Apr 192022
 
 April 19, 2022  Posted by at 9:14 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,


Jean Metzinger The blue bird 1912-13

 

Thralldom and Its Uses (Jim Kunstler)
The Great Acquiescence — Glory to Ukraine (Patrick Lawrence)
The Importance of Ignorance in Info Wars (Lauria)
Ukraine and the Profits of War (TomD)
American Commissars (Chris Hedges)
Lockdown-Heavy States Had Some of the Worst Health Results (McMaken)
Second Global Covid-19 Summit Scheduled For May 12 (R.)
Hunter Biden’s China Business Deals Should Raise ‘Alarm Bells’ (ET)
Jack Dorsey Lashes Out At Twitter Board As Elon Musk Tries To Buy Company (DW)
Macron Should Prepare For A Brutal Shock After Latest Polls (Exp.)
EU’s 18 Year Old Embezzlement Charges to Derail Le Pen Presidential Bid (SN)
From Rachel Carson to Monsanto: The Silence of Spring (OffG)

 

 

Gonzalo
https://twitter.com/i/status/1515975497397661699

 

 

 

 

Maersheimer

 

 

Azov

 

 

 

 

“Collectively going crazy has been a luxury we can’t afford anymore.”

Thralldom and Its Uses (Jim Kunstler)

America has had enough of being in thrall, especially to figures and forces dedicated to our destruction. This spring is the beginning of a national life with less stuff, including, looks like, stuff to eat. That will sure enough put folks in touch with something real, and then they will naturally have to do something about it. Centralized control of the population via trackable digital money is the last thing that will avail in the face of hunger and desperation. In fact, that is just another set of empty wishes and promises. The reality is that centralized government, such as the one in Washington DC, is less and less in control of anything — except the manufactured pretense that it can fix the problems of less stuff and decaying money.

The federal government is increasingly impotent, unable to discharge its basic obligations to preserve public order and safety. Its previous attempt to fix something was the response to Covid-19, which has culminated in the fiasco of the mRNA vaccines, now pending and tending toward an astounding wave of early deaths among those in thrall to the transparently dishonest promises of officialdom (“safe and effective”). That’s the trouble with thrall. It narrows the field-of-vision so badly, you can’t see what’s coming at you indirectly, like: hardship and death. The country has been in serious trouble for more than a decade. Cavalcades of bad choices — and then lying to ourselves about these bad choices — has shoved us well over the edge of our cherished expectations. One way out, then, is to simply refuse to remain in thrall to officialdom and the manufactured bullshit that is its only product.

We are lately in thrall to the melodrama in Ukraine, largely engineered by figures and forces in our own government and for their own ends, which look suspiciously at odds with the nation’s actual interests (the nation being us, its people). Perhaps this illustrates the widening gulf between the slouching beast government has become and the people trying to operate their lives and destinies under it. No food for you, no fertilizers for future food for you, no spare parts for you, no free speech for you, no social or economic role for you, no health for you, and (watch it, now!) soon no life for you. Collectively going crazy has been a luxury we can’t afford anymore. You fell for RussiaGate and it kept you in thrall for years. You fell for the Adam Schiff orchestrated Ukraine phone call impeachment gambit. You fell for the Covid scare and the dangerously defective vaccines forced on you. You fell for the fraud-drenched election of the empty vessel known as “Joe Biden.” Don’t fall for the invitation to World War Three.

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“Whoever wins the war in Ukraine, the non–West will win. Whoever wins, the 21st century will win, burying the mostly awful 20th at last. As for Americans, we have already lost.”

The Great Acquiescence — Glory to Ukraine (Patrick Lawrence)

Since the Russiagate farrago overcame liberal America in 2016, there has been much debate as to whether our McCarthyesque circumstances are as bad as, similar to, or not as bad as things got during the Cold War decades. This no longer seems to me the useful question. In various important ways we have passed beyond even the worst of the Cold War’s many dreadful features. Our better reference is Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, wherein the English novelist pictured a society of incubated beings — programmed from birth, hooked on a happiness-inducing drug called soma, devoid of everything we now consider human, wholly incapable of connection, of responsibility, and, indeed, desiring neither.

Infantile gratification is all that matters to those populating the World State Huxley imagined — such as anything matters. We are not there yet, let’s not exaggerate. But we ought to honor Huxley for his prescience, for we are heading in the direction of his unlivable world of mind-deprived children watched over by a small, chosen, diabolic elite. I am not surprised that it is Ukraine that brings us to what I consider a collective psychological crisis. After 30 years of post–Cold War triumphalism, Washington has decided to use Ukraine and its people in a go-for-broke attempt finally to subvert Russia. Stepping back for a better look, this is the decisive event in the imperium’s confrontation with the 21st century — its grand roll of the dice, its now-or-never moment.

Broke it will be when all this is over, however far in the future that will prove. A little like Cú Chulainn, the Irish hero who drowned swinging his sword in a rage against the incoming tide, we cannot win this one. And we are falling apart as the realization of our loss arrives subliminally among us. Whoever wins the war in Ukraine, the non–West will win. Whoever wins, the 21st century will win, burying the mostly awful 20th at last. As for Americans, we have already lost.

Putin on Ukraine

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“..the Soviet Union destroyed 80 percent of the Wehrmacht in WWII..”

“They do not know what a revival of Nazism means to the Russian people or even that there is a revival of Nazism in Ukraine..”

The Importance of Ignorance in Info Wars (Lauria)

There is fertile ground to wage information warfare in the U.S. on Ukraine. In all of America’s wars, ignorance of foreign affairs plays a big role. Americans’ lack of knowledge of other countries is compounded by the fact that the U.S. has never been invaded, except briefly by the British in 1812, and that the U.S. itself began as an invasion by Europeans in which they wiped out the indigenous population, and then later invaded Mexico and then Spanish possessions and frankly, have never stopped invading other nations. The lack of knowledge of this history makes Americans vulnerable to propaganda cloaking American expansionism. In the context of the Ukraine war this ignorance plays an important part in the susceptibility of the American public to war propaganda.

Americans generally don’t understand the psyche of Russia, which was invaded numerous times, particularly by the biggest European powers in the 19th and 20th centuries. They generally do not know, because they are never told, that the Soviet Union destroyed 80 percent of the Wehrmacht in WWII. They do not know what a revival of Nazism means to the Russian people or even that there is a revival of Nazism in Ukraine because it is whitewashed out of the corporate media story. Under the guise of respectability and objectivity, the news media of the U.S. and Europe, which is closely aligned with their governments, has played an important role in the information war by deliberately omitting three crucial facts from their Ukraine war narrative, which completely changes the picture.

Media is leaving out the role of U.S. in the 2014 coup in Kiev; that an 8-year civil war has been fought in the eastern Donbass region against Russian-speaking Ukrainians who resisted the coup (Russia’s help at the time was falsely portrayed as an invasion); and that Neo-Nazi fighters, now incorporated into the Ukrainian state military, played a big role in the coup, in the civil war and in the current fighting in the Russian invasion. There is abundant evidence that the U.S. was behind the violent overthrow of Ukraine’s democratically-elected president in 2014, especially a leaked phone conversation between a high-ranking State Dept. official and the American ambassador in Kiev discussing weeks before the coup who would make up the new government. There is more than abundant evidence about the influence of neo-Nazis in Ukraine.

There was also little emphasis in the media’s information war on diplomatic moves that could have prevented the Russian invasion: namely the seven-year-old Minsk accords that could have ended the civil war if the U.S., Germany and France pressured Kiev to implement it.

Volnovakh
https://twitter.com/i/status/1516110852872679428

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Lucrative.

Ukraine and the Profits of War (TomD)

The war in Ukraine will indeed be a bonanza for the likes of Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. First of all, there will be the contracts to resupply weapons like Raytheon’s Stinger anti-aircraft missile and the Raytheon/Lockheed Martin-produced Javelin anti-tank missile that Washington has already provided to Ukraine by the thousands. The bigger stream of profits, however, will come from assured post-conflict increases in national-security spending here and in Europe justified, at least in part, by the Russian invasion and the disaster that’s followed. Indeed, direct arms transfers to Ukraine already reflect only part of the extra money going to U.S. military contractors. This fiscal year alone, they are guaranteed to also reap significant benefits from the Pentagon’s Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) and the State Department’s Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program, both of which finance the acquisition of American weaponry and other equipment, as well as military training.

These have, in fact, been the two primary channels for military aid to Ukraine from the moment the Russians invaded and seized Crimea in 2014. Since then, the United States has committed around $5 billion in security assistance to that country. According to the State Department, the United States has provided such military aid to help Ukraine “preserve its territorial integrity, secure its borders, and improve interoperability with NATO.” So, when Russian troops began to mass on the Ukrainian border last year, Washington quickly upped the ante. On March 31, 2021, the U.S. European Command declared a “potential imminent crisis,” given the estimated 100,000 Russian troops already along that border and within Crimea. As last year ended, the Biden administration had committed $650 million in weaponry to Ukraine, including anti-aircraft and anti-armor equipment like the Raytheon/Lockheed Martin Javelin anti-tank missile.

Despite such elevated levels of American military assistance, Russian troops did indeed invade Ukraine in February. Since then, according to Pentagon reports, the U.S. has committed to giving approximately $2.6 billion in military aid to that country, bringing the Biden administration total to more than $3.2 billion and still rising. Some of this assistance was included in a March emergency-spending package for Ukraine, which required the direct procurement of weapons from the defense industry, including drones, laser-guided rocket systems, machine guns, ammunition, and other supplies. The major military-industrial corporations will now seek Pentagon contracts to deliver that extra weaponry, even as they are gearing up to replenish Pentagon stocks already delivered to the Ukrainians.

On that front, in fact, military contractors have much to look forward to. More than half of the Pentagon’s $6.5 billion portion of the emergency-spending package for Ukraine is designated simply to replenish DoD inventories. In all, lawmakers allocated $3.5 billion to that effort, $1.75 billion more than the president even requested. They also boosted funding by $150 million for the State Department’s FMF program for Ukraine. And keep in mind that those figures don’t even include emergency financing for the Pentagon’s acquisition and maintenance costs, which are guaranteed to provide more revenue streams for the major weapons makers.

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Character assassination. Algorithms. Shadow banning. De-platforming.

American Commissars (Chris Hedges)

The ruling class, made up of the traditional elites that run the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, is employing draconian forms of censorship on its right-wing and left-wing critics in a desperate effort to cling to power. The traditional elites were discredited for pushing through a series of corporate assaults on workers, from deindustrialization to trade deals. They were unable to stem rising inflation, the looming economic crisis and the ecological emergency. They were incapable of carrying out significant social and political reform to ameliorate widespread suffering and refused to accept responsibility for two decades of military fiascos in the Middle East. And now they have launched a new and sophisticated McCarthyism. Character assassination. Algorithms. Shadow banning. De-platforming.

Censorship is the last resort of desperate and unpopular regimes. It magically appears to make a crisis go away. It comforts the powerful with the narrative they want to hear, one fed back to them by courtiers in the media, government agencies, think tanks and academia. The problem of Donald Trump is solved by censoring Donald Trump. The problem of left-wing critics, such as myself, is solved by censoring us. The result is a world of make-believe. YouTube disappeared six years of my RT show, “On Contact,” although not one episode dealt with Russia. It is not a secret as to why my show vanished. It gave a voice to writers and dissidents, including Noam Chomsky and Cornel West, as well as activists from Extinction Rebellion, Black Lives Matter, third parties and the prison abolitionist movement.

It called out the Democratic Party for its subservience to corporate power. It excoriated the crimes of the apartheid state of Israel. It covered Julian Assange in numerous episodes. It gave a voice to military critics, many of them combat veterans, who condemned US war crimes. It no longer matters how prominent you are or how big a following you have. If you challenge power, you are at risk of being censored. Former British MP George Galloway detailed a similar experience during an April 15 panel organized by Consortium News in which I took part: “I have been threatened with travel restrictions were I to continue the television broadcast I had been doing for almost an entire decade. I have been stamped by the false label ‘Russian State Media,’ which I never had, by the way, when I was presenting a show on Russian state media. It was only given after I ceased to have a show on Russian state media, ceased because the government made it a crime for me to do so.”

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As will the most vaxxed states.

Lockdown-Heavy States Had Some of the Worst Health Results (McMaken)

As hard as it is to believe, the Chinese regime is still employing a “zero covid” strategy and claims it can eradicate covid entirely through lockdowns and vaccinations. China’s draconian, nightmarish, near-total lockdown policy—which is notably still “necessary” in spite of widespread vaccination—has recently been revived in Shanghai where residents are now struggling to find food. But the regime has only doubled down on the policy, with Chinese President Xi Jinping declaring that “persistence is victory.” This approach has no basis in any actual science, however, and contradicts decades of epidemiological research condemning lockdowns. Moreover, a 2021 joint study from USC and the Rand Corporation concluded “excess mortality increases” following “the implementation of SIP [shelter-in-place] policies.”

This week, a new study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that the states with the harshest lockdowns tended to perform the worst in a composite measure of mortality, economic performance, and education. The states that performed the best were in many cases states where lockdowns were weak or nonexistent, with Utah and Nebraska at the top of the list. The study, authored by Phil Kerpen, Stephen Moore, and Casey B. Mulligan, also concluded that antilockdown Florida, Arkansas, West Virginia, and Utah “were outliers” that performed unexpectedly well compared to their neighbors. Prolockdown California, Illinois, New Mexico, and Colorado, on the other hand, performed more poorly than their neighbors.

The chief value of the report is that it takes economic, educational, and health variables and normalizes them across states. For example, it’s difficult to meaningfully compare economies when some states are far more reliant on service industries than others. In this case, the authors find the “combined economic performance” for states taking the nature of each state’s economy into account. By this metric, the states that performed the best during the pandemic were lockdown-light states Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Idaho, and Utah. The states with the worst outcomes were lockdown-heavy Hawaii, New Jersey, Connecticut, New York, and Illinois.

On the matter of education—which the authors note is closely tied to both economic performance and mortality in the longer term—the authors look at bans on in-person education, state by state, and presumed resulting “learning loss.” In this case, the best performers were Wyoming, Arkansas, Florida, South Dakota, and Utah. The worst performers were California, Oregon, Maryland, Washington, and Hawaii. Of course, if faced with statistics such as these, lockdown advocates are likely to admit that lost educational opportunities and lost economic prosperity are unfortunate. But, they will say education and property rights had to limited in the name of preventing mortality and protecting “public health.”

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Where the WHO will be awarded dictatorial powers.

Second Global Covid-19 Summit Scheduled For May 12 (R.)

A second Global Covid-19 Summit will be held virtually next month for countries to discuss efforts to end the pandemic and prepare for future health threats, according to a joint statement on Monday. “The emergence and spread of new variants, like Omicron, have reinforced the need for a strategy aimed at controlling Covid-19 worldwide,” the White House said in a news release with the Group of Seven and Group of 20 nations. The announcement comes amid a surge of Covid-19 cases in parts of the United States and around the world prompted by easily transmissible variants of the virus.


China’s most populous city, Shanghai, is trying to return to normal after a nearly three-week shutdown, which, along with wider China curbs, are taking a toll on the world’s No 2 economy. The summit will build on efforts and commitments made at the first global summit in September, including getting more people vaccinated, sending tests and treatments to highest-risk populations, expanding protections to health care workers and generating financing for pandemic preparedness, the statement said. “We know we must prepare now to build, sustain, and finance the global capacity we need, not only for emerging COVID-19 variants, but also future health crises,” it said.

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“We’re very clear that the Bidens got some $31 million..”

Hunter Biden’s China Business Deals Should Raise ‘Alarm Bells’ (ET)

“We’re very clear that the Bidens got some $31 million, based on the laptop, from a series of deals that happened beginning when Joe Biden was vice president of the United States. And those deals happened courtesy of four Chinese businessmen,” Schweizer said. All four Chinese businessmen were “directly linked” to the highest levels of Chinese intelligence, he added. The fact that these Chinese businessmen would want to talk to the Bidens was interesting, Schweizer said, since the latter did not bring any capital or investors to the table, something financial investment firms would do. Surely, the Chinese businessmen weren’t philanthropies either, he added, the question then became what they wanted in return.

“When you look at the cluster of who provided the funds to the Bidens, and the fact that the Bidens did not really provide anything tangible in return, this has all the markings of elite capture and of a Chinese intelligence operation,” he said. According to his book, one of the Chinese businessmen was a Chinese tycoon named Che Feng, who helped Hunter Biden and his associates secure a deal involving a Chinese investment fund called Bohai Harvest RST (BHR). Schweizer said the deal netted him about $20 million. Rosemont Seneca Partners, a U.S. investment and advisory firm Hunter Biden co-founded, became one of the shareholders of BHR, which was incorporated in Shanghai in 2013. Hunter gained an unpaid board seat on BHR as a result. In October 2019, George Mesires, Hunter Biden’s attorney, issued a statement saying that the younger Biden had decided to resign from his seat on the BHR board of directors.

Hunter Biden held a 10 percent stake in BHR but divested as of November last year, his lawyer told The New York Times. Che was business partners with Ma Jian, who was then-vice minister of China’s MSS and was reportedly headed the ministry’s No. 8 bureau, which targeted foreigners with its counterintelligence apparatus, according to the book. Ma was vice minister of state security from 2006 until January 2015, when he was placed under Party investigation for corruption, amid a sweeping anti-corruption campaign initiated by Chinese leader Xi Jinping in 2012. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in December 2018, after being found guilty of accepting bribes, insider trading, and making “coercive” business deals.

Before his political downfall, Ma was a key member of a political faction loyal to former Chinese regime leader Jiang Zemin. The so-called Jiang faction is known for opposing Xi’s leadership. Che, who is also the son-in-law of Dai Xianlong, the former governor of China’s central bank, was also named in the 2017 Paradise Papers for making about $14.6 million in preferred stocks through his offshore company registered in the British Virgin Islands between 2009 and 2013. According to Chinese media, Che was placed under investigation in June 2015. “[Che] would fade from the [BHR] deal after both he and Ma were arrested and charged with money laundering and bribery, respectively. But the partnership between Hunter and Chinese officials was off and running,” according to his book.

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“It’s a doomsday machine, it’s the atomic bomb, everyone gets wiped out — that’s the key.”

Jack Dorsey Lashes Out At Twitter Board As Elon Musk Tries To Buy Company (DW)

Former Twitter CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey slammed the company’s board of directors in a tweet over the weekend which comes as entrepreneur Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, offered $43 billion to buy the company outright last week. Dorsey was responding to the following tweet when he made his remark, “If look into the history of Twitter board, it’s intriguing as I was a witness on its early beginnings, mired in plots and coups, and particularly amongst Twitter’s founding members. I wish if it could be made into a Hollywood thriller one day.” Dorsey responded, “It’s consistently been the dysfunction of the company.”

Dorsey also said “big facts” in response to the following statement from venture capitalist Fred Destin: “What I do know for sure is that this old Silicon Valley proverb is grounded in age-old wisdom that still applies today: Good boards don’t create good companies, but a bad board will kill a company every time.” When later asked if he was allowed to speak like this publicly given the fact that he is still on the company’s board, Dorsey responded, “No.” Twitter has attempted to stop Musk from taking over the company by adopting a so-called “poison pill” that effectively allows all shareholders, except those trying to buy out the company, to purchase newly offered shares at a discounted price.

Musk would have to purchase the new shares at a higher price, which could end up being too much for him to afford, if he wanted to take over the company. Despite throwing a massive roadblock in Musk’s way, the adoption of the poison pill would not bar Musk from being able to buy the company, it would only make it harder. “A poison pill is a way to stave off someone until you can get a higher price. It makes it outrageously expensive for the person to buy it,” said Charles Elson, the founding director of the University of Delaware’s Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance. “It’s a doomsday machine, it’s the atomic bomb, everyone gets wiped out — that’s the key.”

Mr. Wonderful

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Still can’t see him lose.

Macron Should Prepare For A Brutal Shock After Latest Polls (Exp.)

In 2017, Macron turned a comfortable second-round victory over Le Pen into an electoral route once he bested her on economic policy during their candidates’ debate. Five years ago, Macron was the pro-change candidate and his televised mastery of policy detail, in concert with his seemingly non-ideological, moderate prescriptions for French economic ills, ended Le Pen’s slim hopes. Ironically, perhaps, it is Macron’s stewardship of the economy that yet could see Le Pen victorious. Macron is seen by many as “the president of the rich,” and most say his economic reforms favour the affluent to the neglect of those on modest incomes. Hence, Le Pen’s healthy leads on issues such as inflation, jobs, and the economy. If most voters prioritise these issues when casting their ballots, Macron will be lucky to eke out a victory.


In a different political climate, Macron could have coasted home upon the support of those who care most about health care, climate change, education, and, of course, Ukraine. Unfortunately for Macron, only health policy matters a great deal to a good number of voters. Instead, a Macron victory will mirror Biden’s 2020 election over Donald Trump in one crucial aspect. It will be more about his opponent’s perceived failings than his own qualities as a candidate and officeholder. Just as most Biden voters cast a negative ballot – their vote was more against Trump than for Biden, himself – our poll finds that more Macron voters will be voting against Le Pen’s “far right” image than for Macron. And, there are certainly enough anti-Le Pen voters across France to hand Macron a second term. He may be the latest beneficiary of the cordon sanitaire, the convention that those on the moderate Left and the moderate Right vote for whichever mainstream candidate prevents the far-right candidate from winning.

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Her last name will seal her loss.

EU Uses 18 Year Old Embezzlement Charges to Derail Le Pen Presidential Bid (SN)

Presumably as part of a deliberate effort to derail her presidential chances, the European Union has exhumed 18-year-old embezzlement charges against Marine Le Pen. “The EU’s anti-fraud body has accused French far-right leader Marine Le Pen and associates of embezzling around 600,000 euros during their time as MEPs,” reports AFP. The National Rally leader is personally accused of embezzling “around 137,000 euros ($150,000) worth of public money from the Strasbourg parliament when she was an MEP between 2004 and 2017.” Le Pen’s lawyer Rodolphe Bosselut dismissed the charges, adding that the “timing” of them was suspicious. Noting that the report relates to “old facts more than ten years old,” Bosselut highlighted how Le Pen “has not been summoned by any French judicial authority” to answer the charges.


“I’m surprised by the timing of such a strong disclosure and the instrumentalisation,” said Bosselut. The EU has chosen to resurrect the old claims just days before the final round of the French presidential election, in which Le Pen will face off against incumbent Emmanuel Macron. Although still a long shot, recent polls had shown Le Pen closing the gap on Macron, causing consternation amongst globalist technocrats. Given the context, the EU dragging up old charges is clearly an act of election interference intended to tarnish Le Pen before this weekend’s vote. As we previously highlighted, after Hungary’s Viktor Orban won re-election in a landslide, the EU responded by slapping sanctions on the country as a form of punishment for the electorate exercising their democratic will.

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“After all, they were ‘just doing their job’ – and they would not want to feel harassed or burdened, would they?”

From Rachel Carson to Monsanto: The Silence of Spring (OffG)

In 2016, Rosemary Mason wrote an open letter to European Chemicals Agency Executive Director Geert Dancet: Open Letter to the ECHA about Scientific Fraud and Ecocide. More of an in-depth report than a letter, it can be accessed on the academia.edu site. In it, she explained how current EU legislation was originally set up to protect the pesticides industry and Monsanto and other agrochemical corporations helped the EU design the regulatory systems for their own products. She also drew Dancet’s attention to the journal Critical Reviews in Toxicology and how, in 2016 Volume 46, Monsanto commissioned five reviews published in a supplement to the journal. Monsanto also funded them. Mason argues the aim was to cast serious doubts about the adverse effects of glyphosate by using junk science. Straight out of the Big Tobacco playbook.


Mason told Dancet: CEO Hugh Grant and the US EPA knew that glyphosate caused all of these problems. The corporation concealed the carcinogenic effects of PCBs on humans and animals for seven years. They have no plans to protect you and your families from the tsunami of sickness that is affecting us all in the UK and the US.” Meanwhile, on the US Right to Know site, the article Roundup Cancer Cases – Key Documents and Analysis sets out just why more than 100,000 cancer sufferers are attempting to hold Monsanto to account in US courts. In a just (and sane) world, CEOs would be held personally responsible for the products they peddle and earn millions from. But no doubt they would do their utmost to dodge culpability. After all, they were ‘just doing their job’ – and they would not want to feel harassed or burdened, would they?

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Home Forums Debt Rattle April 19 2022

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  • #106362

    Jean Metzinger The blue bird 1912-13   • Thralldom and Its Uses (Jim Kunstler) • The Great Acquiescence — Glory to Ukraine (Patrick Lawrence) • T
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle April 19 2022]

    #106363
    boilingfrog
    Participant

    When, in the history of man, have those conducting “content moderation” ever been on the ‘right’ side of history?
    I can’t come up with an answer, anybody else?

    Given that, how does one effectively comport oneself in such times?

    #106366
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Running “duplicate entries” yet the post will not show this morning.

    #106367
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Many links, Let’s cut it up.

    “Western Civ stumbles into the blinding new reality that it takes real stuff to run an economy, and that money itself is not stuff.” –Kunstler

    As I’ve said for years now. Money is nothing. It does and means nothing.

    10 year rates nearly double in 40 days. And it’s not JUST that it’s doubled, which is bad, but how fast. Rate-of-rate as Pento sometimes says.

    “Margin debt – the only type of stock market leverage that is reported regularly – dropped by another $36 billion, or by 4.3%, in March from February, and by 12.4% over the past three months, to $800 billion, according to FINRA”

    Already? We haven’t even got started. And that high was 3x the 2000 ultra-spike bubble high. Also home loans dried up instantly? That’s big money-creation, so are we already into Deflation?

    “And many of the highfliers have collapsed by 60%, 70%, and even over 90%, some of which I track in my collection of Imploded Stocks.”

    Yes, the only thing up is the indexes. All Main Street of course (Who else can you steal from?) but their stock-representations in the Russell 5000. Only Indexes are levitated through careful swap and management and the ESF.

    “Shanghai Finally Confirms First COVID Deaths Since Start of Lockdown”

    What the actual? Covid has no deaths, so we lock down forever?

    Corn Exceeds $8 a Bushel for First Time in Decade on Shortage Fears”

    We are nowhere near started yet. To stop, people would have to take things seriously. And we are an unserious, not-agreement-capable people. Otoh, since they won’t take it seriously, there are no real shortages yet and some attempt to hold prices. You can buy yours and save at least somebody.

    “Pakistan Hit with Power Blackouts as It Struggles with Fuel Shortages and Technical Problems”

    Thank god we got rid of that Pakistani leader. Now they can have power outages and fuel shortages like we do.

    The Great Acquiescence — Glory to Ukraine (Patrick Lawrence)”

    It’s a thoughtful article and not long. You kind of have to read the whole thing.

    “There is nothing to wage struggle for, in other words. Our relations with those who hold power over us are not very different from the relations Huxley’s children had with the sequestered elites who controlled their lives. This is the root of our prevalent assumptions.”

    That is the basis of universal lying and corruption. That there should BE nobody and nothing to struggle for. …Or against for that matter. Like the faceless EU, they are appointed and unknown, faceless, irremovable. Only practicality matters. Will they attack and kill you, or not? If they have power, they are in charge and you do as they say; if they are not in power, you attack OTHERS in obedience to the power. There is no strategy because there is no knowledge. No curiosity, no goals, because those are punished by the secret, faceless, omnipresent Power.

    A key with this is that it too is all hidden, faceless…and most importantly internalized. So when you bring up facts and evidence, several things happen: one, it causes painful and immediate cognitive dissonance they cannot defend against, having no reason or argument in the first place. Facts themselves are an attack, and you, or any fact provider, are the attacker. :. Words are violence. But second, like the monkeys in the experiment, they expect to be randomly shocked at any moment from a direction they cannot guess or defend against and are wild to avoid that. That’s the “Power” and they are in an unthinking state to simply avoid it. …Which is rational in its own way, but not for me, as I would identify the aggressors and figure out how to methodically get at and annihilate them. Then: no more problem. Root cause kind of thing. But they are solving the same let’s-not-get-shocked problem in a different way: just Do What You’re Told.

    Their premise (of the Power) is “that human beings are naturally selfish and that human life has no external point or telos…. The psyche is a historically determined individual looking after itself….”

    Newtonian, scientific materialism religion that is provably dead-wrong for +100 years now. Therefore humans are bugs in a jar to train, tabula rasa stuff. This is why they hate God above all things because humans who have “telos”, a connection to higher consciousness and morality, are clearly mentally ill and they don’t behave the way I plan…they don’t “do what they’re told” and make chaotic decisions that ruin everything. Or rather, ruin MY will, MY decision, MY desires, as the master race of ubermensch philosopher kings that are better than you. Therefore God is hated above all things, and humans who believe in God are punished before all things, and the connection to God – or Telos – is attacked before all things, and the attempt to separate man from Telos — to make men into beasts, mere animals — is primary to all things. It’s their Alpha and Omega, their first and last: Hate God.

    But man IS attached to Telos and God, and they are fighting reality itself instead. And lose. The more they reduce man, punish, and turn his life to ascetic poverty, the dearer his one remaining treasure becomes: his connection to God.

    That’s why you can get away with this nonsense in the luxury of “Brave New World” but not in Hard Times. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/59651.Hard_Times

    “the [wealthy, progressive] main drag in Great Barrington [MA]. There we find people who are intent only on self-fulfillment and being good and kind and compassionate, while taking no responsibility for the events of their time because, after all, there is no purpose in life and “we are just here.” Being seen to be good and kind and compassionate is, of course, the essential thing.”

    We don’t DO things. That would be will and choice. We ARE things. And if you’re born, black, white, gay, that’s it! That’s what you ARE, and you have to stay that way, in that trope and stereotype, cooperatively “Doing what you’re told” forever. Or else, mister! Evilly evil people (Republicans) are born evil, so you don’t have to worry about killing them, that’s okay because they can’t change anyway. While Pedos on the other hand… Oh and people can change their gender. Except there aren’t any. But not their orientation to gender. Where genders definitely exist. Will/Not Will Is/Not Is all at the same time! Things just “Are”, don’t ask questions.

    #106368
    Dr. D
    Participant

    U.S. itself began as an invasion by Europeans in which they wiped out the indigenous population,”

    This is false in several deceptive ways. It definitively did NOT begin as an invasion, that’s just a straight-up lie, lie, lie. It may be by “Europeans” but that didn’t mean anything then as Brits would treat Poles and Celts the same as Natives. They did not “wipe out” the native population, as they were ALREADY wiped out. Contact, which was unavoidable through trade and curiosity did it decades before, lacking any and all intent. Probably Irish and Portuguese fishermen landing on the coast. …Unless like Australia, your plan was to cut off Europe from the New World forever. And I mean FOREVER, like still uncontacted today, and uncontacted 10,000 years from now. What were you going to do? Yes, that leaves the problems and aggressions AFTER colonization, but they are also different and I can’t follow them all for you right now.

    This sort of casual don’t-we-all-know-it lies are a major hazard and obstacle right now. Exactly the same as the lack of foreign knowledge and overall ignorance he is driving against in the article.

    The war in Ukraine will indeed be a bonanza for the likes of Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.”

    If they don’t’ borrow money and print in the Multi-billions, now nearing $100B, ever-increasing, their system will collapse. It doesn’t matter who, or for what, but of course the best lobbyists are first in line. And if you give that money to the people, it will/won’t cause hyperinflation in stores.

    “Character assassination. Algorithms. Shadow banning. De-platforming.”

    You saw Caitlyn Johnstone’s article on this, and how although it seems the same arc, there is a noticeable character difference in the new censorship. That is, essentially “censorship for censorship’s sake”, where the only possible reason for it is simply to help the war messaging, the power of the Insider State. https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/04/16/how-much-are-we-prepared-to-sacrifice-to-help-the-us-win-a-propaganda-war-against-putin/

    Lying is now its own reward. We lie because we lie. We don’t even think about why, or justify it. We are They. Our Ego = Their Ego, “We” are at-one with the Oligarchic warmongering overlords. You attack “Them”, then you attack “Us” and ‘Merica. The Musk meltdown is a good example of the illogic and deep unconsciousness, total unawareness of this, of self.

    This is the Goal of Fascism, the “social unity” part. We have peace only when we are all-one. Everyone is “on the right side of history”, that is, MY side. We stop fighting only when all life on earth is ME. My Ego. Aligned and not agitating by thinking or being anything but me, however tiny the variation. That’s the psychological side of Fascia, Fascism, and it’s going quite nicely, thank you.

    We’re very clear that the Bidens got some $31 million..”

    No one cares because “Our Side”. Social Unity.

    “Xi Jinping declaring that “persistence is victory.”

    The point of the lockdown is the lockdown. That is, it’s a success if people OBEY, not if the disease does anything, which it won’t and hasn’t. This is the Progressive viewpoint, and as authoritarians, no surprise that is identical to Xi and the CCP. These are people who dream of us being North Korea (NYT).

    Why? Of course my guess, and Kyle Bass, is that China needs to force us into an inflationary spiral since we’re too stupid to realize one is happening anyway. He may kill a few thousand Shangaiians, but saves 500k in the avoided war when we collapse.

    “ Second Global Covid-19 Summit Scheduled for May 12 (R.)”

    Great! Explain to me “What Covid?” Since Omicron, everybody has antibodies and is immune. Even Shanghai had no deaths til now. You have +10-year immunity from it. What are they fighting besides “Us, the people” and “Prosperity and Freedom”?

    On following the medical collapse, We have The Nurse Erica, https://nurseerica.com/

    Muscles and nursing. https://www.tiktok.com/@musclesandnursing/video/7085170723806858538?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&lang=en

    You can also have fun with ZDoggMD who does a lot of Dr. music (parody) videos. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFyRz1N_T-rnSkbaAH_TFAw
    However, the subcontext tells you a lot. Whole chapters on bad electronic records, bad admins, bad loans, bad conditions, bad patients…
    Like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHfan71zHKk

    But in TikTok and Instragram form, it’s difficult to post and follow as they are daily short format.
    Also note that of course they are core believers in conventional western medicine and that although everybody is lying to them and admins and corporations are relentlessly abusive to them, admins and corporations would never lie or be abusive to them. …About the “Sciencey” part.

    #106369
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    #106374
    zerosum
    Participant

    Your tomorrow
    For you not for me

    No truth for you
    No knowledge or education for you
    No Detached Housing for you
    No food for you,
    no fertilizers for future food for you,
    no spare parts for you,
    no free speech for you,
    no social or economic role for you,
    no health for you,
    no money for you
    no leverage for you
    and (watch it, now!) soon no life for you.

    You will have nothing and be happy on opioids
    ———–

    #106375
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    Delusional, self-deceptive or Mr. Nobody’s version of Obama as the admirable apparatchik keeping the trains running on time Or Saul’s manifestation of Dictatorship of Reason, you know, the intellectual elite ruining the modern world.

    Says Mr. Nobody: “Or probably Barack Obama, who is likely the real power behind the throne. I was never really a big fan of Obama, but one thing I appreciated about him was that he had the horse-sense to know how far was too far.”

    On the other hand I see Obama as the crystalized embodiment of psychopathic personality bonded with faux-intellectual organism. The tip off being the barely disguised speech impediment and self-hatred projected as contempt toward “ordinary” men. Notice Barack can barely tolerate being around a befuddled old white man, President Biden when polite society says tolerance, compassion or respect are appropriate for the occasion.

    #106376
    userzeroid
    Participant

    “The Blue Bird” is a lovely piece of artwork I had never seen before. Thanks for the “artucation” as usual Ilargi. The yawning pelican bookends today’s debt rattle nicely. What greedy buggers pelicans are!

    “what an amazing bird is the pelican,
    It’s beak can hold more than it’s belly can”

    Imagine training a pelican to catch fish like the traditional Chinese train cormorants… No fishing boats, nets or trawlers needed.

    #106377

    Fifteen seconds on tiktok and my head hurts.

    #106378
    zerosum
    Participant

    More
    Your tomorrow
    For you, not for me

    No pension for you
    No foreign holidays for you
    No do it yourself without permits and licenses for you
    No private transportation, (car), for you
    No cottage at the lake for you
    No fishing for you
    No hunting for you
    No grandma’s bank for you
    No justice for you

    You will have nothing and be happy on opioids

    #106379
    zerosum
    Participant

    ^

    #106380

    There’s a doozie of a sunspot cluster coming to face us.
    Region 2993 has a 20% chance of producing an X flare, says spaceweatherlive.

    #106381
    zerosum
    Participant

    Put it in prospective.
    The USA is not prepared for the migrate coming from Mexico.
    Mexican society is overrun/overwhelmed by poor, destitute, migrants in Mexico.

    #106382
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Hmmm.

    I wonder.

    Could be.

    Has the so-called Overton Window shifted enough towards deeper reality on this site (TAE) that we can now publicly discus the open secret that the bad guys (the Cabal?) who are running such outfits as the WEF, the UN and the late great USA, have the purpose of genociding our species (homo sapiens) and replacing it with themselves and a sufficient number of modified minions and slaves to keep the joint running (theoretically) for their personal gratification alone?

    In other words, it seems to be the case that the bad guy’s goal in this fight is to physically kill ALL of us who do not submit to their inherent authority. If such is the case then we damn well better do something about that, so , then, we good and damn well better find out if that is the case !

    Sounds crazy, I know, but the evidence supporting that hypothesis is mounting (piling up against the door, so to speak) so fast that If we don’t sweep some of it out of the way pretty soon we won’t be able to talk to each other through it.

    I’m on shaky ground with this topic, I know. But bear with me for a few more sentences of explanation.

    First of all, there is this world of the profane and mundane that we all love so dearly play in for the glory of its materiality and excitement, BUT there is also the world of the purely spiritual where we all go for respite ( and sanctuary!! ), doing so as spiritual awareness in our hearts and minds and prayers because that is what spiritual awareness is.

    Between those two worlds is the murky gray-zone nebulous battlefield we now stand upon, a place called the World As We Thought We Knew It. Are you here to fight for the survival of that World ? or do you prefer to constrain the conversation to debates about stock markets, money and politics? It’s okay if you do prefer to constrain!! Those are all valid topics. But the point I need to convey is that there are other RELATED AND PERTINANT (AND YET DIFFERENT), advanced and urgent, “topics” that I must attend to.

    I’ll know by the responding comments (if any) whether or not this forum remains useful enough to those other urgent needs that I can afford the time and effort, going forward, to participate on TAE very much at this time. Don’t get me wrong. I love you guys and the work you do, especially Raul. You are all beacons in a dark night, and The Automatic Earth a firm rock to stand upon. Ilargi is a true hero. We all owe him a debt that can only be repaid by keeping the forum a lively and truthful place to share ideas and information.

    So long as I am welcome I will always contribute to that exchange as much and as well as I can, but times are getting pretty wild and the amount of time I can invest in doing that is becoming harder and harder to come by.

    So, if you don’t see the old “D Benton Smith” moniker around here quite so much in the near future it ain’t because I don’t love you guys (gender inclusive word form). It will be only because I’m full time working my butt off somewhere else and will be back as often as I can.

    #106383
    Noirette
    Participant

    Kolomoisky was DA-MAN who set up the TV show that promoted Zelensky as an actor becoming an accidental president, the sincere lowly teacher guy, super clean and on the right side, who triumphs.

    And then backed him for the ‘real presidency.’

    A B-actor as head of State. (Imho he has now gone totally crazy, in a mix of hyped narrative, manipulation, drugs, etc.)

    Here a video clip of Koloimosky saying that the downing of MH17 was a mistake. (Which I am convinced it was, a total mess up.)

    https://bit.ly/3v4EDUd – eng subs (just to fit some of the past in…)

    A summary of Zelensky + wife financial dealings, as revealed in the Pandora papers.

    Idk if accurate / complete / etc. but it is interesting.

    https://www.occrp.org/en/the-pandora-papers/pandora-papers-reveal-offshore-holdings-of-ukrainian-president-and-his-inner-circle

    Ukraine is not a ‘country’ it is a territory that is lawless and by now, a devastated bad lands or hinter land where non-native ppl rape, steal, kill, run psy-ops, send milit. forces, arms, fighting amongst each other.

    The war on the ground in Ukr. is both a proxy war and a civil war, melded together. (See for ex. Syria, though diff. in many respects.)

    #106384
    John Day
    Participant

    Dr. D said:
    …”humans are bugs in a jar to train, tabula rasa stuff. This is why they hate God above all things because humans who have “telos”, a connection to higher consciousness and morality, are clearly mentally ill and they don’t behave the way I plan…they don’t “do what they’re told” and make chaotic decisions that ruin everything. Or rather, ruin MY will, MY decision, MY desires, as the master race of ubermensch philosopher kings that are better than you. Therefore God is hated above all things, and humans who believe in God are punished before all things, and the connection to God – or Telos – is attacked before all things, and the attempt to separate man from Telos — to make men into beasts, mere animals — is primary to all things. It’s their Alpha and Omega, their first and last: Hate God.”

    D Benton Smith said: “I’ll know by the responding comments (if any) whether or not this forum remains useful enough to those other urgent needs that I can afford the time and effort, going forward, to participate on TAE very much at this time.”

    I think it’s working ok, myself…

    #106385
    Dora
    Participant

    About China: the CCP is not monolith in outlook, there are factions within the CCP. There’s the Xi faction, the Jiang faction, and other smaller factions. (Sounds like political parties within the one party.) I’m starting to hear rumors (only rumors at this time) that Xi’s lockdowns and social credit score system and the WHO’s vax “passport” digital id are all about social/political control and not about health. Rumors (making it clear these are only rumors) are that there’s growing dissatisfaction with the Xi faction among the other factions and especially with the large Jiang faction of the CCP. Are Xi’s lockdowns about health or about his faction losing support in the country?

    #106386
    Germ
    Participant

    Oooops. Who knew!
    Hahahah – 1000’s of us, that’s who!!

    The vaxxed are fucked!

    18 mins of McCullough – watch, and share widely.

    https://metatron.substack.com/p/informed-consent

    🤡🤡🤡

    #106387
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @John Day ref “I think it’s working okay, myself . . . ”

    Yeah, I think so too. Awareness is rising. A smidgen faster, though, might be better. The speed relative to the actual situation makes me nervous. Like my Grandmother used to say, “This and better might do, but this and worse will never do.”

    My big flaw (amongst myriad smaller ones) is that I’ve got a long ton of tenacious perseverance and a short ounce of patience.

    #106388
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    @ John Day

    Peoples worlds may be imploding and need to focus there to survive and stuff. And I really liked Dr. D today. I have it saved to reread on occasion.

    #106389
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    D. Benton Smith: BUT there is also the world of the purely spiritual where we all go for respite ( and sanctuary!! ), doing so as spiritual awareness in our hearts and minds and prayers because that is what spiritual awareness is.

    “Between those two worlds is the murky gray-zone nebulous battlefield we now stand upon, a place called the World As We Thought We Knew It. Are you here to fight for the survival of that World ? or do you prefer to constrain the conversation to debates about stock markets, money and politics? It’s okay if you do prefer to constrain!! Those are all valid topics. But the point I need to convey is that there are other RELATED AND PERTINANT (AND YET DIFFERENT), advanced and urgent, “topics” that I must attend to.”

    Na, you nailed it. John Day is being optimistic with the “working ok” observation. Really, is it? Conversations about stock markets, money, politics and (totally un-PC with this) Ukraine/Russia conflict (it’s not a war) are not getting us anywhere. It’s just an endless conversation, and waste of precious energy, about the new “topic du jour” that we have no control over and cannot impact even if we wanted to. Think otherwise? Go ahead, contact your “elected representatives” and tell them you don’t agree with a hot war with Russia. Let me know how that works out.

    You are correct. As is susmarie with her comments, because in her own way she presents the same idea … leave the BS behind, go find the *real* world and live in that.

    Yes, there are other related and pertinent topics to attend to. They’re called real life – that life we used to live before the internet got in the way.

    #106390
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    PS … I always read and appreciate Dr D. He nails stuff to the wall in a way no one else does. Calls it out for the stupidity it is. Can’t beat that with a stick.

    #106391
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    @D-Benton-Smith

    I don’t know if you’ll read this, as it appears I’ve become ignored, persona non grata on TAE, but yes, I agree with the proposition of the existence of many “topics” that are beyond the sensibilities of the “community” here…

    The “Overton Window” was slammed on my fingers after I wrote words unacceptable to TAE’s woke consensus, accused of crossing a moral turpitude boundary when referencing a taboo! cultural norm (Gary man bad!)

    In my experience, the reality of the dilemma facing discussions of “RELATED AND PERTINENT (AND YET DIFFERENT)” hard truths is as fruitless as trying to explain water to a goldfish…

    Like the Conspira-Addicts I became aware of 25+ years ago, most of the “indoctrinated” seldom stray far from personal bias, focusing instead on “topics” they are titillated by and/or familiar with.

    I time also deduced my own sociological blindness (probably partially), in that I neglected to notice that cultural norms in the West have been skewed wildly by institutional fascism, mockingly balanced with pseudo-socialism for the “useless eaters” & “deplorables”…

    As an “American”, I was also deeply was suckled/brainwashed with the heroic trope Land of the free, Home of the Brave, which led me to believe in fantastical hopes regarding the “American” citizenry…

    In truth, “America” turned out to be so far off the American Revolution’s White Papers, that I found myself feeling like Dorothy, minus the red shoes & Toto 😕

    You see, early on the American Experiment We the People stumbled down a fascist Yellow Brick Road that transmogrified into a one way ticket…

    The first act of true fascia in the U$ofA was perpetrated early on with the First Bank of the United States (1791-1811), which of course was a BLATANT violation of Natural Law (Though the sociopaths didn’t think so).

    It didn’t take long before the evils of “centralized” banking became apparent to the sane remnant of the “Sons of Liberty”, leading to disbanding the looting mechanism…

    In retrospect, perhaps when faced with the lethality of the Divine Right of Kings aka the Mandate of Heaven. it seemed like a good idea at the time?

    Then came the next big jump in “American” fascism when Lincoln tyrannically seized control of the Democratic Republic in an act to appease his moneyed “intellectual” political machine in Manhattan, totally ignoring the moral hazard, giving unholy birth to the MIC parasites feeding directly from public troughs ~ The “greenback” was also probably thought “a good idea at the time”…

    In 21st Century “America”, truly EVIL sociological mechanisms continually pumping wealth & power from the bottom to the top 1% ~ Lifestyles of the Rich & Shameless FTW!!!

    Oh how the brainwashed huddled masses love to believe in sociopath fantasies, like the Stimulus + are benign acts of “socialism”, when in truth the capital was gathered up like fascia sticks to further enrich/empower the Blackstone & Vanguard “groups” et al. 😆

    Anyways, once you’re able to see you’re holding a one way ticket to Oz the Great and Powerful, you can’t unsee it, then you shockingly realize how the Sword of Damocles is hanging over the collective head of humanity, that far too many bridges too far have been forded & that there is no return now because our favorite sociopaths have burnt all the bridges behind Us.

    Hope that helps,

    Gary

    #106392
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    “In my experience, the reality of the dilemma facing discussions of “RELATED AND PERTINENT (AND YET DIFFERENT)” hard truths is as fruitless as trying to explain water to a goldfish…”

    “… most of the “indoctrinated” seldom stray far from personal bias, focusing instead on “topics” they are titillated by and/or familiar with.”

    Veracious has a point … can’t argue it.

    #106393
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    Posthumous Add:

    America’s “experiment” was more or less followed by the bulk of the West, warts & all…

    So, in my honest opinion, to understand where the West failed, one must understand how the former United States of America failed.

    #106394
    VietnamVet
    Participant

    Awash in propaganda pollution from all sides, the truth is a diamond in the rough. It is only recognized by experience and gut feelings.

    The birth of a commodity-based Russia/China currency has commenced. When the US dollar is only supported by the resources, labor, and intellect of Americas; the gambling debts, derivatives, and Eurodollars become worthless.

    The US government is patently bad — run by and for corporations. The US President is the proxy Emperor of the Western Empire. The Imperial Blob incompetent. Over a million Americans died with COVID-19 with no notice of this deadly milestone. Despite the intentional cutoff of Russian resources due to sanctions, the US government is incapable of rationing scarcity.

    WWIII is underway between nuclear armed empires that cannot even talk to each other. Either there is peace or humankind will exterminate itself.

    Only the restoration of good government that provides law and order, controls pandemics, mitigates climate change, and win wars, can certain catastrophe be avoided.

    #106395
    zerosum
    Participant

    Biden Prepping Yet Another Huge Ukraine Arms Package As Total Military Aid Nears $3BN
    How do you put a price on unused inventory gathering dust and cobwebs?

    #106396
    WES
    Participant

    Today we live in a world where propaganda swivels around, us 24/7. The purpose of propaganda is to make you feel isolated and alone. Divide and conquer at it’s simplest. It is only by reaching out to others, that one can cancel the effects of propaganda on our lives. Even so we still feel powerless to affect outcomes.

    A few days ago, I stumbled upon a link to some official letters written by Polish ambassadors to Paris and the US to Warsaw, concerning the years and events leading up to WW2.

    What struct me was the efforts of these Polish ambassadors to parse and summarize the moods of French and US government officials/public toward Poland. Political and public views were constantly being blown here and there, egged on by different fractions of the domestic news media propaganda reflecting left to right views. Talk about lliving in uncertain times!

    During this time the Poles were very concerned about their security in regards to French and US guarantees from WW1. Sometimes the Allies’ commitment seemed firm. Other moments the Polish commitment was viewed as insignificant or inconvenient, to be forgotten. Then there was Germany and USSR. This dark period reminds me of right now with the Ukraine.

    I think Poland was very surprised Britain and France actually declared war on Germany, when Germany invaded Poland, September 1, 1939. Then USSR invading was another surprise. That we didn’t give the Poles any useful help, except hollow words, is par for the course.

    P.S. I had a Polish friend, Ted, who was captured in eastern Poland by the Russians but managed to escape at night. Otherwise, as an officer, he would have joined the thousands of officers massacred by Stalin.

    #106397
    Archie
    Participant

    @D Benton

    I’ll know by the responding comments (if any) whether or not this forum remains useful enough to those other urgent needs that I can afford the time and effort, going forward, to participate on TAE very much at this time. Don’t get me wrong. I love you guys and the work you do, especially Raul. You are all beacons in a dark night, and The Automatic Earth a firm rock to stand upon. Ilargi is a true hero. We all owe him a debt that can only be repaid by keeping the forum a lively and truthful place to share ideas and information.

    I certainly agree in principle, however I have felt for some months now that comment sections of blogs are just another form of social media, and sadly, not a forum in the truest sense of the word. Just reflect on all the word salad posts bosco used to make that tried almost everyone’s patience, not least that of Raul, the blog owner. Raul is one of the greatest humanitarians I have come to know in my life and I have never met him. I come to TAE because of Raul and his sincerity.

    So I’m not sure what you mean by the “overton window” of this blog and how is it shifting toward “reality”. That is the whole purpose of Raul’s efforts and has always been that. I am a lifelong counter culturist and dissident. I am 75. I have a long held understanding of spirituality as it applies to me. I have serious doubts as to whether anyone else here, or any other blog, would buy into it and I don’t care. In fact, I don’t even want to debate it. It works for me and that’s all that matters. But even if I felt I had some kind of supreme insight, I wouldn’t share it on this blog or any other existing blog. I would only pontificate about that stuff on my own blog. Ymmv.

    #106398

    Do you ever wonder how “they” know so much about “us”?
    We tell them.

    #106399
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    Racist view, … an example of:

    F.S.

    #106400
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Archie #106397

    So I’m not sure what you mean by the “overton window” of this blog and how is it shifting toward “reality”. That is the whole purpose of Raul’s efforts and has always been that. I am a lifelong counter culturist and dissident. I am 75. I have a long held understanding of spirituality as it applies to me. I have serious doubts as to whether anyone else here, or any other blog, would buy into it and I don’t care. In fact, I don’t even want to debate it. It works for me and that’s all that matters. But even if I felt I had some kind of supreme insight, I wouldn’t share it on this blog or any other existing blog. I would only pontificate about that stuff on my own blog. Ymmv.

    Wonderful comment; like minds and all that…
    My 77th orbit starts in 8 weeks…
    Your comment on spirituality I found particularly poignant; I share that view as well…
    Cheers

    #106401
    Archie
    Participant

    Thanks V. Arnold. I was just conversing with my closest friend who happens to live in Hat Yai about the lessons of history and the value of life. We’ve been having this dialog for 50+ years and I can say that we both have figured it out but simply can’t explain it.

    All we can do is pay attention, absorb what is factual, and add it to the library. But what is factual? That’s the rub isn’t it?

    Ciao

    #106402
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @Archie
    you said, “So I’m not sure what you mean by the “overton window” of this blog and how is it shifting toward “reality”.

    “Overton’s Window” (named after the guy who first articulated a succinct description of the phenomenon ) is just shorthand for that RANGE of frankness that is considered to be appropriate or at least marginally acceptable in public discourse. That range tends to shift over time for myriad reasons, not the least of which are necessities like lack of time or especially high stakes.

    For example, consider what were normal and acceptable topics of discussion here on TAE five years ago, or ten. Usually it was stuff like Peak Oil, fiat currency, and a wide variety financial policies and practices. Such were well inside the Overton Window on this forum at that time. The possibility of planet-wide conspiracy to commit genocide for profit by more or less trusted traditional national and global institutions would have been very much OUTSIDE Overton’s Window, and thus not done.

    The “reality” I referenced was simply reality, but as reality ACTUALLY is rather than how normal society says that it is or is willing to allow people to talk about, which can be strong drink indeed, especially for those reluctant to defy the censorship imposed by polite society . You know, “normal” society, “sane” like the lunatic one collapsing around our ears at the moment. Collapsing, in no small part, because so many people see the naked Emperor and are yet unwilling to push the boundaries of the window close enough to REAL reality to say so out loud.

    For example, there is (really) an accelerating global conspiracy to CAUSE the extinction of humanity. If we fail to stop them then we really will die. Thwarting their thoroughly developed (and lavishly financed) plan requires that we very VERY quickly up our game in sorting out this reality thing. But that’s not gonna happen if Overton’s Window doesn’t get nudged further in that direction. A LOT further.

    There are some first rate minds here on TAE, and they’ve been edging ever closer to the frank and open discussion that is already helping to make that happen. But they (and a few million others) need to speed it up or we’re all going to be looking for another planet to play on . . . and I happen to like this one.

    #106403
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    @D Benton Smith: Ilargi is a true hero. We all owe him a debt that can only be repaid by keeping the forum a lively and truthful place to share ideas and information.”

    The forum is a patchwork quilt of interesting people whose ideas and insights provide valuable perspective; it is easy to find comfort in coming here. The desire to leave something meaningful – a contribution, something of yourself (in the form of comments) as an offering in return for benefits received is a natural expression/extension of what Ilargi has built. Thoughtful comments take time and effort to construct. Your need to redirect efforts into other productive endeavors in the real (tangible) world, away from the screen/computer, is understood. You are being called away. What is holding you back?

    As UpstateNYer so directly expressed: “Yes, there are other related and pertinent topics to attend to. They’re called real life – that life we used to live before the internet got in the way.”

    The forum will benefit from hearing stories and views from your new endeavors in the real world. Your squares on the original quilt are sewn into the fabric of this story. (Bosco’s are there too).


    @Archie
    : “Raul is one of the greatest humanitarians I have come to know in my life and I have never met him. I come to TAE because of Raul and his sincerity.”

    Yes. Authentic sincerity has quite a ripple effect. Do add the daily art + Dr D as a major attractions. What kind of Heart manages to run a soup kitchen and construct/arrange/produce TAE on a daily basis? That’s one powerful expression of tangible action in the real world!

    LOVE to All.

    #106404
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    @ Archie #106401
    All we can do is pay attention, absorb what is factual, and add it to the library. But what is factual? That’s the rub isn’t it?

    Indeed, yes…

    @ Susmarie108 #106403

    Yes. Authentic sincerity has quite a ripple effect. Do add the daily art + Dr D as a major attractions. What kind of Heart manages to run a soup kitchen and construct/arrange/produce TAE on a daily basis? That’s one powerful expression of tangible action in the real world!

    Hear Hear!

    #106405
    Archie
    Participant

    @ D Benton

    Thanks for the clarification re: Overton Window + TAE. For sure the topic of conversation has changed dramatically since the time I first started reading here. That’s 2008 off the top of my head, but I’ve been following daily since then, without fail. In any event, the topic of conversation has changed with the times. And the times they sure are a’changin.

    I’m still not sure what you think is worth your time and effort to divulge here or not. Do you have a completely different way of interpreting events?

    #106406
    Archie
    Participant

    @susmarie 108

    Oh I do love the art and Dr D as well, although the good Dr can be long winded, But then there was only one Carlin, regrettably..

    Years ago, it was photos from shorpy. now it’s art from the ages. These are the legacies of humanity.

    #106422
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    D Benton Smith #106402

    For example, there is (really) an accelerating global conspiracy to CAUSE the extinction of humanity. If we fail to stop them then we really will die. Thwarting their thoroughly developed (and lavishly financed) plan requires that we very VERY quickly up our game in sorting out this reality thing. But that’s not gonna happen if Overton’s Window doesn’t get nudged further in that direction. A LOT further.

    Sorry (not) but this whole meme is absurd! They/them/elites/whomever are not an cannot extinct the humans of this planet!
    Think! for god’s sake; think about what you believe! This is the real insanity………..
    What I’ve observed over the last 2 years of the covid debacle, is the complete failure of critical thinking across the globe; here in Thailand FAIL
    In the U.S. fail! In the west in general= fail!
    And now because the vaccine disaster (avarice, hubris, and lack of empathy), we are talking conspiracy to end humanity…that’s insanity…
    I’m sick to death of the “end of humanity” crap; because tha’s what it is…CRAP!!!
    While you are stuck in that wormhole of conspiracy theories you will be snookered at every turn…
    Wake the fuck up!!!

    Rant over for the moment…wake up…

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