged Batteries and Resumed Lunar Mission
A failure with one of the craft’s thrusters meant it landed the wrong way up – with energy panels facing away from the sun.
As battery power dwindled, mission managers put the probe into hibernation after just three hours. The ‘moon sniper’ eventually regained power more than a week after the historic moon landing.
“JAXA said communication with the probe on Sunday was ‘kept short’ because it was still ‘lunar midday’ and SLIM was at a very high temperature – thought to be around 100C.”
Communication with #SLIM was terminated after a short time, as it was still lunar midday and the temperature of the communication equipment was very high. Preparations are being made to resume operations when instrument temperatures have sufficiently cooled. #GoodAfterMoon #JAXA
— 小型月着陸実証機SLIM (@SLIM_JAXA) February 26, 2024
“Last night a command was sent to #SLIM and a response received, confirming the spacecraft has made it through the lunar night and maintained communication capabilities.
Communication with #SLIM was terminated after a short time, as it was still lunar midday and the temperature of the communication equipment was very high.”
The agency is now preparing to make contact again, once the vehicle has cooled.
The mission has been considered a success, with ‘Moon sniper’ achieving the primary objective of landing the craft within a 100m diameter target zone.
“Hitoshi Kuninaka, the head of JAXA’s research centre, said the SLIM probe’s 100m target had ‘most certainly achieved’, according to initial data, though its specific location won’t be known for a month.”
Read: BREAKING: Odysseus Touches Down, Taking the US Back to the Moon for the First Time Since 1972!
A month after SLIM, a US lander successfully landed on the moon for the first time in more than 50 years.
“The Odysseus lander, the first ever privately-owned craft, arrived on the moon’s surface after a nail-biting descent, landing closer to its south pole than any other craft in history.”
Read more:
SLIM IS BACK: Upside Down Japanese Moon Lander Recharged Batteries and Resumed Lunar Mission
The post SPACE ODDITY: Upside-Down Japanese Slim Lunar Lander ‘Wakes Up’ From Freezing Moon Night in ‘Miracle’ appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
by | Feb 26, 2024 | Aggregate
Ukraine’s intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov confirms the Kremlin’s claims that Russian dissident Alexei Navalny died of a blood clot. He wasn’t murdered.
Ukrainian intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov disappointed Western journalists on Monday who asked him about Russian dissident Alexei Navalny’s death in prison in Siberia. Budanov confirmed the Kremlin’s claims that Navalny died of a blood clot. Navalny was not murdered.
Krylo Budanov: I may disappoint you, but what we know is that he actually died from a blood clot.
Ukraine’s intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov disappoints journalists who ask him of Navalny’s death—he confirms the Kremlin’s claims that Navalny died of a blood clot. He wasn’t murdered. pic.twitter.com/bpP8rp12cq
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) February 26, 2024
Here is another angle of Budanov speaking with reporters about Navalny.
The head of a Ukrainian intelligence agency says that Alexei Navalny actually died of a blood clot.
This is a narrative-wrecker for the American media.pic.twitter.com/YsK12X9u7E
— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) February 26, 2024
The Western elites were hoping to use Navalny’s death in a Russian prison in their push for World War III with Russia. This must have been a significant blow to the Deep State and Biden regime.
As reported one week ago by Kristinn Taylor, Russian democracy activist Alexei Navalny, 47, reportedly died in a Soviet-era gulag located north of the Arctic Circle on Friday, according to the Russian prison authority. Navalny leaves behind his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, and their two children.
Navalny organized anti-government demonstrations and ran for office to advocate reforms against corruption in Russia, and against President Vladimir Putin and his government.
Russian dissident Alexei Navalny is pictured behind bars in prison before his death.
The globalist left used Navalny’s tragic death as an excuse to ramp up their hopes for a shooting war against nuclear Russia.
At the same time, they are blaming President Trump for his death and attacking Trump following news of Navalny’s death.
It should not surprise you that the American mainstream media is censoring significant statements by Alexei Navalny before his death.
The Gateway Pundit previously reported on the Soros-related origins of the Russia collusion conspiracy. There is more information on George Soros’ role in Russiagate through the West’s favorite Russian opposition blogger Alexander Navalny.
Activist Alexei Navalny became one of the key figures in the fake Russiagate conspiracy theory when he released a video linking Trump ex-campaign manager Paul Manafort to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, reported by the Telegraph in February 2018. At the same time, the Telegraph had to admit the video “does not specifically mention Donald Trump”. In addition, Oleg Deripaska “denied receiving briefings from the Trump campaign, although he admitted hiring Mr. Manafort as a consultant in previous years”, the Telegraph reported. Although it was a “big nothing-burger”, it was fit to print in the NYT.
In 2009, opposition blogger Alexei Navalny emerged as leader of the Russian opposition and was portrayed as a hero by Western media. In 2010, he graduated from a half-year Yale Greenberg World Fellowship, which was originally called White House Fellows under Bill Clinton’s Presidency. The first program director of the Yale World Fellows was Dan Esty, energy and environmental policy adviser for the 2008 Obama campaign.
Soon thereafter, Navalny started an anti-corruption campaign in Russia that was supported early on by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Vladimir Putin accused Secretary Clinton of supporting Navalny in 2011, saying she sent “a signal” to “some actors in our country”.
At the same time, Navalny allegedly went to work for the Open Society Foundations (OSF) methadone program, which aimed to “bring together actors, alliances from different spheres (i.e. Navalny)”, as OSF documents leaked by DC Leaks showed 2015. George Soros supported a whole network of radical left-wing NGOs in Russia before being banned in 2015.
Navalny was closely allied with exiled oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who modeled his “Open Russia Foundation” on Soros’ network. Khodorkovsky’s London-based investigative research unit Dossier, which has often shared hacked documents from unknown sources, was also behind NYT 2018 claims Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya was acting on behalf of the Russian government when she offered allegedly incriminating evidence to Donald Trump. Jr. in the infamous Trump Tower Meeting. It has since emerged Veselnitskaya met with Fusion GPS head Glenn Simpson before and after the June 9 2016 Trump Tower meeting, placing her closer to the Clinton opposition research campaign than the Kremlin.
Alexei Navalny and his brother Oleg were convicted of embezzling 26 million Rubles from French cosmetics firm Yves Rocher, with whom they had a Russian distribution deal 2008 to 2011, the Navalnys were represented in French court in Vannes, Brittany by attorneys William Bourdon and Amélie Lefebre of Association Sherpa, a whistleblower defense which also defended Edward Snowden and is supported by the Clinton Foundation‘s Humanity United, Freedom Fund and the Open Society Foundations. Although the plaintiff was French company Yves Rocher, who also sued for damages in France, Western media depicted it as some sort of sham trial instigated by Vladimir Putin. While Oleg was sent to prison for three years, Alexei Navalny was given a suspended sentence and remains free.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Alexei Navalny wrote for leftist flagships The Guardian and the New York Times, where Navalny demanded sanctions against his own country over the Russian annexation of the Crimea 2014 (which many Russians consider a “reunification”). Navalny’s daughter Daria Navalnaya gave a video statement on New York Times Video on June 27, 2019 – a remarkable opportunity for a 17-year-old young woman.
Navalny also compared himself and his persecution by Putin’s regime to Donald Trump and his persecution by radical Democrats and the Biden regime.
As Kristinn Taylor noted earlier – Robby Starbuck reposted a comment by Navalny from January 9, 2021 likening his treatment by Putin to that of Trump.
Robby Starbuck: Someone just flagged this for me and it’s pretty wild. When Trump was banned by the old Twitter regime, Navalny came out against it and called it censorship akin to how he as censored in Russia. His post almost foreshadows how Dems would try to remove Trump from the ballot too.
Someone just flagged this for me and it’s pretty wild. When Trump was banned by the old Twitter regime, Navalny came out against it and called it censorship akin to how he as censored in Russia. His post almost foreshadows how Dems would try to remove Trump from the ballot too. https://t.co/fQWMEJG92b
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) February 19, 2024
Navalny posted several tweets about the unprecedented abuse hurled at Donald Trump here in America, likening it to his situation in Russia.
Alexei Navalny: 9. If you replace “Trump” with “Navalny” in today’s discussion, you will get an 80% accurate Kremlin’s answer as to why my name can’t be mentioned on Russian TV and I shouldn’t be allowed to participate in any elections.
Navalny: 9. If you replace “Trump” with “Navalny” in today’s discussion, you will get an 80% accurate Kremlin’s answer as to why my name can’t be mentioned on Russian TV and I shouldn’t be allowed to participate in any elections.
9. If you replace “Trump” with “Navalny” in today’s discussion, you will get an 80% accurate Kremlin’s answer as to why my name can’t be mentioned on Russian TV and I shouldn’t be allowed to participate in any elections.
— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) January 9, 2021
Alexei Navalny: 10. This precedent will be exploited by the enemies of freedom of speech around the world. In Russia as well. Every time when they need to silence someone, they will say: ‘this is just common practice, even Trump got blocked on Twitter’.
More Navalny: 10. This precedent will be exploited by the enemies of freedom of speech around the world. In Russia as well. Every time when they need to silence someone, they will say: ‘this is just common practice, even Trump got blocked on Twitter’.
10. This precedent will be exploited by the enemies of freedom of speech around the world. In Russia as well. Every time when they need to silence someone, they will say: ‘this is just common practice, even Trump got blocked on Twitter’.
— Alexey Navalny (@navalny) January 9, 2021
The post Breaking: Ukrainian Intelligence Chief Admits Russian Dissident Alexei Navalny Died from a Blood Clot – He Wasn’t Murdered appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
by | Feb 26, 2024 | Aggregate
It’s about time.
After 91 bogus lawfare indictments and over $600 million in penalties against Donald Trump, a few honest businessmen and political leaders are finally speaking out.
The former Florida governor along with Joe Lonsdale, the co-founder of Palantir, published an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal this weekend condemning the politicized, activist courts that are targeting conservative leaders for political gain.
This does not happen in America.
Joe Lonsdale told CNN, “The whole system right now is being weaponized, and it’s scary and it’s wrong. This is what happens in emerging markets. It’s not what happens in great countries like America, and we need it to stop.”
Kanekoa the Great posted their remarks on Twitter, via The Wall Street Journal.
Jeb Bush is warning that the government’s weaponization against Donald Trump and Elon Musk poses a grave threat to business and the rule of law in the United States of America.
That’s how far these politicized prosecutors and activist judges have veered into hazardous territory.
“Every American has a right to be critical of Mr. Trump’s politics—one of us ran against him in 2016—or Mr. Musk’s public persona. But equality before the law is precious, and these rulings represent a crisis not only for the soundness of our courts, but for the business environment that has allowed the U.S. to prosper.”
“If these rulings stand, the damage could cascade through the economy, creating fear of arbitrary enforcement against entrepreneurs who seek public office or raise their voices as citizens in a way that politicians dislike.”
“In Delaware, Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of the Court of Chancery ordered the unwinding of five years of Mr. Musk’s incentive-based compensation at Tesla, which had been approved by 80% of the company’s shareholders.”
“The plaintiff, Richard Tornetta, held nine shares in 2018—worth about $200 then and $2,000 today, after the execution of the compensation plan that supposedly injured him.”
“Mr. Musk’s compensation plan awarded him stock bonuses tied to earnings and stock-value benchmarks, which many critics thought he could never meet. When he did, he received $56 billion, enriching shareholders like Mr. Tornetta along the way.”
“Judge McCormick has yet to say how she wants the pay package unwound, but Mr. Tornetta’s lawyers could petition her for a percentage of the $56 billion as a fee for having succeeded in their challenge.”
“Mr. Musk’s performance at Tesla enriched all shareholders, but Judge McCormick’s ruling may primarily enrich Delaware trial lawyers.”
“The unusual New York law Ms. James used to investigate and sue Mr. Trump didn’t require her to prove that he had intended to defraud anyone, or even that anyone lost money.”
“The Associated Press found that of the 12 cases brought under that law since its adoption in 1956 in which significant penalties were imposed, the case against Mr. Trump was the only instance without an alleged victim or financial loss.”
“Bankers from Deutsche Bank, which lent money to Mr. Trump, testified that they were satisfied with having done so, given they were paid back on time and with interest.”
“They also testified that they were uncertain whether the alleged exaggerations would have affected the terms of the loans to Mr. Trump—a key part of Ms. James’s case. Since there were no victims, the state will collect the damages.”
“New York and Delaware have played an outsize role in business in the U.S. Many major companies are incorporated in Delaware owing to the state’s body of corporate legal precedents; and a significant number of banks operate in New York, the world financial capital.”
“The appellate courts in those states now have a chance to review these dangerous judicial rulings and try to stop further damage to the reputations of their respective judiciaries.”
Jeb Bush is warning that the government’s weaponization against Donald Trump and Elon Musk poses a grave threat to business and the rule of law in the United States of America.
That’s how far these politicized prosecutors and activist judges have veered into hazardous territory.… pic.twitter.com/Rz5pmBzJGp
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) February 26, 2024
The post Jeb Bush Speaks Out – Warns that the Government’s Weaponization against Donald Trump and Elon Musk Poses a Grave Threat to Business in America appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
by | Feb 26, 2024 | Aggregate
With the fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union, all Eastern Europe went into a troubled period, and arguably the disintegration of Yugoslavia was the most traumatic process, with a series of wars raging from 1991 to 2001.
In the end, six independent countries emerged from Yugoslavia: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia, and North Macedonia.
Serbia and Croatia, specially, have forever remained in seemingly unfriendly terms.
The latest diplomatic spat is ongoing after Croatia’s foreign minister described Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić as a Russian ‘satellite’ in the Balkans.
Serbia sent a protest note, leaving the two neighbors, at odds yet again.
Associated Press reported:
“Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman told N1 television on Saturday that Vučić must decide which side he is on, Russia or the European Union, “because it is impossible and uncomfortable sitting on two chairs at the same time.”
‘He shouldn’t have a big dilemma’, Grlić Radman said, saying that Vučić can remain Moscow’s ally but ‘malign’ Russian influence that could undermine the stability of the Western Balkans will not be allowed.”
Authorities and officials in Serbia reacted with the usual anger.
“’The Croatian minister not only brutally interferes in the internal affairs of Serbia, but as usual he lies and insults the Serbian people and threatens its citizens’, Vučić said on Instagram.
‘Grlić Radman is right about one thing, maybe I am someone’s satellite… but I have never been anyone’s servant, which cannot be said for Grlić Radman’.”
Grlić Radman appears to try to kiss German FM Baerbok on the mouth during EU Summit.
The Croatian Foreign Minister is himself prone to putting himself into controversies, as back in November, when he gave a polemic kiss almost on the mouth of German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in the middle of posing with many other ministers during the EU Summit.
The Serbian Foreign Ministry expects that in the future, Croatian officials ‘will refrain from statements that represent interference in the internal affairs of Serbia, and will lead a policy of reconciliation and good-neighborly relations between the two states’.
“Reacting to the protest note, the Croatian Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs rejected the allegation that Croatia is interfering in Serbia’s internal matters, pointing out that the Croatian official ‘stated the fact about Serbia’s nonalignment with the foreign and security policy of the European Union regarding the Russian aggression against Ukraine’.”
Vučić’s government has maintained close ties with Moscow despite Serbia’s formal bid to join the European Union.
Serbia has not joined Western sanctions or censored Russian media.
Croatia, an EU and NATO member, has been involved in a series of disputes with Serbia in recent years.
They have also been involved in as arms race that could escalate the tensions in the region.
The post Zagreb and Belgrade at Each Other’s Throats Again, as Croatian FM Calls Serbian President a ‘Russian Satellite’ appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
by | Feb 26, 2024 | Aggregate
By Gryffindor (Wikimedia Commons)
Artificial interest rate controls cause inflationary booms, depressing busts, and result in taxpayers bailing out wealthy bankers every five to ten years.
While businesses struggle to obtain loans and consumers suffer under extremely high interest rates, the Federal Reserve cautioned this week “against cutting US interest rates too soon or too much.”
The implication is that the Federal Reserve knows what the correct interest rate should be and when and by how much it should be cut. But for every other product, apart from loans, the market determines the price. And the market is never wrong.
The Fed deciding that it knows the right interest rates and quantity of dollars that the economy should have is extremely presumptuous. Even more worrying, the acceptance by the general public that the Fed is correct is an example of central planning.
Entrusting the Fed with superior knowledge over the market, comprising 330 million consumers and sellers, represents a frightening leap toward central authority dictating everything from health and education to how you raise your child or what media you are allowed to read.
Also, if the Fed knows the right interest rate and quantity of money, why aren’t they able to prevent economic crises and bank failures?
When it comes to most other products in the economy—shoes, cars, clothing—the price is determined by the market, and the market never gets it wrong. If the market price goes too high, people stop buying; if it goes too low, companies lose money.
So, we wind up with a market price that consumers are willing to bear and that companies can live with.
Most importantly, in our capitalist/democratic system, the only people who pay for those shoes, cars, and clothing are the people who buy them. If you think the price is too high, you don’t have to buy, and the government doesn’t force you to pay for your neighbor’s shoes.
Or at least, that is how it is supposed to work. Some administrations are more socialist than others, and you do find yourself paying for your neighbor’s shoes through taxes, but that is the subject of another article.
Today, we are discussing how the Fed distorts the economy by artificially controlling interest rates, which leads to inflationary booms, depressing busts, and ultimately results in taxpayers bailing out wealthy bankers.
Until the self-imposed destruction of the COVID lockdowns, the most recent economic crisis was in 2008, which resulted in over 8 million Americans losing their jobs.
Additionally, the U.S. Treasury Department used nearly $1 trillion of taxpayer money to buy up banks’ toxic assets and to make emergency loans to banks teetering on the brink of collapse.
These were private, for-profit companies that received payouts from public funds. From a free-market standpoint, the reason why toxic assets plummeted in value was that the risk was too high and the public didn’t want to buy them.
So, the banks effectively made a terrible product that consumers didn’t want, but which the government purchased with taxpayer money.
Even worse, in order to stimulate a failing economy, the Fed artificially suppressed interest rates until two years ago. As of December 2021, the federal funds rate target range was 0.00% to 0.25%.
And that low rate, along with dramatic increases in government spending and borrowing and the creation of money, resulted in the 9% inflation during the Biden administration. To rein in the inflation, the Fed began raising the federal funds rate, which currently stands at 5.25% to 5.50%.
This figure is the federal funds rate, the rate banks charge each other for overnight loans. The rate you pay for mortgages, car loans, and credit cards will be much higher.
The Fed artificially keeps the interest rate low when politicians want to give the illusion of economic growth. In 2023, after the Fed began raising interest rates, the low Fed rates of the preceding 15 years resulted in banks like Silicon Valley Bank sitting on investments that paid 1.79%, while new treasuries were paying 3.79%.
This meant that the banks had to pay more to borrow money than they were earning on their portfolio of loans and investments. SVB and several other banks went bankrupt, resulting in a $25 billion bailout.
Meanwhile, the entire banking system is estimated to be sitting on $620 billion in similar, unrealized losses because of artificial interest rate manipulation by the Fed.
The COVID lockdown economic crisis caused 120,000 businesses to close and 30 million Americans to lose their jobs. To compensate, the Biden White House, working with Congress on fiscal policy, and the Federal Reserve, implementing monetary policy, the deficit skyrocketed, the debt hit record levels, and interest rates were kept low.
As a result, Biden claimed the largest growth and job creation in history, as well as the highest inflation in 40 years.
Now, in addition to enduring years of lost wages, depleted savings, and mounting personal debt, Americans are grappling with the combination of inflation and high interest rates. All of which was enabled by the Fed’s policies,
The post From Policy to Pain: How the Fed Impacts Your Wallet appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
