Mar 142022
 


Alfred Eisenstaedt The kiss (V-J Day in Times Square) 1945

 

US Farmers Hit Hard By Price Increases, Fertilizer Costs (JTN)
“Media Isn’t Warning You” That US Careening Towards Food Crisis (ZH)
Russian Default On Debts No Longer ‘Improbable’, Says IMF Head (G.)
India Is Mulling Rupee-Ruble Payments System for Trade with Russia (Scofield)
The US Is Still Not Trying Diplomacy With Putin Over Ukraine (Antiwar)
Russia Seeking China’s Military Help In Ukraine, US “Sources” Say (ZH)
The West’s Cancel Culture Targets All Things Russian (JTN)
Responses to the Invasion of Ukraine (Pankaj Mishra)
Deaths Represent 1.3% Of Side Effects Reported For Covid Vaccines (JTN)
How Does It Feel To Be Vindicated? (Malone)
Drs. Walensky and Offit: It’s All in Good Fun (Harrington)
Julian Assange To Marry Fiancee Stella Moris In Belmarsh Prison March 23 (DM)

 

 

 

 

Some day we’ll assess this moment with clear heads
https://twitter.com/i/status/1503265313474977793

 

 

 

 

Veritas FDA
https://twitter.com/i/status/1503264527642775553

 

 

“The cost of fertilizer is up as much as 500% in some areas..”

“..we are not really going to see those impacts until this coming summer.”

US Farmers Hit Hard By Price Increases, Fertilizer Costs (JTN)

Goods and services around the country are becoming increasingly more expensive, but farmers may be among the hardest hit as inflation, supply chain issues, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are expected to send food prices soaring even higher. That impact is being felt by farmers around the country. “The cost of fertilizer is up as much as 500% in some areas,” said Indiana Farm Bureau President Randy Kron. “It would be unbelievable if I hadn’t seen it for myself as I priced fertilizer for our farm in southern Indiana. Fertilizer is a global commodity and can be influenced by multiple market factors, including the situation in Ukraine, and all of these are helping to drive up costs.” Ukraine is a significant supplier of both crops and fertilizer materials, adding to the concern that the invasion will likely lead to shortages and price increases.

Fertilizer prices for nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium, called NPK, have exploded since December 2020. “Because of the seasonal aspects of … this agriculture industry, it takes about six to nine months for the impacts felt in the impact market to really work its way through the supply chain and reach the consumer,” said Nathon Carson, head of supply chain operations for Chemical Dynamics, a multi-million dollar fertilizer supplier based in Florida servicing 12 states. “The crazy thing is, fertilizer prices for NPK, especially nitrogen, the most important nutrient, went up by about … doubled essentially in Q4 of 2021, which means we are not really going to see those impacts until this coming summer.” That fertilizer price increase is one of several factors expected to push food prices up even higher this year.

“Food prices are going to continue to go up dramatically,” Carson said. “I was expecting food prices to go up about 10% in the U.S. before midterms, so around August, another 5 or so percent to follow by the end of the year … You could see 20% food price inflation by the end of the year in the U.S. That is a possibility. You won’t see famine in the U.S. Our food system is very, very resilient, but you will see shortages. You won’t have the same product selection that you’re used to.” These food price issues have only been egged on by runaway federal spending, which has helped send inflation soaring in the past year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported last week that the Consumer Price index, a leading marker of inflation, rose 7.9% in the past 12 months. BLS said that the food price index rose 8.6% over the last 12 months, the largest 12-month spike since April 1981.

Read more …

”Buy a 2nd freezer, and stock it. Soon.”

“Media Isn’t Warning You” That US Careening Towards Food Crisis (ZH)

Two weeks after the Russia-Ukraine crisis began, the world is quickly moving toward a food crisis that could affect millions of people. A spillover of the crisis could soon spark agricultural mayhem in the US. The curtailment of agricultural exports from Russia and Ukraine will have dramatic knock-on effects on global food supplies. Both countries are known as the ‘breadbasket of the world’ and are responsible for a quarter of the international wheat trade, about a fifth of corn, and 12% of all calories traded globally. Another major problem is access to fertilizers, as Russia has banned exports of the nutrients. It’s not whether or not there will be a food crisis. It’s how big that crisis will be.

We’ve already noted a handful of emerging market countries to monitor as the Russian invasion is choking off grain exports to them and causing prices to rise, which may result in social unrest. Even in the Western world, agricultural markets have not been immune, and higher prices have stung consumers. A tweet from Douglas Karr, the founder of the businesses blog Martech Zone, made the point the “media isn’t even warning you” a food crisis in America is emerging. Karr said he spoke with numerous folks in the food industry who said farmers in the South and Midwest are having trouble procuring fertilizer to grow crops ahead of planting season. He said farmers in the “Midwest are switching,” likely referring to crops that need fewer nutrients because they “can’t get nitrogen nor fertilizer.”

Even before Russia invaded Ukraine, the global food system was strained. Snarled supply chains and adverse weather conditions in top growing regions of the world resulted in low crop yields and rising prices. The supply shock of Ukraine will amplify the crisis as the UN warned global food prices could jump 8%-20% from here (prices are already at record highs). Responding to Karr’s viral tweet, some people said they were buying a freezer to panic hoard food supplies as the worst food crisis has yet to come. “Likely getting a 2nd chest freezer soon and stuffing it with meats/frozen vegetables/etc. Also, it looks like “preppers” who were dismissed or made fun of last decade are about to be set on being right,” one person said. Another person said, “Read this and then understand why in the last 6 months several publications have been grooming us to accept eating bugs. All of this was planned. Buy a 2nd freezer, and stock it. Soon.”

Read more …

“Siluanov said on Sunday that it would be “absolutely fair” for Russia to make sovereign debt payments in roubles until its foreign exchange reserves were unfrozen..”

Russian Default On Debts No Longer ‘Improbable’, Says IMF Head (G.)

A Russian default on its debts after western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine is no longer “improbable”, but would not trigger a global financial crisis, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Sunday. The Washington-based fund’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, said the sanctions imposed by the United States and other nations were already having a “severe” impact on the Russian economy and would trigger a deep recession there this year. The war in Ukraine will also drive up food and energy prices, leading to hunger in Africa, she added. Georgieva told CBS’s Face the Nation programme: “In terms of servicing debt obligations, I can say that we no longer think of Russian default as an improbable event. Russia has the money to service its debt, but cannot access it.

“What I’m more concerned about is that there are consequences that go beyond Ukraine and Russia.” Last week, the World Bank’s chief economist, Carmen Reinhart, warned that Russia and its ally Belarus were “mightily close” to default. Asked whether a Russian default could trigger a financial crisis around the world, Georgieva said: “For now, no.” The total exposure of banks to Russia amounted to around $120bn, an amount that while not insignificant, was “not systematically relevant”, she said. Last week, she said the IMF would downgrade its previous forecast for 4.4% global economic growth in 2022 as a result of the war. Separately, Russia said on Sunday that it was counting on China to help it withstand the blow to its economy from sanctions, but the US has warned Beijing not to provide that support.

The Russian finance minister, Anton Siluanov, said Moscow was unable to access $300bn of its $640bn in gold and foreign exchange reserves, but still held part of its reserves in the Chinese currency, the yuan. “And we see what pressure is being exerted by western countries on China in order to limit mutual trade with China. Of course, there is pressure to limit access to those reserves,” he said. “But our partnership with China will still allow us to maintain the cooperation that we have achieved, and not only maintain, but also increase it in an environment where western markets are closing.” Russia is due to make two interest payments on 16 March. However, it will have a 30-day grace period to make the coupon payments. Siluanov said on Sunday that it would be “absolutely fair” for Russia to make sovereign debt payments in roubles until its foreign exchange reserves were unfrozen, according to Interfax.

Read more …

Can’t pay in rubles, IMF? Not so fast…

India Is Mulling Rupee-Ruble Payments System for Trade with Russia (Scofield)

India is discussing how to set up a rupee-ruble payment mechanism to enable it to trade with Russia, to circumvent the U.S. sanctions regime. India abstained from voting on the March United Nations (UN) General Assembly Resolution demanding an end to Russian offensive in Ukraine (General Assembly resolution demands end to Russian offensive in Ukraine). Since its Independence, India has tried to steer a neutral course between the U.S. and Russia (and previously, the USSR). During the 1950s, India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, was a prime architect behind the Non-Aligned Movement, under which developing countries tried to pursue their national interests without binding themselves to either the U.S. or Soviet bloc. India, Indonesia, and Yugoslavia were mainstays of that movement, which today includes 120 member states, 18 observer states, and 10 international organisations.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, India developed closer relations with the United States. Most recently, under prime minister Narendra Modi, India’s policy tilted even more decisively in a pro-U.S. direction. Modi and Trump shared a strong affinity, and Modi even travelled to the U.S, to host massive rallies intended to galvanize Indian Americans in support of Trump. See this BBC account for further details, What did the Trump-Modi ‘bromance’ achieve? During the last several months, several considerations have prompted the Modi government to rethink the wisdom of putting all its eggs in the U.S. basket. Instead, India is returning to a more balanced approach, assessing its national interests vis-a-vis those of other countries and acting accordingly.

Two developments this summer caused India to question the reliability and integrity of the U.S. as an ally. The first was the manner of the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan, which had External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar wondering about the value of U.S. security guarantees. Washington’s Ukraine policy is only increasing those misgivings. The United States was willing to push Ukraine to take actions that many – including Henry Kissinger, George Kennan, and Noam Chomsky – warned Russia couldn’t abide. But then when the shooting started, the United States wasn’t willing to get in line of fire. And in the second, in September, the U.S. stunned many when it announced a new Australia/United Kingdom/United States security grouping (AUKUS), as part of which Australia would receive American nuclear submarines.

Read more …

They must be enjoying the situation…

The US Is Still Not Trying Diplomacy With Putin Over Ukraine (Antiwar)

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters its third week, there is still no sign that the Biden administration is attempting high-level diplomacy with Moscow as a way to possibly end the fighting. The Washington Post reported on Thursday that the Biden administration doesn’t see the conflict ending anytime soon and that its current strategy is to impose economic pain on Russia and support Ukraine’s military “in its effort to inflict as many defeats on Russia as possible.” It’s clear at this point that the Western sanctions were factored into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to attack Ukraine as they haven’t done anything to deter him. But US officials still say they are in no rush to engage directly with Putin.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed that in the months leading up to the invasion, the US gave Putin “possible off-ramps.” But during the negotiations, the US ignored Putin’s key demands. Putin wanted a guarantee that Ukraine wouldn’t ever join NATO, and even though President Biden said Kyiv wouldn’t be joining the military alliance anytime soon, the US refused to make the promise. Now, Russia has said it will stop its assault if Ukraine declares neutrality, recognizes Crimea as Russian territory, and recognizes the independence of the breakaway Donbas republics. Instead of supporting negotiations on these terms that could lead to a potential ceasefire, the US is working with its NATO allies to flood weapons into Ukraine.

Blinken said on Wednesday that the Biden administration expects “a strategic defeat” of Russia in Ukraine despite Moscow’s “short-term” gains. “We’ll accomplish this by backing Ukrainians in their fight, by remaining united in holding Russia accountable through the devastating sanctions, the diplomatic isolation and other measures,” Blinken said. While Blinken says the US expects a Russian defeat in Ukraine, Biden officials told the Post that they don’t see a “clear end to the military phase of this conflict,” meaning the US expects a long, bloody insurgency in Ukraine, and is willing to support it.

Read more …

Russia attacks Yavoriv because of weapons deliveries. There are no US miilitary left there.

Russia Seeking China’s Military Help In Ukraine, US “Sources” Say (ZH)

According to Reuters, when asked about claims that Russia is requesting military help from China, the spokesperson for China’s embassy in Washington responded “I’ve never heard of that.” The spokesperson, Liu Pengyu, said China’s priority was to prevent the tense situation in Ukraine from getting out of control. “The current situation in Ukraine is indeed disconcerting,” he said in an emailed response to a query from Reuters, adding that “the high priority now is to prevent the tense situation from escalating or even getting out of control.” Earlier when commenting on what’s been reported as “significant progress” made in Russia-Ukraine talks, we noted that “It remains to be seen if this is the start of a peaceful resolution to the war or just another false dawn.”

Well, just a few hours later the false dawn has arrived via a bombshell FT report citing anonymous Biden administration officials who say that Russia has issued a formal request from China for military support in its invasion of Ukraine. This was followed minutes later with similar Washington Post and New York Times stories in what looks like a US “coordinated leak” effort to send a message and warning to China. “Russia has asked China for military equipment to support its invasion of Ukraine, according to [anonymous] US officials, sparking concern in the White House that Beijing may undermine western efforts to help Ukrainian forces defend their country,” FT writes.

[..] The fresh attack on Yavoriv is being taken also as a clear warning to Washington, again given it was a well-known site which previously housed US military trainers engaged in short-term missions to support Ukrainian national forces prior to the invasion began. Training was going on up until earlier in February. Setting the stage for a potential major escalation with Western and NATO powers, the Kremlin warned on Saturday that the Russian military is prepared to target Western arms shipments that are continuing to pour into Ukraine. Russia’s Deputy FM Sergei Ryabkov said on state TV that Washington had been informed in the last days that Moscow will see weapons supply convoys entering Ukraine as “legitimate targets”.

“We warned the United States that the orchestrated pumping of weapons from a number of countries is not just a dangerous move, it is a move that turns these convoys into legitimate targets,” Ryabkov said in the remarks, which served as a severe warning to the West.

Read more …

“There tends to be a lot of virtue signaling in how people behave these days, and to take it out on a business like this is unfortunate.”

The West’s Cancel Culture Targets All Things Russian (JTN)

In New York City, despite many owners of Russian restaurants opposing Putin’s invasion of Ukraine — or even being Ukrainian themselves — they have experienced canceled reservations, bad reviews and social media campaigns, unusually low turnout, and vandalism, The New York Times reported. Even as some restaurants have plastered signs in support of Ukraine on their doors, they are still dealing with backlash from customers. Some patrons, however, are showing support for the restaurants as they struggle to cope with the commercial fallout from the invasion, according to the Times. “We just thought Russian businesses are probably being unfairly treated, and it would be the right thing to do to have dinner here,” a customer at Russian Samovar told the Times last week. “There tends to be a lot of virtue signaling in how people behave these days, and to take it out on a business like this is unfortunate.”

[..] Daily Wire podcast host and bestselling author Matt Walsh compared the treatment of Russians to other forms of bigotry, tweeting on Monday: “There was so much concern about potential ‘Islamophobia’ after 9/11, and ‘anti-Asian’ backlash after China unleashed covid on the world, and yet it seems to be open season on Russians right now. It’s almost like bigotry is okay as long as the targets are perceived to be white.” [..] On Thursday, a Meta spokesperson confirmed that Facebook and Instagram would allow users in some countries to violate the company’s rules and call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers with regard to the invasion of Ukraine, Reuters reported. “As a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement, “we have temporarily made allowances for forms of political expression that would normally violate our rules like violent speech such as ‘death to the Russian invaders.’ We still won’t allow credible calls for violence against Russian civilians.”

Author and columnist Larry Taunton retweeted an article on the Meta announcement, saying, “And people wonder how we ended up with Japanese internment camps.” [..] American grocery stores Kroger, Publix, and Food Lion have all said they removed Russian vodka from their shelves, according to Business Insider. Some bar owners are also dumping out their Russian vodka. However, “[l]ess than 1% of vodka consumed in the United States is produced in Russia,” CNN reported, noting that more than half of all vodka in the U.S. is American-made. “If you’re posting the Ukrainian flag and boycotting Russian vodka but you’re still going to vote for Democrats and you still won’t support oil production in the United States,” Walsh tweeted, “kindly shut the hell up you ridiculous virtue signaling phony.”

Read more …

From London Review of Books. Many authors, Mishra is one.

“..while an infotainment media works up citizens into a state of paranoid patriotism, a service class of intellectuals talks up the American Revolution and the international liberal order.”

Responses to the Invasion of Ukraine (Pankaj Mishra)

Foreigners have long envied the way the American system, built by and for slave-owners and programmed to boost oligarchies and dynasties, secures mass consent: while an infotainment media works up citizens into a state of paranoid patriotism, a service class of intellectuals talks up the American Revolution and the international liberal order.

Hyper-patriotic media have emerged in India, China and Russia over the last decade, together with pseudo-thinkers who have upgraded national self-images by hailing the glories of Hindu civilisation, Russian empire and Confucian harmony. As the hacks, trolls and conspiracy theorists of digital media cemented these ideological ecosystems in place, dissent was condemned to impotence. Today, the news and analysis received by the vast majority of people in India and China as well as Russia is – in the words of the head of the Levada Centre, Russia’s independent public opinion research organisation – a compendium of ‘lies and hatred on a fantastical scale’. And so Modi’s brutalising of Kashmir, Putin’s annexation of Crimea and Xi’s herding of Uighur Muslims into concentration camps faced as little domestic challenge as America’s endless wars and killings in Asia and Africa.

Humiliation in Iraq and Afghanistan, and at home by Trump, demoralised the exporters of democracy and capitalism. But Putin’s atrocities in Ukraine have now given them an opportunity to make America seem great again. The Russian bear has long guaranteed, more reliably than ‘Islamofascism’ or China, income and identity to many in the military-industrial and intellectual-industrial complex. An ageing centrist establishment – battered by the far right, harangued by post-Occupy and post-BLM young leftists, frustrated by legislative stalemate in Washington – seems suddenly galvanised by the prospect of defining themselves through a new cold war.

As Russian troops attacked a nuclear reactor, George Packer wrote in the Atlantic that ‘for the first time in decades, an American president is showing that he, and only he, can lead the free world.’ The New York Times exulted over the new-found resolve of the free world: ‘Nato has been revitalised, the United States has reclaimed a mantle of leadership that some feared had vanished in Iraq and Afghanistan.’ Boris Johnson claimed that he had never seen such a stark ‘dividing line between right and wrong’. More remarkably, Hillary Clinton called on MSNBC for a rerun in Ukraine of the ‘very motivated’ and ‘armed insurgency’ that ‘basically drove the Russians out of Afghanistan’.

Read more …

CDC numbers.

Deaths Represent 1.3% Of Side Effects Reported For Covid Vaccines (JTN)

Deaths following mRNA vaccination against COVID-19 represented 13 out of every 1,000 reports (1.3%) to the federal government’s Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS), the CDC’s Atlanta-based researchers said Monday. Another 66 reports out of every 1,000 (6.6%) were categorized as “serious,” resulting in “inpatient hospitalisation, prolongation of hospitalisation, permanent disability, life-threatening illness, congenital anomaly or birth defect,” according to their study published in The Lancet, the U.K-based medical journal. VAERS is often dubbed a passive surveillance system because it accepts reports from anyone. The CDC previously told Just the News that most reports come from manufacturers or healthcare providers, who have mandatory reporting requirements.

But the researchers said they also consulted an “active” smartphone-based voluntary monitoring system, v-safe, created in 2020. The data show that “most reported adverse events were mild and short in duration,” with 18-49 year-olds representing a plurality (45%) and females a supermajority (75%). Mainstream media uncritically ran with the CDC’s framing, with USA Today touting researcher David Shay’s assurance that the death rate was expected given the elderly population studied. About a quarter of reports were from ages 65 and up. A large subset of young people was almost entirely excluded, however: minors. The study only reviewed the first six months of emergency use authorization (EUA) for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, covering 340,000 reports and 299 million doses.

That time period ends just a month after Pfizer’s vaccine was authorized for 12-15 year-olds and predates its EUA for children 5-11, while Moderna’s vaccine remains unauthorized for anyone under 18. The study’s youngest age range is 16-17, representing 2% of all reports. “Why the cut-off at six months? There are now data that extend for 14 months, and those data include children,” Robert Malone, the mRNA vaccine pioneer-turned-critic, wrote in his newsletter. Health authorities worldwide have recognized young people, particularly males, as having a higher risk for heart inflammation following mRNA vaccination, especially after the second dose. That was the FDA’s rationale to indefinitely pause consideration of Moderna’s vaccine for adolescents.

Read more …

The biomedical world that I thought I was living in has been revealed to be a sham.”

How Does It Feel To Be Vindicated? (Malone)

I have been getting the question “How does it feel to be vindicated?” Dr. Jill (Glasspool-Malone) keeps noodling me to write a piece describing my feelings on this topic. Personally, I dislike focusing on the psychology of how these last two years have impacted on me (and us). Much as I am very wary of the “cult of personality” aspect of my newfound fame. I have not spoken out because I sought attention, I have done this because it was the right thing to do, and I seemed to have a unique widow of opportunity to speak for those whose voices were so actively suppressed. But I certainly have had to take hits for it. The slander, defamation, gaslighting, and globally coordinated character assassination have been non-stop. But as time has gone by, and more and more has been revealed about the hidden hands that seek to manage what we are allowed to hear, see, and think, I have been transformed.


The biomedical world that I thought I was living in has been revealed to be a sham. The legitimacy of the industry and discipline that I have committed my entire professional life to is in shambles. I am now embarrassed to call myself a vaccines and biodefense expert, because the fundamental corruption inherent in those domains has been so clearly revealed. I cannot unsee what I have seen. I cannot recapture all of those years spent in a profoundly corrupt academic system, spent supporting a deeply compromised discipline which appears primarily driven by financial interests rather than by what I had naively believed was a commitment to saving lives. I chose to not pursue the careers of my father and father in law, which were spent building weapons of war. Only to find that I had inadvertently played a significant role in enabling one of the most tragic medical follies in the history of man.

Read more …

“And while she was exonerating herself, she made time to give the masses a little bitty sermon on the nature of science itself. Remember science?”

Drs. Walensky and Offit: It’s All in Good Fun (Harrington)

A few days back Rochelle Walensky was invited to give an interview at her alma mater, Washington University in St. Louis. The first part of the discussion pivoted around softball questions which allowed her to pontificate on her decidedly race-infused views of public health. It was more than halfway into the interview before her interlocutor finally got around to asking her about where she and the CDC might have gone wrong in their management of the Covid epidemic. Here is what followed. First, she told of how pleased she was when she heard (from a “CNN feed” no less) about the “95% effectiveness” of the vaccines because, like all of us, she just wanted to get the pandemic behind us. And then she expresses, between chuckles, her shock upon learning that the vaccines might diminish in effectiveness over time “Nobody said waning…Nobody said what if the next variant…what if it’s not as potent against the next variant?”

You see, even though a humanities professor like me with no scientific training knew —thanks to my readings of the Moderna, Pfizer and Janssen EUAs and from reading numerous scientific papers on vaccine effectiveness and safety and listening to people like Sucharit Bkahdi, Geert Vande Bossche and Michael Yeadon— by very early 2021 that the vaccines probably would not prevent transmission and might actually promote new resistant varieties of the virus, none of this was conceivable or knowable to the Director of the CDC. Like the human hologram she apparently is, we are led to believe that she was there, but she was not really there. She was responsible, but really someone else was. “No one could have known,” she exclaims, except, of course, the hundreds of thousands of us amateurs who did, in fact, know, and were censored and called science-hating anti-vaxxers for our troubles.

And of course, holograms don’t do guilt or responsibility. Did she express any sympathy for the people that were forced out of jobs over their refusal to take what we now know, and she admits, were largely ineffective vaccines? Nope, again even though she was in the chair, it was, of course, all beyond her control. And as a powerless spectator—cue the folksy music—just like you and me, she was disappointed and surprised. Mistakes were made. She meant well. Her only real faults, as she said in the same talk, were the clearly well-intentioned ones of having “too little caution and too much optimism.” And while she was exonerating herself, she made time to give the masses a little bitty sermon on the nature of science itself. Remember science?

Read more …

How happy can we afford to be for them?

Julian Assange To Marry Fiancee Stella Moris In Belmarsh Prison March 23 (DM)

Julian Assange’s fiancée has spoken of her joy at being allowed to marry the WikiLeaks founder despite restrictions being placed on their wedding. Stella Moris, 38, will marry the 50-year-old in Belmarsh Prison, south east London on March 23, just weeks before the third anniversary of his dramatic arrest when he was dragged out of the Ecuadorian embassy in the capital in April 2019. He has been held in the high-security jail ever since as he fights extradition to the United States, where he is wanted over an alleged conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information following WikiLeaks’ publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. He has always denied wrongdoing and has won support for his case from human rights organisations and journalist groups across the world.


Ms Moris said that just four guests and two witnesses will be allowed to attend the ceremony, as well as two security guards. Dame Vivienne Westwood is designing Ms Moris’s wedding dress, and a kilt for Assange, whose parents are of Scottish extraction. The guests will have to leave immediately after the event, even though it is being held during normal visiting hours. The couple are still waiting to hear if they will be allowed a photographer. Ms Moris said: ‘Obviously we are very excited, even though the circumstances are very restrictive. ‘There continues to be unjustified interference in our plans. Having a photographer for an hour is not an unreasonable request. [..] Julian is looking forward to the wedding because it is finally happening, many months after we first made the request.’

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

Guardiola is a Catalan
https://twitter.com/i/status/1503007813873848333

 

 

Pelosi

 

 

 

 

It wasn’t me
https://twitter.com/i/status/1502234046809657355

 

 

22 years

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle March 14 2022

  • This topic has 66 replies, 27 voices, and was last updated 2 years ago by Red.
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  • #104161

    Alfred Eisenstaedt The kiss (V-J Day in Times Square) 1945   • US Farmers Hit Hard By Price Increases, Fertilizer Costs (JTN) • “Media Isn’t Warn
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle March 14 2022]

    #104162
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Alfred Eisenstaedt The kiss (V-J Day in Times Square) 1945

    The kiss seen/felt ’round the world…and it was my birth year…

    #104163
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    …one of the things that leaves me hope less; without hope, is Assange: Forget the U.S.; what about Australia? Assanges home country? HA! What a joke…
    Once a penal colony, always a penal colony? of the U.S./U.K. ?
    As far as I can determine, Australia has been an impotent player in this ongoing travesty of justice…
    Surely they could have intervened…but chose to genuflect to the U.S. ……….
    …the fabric of civilization is a fragile cloth made of gossamer threads so easily torn assunder…

    #104164
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “But western officials say anything short of a full Russian withdrawal would mean that crippling economic sanctions against Moscow were retained. “We keep tightening the noose,” said one. “Putin cannot hope for a fait accompli and for the world to go back to some kind of [normality]. There has been an irreversible change.” –FT

    Following yesterday’s too-long article on “all the things we a-gonna do to Russia.” Here’s another real situation: Putin can’t go back. Like the sanctions, the West decided and won’t let him. Anything other than a 30-point checklist of dismantling for Russia will mean sanctions are not removed. The other article said similarly: Removing sanctions is “hard.” ‘Cause we makes money and don’t feel like it.

    So what does that mean for peace? I mean really? The West won’t allow it, basically. They can’t de-Nazify and go away.

    That goes with the very next line from FT, above: “Russian retreat, Putin toppled” Who do they solely consult on how things are going there? Nuland and Blinken. Read the article. Completely objective observers, I’m sure.

    What’s the last line? “Putin wants less Nato, he’s getting more Nato,” [Nato’s] Stoltenberg said” So that’s it then. Do or die for all involved. Russia is conquered by Nato, or Nato fails and breaks. No other paths.

    In Saker: “in light of the sanctions which the EU has enacted on Russia – with prices of everything going up vertically. And as for the other lacuna, there’s no way Europe can find 200 billion cubic meters of gas anywhere else to replace Russia, be it in Algeria, Qatar or Turkmenistan – not to mention the EU’s lack of necessary LNG terminals.”

    Again, this is do or die. But the die is exclusively Europe. So what I’m saying is the West has targeted Russian oligarchs who can go home. Not great perhaps, but acceptable. Russia is cutting off German and European oligarchs. That is, they will live in a shrinking, dying nation, where their safety is not assured as it’s a cauldron of violent populist hardship. See what I mean, then? It takes time, and their denial is lifelong and mortal.

    Worse, IT’S NOT RUSSIA shutting of the German people and oligarchs. It’s the German oligarchs who are cutting off themselves.

    Can Germany keep this up on themselves as their yachts are confiscated (by payment default, not the governments)? Pretty strange world, no one has ever been driven this insane before, we have no precedents. Did the Tulip mania confiscate their own tulips to crash their own values?

    US Farmers Hit Hard by Price Increases, Fertilizer Costs (JTN)”

    True, but prices are way, WAY up and they are likely to regain all the costs and more. …From you, because there’s nowhere else to get them from, and no alternative for you except to eat.

    ”Buy a 2nd freezer, and stock it. Soon.”

    Not sure, may be too late and you’re now buying at the top. Should have had the pantry years before now, but you would have locked up your money for years in that case. Also electric grid will go down in some areas for some days. Do you have a generator too? Otherwise you will both stock the freezer, and lose everything in it. I think we posted Hugh Smith’s article on “Degrowth”, named decroissance. A quick plug into Google Translate says decroissance means “Decay.” You can’t get a freezer because “decay”. You would only make the delta on today’s meat prices vs tomorrow’s minus freezer and electric costs anyway.

    Put it this way: if food has quadrupled and there’s no car parts, what makes you think there are electric transformers and rolls of 660v wire lying around? Think yurt camping and tent stoves instead.

    “Siluanov said on Sunday that it would be “absolutely fair” for Russia to make sovereign debt payments in roubles until its foreign exchange reserves were unfrozen..”

    Embargoing themselves and giving Russia no choice about it.

    “It’s not weather you win or lose, but where you place the blame.” Frustratingly, Biden has successfully shifted the blame of the chart above, Congress and the fed, with Joe quadrupling costs on poor people, AWAY from Wall Street and over to Putin. By force, because he’s still happy to sell us all the grain and oil and pay all the debts with it.

    “Russia has the money to service its debt, but cannot access it.”

    That’s exactly what blew the markets in 1998. Guaranteeing a LTCM collapse that needs “The Committee to Save the World” to save them. Except: no market confidence. Printing to save your pals now does what? Gets your pals in trouble with the peasants.

    “The US Is Still Not Trying Diplomacy with Putin over Ukraine (Antiwar)”

    We always have peace by not talking. Remember in Vietnam how attending peace negotiations were MIC surrender? Even suggesting it made you a commie. Now suggesting it makes you a Nazi. (who are commies) Le meme chose… Nobody learns nothing from history. Which is no surprise since the Dept of Education was formed the U.S. has fallen to dead last among developed nations, and openly graduates complete illiterates in Baltimore, Chicago, NY…

    Russia Seeking China’s Military Help in Ukraine, US “Sources” say (ZH)”

    The same anonymous sources that lied and have been wrong about everything including Justin Beiber’s pants? I’m sure this one time, this 1st time in 25 years, they’ll be true and right.

    “The West’s Cancel Culture Targets All Things Russian (JTN)”

    5 minutes of hate. Must Krystallnacht everything. Actually though, nowhere near as bad as the hate they had for us, ourselves, Americans, specifically poor black neighborhoods, in 2020. Clearly there is nobody they hate or want to burn more than them. But the Russians are also now a distinct race — suddely not “all whitey” like Whoopie said — so we can go ahead and advance the cause of racism on them too! Hopefully, they can make Russians wear stars and herd them into ghettos the better to shoot them later. That’s love, diversity, and tolerance! All hail Facebook!

    the American system, built by and for slave-owners and programmed to boost oligarchies”

    Huh? Please substantiate this point Mr. Pankaj.

    “hacks, trolls and conspiracy theorists of digital media cemented these ideological ecosystems in place, dissent was condemned to impotence.”

    Uh, if I’m not mistaken, trolls ARE the dissent. That’s what makes them trolls. The opposite of troll is “State Mouthpiece”. Which of these two was promoted and which was banned and censored? By Digital Media and recommendation – or worse – of the State?

    Xi’s herding of Uighur Muslims into concentration camps faced as little domestic challenge”

    No, it faces tremendous challenge in the U.S., but exclusively BY the trolls, us dissenters, who won’t quit and which really cheeses them off, and who are all banned for it, as directed at the highest level by the U.S. GOVERNMENT. So putting it in #OpposieLand: the trolls and dissenters are all over this like stink on s—t. Dissent was not impotent, we’re harassing them without end and won’t surrender. And the “Them” is the same oligarchs, slave owners he speaks of, who are controlling the government.

    “George Packer wrote in the Atlantic that ‘for the first time in decades, an American president is showing that he, and only he, can lead the free world.’”

    The Atlantic, therefore more stupid than a bag of hammers, as Biden “leads the free world” by doing? Exactly nothing. “We’ve got your back Ukraine!!! Sike! What other slavs can we kill? Are Poles slavs? Make them attack Russia too and kill more slavs.”

    Doing nothing at all is the leadership he acclaims. Leadership of nobodies, doing nothing.

    Deaths Represent 1.3% of Side Effects Reported for Covid Vaccines (JTN)”

    So one of every 100 humans have been killed on purpose. Discuss?

    How Does It Feel to Be Vindicated? (Malone)”

    Very bad indeed. But what more could I do? It was a free world and I said so. Was I supposed to imprison you against your will like they did?

    Feel sorry for Walensky, so special-ed she just sits up there becoming the new target while Fauci gets away. I don’t really want to harm the mentally retarded and criminally insane, yet here we are. This mentally retarded bureaucrat has committed incredible harm that are in fact mass crimes. Do we let that pass because she has the intelligence of a hamster?

    #104165
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    The POTUS is playing russion roulette with a fully loaded gun, pointed straight at the “american” sheeple (& hamsters)…

    The slaughter will not be televised 😐

    #104166
    Red
    Participant

    Question for posters, suggestions for search engines that aren’t too restrictive?

    #104167
    Red
    Participant

    I should’ve mentioned I have switched to Ecosia any thoughts?

    #104168
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    Yuan Deposits Soar At Russian Banks After SWIFT Cut-Off

    With Russia now officially cut off from both the USDollar and the euro, Russia’s VTB Bank is seeing a surge in Chinese Yuan deposits, attracted by the bank offering significantly higher interest rates as Putin shifts focus to ‘friendly’ nations.

    The state-owned bank is offering a Chinese yuan savings account with a maximum interest rate of 8%, hailing the currency as “one of the most affordable and promising options for investing funds” after the country was hit by Western sanctions.

    Yuan Deposits Soar At Russian Banks After SWIFT Cut-Off

    In case you forgot, already:

    PLAYING WITH FIRE World’s most dangerous biolabs studying diseases with NO CURE

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/15095103/worlds-most-dangerous-biolabs-covid-leak/

    #104169
    oxymoron
    Participant

    V. arnold. Australia is a gated kindergarten for fat entitled children with no activism, no sense of culture beyond consumerism and no real identity.
    I have to live here – my carbon, from here was assembled and more than likely from here will depart. But there is the worst of apathy that exists – right here.

    #104170
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    oxymoron

    V. arnold. Australia is a gated kindergarten for fat entitled children with no activism, no sense of culture beyond consumerism and no real identity.

    You have my profound sympathies; thanks for the reply…

    I have to live here – my carbon, from here was assembled and more than likely from here will depart. But there is the worst of apathy that exists – right here.

    Again, my sympathies…but geography isn’t as important as ones ability to see the world (all of it) from a lens of profound questions along with an unfettered intellect…
    Keep on trucking man…

    #104171
    boilingfrog
    Participant

    For me and a (very) small group of friends who can still discuss this thing called ‘ideas’ without enmity here in Appalachia, the phrases “biblical” and “prophetic” often occur. Brett Weinstein writes (…Hunter-Gatherer…) “Cultural beliefs are often literally false, but metaphorically true.”(p. 216)

    Though certainly no biblical scholar, the idea occurred to me that the “reset” folks talk about is the exact inversion of the concept of “jubilee”. Historically, I believe it is the individuals who are released from their debts and not the “corporations” (in whatever form they existed).

    Now, it seems, those that “have” want to hold the individual to task and have consistently released the ‘corporations’ from liability and responsibility.

    It will be interesting, to say the least, when the banks we bailed-out of ‘foreclosure’ (that occurred due to their own behavior and lobbying) come to foreclose on the individual…

    From what Oxy says, it sounds like the Aussies will say, “Okay. Here are the keys”.

    #104172
    oxymoron
    Participant

    I – raised in public housing, single teenage mom, three children no child-support – very poor neighborhood.
    My wife on the other hand raised in upper middle class beachside Melbourne. Private school, piano and tennis lessons, yachting around the islands, her dad is in the golf club both her parents drive new Audi’s.

    I get invited to a party yesterday – her side of the tracks. 50 – 60 year olds who work in media, medical, finance and law.
    Holy shit. Brutal.
    I was on the ropes till 3 am. Where the hell was Dr. D John Day and Bosco (who I would have in an intellectual knife fight any day.)

    The screaming and the helping. Horrified, I hadn’t vaccinated my children. Outraged I knew (completely unsubstantiated to their ears) of the complications around NATO and Ukraine. Hadn’t heard of substack. The science was settled. All atheists. All heavy drinking and doing coke in a 7 million dollar house.

    Fuck it was a full blown attack. And it’s true what people say about mass formation – facts and data don’t matter (looking at you Deflationista you moron). The editor of the paper – the Australian I think. Pissed. Couldn’t handle the facts on the ground. Asked me where all the problems started -(shit how long is a piece of string?) I said I guess we could start with Greenspan – from there I was simply a Trump supporting Putin apologist who hates freedom. They all said I was confused and right wing and my reading of the automatic earth (as one of many examples) was echo chamber cog-bias etc.
    And I’m like – “ya’ll know I live off-grid with my wife, two beautiful children and cut my own firewood and grow a tonne of my own food – in a house I built with my own hands out of straw and mud right?”

    Apparently I’m dangerous. It get’s worse. Janelle – (massive Karen with fixation syndrome) is like “we shouldn’t have to pay for people like you” WTF? I was on by then. I reply “You’re not, but people like me are still underpaid for keeping jokers like you alive – growing your food and pruning your gardens but you should know that parity is closing and it’s getting fun to watch the zoom class do the funky chicken over commodities. I’m not. I create commodities and finally getting rewarded for investing in REALITY”
    She proceeded to gang up on me with another bunch… I ended with something along the lines of “GDP is a measure of waste and you guys run hot at around 12% annual I reckon”

    Epic.
    I’m not racist but I most certainly admit to being classist.
    Pricks.

    #104173
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Sorry…. still decompressing last night. I love people and I know we often come from fear but this lord of MOAR. It’s never enough for these people. They are all sooooooo fuckin’ angry at Putin and the unvaccinated (shit I copped it last night – thank God for intellect and good data recall or I was screwed).
    They are angry because they are not skiing in Chamonix (not a joke). They are angry because, well things don’t arrive on the doorstep the second I jism/think them in to existence. They are angry because I didn’t do what I was told. I tried very hard to explain British Thermal Units and the labour savings of just 1 barrel of crude and they were just touching themselves on the TESLA embossing crutchless underwear.
    I’m speechless.

    Sorry for the rant.
    On a positive note the farmer I work with – I find good land for friends or clients – is super excited about this 10 year ish correction. Doomsday preppers finally get to be called ‘lucky’ or ‘smart’ or ‘ahead of the curve’, ‘spoiler alertists’ or my favourite – ‘people with just enough humility to be grounded in Reality’.
    We are gunna grow, and build and party and smuggle and it’s gonna be fun as hell.
    Night my friends

    #104174
    boilingfrog
    Participant

    Oxy,
    Been to similar parties…maybe not quite so high up the food chain, but close. Physician ‘specialists’ with homes on the Atlantic Ocean, financial advisers who simply want to get back to “the good old days”. You ask a question of them regarding interest rates, corporate debt of Fed balance sheet and they look at you as they would the maid, if she spoke up.

    Terrifying that these ‘community leaders’ are so narrowly-focused on themselves, and their wants… Definitely angry with the Captain for daring to rearrange their deck chairs! I tend to ‘tap out’ early, not worth the energy. Best universities on the East Coast…and can’t grasp a logical fallacy.

    One of the retired history professors I do carpentry for told me we are certainly, in no way, in a similar situation as 1929 (as in: “not as bad”). He had no curiosity to discuss further, so I didn’t pursue. Why bother, his reality is CNN and NPR.

    As Greer wrote:
    “Knowing many stories is wisdom,
    Knowing no stories is ignorance,
    Knowing only one story is death”

    #104175
    Mr. House
    Participant

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-the-dollar-in-danger-china-russia-ruble-yuan-reserve-currency-foreign-sanctions-11647195545

    If they had a replacement would they tell? If they had a replacement would they know? Are they still calling the shots?

    #104176
    zerosum
    Participant

    coughcouighcough
    The headlines are at TAE

    “Mankind’s survival depends on neither side making one mistake that destroys the world.”

    The mistake was made a long time ago.
    ———–
    Reality – babushka dolls, stacking dolls, nesting dolls, Russian tea dolls, or Russian dolls) are a set of wooden dolls of decreasing size placed one inside another.
    ————-
    The world that I thought I was living in has been revealed to be a sham.
    ————-
    My doctor said my problem is old age
    Count yourself lucky that your are still here

    1. (red problems) clogged veins,
    2. (yellow problems)urinal problems,
    3. (brown problems) bowel movement problems,
    4. Hip replacement,
    5. Knee replacement,
    6. shingles,
    7. arthritis,
    8. gout,

    (One of the well-known symptoms of high uric acid is a condition called Gout. It is a type of arthritis that causes inflammation in one of the joints which occur suddenly. The gout pain in the joint occurs because of the presence of uric acid crystals that are sharp like needles around the joints.)

    9. (cognitive problems) Dementia,
    While Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia (accounting for an estimated 60 to 80 percent of cases), there are several other types. The second most common form, vascular dementia, has a very different cause — namely, high blood pressure.

    10. (blindness) Cataracts, Glaucoma, Macular Degeneration, Diabetic Retinopathy, Retinitis Pigmentosa

    11. Covid,
    12. vaccine

    #104177
    Oroboros
    Participant

    @oxymoron Sorry about you having to dip your toe into the Pool of Madness masquerading as sanity. Sounds like you took one for the Team. Good on you!

    Your tale of woe just confirms the depth of the psy-op directed against Western culture in earnest for the last 100 years or so starting with Sigmund Freud’s poisonous little nephew Edward Bernays.

    Freud’s insights into the human psyche allowed maggots like Bernays to weaponize psychology to an extent undreamt of by depots of old. Bernays’ obituary referred to him as “the father of public relations” not the actual father of modern propaganda.

    Ironically, Bernays actually rebranded ‘propaganda’ as ‘public relations’, his first great victory in the field.

    Having seen how effective propaganda could be during war, Bernays wondered whether it might prove equally useful during peacetime.

    He also called it, ‘“the engineering of consent.” Ah, euphemisms sweet euphemisms!

    He pimped the means to control and regiment the masses according to their ‘leaders’ will without the Sheeple knowing about it. In order to accomplish this slight of hand, it was necessary to appeal not to the rational part of the mind, but the to the Unconscious.

    Back in the day, Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter warned President Roosevelt against allowing Bernays anywhere near any leadership role in World War II, describing him and his colleagues as “professional poisoners of the public mind, exploiters of foolishness, fanaticism, and self-interest.”

    Your cocktail party from hell Oxymoron is a chapter and verse example of this. A cherry on the sundae Brainwashing.

    Goebbels loved Bernays even though he was a jew.

    Goebbels used Bernays techniques to create a cult around Hitler. It worked great for awhile.

    The Dipshit Deep State we have now has out done even the maggot Bernays.

    Hey, and here we are a100 years later. Mission Accomplished.

    The Triumph of the Will just for Olde Times sake.

    #104178
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    #104179
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    Oxymoron’s mass-formation cocktail-party sounds like one of those reminders we occasionally need that the professional-managerial class way of life is headed for a high-speed appointment with a brick wall, and this appointment is guaranteed and unavoidable on account of the choices our societies have made and continue to cling to with the proverbial white-knuckle death-grip.

    #104180

    Smack your helpless thumb-
    Your throbbing hand won’t mind it.
    The hammer isn’t dumb-
    It is the brain behind it.

    #104181
    willem
    Participant

    @Red: I’ve been trying Presearch and Brave Search since jettisoning DuckDuckGo last week.

    Oxy’s party experience at least confirms that we are not just dealing with on-line caricatures of people like this–they really exist. Sometimes I have wondered, since I have been fortunate enough to been spared the experience of such encounters en masse.

    #104182
    Maxwell Quest
    Participant

    Oxy’s party experience is a snapshot of the profound sickness in western culture. The only cure, I’m afraid, is what Mister Roboto suggested, “a high-speed appointment with a brick wall”. It reminded me a favorite passage from Yogananda’s classic work, Autobiography of a Yogi: (highlights are mine)

    My guru could never be bribed, even by love. He showed no leniency to anyone who, like myself, willingly offered to be his disciple. Whether Master and I were surrounded by his students or by strangers, or were alone together, he always spoke plainly and upbraided sharply. No trifling lapse into shallowness or inconsistency escaped his rebuke. This flattening treatment was hard to endure, but my resolve was to allow Sri Yukteswar to iron out each of my psychological kinks. As he labored at this titanic transformation, I shook many times under the weight of his disciplinary hammer.

    “If you don’t like my words, you are at liberty to leave at any time,” Master assured me. “I want nothing from you but your own improvement. Stay only if you feel benefited.”

    For every humbling blow he dealt my vanity, for every tooth in my metaphorical jaw he knocked loose with stunning aim, I am grateful beyond any facility of expression. The hard core of human egotism is hardly to be dislodged except rudely. With its departure, the Divine finds at last an unobstructed channel. In vain It seeks to percolate through flinty hearts of selfishness.

    This is love. This is a true physician. Not all of us are ready, nor could we tolerate the searing discipline of a Master like Sri Yukteswar. Thus, life must be our teacher. In my own case, the healing process has been the occasional Mister Roboto-like brick wall crash, interspersed with long periods of having the ego slowly ground into a fine powder. And that, just to achieve some sense of sanity.

    #104183
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    Come on D.
    Rochelle got you too?
    Her game, her con, her shtick is/are exactly what works for her and for what she has been rewarded.
    Her.
    Entire.
    Career.
    Her game is to project “I’m inoffensive” and onto her relatively blank slate, people “see” the imagined traits of sweet, amiable, sincere, harmless, caring, mothering and, yes, stupidity but assuredly not inoffensive ignorance.
    This Con-game works and, for this child forever trapped in a woman’s body, remains her permanent mask of sanity. Good girl!
    Mrs. Walensky’s affectation visibly drips with earnestness, eagerness to please, fealty, conviviality, polity, gentility, and constipated genteelness ad nauseam.
    She is the embodiment of the modern manager executive.

    #104184
    Susan C
    Participant

    I can’t resist sending this for my friends at TAE to watch. Thanks Illargi!

    Natasha From Russia With Love

    #104185
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    I picked up two pocketfuls of fallen velvet mesquite pods late last night while walking through a local park. This morning I ground them up with a coffee grinder and offered them to my hens. Success! They like it. 🙂 17% protein. I need to secure regular sources of the pods, however, velvet mesquite pods have just become a chicken feed additive. My own mesquite tree is not the “velvet” kind, and the pods are not for grinding into flour. I’m considering testing how easy it might be to sprout them, and feed the sprouts to the hens….

    #104186
    Formerly T-Bear
    Participant

    Oxymoron at # 104169
    John Pilger wrote a revealing book of Oz; “The Secret Country, The Hidden Australia” ISBN 0-394-57462-1 (Knopf) (and has lived in London ever since). Also, Robert Hughes’ “The Fatal Shore, The Epic of Australia’s Founding” ISBN 0-394-50668-5 (Knopf) narrates the ‘founding’ of the British presence on the continent (supposedly empty at that). It is not hard to conclude today’s Oz is an aggregation of lies. I have offended some readers by stating that the finest Australians descended from people not worth a rope and are ruled by the spawn of their warders; still standing by my words having spent a month traversing the continent and working with a number of sound transplants in the U.S. The books are old but their content is still sterling.

    All the best in contending with inbred authoritarians (numbering about 1 in 20) and whinging limeys (ubiquitous). I have experienced the Oz government and am still at boycott things Australian, do not will not support 3rd Reich British National Socialists.

    #104187
    Oroboros
    Participant

    @Susan C

    I love Natasha From Russia with Love

    I couldn’t take my eyes off her!

    #104188
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    … stand-by for False Flag Attack. Yes. Any time now, … by Russia, of course!

    “There is significant danger that the Ukraine, the UK or the U.S. will launch a false flag attack in Ukraine.

    People have started to take note of the directional fear mongering that is coming from various ‘western’ officials.

    The Sirius Report @thesiriusreport – 23:36 UTC · Mar 12, 2022
    Setting the scene for a false flag?
    Polish President:
    If Putin uses weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine, NATO will have to think seriously about what to do.

    You would have to be sub 100 IQ not to see what is going on.

    To which I responded:

    Moon of Alabama @MoonofA – 17:56 UTC · Mar 13, 2022
    They are indeed doing this on all channels.
    IMHO an upcoming false flag attempt to get NATO into the fight.
    Historian and Russia expert Gilbert Doctorow points into the same direction:

    Warning: it is “highly likely” the United States is now about to carry out a ‘false flag’ operation in Ukraine in which it will accuse the Russians of using chemical weapons. “

    Ukraine – Officials Announce False Flag Attack – Sanctions Hit Back
    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/03/ukraine-officials-announce-false-flag-attack.html#more

    Anyway, … more carefully I read the tea leaves from my morning Dirty Chai – black tea with espresso coffee, more I see that U.S. is trying hardest to make sure the next step is a much, much wider war!

    … quietus!

    F.S.

    #104189
    John Day
    Participant

    @My Parents Said Know: From yesterday. Take fluoroquinolones if you get anthrax,
    They are ideal when they are the only reliable treatment. They do, occasionally, have a broad variety of weird adverse events (psychosis and death, for instance), so avoid them when there are other effective treatments with better overall risk profiles.

    #104190
    zerosum
    Participant

    7.9% inflation is 40 year high
    I don’t remember.
    I must have done the right decisions.
    I’m still here.
    I survived it 40 years ago.
    (How ….. consume less or earn more)

    #104191
    John Day
    Participant

    @Phoenixvoice: Watch out. Mesquite is invasive and spreads through the roots.
    It is so widespread because cattle love it, and it is fairly drought-hardy.

    #104192
    a kullervo
    Participant

    In a closed system, creation implies destruction.

    Energy restrictions >> Population decrease >> Civilization collapse

    Apparently, TPTB are trying to stage a controlled demolition.
    If so, one possible question is: is a civilization’s controlled demolition feasible?

    Human beings are nothing more than chaotic agents.

    The good news are that tranquility will return once again.
    The bad news (from a human standpoint) are that there will be no humans around to enjoy it.

    Radical acceptance (peace of mind is the loneliest place to be.)

    Desires are the wages of ignorance.

    #104193
    John Day
    Participant

    @Oxymoron: Good work at the Entitled Snob Party last night, Mate!
    They are experiencing free-floating-anxiety and you Gave Them A Focus, for the moment, anyway.

    Good deed for the day is done. I hope you sleep well.
    I generally avoid discussions with those who only want to win at any cost.

    #104194
    John Day
    Participant

    a kullervo (Finnish name?) said:
    “In a closed system, creation implies destruction.

    Energy restrictions >> Population decrease >> Civilization collapse

    Apparently, TPTB are trying to stage a controlled demolition.
    If so, one possible question is: is a civilization’s controlled demolition feasible?

    Human beings are nothing more than chaotic agents.”

    Humans can make the transition from exploiters through destruction – to – Stewards of Living Systems,
    and the game will not be less-than-zero-sum, but a cooperative-reforestation model.
    It’s a good model. Jpan did it for hundreds of years.
    I’d rather try the “hopeless” than do nothing, myself.

    #104195
    zerosum
    Participant

    (The oligarch …. a very rich business leader with a great deal of political influence in every countries)

    The battle of the oligarch is getting dangerous for non-participating riffraf.
    The number of evacuees leaving the battlefields keep growing
    None of the oligarch are talking peace.
    Even the snobs have been manipulated/brain scrambled.

    #104196
    anticlimactic
    Participant

    I am not sure what the Russian aims are in Ukraine. If they do get a peace treaty the Ukrainians can just say it was signed under duress and can be ignored. NATO will pump huge amounts of weapons into Ukraine and Russia is back to square minus one.

    How do they intend to ‘de-nazify’ Ukraine? Exterminate the Azof Batallion? Go door to door in Kiev and round people up?

    The only way I see that Russia can ‘win’ is if they keep what they control.

    #104197
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Gonzalo Lira

    He lives in Karkov with his wife and kids.

    His sources tell him that the US wants to stage a false flag chemical attack because the Empire of Lies has been lying tov the US public that Russia is losing the war and is desperate. This he says is not true.
    The all out media compaign in the West to portray the Ukranian forces defeating Russia at every turn is pure fantasy.

    Russia is very decisively winning and reaching their stated goal of destroying the Ukraine military and infrastructure.

    He says the Russia forces have surrounded all the principle Ukrainian forces and are in the process of slowly putting together the pieces to :

    Overwhelm them
    Overrun them
    or annihilate them

    #104198
    a kullervo
    Participant

    @John Day

    I kindly disagree:
    Humans are not meant to be ecological stewards (their short lifespans prevent them to perform the adequate assessment of the consequences of their acts); the homo sapiens sapiens ecological role is to perform a major overhaul of the planet’s surface.

    #104199
    a kullervo
    Participant

    If it’s in The Creator’s will, one day future generations will assess this moment with clear heads, and they will be dumbfounded with disgust.

    #104200
    laceration
    Participant

    The economic crisis of 2008 was so much more fun than this one. People were building chicken coops, there were garden tours. I was a big part of that. I was primed by reading Kunstler. I hadn’t caught on to Ilargi at that point but I remember that overwrought woman who was the partner on theauotmaticearth who disappeared to New Zealand. After the fed induced financial shenanigans “normalized” the economy the local food movement died down + people went back to car driving consumerism. But I didn’t go for that. I literally have not bought a vegetable since, have almost 2 doz fruit trees + all kind of berries. I grow corn, beans + even have some winter wheat in the ground. Am I concerned or panicked about the coming NPK shortages. Absolutely not! I am amused up to my eyeballs! I have a nitrogen factory, everyone of us does! Our own urine is an incredibly great fertilizer and it is not even noxious because it needs to be diluted at about 8:1(big margin of error there, 6:1 to 12:1 is all good). Urine also has good amounts of (P)hosphoous and Potasium(K). I live in an arid region. Arid regions mostly have soil loaded with K and never need it. I am set for P too, but that’s another story…

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