Dec 022019
 
 December 2, 2019  Posted by at 9:42 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,


Russell Lee Migrant family in trailer home near Edinburg, Texas Feb 1939

 

White House Says It Will Not Participate In Wednesday Impeachment Hearing (R.)
Political Affiliation Bias: We’re Embracing It Fervently (RT)
Could America Survive a Truth Commission? (CHS)
Why a Second American Revolution Is Necessary for the Entire World (Zuesse)
US Digs Deeper Into Deutsche Role In Danske Money Laundering Scandal (R.)
Albert Edwards Is Watching To Decide When The US Becomes “Japanified” (ZH)
Prince Andrew ‘Has Kept In Constant Touch With Ghislaine Maxwell (DM)
Serbia, Slovakia Join Sudden Eastern European Gold Repatriation Push
Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner? (Marçal)
What Is COP25 And Can It Save The World? (G.)

 

 

“We may consider participating in future Judiciary Committee proceedings if you afford the administration the ability to do so meaningfully..”

White House Says It Will Not Participate In Wednesday Impeachment Hearing (R.)

The White House told Democratic lawmakers on Sunday that U.S. President Donald Trump and his lawyers would not participate in a congressional impeachment hearing this week, citing a lack of “fundamental fairness.” Trump’s aides responded defiantly to the first of two crucial deadlines he faces in Congress this week as Democrats prepare to shift the focus of their impeachment inquiry from fact-finding to the consideration of possible charges of misconduct over his dealings with Ukraine. The Democratic-led House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, tasked with considering charges known as articles of impeachment, had given Trump until 6 p.m. on Sunday to say whether he would dispatch a lawyer to take part in the judiciary panel’s proceedings on Wednesday.

“We cannot fairly be expected to participate in a hearing while the witnesses are yet to be named and while it remains unclear whether the Judiciary Committee will afford the President a fair process through additional hearings,” White House counsel Pat Cipollone wrote to Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, according to a copy of a letter seen by Reuters. Cipollone – while citing a “complete lack of due process and fundamental fairness afforded the president” in the impeachment process – did not rule out participation in further proceedings. But he signaled that Democrats would first have to make major procedural concessions.


[..] “We may consider participating in future Judiciary Committee proceedings if you afford the administration the ability to do so meaningfully,” Cipollone wrote, laying out a list of demands, including allowing Trump’s Republicans to call additional witnesses. Cipollone also complained that Democrats had scheduled Wednesday’s hearing – “no doubt purposely” – to overlap with Trump’s absence from the United States to attend a NATO summit in London.

Read more …

Next year: can Republicans still marry Democrats?

Political Affiliation Bias: We’re Embracing It Fervently (RT)

In an ultra-PC society where even the suggestion of racial, ethnic or gender bias can get a person fired or ostracized, another type of discrimination – a political affiliation-based one – is thriving, according to a new study. Discrimination may have become taboo in US society, but it hasn’t gone away. A new study shows discriminatory behavior thrives in the one area where it remains socially acceptable to judge people based on shared attributes: political affiliation. Politics remains one of the few personal characteristics not protected by equal opportunity hiring laws, and if this study is any indication, lawmakers will want to get on top of that quickly.

Shared political ideology outweighs seemingly more important factors like professional qualifications in hiring decisions, researchers from Clemson University and the University of Kansas confirmed in a study published this month in the Journal of Applied Psychology. Unchecked, this kind of discrimination is liable to produce powerful echo chambers, in which groupthink eventually becomes a prerequisite for employment. Study participants readily picked a job candidate with whom they shared a political affiliation over a more qualified candidate without that affiliation when presented with Facebook profiles containing clear indicators of the prospective hire’s political alignment. These might include statements about leading a campus Democrat or Republican group, or party symbols like the Democratic donkey or GOP elephant.


The closer the participant, acting as a recruiter, identified with a party, the higher ratings they gave to candidates who touted their membership in that party – qualifications were nigh on irrelevant. The effect held true even when candidate profiles didn’t include explicit statements of political loyalty. Recruiter participants still picked candidates who agreed with them based on profiles sporting either a pro-choice or pro-life statement; pro-Second Amendment or pro-gun control material; or support of Black Lives Matter or Blue Lives Matter, a second experiment revealed.

Read more …

Maybe we should ask: Can Americans still recognize the truth?

Could America Survive a Truth Commission? (CHS)

You’ve probably heard of the Truth Commissions held in disastrously corrupt and oppressive regimes after the sociopath/kleptocrat Oligarchs are deposed. The goal is not revenge, as well-deserved as that might be; the goal is national reconciliation via the only possible path to healing: name names and tell the plain, unadorned truth, stripped of self-serving artifice, spin, propaganda and PR. Is such a stripped-of-spin truthful account of names and events even possible in the U.S.? Sadly, there is precious little evidence that a Truth Commission in the U.S. would be anything more than a travesty of a mockery of a sham, a parade of half-truths, misdirections, falsehoods and fabrications, all aimed at one goal: protecting the powerful from the consequences of their decisions and actions.

Sadly, we’ve lost the capacity to simply tell the truth: everything, and I mean everything, is crafted to protect the guilty, polish the putrid decay of legalized looting, defraud the unwary, ease the most venal, power-mad sociopaths into positions of unparalleled power, sell low-quality goods and services nobody needs or would even want if the marketing weren’t so Orwellian, persuade debt-serfs to borrow more and bamboozle voters into further enriching the few at the expense of the many. The truth is no match for greed is good and don’t be evil, unless it’s incredibly profitable, in which case, go for it but cover your tracks (here’s looking at you, Big Tech). Outrage is reserved for whistleblowers who name names and reveal the sordid truths that the status quo has expended the nation’s treasure to protect from the light of day.


This is the pathetic state of America: our outrage is reserved for those telling the truth, not for the legions who lie, cheat, steal and prevaricate to conceal the truth at all costs.

Read more …

“All of these invasions and coups are based on nothing but lies, and the media are a necessary part of that.”

Why a Second American Revolution Is Necessary for the Entire World (Zuesse)

On November 11th, the very disturbing but clearly true “Lessons To Learn From The Coup In Bolivia” was posted to the Web. That anonymous author (a German intelligence analyst) documented the evilness of the overthrow of Evo Morales in Bolivia, and the threat now clearly posed to the world by the US regime — a spreading cancer of expansionist fascism, led from Washington. But, even more than this, he indicated that unless the individuals who are responsible for the advancing fascism are executed, there won’t be any real hope for democracy anywhere in the world.

Either this impunity will stop, or else the spread of the US international dictatorship — not only by CIA coups such as this, but by illegal international invasions such as of Iraq 2003, Libya 2011, Syria 2012-, and Yemen 2015-, — will continue and will engulf in misery ultimately the entire world. He makes clear the complicity of US ‘news’-media in the lies that ‘justify’ this coup (and ‘justified’ those invasions). It’s, by now, clearly the way the US regime functions. Of course, none of those media will publish any such truth; they all cover-up constantly for the regime, because they actually are an essential part of it. (All of these invasions and coups are based on nothing but lies, and the media are a necessary part of that.) Censorship in America is thus actually extreme, and constant.


For example: how many US-and-allied media have even reported that fascists took over in Bolivia? Instead, we’ve got newspaper editorials such as the New York Times blaming the extraordinarily successful and popular democratically elected President of Bolivia for the coup which overthrew him and replaced him by fascists (and never using the word “coup,” except once derisively, by saying that “British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, cried ‘coup’” — as if it weren’t a coup — and making no mention whatsoever that it had been done by committed fascists).

Read more …

It’s been 5 years since the first whistleblower stepped forward. Who’s in jail?

US Digs Deeper Into Deutsche Role In Danske Money Laundering Scandal (R.)

The U.S. Department of Justice has in recent weeks stepped up its investigation into Deutsche Bank’s role in the 200 billion euro ($220 billion) Danske Bank money laundering scandal, four people familiar with the inquiry told Reuters. One source said the DoJ’s new line of inquiry is whether Deutsche helped move tainted money from Danske, Denmark’s largest lender, into the United States. If proven, that could lead to steep financial penalties. Officials from the DoJ, who have been working closely with Estonian prosecutors for around a year, have also begun cooperating with Frankfurt state prosecutors, the sources said. The Frankfurt prosecutors have been exploring Deutsche’s role in processing payments for the Danish bank.


The DoJ’s focus on Germany’s largest bank and its work with Frankfurt prosecutors have not previously been reported. A Danske spokesman said it continued to cooperate with the authorities in Estonia, Denmark, France and the United States. [..] Although the Justice Department requested information from Deutsche last year relating to Danske transactions, at the time its executives believed that the investigation was focused onDanske and that the German bank itself was not a target. However, Deutsche officials were made aware in recent months that the scope of the DoJ probe had broadened to the bank’s role in facilitating the Danske trades and its possible failure to report suspicious transactions quickly enough, one of the people said.

Read more …

No inflation.

Albert Edwards Is Watching To Decide When The US Becomes “Japanified” (ZH)

There is another reason why Edwards dismisses any incipient signs of inflation in the US: his latest piece is titled “Japanification of the US beckons”, in which he writes that despite the Fed’s recent announcement of a halt to further rate cuts, “GDP growth looks fragile and there is good evidence to suggest that core CPI inflation is set to collapse towards zero. In fact, a resumption of Fed easing on the back of recessionary data and sliding inflation is likely to accelerate the convergence of US yields towards negative eurozone and Japanese yields.” Hence, the Japanification of the US, and as he further notes, if the US economy slides into recession, it is clear that “inflation will likely fall ever closer toward Japanese-style deflation.

But a rapid decline in key inflation measures, like core CPI, may be beginning to unfold already, irrespective of whether a recession is about to start or not.” To make his point, Edwards points out the October CPI data which “shocked” him, but not for the surprisingly high 0.4% headline rise M/M, but because of a specific data set that he will now be watching very closely to determine if US inflation is indeed converging with that of Japan: shelter CPI. it was this key component of the CPI basket that last month collapsed to almost zero. And since shelter has a very heavy 33% weighting in the overall CPI and an overwhelmingly dominant 42% weighting in the closely watched core CPI (ie ex food and energy), it’s only a matter of time before the decline in shelter hits the broader inflation basket.

Read more …

Not what he said in the interview.

Prince Andrew ‘Has Kept In Constant Touch With Ghislaine Maxwell (DM)

Prince Andrew has kept in constant contact with billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein’s ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, it has been claimed today. The Duke of York, 59, invited Maxwell, 57, to Buckingham Palace in June, just a month before Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges. But a source has now claimed the pair have been in touch by phone and email throughout the scandal over the prince’s links to the convicted sex offender. They claim there is an ‘unswerving loyalty’ between the pair, who both deny any wrongdoing despite their close relationships with Epstein. The source told the Sun: ‘They have remained constantly in touch by phone and email. The Duke has an unswerving loyalty to Ghislaine and she is also very loyal to him.


‘Ghislaine will do anything to protect the Duke and the feeling is mutual. They both share the same view they have done nothing wrong.’ There is no indication of how the source knows about Andrew and Maxwell’s communications. In his car crash Newsnight interview Andrew claimed he had not spoken about Epstein when he was last in contact with Maxwell because he ‘wasn’t in the news’. [..] Ms Guiffre Roberts will give a tell-all interview to BBC Panorama tomorrow night in a programme that will also probe Maxwell’s involvement in Epstein’s criminal activity.

Read more …

They don’t have very much, do they? But yeah, why keep your gold stored abroad?

Serbia, Slovakia Join Sudden Eastern European Gold Repatriation Push

Just a few short days after Poland’s government touted its economic might after completing the repatriation of 100 tons of the barbarous relic; and with Hungary’s anti-immigrant Prime Minister Viktor Orban also ramping up holdings of the safe-haven asset to boost the security of his reserves, more Eastern European nationalist leaders are demanding their country’s gold back on home soil. As Bloomberg reports, former Slovak Premier Robert Fico, whose odds of returning to power are rising quickly, urged parliament to compel the central bank into repatriating the nation’s gold stocks, which are currently stored in the U.K.. Perhaps most vocally reflecting what many other nations also believe – sometimes your international partners can betray you.

Citing a 1938 pact by France, Britain, Italy and Germany allowing Adolf Hitler to annex a chunk what was then Czechoslovakia, Fico told reporters: “You can hardly trust even the closest allies after the Munich Agreement. I guarantee that if something happens, we won’t see a single gram of this gold. Let’s do it as quickly as possible.” Additionally, Serbia’s strongman leader Aleksandar Vucic took note, ordering the central bank to boost reserves and prompting the purchase of nine tons in October. Vucic said last week that more should be bought because “we see in which direction the crisis in the world is moving.”


The various leaders have a recent example to prove their fears right as the Bank of England refused to return Venezuela’s gold stock over political differences. “Gold is a symbol,” said Vuk Vukovic, a political economist in Zagreb. “When states purchase it, people everywhere see it as a sign of economic sovereignty.” The gold rush mirrors steps by Russia and China to diversify reserves exceeding $3 trillion away from the dollar amid flaring geopolitical tensions with the U.S.

Read more …

Interesting topic, and women need more say, but still, in many societies, women do a lot of things besides cooking and cleaning. That’s more of a western thing, and not even a modern one.

Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner? (Marçal)

Men have always been allowed to act out of self-interest – as in economics, so in sex. For women, this freedom has been taboo. If not flat-out forbidden. Woman has been assigned the task of caring for others, not of maximizing her own gain. Society has told her that she cannot be rational because childbirth and menstruation tie her to the body, and the body has been identified as the opposite of reason. In women, lust and greed has always been criticized more harshly than it has in men. It has been viewed as something threatening, destructive, dangerous and unnatural. ‘People call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute,’ wrote Rebecca West. Women have never been allowed to be as selfish as men.

And if economics is the science of self-interest, how does woman fit in? The answer is that man has been allowed to stand for self- interest and woman has stood for the fragile love that must be conserved. By being excluded. Even though the word ‘economy’ comes from the Greek oikos, which means home, economists have long been uninterested in what exactly happens at home. Woman’s self-sacrificing nature was said to tie her to the private sphere, and thus she was not economically relevant. Activities like raising children, cleaning, washing or ironing for her family – these don’t create tangible goods that can be bought, traded or sold. So they also didn’t contribute to prosperity, thought economists in the 1800s.


Prosperity was everything that could be transported, that had a limited supply, and that either directly or indirectly gave pleasure or prevented pain. This definition meant that everything that women were expected to dedicate themselves to went unseen. The fruits of male labour could be stacked in piles and measured in money. The results of women’s work were intangible. Dust that is swept away collects again. Mouths that have been fed grow hungry. Children who sleep, wake. And after lunch it’s time to do the dishes. After the dishes comes dinner. And more dirty dishes.

Read more …

In December 2015, when COP21 was held in Paris, I wrote in CON 21:

“COP21 is not a major event, that’s only what politicians and media make of it. In reality, it’s a mere showcase in which the protesters have been co-opted. They’re not in the director’s chair, they’re not even actors, they’re just extras.”

4 years later, nothing has changed. It’s still just theater.

What Is COP25 And Can It Save The World? (G.)

[..] There are far bigger issues hanging over COP, but they will not be decided this year, just hinted at. The biggest alarm is that the aspiration set in Paris to constrain temperature rises will require unprecedented efforts to achieve. But individual country commitments to steer the world towards that best-case scenario were not part of the binding Paris deal, but contained in a non-binding addition. So emissions are increasing again, temperatures are higher than ever, countries are not mandated by law to act – and time is running out: the IPCC concluded that on current rates we have little over a decade to halt emissions growth and bring down carbon rapidly to keep warming within the 1.5C threshold.


Current commitments made by national governments under the Paris agreement fall far short of what is required – taken together, they would still condemn the world to an estimated temperature rise of more than 3C by the end of the century. According to the UN’s latest “emissions gap” report, published a few days before the start of this year’s talks, countries must reduce their greenhouse gases by about 7.6% a year for the next 10 years, to stay within the 1.5C limit. Closing that gap will be COP26’s biggest task.

Read more …

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle December 2 2019

Viewing 24 posts - 1 through 24 (of 24 total)
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  • #51870

    Russell Lee Migrant family in trailer home near Edinburg, Texas Feb 1939   • White House Says It Will Not Participate In Wednesday Impeachment He
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle December 2 2019]

    #51871
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    This is the pathetic state of America: our outrage is reserved for those telling the truth, not for the legions who lie, cheat, steal and prevaricate to conceal the truth at all costs.

    If the misery of the poor not be caused by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.
    Charles Darwin
    What more needs to be said…

    Russell Lee Migrant family in trailer home near Edinburg, Texas Feb 1939
    That is a fabulous photograph; IMO…

    #51872
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Russell Lee Migrant family in trailer home near Edinburg, Texas Feb 1939

    Look at that photo! Nobody; and I mean nobody, is looking at the camera.
    It’s as though there is no camera there…
    That little girl looks forlorn, and, and, and……….
    Very, very, impressive, IMO…

    #51873
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Living in vans, working for Amazon. The company store. Hey, welcome to the real America.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/02/nomadland-living-in-cars-working-amazon

    “White House Says It Will Not Participate in Wednesday Impeachment Hearing (R.)”

    He’s so guilty, they can’t call any witnesses or cross-examine, and the 8-hour testimony of an IG witness is still locked up as Top Secret. …Nothing to hide here, all above board, you always hide all the facts and testimony when the suspect in question is guilty.

    “Next year: can Republicans still marry Democrats?”

    No, because marriage supports the oppressive colonial patriarchy. Worse, you might have children. With two parents. And since children with parents is a top indicator of success, they will also succeed at money and capitalism. Arg! We want them hating jobs and money, but then complaining about not having any.

    They don’t point to this, but worse would be if you don’t affiliate with EITHER party, for then you are the enemy of BOTH. Ask me how I know. Note the article and research doesn’t consider this as an option. In any case, ‘cause either diversity or liberty, Irish need not apply.

    Sadly, we’ve lost the capacity to simply tell the truth:”

    They’ll lie about the weather or about golfing and tweeting. No shame, nothing happens, no one cares, “The truth is not in them.” Their vow is the vow to never have the truth in their mouth. It burns like holy water. They’d rather lose impeachment and the whole nation than tell or admit the truth. That’s how you know it’s their highest calling, the most important, core principle, their one true religion.

    “This is the pathetic state of America: our outrage is reserved for those telling the truth, not for the legions who lie, cheat, steal and prevaricate to conceal the truth at all costs.”

    Now division of labor and the power it confers depends on one thing only: trust. The confidence that when you ask someone to do something, they will keep their word. When they tell you something, that the job is done, that it actually is. This is how it dissolves, and dissolves not back into distributed regionalism, trust within family or group, but trust into power that a warlord will come down and bash your head if you cross him. – Everyone else is fair game for lying, cheating and stealing. What do you think can be done with such people? God can’t help them, they can only help themselves.
    Tytler

    unless the individuals who are responsible for the advancing fascism are executed, there won’t be any real hope for democracy anywhere in the world.”

    I agree and least of all here, however this will stop if the world refuses our US$ and ring-fences us like South Africa, both of which will probably happen. Besides, these guys like fascists most of all, like Pinochet, or Banderite Ukraine. They hate democracy in any nation they overturn because it’s unreliable, and – surprise – the people don’t want their nation robbed and extracted, Mr. Perkins.

    It’s been 5 years since the first whistleblower stepped forward. Who’s in jail?”

    Assange and Manning, of course. The one true enemy of our God is the Truth. And you and me next for the same reason.

    Prince Andrew ‘Has Kept in Constant Touch with Ghislaine Maxwell (DM)”

    British royals are deeply and perfectly aligned with Mossad? And they rape, kill, and blackmail people for personal gain and amusement? You don’t say.

    Serbia, Slovakia Join Sudden Eastern European Gold Repatriation Push”

    Sure, but why now? Following Putin who says the US$ is about to convert? I’m shocked they were able to get any of it, since they refused Germany and everyone last time. Better melt down the bars and sell the tungsten.

    “Men have always been allowed to act out of self-interest – as in economics, so in sex. For women, this freedom has been taboo. If not flat-out forbidden. Woman has been assigned the task of caring for others, not of maximizing her own gain”

    Wow, speaking of never having the truth in your mouth. So…men have the self-interest of dying in a Scottish coal mine to selfishly get food for his family. Gotcha. He does no caring whatever in handing the money to them rather than fleeing to a new life in Belgium. He must do this because he does NOT have menstruation and childbirth, and also has no societal choice, as the same society will shun and destroy him if he does NOT voluntarily die in the coalmine with his family safe at home. Welcome to manhood. Not only do you DO this thing, you furthermore are ATTACKED for doing this thing you are required to do. What’s more, if you bring up the huge fatality and suicide rates, you’re a pansy, mocked, and told how awesome you have it. While those who sit by the fire with the kids and cook bacon are the ones who really have it rough.

    These people write from a perspective where everything is controlled and monetized. So…who do you THINK is going to nurse the baby in 1627, 1827? If he mother does not do that for two years, that baby will likely DIE. Dead. Yet you don’t want her to do that, it’s more important she own property instead. Unlike today, where you can goof off and be a fool every minute, where every mistake will be backstopped by the state, either coal mining OR AND ESPECIALLY children is a deep-knowledge specially you need to be trained in from birth. It’s BECAUSE of her home expertise, trained from birth, that it’s even POSSIBLE to raise kids. And since the man was trained from boyhood to a totally different specialty, he can NOT do that, because no one has time, or formula, or doctors, or disposable diapers, or childcare books, to do both.

    So the woman is a deep-knowledge specialist, same as a surgeon. WHICH FEMINISTS THEMSELVES HATE AND DON’T VALUE. Because she MUST be home, both not coal mining when pregnant, OR away from the children when nursing for two years, maybe +6 career years total, her deep-level specialty then MUST turn to the household finances, the bookkeeping, but also anything else on the home front. Which again, the man can’t do, and you’re too stupid to do either. You know how to cook ox lungs? Make sausage? Cure colic? Make soap? Knit socks? Launder linen by hand? I didn’t think so. You’re completely useless, while she’s completely useFUL. The reason this is unseen is because of YOUR history. YOUR women’s studies. YOUR story of how totally, completely useless and unimportant women are. That’s your fiction, not mine. Men sure don’t think women are useless and should be discarded. Only other women think that.

    Gosh I hate people who undervalue women, women’s roles, and femininity, and want to make all women men, as if men had it good and had no problems of their own, and as we see in movies, as if being tough, beating people up and killing them is the real apex of humanity, and NOT helping people, holding them together, or giving life. This is what they REALLY hate about women, and what must really be destroyed. Love. Family. Children. Helping those you care for. No. Hate hate hate. Money money money. Fight fight fight. Destroy destroy destroy. Narcissistic ego of self, independence, which statistics show women have been getting more unhappy Every. Single. Day. since feminism started. Movies are a good insight: women want to be valued and loved; men want to die the hero. So these idiots want WOMEN to fight wars in a deadly, loveless environment, and MEN to stay at home in ignominy, so that every individual in the whole society can be miserable, unfulfilled, and warring. Thus is your #AntiLogos. And as in this clip, is based on endless lies as ever.

    Current commitments made by national governments under the Paris agreement fall far short of what is required”

    Hey no kidding: both India and China are exempt. Not only exempt, they’re the top polluters of plastics, toxins, and coal plants, but don’t worry, WE’RE the ones who need to change, right Ms. Thunberg? It’s us colonialists, not Africa, India, and China who’s really to blame, although we have a stellar environmental record, and they’re near the bottom. You know, the bad guys are those white, northern Europeans, who sail the world on expensive ships, telling all the poor natives what to do in their own country, because they know better than us. White Swede’s Burden, to enlighten us poor folk in Arkansas. Why won’t we listen?

    #51874

    I was just about to say it’s awful quiet around here, so I thought I’d add this from Devin Nunes, which seems a nice comment:

    Jerry Nadler has been in the witness protection program for several months after he botched the (Robert) Mueller probe“

    Nadler is the clown in control of phase 2 of the censure circus. No more impeachment, or so we gather.

    #51875
    zerosum
    Participant

    • Could America Survive a Truth Commission? (CHS)

    Hahahaha!

    Yesterday is gone

    Today
    This is the pathetic state of America: our outrage is reserved for those telling the truth, not for the legions who lie, cheat, steal and prevaricate to conceal the truth at all costs.

    Why would anyone want to go visit where the vultures are lined up waiting for you.
    If you are not afraid to visit, (not talking about immigrating), then you need to learn the truth. Go read Karl’s blog.
    Even better, ask V. Arnold if he would move back to USA

    YESTERDAY
    I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me god

    #51876
    sumac.carol
    Participant

    V. Arnold I always like your observations about the art work-thanks for sharing.
    I really appreciate the commentary people provide here-enriches the excellent articles. I know that writing commentary takes effort and I thank you all for making that effort and sharing the results with us all.

    #51877
    John Day
    Participant

    Robert E. Lee Elementary, near UT, Austin, where my wife is librarian, was renamed Russell Lee Elementary in 2016, much to the enragement of some who are still pushing for a much more expensive name change.
    My friend J.B. a professor of Photojournalism at UT, wrote Lee’s biography, and came by for the rechristening. https://finearts.utexas.edu/feature/news/austin-elementary-school-named-after-professor-who-founded-ut-photography-program

    Ilargi, I’m having a hard time posting stuff I thought noteworthy, which you have not yet read. Good choice on Charles Hugh Smith, too. http://www.johndayblog.com/2019/12/degrees-of-freedom.html

    The question, “What is freedom”, has already been asked and addressed constitutionally in the US. Why didn’t I know?
    ​ ​In 1867, Congress expressly recognized that it was possible to agree to work and still be enslaved. With its Anti-Peonage Act, Congress outlawed debt peonage—contracts that force someone to labor in order to pay off a debt, whether it is “voluntary” or not.
    ​ ​This and other laws reveal how the Reconstruction Congress saw the labor part of freedom as “not just the right to participate in the market, but the right to participate in a way that frees you from undue coercion,” says Rebecca Zietlow, a founder of the Thirteenth Amendment Project, a group of scholars exploring the history and “untapped potential” of the amendment.
    ​ ​“It’s not much of a stretch,” she says, to argue that this vision of freedom protects against usurious debt contracts, just as it protects against traditional debt peonage.
    https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/11/constitutional-case-against-high-interest-loans/602368/

    Different in degree, but coming soon to warmly bathing frogs like us…
    ​ ​A video out of China shows a man being called in and interrogated by authorities for the crime of criticizing the police on social media.
    ​ ​The clip shows the man handcuffed to a metal chair as he is asked personal questions.
    “Why did you complain about police on QQ and WeChat?” police ask the man.

    China: Man Interrogated For Criticizing Police on Social Media

    The Military Times has a late, neutral, and probably official read on Trumps Afghan Thanksgiving. It spills no beans.
    (My read is that he Public-Relations outmaneuvered the deep state again, after being sabotaged in September.)
    ​ ​President Donald Trump paid a surprise Thanksgiving visit to Afghanistan, where he announced the U.S. and the Taliban have been engaged in ongoing peace talks and said he believes the Taliban want a cease-fire.
    ​ ​Trump arrived at Bagram Air Field shortly after 8:30 p.m. local time Thursday and spent 3½ hours on the ground during his first trip to the site of America’s longest war. He served turkey and thanked the troops, delivered a speech and sat down with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani before leaving just after midnight…​ ​
    ​ ​Trump appeared in good spirits as he was escorted around the base by heavily armed soldiers, as the smell of burning fuel and garbage wafted through the chilly air. Unlike last year’s post-Christmas visit to Iraq — his first to an active combat zone — first lady Melania Trump did not make the trip.
    ​ ​Trump’s first stop was a dining hall, where the crowd erupted into cheers when he arrived. There, he served turkey to soldiers dressed in fatigues and sat down for a meal. But he said he only tasted the mashed potatoes before he was pulled away for photos.​.. ​
    ​ ​Trump announced that the U.S. and Taliban have been engaged in peace talks and insisted the Taliban want to make a deal after heavy U.S. fire in recent months.
    ​ ​“We’re meeting with them,” he said. “And we’re saying it has to be a cease-fire. And they don’t want to do a cease-fire, but now they do want to do a cease-fire, I believe … and we’ll see what happens.”
    ​ ​The trip came after Trump abruptly broke off peace talks with the Taliban in September, canceling a secret meeting with Taliban and Afghan leaders at the Camp David presidential retreat after a particularly deadly spate of violence, capped by a bombing in Kabul that killed 12 people, including an American soldier…​ ​
    ​ ​Trump ran his 2016 campaign promising to end the nation’s “endless wars” and has been pushing to withdraw troops from Afghanistan and in the Middle East despite protests from top U.S. officials, Trump’s Republican allies in Washington and many U.S. allies abroad… ​ ​
    ​ ​The U.S. and the Taliban in September had been close to an agreement that might have enabled a U.S. troop withdrawal…
    ​ ​Trump made the announcement as he met with Ghani, the Afghan president. Ghani thanked the Americans who have made the “ultimate sacrifice” in Afghanistan and assured the president that Afghan security forces are increasingly leading the fight.
    “In the next three months, it’s going to be all Afghanistan!” Ghani said.
    The trip came a week after the Taliban freed an American and an Australian who had been held hostage since 2016 in exchange for three top Taliban figures, a move that has been widely seen as a possible entree to rekindling peace talks.
    The White House took pains to keep the trip a secret after Trump’s cover was blown last year when Air Force One was spotted en route to Iraq by an amateur British flight watcher…
    White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said plans for the visit had been in the works for weeks.
    “It’s a dangerous area and he wants to support the troops,” Grisham told reporters before Trump landed. “He and Mrs. Trump recognize that there’s a lot of people who are away from their families during the holidays, and we thought it’d be a nice surprise.”
    The president told the troops he was honored to spend part of his holiday with them.
    “There is nowhere I’d rather celebrate this Thanksgiving than right here with the toughest, strongest, best and bravest warriors on the face of the earth,” Trump said.
    https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2019/12/01/trump-thanks-troops-in-afghanistan-says-taliban-want-a-deal/

    #51879
    J.A.Kosmos
    Participant

    Reposting this I read in an old thread since I think I posted to late for it to be noticed and it has to do with the Danske bank affair.

    Noticed something new in Swedish state television recently, concerning the alledged money laundering scandal involving Scandinavian banks. Swedish state television has aired a series if “digging journalism” documantaries but when you google the people who are interviewed they all belong to various organisations like The Atlantic Council, A Journalistic organisation I cant remember the name of now which is funded by the US State Department and USAid, and Utrikespolitiska Institutet (obviously a part of Swedish secret services. Never seen anything so openly angled in Swedish Television. Yes one Russian troll factory doc where everyone involved also work for The Atlantic Council and US State Department organisations. Have you read anything on this scandal Raül? It ties in to the Magnitsky affair and the murder of Andrei Kozlov. Seems like a part of the economic war on Russia by the US.

    #51880
    zerosum
    Participant

    Is this the story

    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/deutsche-bank-db-under-doj-132501190.html
    Deutsche Bank (DB) Under DoJ Probe Over Danske Bank Scandal

    Equity Research
    Zacks December 2, 2019

    The Danske Bank scandal refers to almost $220 billion in transactions that were processed by its Estonian branch during 2007-2015.
    Apart from Deutsche Bank, two major U.S. banks — JPMorgan JPM and Bank of America BAC — are also suspected to be involved in processing transactions at Danske Bank in Estonia.

    ——-
    Obviously, the accountants, lawyers, bankers are having an “in house squabble”
    Otherwise It would be business as usual.
    There is no proof of wrong doing – Biden

    ——-
    Word of the day on MSNBC
    DEBUNKED

    #51881
    anticlimactic
    Participant

    COP25

    Will it save the world? No. They are Don Quixotes fighting imaginary monsters.

    However we may be faced with a serious REAL climate disaster.

    The Sun has been very quiet this year in terms of sunspots, which usually leads to bad winters. There is already ample evidence that this winter will be a bad one.

    However there is a credible prediction that this lack of solar activity will last for over 100 years. The last time this happened is referred to as ‘the little ice age’! It is based on the idea that the four electrical fields in the Sun are out of phase.

    One of the major impacts of this will be on food, with poor summers and frozen ground over winter. The main areas affected will be northern Europe and northern America.

    If it comes true then in a way everybody wins: it will bring about global cooling and reduce the global population!

    #51882
    zerosum
    Participant

    Add to your bookmarks
    space weather
    https://www.spaceweather.com/

    Home


    Click on LATEST SOLAR NEWS: for the weather man audio

    https://www.solen.info/solar/

    #51883

    Kosmos,

    Have you read anything on this scandal Raül?

    I see like a dozen potential scandals in those few lines you wrote there. Swedish state television, Scandinavian banks, Atlantic Council, US State Department, USAid, and Utrikespolitiska Institutet (Swedish secret services), Russian troll factory, Magnitsky affair and the murder of Andrei Kozlov. So which one? And what’s with the umlaut in my name?

    #51884
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://www.npr.org/2019/12/02/784171826/russia-begins-sending-natural-gas-to-china-through-new-pipeline

    Russia Begins Sending Natural Gas To China As Putin And Xi Open New Pipeline

    December 2, 20192:40 PM ET
    Bill Chappell

    Describing the push to create the pipeline, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said Monday that the project required 10 new bridges to be built over large rivers, along with more than 100 crossings over small rivers and marshes.
    When it’s fully completed, the pipeline will span more than 5,000 miles, joining a 3,000-kilometer (1,864 miles) section in Russia with a 5,111-km (3,176 miles) stretch in China, eventually terminating in Shanghai.

    For Russia, the pipeline to China is one of three high-profile energy projects Gazprom is carrying out. The other two plans reflect Russian partnerships with Germany and Turkey — U.S. allies and fellow NATO members.
    Despite repeated objections from the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress, Russia is building the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline through the Baltic Sea — a project that would allow Russia to sharply increase its gas exports to Germany, with a maximum annual capacity of 55 billion cubic meters.
    The Nord Stream 2 pipeline is expected to open within months — as is a third pipeline in the south called TurkStream, which will bring gas from facilities near Anapa, Russia, across the Black Sea to Turkey, making landfall between Istanbul and the Bulgarian border.

    #51885
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/house-gop-report-says-no-evidence-for-trump-impeachment-warns-of-dangerous-precedent
    TRUMP IMPEACHMENT INQUIRYPublished 1 hour ago
    House GOP report says no evidence for Trump impeachment, warns of ‘dangerous precedent’
    By Brooke Singman
    House Republicans delivered a point-by-point rebuttal Monday to Democrats’ impeachment efforts, claiming in their own report that the evidence collected in the inquiry to date does not support the accusations leveled against President Trump — or rise to the level of removal from office.

    #51886
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    sumac.carol
    Thanks. You’re the only one who says anything about my posts.
    But, that’s okay; just my observations…

    #51887
    zerosum
    Participant

    bOOOHHH!
    I FEEL EVEN WORST.
    IGNORED.
    🙂
    YOU DIDN’T EVEN SEE MY QUESTION.

    “Even better, ask V. Arnold if he would move back to USA”

    #51888
    redshift
    Participant

    How can something not be caused by the laws of nature???

    #51889
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    If you are not afraid to visit, (not talking about immigrating), then you need to learn the truth. Go read Karl’s blog.
    Even better, ask V. Arnold if he would move back to USA

    Sorry zerosum; I did in fact miss your question.
    Not to be overly dramatic, but; I’d sooner die than return to the fascist death machine that is the US of A.

    #51890
    John Day
    Participant

    I read everybody’s stuff, even saw JA Kosmos post before he reposted it today.
    V.Arnold. It’s nicer where you live. like it , too, but I have work to do here…

    If y’all really want to see a lot of stuff to figure out, “the unfiltered swamp”, check out Rense.com. It carries stories that completely disagree with each other all the time. Iconoclastic web design, too. 🙂

    #51891
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    John Day
    V.Arnold. It’s nicer where you live. like it , too, but I have work to do here…

    Yes, it is, nicer.
    I understand; count yourself fortunate for that…

    #51892
    J.A.Kosmos
    Participant

    Sorry about the misspelling of your name Raúl.

    I was thinking about the money laundering scandal involving Swedens biggest banks Nordea, Swedbank and SEB and denmarks Danske Bank.

    In the television exposure all those agencies and State Department fronts were represented without disclosure of who they were except for Utrikespolitiska Institutet, which nobody in the general population are aware of. And there were no other voices heard. In my eyes this must be connected to the U.S economic sanctions agains Russia. I am guessing alot of Russian buisness has been done via Scandinavian banks through the Baltic States. I mean its hundreds of billions of SEK or tens of billions of EUR so it must be more than just Russian crime? Or it would be in Russias interest to stop the outflow? Haven’t read much about it outside of Swedish media so just wondering if the story has reached you? In the exposure on TV they interviewed Browder and they tied the whole thing together with Magnitsky, Mannafort and Andrei Kozlov, and Putin of course so its one scandal involving all those elements.

    Sorry if my first post wasn’t clear?

    #51893

    Kosmos,

    From what I have seen the western (Anglo) press moves closer to Deutsche and Danske roles in moving money, which involve an Estonia branch. A wider and deeper “scandal” involving other Scandinavian banks in missing in action so far. Interviews with Browder are better skipped; he has a large agenda.

    #51900
    Dr. D
    Participant

    They would have to be careful. Since there’s nothing BUT corruption in the West, exposing and therefore cutting off all the illegal Russian flows would bankrupt the Danish-Swedish banks, and therefore destroy Scandinavia itself. …And how is a broken Scandinavia going to be a stronger wall against Russia?

    Russia doesn’t need to do a d–n thing. Just sit by and watch the West destroy itself with corruption and overreach and outlast us. Like Stalingrad.

    Speaking of weather, it’s -50f there. In NOVEMBER.

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