May 142022
 


Charles Negre ‘The Vampire’, Henri Le Secq stands next to Stryge grotesque, Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris 1853

 

That Sinking Feeling (Kunstler)
Empire of Bioweapon Lies (Escobar)
Finland, Sweden Close to Joining NATO, Russia Responds (Celente)
The Bizarre, Unanimous Dem Support for the $40b War Package (Greenwald)
EU To Increase Military Support Funding For Ukraine To €2 Billion (Pol.eu)
Pfizer Booster Protection Against Omicron Wanes in Just Weeks (CHD)
Massive Stock Market Leverage Unwinds amid Brutal Bloodletting (WS)
Food Riots Begin: Mass Arrests in Iran, Deaths in Sri Lanka (ZH)
Fusion GPS Loses Its Fight Over “Privileged” Documents (Techno Fog)
Judge Orders Fusion GPS To Turn Over 22 Emails To John Durham (NYP)
Subpoenas Of Trump Allies By January 6 Panel Set Up High-stakes Showdown (G.)
A Major Global Collapse Is Coming (Kim Dotcom)

 

 

Man – a creature made at the end of the week’s work when God was tired.
– Mark Twain

 

 

 

 

Gonzalo Kagan

 

 


Eisenhower’s 1953 Cross of Iron speech

 

 

I speak to the world and tell it
About a house whose lantern they broke
About an axe that killed a lily
And a fire which destroyed the world,
I speak about a goat not milked…
A mud roof that flowered.
I speak to the world and I tell it.


Samih al-Qasim #Palestine

 

 

“Not a good day for NATO & their proxies:
– EU ban on Russian oil blocked by Hungary
– NATO expansion to Finland/Sweden blocked by Turkey
– US arms shipments to Ukraine could end May 19
– Russian encirclement in northern Donbas begins
– US gasoline prices reach all time high”

That Sinking Feeling (Kunstler)

You might ask yourself: Why is it “important” that we spend thirty, forty, fifty billion dollars pounding sand down the rat hole that is post-Maidan Ukraine, grift central for the sketchy nexus of US politicians and their sponsors in the warcraft industry? Answer: Aside from one final magnificent payday, they are producing a grand opera of distraction to direct the American public’s attention from the sinking of our own ship-of-state in the waters of Babylon. That giant wad of money, you understand, goes mainly to the likes of Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Raytheon, Textron, Boeing, et cetera, and a substantial portion re-circulates through the K-Street laundromat into the congressional campaign finance wishing well, while billions more get creamed off by Mr. Zelenskyy & Co. — providing self-reinforcing incentives to, how shall we say, blow more shit up on the global landscape.

It does not escape the attention, however, of some people on deck that the US ship is riding lower in the water each day, and listing at a distressing angle. Many other passengers have retreated to their staterooms, sick from the “vaccines” they were required to take to stay on-board for the voyage. Meanwhile water is streaming in below-decks, down in the stinking bilges, from many cracks in the hull. Nobody seems to know what to do, least of all the ship’s captain, who won’t come out of his quarters. (It’s whispered that he’s gone mad.) Is it time to lower the lifeboats. In the hazy realm that is reality these days, those metaphorical cracks in our ship’s hull represent grave acts of negligence and even treasonous sabotage.

Chatter over the Internet says our country, and other countries, are fixing to surrender their national sovereignty — that is, their ability to decide things for themselves — to the World Health Organization in anticipation of some as-yet-unnamed global emergency. Surrender, you say? By means of what? A vote in UN? A memo from the White House signed by the howling ghost known as “Joe Biden”? Surely not some procedure in Congresses and parliaments that would call for debate. There is further suggestion that all this mischief is at the behest of larval would-be World Fuhrer Klaus Schwab. A more preposterous idea I have not heard in all my born days. And yet what else accounts in country after country for the bizarre super-coordination of insults to the world population such as mass lockdowns and mandated vaccination with genetic cocktails which, let’s face it, don’t look so goshdarn salubrious anymore.

Read more …

Ukraine population as a testing ground.

Empire of Bioweapon Lies (Escobar)

This glimpse of “fear in a handful of dust” already ranks as one the prime breakthroughs of the young 21st century, presented this week by Chief of Russian Radiation, Chemical, and Biological Protection Force Igor Kirillov. The provisional results of evidence being collected about the work of U.S. bioweapons in Ukraine are simply astonishing. These are the main takeaways.

• U.S. bioweapon ideologues comprise the leadership of the Democratic Party. By linking with non-governmental biotechnology organizations, using the investment funds of the Clintons, Rockefellers, Soros and Biden, they profited from additional campaign financing – all duly concealed. In parallel, they assembled the legislative basis for financing the bioweapons program directly from the federal budget.

• COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna, as well as Merck and Gilead – of Donald “known unknowns” fame, and affiliated with the Pentagon – were directly involved.

• U.S. specialists tested new drugs in the Ukraine biolabs in circumvention of international safety standards. According to Kirillov, acting this way “Western companies seriously reduce the costs of research programs and gain significant competitive advantages.”

• According to Kirillov, “along with U.S. pharmaceutical companies and Pentagon contractors, Ukrainian government agencies are involved in military biotechnology activities, whose main tasks are to conceal illegal activities, conduct field and clinical trials and provide the necessary biomaterial.”

• The Pentagon, Kirillov pointed out, expanded its research potential not only in terms of producing biological weapons, but also gathering information on antibiotic resistance and the presence of antibodies to certain diseases among the population in specific regions. The testing ground in Ukraine was practically outside the control of the so-called “international community”.

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“..a population of 5.5 million. The country has about the same number of reservists as Germany that has a population of 83 million..”

Finland, Sweden Close to Joining NATO, Russia Responds (Celente)

Top officials from Helsinki issued a joint statement on Thursday that Finland will move to join NATO after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, prompting Moscow to warn that it will be forced to take retaliatory steps. President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin said they believe NATO is the best option for Finland and that membership would “strengthen” its security. They said they hope Finland joins NATO “without delay” and believe the alliance would also benefit from its membership. (A parliamentary debate in Helsinki and vote were expected on Monday.) Finland has a formidable military in its own right despite a population of 5.5 million. The country has about the same number of reservists as Germany that has a population of 83 million. Finland shares an expansive, 830-mile border with Russia and was invaded by its neighbor during WWII, which resulted in a brutal confrontation that ultimately resulted in Helsinki and Moscow signing a peace treaty in 1948. The treaty included Finland’s assurances that it will not join NATO.


[..] Last month, Dmitry Medvedev, the former Russian president and chairman of Russia’s Security Council, warned Finland and Sweden against joining NATO and said Moscow would have to beef up its military presence in the region if they joined the alliance. “In this case, it will no longer be possible to talk about any non-nuclear status of the Baltic—the balance must be restored. Until now, Russia has not taken such measures and was not going to take them,” Medvedev said. Stockholm has been more reluctant to join NATO, the Financial Times reported. The paper said Sweden only started to take NATO membership seriously after “Finland indicated it was likely to join regardless of what Sweden did, robbing Stockholm of its sole credible alternative: a defense alliance with Helsinki.” The New York Times reported that Helsinki’s move could force Stockholm’s hand. The Finns co-ordinate their defense policies closely with Sweden, The Economist reported. Both are formally neutral.

Read more …

A lot of 180º turns.

The Bizarre, Unanimous Dem Support for the $40b War Package (Greenwald)

After Joe Biden announced his extraordinary request for $33 billion more for the war in Ukraine — on top of the $14 billion the U.S. has already spent just ten weeks into this war — congressional leaders of both parties immediately decided the amount was insufficient. They arbitrarily increased the amount by $7 billion to a total of $40 billion, then fast-tracked the bill for immediate approval. As we reported on Tuesday night, the House overwhelmingly voted to approve the bill by a vote of 388-57. All fifty-seven NO votes came from Republican House members. Except for two missing members, all House Democrats — every last one, including all six members of the revolutionary, subversive Squad — voted for this gigantic war package, one of the largest the U.S. has spent at once in decades.

While a small portion of these funds will go to humanitarian aid for Ukraine, the vast majority will go into the coffers of weapons manufacturers such as Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and the usual suspects. Some of it will go to the CIA for unspecified reasons. The extreme speed with which this was all approved means there is little to no oversight over how the funds will be spent, who will profit and how much, and what the effects will be for Ukraine and the world. To put this $54 billion amount in perspective, it is (a) larger than the average annual amount that the U.S. spent on its own war in Afghanistan ($46 billion), (b) close to the overall amount Russia spends on its entire military for the year ($69 billion), (c) close to 7% of the overall U.S. military budget, by far the largest in the world ($778 billion), and (d) certain to be far, far higher — easily into the hundreds of billions of dollars and likely the trillion dollar level — given that U.S. officials insist that this war will last not months but years, and that it will stand with Ukraine until the bitter end.

What made this Democratic Party unanimity so bizarre, even surreal, is that many of these House Democrats who voted YES have spent years vehemently denouncing exactly these types of war expenditures. Some of them — very recently — even expressed specific opposition to pouring large amounts of U.S. money and weaponry into Ukraine on the grounds that doing so would be unprecedentedly dangerous, and that Americans are suffering far too severely at home to justify such massive amounts to weapons manufacturers and intelligence agencies.

Massie

Read more …

“..provided via an EU fund for military assistance, called the European Peace Facility (EPF)..”

EU To Increase Military Support Funding For Ukraine To €2 Billion (Pol.eu)

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell announced Friday that the EU will provide another €500 million in financial support to Ukraine’s military, bringing the total value of the bloc’s overall military fund for the country to €2 billion. “I will announce that we as the European Union will provide a new tranche of €500 million to support Ukraine militarily,” Borrell told reporters at a meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) in Gut Weissenhaus, a luxurious seaside resort in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein. Borrell added that this would give “a new impetus for military support” for Ukraine.


The money is being provided via an EU fund for military assistance, called the European Peace Facility (EPF), and allows Ukraine to procure weapons and equipment for its fight against Russia’s invasion. A first package of €500 million was approved in late February and then topped up with two more packages worth the same amount. This fourth tranche of money brings the total support to €2 billion. The new payment still needs to be approved by EU countries. In a tweet, European Council President Charles Michel expressed his “full support” for Borrell’s announcement. When asked about plans to hit Russia with an oil embargo as part of a sixth EU sanctions package — which have run into difficulty due to resistance from Hungary — Borrell said he was optimistic that a deal could be reached next week.

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“..the effectiveness against cases of BNT162b2 declined rapidly for children, particularly those 5-11 years. However, vaccination of children 5-11 years was protective against severe disease and is recommended.”

Pfizer Booster Protection Against Omicron Wanes in Just Weeks (CHD)

Second and third doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine provide protection against the Omicron variant for only a few weeks, according to peer-reviewed research published today in JAMA Network Open. “Our study found a rapid decline in Omicron-specific serum neutralizing antibody titers only a few weeks after the second and third doses of [the Pfizer-BioNTech] BNT162b2,” the authors of the research letter wrote. The authors said their findings “could support rolling out additional booster shots to vulnerable people as the variant drives an uptick in new cases across the country,” Forbes reported. Danish researchers studied adults who received two or three doses of BNT162b2 between January 2021 and October 2021, or were previously infected prior to February 2021 and then vaccinated.

They found that after an initial increase in Omicron-specific antibodies after the second Pfizer shot, levels dropped rapidly, from 76.2% at week 4, to 53.3% at weeks 8 to 10, and 18.9% at weeks 12 to 14. After the third shot, neutralizing antibodies against Omicron fell 5.4-fold between week 3 and week 8. A preprint study released in February showed Pfizer’s two-dose regimen of its COVID-19 vaccine for children was only 12% effective against Omicron in children ages 9 to 11, and the effectiveness of the vaccine “declined rapidly” for children 5-11. Researchers at the New York State Department of Health and the University at Albany School of Public Health examined the effectiveness of the vaccine in children 5 to 11 and adolescents 12 to 17 from Dec. 13, 2021 to Jan. 30, 2022.

The authors of the New York study wrote: “In the Omicron era, the effectiveness against cases of BNT162b2 declined rapidly for children, particularly those 5-11 years. However, vaccination of children 5-11 years was protective against severe disease and is recommended.”

Read more …

Imagine stocks doing what crypto did the past few days.

Massive Stock Market Leverage Unwinds amid Brutal Bloodletting (WS)

The total amount of leverage in the stock market is unknown and takes many forms. The only form that is tracked and reported on a monthly basis is margin debt. The other forms, such as Securities Based Lending (SBL) and hedge funds leveraged at the institutional level are not tracked. Not even banks and brokers that fund this leverage know how much total leverage their client has from all brokers combined, which became clear when the family office Archegos imploded in March 2021 and wiped out billions of dollars in capital at the prime brokers that had provided the leverage. But margin debt – the tip of the iceberg and indicator of the direction of the overall stock market leverage – dropped by $27 billion in April from March, to $773 billion, according to Finra, which gets this data from its member brokers.


Margin debt peaked in October last year at $936 billion and started falling in November. Over those six months, it has dropped by $163 billion, or by 17%. But leverage is still massive, and the unwind has a long way to go. Not included in the margin debt data today is May. So far in May, the S&P 500, despite today’s rally, has dropped 6.2%, and the Nasdaq 8.3%, and many of the imploded stocks have gotten brutally crushed over those two weeks, including Coinbase, whose huge gigantic rally since Thursday morning didn’t amount to flyspeck compared to the devastating plunge in the prior two weeks and since its IPO and is barely visible on the stairway to heck since the IPO.

[..] When lots of investors take on leverage to buy stocks, and leverage rises, it creates buying pressure with borrowed money, fueling heat in the market. But when investors come under pressure because of their leverage and vanishing collateral values, they sell stocks, and it creates selling pressure. This is how stock prices and margin balances are linked. High leverage in the stock market is a precondition for a spike in stock prices and a precondition for a massive sell-off, which then unwinds that leverage. It takes leverage to go to these kinds of extremes.


The trick is to not get sidetracked by the absolute dollar amounts over the decades. They don’t really matter. What matters are the steep increases in margin debt before the selloffs, and the steep declines during the sell-offs. The chart shows the relationship between margin debt and “events” in the S&P 500 index. But nothing compares, neither in dollars nor in percentages nor in sheer beauty, to the near-vertical spike in margin debt from March 2020 through October 2021, during the Fed’s $4.7 trillion money-printing binge and interest rate repression mania, and all of it is now unwinding:

Read more …

Scratching the surface…

Food Riots Begin: Mass Arrests in Iran, Deaths in Sri Lanka (ZH)

[..] as food prices keep rising, the protests across poor nations keep escalating, and on Thursday protests broke out in Iran leading to at least 22 arrests, after the government cut subsidies for food, sending prices through the roof as authorities braced for more unrest in the following weeks, Fox News reports. In videos shared on social media, protesters can be seen marching through Dezful and Mahshahr in the southwestern province of Khezestan, chanting “Death to Khamenei! Death to Raisi!” referring to Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has promised to create jobs, lift sanctions, and rescue the economy. Iranian state media has not publicly addressed the protests, but they have been covered by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, an opposition group.

Footage shared by the NCRI shows protesters setting fire to a Basij military base in Jooneghan, a city in the Central District of Jooneghan county. “Every so often we see these types of protests in Iran. Each time it is under a different premise – the price of eggs, the price of gas, the price of bread, but the underlining message which is supported by the slogans heard throughout the demonstrations is the same; they are protesting the entirety of a brutal regime,” Lisa Daftari, Iran expert and editor-in-chief of the Foreign Desk, said in a statement. “It is also evident in the fact that these protests are no longer just contained to Tehran, the capital city, and other urban areas. We are seeing protests throughout the country in urban and rural areas and throughout the very vast and diverse Iranian population.”

Daftari is right, and not just about Iran (and Iraq), but also Sri Lanka, where protesters angry at the soaring prices of everyday commodities including food, have burned down homes belonging to 38 politicians as the crisis-hit country plunged further into chaos, with the government ordering troops to “shoot on sight.” Police in the island nation said Tuesday that in addition to the destroyed homes, 75 others have been damaged as angry Sri Lankans continue to defy a nationwide curfew to protest against what they say is the government’s mishandling of the country’s worst economic crisis since 1948.

Read more …

“This doesn’t mean that Durham can’t overcome this hurdle – just that it hasn’t been overcome yet.”

Fusion GPS Loses Its Fight Over “Privileged” Documents (Techno Fog)

We’ve documented the ongoing battle to obtain Fusion GPS e-mails and documents in the Michael Sussmann case. At issue in the Sussmann case are 38 e-mails and attachments between and among Fusion GPS, Rodney Joffe, and Perkins Coie. These 38 e-mails and attachments are among approximately 1,500 documents that Fusion GPS withheld from production to the grand jury based on “privilege.” Today, the court in the Sussmann case made an important ruling and rejected, in large measure, Fusion’s assertion of attorney-client or work-product privilege. Fusion GPS will have to produce these documents to Special Counsel Durham by May 16, 2022. What do these e-mails and documents contain? The court’s order provides guidance, stating they relate to: “Internal Fusion GPS e-mails discussing the Alfa Bank data and e-mails circulating draft versions of the Alfa Bank white papers that were “ultimately provided to the press and the FBI.”

This leaves 16 e-mails and documents remaining. For now, Durham will not get them. These are divided into two categories: Eight of the e-mails involve internal communications among Fusion GPS employees. The court was “unable to tell from the emails or the surrounding circumstances whether they were prepared for a purpose other than assisting Perkins Coie in providing legal advice to the Clinton Campaign in anticipation of litigaiton.” Coming from the court, that’s a long way of saying that the sworn declarations of Fusion/Clinton lawyers (Levy and Elias) were sufficient to meet the “privilege” burden. This doesn’t mean that Durham can’t overcome this hurdle – just that it hasn’t been overcome yet.

The other eight e-mails and attachments include those among Fusion GPS’s Laura Seago, Sussmann, and Rodney Joffe. The court observed that the e-mails are consistent with Joffe’s assertion of privilege. With respect to the Joffe e-mails, we note that he is still a subject – perhaps a target – of the Special Counsel’s investigation. [..] Because the investigation into Joffe is ongoing, it makes sense that the Special Counsel is hesitant to disclose to the court information that could overcome this purported “privilege.” Keep in mind the crime-fraud exception, where communications are not considered privileged where they “are made in furtherance of a crime, fraud, or other misconduct” (citation omitted). In other words, the Special Counsel may still be able to get Joffe’s e-mails – assuming Joffe is charged under 18 USC 1031. He can also get them through the grand jury process, as we saw with Mueller’s investigation of Paul Manafort.

Read more …

“..1,500 emails that Fusion GPS withheld after being slapped with a subpoena by Durham.”

Judge Orders Fusion GPS To Turn Over 22 Emails To John Durham (NYP)

Special counsel John Durham scored a victory Thursday when a federal judge ordered the research firm behind the infamous “Steele dossier” to turn over nearly two dozen emails tied to its work with Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann. Fusion GPS improperly withheld the 22 emails from Durham by claiming they were protected by attorney-client privilege and “work-product” privilege, Washington, DC, federal Judge Christopher Cooper ruled. The move came at the request of Clinton’s 2016 campaign, according to the 11-page decision. But the emails, which largely consist of internal communications between Fusion employees, aren’t protected from disclosure because they “appear not to have been written in anticipation of litigation but rather as part of ordinary media-relations work,” Cooper said.

“It is clear that Fusion employees also interacted with the press as part of an affirmative media relations effort by the Clinton Campaign,” he wrote. Judge Christopher Cooper ruled that the emails must be turned over to Special counsel John Durham because they are not “entitled to attorney work-product protection.” “That effort included pitching certain stories, providing information on background, and answering reporters’ questions.” Cooper ordered Fusion GPS — which hired ex-British spy Christopher Steele to compile reports that purportedly tied Trump to Russia, most of which have been discredited — to turn over the emails to Durham’s team on Monday, when jury selection for Sussmann’s trial is set to start.

Sussmann is charged with lying to the FBI on Sept. 19, 2016, when he claimed to not be “acting on behalf of any client” while turning over reports and data he said showed a secret back channel between a Trump Organization server and Russia’s Alfa Bank. The information was later debunked by the FBI, which found “that the email server at issue…had been administered by a mass marketing email company that sent advertisements for Trump hotels and hundreds of other clients,” according to Sussmann’s indictment. The emails that Fusion GPS has to turn over for possible use against Sussmann are among 38 that Cooper reviewed at Durham’s request, despite the objections of the company, Clinton’s campaign and tech executive Rodney Joffe, who gave Sussmann the Alfa Bank data. They’re also among around 1,500 emails that Fusion GPS withheld after being slapped with a subpoena by Durham.

Read more …

Jan 6 from the MSM.

Subpoenas Of Trump Allies By January 6 Panel Set Up High-stakes Showdown (G.)

The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack made a political and legal gambit when it issued unprecedented subpoenas that compelled five Republican members of Congress to reveal inside information about Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election. The move sets into motion an extraordinary high-stakes showdown of response and counter-response for both the subpoenaed House Republicans – the House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan, Scott Perry, Andy Biggs and Mo Brooks – and the panel itself. Congressman Bennie Thompson, the Democrat chair of the select committee, authorized the subpoenas on Wednesday after the panel convened for final talks about whether to proceed with subpoenas, with House investigators needing to wrap up work before June public hearings.

“We inquired to most of them via letter to come forward, and when they told us they would not come, we issued the subpoena,” Thompson said of McCarthy and his colleagues. “It’s a process. And the process was clearly one that required debate and discussion.” The decision came after a recognition that their investigation into January 6 would not have been complete if they did not at least attempt to force the cooperation of some of the House Republicans most deeply involved in Trump’s unlawful schemes to return himself to office. But the subpoenas are about deploying a political and legal power play in the crucial final moments of the investigation as much as they are about an effort to gain new information for the inquiry into efforts to stop Joe Biden’s certification in time for public hearings.

That is evident in the conundrum faced by the subpoenaed House Republicans – with the knowledge that how they respond to the orders seeking testimony about their contacts with Trump will determine the future of the investigation and of congressional subpoena power. In the days before the select committee assented to Thompson signing off on the subpoenas, the members on the panel gamed out the scenarios and reached the conclusion that subpoenas were actually a win-win situation, according to sources familiar with the discussions. If the subpoenaed House Republicans decided to comply and provide cooperation to the select committee as the subpoenas are designed to do, then the panel would obviously benefit from their testimony, the sources recounted of the panel’s discussion.

If the subpoenaed House Republicans promised retaliatory subpoenas against Democrats should they take the House majority next year then they were going to do that anyway, the select committee reasoned, and they should issue the subpoenas. If the subpoenaed House Republicans simply ignored the orders, then they would only be undercutting their ability to subpoena Democrats in partisan investigations should the GOP take the House majority next year, since they would have set a precedent for non-compliance.

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Not an economist, obviously, but not bad.

A Major Global Collapse Is Coming (Kim Dotcom)

A major global collapse is coming. It may be worse than we can imagine. Our leaders know. But what are they planning? The United States did not have a surplus or a balanced budget since 2001 and in the last 50 years it only had 4 years of profit. In fact all profit the US had in the last 50 years wouldn’t be enough to pay for 6 months of the current yearly deficit. So what do they do?

US spending and debt have spiraled out of control and the Govt can only raise the money it needs by printing it. That causes inflation. It’s like taxing you extra because you pay more for the things you need and all your assets decline in value. See the money printing frenzy:

The problem is that this has been going on for so long there’s now no way to fix it. The reality is that the US has been bankrupt for some time and what’s coming is a nightmare: Mass poverty and a new system of control. Let me explain why this isn’t just doom and gloom talk. Total US debt is at $90 trillion. US unfunded liabilities are at $169 trillion. Combined that’s $778,000 per US citizen or $2,067,000 per US tax payer. Remember, the only way the Government can operate now is by printing more money. Which means hyperinflation is inevitable. The total value of ALL companies listed on the US stock market is $53 trillion. The real value is much lower because the US has been printing trillions to provide interest free loans to investment banks to pump up the stock market. It’s a scam.

Most of the $53 trillion is air. The value of all US assets combined, every piece of land, real estate, all savings, all companies, everything that all citizens, businesses, entities and the state own is worth $193 trillion. That number is also full of air just like the US stock market. Let’s do the math: US total debt $90 trillion. US unfunded liabilities $169 trillion. Total $259 trillion. Minus all US assets $193 trillion. Balance – $66 trillion . That’s $66 trillion of debt and liabilities after every asset in the US has been sold off. Do you understand? So even if the US could sell all its assets at the current value, which is impossible, it would still be broke. The US is beyond bankrupt. This patient is already dead. This patient is now a zombie.

You probably wonder why are things still going? Why didn’t it all collapse yet. It’s all perception and denial. The perception is that the US has the largest economy and the strongest military in the world. But in reality the US is broke and can’t afford its army. The denial is that all nations depend on a strong US or else the global markets will crash. The only reason why the US zombie keeps going is because the end of the US is the end of western prosperity and an admission that capitalism failed as a model for the world. But it doesn’t change the reality. The collapse is inevitable and coming.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 


TIME Asia Dec 2005

 

 

Tucker NYT

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle May 14 2022

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 42 total)
  • Author
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  • #107899

    Charles Negre ‘The Vampire’, Henri Le Secq stands next to Stryge grotesque, Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris 1853   • That Sinking Feeling (Kunstler)
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle May 14 2022]

    #107900
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Charles Negre ‘The Vampire’, Henri Le Secq stands next to Stryge grotesque, Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris 1853

    Outstanding photograph…1853 no less…

    I’m fed up with the term bandied about here, and elsewhere calling us; “little people”; meaning the average U.S. citizen and/or the average citizen of any country on the planet!

    The genuine “little people” are the uber wealthy such as Bill Gates…
    Think about that…
    We, the aveage citizen, make this whole machine work!…and keep it working through thick and thin…
    We have never had “the power” so we remain basically uncorrupted…
    The uber rich couldn’t keep anything running for one day…
    We’re used and abused…why do we continue to take it?
    Because we’ve been bamboozled by the galoots…
    Wake up tomorrow and stop this shit!!!!

    #107901
    Red
    Participant

    @V “Wake up tomorrow and stop this shit!!!!”
    Today! Wake up TODAY! Find ways of living without “paying” much. The less you need to warm and feed your household the less you have to earn. If you don’t “earn” it you don’t pay tax on it. Plus you aren’t making someone else money. At this point in western civ fiat is king but it will soon go where all fiat has gone before, sometime this decade I suspect. So earning a load of fiat you can’t use in the near future is only enriching others. Little people are like grains of sand, a few are annoying in the swimsuit, a few trillion and a little breeze you’ll have yourself a good old fashioned dust storm.

    #107902
    Germ
    Participant

    2-for-1 !!

    “Baby drowned in three inches of bathwater when her lawyer mother fainted a day after taking AstraZeneca Covid vaccine”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10812887/Baby-drowned-three-inches-bathwater-mother-fainted-day-taking-Covid-jab.html

    “Mr Atkinson, a business manager, carried on the resuscitation attempts until the emergency services arrived six minutes later at their £500,000 home in Christchurch, Dorset.”

    Only in fucked-up UK is the price of the home mentioned in a story about the death of a baby.

    🤡🤡🤡

    #107903
    Germ
    Participant

    BTW – for all you non-UK residents, a “£500,000 home in Christchurch, Dorset.” is a UK crap shack.

    #107904
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Speaking of, how’s the Notre Dame doing? Did they manage to turn it into an all glass brutalist Church of Progress?

    Still no idea why 20 churches were burned that week, or who the person was on the roof they had on camera?

    “Not a good day for NATO”

    Very glad to hear it. But hey, what does President Eisenhower know? Sounds to me like a vast iron-wing conspiracy theory. Or at least that’s how it’s accredited here in the ‘States.

    “U.S. specialists tested new drugs in the Ukraine biolabs in circumvention of international safety standards. According to Kirillov, acting this way “Western companies seriously reduce the costs of research programs and gain significant competitive advantages.”

    That’s ridiculous and another conspiracy theory. We all know multi-billion dollar companies convicted of felony murder would never cut corners in Africa, India, Ukraine, or the United States. Even though you can Wikipedia the multi-dozen times they have. True = Not True. Proven = False. However, if it’s NOT Proven, the documents and studies are not yet complete, it is totally, totally true. “We create reality now” and it’s whatever was in my mind a minute ago.

    I’d be shocked if Kirillov wasn’t right and is taking it easy on us by presenting only what he can/has already proven in court.

    “The Bizarre, Unanimous Dem Support for the $40b War Package (Greenwald)”

    Not really. They need those bribes and ballot-stuffers for the midterms. You didn’t think they really cared about Ukraine did you, after killing every adult male slav and terrorizing all the children?

    P.S. if you didn’t catch on years before now, the Squad is violently Pro-Pelosi and therefore Pro-War. Pro nuclear world war in this case. No wonder we had only 9 years left. Love and Light, the childrens, the childrens! Racial equality in that “we all die together when we go.” Darn those anti-war Republicans!!!* Damn them all to hell!!!


    *Some notable exaggeration was used in the construction of this joke.

    “ EU to Increase Military Support Funding for Ukraine to €2 Billion (Pol.eu)”

    So they spend $2B to defend Europe and America spends $40 Billion. No wonder they have health care and we don’t. But I guess “We’re all Europe now”. Germany can now double their one working tank to two. And in keeping with Ike, instead of building that hospital and school, those arms are going to be immediately blown up and unused before reaching the front. If it reached the (surrounded and besieged) front, there are no soldiers left up there to use it. It’s all a Kagan gaslighting operation that Ukraine has an army left.

    We love it! Shut up and take my money!!! …Oh and that is not a joke. They are literally not asking questions, not having oversight, fighting violently to make sure there never is oversight, and taking/giving their money away with no water and no baby formula at home. Overwhelming approval. Remember 9-11? Never forget! Remember those odious morons waving the flag? The Left would never, EVER wave the American flag, so they are going buy, hang up, and support the UKRAINIAN flag and war. Just so long as it’s not the AMERICAN flag, or people, or war. You would think I was making this up. It’s too far out for South Park, too random and nonsensical. But they are going to DIE on this hill. I will have the flag of a country I never hear of before now, and every American including my own friends and family can go die in a hole, so help me God!

    You’re flying…the flag of another country? In front of your house? By the ten-thousands? Really. You’re having bake sales to support guns, tanks, and bombers? And not just adding a new Prius bumper sticker this time? Geez, and I thought we could parody the Iraq war and H2 Hummers, Jesus bombs Baghdad, but clearly not. Clearly we had nothin’ on you.

    Addition, news of giving the “Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag.” In school. How dare they? Indoctrinate our kids to nationalism, patriotism, to force speech in violation of 1A? Oh wait, the school is pledging to The Rainbow flag, the pledge of Allegiance, to, gay-ness? Gay people above family, country, what? No sense given. I can no longer even attempt to figure it out. It’s like pledging allegiance to SpongeBob. (P.S. also not in favor of mindless Pledge of Allegiance in school, whether legally enforced or just pressured. An oath is a serious, thoughtful, sacred act for adults.)

    “Pfizer Booster Protection Against Omicron Wanes in Just Weeks (CHD)”

    Whhhhhhyyyyyy would you need protection against Omicron, the world’s safest virus? Nevermind: tired of asking.

    “Massive Stock Market Leverage Unwinds Amid Brutal Bloodletting (WS)”

    Trying to get a grip on this, the real war. If you cut off the Priuses and Teslas, they’re going to get cranky about Ukraine. $9 Trillion wiped out in the U.S.? (Including the $1T in Cryptos) S&P broader index is a lock to go to Fibonacci 38% drop minimum. What’s that, 2.500? Long way from here. BTC pretty clearly going to $19k if not lower. However: the bond market, although moving, remains STABLE. Debt is money, remember, in the “World Turned Upside Down” in #OppositeLand, so the debt rules the money flows, and even worldwide. So long as the bond market is in order, the system is functional and in control, not toppled. Powell’s 0.75% now takes out the world, but it is only making the US$ STRONGER. Stronger is a good thing, it is increasing his lovely, lovely power as everyone else fights for dollars in the dollar-short position.

    So as Powell (barely) shuts off US$ going into a midterm, cash is now wildly stronger in terms of Tesla stock, S&P, cryptos, all kinds of things and probably soon housing. The only thing it’s not strong against is oil, gas, diesel, and food. Commodities, but only certain commodities, not gold. Gold is an insurance hedge, and they therefore believe the Govt/Fed merger is still in control.

    If you hadn’t noticed, that margin debt is too high. Like historic multiples, bubbles on bubbles too high and needs to be closed to 1/3rd of the peak at least. Money closed, paid back, is money extinguished, dollars erased, #Deflation. In a sense, background #Deflation allows us to print $40B and kill some folks, or $3,000B/yr without inflation. To them, those are GOOD things. Death + Profit = Sleep like a baby.

    Judge Orders Fusion GPS to Turn Over 22 Emails to John Durham (NYP)”

    As said market crash is happening, it is getting safe to open up the can of worms and vipers. They, Durham, cannot now be the cause of the American and world implosion, food shortages, and your baby dying in your arms. Biden is. Where you place the blame.

    “Subpoenas of Trump Allies by January 6 Panel Set Up High-stakes Showdown (G.)”

    The whole point was to delay, drag out this in full violation of all human rights, in order to get a little fuel for the midterms. So let me get this right: you’re ALL willing to put a guy in solitary, for over a year, not have a trial, for likely trespassing and mischief, just to swing a few extra votes in an personal election? A: Yup! A thousand times Yup!!! You sir, are not fit for office and should be impeached instead, if not sent to a mental institution. Being against all Federal law, all constitutional law, and all human rights surely renders you unfit for office.

    A: Nope! Shut up and take my money, the people L O V E it. Attack more of their neighbors! The more illegal and violent the better. “Use your aggressive feelings, Luke. Let the hate flow through you. Good! Your hate has made you powerful. Now, fulfill your destiny and vote me into office!” The Hate™ just feels so good!

    I prefer human rights and due process, but I’m weird that way. A dinosaur, even.

    “all profit the US had in the last 50 years wouldn’t be enough to pay for 6 months of the current yearly deficit. So what do they do?”

    Actually, that profit under Clinton was just robbing Social Security, i.e. totally, totally fake. Which we know because it was reported by adult Americans and repeated by journalists. What do they do? Great Reset. Build Back Better™ As Aaron Russo said in the 90s – and like Eisenhower, was a conspiracy theory – they are going to bankrupt your bank, and Coinbase, shut up and steal all your money, cut off your baby formula, and then hand you 100% fully tracked, shutoffable if you are a journalist or trucker, Digital Fed Notes. I mean, obviously, I don’t know how much more obvious to make it. That’s what they said they will do, have the structures in place to do, and the event to make it happen.

    .Com is a good article though. Not just naming the key points but in a fresh and personal way.

    “Rand Paul Delays Vote on $40 Billion Ukraine Package, Calls for Spending Oversight”

    Apparently Rand Paul is President and controls everything now? I thought it was Manchin. Tomorrow it will be McConnell. But never, never anyone in the Squad. As 4 swing block votes, they have no power whatsoever, and will never, ever “Force the Vote.” Nor Unions. Nor M4A. Nor…

    Amazing. They have all the power, except that they have no power at all. You need to vote for them to give them the power, but when they have a supermajority, they simply need yet more power to enact actual law. Like Roe and healthcare. Or tax cuts and budget caps if you mean the other side. Oh and more money. Lots and lots of more money. Which they send to Ukraine for laundering. I mean, there’s a critical election coming up and that money needs to be repackaged and on the streets of Detroit by then.

    “The latest Sean Hannity Hissy Fit Exposes a Bizarre Right-wing Trigger” –Dean OBEIDALLAH MSNBC

    Just media watch: new headlines. They have reached a point of word escalation where we now have 100% pejorative words, and 0% fact words. “Hannity” is just a trigger word. So “Sean said something”? Is the teaser? “Be offended, and hate”? News at 11. Just remarking this has been developing, every week worse and worse on NBC/CNN. Yesterday noted the top 20 articles were on Trump, who isn’t a candidate and hasn’t been been President in a year and more.

    Real news? 200-500k nurses march in D.C., then to Vanderbilt for the nurse’s sentencing. By an employee of the hospital she worked for. Of which, now that medical experts are p’d, the are now finding all kinds of interesting, nefarious stuff about that there hospital and their death-certificate-forging ways. Total media blackout. The articles on the protest found showed the last 5 minutes of the road after everybody was gone. “If they said it, it’s a lie.” Just like any rally or inauguration of the naughty people, or a whole inauguration of the most popular President in history with zero people. So who gives the orders? Nurses are our heroes, new pagan saints, and when they now come back to the people with alarms, trying to save lives, ZERO. We shut them down, shout over. This isn’t a Covid thing. It’s just general medical, hardly even related to profits. Who tells every media organization nurses are now the hated “other” and must be stopped? Boy that TPS report sure is widespread. Somebody got “The Memo.”

    Like I said, 20 articles on Trump, J6, every GOP congressman, invectives against all possible party talking points. Nothing on news. No pivot to finishing off Odessa, no 20% inflation and diesel shortages, collapse of most markets, shut off of Euro gas, no warnings of planetwide nuclear holocaust.

    Ads for the latest Volvo electric cars though, failing to note the nation they are made in may cease to exist. For Americans, that means the parts may be hard to find after that.

    MSNBC: “Russian ‘Preemptive Strike’ Not Likely Before Finland is Formally within NATO”

    So the plan is to enter them, but only THEN have WWIII nuclear exchange. Well in that case, sign me up!

    “I can’t love my government if I can’t turn a trick
    (Whoa, whoa) You’ve got your big Guys
    I’ve got my Crack Pipe…”

    Another day ending in “Y” Yes, “Y, oh Y???”

    #107905
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The Ukraine bio-weapons labs were expressly working on diseases specific to that region and the genetic composition the ethnic groups that inhabit it.

    I’m sure other bio-weapons labs worldwide, hundreds of them at least, were investigating similar lines of work.

    It remains to be seen whether ethnic specific diseases can even be targeted to ethnic group at all.

    There are certainly ethnic predispositions to disease like blacks having much higher incidence.

    However:

    Sickle cell disease(SCD) is an inherited red blood cell disorder affecting people of all races, not just African Americans.

    ….Although 8 to 10 percent of African Americans carry sickle cell trait, 1 to 3 million Americans have this disorder. It is more common in people of African descent, but the sickle cell trait can also affect Hispanics, South Asians, Caucasians from southern Europe, as well as people from Middle Eastern countries….

    Diseases might be taylored better not towards ‘ethnic’ groups as much as ecological regions, hot sunny vs cold cloudy.

    Maybe that’s the ultimate goal of all the secret labs, aside from skimming off billions in money for criminal Oligarchs and Military Industrial Mafia Capos.

    What always surprised me about the bio-weapons lab story is how many secret labs there appear to be worldwide and the Media Whores never covered any of the story.

    The worldwide coordination of Plandemic Narrative and the almost complete silence on bio-weapons research, the dog that didn’t bark.

    Great photo of Charles Negre and the ‘The Vampire’ up top, a metaphor for the state of humanity and it’s tragic Fate.

    Hey, bring a friend, the more the merrier

    .

    #107906
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The Duran

    German industry warns economic disaster if deindustrialisation continues

    Germany commits suicide twice in less than a hundred years!

    Craptastic!

    The smarty pants cultures like Germany and Israel are the stupidest when you actually scratch the surface.

    https://rumble.com/v14lv3f-german-industry-warns-economic-disaster-if-deindustrialisation-continues.html

    .

    #107907
    Mister Roboto
    Participant
    #107908
    zerosum
    Participant

    That Sinking Feeling


    • That Sinking Feeling (Kunstler)


    ” ….. Meanwhile, hardships-upon-hardships pile up …..”

    Everything, in the USA, once again, distraction, buried under emotional response, ….. freedom …. to chose or obey. (abortion)

    Kunstler Forgot
    The invisible elephants

    1. Fentanyl is a pain relieving medicine. It effectively alleviates moderate to severe chronic ongoing pain.

    2. • According to Kirillov, “along with U.S. pharmaceutical companies and Pentagon contractors, Ukrainian government agencies are involved in military biotechnology activities, whose main tasks are to conceal illegal activities, conduct field and clinical trials and provide the necessary biomaterial. ”
    ( There are a potential +8 million displace people, from Ukraine, spread out all over the world as potential pandemic super spreaders.
    3. • Food Riots Begin: Mass Arrests in Iran, Deaths in Sri Lanka (ZH)
    4. The only way the Government can operate now is by printing more money.
    (Income taxes are superfluous)
    5. Capitalism failed as a model for the world.
    ——-
    U.S. officials insist that this war will last not months but years, and that it will stand with Ukraine until the bitter end (of the scams).
    ———

    #107909
    zerosum
    Participant

    Don’t worry about lack of electricity
    Biden Encourages Finland & Sweden’s Move Into NATO As Russian Electricity Supply Cut Overnight
    Canada is also encouraging Finland to join the war against Russia.

    Texas Power Grid Operator Urges Customers To Conserve Electricity After Six Plants Go Offline
    “That means the 2,900 megawatts that went offline are enough to power about 580,000 homes.”

    #107910
    John Day
    Participant

    Zerosum thanked me for distilling Michael Hudson’s interview yestrday.
    You are welcome 🙂

    Dr. D and Kim Dotcom have today’s message.
    Same elephant; different blind men.
    Grow vegetables. Be a neighbor. Ride your bike. Store some food.
    How will you live for a month when the utilities go off?
    Will some months work better than others?

    #107912
    Noirette
    Participant

    Guy Mettan is a Swiss journalist (the old kind!), politician and author. His book (trans from the French “Russie – Occident, une guerre de mille ans”), titled “Creating Russophobia” in eng, is a very good book, I reco. Here he is interviewed in eng. by Geopolitics and Empire. Vid. / podcast. The focus is on Ukraine. Not for those who find history boring and/or have no patience with French accents. 1 H. May 13 2022.

    title, Ukraine is the first battle of the third world war.

    …Peace is now impossible in Ukr. he says. And will not happen for years and years, best to hope for is a frozen conflict. The neo-totalitarian trend is about 15 years old…

    Guy Mettan: Ukraine is the First Battle of the Third World War

    https://bit.ly/3wkWd5q (book)

    Guy and his wife adopted a Russian girl, at the time Russian nationality could be transmitted not just downwards but upwards, so he became Russian, and he went the ‘roots’ route, for his daughter.

    #107913
    Noirette
    Participant

    Orobos posted: It remains to be seen whether ethnic specific diseases can even be targeted to ethnic group at all.

    Imho it isn’t possible, the link between genetic make-up and what is considered modern ‘ethnicity’, a totally arbitrary social constuct, presented as, e.g. being Black, Nordic, Pygmy, Berber, African, Arab …whatever, merely harks back to various crazed eugenist tropes and hopes, and ‘disease’ is lacking.

    No ‘infections’ or for that matter ‘medecinal cures’ (lying low these days) have been ever strongly related to ‘race’ in their prevalence or outcome, *race* is in any case a BS construct, used to discriminate and oppress some, spare others, etc.

    It is BS pushed forward by Big Pharma to seduce politicans into funding the killing or damaging of ‘enemies’…the shame is that it works…

    #107915

    I’m obviously going to have to use this one again tomorrow.

    Methodist

    #107916
    John Day
    Participant

    “Crystal Methodist” …Priceless!

    🙂

    #107917
    zerosum
    Participant
    #107918
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Thank you John Day for distilling Michael Hudson’s interview yesterday. I just finished reading it this morning.

    I also made bread this morning and it tasted delicious. I don’t know what I could grow to replace it if/when access to flour disappears.

    My grandma fell, has a brain bleed and is on her way out having made it to 96. The mRNA injection damaged her arm control at one point such that she was unable to knit but after time she was able to knit again. I am aware of 2 in my hometown that have died suddenly late 50s.

    #107919
    TAE Summary
    Participant

    * The Great Reset: You will buy less, own less and be happy.
    – How to thwart the Great Reset: Buy less, own less and be happy.

    * There are invisible elephants in every room now.
    – What you see is likely to be less Black Swannish than what you do not see – Nassim Taleb

    * Finland’s rush to join NATO and thwart Putin: The Finnish are rushin’ to finish the Russians.

    * Getting the nation to go to war is now so easy the Military Industrial Complex is changing its name to The Military Industrial Simplicity

    * Store a neighbor. Ride some food. Grow a bike. Be a vegetable.

    #107920
    cloudhidden
    Participant

    @ Michael Reid “I also made bread this morning and it tasted delicious. I don’t know what I could grow to replace it if/when access to flour disappears.”
    Dried garbonzo beans (chick peas) or actually any legume can be ground into flour for making bread. Bread can be made from potatoes too. Buckwheat can be grown where wheat cannot. we’ve done these and all will work. Wheat is nice, and makes the best bread, but in a pinch…..

    #107922
    zerosum
    Participant

    I remember,40 – 60 years ago, …… the good old days
    high inflation, high unemployment, high interest rates, no credit card, a house cost $15,000, 3X income, a man could support a wife and raise a family, the wife stayed home and did not need to go to work for wages
    I’m so glad to be a senior.
    I won’t live long enough for the deflating balloons to destroy my present lifestyle and send me back to the good old days.

    #107923
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    John Helmer translation, … snips first:

    This week President Joseph Biden stopped at an Illinois farm to say he’s going to help the Ukraine ship 20 million tonnes of wheat and corn out of storage into export, thereby relieving grain shortages in the international markets and lowering bread prices around the world. Biden was trying to play a hand in which his cards have already been clipped. By Biden. […]

    …Five maps published by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) display the location of the main Ukrainian grain and oilseed crops – wheat, corn, barley, sunflower, rapeseed – for the period 2016 to 2020. […]

    … According to Biden and his administration, the key to reducing food inflation is stored in 20 million tons of Ukrainian grain. That’s not so. The key is to realize a simple fact: the global economy does not work well with sanctions and the cutoff of individual countries from this economy.”

    THE WAR AGAINST FOOD – WHO IS TO BLAME

    THE WAR AGAINST FOOD – WHO IS TO BLAME

    F.S.

    #107924
    zerosum
    Participant

    THE WAR AGAINST FOOD – WHO IS TO BLAME

    The usual elites

    #107925
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Thank you cloudhidden. I will pass the info on to see if we have/can get seeds and I will definitely be growing potatoes.

    #107926
    Farmer McGregor
    Participant

    @John Day: “Grow vegetables. Be a neighbor. Ride your bike. Store some food.”
    @TAE Summary: ” Store a neighbor. Ride some food. Grow a bike. Be a vegetable.”
    –Also Priceless!

    #107927
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    A very thoughtful conversation


    Award-winning cartoonist Bob Moran discusses how he was fired from The Daily Telegraph for speaking out against government biosecurity measures. He gives his view on the past two years of medical tyranny, “waking up” and going down the rabbit hole. It’s obvious to see who is behind all of this, the usual suspects, politicians backed by Klaus Schwab and powerful families. We talk about the psychology of the Covidian Cult. The Powers That Be are going to see this through, they are going to push us back into COVID1984. He feels there is some kind of agreement between all governments. You can’t drive humanity into a dystopian technocracy in two years, they take their foot off the gas after awhile, assess where they are, and then they come back again. Bob feels there is a darker motivation behind all of this. He talks about his art and the road ahead.

    Bob Moran: They Are Going To See COVID1984 Through

    #107928
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    The Bizarre, Unanimous Dem Support for the $40b War Package (Greenwald)

    Money for nuthin’, chicks for free…

    Like I said, 20 articles on Trump, J6, every GOP congressman, invectives against all possible party talking points. Nothing on news. No pivot to finishing off Odessa, no 20% inflation and diesel shortages, collapse of most markets, shut off of Euro gas, no warnings of planetwide nuclear holocaust.

    #107929
    zerosum
    Participant
    #107930
    zerosum
    Participant

    ^^^^
    Click on the symbols to get comments

    #107931
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    This cartoon communicates some of the mind games we have been subjected to

    #107933
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    The term “Fog of War” is a bit of a misnomer. It isn’t actually “fogginess” in the intended metaphorical sense of the word. The so-called fog would be much better described as emotional unwillingness for Consciousness to accept that which is actually perceived clearly enough for all practical purposes.

    In other words, there is nothing “foggy” about a bold faced lie that contradicts everything that we know about reality. (examples: The Vax is safe and effective, or Bill Gates is trying to help the helpless). The only thing indistinct about any of it is how you treat the data after receiving it.

    Withdrawal of faith in one’s own ability to see is called “doubt”, and doubt typically includes the strong desire for more or better information, without which we become mired in the paralysis of indecision. And that apparently justifiable indecision enables relatively guilt-free inaction. Ahaa! Now, THAT is what we were looking for ! Plausible justification for not taking remedial action.

    Hopefully (we hope) there are smarter braver people somewhere who will take that action for us. Some courageous Champions, perhaps. Well, don’t look now but there ain’t any. At least, not for us personally. When it comes right down to your own personal sovereignty, decision making, beliefs and responsibility there is no one smarter or braver than you. Because there CANNOT be.

    Sorry if that seems harshly judgmental or critical, but it’s not meant in that vein. It’s just the way that the Universe is built. There simply is no possible way that anyone else can take our place and do those things for us.

    The endlessly unslakeable thirst for more and ever more “information” (instead of the usual and expected mashup of lies and waste paper that we get) isn’t faulty visibility. It’s faulty self confidence. It is the absence of responsibility.

    To acknowledge what is actually right there in plain sight would necessitate taking non-retractable steps to handle it, and few indeed are the people willing to do THAT if there is any other way out, and noncommittal uncertainty can almost always serve as that way out. I use it every chance I get. But eventually one runs out of chances.

    There is a distinct propensity in the vast majority of people (and absolutely myself included, of course) to choose not to see what is plainly there, and seen. The word denial springs to mind, as do several other less-than-complimentary words. They fill me with guilt and shame. That, too, is just the way that the Universe is built. It’s sorta baked into the cake of being human. We are flawed. We must deal with it. The situation is perhaps the ultimate example of the admonition, “If ya can’t take the heat then get out of the kitchen.”

    The tragedy is that so many have already died at the hands of a few evil criminals who are able to continue their senseless carnage in plain sight, while those who can stop them (us) shroud our own eyes and stay our own hands . . . with doubt.

    The fictitious fog of this Great War, plainly, has not yet fully cleared, but it’s getting close. Damn close. The light of factual reality (so to speak) is shining into dark and scary places and the so-called “moment of truth” approaches with literally terrifying velocity. It’s headed straight at us. No dodging allowed, or even possible.

    Harsh realities are happening all around us in ways that simply shall not allow much further avoidance, and there ain’t much doubt about that. It would be a fatal mistake to further doubt the resolve of the Cabal to continue killing until either they are finished off, or we are.

    #107934
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Twilight’s Last Gleaming
    by John Michael Greer

    Boy, the Chinese really want to sink a US carrier, Russian weapon’s easily can, don’t know where China is on the scale, but probably close.

    This is the book where Greer slags the F-35 “Lard Bucket” as a too little too late solution for anything coming the Empire of Lies way.

    “…This is a chilling high-concept geopolitical thriller where a declining United States and a resurgent China come to the brink of all out nuclear war.

    The year is 2025. Oil is the black gold that controls the fortunes of all nations and the once-mighty United States is down to the dregs. A giant oil field is discovered off the Tanzanian coast and the newly elected US president finds his solution to America’s ailing economy. While the United States blindly plots and plans a regime change in this hitherto insignificant African nation, Tanzania’s allies–the Chinese–start their own secret machinations. The explosion that follows shatters a decades-old balance of global power and triggers a crisis on American soil that the United States may not survive.

    Political conspiracies, military maneuvers, and covert activities are woven together in this fast-paced, gripping novel that paints a stark warning of an uncomfortably likely future. Originally published in 2014..”

    Yankee Doodle Dandy

    Let’s see Zelinsky top this.

    .

    #107935
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    Diversion: Couple of vids on cars: electric vs. gasoline – pricing, efficiency, costs to own, environmental impact, et al.

    Note: Both vids by Scotty Kilmer, … pretty well the most honest guy on uTube that yammers about cars.

    If You’re Worried About Rising Gas Prices, Watch This

    No One is Telling You the Truth About Electric Cars, So I Have To

    … fwiw,

    F.S.

    #107936
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Boy, the Chinese really want to sink a US carrier, Russian weapon’s easily can, don’t know where China is on the scale, but probably close.

    China has an array of anti-ship missiles; some ballistic, some hypersonic, some of which have a range of 1500 kilometers.
    This puts them in a position where they can strike (aircraft carriers) beyond the range of their (the carriers’) fighter jets and their ability to strike back.
    It would appear navies are becoming ineffective or even obsolete…

    #107937
    John Day
    Participant

    @Michael Reid: You are welcome. God bless your grandmother. There are actual fine-flour corns you can grow, and I have and popcorn is also flour corn, but I just don’t end up grinding it and using it.
    Carol Deppe, The Resilient Gardener goes into corn pretty deeply.

    @TAE Summary: I Rate! 🙂

    @D.Benton Smith: Probably no wrong-interpretation of “fog of war”. Everybody needs to trick and kill everybody else in war.


    @Zerosum
    : It’s the war against people who need to eat food. It’s just beginning. Grow neighbors.

    @Figmund Sreud: Thanks for finding and posting good stuff.

    #107938
    WES
    Participant

    Regarding not so special prosecutor Durham. First he is not allowed to investigate andy current or former government employees. Now you know why he is so special. He is toothless.

    The judge of the case, Cooper, is a badly conflicted judge appointed by Obama and married to a wife who is badly conflicted too. Political incest at it’s very best!

    So Durham won 22 emails out of over 1,500. That is a victory? Since Sussmann is a lawyer most of his paperwork is protected. Same for Fusion. Same for Hillary. Yes a true mockery of justice, DC style.

    Sussmann has little to worry about even if he is nominally convicted of lying. At most he faces a reprimand. He won’t be disbarred.

    Durham will succeed in convicting nobody. Those were the terms of his appointment by Barr. And so it will happen.

    #107939
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @JohnDay re : “Probably no wrong-interpretation of “fog of war”. Everybody needs to trick and kill everybody else in war.”

    I guess I’ve been in this current game (war) for so long that being tricked and lied to is so normal and expected that I see the tricks and lies as just alternative forms of the same stream of information. They all provide a clear view of what “is” (sans fog) if and when I have the gumption to confront each for what it is. Bill Gate’s lies about his intentions are as revealing of his true intentions as would be a confession . . . probably more so. Reminds of the line from the homicide detective who was about to interview the roomful of witness rounded up in the dragnet following a high profile murder. He said, “Alright, lets go see who’s lying, who’s lying more and who’s lying the most.” The only fog for me is the dimness of vision stemming from my unwillingness to “see” what I look at. My fog is internal, not external.

    #107940
    WES
    Participant

    We are still fighting the Ukrainian War to the last Ukrainian.
    Russia has been moving it’s small forces around to pick apart the fixed Ukrainian Donbas defensive positions.
    Russians can move while the Ukrainians can not move.
    When the Ukrainians try to move they die immediately.
    When Ukrainians die, they die alone out of sight unnoticed.
    Kill ratios are now between 10 and 20 to 1
    The Russians are making steady progress in closing the Donbas cauldron.
    The Donbas Ukrainians are getting closer to their breaking point.
    The tell is MSM doesn’t feature the Ukraine anymore.
    The MSM has moved on.
    So when the Ukraine collapses, it will be a non-event.

    Military Museum curators in Europe are getting very upset because Natio keeps repeatedly confiscating all of the Museum’s best working military models to send to the Ukraine. A German military Museum curator, Adolf, complained that Nato had even taken all of their Panzer 4 tanks to send to the Ukraine! A Hungarian military museum curator complained that Nato had even confiscated all of their Mig 1 and 2 fighter planes to send to the Ukraine!

    #107941
    WES
    Participant

    Michael Reid:

    My experience of making bread out of anything but wheat, never really turned out very well.
    Have you planted your flax yet?

    #107942
    zerosum
    Participant

    TITFORTAT
    I don’t suppose that anyone remember me saying that Russia was using miles of WWII museum pieces to start the invasion.
    “Military Museum curators in Europe are getting very upset
    Now, Russia is demonstrating that their missiles do work.

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