Dr. Josef Stranig

We just learned more about Trump’s Venezuela oil deal, and here’s everything you need to know: 1. This deal is structured to hide the identities of people who stand to profit from it. You don’t hide that unless you have a reason to. And the man whose firm Trump just bought a 35% stake in? Alejandro Betancourt, a Venezuelan billionaire who has faced several money-laundering investigations around the world. 2. Don’t expect cheaper gas anytime soon. Experts have been telling us for MONTHS that oil production in Venezuela isn’t going to lower U.S. gas prices anytime soon. Betancourt’s company is able to deliver as much oil in a year as the U.S. uses in a few days. Anyone promising this deal will bring down prices at the pump is selling you lies. 3. If there’s a legal fight over this agreement, it has to go through a Texas court that Trump’s DOJ has repeatedly turned to for favorable rulings. 4. This deal creates a board designed to be shielded from oversight and accountability. Trump’s own Treasury Secretary wasn’t able to give Congress basic answers or audits when he testified about Venezuela just last month. But we should blindly trust them now? So let’s recap: Americans aren’t going to feel relief at the pump. The identity of the people involved is conveniently hidden from us. And legal disputes go to a specific court that disproportionately rules in Trump’s favor. Whatever you think American foreign policy towards Venezuela should be, Congress and the public deserve to know who’s involved and where the money is going. propublica.org/article/trump…

Gestern erfuhren wir, wie der Trump-Sprössling in der Mongolei auf Jagd mit dem Mann war, der sich „Kremlev“ nennt. Heute gibt es das Familienunternehmen in der Gesamtansicht. Die Financial Times hat nachgezählt: Mindestens 18 Mal haben sich Donald Jr. und Eric Trump seit Januar 2025 mit ausländischen Regierungsleuten getroffen. Darunter mindestens sechs amtierende oder frühere Staats- und Regierungschefs. Von Vietnam über Serbien bis Somaliland. Feine Gesellschaft! Ein Regierungsamt haben die beiden nicht. Brauchen sie auch nicht. Wenn der Sohn des amerikanischen Präsidenten mit Secret Service im Schlepptau aufkreuzt, muss niemand erst nach seiner Visitenkarte fragen. Die Trump-Sprecher versichern: alles privat. Der Sohn sei ein Privatmann mit denselben Rechten wie jeder andere Amerikaner. Natürlich. Jeder andere Amerikaner diniert schließlich auch mal eben mit dem Präsidenten der Mongolei. Und stimmt den Besuch vorher mit Außenminister Marco Rubio ab. Rein privat, versteht sich. Das Geschäft läuft jedenfalls. Trumps persönliches Einkommen lag laut FT im vergangenen Jahr bei über zwei Milliarden Dollar, ein großer Teil davon aus den Firmen der Söhne. Allein über 500 Millionen kamen aus dem Verkauf von Tokens ihrer Kryptofirma World Liberty Financial. Richard Painter, früher Ethikanwalt im Weißen Haus unter George W. Bush, hatte sich seinerzeit schon über Hunter Bidens Geschäfte empört. Heute sagt er, was die Trump-Söhne treiben, sei tausendmal schlimmer. Aber Hunter Bidens Laptop! Wir kennen das. Nehmen wir Georgien. Im September versammelt sich die Elite in Tiflis, um den künftigen Trump Tower zu feiern. Das höchste Gebäude des Landes soll er werden. Drohnenshow, Volkstänze, Animation zu „YMCA“. Eric Trump wird per Video zugeschaltet, lobt den Ministerpräsidenten Irakli Kobachidse, alle sind glücklich. Kobachidse ist ein enger Verbündeter von Bidzina Iwanischwili. Das ist der Milliardär, der in Georgien politisch die Fäden zieht und den Washington 2024 sanktioniert hatte, weil er die demokratische und euroatlantische Zukunft seines Landes zugunsten Russlands untergrabe. Nicht gerade die Voraussetzungen für eine herzliche Wiederannäherung an die USA, sollte man meinen. Eine Woche nach der Turmfeier trifft Kobachidse in New York auf Trump und Außenminister Rubio. Man plaudert. Inzwischen sieht Kobachidse die Beziehungen deutlich verbessert und hofft auf die Wiederherstellung der strategischen Partnerschaft. Ob der Trump Tower dabei geholfen hat? Wissen wir nicht. Aber er stand jedenfalls schon im Raum, bevor sich die Türen in New York öffneten. Und jetzt zu Estland. Ein Nato-Land an der russischen Grenze, das sich vor Putin fürchtet und dringend mehr amerikanische Truppen im Land haben möchte. Am 6. September landet Donald Jr. um fünf Uhr morgens im Privatjet in Tallinn. Abends gibt es Dinner in den Büros einer Softwarefirma für Online-Casinos. Am Tisch sitzen Trumps früherer Wahlkampfmanager, der Gründer des berüchtigten Fyre Festivals und ein ehemaliger New Yorker Mafioso. Anschließend geht es in eine Zigarren-Lounge, wo sich noch Pokerprofis und Miss World Estland dazugesellen. Mit am Tisch sitzt auch Estlands Außenminister Margus Tsahkna. Eigentlich einer von den Guten, wie mir scheint, jedenfalls wenn es um die Ukraine geht. Für dieses Dinner hat er zu Hause auch ordentlich Prügel bezogen. Aber Tsahkna sieht das pragmatisch: Donald Jr. habe zwar kein Regierungsamt, sei aber ein einflussreicher Mann. Man habe ausführlich über die Ukraine gesprochen. Und Kontakte zu solchen Leuten aus dem Umfeld des Weißen Hauses könnten eines Tages nützlich sein. Kann man verstehen. Wenn die amerikanische Außenpolitik zunehmend zur Familienangelegenheit wird, versucht man eben, mit der Familie ins Gespräch zu kommen. Früher lief sowas unter Diplomatie. Heute braucht man dafür offenbar eine Einladung von einem Casinobetreiber. So formuliert man das diplomatisch. Man könnte auch sagen: Der Außenminister eines Nato-Staates verbringt seinen Abend mit dem Sohn des amerikanischen Präsidenten und einer Gesellschaft, die sich kein Drehbuchautor ausdenken würde, ohne anschließend wegen Übertreibung gerügt zu werden. In der Hoffnung, dass dieser Kontakt seinem Land eines Tages nützen könnte. Ein außenpolitischer Termin war das selbstverständlich nicht. Alles privat. Und während die Söhne um die Welt reisen, wird zu Hause weiter investiert. Donald Jr.s Fonds 1789 Capital steigt bei einem Seltene-Erden-Unternehmen ein. Kurz darauf bekommt das Unternehmen einen 620-Millionen-Dollar-Kredit vom Pentagon. Auch an Unternehmen aus der Rüstungs- und KI-Branche ist der Fonds beteiligt, darunter Firmen mit Regierungsaufträgen. Unter den Investoren der familieneigenen Kryptofirma World Liberty Financial findet sich der nationale Sicherheitsberater der Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate. Es ist ein gut geschmiertes Geschäftsmodell. Die Söhne investieren in Branchen, über deren Zukunft die Regierung ihres Vaters mitentscheidet. Im Ausland begegnen sie Staats- und Regierungschefs, die sich vom Kontakt zur Familie einen besseren Draht nach Washington versprechen. Alles privat, versichern die Sprecher. Alles legal, sagt die Trump Organization. Und jetzt erzählt uns bitte noch einmal etwas von Hunter Bidens Laptop.

When Ted Turner asked Carl Sagan whether he was a socialist, Sagan offered an answer that captures the true meaning of a civilized society.

On this Israeli election day, I’d recommend reading this extraordinary @haaretzcom interview with billionaire Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress and once one of Benjamin Netanyahu’s closest confidants. One of Lauder’s most striking conclusions: “I realized at the end of the day that Israel really didn't want peace, but they wanted dominance.” This is coming from someone who helped launch Netanyahu’s political career, introduced him to powerful figures in American politics and media, and secretly negotiated with Hafez al-Assad and Rafik Hariri on his behalf in the late 1990s. In one of the interview’s biggest revelations, Lauder says Netanyahu agreed to a comprehensive peace deal with Syria and Lebanon, including withdrawal from the Golan Heights, but ultimately refused to sign it for political reasons. “He chose politics over peace. He put his political future before the deal.” Now 82, Lauder describes his profound disillusionment with Israel’s direction. After decades of supporting Israeli and Jewish institutions, he has sold his Tel Aviv apartment, given away his Be’er Sheva property, and says he has no intention of returning to Israel. He warns that Netanyahu’s dependence on figures like Ben-Gvir and Smotrich is damaging Israel, alienating diaspora Jews and eroding support in Washington. The interview is also full of fascinating details about Lauder’s role in Netanyahu’s political rise. The two became close friends in the 1980s, when Netanyahu was Israel’s ambassador to the UN, speaking almost daily at times. Lauder says he introduced Netanyahu to speech coach Lilyan Wilder to improve his public speaking and, crucially, to Republican strategist Arthur Finkelstein, who would become instrumental in Netanyahu’s electoral success. When Netanyahu left New York to pursue a political career in Israel, Lauder threw him a farewell party attended by some of the most influential figures in American media and politics, including Rupert Murdoch and the head of the New York Times. Lauder recalls opening doors for Netanyahu and helping him cultivate the relationships that would underpin his rise to power. What makes this interview so revealing is that Lauder is no longtime critic of Israel. He had been a committed Zionist, a Republican power broker, and a man who spent decades financing Jewish institutions, cultivating relationships with Arab leaders, and pursuing diplomatic openings on Israel’s behalf. A fascinating read 👇 haaretz.com/israel-news/elec…

“On Feb. 5, 2025, her first day in office, Attorney General Pam Bondi disbanded the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, dismantled the department’s unit pursuing Russian oligarchs’ assets, and narrowed enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. CISA paused its election security work, abandoned the information sharing center that connected it to state and local election officials, and by mid-2025 had lost more than a third of its workforce. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard gutted the Foreign Malign Influence Center, the State Department closed its office for countering foreign disinformation, and National Security Council working groups on Russian sabotage and disinformation stopped meeting. The next target was the people. In August 2025, Gabbard revoked the security clearances of 37 current and former officials, among them a senior Russia analyst who helped produce the 2017 assessment, citing the “politicization or weaponization of intelligence.” Comey was indicted on Sept. 25, 2025, over his 2020 Senate testimony, five days after Trump publicly demanded his prosecution. A judge dismissed the case, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit is currently hearing the department’s appeal. CIA Director John Ratcliffe referred former Director Brennan for prosecution for alleged perjury in his congressional testimony, and Brennan has been subpoenaed to appear at a Florida grand jury examining whether officials who investigated Trump conspired against him. The purge also reached below the senior level, and analysts who worked on the 2017 assessment also had their clearances stripped. The FBI forced out a veteran counterintelligence agent over his ties to an official in the original Russia investigation, and dozens of FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors were fired or demoted for work investigating Trump or Russia.”

Holy shit. Dutch intelligence has uncovered Jared Kushner’s role as a Mossad agent.

🔥🔥🔥HOLY HELL: Whatever you do, do not repost this as Donald Trump will lose his shit if he hears this insane applause Ohio gave Obama today!

Trump and the GOP have been working hard to keep this video from being reposted on social media. Repost it, keep it alive. Too many people aren't paying attention to who Donald Trump is. He's a liar, and by his own words, he must be held accountable.🤥

🚨🚨🚨MASSIVE SCANDAL!!! There’s now peer-reviewed evidence proving political bias in X’s algorithm!!! The below 2026 study found that X’s practice of switching users from “chronological” to “algorithmic” feed massively increases their exposure to conservative political content. That is evidence of algorithmic amplification of pro-Trump & pro-MAGA content while suppressing pro-Democratic content — just weeks before the most consequential midterm election in our history. Here’s the study: The political effects of X’s NEW feed algorithm. nature.com/articles/s41586-0…

Ten years ago today. In just the last few days: Trump made a deal for the U.S. to buy Russian diesel, an economic lifeline for Putin; he and Elon Musk blamed each other for an order that slowed down Starlink satellite connectivity over Ukraine, hampering the country's defenses during a devastating Russian attack; and Trump waived sanctions on Russia that Congress, led by his late friend Lindsey Graham, had pushed for. Now, Putin has proposed a summit with Trump and Xi to decide Ukraine’s fate for them, bulldoze a century of international cooperation, and frame Russia as an equal to the U.S. and China. We’ll see if Putin’s puppet continues to dance on his strings.

MASSIVE BOMBSHELL: DAN GOLDMAN UNLEASHES TRUTH! Congressman Goldman just went live with FBI 302 receipts. Evidence shows Trump unzipped his pants, forced a 13-year-old’s head down, and when she bit his p*nis in self-defense, he punched her and called her a "B." The FBI interviewed her FOUR times while the case was buried. Pam Bondi lied to Congress, claiming “no evidence” of these crimes while sitting on files describing this exact assault. This is perjury and a cover-up for a predator. You don’t get to "save the kids" while your AG hides files of a child being beaten for fighting back. History will remember the enablers. We stand with the children who bit back.

A video that Netanyahu does not want the world to see Let the world know by sharing this Tens of thousands of anti-Zionist rabbis and Jews gathered in the Barclays Center in New York City to say that the Zionist regime is a criminal and occupying gang and does not represent the Jews.

Dear Secretary Bessent @SecScottBessent, My name is Everett Stern. In 2010 I was a compliance officer at @HSBC. From a back office in New Castle, Delaware, I watched billions of dollars move to drug cartels, sanctioned regimes, and terrorist organizations. The enemies of the United States. I documented it, I escalated it, and when the bank would not act, I took it to the @FBI, the @CIA, and eventually the @SECGov. The result was a $1.92 billion settlement. At the time, it was one of the largest in American history. It was also about five weeks of the bank’s profit. Not one banker was charged. Not one went to prison. I paid a different price. I lost my career, my savings, and my place in the industry I had trained for. I was blacklisted. Every door in American finance closed at once. I slept on a camping cot in a 300 square foot apartment because I could not afford a bed, and I waited tables at @PFChangs to eat. I tell you this not for sympathy, but so you understand that I know exactly what it costs to do the right thing in American finance, and exactly how little the system does in return. I made that sacrifice because I believed it would change something. Yesterday, your department fined @BankofAmerica $1.2 billion for failing to report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions, some of it tied by your own findings to Chinese laundering networks, narcotics, and the southwest border, alongside 475 apparent sanctions violations touching Russia, Iran, and global terrorism. The bank admitted it willfully violated the Bank Secrecy Act. Fourteen years after HSBC. A bank with “America” in its name. And once again, not one individual charged. Secretary Bessent, I want to say plainly what I believe you already know. The fines are not working. A fine is paid by shareholders, absorbed by the balance sheet, and forgotten by the next earnings call. Bank of America reported earnings this morning. Nobody who set the alert thresholds, nobody who decided the 2024 cease and desist could wait, nobody who chose the backlog over the law will lose a single thing they value. Their lives are untouched. That is the entire reason the behavior repeats. This is money laundering. This is blood money. Money that reaches a cartel buys fentanyl that kills Americans. Money that reaches a terrorist organization buys the next attack. This country has fought a war on drugs and a war on terror for decades, at enormous cost in lives and treasure, and all the while we have allowed the financing to flow through institutions we charter and regulate. Cut off the money and we win. We have never seriously tried. There is also a question of equal justice that I cannot let go. Before I walked into the FBI building to report HSBC, I stopped in front of the Great Seal on the wall and read the words engraved beneath it: “Justice is the defense of our liberty.” I believed that. I still want to. But every day in this country, people go to prison for crimes that are nothing next to moving money for the people who want Americans dead. A suit, a title, and a corporate badge should not be a shield from the consequences that apply to everyone else. If a street dealer goes to prison for what he sells, the banker who moved the cartel’s money should be standing next to him. I also want to raise something that is rarely said in these conversations. Why has no one inside Bank of America come forward the way I did? The answer is that everyone in American banking knows what happened to me, and to the whistleblowers who came after. The last person who spoke up is the only policy anyone believes. That is a culture problem, and it starts with leadership, in the banks and in the agencies that regulate them. This is not a political issue. It has spanned administrations of both parties. It is a national security issue, and I am asking you to treat it as one. Three things would change the math overnight. Refer individuals for criminal prosecution. Not the analyst in the queue. The executives who set the thresholds and chose the risk. One banker in handcuffs would do more than every fine in Treasury’s history combined. End “too big to jail.” An institution cannot be too big to fail and too big to jail at the same time. If it is the first, it must be held to a higher standard, not a lower one. And if Bank of America will not act as America’s bank, review its charter. A national charter is a privilege granted on behalf of the American people. It should be conditioned on not moving money for the people trying to kill them. Secretary Bessent, you said yesterday that these actions send a clear message that even the biggest institutions are not above the law. With respect, the institution was never the problem. The people inside it are above the law, and they know it. Until that changes, I will keep writing letters like this one, and the next bank will keep paying the next fine. I gave up everything I had to stop this. I am asking you to use the power you have to finish it. Respectfully, Everett A. Stern HSBC Whistleblower Founder and Intelligence Director, Tactical Rabbit

“Basically, you're done, Trump. You're done, Hegseth. It won't be long before you're politically thrown down that dark, deep hole.” - Lieutenant Colonel Malcom Ritchie (retired) from the U.S. Army Reserve. “…. And I'm here today, not as a candidate, making that disclaimer. I am here to express my outrage at the meeting in Quantico, Virginia between Hegseth, Trump, and all of the senior officers in the United States military and the senior NCO corps. Those generals, Admirals, and senior NCOs sat there in stone face silence, listening to the most outrageous speeches ever made in United States military history by the Secretary of Defense and the President of the United States. Secretary of Defense on his this ridiculous rant. Trying to take to school, Generals, Admirals, senior NCOs with 10 times the leadership ability, the education and the experience. that the failed Major Hech could ever begin to understand. And then they have to listen to the cognitively declined President of the United States who I would now name as dictator of the United States. tell all this audience that they will be expected to wage war against the American people. That's exactly what Trump said. So don't get on here and try to tell me that he didn't say it. training grounds in American cities. What's that mean? They're going to go in locked and loaded into American cities, American neighborhoods and use American citizens as pop-up targets on a live fire training. range, This is absolutely astounding. Abuse of power which makes by my estimation Donald Trump a domestic enemy of the Constitution. Because my oath is to the Constitution and don't you think for one minute, Mr. Trump, that there aren't millions of other veterans and retirees that feel exactly the same way. We are enraged, we are beyond enraged, and we will protest peacefully. And we will go out and vote for the candidates of our choice in the 2026 midterm election, which you better not even try to stop. If you try to stop that by force, that's the nightmare scenario. And I'm not saying by violence, I'm saying politically. Basically, you're done, Trump. You're done, Hegseth. It won't be long before you're politically thrown down that dark, deep hole. But don't think it's not going to cause a lot of trauma on the American people, as they clutch to the roots of the hole on the way down, trying to survive something that they cannot possibly survive because this nation is a republic and it will not fall to a fascist regime.”

As of today, one man, billionaire Trump ally David Ellison, controls: CBS CNN HBO Discovery Channel BET Fandango MTV Nickelodeon Paramount+ PlutoTV Showtime TBS The CW TNT Warner Bros. & more Call it what it is: oligarchy.

Moscow residents bring flowers to building where Politkovskaya was killed Residents are bringing flowers to the Moscow building where Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya was killed 20 years ago. Nikolay Rybakov, the leader of the liberal Yabloko party that was barred from Russia’s parliamentary elections, visited the building on Wednesday and attached a new temporary plaque in memory of Politkovskaya. Over the winter, the plaque was destroyed multiple times by unknown vandals. “It is important for society to understand that this was a terrible crime, and for society itself to do everything possible to ensure such things do not happen in Russia. <...> We firmly believe that this will be the case in our country, and that Anna Politkovskaya’s name will be among those cited as having helped bring our nation to a state where nothing is more important than life, freedom, and human rights. Politkovskaya paid a very high price for this [dream], perhaps the highest price one can pay in life," Rybakov said. Meanwhile, two police officers are stationed at the building’s entrance, while a police van is parked a little further down the street near a café. Police stopped at least one person who had laid flowers but released them almost immediately. Those gathered are being asked not to crowd together or block the road. Politkovskaya gained international renown for her exposés of Kremlin corruption and the brutal treatment of civilians in Chechnya at the hands of Russian forces during the Second Chechen War. Despite the risks that came with reporting from Chechnya and the numerous acts of intimidation and violence she was subjected to, Politkovskaya refused to give up writing. She was killed by four gunshots at point-blank range, including one to her head, on 7 October 2006. Media | Ostorozhno, Novosti, SOTAvision

Wow! There is evidence that Donald Trump raped a 13 year-old girl and the Trump DOJ is refusing to release it. The biggest cover-up in American history!

Today marks 20 years since Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya was murdered in Moscow. She recognized Putin's true nature earlier than most—and the regime could never erase the truth she died to tell.

Hello Melania Trump. My name is Juliette Bryant — an Epstien survivor. You want girls to testify under oath? Here I am. Everything I’ve said is TRUE. Too bad so many of the girls who already testified ended up dead. Maybe it’s time you and your husband testify under oath too.