Better in their words…

The Helsinki connection; DOE drops hammer on DEI; IRS faces audits and layoff penalties; Louisiana halts vaccine pushing; NIH humiliation escalates; and more.

Source: GOALS ☙ Sunday, February 16, 2025 ☙ C&C NEWS

WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY

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What happened in Helsinki?? One of my favorite features of the Sunday Supporter Edition is the freedom to speculate a little, here among friends and long-time readers. This morning I’d like to expand on yesterday’s post about Trump’s war on the US-European deep states, explaining my evolving working hypothesis about one of the most intriguing and still-unsolved mysteries of Trump 1.0—the critical meeting between then-President Trump and President Putin, and a soccer ball.

CLIP: Putin gives Trump a World Cup soccer ball (0:30).

The two men met in Helsinki, Finland, for a bilateral security conference, during which Trump met privately with the Russian President in their first face-to-face confab since the start of the Mueller probe. It was just the two presidents and their interpreters — no aides, advisors, or assistants. And it drove the security services totally insane.

Later that day, the men held an otherwise unremarkable press conference. No readout of their meeting was ever published, meaning whatever they discussed was too sensitive for even internal U.S. intelligence channels. And then, the moment that sent the intelligence world into full-blown convulsions: a smiling Putin—cool as a cucumber—handed Trump a World Cup soccer ball, looked him straight in the eye, and demurred, “Mr. President, the ball is in your court.”

Alarms immediately began ringing in the corridors of Langley and MI6. Whatball? What court? What game? It’s never been explained. But it was obvious it wasn’t just a soccer ball. It was a message.

Trump answered Putin, “That will go to my son, Barron. In fact, Melania— here you go.” He tossed the ball to Melania, who was seated nearby —keeping the ball clear of U.S. security officials and massively triggering the entire neocon establishment. Was something inside the ball? Scores of over-the-top, Russia-phobic headlines suggested the soccer ball was bugged and Trump should immediately incinerate the gift.

During the remainder of the joint press conference, and for the first time, Trump seemed skeptical of his U.S. intelligence agencies, and also seemed newly open to Putin’s denials of election interference. “President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today,” Trump remarked.

After Helsinki, Trump was a changed man. Before, he was defensive. After, confident. He became much more aggressive in attacking the FBI, DOJ, and intelligence community over the Russia probe. For instance, he shifted from calling RussiaGate a “witch hunt” to calling for declassification. He focused his efforts to find, and expose classified documents related to Crossfire Hurricane, FISA abuses, and DOJ misconduct. That push for declassification would eventually lead to further revelations about the roles of shadowy figures like Stefan Halper, Joseph Mifsud, and British intelligence assets.

For its part, the Deep State reacted to Trump’s chirpy Helsinki comments with what could fairly be described as a fabulous freakout multiplied by an out-of-control conniption. Former intelligence officials —James Clapper, John Brennan, and Michael Hayden— launched a media blitz attacking Trump as a traitor. FBI and DOJ leadership amplified arguments that Trump had “betrayed” U.S. intelligence by accepting Putin’s denials. Senator John McCain (who was deeply involved in Russiagate via the Steele dossier as well as in UkraineGate) excreted a dramatic statement calling the otherwise unremarkable press conference “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.”

Democrats and media pundits wildly suggested that Trump’s banal but skeptical comments at Helsinki constituted an impeachable offense. Some even questioned whether Trump was a Russian agent, magnifying the narrative carefully cultivated since 2016.

Now for my speculation. The timeline is too perfect to ignore. July 16, 2018. Helsinki. The day everything changed. The day he stopped merely suspecting — and started knowing. The day the intelligence agencies stopped merely hating him — and started fearing him. The day Putin handed him direct evidence of the Deep State’s war against him.

🔥 First, motive. Why would Putin privately turn over to Trump evidence of the CIA’s Crossfire Hurricane operation? Consider the moment. By mid-2018, the Mueller probe was in full frenzy mode. Indictments were piling up. And the media-industrial complex was all but accusing Trump of treason. (That came right after Helsinki.)

Putin isn’t stupid. He knew Russiagate was a lie—but more importantly, he knew Trump had no idea just how deep the setup went.

Plus, Russia had its own interests. U.S. sanctions were strangling Russia’s economy. If Putin could prove to Trump that the real election interference didn’t come from Moscow, but from Langley and London, maybe the transactional Art-of-the-Dealmaker would help Russia right back.

Second, opportunity. How would Putin have known about Crossfire Hurricane in the first place? Simple: he had Russian eyes inside the operation.

It would be insultingly naive to think Russia doesn’t have sources inside Five Eyes. They’ve been penetrating Western intelligence for decades. And thanks to the CIA, the worldwide Crossfire Hurricane operation was run through Five Eyes, roping in MI6 (Britain), ASIO (Australia), CSIS (Canada), and even Italian intelligence.

That’s a big conspiracy. Too big. It must have leaked somewhere. It had to.

Given the Earth-shattering stakes, every major intelligence agency involved—especially in Europe—would have run it up and down their chains of command. And that leadership ladder is right where Russia thrives. Too many bureaucrats. Too many players. Too many cracks. If even one agent in Five Eyes was feeding intel back to Moscow, Putin would have known exactly who framed Trump— and how they did it.

With this many agencies, operatives, and informants sharing intelligence across borders, Russia had a huge attack surface.

And then there’s all the individuals involved. Like Christopher Steele—the former MI6 Russia Desk Chief who wrote the infamous dossier that helped launch the operation. Steele was sniffing around Russia, talking to “sources,” looking for kompromat on Trump. Given Steele’s high-profile background, it’s almost impossible to believe Russian intelligence didn’t know what he was up to.

Here’s another astounding possibility: Was Russia feeding Steele bad intelligence, classic disinformation, on purpose—knowing Obama’s FBI would eat it up like a death row inmate savoring his last meal? Did the Russians set up the idiotic, gullible Western intelligence bureaucracy?

If Putin handed Trump direct evidence of Crossfire Hurricane’s true origins—inside the U.S. Deep State and its European cousins— it would have been the first time Trump truly saw the size of the knife in his back. Until then, he knew he was being targeted. But if Putin gave him the receipts—that Five Eyes, MI6, and the DOJ were all in on the operation—it would have been a seismic thunderclap of disclosure.

It would explain everything. It explains why Trump immediately shifted from calling it a “witch hunt” to demanding declassification. It explains why he suddenly became more hostile toward Europe and NATO—because they were in on it. It explains why the intelligence community, media, and neocon war hawks all had synchronized meltdowns after Helsinki.

They weren’t just mad about a press conference. They were terrified. They were terrified because, if Trump got the truth that day in Helsinki, they’ve been running out the clock ever since.

What do you think? Am I all wet? Or am I on to something that explains exactly how we got here?

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The AP ran an unintentionally encouraging story yesterday headlined, “IRS will lay off thousands of probationary workers in the middle of tax season.” The Times’ similar story carried a sub-headline that explained, “The tax collector is preparing to terminate thousands of probationary employees as soon as next week.” Thousands.

The Office of Personnel Management, the federal government’s human resources department, ordered agencies across the government this week to terminate probationary employees. This includes nearly anyone hired during the final two years of Biden’s term. Biden ballooned the tax collecting agency, which now manages over 100,000 staff.

Nobody seems exactly sure yet how many IRS employees will be affected, but as the Times’ sub-headline stated, the final number will probably end with the word “thousand.”

The AP and the rest of corporate media shot for (another) narrative of disaster, whining that the layoffs will “delay processing Americans’ tax returns and refunds.” Once again, they’ve missed the mark. Most Americans won’t see delayed tax return processing as any bad thing. Oh no. Anyway. Most Americans wouldn’t mind if we just scratched the whole department.

Most Americans won’t waste a single tear on the IRS.

It is just the latest example of a mis-thrown media and Democrat boomerang. For instance, Senator Ron Wyden (D-Or.), whined on Twitter/X:

Trump baited the Democrats into defending the least popular agency in the federal government. Genius. Wyden’s tweet was peak unforced error. Instead of seizing on actual voter concerns like inflation, crime, and the border, Democrats are wildly wasting political capital arguing that tax collectors need more money, more audit rights, and more employees.

What’s next, Democrats? Trying to win the midterms by promising more mandatory intestinal exams?

So caring was privacy-minded, person-of-the-people Senator Wyden (pronouns in bio). He doesn’t want your data exploited. But … where was he/him when this story broke last year? Fox, June 2024:

On an aside, the IRS didn’t apologize willingly. They did it to settle a lawsuit.

Audits for thee, not for me. Or, how about audits for everybody?

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Yesterday, another wonderful story emerged at Politico, headlined “DOGE, Education Department threaten states’ funding if they don’t cut DEI programs.” Trump gave them two weeks to comply.

The 4-page letter was dispatched Friday to all U.S. educational institutions from the DOE’s Civil Rights division. Read it, it’s terrific. It stressed that schools receiving federal assistance are legally required to ensure nondiscrimination. And DEI is inherently discriminatory. And not virtuous.“Discrimination on race, color, or national origin is illegal and morally reprehensible, and is illegal under controlling Supreme Court precedent,” it scolded.

Democrats, of course, promptly denounced the letter as illegal. Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.), for instance, urged parents, students, and teachers to resist the notice. “There is simply no authority or basis for Trump to impose such a mandate,” Senator Murray sneered in a press release.

The DOE will brook no silly circumventions, either, such as renaming their DEI Department into the new “Department of Candy and Circuses:”

The letter even provided a helpful link for snitches to report schools that resist or try to rebrand their racist regimes.

“Institutions that fail to comply with federal civil rights law may,” the letter warned, “face potential loss of federal funding.” In other words, if a scrap of DEI remains, Trump will be legally justified to cut off their federal funding, one by one.

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Call it the post-Trump effect. Last week the AP ran this amazing headline: “Louisiana to end mass vaccine promotion, state’s top health official says.” It was another historic first.

According to a memo penned on Thursday by Louisiana Surgeon General Ralph Abraham —the same day RFK was sworn in— Louisiana’s Department of Health “will no longer promote mass vaccination.”

Buh bye.

In a separate letter posted on the department’s website, the surgeon general decried “blanket government mandates” for vaccines, and criticized the CDC’s covid vaccination push. Individuals should make their own decisions about vaccinations, Abraham said. “Government should admit the limitations of its role in people’s lives and pull back its tentacles from the practice of medicine,” Abraham wrote.

The department will still “stock and provide vaccines,” but it will no longer promote them. Not enough progress, perhaps, but it’s progress. It’s momentum.

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It’s happening, and it is devastating. STAT News ran the story this morning, headlined “Trump administration layoffs set to hit NIH are ‘devastating,’ former director Monica Bertagnolli says.” They are already clearing out their offices:

The federal health agencies are still languishing under a Trump Administration gag order. No talking! The MMWR —the CDC’s heavily manipulated weekly morbidity and mortality report— has resumed, but only in part. It is reporting things like wildfire injuries and deaths, but nothing on bird flu, which is giving the public health establishment the vapors. How can they fearmonger without this data??

I am starting to think they won’t be allowed to speak until the agencies have been cleared out and re-engineered. It must be humiliating. And nobody gives a rat’s furry hind-end about it, either. If only the public hadn’t lost all trust in them during the pandemic. If only someone had warned them that their sneering, arrogant, fifteen-minutes-in-the-captain’s-chair would eventually expire.

It is so deliciously ironic to those of us who were canceled, deplatformed, and ostracized. The same agencies who silenced us now have to keep their big mouths shut or get fired.

They spent the entire pandemic treating us like idiot children, pushing mandates, suppressing debate, and gaslighting the entire country. Unable to imagine the near future, the white coats somehow expected to keep their new-found powers to boss everyone around forever. But the thing about regimes built on coercion is that, once people stop fearing you, they despiseyou. So here we are. Now they’ve been put in the corner and have to wear the dunce cap. Imagine how humiliating it must be for them.

I always told you accountability was coming. Here it comes.

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Among the rush of current events, it’s easy to miss some of the hints of much bigger things to come. Bloomberg ran a quiet but seismic headline, “Trump Wants to Meet Putin & China’s Xi to Cut Military Budgets in Half.” Ask yourself this: when was the last time you heard about military escalation in the Straits of Taiwan? It was before Trump took office.

On Thursday, seated at the Resolute Desk, Trump dropped what should have been an earth-shaking statement: “One of the first meetings I want to have is with President Xi of China, President Putin of Russia. And I want to say, ‘Let’s cut our military budgets in half.’”

It’s not just another Trumpism. He just threw down a clanky metallic gauntlet. The notion of the great powers halving their military budgets is an existential threat to the military-industrial complex, the Deep State, and the entire post-Cold War neocon order.

And yet, barely a ripple of news.

After all the media fearmongering over how he’d surely drag us right into World War III, now Trump is seriously talking about a plan for world peace. And nobody’s laughing. They believe him. Beyond saving the human race, the peace-dividend implications for the world economy are staggering.

If he pulled it off, it would be the biggest geopolitical shift since World War II and maybe the greatest act of peacemaking in the Nobel Prize’s entire history. When historians look back, they might see that brief Bloomberg headline as the moment everything changed.

The media spent years wailing about World War III, yet now, when potential peace is on the table, they are silent. Why? Because the story isn’t about peace ending the war—it’s about peace ending the story.

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Biden’s two-tiered Justice Department is unraveling, and unraveling fast. I leave you with this uplifting Bloomberg Law headline:

You’re deactivated. It is totally normal for incoming presidents to replace all the US attorneys. But of course, media found this, this perfectly legal cutting off of electronic access without notice, to be a horrible transgression of norms and customs.

Welcome to the world in which the rest of us live.

Outside the arrogant marble halls of the DOJ, we regular folks usually first find out we’re getting fired when our login to the corporate server and email stops working. It’s painfully common sensical—don’t give terminated employees a chance to download stuff or create mischief.

The ‘US Attorney’ is the top DOJ prosecutor in each regional office. But this time, Trump’s not just replacing the US Attorneys. Last week, the DOJ’s new acting director ordered each office to individually justify why any prosecutors in probationary status (usually meaning hired within the last two years) who are not working on Trump’s defined priorities should be retained.

The assignment to defend specific people created an unexpected problem. Apparently, DOJ staff worries that trying to defend a particular prosecutor could just single them out for particular scrutiny. Catch-22.

Of course, if this were a Biden purge, corporate media would be breathlessly explaining why it was “a routine transition” and “necessary to restore trust in the DOJ.” The truth is this is necessary to restore trust in the DOJ.

What do you need to see before you can trust the DOJ again?

Have a blessed Sunday! Thank you for your continuing loyal support—I couldn’t do it without you. I’ll see you back here tomorrow morning to kick off a new, marvelous week of essential news and commentary.

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