Mar 102022
 
 March 10, 2022  Posted by at 9:15 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,


Johannes Vermeer The art of painting 1666-8

 

Doug Casey: U.S. Empire Collapsing, Greatest Danger in World Today (G&E)
A Recession Unlike Any Other (Pento)
Deutsche Bank Has Lost 38% of Its Market Value in a Month (Martens)
Revenge of the Putin-Nazis! (CJ Hopkins)
Victoria Nuland: Ukraine Has “Biological Research Facilities” (Greenwald)
US: Russia Could Launch Biological or Chemical Attack in Ukraine (Antiwar)
The Documents the US Embassy in Ukraine Scrubbed on Biolabs (BN)
US Won’t Give Poland’s Jets to Ukraine (ET)
Ukraine Bans Exports Of Wheat, Oats And Other Food Staples (AP)
Iraqis Protest Rise In Food Prices, Officials Blame Ukraine War (AlJ)
Dems Drop Covid-19 Funds, Clear Way For OK Of $13.6b Ukraine Aid (AP)
Bad News from Hong Kong (Chudov)
Austria Scraps Covid-19 Vaccine Mandate (RTE)
Bolshoi Conductor Resigns Over Free Speech Controversy (Turley)
Wales Bans Tchaikovsky (SD)

 

 

 

 

Plenary
https://twitter.com/i/status/1501673748151390214

 

 

 

 

Assange

 

 

“We could be looking at real chaos over the next decade or two.”

Doug Casey: U.S. Empire Collapsing, Greatest Danger in World Today (G&E)

Doug Casey talks Great Reset, says we’re in for a tough time, that trends in motion tend to stay in motion, and fears the stage is being set for some authoritarian leader to rise to power. He feels the people who love liberty (e.g. libertarians) are an anomaly or rounding error compared to the rest of society. He gives his thoughts on being an international man in the brave new world where air travel has collapsed and authority has become more digital and centralized. We discuss Ukraine…he believes the Russians are on the right side of all this. The U.S. Government is a collapsing empire and has become the greatest danger in the world today. We could be looking at real chaos over the next decade or two. He gives us some tips on surviving the apocalypse.

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“..the government’s debt to GDP ratio soaring to 125 percent. For perspective, that ratio was just 53 percent back in 1960, and only 58 percent as recently as 2000..”

A Recession Unlike Any Other (Pento)

The U.S. economy is already deteriorating due to the humongous fiscal and monetary cliffs. These cliffs are now being compounded by the war in Eastern Europe and near record-high inflation. And, the Fed’s “PUT” is much lower and smaller in size than Wall Street believes. The war in Ukraine will exacerbate the negative supply shocks that are already in place due to COVID-19. Worsening bottlenecks will combine with rising inflation to produce a contraction in global growth. Russia produces 12 percent of the world’s oil supply and exports 18 percent of the world’s wheat consumption. Ukraine accounts for 25 percent of global wheat production. Sanctions and war will serve to slow the economy further and send prices for these vital commodities even higher.

But the upcoming recession will be extraordinarily unique. Not only will it occur while inflation is at a multi-decade high, it will be the first U.S. economic contraction to take place while the Federal Reserve had its target interest rate at or near zero percent. For comparison, look at how much room the Fed had to reduce borrowing costs during previous economic contractions. The following historical data indicates the level of the Fed Funds Rate just prior to the outset of all 10 U.S. recessions since WWII: 1957 3.5 percent, 1960 4.0 percent, 1969 10.5 percent, 1973 13.0 percent, 1979 16.01 percent, 1981 20.61 percent, 1989 10.71 percent, 2000 6.86 percent, 2007 5.31 percent, and 2019 2.45 percent.

In addition, the swoon in GDP will occur after the Fed has just finished printing $4.5 trillion over the past two years and with the national debt vaulting over $30 trillion due to the massive increase in government deficits in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Such borrowing helped send the government’s debt to GDP ratio soaring to 125 percent. For perspective, that ratio was just 53 percent back in 1960, and only 58 percent as recently as 2000. Inflation is destroying real wages, and rising borrowing costs are destroying consumers’ ability to consume. Consumption is 70 percent of GDP, and that means the rate of economic growth is set to plunge. This would normally spur the government into remediative action. But the fact remains that the ability of the Treasury and Federal Reserve to turn around a recession expeditiously by borrowing trillions of dollars and having that debt monetized by the Fed has become greatly fettered this time around.

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$35.4 trillion in notional derivatives..

“derivative weapons of mass destruction”

Deutsche Bank Has Lost 38% of Its Market Value in a Month (Martens)

Deutsche Bank closed at $16.50 on the New York Stock Exchange on February 10 of this year. It closed at $10.23 yesterday – a decline of 38 percent in a month’s time. That’s a big problem because Deutsche Bank is heavily interconnected to Wall Street banks via derivatives. According to Deutsche Bank’s most recent annual report, as of December 31, 2020, it held $35.4 trillion in notional derivatives. (Notional means face amount.) Deutsche Bank, a large German bank, was among the global banks bailed out by the Fed during the financial crash of 2008 as well as during the (still unexplained) liquidity crash that saw the Fed pump trillions of dollars in cumulative loans into global banks from September 17, 2019 through July 2, 2020.


In June 2016, The International Monetary Fund (IMF) released a report with a finding that Deutsche Bank posed the greatest threat to global financial stability than any other bank because of its interconnections to Wall Street mega banks and large banks in Europe. The largest bank in the United States, JPMorgan Chase, was shown as one of the banks with the largest amount of exposure. Despite that finding by the IMF in 2016, Deutsche Bank has been allowed by regulators in Europe and the U.S. to continue engaging in high-risk Over-the-Counter derivatives. It also has an uncomfortable history of suicides and rogue behavior. See a sampling of its history since 2014 below. Yes, President Joe Biden’s administration has a lot on its plate. But if it doesn’t get serious about reforming Wall Street and its derivative weapons of mass destruction, it will have a lot more to deal with eventually.

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“Return of the Putin-Nazis! Revenge of the Putin-Nazis! Return of the Revenge of the Bride of the Putin-Nazis!”

Revenge of the Putin-Nazis! (CJ Hopkins)

And they’re back! It’s like one of those 1960s Hammer Film Productions horror-movie series with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee … Return of the Putin-Nazis! Revenge of the Putin-Nazis! Return of the Revenge of the Bride of the Putin-Nazis! And this time they are not horsing around with stealing elections from Hillary Clinton with anti-masturbation Facebook ads. They are going straight for “Democracy’s” jugular! Yes, that’s right, folks, Vladimir Putin, leader of the Putin-Nazis and official “Evil Dictator of the Day,” has launched a Kamikazi attack on the United Forces of Goodness (and Freedom) to provoke us into losing our temper and waging a global thermonuclear war that will wipe out the entire human species and most other forms of life on earth!

I’m referring, of course, to Putin’s inexplicable and totally unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, a totally peaceful, Nazi-free country which was just sitting there minding its non-Nazi business, singing Kumbaya, and so on, and not in any way collaborating with or being cynically used by GloboCap to menace and eventually destabilize Russia so that the GloboCap boys can get back in there and resume the Caligulan orgy of “privatization” they enjoyed throughout the 1990’s. No, clearly, Putin has just lost his mind, and has no strategic objective whatsoever (other than the total extermination of humanity), and is just running around the Kremlin shouting “DROP THE BOMBS! EXTERMINATE THE BRUTES!” all crazy-eyed and with his face painted green like Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now … because what other explanation is there?

Or … OK, sure, there are other explanations, but they’re all just “Russian disinformation” and “Putin-Nazi propaganda” disseminated by “Putin-apologizing, Trump-loving, discord-sowing racists,” “transphobic, anti-vax conspiracy theorists,” “Covid-denying domestic extremists,” and other traitorous blasphemers and heretics, who are being paid by Putin to infect us with doubt, historical knowledge, and critical thinking, because they hate us for our freedom … or whatever. Let’s take a quick look at some of that “Russian disinformation” and “propaganda,” purely to inoculate ourselves against it. We need to be familiar with it, so we can switch off our minds and shout thought-terminating clichés and official platitudes at it whenever we encounter it on the Internet. It might be a little uncomfortable to do this, but just think of it as a Russian-propaganda “vaccine,” like an ideological mRNA fact-check booster (guaranteed to be “safe and effective”)!

OK, the first thing we need to look at, and dismiss, and deny, and pretend we never learned about, is this nonsense about “Ukrainian Nazis.” Just because Ukraine is full of neo-Nazis, and recent members of its government were neo-Nazis, and its military has neo-Nazi units (e.g., the notorious Azov Battalion), and it has a national holiday celebrating a Nazi, and government officials hang his portrait in their offices, and the military and neo-Nazi militias have been terrorizing and murdering ethnic Russians since the USA and the Forces of Goodness supported and stage-managed a “revolution” (i.e., a coup) back in 2014 with the assistance of a lot of neo-Nazis … that doesn’t mean Ukraine has a “Nazi problem.” After all, its current president is Jewish!

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Sort of new for us, but the Russians have known this all along.

“..if a biological attack were to occur, everyone should be “100% sure” that it was Russia who did it..”

Victoria Nuland: Ukraine Has “Biological Research Facilities” (Greenwald)

Self-anointed “fact-checkers” in the U.S. corporate press have spent two weeks mocking as disinformation and a false conspiracy theory the claim that Ukraine has biological weapons labs, either alone or with U.S. support. They never presented any evidence for their ruling — how could they possibly know? and how could they prove the negative? — but nonetheless they invoked their characteristically authoritative, above-it-all tone of self-assurance and self-arrogated right to decree the truth and label such claims false. Claims that Ukraine currently maintains dangerous biological weapons labs came from Russia as well as China. The Chinese Foreign Ministry this month claimed: “The US has 336 labs in 30 countries under its control, including 26 in Ukraine alone.”

Nuland

The Russian Foreign Ministry asserted that “Russia obtained documents proving that Ukrainian biological laboratories located near Russian borders worked on development of components of biological weapons.” Such assertions deserve the same level of skepticism as U.S. denials: namely, none of it should be believed to be true or false absent evidence. Yet U.S. fact-checkers dutifully and reflexively sided with the U.S. Government to declare such claims “disinformation” and to mock them as QAnon conspiracy theories. Unfortunately for this propaganda racket masquerading as neutral and high-minded fact-checking, the neocon official long in charge of U.S. policy in Ukraine testified on Monday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and strongly suggested that such claims are, at least in part, true.


Yesterday afternoon, Under Secretary of State Victoria Nuland testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), hoping to debunk growing claims that there are chemical weapons labs in Ukraine, smugly asked Nuland: “Does Ukraine have chemical or biological weapons?” Rubio undoubtedly expected a flat denial by Nuland, thus providing further “proof” that such speculation is dastardly Fake News emanating from the Kremlin, the CCP and QAnon. Instead, Nuland did something completely uncharacteristic for her, for neocons, and for senior U.S. foreign policy officials: for some reason, she told a version of the truth. Her answer visibly stunned Rubio, who — as soon as he realized the damage she was doing to the U.S. messaging campaign by telling the truth — interrupted her and demanded that she instead affirm that if a biological attack were to occur, everyone should be “100% sure” that it was Russia who did it. Grateful for the life raft, Nuland told Rubio he was right.

Tucker Carlson – Bio-Weapons Labs in Ukraine

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Yeah, right.

US: Russia Could Launch Biological or Chemical Attack in Ukraine (Antiwar)

On Wednesday, the White House claimed without evidence that Russia might use chemical or biological weapons to create a false flag operation in Ukraine. The White House also dismissed Moscow’s accusations that the US is involved in biological weapons research in Ukraine even though there are Pentagon-linked labs in the country. On Twitter, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said to be on the lookout “for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, or to create a false flag operation using them.” She said Russia’s claim of the US having biological weapons labs in Ukraine is “preposterous.” Psaki’s denial comes a day after Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland said there are “biological research facilities” in Ukraine the US is concerned Russian forces might seize.

Nuland made the comments after being asked if there are bioweapons in Ukraine and said the US is working with the Ukrainians to keep “research materials” out of Russia’s hands. The Russian military has claimed that it uncovered 30 biological laboratories in Ukraine linked to the Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Russia has documents that show Ukraine ordered the destruction of samples of plague, cholera, anthrax, and other pathogens before Russia launched its attack on February 24. According to a February 25 article from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, the US government has worked with 26 biological research facilities in Ukraine. The article quoted Robert Pope of the DTRA’s Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, who warned some of the labs could have Pathogens leftover from the Soviet Union’s bioweapons program.

Lavrov biological weapons

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The US is insane.

The Documents the US Embassy in Ukraine Scrubbed on Biolabs (BN)

Russian accusations of a U.S.-funded and administered ‘biowarfares’ laboratory research program in Ukraine has led to rampant speculation about the nature of these Pentagon-funded laboratories. The Russians’ insistence that it has evidence of such a bioweapons program has become a major hurdle at the diplomatic negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Belarus. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov charged at a press conference last week that “the Pentagon built two biowarfare labs and they have been developing pathogens there in Kyiv and in Odessa.” Lavrov also compared the presence of the laboratories to the United States’ Weapons of Mass Destruction program allegations that led it to invade Iraq in 2003 and topple dictator Saddam Hussein.


Leonid Slutsky, head of the Duma Committee on International Affairs and a member of the Russian delegation at the talks with Ukraine, argued that the purported development of biological weapons components “confirm that the Russian Federation had good reasons for conducting a special military operation to demilitarize Ukraine.” Major General Igor Konashenkov, an official representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense, charged on Sunday that “components of biological weapons were being developed in Ukraine, in close proximity to Russian territory.” Amid the Russians’ accusations, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine has scrubbed a number of documents related to the Ukrainian “Biological Threat Reduction” program. Those documents have been retrieved and can be read below. The documents show both the locations of the Ukrainian laboratories and the Department of Defense’s listing as a “donor” to the program.

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They were fine with Poland handing them over directly. That way nobody could point at the US. It would still have been WWIII. And Poland didn’t fall for that trap.

US Won’t Give Poland’s Jets to Ukraine (ET)

The United States won’t act on a proposal from Poland to take fighter jets from the ally and transfer them to Ukraine because of concerns Russian officials would view the move as “escalatory,” a U.S. official said March 9. “The intelligence community has assessed the transfer of MiG-29s to Ukraine may be mistaken as escalatory, and could result in significant Russian reaction that might increase the prospects of a military escalation with NATO,” John Kirby, the U.S. Department of Defense’s spokesman, told reporters in Washington. Based on the assessment, with which Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin concurs, the military assesses the transfer as “high-risk” and will not carry it out, at least for now.

The proposal from Poland was Polish officials would transfer jets to the United States, which could then send the jets to Ukraine. Poland’s government also called on NATO allies to send jets to U.S. bases. But U.S. officials quickly rejected the proposal, though they had not detailed the intelligence assessment until Wednesday. Kirby also framed the decision as in Ukraine’s best interests, arguing that Ukraine would benefit more in the conflict with Russia by receiving anti-armor and air defense weapons. While Russia’s air force has significant capabilities, air assaults have been met with resistance in the air and on the ground, according to U.S. officials. Additionally, the Ukrainian Air Force was also said to have several squadrons of fully capable aircraft already, and a U.S. assessment concluded “giving them more is not likely” to make a big impact, according to Kirby.

Austin conveyed the position to Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak in a call and also spoke with a top Ukraine official about similar matters. U.S. officials had previously said Poland was welcome to transfer planes to Ukraine directly and Kirby said each nation “can decide for themselves what they want to do.” Ukraine’s public position is that getting fighter jets would help tremendously against Russia, which invaded its neighbor on Feb. 24. “That’s absolutely the way we see it,” Vadym Prystaiko, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, said on Sky News on Wednesday when asked if jets would give Ukraine the advantage it needs.

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“..stabilize the market..”

Ukraine Bans Exports Of Wheat, Oats And Other Food Staples (AP)

Ukraine’s government has banned the export of wheat, oats and other staples that are crucial for global food supplies as authorities try to ensure they can feed people during Russia’s intensifying war. New rules on agricultural exports introduced this week also prohibit the export of millet, buckwheat, sugar, live cattle, and meat and other “byproducts” from cattle, according to a government announcement. The export ban is needed to prevent a “humanitarian crisis in Ukraine,” stabilize the market and “meet the needs of the population in critical food products,” Roman Leshchenko, Ukraine’s minister of agrarian and food policy, said in a statement posted on the government website and his Facebook page.


It’s the latest sign that the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens the food supply and livelihoods of people in Europe, Africa and Asia who rely on the farmlands of the Black Sea region — known as the “breadbasket of the world.” Russia and Ukraine together supply nearly a third of the world’s wheat and barley exports, which have soared in price since the invasion. The products they send are made into bread, noodles and animal feed around the world, and any shortages could create food insecurity in places like Egypt and Lebanon. The export ban will likely reduce global food supplies just when prices are at their highest level since 2011.

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The start.

Iraqis Protest Rise In Food Prices, Officials Blame Ukraine War (AlJ)

Protests have erupted in Iraq’s impoverished south over a rise in food prices that officials attributed to the conflict in Ukraine. For about a week, the price of cooking oils and flour have skyrocketed in local markets as government officials have sought to address growing anger with various statements and measures. More than 500 protesters gathered on Wednesday in a central square in the southern city of Nasiriya – a flashpoint of anti-corruption protests that gripped the country in 2019. “The rise in prices is strangling us, whether it is bread or other food products,” retired teacher Hassan Kazem told AFP news agency. “We can barely make ends meet.” On Tuesday, the Iraqi government announced measures to confront the increase in international prices.


These included a monthly allowance of about $70 for pensioners whose incomes do not exceed one million dinars (almost $700), as well as civil servants earning less than 500,000 dinars ($343). The authorities also announced the suspension of customs duties on food products, basic consumer goods and construction materials for two months. Trade ministry spokesman Mohamed Hanoun attributed the rise in cooking-oil prices to the conflict in Ukraine. “There’s a major global crisis because Ukraine has a large share of [the world market in cooking] oils,” he said. On Tuesday, a protester was seriously injured in a demonstration in the central province of Babil that was marred by violence, a security source said. The interior ministry announced it had arrested 31 people accused of “raising the prices of food commodities and abusing citizens”. A protester in Nasiriya on Wednesday denounced the “greed of traders who manipulate prices”.

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“This is the beast that Putin is,” Pelosi said.

Dems Drop Covid-19 Funds, Clear Way For OK Of $13.6b Ukraine Aid (AP)

The House approved a massive spending bill Wednesday night that would rush $13.6 billion in U.S. aid to battered Ukraine and its European allies, after top Democrats were forced to abruptly drop their plan to include fresh funds to battle COVID-19. Passage of the Ukraine aid and the $1.5 trillion government-wide legislation carrying it let both parties lay claim to election-year victories for their priorities. Democrats won treasured domestic initiatives, Republicans achieved defense boosts, and both got their imprint on funds to counter Russia’s brutal invasion of its western neighbor. Senate approval was assured by week’s end or perhaps slightly longer.

Hours earlier, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., had to abandon the bill’s $15.6 billion for combating the pandemic, a decision she called “heartbreaking” and that spelled defeat for a top priority of President Joe Biden and party leaders. The money was mostly to bolster U.S. supplies of vaccines, treatments and tests and battle the disease around the world, but a Democratic revolt over Republican-demanded state aid cuts to cover the new initiatives’ costs forced her to scrap that spending. “We’ve got a war going on in Ukraine,” Pelosi told reporters, explaining the urgency Democrats felt in making concessions in bargaining with Republicans. “We have important work that we’re doing here.” She said with her party in the 50-50 Senate needing at least 10 GOP votes to pass legislation, Democrats “are going to have to know there has to be compromise.”

The House approved the overall bill in two separate votes. The measure’s security programs were overwhelmingly approved by 361-69, the rest by 260-171, with most Republicans opposed. The Ukraine aid included $6.5 billion for the U.S. costs of sending troops and weapons to Eastern Europe and equipping allied forces there in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion and bellicose threats. There was another $6.8 billion to care for refugees and provide economic aid to allies, and more to help federal agencies enforce economic sanctions against Russia and protect against cyber threats at home. Biden had requested $10 billion for Ukraine.

Pelosi said she talked to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for 45 minutes Wednesday. She said they discussed the weapons and other assistance his country needs and “the crimes against humanity that Putin is committing,” including a Russian airstrike that destroyed a maternity hospital. “This is the beast that Putin is,” Pelosi said. While enmity toward Putin and a desire to send assistance to the region is virtually universal in Congress, lawmakers have had a harder time finding unity on other steps. In one area where both parties were eager to demonstrate action, the House voted 414-17 to banning Russian oil imports, a prohibition that Biden imposed this week.

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“..the case fatality rate in Hong Kong is 16 times HIGHER than in the US..”

Bad News from Hong Kong (Chudov)

Something very strange is happening in Hong Kong. I am not the first to write about it, but I wanted to do a good job compiling the information and informing my readers so this post is somewhat complete. I will include additional reading below. Hong Kong’s stringent “Zero Covid” policy, stopped to work in mid-February and a “wall of cases” curve exploded in the territory. Now, we have seen such “walls of cases” before, but nothing close ever happened to deaths. You can see that deaths per million in Hong Kong are basically three TIMES the highest death rate in the US or Israel. Cases between Feb 13-Feb 17: 18,493 Deaths between Feb 28-March 4: 895 Calculated Case Fatality Rate: 4.83%

The relevant case fatality rate in the US for our recent Omicron peak is roughly 0.3%, or 16 TIMES lower. Slow down and let it sink in: the case fatality rate in Hong Kong is 16 times HIGHER than in the US. That should make you curious. Hong Kong is vaccinated just as much as the United States or Israel, sitting closely between them. Clearly, something else is in play and not the vaccine. Just as cases and deaths in HK skyrocketed, a new sub-variant called “BA.2 + S:I1221T” has taken over. Not much is known about that variant, other than it is minimal elsewhere. Every Hong Konger who is diagnosed with Covid must be taken away and isolated for 21 days in a very bleak and sad place called “Penny Bay”, where they do not even have working wi-fi.

This, naturally, creates an incentive to NOT report a case of Covid and hide out at home with working wi-fi, for those lucky enough to be able to do it. This creates a bias of healthy people with mild cases not being reported, and may explain a part of high mortality. Here in the West, most people already had exposure to Covid. It is a mystery who gets infected first and why some people do not get Covid until later in the pandemic. It is possible that here in the US or UK, the least healthy people already caught Covid and some, sadly, died. Thus, subsequent waves seem to be less deadly, partly because several waves of Covid already went through the population, and some immunity already exists. Not so in HK, where everyone is now vulnerable.

While, so far, I have not seen any evidence of ADE affecting anyone, it is possible that such incredibly high mortality rates are due to ADE from this new variant. The S:i1221T mutation does change a spike amino acid and it is possible that vaccine spike antibodies are assisting infection instead of suppressing it. While it is still speculation, such a possibility need not be dismissed. Overall, Hong Kong is a story worth watching.

Remdesivir kills 26.9% of patients

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Hmmm .. what changed so dramatically? The polls?

Austria Scraps Covid-19 Vaccine Mandate (RTE)

Austria said it is suspending mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations for all adults saying the pandemic no longer poses the same danger, just weeks after the law took effect in an EU first. The Alpine nation of nine million people was among few countries in the world to make jabs against the coronavirus compulsory for all adults. The law took effect in February and called for fines up to €3,600 from mid-March for those who do not comply. But minister Karoline Edtstadler said the law’s “encroachment of fundamental rights” could no longer be justified by the danger posed by the pandemic. “After consultations with the health minister, we have decided that we will of course follow what the (expert) commission has said,” Ms Edtstadler told reporters after a Cabinet meeting.


“We see no need to actually implement this compulsory vaccination due to the (Omicron) variant that we are predominantly experiencing here.” The highly-contagious variant is widely believed to be less severe than previous strains of the virus, and so far Austrian hospitals have been able to cope with a surge in cases. This has led to the government to drop most coronavirus restrictions in recent weeks. The government has stressed it needs to act flexibly in line with the epidemiological situation. “Just like the virus keeps on changing, we need to be flexible and adaptable,” Ms Edtstadler said. The decision to suspend the law will be reviewed in three months, said Johannes Rauch, who took over as health minister this week as the third since the start of the pandemic.

Synthetic RNA

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“..in both cities he regularly invited Ukrainian singers and conductors because “we never even thought about our nationalities. We were enjoying making music together.”

Bolshoi Conductor Resigns Over Free Speech Controversy (Turley)

Now that assault on free speech has reached the highest levels of ballet after Tugan Sokhiev, the chief conductor at Bolshoi Theatre and the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, resigned rather than be coerced into such public statements. The Munich Philharmonic also dismissed chief conductor Valery Gergiev after he failed to condemn the invasion. Sokhiev is one of the most celebrated and respected conductors in the world. He also happens to be Russian. For many, his musical contributions became secondary when he failed to publicly condemn Putin. They demanded that he speak or resign. He resigned. Sokhiev wrote on Facebook “during last few days I witnessed something I thought I would never see in my life. In Europe, today I am forced to make a choice and choose one of my musical family over the other.”

As we previously discussed, it is during wartime and periods of social discord that the greatest abuses can occur for those with dissenting or unpopular views. Despite my strong support for Ukraine and condemnation of Putin, it is important for advocates of civil liberties and free speech to stand against such blacklisting and compelled speech. For many, this is hardly a new movement. For years, powerful politicians, academics, and even some in the media have demanded more censorship. This move against Russian performers and athletes may draw the unwitting into this anti-free speech movement. The response to those of us who are raising concerns is the same and predictable. You are called an apologist for Putin or a traitor to the cause. It is an effort to create a glacial chilling effect on dissenting voices.

Once again, it is important to address the rationalization on the left for attacks on free speech in recent years: the First Amendment only protects speech from government crackdowns. The First Amendment is not the full or exclusive embodiment of free speech. It addresses just one of the dangers to free speech posed by government regulation. Many of us view free speech as a human right. Corporate censorship of social media clearly impacts free speech, and replacing Big Brother with a cadre of Little Brothers actually allows for far greater control of free expression. As I have noted earlier, while liberal writers and artists were blacklisted and investigated in the 1950s, liberal activists have succeeded in censoring opposing views to an unprecedented degree in recent years. Rather than burn books, they have simply gotten stores to ban them or blacklist the authors, athletes, and artists.

Figures like the great singer Paul Robeson found themselves barred from performances due to their refusal to condemn others or Russia. Some, however, are not intimidated but rather incensed by the attack on free speech. In the meantime, at least one opera lover is boycotting the Met after it cancelled another great Russian artist for not publicly reciting the official line against Putin. I recently received the attached letter from a donor at the Met who stated that he was changing his will over the controversy involving soprano Anna Netrebko. He would no longer leave his estate to the Met and pledged to stop his regular contributions to the institution. As for Sokhiev, he noted that in both cities he regularly invited Ukrainian singers and conductors because “we never even thought about our nationalities. We were enjoying making music together.”

The response from the mayor of Toulouse, Jean-Luc Moudenc, was particularly telling. While denying that they demanded that Sokhiev “make a choice between his native country and his beloved city of Toulouse,” the mayor added: “However, it was unthinkable to imagine that he would remain silent in the face of the war situation, both vis-à-vis the musicians and the public and the community.” It is not “unthinkable.” He may support the invasion or fear for himself or his family in opposing this tyrant. It does not matter his reasons. He should have a right to hold opposing views or to remain silent. What is unthinkable is that artists are being blacklisted for refusing to recite political statements like some reeducation camp in the Cultural Revolution. It is a curious way to fight tyranny by denying free speech.

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It’s like a cartoon now.

Wales Bans Tchaikovsky (SD)

The Cardiff Philharmonic has cancelled an all-Tchaikovsky programme as ‘inappropriate at this time’. The concert included his decidedly apolitical second symphony, known as the Little Russian. The orchestra says: ‘: In light of the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine, Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra, with the agreement of St David’s Hall, feel the previously advertised programme including the 1812 Overture to be inappropriate at this time. The orchestra hope you will continue to support them and enjoy the revised programme.’


This is unutterably stupid. At the start of the First World War, the Proms conductor Sir Henry Wood informed the British government that he would continue performing Wagner and other Germans. The same rule prevailed in the Hitler war. Only the Nazis ever banned Tchaikovsky. Welcome to Cardiff 2022.

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Elon Musk tweet

 

 

Nate Hagens Human superorganism

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle March 10 2022

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  • #103897

    Johannes Vermeer The art of painting 1666-8   • Doug Casey: U.S. Empire Collapsing, Greatest Danger in World Today (G&E) • A Recession Unlike
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle March 10 2022]

    #103898
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    2013 global survey, conducted by WIN/Gallup International, polled residents in 68 countries on everything from the global economy to politics and living conditions.

    #103899
    Red
    Participant

    A couple of interesting vids. On privacy I use Brave browser on Mac book and have no issues so far. Sites like Bloomberg say a certain number of views per month without subscribing. I’ve never reached any such limit, every time I log out the cookies are erased and the same number of views are open the very next time I open an article. Not that I read much Bloomberg just an example.

    https://rumble.com/vwwsi3-biden-and-eu-dig-a-deeper-hole-as-world-watches-in-disbelief-live.html

    https://rumble.com/vwxk3z-dr.-peter-mccullough-post-omicron-now-is-the-time-for-expert-analysis.html

    #103900
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    #103902
    Red
    Participant

    And then there’s this little nugget working away feverishly in the back ground.

    The Global Digital ID Surveillance Plan Accelerates – Urgent Resistance Needed

    The COVID-19 plandemic provided the perfect cover for all manner of “New Normal” changes that were always intended to become permanent. One change in particular has continued to go mostly under the radar – the increasing use of all-pervasive surveillance.

    Unfortunately, this Orwellian, “Big Brother” global digital ID surveillance plan just became even more real.

    #103903
    Red
    Participant

    For your viewing pleasure.

    https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2022/03/10/fake-fact-checkers.aspx?ui=93e1bba5b1da4236a7abd08ac628fe34d1fc2ed68fc3d9a3fd6d0da9c9d26605&sd=20211121&cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art1HL&cid=20220310_HL2&mid=DM1130773&rid=1429962676

    Facebook has admitted in a court of law that its fact checkers are not asserting facts but, rather, First Amendment-protected opinions
    Steve Kirsch, founder of the COVID-19 Early Treatment Fund, recorded a phone call with a fact checker from PolitiFact, showing just how ignorant the fact checker is about the facts, and how unwilling she is to look at the data
    There are three sources for vaccine injury data: The Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Wonder site; OpenVAERS; and MedAlerts, created by the National Vaccine Information Center. Of these, MedAlerts has the easiest-to-use interface if you want to search and collate data
    What makes VAERS so valuable is the fact that you can find important safety signals that would otherwise be missed. This is its intended function, and it works quite well for that
    Fact checkers are now trying to dismiss VAERS data as unreliable at best and useless at worst. But they have a serious problem. The U.S. government had a clear duty, enshrined in law, to create a system to detect potential vaccine injuries. If VAERS is useless, then government broke the law. In their zeal to protect Big Pharma, fact checkers may be inadvertently throwing government agencies under the bus

    #103904
    Red
    Participant

    So there’s this:
    OPEC chief says there’s ‘no capacity in the world’ that could replace Russia’s 7 million barrels a day in oil supply
    https://finance.yahoo.com/news/opec-chief-says-theres-no-124238149.html

    Then you see this:
    The EU’s executive arm said it could erase a huge share of its dependency on Russia by tapping new gas supplies, ramping up reserves for next winter and accelerating efforts to be more energy efficient.https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/8/eu-plans-to-slash-2-3-in-russian-gas-imports-this

    You have to wonder just how nice that view is up their own ass!

    #103905
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Yes, an RN told me VAERS data is useless, doesn’t exist, and can’t be deciphered. Really? Why do you keep it then? And a 10,000x increase? That data variation and anomaly can be seen from Mars. The data could BE almost entirely useless and that would still tell you something.

    Conclusion: RNs do not believe in data. They lack all scientific and medical curiosity. They have no interest in improving data collection to standards that might be useful, and do not consider that lack to be scandalous at all. They hate and look down on anyone who does try to collect or read such data. And believe everything they’re told on TiKTok, or by a known-corrupt medical administration, while reading nothing. Apparently, anyway. No surprise: same as all other adults in the West.

    3-11 one of their favorite weirdo dates, may end Swift. Swift may not be ‘technically’ the only way to move money, but players may use it as a windsock and act accordingly. When you’ve got a bunch of players, doing different tasks worldwide, you need to coordinate them in some high-level way, like pivot points. 311 and 911 are two of those. 911? Yes, the last financial crash was started on that date. Others usually follow the moon calendar.

    “Ukraine Ready for “Diplomatic Solution” but Won’t Trade “Single Inch” of Territories”

    Ukraine surrenders as long as they don’t lose and don’t have to give up anything. Perfect.

    “Patriot Missile Batteries Dispatched to Poland Amid Fears of “Stray” Russian Missiles”

    Sure would be a shame if some of our 1st strike battlefield nukes got mixed in with them. And then Russia had to battlefield nuke that base. Stop f—-g around. Can’t we all just agree? On nuking John Bolton or something?

    And speaking of stray missiles: They’re running ye olde “Incubator Babies!” Again! Yes that Children’s Hospital photo-op. Hey, might be real. You never know. But you’ve got all that juicy equipment in a room, but it wasn’t being used because no humans have disturbed it since the poof, no blood or glove-marks, nothing? So the bomb went off, the Nurses said, “Wait! Stop! We’ve got to get Channel 4 in here before I can remove this NICU baby from this glass case with no power.” Didn’t walk in there, throw open the lid, nothing? Right.

    “Oil Market Chaos Deepens as Sen Warren Pushes Windfall Profits Tax for ‘Big Oil’”

    Senator Warren sets price controls, ‘cause that always works, AND dissuades oil companies from increasing capacity using…you know, money. And therefore kills a whole bunch of poor people, which I’m sorry to say is probably a 50-50 not Democrats, and certainly not from a tiny, irrelevant state like MA. Biden follows saying “Why ain’t there no shale oil?!? It’s been 10 whole minutes! I need me a million barrels of shale oil up in here!” Because: Time, Space, Reality? Physics, Investment? Blank, goat-like stare.

    “Ukraine Bans Wheat & Grain Exports” Let’s go Brandon. Killin’ some folks.

    “IEA Ready To Release Additional Oil from Reserves as Prices Surge: “We are ready to release as much oil as is needed.”

    Hahahahahahaha! I don’t have to worry about the food if I die laughing. Last time they released about a day’s worth. Let’s go Shiba! Wow. So laughter. Very genius. One pipeline hack knocked out the SouthEast coast to NJ, as not only does America not have any gas inventory, the people don’t have any money. It’s for EMERGENCIES, genius. Not lowering prices for the midterms. To them that IS an emergency. Same Brandon who released all our oil for a 50c drop BEFORE the war.

    “The bombardment on Mariupol comes as 200,000 civilians attempt to evacuate the city without success” Yes, we already saw Azov was not letting them leave. There must have been a dozen stories by now forgetting to mention this in new ways.

    Repeating Greenwald. Rundown of everyone lying, everywhere, every time.

    “Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), hoping to debunk growing claims that there are chemical weapons labs in Ukraine, smugly asked Nuland: “Does Ukraine have chemical or biological weapons?”

    Rubio undoubtedly expected a flat denial by Nuland, thus providing further “proof” that such speculation is dastardly Fake News emanating from the Kremlin, the CCP and QAnon. Instead, Nuland did something completely uncharacteristic for her, for neocons, and for senior U.S. foreign policy officials: for some reason, she told a version of the truth. Her answer visibly stunned Rubio, who — as soon as he realized the damage she was doing to the U.S. messaging campaign by telling the truth — interrupted her and demanded that she instead affirm that if a biological attack were to occur, everyone should be “100% sure” that it was Russia who did it. Grateful for the life raft, Nuland told Rubio he was right.”

    Gooooo Rubio! Known to be a child fluffer, and keepin’ those standards up. Presidential material.

    Need I ask the question why Russia would bio-attack THEMSELVES? After having such labs for 100 YEARS? And this was the “False Flags” that Biden said was going to (make) happen, that even the REPORTERS mocked as ridiculous.

    Now I still need proof but this is the media/narrative release on Ukee I’ve been looking for. It’ll knock the wind out of their sails. No one cares if it’s airborne ebola or zombie black death. But if it’s Covid buster, they’re gonna be mad.

    What did Nuland tell us? “The only reason to be “quite concerned” about these “biological research facilities” falling into Russian hands is if they contain sophisticated materials that Russian scientists have not yet developed on their own and which could be used for nefarious purposes — i.e., either advanced biological weapons or dual-use “research” that has the potential to be weaponized.”

    Russia and China didn’t tell us that, NULAND of the United States just told us that.

    And of course, after Nuland ADMITS that, ON CAMERA, in CONGRESSIONAL TESTIMONY, the fact checkers go and PROVE A NEGATIVE. With no access to data or location, not that that would matter.

    “All of this took place as the Ukrainian energy company Burisma paid $50,000 per month not to the son of a Ukrainian official but to Joe Biden’s son, Hunter: a reflection of who wielded real power inside Ukraine.”

    This is a great Greenwald point: not who got paid, but it’s also a reflection of who DIDN’T get paid: the usual suspects. So if Hunter got paid INSTEAD of the idiot crack-smoking, laptop-losing son of a Ukrainian Oligarch, there was a specific reason for it. Reason above: Joe was running Ukraine. Joe is therefore arming Azov, and making Nazis the literal secret police, with their new national Nazi salute. Russia knows it.

    Greenwald makes the strong point that Nuland and her husband Kagan are PAC members (“If only there were a Pearl Harbor event so we could steal Iraqi oil!”), and run Ukee policy through all RNC/DNC administrations for decades. He then neglects to mention they only got booted once, and squealed like a stuck pig about it and threw an irrational tantrum for 3 straight years: Under Cheeto they were shut down, with the wars. Orange Man Bad.

    Well, much as Glenn tells the truth, if he told that one, people would stop reading. All orange things are now, and forever will be, bad. War, however, is very very very very very very good. Ask Jimmy Dore and Lee Camp, the whole left-right uniparty is all war, all the time, now openly under “Democracy Now” “Mother Jones” and other suspects. They’re now pro war crime! Yaaaaay! And all you have to do is be ethnically Russian.

    There was one other time they got booted. Under Reagan. He called them the “Crazies in the Basement” and after humoring them, eventually expelled them for their antics. However, yet again, no arrests, no trials, no hangings. Just like FDR’s “Businessman’s Coup” and the Bushes. And without arrests and consequences, evil goes on and on and on forever, making new trouble and killing new people every day.

    “Just because Ukraine is full of neo-Nazis, and recent members of its government were neo-Nazis, and its military has neo-Nazi units (e.g., the notorious Azov Battalion), and it has a national holiday celebrating a Nazi, and government officials hang his portrait in their offices, and the military and neo-Nazi militias have been terrorizing and murdering ethnic Russians since the USA and the Forces of Goodness supported and stage-managed a “revolution” (i.e., a coup) back in 2014 with the assistance of a lot of neo-Nazis … that doesn’t mean Ukraine has a “Nazi problem.” After all, its current president is Jewish!” CJ Hopkins

    Just repeating again, for emphasis.

    He forgot the Nazi Militias were specifically rolled into the police to harass and enforce Russian ethnic cleansing.

    “Populations don’t like wars…and have to be fooled into war”

    Nah, if they didn’t passionately love war, death, murder, and killing, they couldn’t be so easily fooled. VERY easily. There’s nothing they like better than somebody else dying. Nothing.

    “The House approved a massive spending bill Wednesday night that would rush $13.6 billion in U.S. aid”

    That’s $50 a person, or maybe $200 per worker. I’m sure we don’t need that money in Flint. Anything, ANYTHING but to help their own people, their own citizens, their own Americans. Any-thing.

    That’s also $330 per Ukrainian, or geez I don’t know, $1,000 per Ukrainian worker? A fortune there. If you’re going to pay somebody’s rent for 6 months, why not pay ours?

    A: We don’t care about either of you. If the infinite debt doesn’t rise at an ever-increasing and infinite rate, the whole system implodes.

    Other highlights: that’s no money for nurses as it’s been re-directed. Health system is still failing, as by design since 1992, just as we warned then and every day since. Every day we point it out, and every day more “helping” makes fewer beds, worse health, and more type II diabetes. If only Coke banned here, we’d probably same more lives than everyone killed in Ukraine so far.

    “We’ve got a war going on in Ukraine,” Pelosi told reporters.”

    “We”, Nancy? I thought “we” had nothing to do with Ukraine. It was just a random, baseless invasion. If “We” had something to do with it, with arming, funding and causing the war, then Putin would be justified in a response. “We?” “Our” war? Not Ukraine’s war, not even mentioning Ukraine, leaders, allies, but “Our” war? Soup to nuts is “Us”?

    “Escape” pic. Yeah, they sure have U-Haul, printed in English, in Ukraine. Along with the short shirts and sundresses in March. No one notices. I guess the zombie apocalypse already happened. No brains.

    #103906
    John Day
    Participant

    From far, far away Boscohorowitz recommended this article, which is a lot like CJ Hopkins, but longer, more subtile and maybe more erudite and learned.

    https://graymirror.substack.com/p/enjoying-your-russian-civil-war?s=r
    The paradox of US foreign policy is that US foreign policy is best modeled as if it was made first, for the benefit of the US foreign-policy establishment; second, for the entertainment of the US media audience; third, for the benefit of foreigners; and fourth, for the benefit of Americans. Once we see that anything that benefits the establishment and delights the viewers will happen, a key has turned in a lock.

    #103907
    John Day
    Participant

    CONTROL NARRATIVE PIVOT:

    “This is the beast that Putin is,” Pelosi said.

    • Dems Drop Covid-19 Funds, Clear Way For OK Of $13.6b Ukraine Aid (AP)

    #103908
    John Day
    Participant

    The Curtis Yarvin piece from Boscohorowitz goes really well with the Show your pride, get vaccinated, support Ukraine image up near the top of today’s stack.

    #103909
    John Day
    Participant

    Nate Hagens sent me that video yesterday, too.

    Hi Nate!

    Grow vegetables, Store rice, beans, salt, fuel, water and cooking oil.

    #103910
    chooch
    Participant

    Say hello to Lord Farquaad bosco.

    #103911
    chooch
    Participant

    1/ Ukrainian Theater of War, Day 14: After two weeks of war, Russian forces continue employ indiscriminate attacks to demoralize Ukrainian political resolve and military resistance. This growing war of attrition has not changed Western opinion on intervention.

    2/ Humanitarian Impact. UN sources report more than 2 million refugees have fled Ukraine. Indiscriminate attacks of civilians are mounting at an alarming rate. 3,000 civilians were able to leave Irpin, but many remained trapped in Sumy, Mariupol, and other cities.

    3/ Weather assessment. Improved weather conditions throughout the Ukrainian theater will increase the frequency of VKS air and missile attacks. Warmer ground temperatures will make off road movement difficult, as recent snowfall will make the ground to soft for heavy armor.

    4/ Kyiv AO assessment is detailed in this chart. Key take away, Ukrainian forces have been pushed into a tight defensive ring around Kyiv. However, as indicative of today’s unsuccessful attack into Irpin, Russian forces remained challenged to execute large-scale assaults.

    5/ Northeast AO assessment is detailed in this chart. Key take away, Ukrainian attacks against Russian supply routes is having a decisive effect on preventing attacks against Kyiv. However, it is unclear how long the Ukrainians can maintain this.

    For the rest….

    https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1501822538514579461.html

    #103912
    deflationista
    Participant

    #103913

    chooch,

    People can read propaganda in a million places, they don’t need to see it repeated here. The accusation of indiscriminate attacks on civilians makes little sense, since if that was what Russia wanted to do, they could have flattened Ukraine in 2-3 days. Indiscriminate, deadly and effective. When you read about things like the bombing of a children’s hospital, that should set off an alarm too. It’s one step away from eating babies, a tried and tested accusation for 1000s of years.

    #103914
    zerosum
    Participant

    TAE says Read More …..
    1. to find the truth
    2. to prepare
    3. to avoid personal disaster

    • Revenge of the Putin-Nazis! (CJ Hopkins)
    • Victoria Nuland: Ukraine Has “Biological Research Facilities” (Greenwald)
    • Ukraine Bans Exports Of Wheat, Oats And Other Food Staples (AP)
    ———
    Omicron seeks life
    https://natehagens.substack.com/p/the-human-superorganism?s=r
    The Human Superorganism
    The Great Simplification

    Given events in Ukraine and world energy/commodity markets I decided to release the 2nd video in the series ‘The Human Superorganism’ before Video 3 (The Human Being) and Video 4 (The Great Simplification) are finished. The interconnections between energy, materials, money, technology, growth and the environment are about to become much more front and center in our lives. We are quite proud of this video – but it does end on a bit of a cliffs edge – so please tune back in in a few weeks for the final videos, and context for what this means for our lives, our cultural transition and what you can do at various scales.
    ———-

    #103915
    chooch
    Participant

    Or tossing them up in the air and skewering on end of a bayonet. I get it but there are other pertinent details in the those updates for those following along. I’m sure (in the moment) Putin does not want that but he is rapidly approaching that indiscriminate point of no return.

    #103916
    Oroboros
    Participant

    • A Recession Unlike Any Other (Pento)

    Ya see, this headline is the epitome of The Empire of Lies where no one is seems can state the truth.

    It’s not going to be a ‘recession’, it’s going to be the Mother of All Depressions.

    See, that was easy.

    I like Michael Pento but even he has succumb to bullshit New Speak.

    Come on dude, the dollar collapsing and loosing world reserve currency status is “A Recession Unlike Any Other”?

    WTF

    Dr D is right, words no longer have any meaning.

    You can substitute ‘shoe horn’ for ‘salad’ in a sentence and it will make equal sense.

    Recession, depression,

    tomato, deadly night shade,

    paper cut, sucking chest wound.

    They’re all interchangeable.

    Blind an entire culture’s verbal navigation system by making their vocabulary interchangeably meaningless.

    Kill a language with neurotic overuse of euphemisms for every event in life.

    Boy, linguistic Mission Accomplished kudos all round.

    I guess the proper expression for succeeding in the Empire of Lies is to ‘top yourself’

    #103917
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://news.yahoo.com/israeli-leader-meets-putin-discuss-165449723.html
    Israeli leader meets Putin to discuss Ukraine cease-fire
    Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Saturday secretly traveled to Moscow to discuss a possible cease-fire with Russian President Vladimir Putin, an Israeli official confirmed to Axios.

    Why it matters: This is a highly unusual move by Bennett, who has been communicating in recent days with both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Bennett briefed Zelensky by phone after Saturday’s meeting.

    Barak Ravid
    Sat, March 5, 2022, 10:33 AM·2 min read
    In this article:

    Vladimir Putin
    Vladimir Putin
    President of Russia

    Naftali Bennett
    Prime Minister of Israel
    Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Saturday secretly traveled to Moscow to discuss a possible cease-fire with Russian President Vladimir Putin, an Israeli official confirmed to Axios.

    Why it matters: This is a highly unusual move by Bennett, who has been communicating in recent days with both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Bennett briefed Zelensky by phone after Saturday’s meeting.

    Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free.

    A senior Israeli official said the meeting lasted for three hours. He added that Bennett asked Putin to set up humanitarian corridors to allow Ukrainian Jews to leave the country. They also discussed the effect of the war on the Jewish community in Russia.

    The Israeli official said Bennett also discussed the ongoing nuclear talks with Iran in Vienna and stressed his opposition to reviving the 2015 deal.

    The state of play: The Israeli prime minister’s office notified the White House in advance of Bennett’s trip, an Israeli official told Axios.

    On Friday, Bennett spoke by phone with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and informed him that he was planning to see Putin the next day, a source with knowledge of the conversation told Axios.

    The source said Bennett didn’t ask permission but only notified Sullivan, who didn’t express any objection. Nevertheless the source said the Biden administration is skeptical about Bennett’s engagement with Putin.

    An Israeli official said Israel also briefed Ukraine, Germany and France, including French President Emmanuel Macron, ahead of the meeting. The Israeli prime minister traveled on Saturday from Moscow to Berlin to update German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

    The big picture: Since the Russian invasion, Bennett has spoken twice each with Zelensky and Putin.

    Bennett’s mediation effort started at the request of the Ukrainian president, Israeli officials say.

    Bennett said publicly several days ago that Israel has a unique status that allows it to speak to both sides with which it has a good relationship.

    ———–
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azov_Battalion
    Azov Battalion (until September 2014), or simply Azov, is a right-wing extremist,[1][2] neo-Nazi,[3][4][5] formerly paramilitary unit of the National Guard of Ukraine,[6][7][8] based in Mariupol, in the Azov Sea coastal region.[9] Azov initially formed as a volunteer militia in May 2014[10] and has since been fighting Russian separatist forces in the Donbas War. It saw its first combat experience recapturing Mariupol from pro-Russian separatists in June 2014.[6] On 12 November 2014, Azov was incorporated into the National Guard of Ukraine, and since then all members have been official soldiers serving in the National Guard.[11][12]

    In 2014, the regiment gained attention after allegations of torture and war crimes,[13] as well as neo-Nazi sympathies and usage of associated symbols by the regiment, as seen in their logo featuring the Wolfsangel, one of the original symbols used by the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich.[citation needed] Representatives of the Azov Battalion say the symbol is an abbreviation for the slogan “Ідея Нації” (Ukrainian for “National Idea”) and deny any connection with Nazism.[13] In 2014, a spokesman for the regiment said around 10–20% of the unit were neo-Nazis.[14] In 2018, a provision in an appropriations bill passed by the United States Congress blocked military aid to Azov on the grounds of its white supremacist ideology; in 2015, a similar ban on aid to the group had been overturned by Congress.[3][4] Members of the regiment come from 22 countries and are of various backgrounds.[15][16]

    The battalion then received training near Kyiv by instructors with experience in the Georgian Armed Forces.[24] The battalion started in Mariupol where it was involved in combat,[6] and was briefly relocated to Berdiansk.[29]

    On 11 August, the Azov Battalion, backed by Ukrainian paratroopers, captured Marinka from pro-Russian rebels and entered the suburbs of Donetsk, clashing with Donetsk People’s Republic fighters.[33]

    In early September 2014, the Azov Battalion was engaged in the Second Battle of Mariupol.[34] Regarding the ceasefire agreed on 5 September, Azov commander Andriy Biletsky stated: “If it was a tactical move there is nothing wrong with it … if it’s an attempt to reach an agreement concerning Ukrainian soil with separatists then obviously it’s a betrayal.”[35]

    Read more …..

    #103919
    John Day
    Participant

    Another picture of slow cabinet-grade-wall progress
    https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/just-passed-it?s=w

    Moon of Alabama Germany), and other sites call out the disinformation about Russian bombing of a maternity hospital.
    It was recently repurposed as a military installation, and the moms, staff and babies had to go elsewhere.
    On March 7 some time after 20:00 UTC the maternity hospital #1 in Mariupol was mention at a UNSC meeting as being occupied by the Ukrainian military.
    On March 7 21:01 UTC Lenta.ru published a report from a reporter in Donbas who had interviewed someone who said that the hospital was occupied by possibly Azov or other military forces.
    On March 9 about 15:30 UTC the hospital gets bombed and completely destroyed but with astonishing few alleged casualties none of which are documented despite video records taken on the scene shortly after the incident.
    Shortly thereafter President Zelensky uses the bombing to publicly press for a ‘western’ enforced ‘no-fly zone’ over Ukraine. (There is currently a Russian enforced no-fly zone over Ukraine.)
    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/03/disarming-ukraine-day-15-a-curious-hospital-bombing-and-no-fly-zone-pressure.html#more

    Moon of Alabama has a fairly comprehensive overview of the broader political and economic war, excerpted here:
    The Sanction Backlash Will Push The ‘West’ To Accept Russia’s Demands
    ​In a move that must have been quite humiliating for the White House the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the UAE declined to take calls from the U.S. president. They want the U.S. to designate the Houthi movement in Yemen, which they have been unsuccessful to suppress, a terrorist group:

    ​ ​One hopes that the Biden administration does not fall for these disgusting bribery schemes but he has backed himself into a corner, cutting off Russian oil to punish Putin for a humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, with no alternative but to horsetrade with autocrats over the fate of Yemenis a half a world away. If this is geopolitics, heaven forgive us.
    ​ ​I don’t think that the above is the only request the Saudis and UAE leaders will have. They are now in a situation in which they can demand ever more.
    Likewise humiliating is the administration’s opening of talks with Venezuela which it had sanctioned all around in its attempt to regime change the country. Caracas has released two U.S. nationals from prison. It is willing to talk. But before providing oil to the U.S. market it will demand the lifting of all sanctions and the return of all its assets the U.S. and UK have confiscated. Biden will have difficulties to find a Congress majority in support of such steps.
    ​ ​The return of the nuclear deal with Iran, which would enable more oil output, hangs in balance as Russia demands sanction exemptions for its trade with Iran.
    ​ ​The U.S. had attempted to press Poland to deliver its old Mig-29 fighter jets to the Ukraine. In Russia’s eyes that would have been a direct Polish aggression against it. Warsaw found a smart way to avoid that. It offered to deliver the jets to a U.S. airbase in Germany. The tar baby would thereby stick to the U.S. itself. The Pentagon declined to accept that. The jet transfer is now most likely dead.
    ​ ​The U.S. and Europe are only starting to feel the secondary consequences of the all out economic war they hastily initiated against Russia. The war will cause recessions not only in Russia but also all over the ‘west’. This while Russia has yet to announce its counter sanctions. There are many steps Russia could take to hurt the ‘west’ by withholding this or that resource. It is likely to start slowly to then increase the pressure step by step.
    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/03/the-sanction-backlash-will-push-the-west-to-accept-russias-demands.html#more

    #103920
    John Day
    Participant

    ​Get the picture yet? It’s a new picture.; a different world order.

    ​ ​First, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro declined to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Then, India followed suit – as the Modi government attempted to balance its historic ties with Moscow and its strategic partnership with Washington.
    ​ ​Now, Saudi and UAE leaders are refusing to take Biden’s calls as the US president tries to contain surging oil prices, according to the Wall Street Journal, which adds that the Persian Gulf monarchies have signaled “they won’t help ease surging oil prices unless Washington supports them in Yemen, elsewhere.”
    ​ ​”There was some expectation of a phone call, but it didn’t happen,” said one US official of a planned discussion between Biden and the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “It was part of turning on the spigot [of Saudi oil].”
    ​ ​The U.A.E.’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan also ghosted Biden in recent weeks according to Middle East and US officials
    ​ ​Yet, both Prince Mohammed and Sheikh Mohammed took phone calls from Russian President Vladimir Putin after declining to speak with Biden, according to the WSJ. They also spoke with Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/saudis-uae-refuse-speak-biden-over-ukraine-situation

    ​The Pentagram is openly afraid to provoke Russia by providing old Soviet era fighter jets to Ukraine.​
    ​ ​On Tuesday, Poland announced that it was ready to deploy “immediately and free of charge” its fleet of MiG-29 jets to a NATO base in Germany and hand them over to the US military. In return, Washington would have provided Warsaw with “used aircraft with corresponding operational capabilities” to backfill its fleet.​..
    ​“We do not believe Poland’s proposal is a tenable one,” the official noted, adding that Washington would continue to discuss the issue with Poland and other NATO member-states. At the same time, he said that Poland was in its right to give its own warplanes to Ukraine, adding that the decision was “ultimately one for the Polish government.”
    https://www.rt.com/news/551512-pentagon-poland-fighter-jets/

    ​CONTROL-NARRATIVE PIVOT ALERT:​

    The U.S. House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to pass a $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill that includes $13.6 billion in aid for Ukraine and European allies, and would fund the federal government through to Sept. 30.
    Hours earlier, Democratic lawmakers scrapped the bill’s initial $15.6 billion COVID-19 aid provision, marking a major setback for the Biden administration who had pushed for weeks to have the additional funds approved.
    “We’ve got a war going on in Ukraine,” Pelosi told reporters…
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/house-passes-15-trillion-spending-bill-136-billion-ukraine

    #103921

    There is CSPAN on my TV, with a chyron that says “NATIONAL SECURITY THREATS”, and it shows the CIA and National Intelligence directors and a bunch of senators yakking away.
    That about sums it up.

    #103922

    That Curtis Yarvin piece was very good on many levels.

    #103923
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/putin-will-lose-ukraine-war-trudeau-says-as-canada-ups-aid-funding/ar-AAUTKuH?ocid=msedgntp

    Putin will ‘lose’ Ukraine war, Trudeau says, as Canada ups aid funding
    Rephrasing what Trudeau wanted to say.

    Azov Battalion (until September 2014), or simply Azov, is a right-wing extremist,[1][2] neo-Nazi,[3][4][5] formerly paramilitary unit of the National Guard of Ukraine,[6][7][8] based in Mariupol, in the Azov Sea coastal region will win the war against Putin.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azov_Battalion

    #103924
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    #103925
    ctbarnum
    Participant

    “CONTROL NARRATIVE PIVOT:

    “This is the beast that Putin is,” Pelosi said.
    ““We’ve got a war going on in Ukraine,” Pelosi told reporters.”

    • Dems Drop Covid-19 Funds, Clear Way For OK Of $13.6b Ukraine Aid (AP)”

    Putin cured COVID! That must be why “we” got a war going on.

    Who’s this we? Not me. I’m simply going about my business and avoiding best I can my “superiors'” ramping up their destruction of the planet.

    #103926
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    Tucker reporting on the Empire of Lies:

    #103927
    aubanel
    Participant

    I’m sorry Chooch but there were no “pertinent details” in the piece you posted. Just more propaganda; the emotive language used throughout is a dead giveaway. Not a single point mentioned is remotely true apart from maybe the weather.
    For example, the Russians are not trying to take Kiev, so attacks on their supply lines cannot be “having a decisive effect” on their ability to do so.
    As Raul pointed out, if the Russians wished to “indiscriminately attack” civilians they would be using their massive advantage in air power and blowing them apart, NATO style.
    The Russians, with inferior numbers, now control a swathe of Ukrainian territory that is larger than the UK. Their ability to “execute large scale assaults” is not just undeniable, they are the only military force in theatre with the ability to do so. The Ukrainian army trapped in the Donbass region is proof of this. Does anyone believe that they are there by choice at this point? They are the largest single military formation in the entire warzone and they cannot move.
    That the Russian military have not chosen to mount large attacks on civilian population centres up to this point is laudable, not a sign of weakness. This is not Shock and Awe.

    #103928
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    NEWS FLASH:

    U$ Empire Inc. (aka The Empire of Lies aka Clown World) is a clear & present danger to all life on planet Earth.

    #103929
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    Oroboros, post #103916. Now THAT was funny. 🙂

    #103930
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    Virus of the month club: The gift that keeps giving…

    The World Health Organization has confirmed the emergence of a new variant, dubbed deltamicron or deltacron — a combination of delta and omicron.

    Five things to know:

    1. Three COVID-19 infections in southern France were identified with a delta 21J/AY.4-omicron 21K/BA.1 recombinant, or deltamicron, according to a preprint published March 8 in MedRxiv. The study, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, found that the hybrid genome has signature mutations of the two lineages. It’s similar to cases reported for 15 other patients sampled since January 2022 in Europe. The mutation is misidentified with current PCR variant screening, so researchers designed and implemented a new test to diagnose the variant.

    2. The new coronavirus variant has been detected in France, the Netherlands and Denmark, according to WHO officials. It’s also been found in the U.S., according to a new report soon to be published by MedRxiv, as viewed by USA Today.

    3. The U.S. study findings come from San Mateo, Calif.-headquartered lab Helix, which works with the CDC. The lab sequenced 29,719 coronavirus samples collected nationwide from Nov. 22 to Feb. 13, according to the findings cited by USA Today. Researchers found two infections involving different versions of deltacron, resulting from the combination of delta and omicron genetic material. Twenty other infections had both the delta and omicron variants, with one case having delta, omicron and deltacron.

    4. “We have not seen any change in the epidemiology with this recombinant,” WHO COVID-19 technical lead Maria Van Kerkhove, PhD, said of deltacron during a March 9 media briefing. “We haven’t seen any change in severity. But there are many studies that are underway.”

    5. Recent findings from the Pasteur Institute in France also provide evidence of a delta and omicron recombinant. In response to the findings, Dr. Van Kerkhove urged individuals to revisit a Feb. 22 WHO briefing where officials discussed the possibility of coronavirus recombinants.

    “This is to be expected, especially with intense circulation of omicron & delta,” she tweeted March 8.

    https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/public-health/deltacron-5-things-to-know-about-the-newest-coronavirus-variant.html?utm_campaign=bhr&utm_source=website&utm_content=latestarticles

    #103931
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    Just watched a Tucker clip where air raid sirens were going off in Kyiv so Fox’s Bill Hemmer started going over maps of Ukraine, talking about where Ukraine is holding the line, where the convoy is stalled, etc., etc.

    Seriously … does anyone with a functioning brain cell actually believe Ukraine can win a war against Russia? (defend against Russian invasion is a more apt way to describe this, but I’ll play along with the game and use the word war)

    This crap in the media is all theater. The bombing of the nuclear power plant (no one fell for that, did they?) Somehow Ukraine has stalled the Russian military convoy, or the convoy ran out of gas, or something. (sure, that’s what happened)

    Russia could have leveled the entire country, if it so desired. It is giving Ukraine every opportunity to negotiate an end.

    I wish the media – all of them, from every country – would stop stoking the nonsense. Just. Please. Stop. It’s like “rubber necking” at the scene of an auto accident. People just can’t help themselves. Gotta be part of the drama, even if they have to make it up.

    #103932
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    A ‘Silent Massacre’:

    U.S. Post-Vaccination, Mostly Non-COVID Deaths Up 40% – America on Track for 1.4 Million Extra Deaths in 2022 from Vaccines…

    https://vaxxfacts.substack.com/p/a-silent-massacre?s=r (PDF attached, in case a friend asks…)

    #103933
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., called Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky a “thug” at a campaign event over the weekend.

    “Remember that Zelensky is a thug,” Cawthorn said in a video obtained by WRAL. “Remember that the Ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt and is incredibly evil and has been pushing woke ideologies.”

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-rep-cawthorn-calls-zelensky-a-thug-says-ukraine-pushing-woke-ideologies-185128786.html

    Facebook temporarily allows posts on Ukraine war calling for violence against invading Russians or Putin’s death

    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/exclusive-facebook-instagram-temporarily-allow-calls-violence-against-russians-2022-03-10/

    Sean Penn Demands for Biden to Send ‘Desperately Needed’ Fighter Jets to Ukraine, Start World War 3

    #103934
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    @Veracious: our biggest mistake is giving Sean Penn air time. Who give a f%)k what Sean Penn thinks, much less demands. Good lord, we have truly lost our way when a freaking actor is getting air time during a major dust up that deserves clear thinking. From, idk, adults or something.

    #103935
    aspnaz
    Participant

    On Wednesday, the White House claimed without evidence that Russia might use chemical or biological weapons to create a false flag operation in Ukraine.

    A bit like the USA’s Covid bioweapon?

    #103936
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    Sean Penn is the punchline to a very bad joke 😐

    #103937
    chooch
    Participant

    Aubanel,

    Apologies not necessary, appreciate your comments.

    #103938
    WES
    Participant

    The morals of Sean Penn.
    Sean has no problem with abandoning a rental car on the side of the road and walking the last few miles to the Polish border with his roll on suitcase. So Sean had no problem with fucking whoever rented their car to him, when they probably can least afford it and are not likely to ever recover from the lost.
    Sean; “Nothing personal, buddy, it is just the costs of war.”

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