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New Declaration of Independence by Johnny Liberty | Sovereign’s Handbook

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Editors Note: This “New Declaration of Independence” was first published in the North American News Service (Summer 1995) to restore the sovereignty of the American people. Then, it was included as Chapter 15 in the 2nd Edition of the Global Sovereign’s Handbook by Johnny Liberty (1998).

Preamble

All thirteen free and independent, sovereign states of America, excepting the sovereign Indian nations, were in agreement in making the original Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The people then, as the people now, have gathered the courage to liberate themselves from the bondage of foreign “rule.”

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for a nation, a group of people, or an individual to declare themselves free from the “rule” of another, then it is common decency, with respect to the opinions of all other people, to explain the reasons or grounds for the declaration.

Statement of Unalienable Rights & Natural Law

We the People believe these truths to be self-evident, to be so obvious that they need no proof, that all people, both men and women, regardless of race, sex, creed, or color are created equal under the natural law. We believe the Creator gives all of us certain unalienable rights that cannot be taken away. These unalienable rights are above and beyond the civil rights any government may enumerate. That among these rights are life, liberty, property, family, community, and the freedom to enjoy happiness.

To assure that these unalienable rights are protected and preserved for all the people, governments are created to enforce and defend the public trust. The source of authority from which all governments are created shall remain with the people for all time. We the People are the sovereign power from which all laws and governments arise.

If a government abuses its power or usurps the public trust, then the people have the unalienable right and a duty to change, alter or reform their government, or to abolish it completely and start a new one that will abide by the principles of natural law.

UnCOMMON SENSE dictates that an established government should not be overthrown for petty reasons. However, it is the nature of human beings to tolerate mistreatment, to grow accustomed to tyranny and chains rather than risk getting rid of a repressive and non-compassionate master.

Government maybe a necessary and often unpredictable evil, but at certain times during its history, a government will go too far in abusing the rights of its people. Today, more and more of the American people are realizing that the federal United States government has consistently lied, cheated, stolen, abused and killed its own people for many generations, that the American people have more to fear from their own government than enemies abroad or criminals within.

That the natural expression of our freedoms, the right to own property, and the unalienable rights secured by the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights are perceived as a threat by our own government is a symptom of the inevitable conclusion that the federal government must be stopped! Illegal, immoral and unconscionable activities of a government out of control have now reached into the lives of all Americans.

When this happens, it is the peoples’ right and duty to abolish the current government and set up a new one that will better protect our rights, preserve our liberties, and uphold the public trust. Through this “New Declaration of Independence”. 

We the People must once again become a free, sovereign people. We the People can reclaim our sovereign Citizenship of one of the several states of the constitutional Republic.

Causes for Action

The following is the cause for action by the thirteen colonies, now forty-eight sovereign states and unincorporated territories of the united states of America. We the People have suffered patiently, petitioning our government for redress of grievances without remedy, recourse or response. 

We the People are now convinced that we must change our government and must no longer accept the “rule” of the federal United States government who is beholden and loyal to its creditors and foreign powers. 

We must cast off the shackles of foreign “rule” including the Federal Reserve, International Monetary Fund, United Nations, New World Order, Deep State and the Chinese Communist Party including its Western Globalist allies. Today, after many years of increasing tyranny, we are convinced that it is time to take action. To demonstrate this, let the facts be presented to an unbiased world, without prejudice.

Charges Against the Federal Government and its Principals / Creditors

Today’s federal government has refused to pass laws necessary for the good of the American people, and what is worse, has passed a multitude of laws that have transgressed its limited authority and taken away the basic unalienable rights of most Americans. 

Laws are passed for the benefit of special interest groups, the monied powers, and the State of New Columbia, not on behalf of the people of the united states of America.

The federal United States government has usurped the powers reserved to the sovereign states and the sovereign “state” Citizens, intentionally destroying the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights which were designed as a limitation against the unwarranted expansion of government authority. The federal government has also conspired against the rights, privileges and immunities of the Citizens of the United States by instituting the 14th Amendment under martial law after the Civil War. 

The sovereign “states” have been usurped by corporate “States” which are merely regional districts and extensions of the municipal law of the District of Columbia (D.C.). Local, home and state “rule,” and the separation of powers have been replaced with federal law and supremacy, effectively overriding all constitutional limitations on federal government authority under threat, duress and coercion.

The sovereign states, original parties to the U.S. Constitution, no longer are represented by their Senators in the U.S. Senate. Instead, they are elected directly by the popular vote of U.S. citizens who are foreigners to the Republic. 

The Republic was co-opted by the federal government during the Civil War, when the Federal Reserve System was established, and after the first bankruptcy of the federal United States declared a perpetual state of national emergency. 

The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights have been suspended indefinitely under the War Powers Acts, Trading with the Enemy Acts, and 470 consecutive states of national emergency. The constitutional Republic has been usurped by a legislative Democracy and corporate, socialist/communist dictatorship instigated by the federal government, international bankers and transnational organizations.

The Republic was co-opted once again by both the federal and several State governments during and after the alleged COVID-19 pandemic via various emergency declarations which were intended to usurp the constitutional Republic and replace our system of government with a totalitarian state under the Chinese Communist Party and their Western Globalist allies.

Federal control over every aspect of the economy has resulted in a corporate, socialist state-controlled system that has in effect destroyed local and state economies, free enterprise, individual incentives for productivity, jobs, security, and our precious freedoms. The nationalization of the public trust has cost the American people their money, property, labor and freedoms for all future generations. 

This has all been accomplished through monumental fraud, deception, coercion, propaganda and disinformation campaigns, non-disclosure, and the usury of a debt currency system. The result is the bankruptcy of the federal government and the complete confiscation of all the property of the American people.

Treaties have been passed to supersede the U.S. Constitution, state and local laws, and the will of the American people. Having been conned out of our lawful “state” Citizenship, the American people have unwittingly become subjects of the federal government and the foreign powers that control it. 

The federal government discourages the legal naturalization of Citizens in the states, preferring to naturalize foreigners as subjects and as the property of the federal government.

Through the Internal Revenue Service, the federal government has harassed and intimidated its own people as “taxpayers” and conned them into paying an un-payable and fraudulent debt. Upstanding judges, attorneys, government employees, or elected representatives that dare to speak out against the tyranny in government are silenced, made into scapegoats, lambasted, discredited, fired or counter-attacked by the IRS. 

The IRS is the American gestapo collecting a “public debt” from the American people owed by the federal corporation and its subjects only. It is nothing less than organized crime operating under the immunity of government. The sovereign people of the united states of America are not beholden to the federal debt created by fraud under a perpetual national state of emergency.

Through the use of completely controlled and manipulated media, the federal government insures the election of those who support its interests and policies, while discrediting any who would disagree with the government’s position. There are no free elections, and no free and independent press. The two-party monopoly discourages third-party political organizing. 

Un-elected government employees working through administrative agencies set policies and regulations contrary to the intent of the U.S. Constitution, the will of the people, acts of the U.S. Congress, or their elected representatives. 

These administrative agencies are out of control, operating solely for the sake of extorting property and assets from the American people through bureaucratic schemes executed on behalf of the creditors of the federal United States.

New land patents are no longer available, the allodial titles have been stripped from the old land patents due to bank contracts and title insurance fraud, and the public lands are held by the federal government in its corporate capacity on behalf of its creditors.
The federal government has hypothecated all the land patents and allodial titles as collateral against an un-payable federal debt. We the People are once again “serfs” relegated to “renting” the land and paying tribute to the landlords.

Federal and State courts are monopolized by “union lawyers” having accepted Titles of Nobility (e.g., Esquire) from foreign powers. The federal government has passed a myriad of laws and regulations that subject the American people to the endless detail of regulation and control over every aspect of their lives and business. 

Many Americans are forced to comply with the letter of every law or lose life, property and freedoms without due process or the protections of the U.S. Constitution or Bill of Rights. 

Attorneys, courts and judges have conspired to rob the American people of their property to execute a bankruptcy against the American people of behalf of the creditors of the federal United States.

The federal government has made judges dependent upon the legal precedents established through various bankruptcy organizations for the benefit of the creditors through admiralty/maritime law. 

The federal government has assured the tenure of their office and the amount and payment of their salaries, guaranteed themselves immunity from prosecution for crimes committed while in office, and have destroyed evidence and routinely obstructed justice. 

The federal government has long held a double standard of justice, one for the people and one for government officials.

The federal government has, since the birth of the Republic, grown larger and larger, with so many superfluous rules and regulations that the lion’s share of substance and productivity has been taken directly from the people without compensation or gratitude. Government employees take little or no responsibility for preserving the public trust or serving the people who pay their salaries and pensions. Government employees hold an attitude of contempt for the hardworking hands that feed them.

The size and expense of the federal government has grown each year, finding it necessary to keep standing armies among us, instituting a vast war machine and a perpetual state of national emergency that has not ceased even in times of peace. 

Military and police power has been elevated as superior to and independent of the civilian power of the people. The attorney-police-prison state has become the top funding priority of the post-Cold War era, a federal government which is quickly turning the war machine against its own people. These actions have commenced without the approval of de jure legislatures or the sovereign people.

Injustices Against the American People

The federal government has been so corrupted by special interests that the “laws” passed by them have resulted in tyranny, injustice and increasing social disintegration and violence. We the People have had virtually no voice or representation in the government for generations. 

The federal government has combined its power with private interests to subject the American people to a jurisdiction foreign to the U.S. Constitution, unacknowledged by our laws, and giving false consent to pretended legislation under the color of law. Here are some of the injustices that have resulted:

Through private and international treaties, foreign troops and international police are being introduced and quartered in our communities for the martial law control of the American people. 

Plans are made for the confiscation of all arms and the defensive capabilities of the people. Concentration camps are being built and funded by the federal government to house American citizens who refuse to cooperate with the New World Order.

Murders and crimes by government troops are either covered up or go unpunished. Evidence and crime scenes are destroyed and the media is cooperative in the obstruction of justice and the persecution of the innocent. 

The federal government often operates as a cover-up for organized crime, including the importation of dangerous drugs and narcotics.

Free trade is sanctioned only for the cartels and monopolies with the money and influence to conspire against the American people and commit treason against the U.S. Constitution. Our elected representatives have consented to treason in their silence and complicity.

Income taxes, liens and levies are imposed upon the American people without due process of the law, without a valid assessment process, with no commercial paperwork or valid commercial affidavit. Citizens are being killed and property seized based upon these fraudulent and unjust acts.

A trial by a jury of one’s “peers” is impossible for a sovereign “state” Citizen when juries are comprised of “voters,” “drivers,” or U.S. citizens only. Juries are instructed by corrupt judges to consider only the facts and not the law in criminal cases. 

Attorneys have monopolized the justice, legal, and political system and tamper with grand juries who have an obligation to bring charges for crimes against the American people.

Through Admiralty/Maritime law, statutes of pretended crimes and trumped up charges are invented to indict those who dare to dissent or object to the tyranny of the government. 

Property is seized and bodies are arrested as acts of war against the people of the united states of America on behalf of our true accuser, the creditors of the federal United States. Our prisons are full of innocent people who have dared to speak out against the crimes committed by our own government.

The substantive, constitutional Common law system has been abolished and replaced with a bankrupt, statutory Equity/Admiralty law system operating in a foreign jurisdiction, wherein the nature of the crime or the cause of action is never revealed, wherein you do not face your true accuser, wherein crimes without victims are prosecuted by the State which has resulted in the loss of freedom, liberty and property for millions of Americans.

The federal government has wrought great destruction upon the American people by experimenting with us like guinea pigs for generations (radiation, medical, military), having wrought havoc and despair upon the lives of so many American people, and have justified such actions as necessary for national security, and to bring about the total submission of the people and the American way of life.

Through the lack of full disclosure and by fraudulent means, the federal government has effectively robbed the American people of their lawful Citizenship and unalienable rights to enhance their own power. The sovereign Indian tribes are as much slaves to the federal government as are its citizens.

Through monetary gain, media manipulation, and government schools, the federal government has forced our fellow Americans into government service and subject status by becoming federal government employees, getting Social Security Numbers (SSNs) and volunteering into taxes through the 1040’s and W-4’s. 

Incentives have been created to make federal police agents of all Americans who would falsely testify against their brothers or sisters for profit, who would lie to avoid prosecution, who would profit from providing evidence of false witnessing, and engage in spying against their fellow Citizens. The immorality of our own government is conclusive and condemning.

All Remedies Exhausted

During the entire period of these injustices and oppressions, We the People have petitioned the government at every level for redress of grievances. We have begged our representatives to listen in the most humble of terms. We have filed lawsuits and sought remedy and recourse in the courts. Every plea has to date gone unheard and has been ignored. Our every petition has been answered only by repeated injury. From these actions it is quite obvious that this government is tyrannical, moving swiftly toward a totalitarian state, and unfit to rule a free sovereign people.

We have appealed to our federal government. We the People have warned them from time to time about how we feel about the rule-making of the U.S. Congress and the extraordinary authority of the President, but to no avail.

We have reminded them that we believe America was founded on freedom, and we continue our search and demand for a better life without unnecessary regulations, laws and the forces of occupation.

Today, as yesterday, We the People have appealed generally to the UnCOMMON SENSE and compassion to do what is naturally right for a free people. We have called upon our common kindred in the government, instructing them that a continuation of these actions would result in the breaking of our common bond with them. Our words have fallen on deaf ears. They are deaf to the voice of justice. They are loathe to value freedom.

We have organized citizen’s militias to defend the U.S. Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic. 

We have been lambasted by the government and the media as criminals, anarchists, white supremacists, racists, domestic terrorists, and other derogatory terms for daring to expose government corruption.

Today, as yesterday, We the People are forced to announce our individual separation from the tyranny and corruption of the federal United States government and all its political subdivisions, and regard them as we do the rest of humankind — enemies in war, friends in peace.

Statement of Sovereignty

Therefore, having no legal representation and belonging to one of the several free and independent, sovereign states of the Union, as the free and sovereign people under the state and federal constitutions, we hereby appeal to our Creator for approval of our action, hereby re-declaring our independence. 

That We the People each solemnly declare that we are and of right ought to be free and independent of the monopolistic, tyrannical government which is presently called the federal United States of America. That We the People hereby reclaim our lawful sovereignty under the laws of the united states of America, restoring the constitutional Republic.

We no longer owe any loyalty to this Congress of the United States or its immoral, illegal and unjust statutory regulations called “laws” which cannot be laws because they are not in accord with justice or natural law, and that all political and commercial ties with the federal United States Inc. are hereby totally dissolved. 

That we hereby restore a constitutional money system based on gold and silver and the lawful definition of a dollar. That we hereby restore a constitutional Common law court, grand jury, and the law of the land.

That as free and independent, sovereign men and women, We the People have the power to wage war, make peace, make alliances with other jurisdictions and nations, promote trade, and do all the other things that free and independent people have the right to do.

And in full support of this “Re-Declaration of Independence,” with a firm reliance on the protection of our divine Creator, We the People mutually pledge to each other, all declared sovereign individuals, our lives, our destinies, and our sacred honor.

Date: _________________________

Signature: _____________________

Source: Sovereign’s Handbook by Johnny Liberty (30th Anniversary Edition),

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How the Supreme Court Decision on Presidential Immunity Could Impact Trump Cases | The Epoch Times

On July 1, the Supreme Court ruled that presidents and former presidents enjoy “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution for “conduct within his exclusive sphere of constitutional authority,” setting guidelines for which acts in former President Donald Trump’s federal election case can remain in the indictment but leaving large amounts of litigation for the district court.

The case, which has been on hold since December 2023, is unlikely to proceed to trial before the November election but may soon see a flurry of legal activity.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, with Justice Clarence Thomas adding his own concurring opinion. Justice Amy Coney Barret concurred in part, noting several lines of legal disagreement with the majority. Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote the dissenting opinion, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, who also penned a separate dissent.

Trump Case Will Continue

The Supreme Court has given the case back to the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, where Judge Tanya Chutkan will have to determine whether several of President Trump’s actions in the indictment were, essentially, official or unofficial.

“Despite the unprecedented nature of this case, and the very significant constitutional questions that it raises, the lower courts rendered their decisions on a highly expedited basis,” the opinion reads.

Both the district and circuit courts completely rejected assertions of presidential immunity, so there has been no briefing on whether actions in the indictment were official or unofficial.

“That categorization raises multiple unprecedented and momentous questions,” the opinion reads.

When Judge Chutkan rejected the motion to dismiss based on presidential immunity last year, the appeals court fast-tracked the appeal, rejected the motion, and also fast-tracked the appeal process to the Supreme Court.

All case proceedings were paused in the meantime, and Judge Chutkan had taken the case—originally scheduled for March 4—off her calendar. At the time, the judge still had a number of motions to rule on, including a major ruling on what evidence and arguments could be used at trial.

Now Judge Chutkan will have to sort out what actions must be removed from the indictment before the case can continue. This may not necessarily be a quick process; as court filings by both parties have shown, the defense and prosecution have clashing theories as to whether certain acts were official or unofficial.

Prosecutors have acknowledged that some of the acts in the indictment were indeed the official acts of a president, and it has largely been expected that special counsel Jack Smith may trim down the indictment so as to proceed with the case with minimal holdup.

Supreme Court Sets Some Guidelines

The special counsel has charged former President Trump with four counts of conspiracy and obstruction for his actions to challenge the 2020 election results.

Crucially, the Supreme Court decision does not throw out any of these charges.

However, several actions involved in some of the charges may need to be tossed. The majority opinion finds that presidents have absolute immunity for core constitutional powers and presumptive immunity for other official acts. This immunity does “not extend to conduct in areas where his authority is shared with Congress,” and unofficial acts taken while in office receive no immunity at all.

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President Donald Trump, Attorney General William Barr, and state attorneys general discuss protections from social media abuses at the White House on Sept. 23, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

The court ruled that President Trump’s conversations with the acting attorney general were core conduct subject to absolute immunity.

It also ruled that his conversations with the vice president about the counting of the votes were part of his official duties, thus subject to presumptive, but not absolute, immunity—finding that Judge Chutkan should now assess whether prosecution of these actions intrudes on the authority and functions of the executive branch, and prosecutors will have to rebut the presumption of immunity if so.

The court then found that President Trump’s conversations with state officials and other parties require more fact finding as to whether the actions were official or not—another task for the district court.

It offered similar guidance regarding President Trump’s speech on and leading up to Jan. 6, 2021. Some speech falls within the outer perimeter of official responsibilities, but there are contexts in which presidents speak unofficially, the majority opinion reads.

The Supreme Court also ruled that courts “may not inquire into the President’s motives” while considering whether an action was official or unofficial, as this “highly intrusive” line of inquiry could expose official conduct to judicial examination, a violation of the separation of powers.

The court remanded the case for the district court to “carefully analyze” whether the indictment’s remaining allegations are free from official acts and ruled that testimony or private records probing the president’s or his advisers’ official conduct may not be used as evidence at trial.

Court Tosses Impeachment Theory

Although the Supreme Court ruling could be read as a win for the former president (he posted on social media shortly after the decision, “BIG WIN FOR OUR CONSTITUTION AND DEMOCRACY”), the court rejected his attorneys’ legal theory.

Former President Trump’s attorneys had argued that presidents must be impeached before they are subject to prosecution on those same actions and that former President Trump’s acquittal in the Senate thus precluded prosecution, warranting dismissal of the indictment.

The high court majority had instead relied on views of the framers of the Constitution regarding the separation of powers to reach their opinion and dismissed the impeachment argument as one with little constitutional support.

However, the court agreed with the Trump attorneys in that “the ‘bold and unhesitating action’ required of an independent Executive” must not be chilled.

Majority Emphasize Need for Strong Executive

Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the majority, emphasized that the Framers of the Constitution had the vision of a strong executive. Unlike the other two branches, the president is “the only person who alone composes a branch of government,” he wrote, citing his previous opinion from an unrelated Trump case.

The court—and the Framers—have held an “energetic executive” to be crucial to national security, good government, and the safeguarding of liberty.

Prosecutors and dissenting judges had argued that the criminal justice system inherently includes safeguards that would prevent the wrongful prosecution of a president or chilling effects that may stem from this possibility.

The majority held that this was not protection enough, as the mere prospect of prosecution may “distort Presidential decisionmaking” and cause “undue caution,” effectively undermining the independence of the executive branch.

“The hesitation to execute the duties of his office fearlessly and fairly that might result when a President is making decisions under ‘a pall of potential prosecution’ … raises unique risks to the effective functioning of government,” the opinion reads.

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Demonstrators and protesters gather with members of the news media in front of the Supreme Court to wait for it to announce its last decisions for this session in Washington on July 1, 2024. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

4 Justices Say Official Acts Can Sometimes Be Unconstitutional

All nine justices recognized immunity for a president’s exercising of “core constitutional powers,” but four found the majority’s test to be far too broad.

Experts Weigh In on Trump’s Options for Appeal After Conviction

Biden, Trump Test Executive Privilege With Claims

Justice Barrett, in her partly concurring opinion, and Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson, in a dissenting opinion, wrote that there may be cases in which official acts are unconstitutional or criminal and should be subject to prosecution.

Justice Barrett wrote in favor of a narrower test for immunity, with a two-step process to determine the validity of criminal charges for official acts. The first is determining whether the criminal statute applies to the president, and the second step is to determine if that prosecution imposes any danger of intruding on the powers of the executive branch.

Justice Sotomayor wrote that the court’s ruling gave the appellant even more immunity than he asked for, finding no support for immunity from criminal prosecution outlined in the Constitution.

The dissenting opinion, joined by two other justices, takes a reproving view of President Trump’s actions on Jan. 6, 2021, and, as outlined in the indictment, also the majority opinion.

Justice Sotomayor wrote that the challenge of exercising core constitutional powers, such as the president’s veto power, was never challenged in the indictment. As the majority defines “core immunity,” “all sorts of noncore conduct” could be shielded from criminal prosecution, she wrote, including “nightmare scenarios” such as ordering the military to carry out an assassination of a political rival, organizing a military coup, or taking a bribe in exchange for a pardon.

Similar scenarios were discussed during oral arguments, and Justice Samuel Alito expressed skepticism, cautioning judges not to slander the military in presenting these hypotheticals.

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Voters cast ballots in Georgia’s primary election at a polling location in Atlanta on May 21, 2024. The Supreme Court decision may affect former President Trump’s case in Georgia, as some of the acts listed in the indictment overlap with the federal case. (Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images)

Case May Return to Supreme Court

This case may yet end up in the Supreme Court on another appeal.

Trump attorneys can be expected to challenge unfavorable district court rulings on whether certain acts were official or unofficial, and Judge Chutkan still has several pending motions to rule on—including other motions to dismiss the indictment.

An additional complication that could arise for prosecutors is the fact that Mr. Smith is prosecuting a second case against former President Trump in the Southern District of Florida, where a federal judge is set to rule on whether Mr. Smith was constitutionally appointed. Should the judge determine that he wasn’t and that the special counsel has no authority to prosecute, an appeal could end up before the Supreme Court, affecting both cases.

Ruling May Affect Georgia Election Case

Former President Trump was indicted in a similar case in Georgia. In the state case, he and 18 others were charged with racketeering for their actions in challenging the 2020 election results, and some of the acts listed in the indictment overlap with the federal case.

While the federal case charges no alleged co-conspirators, the state case also charges former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark for actions that he has argued were part of his official duties.

That case is currently on hold, as the Georgia Court of Appeals has agreed to review the trial court’s decision to not disqualify the Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis from prosecuting the case over alleged misconduct.

Should the appeals court rule quickly after it hears oral arguments in October and then decide not to disqualify the district attorney, prosecutors will still need to revisit the indictment to remove any official acts before proceeding with the case.

Source: The Epoch Times

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Trump Moves To Overturn New York Conviction, Postpone Sentencing After Immunity Decision | Trending Politics

Former President Donald Trump is filing a motion to throw out his recent Manhattan conviction on 34 felony counts of “falsifying business records” and have his July 11 sentencing postponed after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that U.S. presidents have immunity for official acts undertaken while serving in the White House.

According to a report from the New York Times, Trump’s lawyers have sought permission from Judge Juan Merchan, who is overseeing the case, to file a motion to set aside the conviction. The letter was sent just hours after the Supreme Court issued its highly anticipated ruling on presidential immunity, which will have major ramifications on the ongoing federal cases against the former president.

The letter will not be made public until Tuesday at the earlier, at which point prosecutors will have a chance to respond, a source familiar with the proceedings told the New York Times.

Trump’s legal team hopes to move forward with the motion just ten days before Trump is set to be sentenced in the case that has been plagued by political bias. Trump is asking Judge Merchan — a Biden donor whose daughter has raised millions of dollarsfor Democrat causes and candidates — to postpone the July 11 sentencing while Merchan determines whether the ruling affects the conviction.

It is unclear whether the motion will be granted, as the conduct covered in the Manhattan case took place before Trump was elected as president.

While it is unclear how Merchan will rule, the effort already appears to have caused a delay in the proceedings. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office was expected to send a sentencing recommendation to the judge and likely recommend a prison term for the former president, though this did not occur.

If Merchan does not entertain the motion, it is possible that Trump’s legal team will revisit the matter when they attempt to appeal the conviction after sentencing, which is set to take place just days before the Republican National Convention.

Source: Trending Politics

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Supreme Court Rules Trump Has Some Immunity in Federal Election Case | The Epoch Times

The Supreme Court ruled 6–3 that presidents enjoy immunity from criminal prosecution for official, but not unofficial, acts—in a decision that’s expected to delay former President Donald Trump’s trial in the federal election case in Washington.

The Supreme Court held that: “Under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority. And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts.”

The July 1 decision remands the case to the district court for further consideration.

Chief Justice John Roberts penned the majority opinion, which was joined in full by Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh. Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined part of the opinion while issuing a concurrence of her own.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor penned a dissent, which was joined by Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan. Justice Jackson also issued a dissent.

Former President Trump responded to the decision on TruthSocial: “BIG WIN FOR OUR CONSTITUTION AND DEMOCRACY. PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!”

The ruling is a partial win for former President Trump, who asked for a broader form of immunity than the justices ultimately granted. Former President Trump had asked the court to rule that he enjoyed immunity from criminal prosecution for his official acts unless Congress had impeached and convicted him for those acts.

D.C. District Judge Tanya Chutkan had rejected the idea that presidents enjoyed immunity from criminal prosecution as did the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

During oral argument in April, the conservative justices seemed poised to remand the case back to the district court in Washington with instructions on what constitutes official and private acts for further fact-finding proceedings.

“We’re writing a rule for the ages,” Justice Neil Gorsuch said during oral argument. He and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson both made clear they were concerned about cases beyond former President Trump’s, which has forced the court to grapple with what constitutes a president’s official conduct.

Attorney D. John Sauer argued for former President Trump, and former Deputy Solicitor General Michael Dreeben argued for special counsel Jack Smith.

The most recent time the Supreme Court issued a major ruling on presidential immunity was in 1982, in Nixon v. Fitzgerald. The court ruled that presidents enjoyed absolute immunity from civil liability for actions that fell within the outer perimeter of their official duties.

What’s Next

The Supreme Court remanded the case, sending it back to the D.C. district court with the directive “to assess in the first instance whether a prosecution involving Trump’s alleged attempts to influence the Vice President’s oversight of the certification proceeding would pose any dangers of intrusion on the authority and functions of the Executive Branch.”

Another aspect of the decision directed the district court to weigh whether various aspects of Mr. Smith’s indictment constituted official or unofficial acts. That included allegations that former President Trump attempted to sway state officials, use fraudulent slates of electors, and his communications on Jan. 6, 2021.

The court’s syllabus, or overview of the ruling, noted: “The President possesses ‘extraordinary power to speak to his fellow citizens and on their behalf,’” quoting another opinion in Trump v. Hawaii.

“So most of a President’s public communications are likely to fall comfortably within the outer perimeter of his official responsibilities,” it added.

It’s unclear how much of Mr. Smith’s indictment will remain after lower court proceedings are completed.

“On remand, the District Court must carefully analyze the indictment’s remaining allegations to determine whether they too involve conduct for which a President must be immune from prosecution,” the Supreme Court said.

“And the parties and the District Court must ensure that sufficient allegations support the indictment’s charges without such conduct. Testimony or private records of the President or his advisers probing such conduct may not be admitted as evidence at trial.”

The decision came just days after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Fischer v. United States, which vacated the D.C. Circuit’s interpretation of a statute—18 U.S. Code Section 1512(c)—the Justice Department used to pursue Jan. 6 defendants and President Trump. In a footnote, Justice Roberts said that “[i]f necessary, the District Court should determine in the first instance whether the Section 1512(c)(2) charges may proceed in light of our decision in Fischer.

Opinions

The justices provided multiple concurrences and dissents. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote separately to question the legality of special counsels.

He said the attorney general “purported to appoint a private citizen as a Special Counsel … But, I am not sure that any office for the Special Counsel has been ‘established by Law,’ as the Constitution requires.”

Justice Barrett joined most of the majority opinion except for a portion wherein it criticizes the idea that a jury could consider evidence concerning a president’s official acts.

“That proposal threatens to eviscerate the immunity we have recognized,” the majority wrote. “It would permit a prosecutor to do indirectly what he cannot do directly—invite the jury to examine acts for which a President is immune from prosecution to nonetheless prove his liability on any charge.”

Justice Barrett, meanwhile, argued that “the Constitution does not require blinding juries to the circumstances surrounding conduct for which Presidents can be held liable.”

Justice Sotomayor’s dissent argued the majority “makes a mockery of the principle, foundational to our Constitution and system of Government, that no man is above the law.”

She went on to describe Mr. Smith’s indictment as painting “a stark portrait of a President desperate to stay in power.”

Justice Roberts pushed back in his majority opinion by arguing that the dissents “strike a tone of chilling doom that is wholly disproportionate to what the Court actually does today.”

Source: The Epoch Times

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Scott Ritter’s On the Most Important Events of 2023 | RT.com

The year 2023 was a banner year for change, underscoring the reality of a world transforming away from American hegemony toward the uncertainty of a yet-to-be-defined multilateral reality. This transformation was marked by many events – here are the five most important ones.

The failed Ukrainian counteroffensive

Perhaps the most-hyped event of the year, Ukraine’s much-anticipated spring/summer counteroffensive was NATO’s version of the German Ardennes offensive of December 1944 – a last-gasp effort to throw all remaining reserves into a desperate attempt to score a knock-out blow against an opponent who had seized the strategic initiative. Any sound military analyst could have predicted the inevitability of a Ukrainian defeat – one cannot responsibly speak of launching a frontal assault on a heavily defended, well-prepared defensive position using forces who are neither equipped, organized, or trained for the task.

The amount of delusion surrounding Ukrainian and NATO expectations only underscores the desperation that underpinned their cause – the West’s support of Ukraine was always of a superficial nature, where domestic politics trumped global reality. The ignorance of those who believed Ukraine could pierce the Russian defenses was easily matched by those who thought that a Moscow Maidan movement could be created through the combined impact of economic sanctions and a forever war against Ukraine.

The counteroffensive is the manifestation of the Russophobia that has gripped the collective West, where ignorance trumps fact, and delusion supersedes reality. The failed NATO/Ukrainian counteroffensive, far from weakening Russia, proved to be the incubator for the birth of a more powerful, confident, and resilient Russia that will no longer allow itself to be classified as a second-class citizen in the world community.

On October 6, 2023, Israel was sitting on top of the world. It had cowed the administration of US President Joe Biden into forgetting about a two-state solution to the Palestinian problem. Instead, it embraced the vision of a greater Israel, which glossed over the continued theft of Palestinian land through unchecked support for illegal Israeli settlements by focusing on the broader geopolitical benefits of normalized relations between Israel and the Gulf Arab states. The Israel Defense Forces were the best military in the region, backed by an intelligence and security establishment possessing a legendary reputation for knowing everything about all potential enemies.

October 7: The Israel-Hamas war

Then came October 7 and the Hamas surprise attack.

All talk of Israeli-Arab normalization is finished. The IDF is being embarrassed by Hamas and defeated by Hezbollah. The Israeli intelligence service has been exposed as an empty shell whose greatest accomplishment is an AI-assisted targeting system that facilitates the killing of Palestinian civilians.

The new reality of the Middle East is now shaped by two related issues – the necessity of a Palestinian state and the inevitability of a strategic Israeli defeat. The paths toward resolving each of these issues will not be easy ones to follow, and they may unfold over the span of years rather than months, but one thing is certain – this new geopolitical reality would not have been possible without the events of October 7.

Africa: The Sahel revolt

In the span of three years, Françafrique, or the post-colonial French-dominated sphere of influence in the Sahel region of Africa, has gone from serving as the springboard for the projection of French-led American and EU efforts to project military power in an attempt to defeat the forces of Islamic insurgency, to being humiliated and defeated at the hands of nationalists who overthrew traditional pro-French governments and replacing them with anti-French military juntas. Starting with Mali in 2021, then Burkina Faso in 2022, and finally Niger in 2023, the collapse of the Sahel component of Françafrique has been as dramatic as it has been decisive. There was seemingly nothing France nor its supporters could do to reverse the tide of anti-French sentiment in the region. In the end, the threat of outside military intervention to change the July 2023 coup in Niger collapsed in the face of a unified collective defense posture taken by the three former French colonies.

The dramatic eviction of France from the region was matched by the emergence of a new regional power – Russia. The rise of the new tripartite regional alliance between Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger coincided with a more assertive Russian foreign policy, which looked to form common cause with an Africa still straining from the bonds of post-colonial existence manifested in geopolitical relationships like those formed under Françafrique. The Russian approach was borne out in the success of last summer’s Russian-African Summit, held in St. Petersburg, and the growing economic and security relationships between Russia and many African states – including Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, that have emerged since. The Russian tricolor flag, it seems, has replaced that of France as the most influential symbol of foreign involvement in that region.

BRICS

In 2022, China hosted the 14th Summit of the Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South African economic forum best known by the acronym formed from the first letters of its five-nation membership – BRICS. At that summit, BRICS aspired to greatness but was unable to accomplish anything more than talk about the creation of a so-called “currency basket” designed to challenge the global supremacy of the US dollar and speak wistfully about the possibility of opening its membership to other nations.

Then came the 15th BRICS Summit, held in South Africa. From a forum possessing unrealized potential, BRICS exploded upon the international scene as a multi-lateral competitor to the American singularity, a viable challenger to the US-imposed “rules-based international order” that had dominated global geopolitical discourse since the end of the Second World War. The events that helped propel BRICS front and center on the stage of global relevance represented a perfect storm, so to speak, of geopolitical calamity – the defeat of the collective West at the hands of Russia in Ukraine, the collapse of Françafrique in the Sahel, and the increasing dominance of China on the global economic reality.

The South African-hosted BRICS Summit proved to be the perfect counterpoint to the combined pathos of the G-7 Summit in Hiroshima, Japan, and the NATO Summit in Vilnius, Lithuania. In Japan and Lithuania, western impotence was on full display for the world to see. In sharp contrast, the virility of the BRICS phenomenon provided a multilateral alternative that proved to be attractive to many nations, including the six that were accepted into BRICS as part of its expansion strategy (Argentina, Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, although Argentina withdrew its membership package following the election of Javier Milei as president in December 2023), and the fourteen other nations who have formally submitted applications to join in 2024, when Russia takes over the chairmanship. BRICS has surpassed the G7 in terms of collective economic clout, and the geopolitical influence of its collective membership is such that it will exceed both the G7 and NATO forums in terms of overall international relevance in the years to come.

The US: The Naked Emperor

The United States spends nearly $1 trillion a year on its defense – more than the combined defense expenditures of its ten closest rivals for the top spot. This money funds the strategic nuclear deterrence force and the conventional military power projection potential of the US. Given the enormous sums involved, one would anticipate that the dominance of US military power worldwide would be unmatched. Curiously, this is not the case.

By spending a fraction of what the US does for similar services, Russia has overtaken the United States when it comes to strategic nuclear forces. The US needs a major upgrade to its nuclear triad – the land-based and submarine-launched ballistic missiles and manned bombers – that comprise its nuclear strike capabilities. While replacement systems are in the works, it will take more than a decade to get these systems online, and the cost of doing this will run into the hundreds of billions of dollars – or more, given the history of US defense industry inefficiencies and cost overruns.

Russia, meanwhile, has begun putting advanced missiles into service – missiles designed to defeat US missile defenses, along with new submarines and manned bombers. Traditional venues used by the US to offset Russian strategic advances, such as arms control, are no longer available due to short-sighted US policies that rejected arms control for the potential of achieving a strategic nuclear advantage. The script, so to speak, has been flipped, and it’s now the US that finds itself on the short end of the atomic power equation. This disadvantageous position will be even further exacerbated by the growth of China’s strategic nuclear force, which is in the process of expanding from possessing some 400 nuclear weapons to matching the US and Russia’s 1,500 deployed warheads.

The US used to maintain a conventional military force structure capable of fighting two-and-one-half wars simultaneously – one in Europe, one in Asia, and a holding action in the Middle East until victory was achieved in one of the first two theaters, and forces could be redeployed. Today, the US, by trying to maintain a global presence that mirrors that of the Cold War, is unable to fight and win a single major conflict. It has maxed out its conventional potential in Europe, deploying some 100,000 troops in support of NATO, which has allowed its combined military combat potential to atrophy to the point that no NATO nation has a viable military capability. The collective impotence of NATO is on display in Ukraine, where a Russian army is in the process of defeating a NATO-trained and equipped Ukrainian military.

In the Pacific, the US is facing the fact that it lacks sufficient military power to defend Taiwan in the face of any potential Chinese military operation. There have been advances in the accuracy and lethality of Chinese stand-off weapons, including new advanced hypersonic missiles, which, in theory at least, could overcome US air defense systems that protect the centerpiece of American power projection – the aircraft carrier battlegroup. This weakness is not just limited to any potential conflict with China—the US Navy has deployed carrier battlegroups off the coast of Lebanon, in the Persian Gulf, and to the Red Sea, where they have been prevented from engaging in any decisive military intervention out of fear that missiles fired by Hezbollah, Iran, and the Houthi of Yemen could damage or sink the most visible symbol of American military power today.

With a budget of nearly $1 trillion, one would expect the US to be parading itself worldwide via a military second to none in terms of capabilities and lethality. Instead, the US has been exposed as an emperor with no clothes whose nakedness is a source of embarrassment on a global stage that had grown accustomed to the finery and pageantry of American military power. The humiliation of the US Navy at the hands of the Houthi is but the most recent manifestation of a trend exposing US military weakness. This trend will only expand in 2024.

Source: RT.com

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Ages of Terror: Here’s Why Africa Hates France | RT.com

The history of relations between Paris and its former colonies on the continent explains the recent spate of anti-French coups

By Abbas Juma

As the whole world has turned its attention to the conflict between Israel and Palestine and the events in Ukraine have faded into the background, nearly everyone has forgotten about another region that is permanently unstable and immersed in conflicts and crises – Africa.

Over the past several years, there have been a series of coups in Africa – precisely, eight coups in three years. The last one occurred in Gabon. At the time, the media discussed Africa’s anger at colonialist France and the pro-French governments that toppled like dominoes. For Paris, that was a real disaster, since African countries had only formally escaped from under its ‘wing’ and were still subordinated to France politically and economically. Moreover, Africa is rich in minerals, oil, gas, gold, and other resources. For example, Niger supplies about 15% of France’s uranium needs. 

We will find out why Africans have such a hostile attitude towards France and how this confrontation may end.

Occupied Niger

French colonialism in Niger began with the infamous and brutal military campaign to expand control over West Africa in 1899 (the so-called Central African-Chad Mission). The local population fiercely resisted the invaders, headed by captains Paul Voulet and Charles-Paul-Louis Chanoine (also known as Julien Chanoine). However, the forces of the two sides were unequal.

After leaving Dakar, the Voulet-Chanoine Mission was supposed to explore Chad and Niger and unite the French territories. Voulet had previously demonstrated sadistic tendencies in Burkina Faso, and his associate Chanoine was not any better. Moreover, Chanoine was the son of the powerful general and Minister of War Jules Chanoine, a fact that untied the mission’s hands.

The atrocities committed by the French in Niger could have never come to light, if one of the junior officers, Lieutenant Louis Péteau, had not described them in a letter to his fiancée. In the 15-page letter, he wrote how porters who were too weak from dysentery were beheaded and replaced by enslaved locals. Voulet ordered the severed heads to be placed on stakes in order to scare the inhabitants of the surrounding villages. The letter contains many details of war crimes committed by French soldiers. It was eventually made public and provoked a major scandal.

This did not stop the mission, however, and in 1922, after a severe drought and famine, the French established control over the territory.

France was primarily interested in Niger’s natural resources. Despite the fact that the country’s economy largely depended on agriculture and animal husbandry, the world’s largest uranium deposits were later discovered there. France seized hold of these resources. 

In 1960, Niger was formally liberated. However, even after the 1960s, all the officers of Niger’s army were Frenchmen with French-Nigerian dual-citizenship.  As of 1960, there were only tenAfrican officers in the Armed Forces of Niger, all of low rank.

Paris would continue to exploit Niger’s rich resources for many years. Most recently, Niamey criticized the agreement with France and demanded a fairer share of the profits from the extraction of uranium ore.

​​Africa soaked in blood 

A few years ago, the adviser to Algerian President Abdelmadjid Cheikhi said that after the massacre staged by the French in Algeria, the bones of the Algerians were taken out of the country and used to make soap and for sugar filtration. Cheikhi stressed that his country had become “a real field of experiments for the brutal practices that France later applied in other colonies.” He added that today Paris attempts to hide the crimes by destroying historical archives.

Some tragedies, however, could not be hidden, since they were witnessed by tens and even hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom are still alive. Here are just a few chilling episodes from France’s colonial past. 

Burning everything in its path

The French, who are so proud of their elegant cultural heritage and Enlightenment values, were actually capable of savage atrocities against those who were not part of their culture, particularly colonized peoples. The cruelty of the French knew no bounds. They were involved in murder, rape, the plundering of African wealth, and the use of slave labor in the Central African Republic, Chad, and the Republic of the Congo. All these events happened in recent history and were recorded in archives, but no one has been held accountable so far.

There has been no justice in the case of the Thiaroye massacre, when on the outskirts of Dakar French forces shot West African veterans who had once defended France in cold blood. Likewise, no one was held responsible for the Rwandan genocide, nor for France’s nuclear experiments in Algeria. In February 1960, France tested its first atomic bomb, exposing over 24,000 people to radiation. It is difficult to imagine the real losses caused by the resulting pollution since today we do not know the locations of all the test sites and areas of disposal of nuclear waste. But it’s safe to say that the French don’t care about this.

An uprising soaked in blood 

The people of Madagascar also have many painful memories. The French army subjected them to severe repressions simply because they wished to be independent– and this despite the fact that at the time, France itself had just been liberated from Nazi occupation. Tens of thousands of Malagasy people were tortured and killed during the Franco-Malagasy Wars and in their aftermath. There were even cases when people were thrown out of airplanes.

In 1946, the Democratic Movement for Malagasy Rejuvenation (abbreviated MDRM in French) was founded in Madagascar. It wanted to put an end to the inhumane treatment of people and advocated political equality, prosperity, and independence. But less than a year after the party was formed, France intervened.  On May 5, 1947, a massacre happened in Moramanga –  a city that had become the epicenter of the Madagascar uprising against colonial rule. At midnight, French officers gave the order to attack three passenger train cars with MDRM members inside. The train cars were fired upon using a machine gun. Most of the people inside were killed, and those who survived were executed without a trial shortly afterward. This event became a symbol of French repression in Madagascar. 

The forgotten genocide

The fate of the Bamileke people of Cameroon is sometimes compared to the fate of the Jewish people during the Holocaust. It is not known exactly how many were killed –  the numbers vary from 100,000 to 500,000 people. Some even say there were a million victims. In any case, this was a real genocide staged by the French under the leadership of the anti-communists Charles de Gaulle and Jacques Foccart, in their fight against the Union of Populations of Cameroon (UPC) – a liberation movement founded in April 1948. 

We find an eyewitness account of those horrible events online. Jeannette was just a little girl when her country became flooded with blood and tears:

“In the evening, the military convoys come back filled with heads that are dumped and exposed at the crossroads that will become the crossroads of the maquisards, until my departure from Cameroon, in 1976, and even perhaps until today. It is in the heart of Bafoussam, about thirty meters from the house of my parents that all this is exposed. This is also where the executions take place. After a certain pause, because of the famine and in the absence of any help, the populations returned to the kingdoms without homes and without cultures. Others went to camps created by the occupier, without water, without access to the wood, and terrorized by the military.”

“Some, especially the occupier himself, have dared to advance the figure of 400,000 dead. Over what period? Are dead people in the Mungo area counted? Many died there. Others were tattooed and sent back to the West, where massacres and crowding in the camps were raging.

“After the war, the region was almost empty…”

Hell on Earth

Doubtlessly one of the most terrible genocides in world history was the Rwandan genocide, which claimed the lives of over 800,000 Tutsis in 100 days (other sources claim there were over a million victims). 

France also carries the burden of this crime on its conscience. Numerous human rights organizations and historians (basing their assumption on documents) claim that France armed the Hutu government. Moreover, these events happened in light of Operation Turquoise, launched by France on June 23, 1994 in order to supposedly stop the mass killings of people. Instead, France secretly helped the participants of the genocide to flee.

Renowned French historian Vincent Duclert, who was commissioned by President Macron to prepare a report on the Rwandan genocide, concluded that Paris was responsible for what happened, at least in terms of ignoring the racist nature and brutality of the Hutu regime.

“Françafrique”: The illusion of freedom 

The UN proclaimed 1960 the “Year of Africa”: 17 African nations gained independence that year – but only on paper.

France didn’t take leave of Africa without making sure that it could continue to exploit the resources of its former colonies, and continue to dominate them – even if from now on, that would happen behind the scenes.

In his memoirs, Charles de Gaulle wrote that France brought civilization to Africa, helped it build nation states and educated the elites, teaching them to act based on principles of human rights and freedoms (and, of course, French interests). At the same time, the founder of the Fifth Republic wrote that Paris was supposed to become a “specially privileged partner” for Africans. In other words, the colonizers wanted to take leave of Africa but preserve their influence over it. This is probably what de Gaulle meant by “privileged partnership.” 

This is how the “Françafrique” [“French Africa”] concept was born – a system of special ties between Paris and its former colonies, developed by Jacques Foccart. Informal ‘guardianship’ of Africa through the Françafrique system guaranteed France political, economic, and military control over the region and, as a result, uninterrupted access to its natural resources – whether it was oil from Gabon, uranium from Niger, or cocoa from the Ivory Coast.

Making use of the economic whip and corruption, Foccart appointed his own people to high-ranking positions – these were the ‘elite’ raised by the French, which de Gaulle mentioned in his memoirs. If something went wrong, the French resorted to contract killing, terror, blackmail, intrigue, and bribery. When that did not help, France used its special services to eliminate high-profile politicians and even organize military rebellions. This is what the legendary French mercenary Bob Denard spoke about.

“One way or another, there was always some kind of interaction with the special services. Sometimes, Monsieur Foccart acted as a link. To involve the army in this or that operation, a lot of preliminary preparation was required. But my squad was light and mobile and could carry out the same mission using small forces,” Denard said. 

Finally, in those cases when the efforts of mercenaries and the intrigues of special services failed, France conducted direct military interventions, meddling in the affairs of the “free” African nations. To this end, Paris had and still has military bases in Senegal, Djibouti, Gabon, and on the Ivory Coast. Until 2008, eight African countries had active agreements with France which allowed the latter to legally invade their territory and “restore order.”

Modern colonialism

On July 31, 2022, the government of Mali demanded that French President Emmanuel Macron abandon the principles of neocolonialism – above all, with regard to economic control over the continent. 

Experts around the world have long discussed the CFA franc, which was introduced in December 1945. At the time, the abbreviation CFA stood for “French African colonies” (Colonies Françaises d’Afrique). By the 1960s, it meant “African Financial Community” (Communauté Financière Africaine). Today, the CFA franc is pegged to the euro, but until recently it was dependent on the exchange rate of the French franc. Moreover, the member countries of the zone where the CFA franc is in use are required to keep half of their monetary and gold reserves in the Treasury of France.

The CFA franc makes it possible for Paris to buy up Africa’s natural resources at extremely low prices. And considering the Françafrique system, local elites often derive benefits from the economic intervention of France.

Paris is almost impossible to push away, since it is a major investor in the region. In 2020, for example, French foreign direct investments (FDI) in Cote d’Ivoire topped $500 million. It is just one example – other such countries include Tunisia, Morocco, etc. The French industrial sector in West Africa is also quite influential. For example, TotalEnergies accounts for 17 percent of the African oil market and is the leading distributor of petroleum products in Africa.

For Paris, the African continent has become a giant market for selling overpriced goods – despite the fact that France itself was indignant when the US took advantage of the political situation and sold it gas at exorbitant prices. In contrast, goods from the former French colonies are sold cheaply.

This system is called neocolonialism, and this is exactly what Africa is rebelling against.

In conclusion

France continued to devour Africa in the decades after de Gaulle. Each of the eight subsequent presidents contributed to the disintegration of the African continent. Of course, African leaders, who saw France as a natural guarantor of their personal security, were also responsible for the situation. Africa gifted its patrons, bowed before them, and coordinated every step with the Élysée Palace. But this didn’t help. The fate of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is a good example – and this is the man who financed the election campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy.

The political processes happening in Niger today are not a color revolution or a nonconformist riot backed by an external force. These processes are a result of wounds and sorrows accumulated over many decades. There is a chance that Niger may help other African countries move towards real liberation, particularly now that France has encountered major competitors in Africa in the face of China and Russia. But in fact, these developments have only accelerated inevitable changes.

Source: RT.com

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George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spies Who Saved America | Book Review | The Epoch Times

By Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger Sentinel

In “George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spies Who Saved America,” young readers will learn of the very effective Culper Ring in helping our nation get its start

The American War of Independence that solidified the foundation of the United States is often described by its battles and military heroism. However, the stealthy action of a half-dozen individuals made a difference that has primarily come to light through 21st-century nonfiction works, such as “George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spies Who Saved America,” by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger.

That the patriots furtively outwitted the British, thus assisting in the outcome of the Revolutionary War, is the thesis of this 320-page, 2016 book. The secret and symbiotic relationship between leading soldiers, such as Maj. Benjamin Tallmadge, and ordinary citizens, like blacksmith and farmer Caleb Brewster, resulted in dangerous plots thwarted and strides made behind the scenes. Dubbed the Culper Spy Ring, the spies’ efforts helped enable—as authors made clear through letters and anecdotal information throughout the book—a nation free from British rule.

At one time, the saying was that the sun never set on the British empire because the country controlled so much of the globe. Thus, the fact that the world’s largest fighting force could be outsmarted by the espionage efforts of a few individuals seems ludicrous. Yet, Kilmeade and Yaeger convey, through statements such as Maj. George Beckwith’s (a British intelligence officer from 1782 to ’83): “Washington did not really outfight the British, he simply outspied us!”—that there is credence in the claim.

The six individuals whom Gen. Washington relied on to provide British troop movements and plans, etc., were— besides Tallmadge and Brewster—Robert Townsend, Abraham Woodhull, Austin Roe, and James Rivington. A woman, her identity guessed but not confirmed, supposedly assisted the ring as well, as did a few other lesser-involved spies. The ring operated primarily from Long Island into New York City.

Intel was gathered and delivered cleverly to Gen. Washington using a number-code dictionary that substituted numbers for people, places, and things. Plus, an invisible ink, developed by chemist James Jay, brother of patriot and American statesman John Jay, was used at times to pen important letters.

When Townsend, a New York journalist accepted into British society, agreed to spy for Gen. Washington, directives were detailed by Washington and Maj. Tallmadge that read, in part, “There can be scarcely any need of recommending the greatest Caution and secrecy in a Business so critical and dangerous. The following seem to be the best general rules: To trust none but the persons fixed upon to transact the Business. …”

The authors inform readers that Gen. Washington’s “knowledge of the ring members’ true identities was, after all, purposely quite limited. He had not wanted to know more than he needed to, in order to protect them, and several of the members had been insistent that Washington never learn their names.” As a result, they were never formerly commended for their service, but the authors also point out that the brave spies’ endeavors “were no less meaningful for having been made in city streets and back country roads than on a battlefield.”

This book has also been adapted for young readers, with short chapters about how and when the Revolutionary War started and the roles the “Secret Six” played during a most impactful time in history.

During an era when early American history is less acknowledged in schools, the Penguin Young Readers’ edition of “George Washington’s Secret Six” is a way to pique students’ interest. In fact, Yaeger indicates on the dedication page a reason for a young readers’ version of the book; his encouragement to his children (and all readers) states: “May a passion for our nation’s history always inspire you to read, learn, and change the world.”

“George Washington's Secret Six: The Spies Who Saved America,” by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger. (Viking Books forYoung Readers)
‘George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spies Who Saved America‘ 
By Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger Sentinel, Oct. 18, 2016 Paperback: 320 pages

Source: The Epoch Times

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The War Has Come Home to Roost in Hawai’i | X

Editor’s Note: We the People have been betrayed by our own federal and state governments. attacked by a coordinated efforts by the Intel community, the Department of Defense, The Pentagon, and four U.S. Presidents (Clinton, Bush, Obama & Biden) who have committed horrendous acts of treason against the U.S. Constitution and the citizens of the United States.

Several days ago Lahaina, Maui, Hawai’i was bombed by Direct Energy Weapon (DEW) lasers from space, a planned demolition (like the World Trade Center on 9/11) to make room for an AI governed smart city. It was accomplished under the cover of a distant hurricane with high winds when the U.S. Navy has coincidentally been out of port the day before. They blamed it all on climate change.

Here’s a few accounts on the ground.

https://twitter.com/ronin19217435/status/1691054513115770880?s=20

Source & View: on X

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All About Central Bank Digital Currencies | YouTube

THIS is the most important and informative interview ever – it is now in my top three of all time. Recorded the other day in Amsterdam – it is compelling and crucial – I promise you that!

Source: YouTube

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No Place To Hide – The Stategy & Tactics of Terrorism with G. Edward Griffin | Reality Zone & YouTube 

This documentary removes the mystery from international terrorism. Written, produced, and hosted by G. Edward Griffin in 1982, this film is every bit as relevant today as it was then.

On the surface, terrorism appears to be irrational and counter-productive. But when the long-range strategy and tactics are understood, it becomes recognizable as part of a larger plan to weaken and destroy target governments. It is but one phase of the Marxist-Leninist dogma of so-called Wars of National Liberation. 

The terrorists themselves are dispensable players in this deadly game because, when the target governments are finally toppled, it will not be the terrorists who come to power, but the international Marxist apparatus that trained and supplied them. 

Here are the documented facts that show the detailed operation of this network. The program is built upon sound research and offers powerful visual images and amazing historical footage. 

This content is also the intellectual basis for the newly released film by Micki Willis the Great Awakening.
Source: Reality Zone & YouTube