May 282022
 
 May 28, 2022  Posted by at 8:20 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,


Gustave Courbet The desperate man (self portrait) 1852

 

The New York Times’ Shift on Victory in Ukraine (Walsh)
Russia Controls Almost All of Luhansk, Makes Gains in Eastern Ukraine (Antiwar)
Will NATO Aggression Force Russia to Extend the Special Operation? (Batiushka)
Dear Ursula, You Are Dead Wrong (Vilches)
Childhood’s End (Kunstler)
US Seizes Tanker Full of Iranian Oil Near Greece (Antiwar)
Iran Seizes 2 Greek Tankers In Persian Gulf, Tensions Spike (K.)
What COVID Jabs Are Doing to the Immune System, How the Injured Can Heal (ET)
The Three Ring Circus of Today’s Political Scandals (RCP)
Stolen Elections: A Tale of Two D.C. Courtrooms (Kelly)
Britain Is Paving The Way For Gene-edited Food (G.)
More Middle-class People Flock To Food Banks In Brussels (BT)

 

 

 

 

Islamabad

 

 

Ass covering.

The New York Times’ Shift on Victory in Ukraine (Walsh)

On May 11 The New York Times ran an article documenting that all was not going well for the U.S. in Ukraine, and a companion opinion piece hinting that a shift in direction might be in order. Then on May 19, the editorial board, the full Magisterium of the Times, moved from hints to a clarion call for a change in direction, declaring that “total victory” over Russia is not possible and that Ukraine will have to negotiate a peace in a way that reflects a “realistic assessment” and the “limits” of U.S. commitment. The Times serves as one the main shapers of public opinion for the elite and so its pronouncements are not to be taken lightly. The editorial contains the following key passages:

“In March, this board argued that the message from the United States and its allies to Ukrainians and Russians alike must be: No matter how long it takes, Ukraine will be free. …” “That goal cannot shift, but in the end, it is still not in America’s best interest to plunge into an all-out war with Russia, even if a negotiated peace may require Ukraine to make some hard decisions.” And, to ensure that there is no ambiguity, it went on: “A decisive military victory for Ukraine over Russia, in which Ukraine regains all the territory Russia has seized since 2014, is not a realistic goal. … Russia remains too strong…” Then, to make certain that President Joe Biden and the Ukrainians understand what they should do, it adds:

“… Mr. Biden should also make clear to President Volodymyr Zelensky and his people that there is a limit to how far the United States and NATO will go to confront Russia, and limits to the arms, money and political support they can muster. It is imperative that the Ukrainian government’s decisions be based on a realistic assessment of its means and how much more destruction Ukraine can sustain.” As Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky read those words, he must surely have begun to sweat. The voice of his masters was telling him that he and Ukraine will have to make some sacrifices for the U.S. to save face. As he contemplates his options, his thoughts must surely run back to February 2014, and the U.S.-backed Maidan coup that culminated in the hasty exit of President Viktor Yanukovych from his office, his country and almost from this earth.

Read more …

Sending more weapons will only create more misery.

Russia Controls Almost All of Luhansk, Makes Gains in Eastern Ukraine (Antiwar)

Russia continues to make territorial gains in eastern Ukraine and now controls 95% of Ukraine’s Luhansk oblast, which makes up the northern half of the Donbas region. The pro-Kyiv governor of Luhansk said Friday that Ukrainian forces might be forced to retreat from the near-surrounded cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk, the last hold-outs in the region. “We will have enough strength and resources to defend ourselves. However, it is possible that in order not to be surrounded we will have to retreat,” said Governor Serhiy Gaidai. As the war grinds on in the east, Ukrainian officials are starting to admit that their military is facing a dire situation and are pleading for the US and its allies to send more advanced weapons.


Ukrainian volunteer soldiers told The Washington Post that they felt abandoned by the government in Kyiv as they were fighting in the east. In a video posted on Telegram, Ukrainian volunteers said they weren’t properly trained and didn’t have sufficient equipment or support to fight on the front lines. “We are being sent to certain death,” a volunteer soldier said in the Telegram video. “We are not alone like this, we are many.” The Post spoke with a volunteer company commander and his lieutenant who retreated to a hotel away from the front. After the interview, the men were arrested by Ukrainian military security services and accused of desertion.

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“If the NATO vassals have any common sense, they will dissolve NATO altogether..”

Will NATO Aggression Force Russia to Extend the Special Operation? (Batiushka)

Finally, we wonder if the Russian Federation will continue to tolerate the aggressive statements and actions of anti-Russian representatives of the mercenary US-installed elites in Bulgaria and Greece? If the Bulgarian and Greek elites were cleansed of those who will ‘do anything for a million dollars’ and their countries turned back into pro-Russian territories, it would mean that all of the Eastern half of Europe could at last return to being a pro-Russian, NATO-free buffer zone. This zone would of course include Hungary as well as Serbia, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, that is, most of ex-Yugoslavia, where most people and some of the governing classes are pro-Russian anyway.

As for Central Europe (here we include the Czech Lands, East Germany and Austria, as well as Slovenia, Croatia, and even Albania) and Western Europe, their populations would simply have to cope with being cut off raw materials. This means cut off from Russian oil, gas, paper pulp, fertilisers, cereals and minerals and the eventual possibility of the poorest among them facing starvation and next winter hypothermia because of their ruling classes’ anti-Russian sanctions. Unless, of course, those populations decided to revolt and liberate themselves from their neo-feudal, US-installed colonial elites. Even the offshore UK, with its buffoonish, New York-born Prime Minister Johnson, could yet object and reject. The economic situation in Europe is becoming serious.

Naturally, we cannot say what will happen. What we can say very clearly, however, is that the US elite and its NATO minions are playing with fire. As the dollar slips on a daily basis, now below even 57 to the rouble for the first time since 2015, some Western bankers are beginning to panic. If the NATO vassals have any common sense, they will dissolve NATO altogether, as should have happened in 1991, when the Warsaw Pact was dissolved. However, as they say, the problem with common sense is that it is very rare. It is rather like intelligence, which is very limited – whereas the capacity for stupidity is utterly unlimited….

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Russian oil & gas [..] ..without which Europe would cease to exist as we know it with some countries becoming failed states..

Dear Ursula, You Are Dead Wrong (Vilches)

Long ago, large fuel-consumer yet very fuel-poor Europe (Franz) married super fuel-rich Russia (Natasha) and together soon happily parented plenty of babies that have now grown-up and crave for Natasha´s delicious food. So the whole European über-successful export-based business model was conceived, designed, built, operated and developed on the basis of the cheap and plentiful ´Russian fuels´ premise. That is why every EU government has repeatedly failed to find the architectonics — let alone effectively construct — a realistic energy strategy that does not depend exclusively on Russia´s capability as an EXTRA-ordinary and reliable commodities exporter, most specially fuels. Europe´s economic success has always been based — and continues to be — in having available abundant high quality Russian energy with the enormous advantage of smooth Druzbha pipeline 24x7x365 door-to-door delivery.

Hereinafter please find out why Europe has no choice other than to keep importing lots of Russian oil & gas. It´d be technically impossible to do otherwise requiring a minimum of 20 years at probably more than twice the price, or even far more if the required monumental investments are priced in. Today, on the one hand we have the current Russian Urals blend oils which shall be briefly described herein. On the other we can now only have unknown Baltic oil blends that cannot be described because they do not exist and quite possibly may never exist, at least as needed. Actually, the only effective possibility would be to build from scratch ad hoc matching refineries and other chemical plants in order to accept still-undefined and most difficult to process Baltic oil blend feedstocks. You read it here first…

Energy security involves complex interactive underpinnings which demand a clear and well-focused mindset. Accordingly, below please find a short list of requirements for European oil imports (90%) today mostly sourced in Russia and without which Europe would cease to exist as we know it with some countries becoming failed states. For logistical reasons, the list below should later be expanded and adapted to the specific location of a given facility and/or other individual needs. A leading case in point would be the Schwedt Refinery as the largest in all of Europe and with a most special make-it-or-break-it importance as explained later. Without a fully functional and constantly well-supplied Schwedt Refinery, neither Berlin nor the immense surrounding Brandenburg state are viable… nor would the Berlin international airport and very large areas of Western Poland survive as they are today. I kid you not.

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“Truth and beauty have gone outlaw. Bad faith and wickedness rule, led by a Party of Chaos.”

Childhood’s End (Kunstler)

America has become a malfunctioning pageant without feasible roles that children can realistically project themselves into. What ten-year-old longs to become the Burger King fry-o-later boss in a brown apron and an asinine cardboard crown? Rather, they are prompted to aspire to become sports star millionaires, of which there are perhaps fewer than 5,000 positions in a land of 340-million. By age twelve, they probably comprehend the unlikelihood of that outcome, or of becoming the next Kardashian… or Spiderman. (Superheroes are supplied by the entertainment cartels to occupy the imaginative realm of children because American culture is bereft of reality-based roles worth aspiring to.)

In this tumult of cultural impoverishment, psychotic grandiosity creeps in. Be big if you can’t be anything else. Hence, one achievable role for young persons in American life is mass murderer. It is a way of becoming important, of having an effect on other people and society in general. Your name may be forgotten, but the act itself will endure in the collective memory of a people. It will be some kind of a mark in history, even better remembered, perhaps, than whoever played third-base for the Atlanta Braves in 1994… or the woman who once capered down the red carpet at the Oscars in a dress fashioned on a slaughtered swan.

The mayhem unleashed in a school shooting is just the rectified essence of the manifold derangements in our national life. Everything is out-of-whack, including our perception of what’s going on and what it means. There is almost nothing left of childhood in this land, in the way of young, unformed creatures assisted by adults who love them into a future worth being part of. We have forgotten how to be grateful for coming into this world at all, leaving us unworthy of being here. The quality of virtue, meaning that some things and some doings are recognizably better than others, was deceitfully replaced by the equity of nothing being allowed to be better than anything else. Truth and beauty have gone outlaw. Bad faith and wickedness rule, led by a Party of Chaos. So, really, what do you expect? And what do you deserve?

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“Iran believes, and not unfairly, that the oil was just stolen from them..”

US Seizes Tanker Full of Iranian Oil Near Greece (Antiwar)

Fresh off of the US targeting a series of companies involved in an Iran-linked oil smuggling network, the US has now seized an oil tanker near Greece, taking the Iranian oil within to be sent to the US. The oil was on a Russian-operated ship, which had been singled out for US targeting in February. It was then called the Pegas. The company renamed the ship the Lana. Greece had impounded the Pegas and its Russian crew last month over the invasion of Ukraine, but ultimately released it. Neither the US nor Russia is commenting. Greece says the US informed them the oil was Iranian, and that the US hired a different ship to take the oil to America. Iran has summoned the Greek charges d’affaires and called the incident a “clear example of piracy.”


The US accused the tanker of loading 700,000 Bbls of oil from Iran in August 2021. The tanker mostly carried oil to China. The seizure of the tanker, and oil, comes amid tensions on the ongoing nuclear talks. Iran believes, and not unfairly, that the oil was just stolen from them, and the US position, while yet to be public, is that the oil is now theirs. It’s not a great precedent, but generally Iran can’t do much about it, and the US is keen to have the oil.

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Surprise!!

Iran Seizes 2 Greek Tankers In Persian Gulf, Tensions Spike (K.)

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard seized two Greek oil tankers on Friday in the Persian Gulf, just after Athens assisted the US in seizing an Iranian oil tanker over alleged sanctions violations in the Mediterranean Sea. The Guard’s announcement comes as tensions remain high between Iran and the West over stalled negotiations regarding its rapidly advancing nuclear program. The Guard issued a statement on its website, accusing the unnamed tankers of unspecified violations. Greece’s Foreign Ministry said it made a strong demarche to the Iranian ambassador in Athens over the “violent taking over of two Greek-flagged ships” in the Persian Gulf. “These acts effectively amount to acts of piracy,” a ministry statement said.


The ministry called for the immediate release of the vessels and their crews, and said these acts would have “particularly negative consequences” in bilateral relations and in Iran’s relations with the European Union, of which Greece is a member. The ministry’s statement said that earlier Friday, an Iranian helicopter landed on the Greek-flagged Delta Poseidon in international waters some 22 nautical miles off the coast of Iran. “Armed men then took the crew captive,” it said, adding that two Greek nationals were among the crew. “A similar incident has been reported on another Greek-flagged vessel, that was carrying seven Greek citizens, close to the coast of Iran,” the ministry said. It did not identify the nationalities of the other crew onboard the vessels. Industry sources confirmed to Lloyd’s List that the suezmaxes Delta Poseidon and Prudent Warrior, both under Greek flag, were seized.

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“..catastrophic adverse events such as the destruction of the immune system..”

What COVID Jabs Are Doing to the Immune System, How the Injured Can Heal (ET)

“Vaccines are safe and effective” has been the ongoing irrational mantra of the past two years, recycled from the last two decades of pushing children’s vaccination programs. It’s more than a failed hypothesis—the mantra has become dogma, a belief system that prevents people from getting the help they need for their jab-induced spike injuries or for those of their loved ones. MIT scientist Stephanie Seneff and naturopathic oncologist Greg Nigh’s paper, “Worse than the Disease” describes in detail the unintended consequences of the jabs against COVID-19, including catastrophic adverse events such as the destruction of the immune system.

Prominent immunologists, vaccinologists, and researchers from every clinical expertise are now providing evidence to support COVID-19 mRNA injectable products are causing immune system dysregulation. Explaining the complicated mechanism of jab-induced spike injury to the general public is not an easy task when governments still list vaccination as the number one way out of the pandemic while a deluge of campaigns are out to discredit doctors and scientists who want to recognize and help those who have been injured. With such little support from the establishment, and almost a black market for real medical guidance on jab-induced spike injury methods, people are desperate to know—how can the injured heal?

Before getting started on healing, one must first know a few key things about the spike protein’s unnatural injection into the body’s immune system. Most doctors and scientists understand the power and complexity of the immune system. The immune response is divided into innate immunity, the enormously effective biology we were born with, and adaptive immunity, which acquires training following exposure to pathogens. The innate system fights against foreign bodies, injuries, and pathogens by using natural bacteria-killing substances, skin protection on the outside, mucus membrane protection on the inside, and the first responders: scavenger cells or natural killers. The body is already wired to take on whatever intruder tries to break in. They have the intelligence to know which invaders belong in the body, and which ones are out to cause trouble.

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“Baker testified that he was “100% confident” Sussmann had repeated his disclaimer at the beginning of their meeting..”

The Three Ring Circus of Today’s Political Scandals (RCP)

Modern political scandals, like Caesar’s Gaul, are divided into three parts. The first is the actual malfeasance. That might be taking bribes, lying to federal agents, leaking classified materials, sexual misconduct, selling political access, whatever. The second part is the hyper-partisan involvement of Congress and, often, federal agencies, all eager to score points for their side. The third part is the media’s role, which goes beyond bias to include active promotion of political goals. Federal agencies, like all bureaucratic institutions, have always tried to increase their power and preserve their autonomy. What’s different today is that the bureaucrats, and often their entire agencies, are frequently partisan players. That’s disheartening but understandable.

One party is clearly the “party of government” and the party of experts. Most educated professionals, including bureaucrats and journalists, identify with that party. Filled with partisan “civil servants,” these agencies routinely tilt investigations (or kill them outright) to advance political goals – the same ones as their favored party. For the same reasons, they leak insider information to friendly media. Predictably, the opposing party tries to score points by attacking them for doing so. That brings us to the third element of these scandals: the “friendly media.” Mainstream outlets are not just biased. They often become outright partisans when a potential scandal could hurt conservatives or populists. That bias degrades what was once called “hard news.” Today, neutral reporting is as antiquated as rotary phones, conservative Democrats, and liberal Republicans.

The media’s bias, both left and right, is amplified by the fragmentation of the digital landscape. That fragmentation encourages each outlet to appeal to its self-selected audience and avoid alienating them with uncomfortable information.The trial of Hillary Clinton lawyer Michael Sussmann illustrates how modern scandals have devolved into this dismal three-ring circus. Last Thursday, the FBI’s former general counsel, James Baker, testified at length that his old friend Sussmann had requested an urgent private meeting and provided the bureau damning, confidential information. Sussmann claimed he did so solely “as a good citizen,” not on behalf of any client. Sussmann made the same claim in a text message to Baker the night before.

Baker testified that he was “100% confident” Sussmann had repeated his disclaimer at the beginning of their meeting. (Before Special Counsel John Durham’s team concluded their case on Wednesday, they showed the jury that Sussmann had actually billed the Clinton campaign for that meeting.) Baker’s testimony was especially powerful because he was clearly reluctant to provide it.

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Two separate justice systems. That is dangerous.

Stolen Elections: A Tale of Two D.C. Courtrooms (Kelly)

Trump’s first two years in office were severely hobbled by the nonstop collusion drama as Mueller’s team systematically rounded up Trump allies on unrelated charges to produce breaking headlines and speculation that Trump would be the next one in handcuffs. Even after Mueller in 2019 finally admitted his prosecutors found no evidence of election-altering collusion, 84 percent of Democrats still believed Trump had been in cahoots with the Russians. For four years, Democrats proudly displayed #NotMyPresident hashtags on social media platforms. And to this day, Hillary Clinton insists the 2016 election “was not on the level.” But that sort of talk has not been designated the “Big Lie” by the news media or criminalized by the Justice Department.

Any suggestion that the 2016 election was “rigged” or “stolen” remains safely under the purview of protected speech and in many quarters, is still considered an indisputable fact. Not so for those who doubt the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. Which is why, just a few floors below Judge Cooper’s courtroom, Timothy Hale is on trial for his participation in the protest at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. While the wheels of justice turn excruciatingly slow for Trump-Russian collusion schemers such as Sussmann, the government has moved at lightning speed to round up dissidents of the Biden regime. More than 800 Americans who protested Biden’s election on January 6 face criminal charges; the Justice Department announces new arrests every week.

Unlike Michael Sussmann, who walked free for five years following the commission of his alleged crime, Tim Hale has been in jail under pre-trial detention orders for more than 16 months. Yet Hale’s alleged offenses were far less damaging to the country than the crimes Sussmann and his accomplices are accused of committing. On January 6, Hale, an Army reservist, drove to Washington after working the night shift at a New Jersey Naval station to hear President Trump speak. Later that afternoon, Hale walked to Capitol Hill. He entered the Capitol building around 2:14 p.m. through a set of open doors; Hale carried no weapon and didn’t assault anyone. On at least two occasions, Hale is seen interacting with police officers, who did not attempt to arrest either him or those around him.

Read more …

The smell of Schwab is all over this.

Britain Is Paving The Way For Gene-edited Food (G.)

At the height of the anti-GM movement, in 1999, the then head of Greenpeace UK, Peter Melchett, was charged with theft and criminal damage after scything down a field of genetically modified maize. In a decisive victory for the anti-GM movement, Lord Melchett and 27 fellow activists were acquitted by a jury in what many took as a measure of the profound negative public sentiment towards GM technology. More than 20 years on, as the government proposes relaxing regulations on gene-edited products, experts say the public view on the technology has, if not entirely warmed, at least softened.“I think most people now have what I call the Catherine Tait view: ‘Am I bovvered?’,” said Prof Jonathan Jones of the Sainsbury Laboratory, a plant research institute based in Norfolk.

Scientists such as Jones welcome the new legislation that could pave the way for a host of technologically enhanced products from vitamin D-enriched tomatoes to anti-carcinogenic wheat. But experts also question whether the technology will really deliver the boost to food security and environmental benefits promised by the government. One point of contention is the distinction between gene-edited products, which will be permitted, and genetically modified organisms, which will still be subject to strict legislation. Newer gene-editing techniques – termed “precision breeding” in the bill – involve precise changes to single letters of the genetic code. Such changes can be achieved far less efficiently through years of cross-breeding. But the legislation will not immediately open the way for first generation genetic modification (GM) techniques, which involve taking an entire gene from one plant and inserting it into another.

“I’m a bit uncomfortable with the way this has been presented to the public,” said Jones. “It comes across as saying ‘Don’t worry about this nasty GM because we can do what we want with this lovely gene-editing method’. It leaves intact the false impression that there’s anything wrong with GM.” Jones said the bill may be a reasonable “tactical compromise” that could pave the way for a further relaxation of GM rules. “At least I’m hoping that’s what the government is thinking,” he added. The distinction has also annoyed some environmental campaigners. “Gene editing is just a subset of GM,” said Kierra Box from Friends of the Earth. The charity, she said, maintained a “fundamental opposition” to genetic modification because it was not convinced the technology could deliver environmentally friendly solutions. “If we’re interfering with the genetic codes in nature, we don’t know how those things respond,” she added.

Read more …

Brussels is a very rich city. What’s going on in the poorer cities?

More Middle-class People Flock To Food Banks In Brussels (BT)

Due to high inflation, energy costs and the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, more and more people in Belgium have to rely on government support and food banks. It is no longer only the poorest in the city, but also middle-class people that can no longer afford groceries. Last year, a record of nearly 180,000 people per month were in need and appealed to the food banks. That number is likely to continue to rise for the rest of 2022, due to high living costs and energy prices, Bruzz reports. In recent months, the situation in Brussels has been deteriorating, according to the Sint-Vincensius association that distributes food parcels.

The beginning of this year saw a 15% increase in distributed parcels compared to pre-Covid times. The 34,000 food parcels that were distributed have also been delivered to different types of people: “What is striking is that new profiles have been appearing in our collection points since the end of last year,” says Frederick De Gryse, General Manager of the Sint-Vincensius Association. “In addition to Ukrainians, many freelancers, single mothers, people from the cultural sector and many other middle class people have arrived.” However, for the majority of newcomers, that does not come without feelings of guilt and fear of stigma, Bruzz found when speaking to people at the food bank collection centre in Schaerbeek.

54-year-old accountant Karel is ashamed that he is going to get a food package, as he does not want to take the place of the poorest of the poor. “For months when I can afford it, I don’t go to the food bank; others need it more.” Marie (52), a single mother of two dependent children, wholeheartedly agrees. “I am a working woman, have an income, have all the papers and yet I have to go to the food bank. I feel like I’m taking something from people who need it more.”

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Home Forums Debt Rattle May 28 2022

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 52 total)
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  • #108605

    Gustave Courbet The desperate man (self portrait) 1852   • The New York Times’ Shift on Victory in Ukraine (Walsh) • Russia Controls Almost All o
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle May 28 2022]

    #108606
    Red
    Participant

    This stark conclusion appears to be the first time that the UN has issued a flagship global report finding that existing global policies are accelerating toward the collapse of human civilisation. Yet somehow this urgent warning has remained unreported until now.

    The report does not suggest that this outcome is inevitable or specify how close to this possibility we are. But it does confirm that, without radical change, that’s where the world is heading.

    UN Warns of ‘Total Societal Collapse’ Due to Breaching of Planetary Boundaries

    #108607
    chooch
    Participant

    Oroboros, why do you want to paint me as a nazi?

    Anyway, here is an update from O’Brien.

    #108608
    chooch
    Participant

    Do not know if this true yet as Russia has been calling this the red line.

    https://www.republicworld.com/amp/world-news/russia-ukraine-crisis/us-approves-transfer-of-long-range-multiple-launch-rocket-systems-to-ukraine-report-articleshow.html

    US approves transfer of long-range multiple-launch rocket systems to Ukraine: Report

    Also,

    Kremlin considering another assault on Kyiv and planning victory in Ukraine by fall – Meduza citing sources inside Putin administration.

    And

    Russia’s Defense Ministry said its hypersonic cruise missile Zircon launched from the Barents Sea hit a target in the White Sea. Russia has been threatening Sweden & Finland amid their plans to join NATO.

    Russia going Abe Lincoln.

    #108609
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Gustave Courbet The desperate man (self portrait) 1852

    Interesting painting; I like the detail of the left elbow and the stressed shirt sleeve…nicely done…

    I’m weary and fed up with most of today’s reportage…basically a waste of valuable time and effort…
    The west is determined to destroy Russia at (almost) any cost.
    That is not going to happen: Russia will survive any onslaught by the west; albeit with great destruction and suffering; but, the west will not survive by any measure of survival in a meaningful way…
    It’s too the point of boredom to keep running this tape in a loop………..

    #108610
    chooch
    Participant

    Just for fun,

    Oroboros, I bet you have a Putin poster hanging in your place.

    Putin

    and some Bonnie Tyler on your iTunes.

    #108611
    chooch
    Participant

    “Putin cannot be defeated. And this is a big problem. Because, excuse me, a nuclear power and this increase in rates is going on all the time. And now the United States is trying to drag out the proxy war with Russia as much as possible, the White House is constantly considering the possibility of transferring systems to Kyiv salvo fire, Zelensky is begging for them. But Biden understands, just a minute, that if Russian nuclear power plants are in the affected area, if our cities are hit with a large number of victims, then we can generally consider this whole situation differently. We we can say: you supplied American weapons, you are to blame and we can strike at decision-making centers, we don’t give a damn about Article 5 or not”– said Solovyov on the air of his program.”

    Kremlin propagandist Solovyov again threatens with a nuclear strike: who this time (video)

    #108612
    Dr. D
    Participant

    DoJ, in their 50-year run of not prosecuting crimes, is not pressing charges on the astonishing mishandling of the Nassar Gymnastics investigation. Good Job Brownie! Pension’s in the mail. The FBI by doing this, preventing somebody ELSE from investigating and doing something.

    “11-year-old Miah Cerrillo, who told a CNN reporter that she played dead for nearly an hour to avoid being shot.” Because in a desperate bid to kill her, the police prevented anyone ELSE from going in. But thanks to not depending on the police or other lying, cheating, failing, murdering adults, she survived anyway. Good on her. Not doing good for my blood pressure though.

    Back in #OppositeLand, they are trying to NOT get paid by every possible means, and to CAUSE a fake default instead of accepting money and goods.

    “Washington has been seeking to push Moscow into an involuntary bankruptcy by closing all loopholes for debt payments, … Russia’s National Settlement Depository (NSD) announced it has successfully paid these coupons in dollar-denominated bond and euro-denominated notes, although it remains to be seen if correspondent banks will accept them and if the US won’t just claim the payments were illegal.”

    So paying is illegal. But not paying is also illegal? WTF? And so in the outer edge, if I own Russian Bonds the U.S. government will screw me and not allow me to get my money? Which will blow up all my other investments? Who’s the enemy here? Seriously, they are a threat to life on earth, and not just financially.

    Follows the quote “No communist was ever as dedicated to economic suicide as the current class of idiots who rule us…”

    “In Stunning Shift, WaPo Admits Catastrophic-Conditions, Collapsing-Morale of Ukraine Front-Line Forces”

    As with Daily Mail, and recent OpEds in WaPo and NYT. NYT admitting both Hunter laptop is real, and that HRC fabricated and ran a seditious operation that included broad swaths of the FBI and DoJ using intel from Russia and Russian contacts.

    Why? Why has the truth appeared in small places, like a dandelion in the prison yard? Kissinger surrenders, as with this WaPo admitting defeat. Why? Did they give up their near-religious love of death? (A: No. They’re up to something.)

    “They have enough medical supplies and food.”

    Not in any of the kettles they’re not. Food at a train station in Poland is no good at all. They can’t get a paper airplane aloft to air-drop any of it on Donbass clearly, as Mariupol was an entire city and not a Toyota got in with a pack of crisps. Or maybe not lifting a single siege anywhere in the whole country is “all part of the master plan.” “Glory to Ukraine.” Eating 5-star with an endless rotation of international (money-laundering) guests instead of picking up a rifle and heading East like a man who stands for something. I cannot believe the nonsense. They’re going to wonder later if they put crystal meth in the water, crop-dusted it from the skies. I can say I’ve never seen the like, but I’ve seen the like grow worse each minute of each year of my life. Until: Consequences? What will stop people from acting like water is dry land, they can shape-shift selves and genders, and they can fly to the moon with clicky-heels and the power of wishes?

    Same article: “a group the size of a platoon declares they simply can’t fight for lack of weaponry, ammunition, food” Huh. The food they have ample supplies of one paragraph back? Time flies. Food = Not-food. Losing is the new #Winning.

    Between the lines, Russia has now cottoned on to all tactics that work and can proceed methodically with low(er) casualties. Being unable to move and without men, Ukraine cannot do the same. But here’s a slingshot: we’ll toss the U.S. checkbook at them. Maybe they’ll get a papercut.

    “AOC Says She Wants to Ditch Her Tesla Following Online Spat with Musk”

    Pete just told me I HAVE to buy a Tesla. Or walk because he’s going to do exactly F—all about gas, supply chains, and prices. Make up your mind. …Actually doesn’t matter to any of us, since ain’t nobody got the money for either. They’re driving a used minivan with 150k. When gas costs too much: they don’t go to work. See? Life is simple, really.

    TX Governor ‘Livid’ after He Was ‘Misled’ about Police Response in Uvalde Shooting”

    So upset no one has been fired. Here’s a plan: fire one person off your communications dept who handed you this, and one policeman who was most in charge. At an astonishing, jaw-dropping minimum. If not, you’re not upset.

    “Mass Shootings: The Vicious Cycle Fueled by America’s Toxic Cult of Violence”

    We’ve always had guns. Access was always far easier than now. But this is what you get when your religion is a death cult. Every parent, every child, goes to church before the unblinking eye 4 hours a day, kneeling prostrate in obedience.

    So in this case, an 18-year-old got a thousand dollars? That was an expensive little number he bot. Then had a full background check. Then committed a murder. Then crashed a car. Then shot up outside the school for 15 minutes. Then the locked, guarded school was unlocked and unguarded. Then he went in while children called 911 for 55 minutes. Then the police showed up. Then armed Texas parents showed up.

    So we had: Gun control, background checks, informed police, monitored and checked, hardened buildings, armed parents, full and instant communications inside.

    Anybody want to tell me how to stop this? Because I think that’s every idea every different side and party ever had. Only waiting to hear what his politics are. The last 5 were far Left, including Buffalo, who wore the Black Sun tattoo. That would be a “National Socialist”. As in, “Socialist.” But since dictionaries no longer exist and are changed on demand, nobody knows that a National Socialist is a Socialist. Too complicated. A = A is like math or something. And we are hearing Mr. Buffalo was in contact with a retired federal agent.

    Gun Control Advocacy Group Plans Nationwide Protests after Texas School Shooting”

    To ask for an age limit, national ID, gun shop, background check and police support? We had that.

    What would be the takeaway from this? “Hate others”. I mean, Of course!!! “Defund the Police”, people mad at police. ‘Cause somehow Federal police would have done their jobs better? Like the FBI has been? Or is it to destroy confidence generally, in all institutions and measures?

    Don’t trust “Them”. Build your own. It’s called a “Family”. A “Community.” Not theirs, pre-fabbed, ordered online.

    The Kunstler essay is very good this week and should be fully read. Apparently no adult can comprehend what he’s saying that is so simple 8 year old children will tell you. No adults care. They fake care with fake tears and fake action.

    The New York Times’ Shift on Victory in Ukraine (Walsh)”

    Weird. NY Times comes in line with a guy who’s been retired for 30 years. Kissinger has no power whatsoever and officially represents no one. In theory he never has. Yet he speaks and a minute later, everyone obeys. Why? No one comprehends even the question, much less asks it.

    “in which Ukraine regains all the territory Russia has seized since 2014,” Lie. Of omission and misdirection. What are you allergic to saying the word “Crimea”? Or is it that people would understand what you’re saying and be informed about how utterly stupid and unreasonable, irrational, violent, and zealous you are if you used “words.” English is the top language for liars because it allows this. Anglos are the top liars.

    Also how dumb you sound: “Ukraine will decisively defeat Russia”. A nation 12x their size and strength that has world-reaching arms that could, in a certain sense, defeat the United States and NATO in eight minutes, erasing them forever. Sure, they’re going to topple Putin and occupy Siberia.

    Soros did not get the memo of the people who really run things. He’s doubled down on attacking Putin personally. That means there are very high level factions. And those factions are fighting.

    are pleading for the US and its allies to send more advanced weapons.”

    Because of how stupid you sound, and how infantile Cidiot Americans are, ALL THE MEN ARE SURROUNDED. HOW are you going to “send weapons”? If you can send weapons, you could relieve the siege. They have done neither, ever. Haven’t even tried. The Kiev army is right there. They can’t relieve Kharkiv?

    They can’t tell men from not-men. Army from not-Army. Clearly, as we have both right here in the ‘States. Men? Well, I’m not a biologist…

    ” US Seizes Tanker Full of Iranian Oil Near Greece (Antiwar)”

    Showing how completely and desperately broke and discredited they are. The West are so broke, so hollow, they are now pirates on the open seas. They are and have become a threat to all life on earth. Since Iran will not ship oil in this condition, Davos succeeds in their open goal to kill 100 Million folks. …Who are not them.

    “Iran can’t do much about it, and the US is keen to have the oil.”

    You had it. I wanted it. So I took it. This is not complicated. Theft and murder are now the first resort, with NO given premise, reason, or legality.

    ““violent taking over of two Greek-flagged ships” in the Persian Gulf. “These acts effectively amount to acts of piracy,”

    Huh. No kidding? Violently taking over ships is and act of Piracy? Better tell your NATO friends, they haven’t got the memo. …Can we stop now? (A: No. 100 Million poor and brown people aren’t dead yet. You don’t have a food ID compliance card and tattoo.)

    “The third part is the media’s role,”

    Media who? I see a seamless and indistinguishable merger of Corporation, State, and Social power. It’s called “Fascism” by every definition. Particularly the influence/social media part is the true spearhead and hallmark of essential fascism.

    Simplify? It’s “Them” against “You.” It’s the big club, and their food source is “The People”, which they attack, bleed hollow, and destroy to survive as a matter of structure.

    Hospital Administrators. Yes, started the day after 1994, when they started to “Help”. Corporations may be bad, but clearly they’re nowhere NEAR as bad as governments. Now because of the same chart, the answer is easy: retrain all those smart, medically-aware admins back into being techs, janitors, and even nurses. You could cut the number in half and still come out more bloated than any system in history, and you’ve have tripled the number of support personnel. They won’t. They will kill you first.

    C’mon Docktor, that’s outrageous hyperbole. No. I know they will because they ALREADY HAVE. Then went 10x on the speed and type, and when it was pointed out for two years, by doctors, bolted the steering wheel so no one could change course. Right now they’ve got a 6-sigma death rate; no interest in not killing at 40% above the average for 100 years if they can. No interest. No curiosity. No medicine. No science.

    Discredited Institutions? Sounds like the bad guys won. Easy to break things, hard to make them work.

    #108613
    Basseterre Kitona
    Participant

    “If the NATO vassals have any common sense, they will dissolve NATO altogether..”

    One might hope, however, a quick look at the new Nato headquarters building on the outskirts of Brussels reveals how unlikely that is to happen. Opened in 2017, the 8 wings total 250,000 square meters and cost 750 million euros.

    nato hq

    The architect’s (SOM) website includes some nice spin doctoring in their description too:
    https://www.som.com/projects/nato-headquarters/

    Architecture for a new era of diplomacy

    SOM’s design proposal, selected in 2003, represents NATO’s growing focus on unification and integration in the 21st century. The campus is located on what was Belgium’s first airfield, which was occupied by German forces in 1915 and again during World War II by German and Allied forces. NATO’s peace-driven ambitions are represented through the building’s eight long and four short office wings (seven floors in the long wings, four in the short) intersecting with a central atrium—like fingers interlaced in a symbolic clasp of unity and interdependence. The atrium provides visibility for the office wings and serves as transitional space to common areas, such as the conference centre and staff canteen.

    Clasped fingers of unity? Someone should remind them of the old saying that the tighter you squeeze, the less you hold.

    #108614
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @V_Arnold ref. : “It’s too the point of boredom to keep running this tape in a loop………..”

    Yeah, I know exactly what you mean & get the same feeling every once in a while. Like, I just want the world to cut to the chase and have all the stuff that’s coming to be behind us. The whole mess.

    Then, on second thought, I take a closer look at what “the chase” is gonna look like, and think again.

    #108615
    zerosum
    Participant

    The elites, the motivators, the enablers, the chosen ones, the snobs, don’t read TAE or take advise from the peanut gallery

    • More Middle-class People Flock To Food Banks In Brussels (BT)

    The economic situation is becoming serious for the middle class.
    The poorest among them are facing starvation.

    Vaccines are causing immune system dysregulation

    The media is bias

    Lying/Diversions/personal attacks, by Oroboros and chooch, does not add clarity for us to understand our social/economic problems.

    Definition for lying:
    No adults care. They fake care with fake tears and fake action.
    Synonyms for lying:
    dishonest, mendacious, untruthful erroneous, fallacious, false, misleading, untrue double-dealing, hypocrite, hypocritical, insincere, mealymouthed, smooth-tongued, two-face

    #108616
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @zerosum

    It’s said that the Eskimo have a thousand words for snow. We human denizens of the world at large have at least 2,000 words for lying. I wonder if there is some sort of correlation between those phenomena.

    #108617
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://www.rt.com/russia/556220-ukraine-poland-merger-yanukovich/
    27 May, 2022 21:10
    Ukraine risks merging with Poland – ex-president
    The country is facing a “complete destruction” of its sovereignty amid the conflict with Russia, Viktor Yanukovych warned
    The ex-president, who was ousted in the 2014 Maidan coup, released an extensive address on Friday in which he shared his thoughts about the roots of the ongoing turmoil and the potential fate of the country.

    The current role of Ukraine as an instrument against Russia was outlined by the collective West long before the conflict between Moscow and Kiev broke out in late February, the ex-president believes.

    “In 2014 already, Ukraine was designated by certain Western countries as a territory from which a total weakening of Russia should begin. Precisely as a territory, and not as an independent state, not as people wishing to live in peace with all its neighbors, not excluding Russia,” Yanukovych stated.
    The threat stems not only from the military conflict itself but also the efforts of the Ukrainian authorities to cozy up to the country’s western neighbor Poland. Earlier this month, Polish President Andrzej Duda and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky expressed hopes that the two countries would “no longer have a border” between them, while Kiev announced plans to grant special legal status to Polish citizens.

    The strengthening ties will not bring Ukraine’s purported “European dream” any closer, but rather threatens a “merger” with Poland, Yanukovych warned.

    #108618
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Some might find this useful. Basically, it’s a study alleging to demonstrate that vakzines can and sometimes DO alter an innoculatee’s DNA:

    Intracellular Reverse Transcription of Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine BNT162b2 In Vitro in Human Liver Cell Line

    ***

    fwiw, the notion that Eskimos have many many words for snow is a false folklorism. They have a few more than non-arctic cultures, but less than can be counted on both hands.

    ***

    NATO spent $750 million on their impressive headquarters with its Star Wars Imperial space yacht hanger vibe. Lotta money. 17 years ago, USA spent $800 million on a new embassy in Afghanistan (only $150 million over budget). It was abandoned last August.

    #108622
    Oroboros
    Participant

    • US Seizes Tanker Full of Iranian Oil Near Greece (Antiwar)

    Years ago I was visiting a friend in one of the old Dutch towns that line the west bank of the Hudson across from NYC. I was mentioning the baseball team, the Yankees, and my friend said that the local story was that the word ‘yankee’ was an old Dutch pejorative meaning pirate or thief and that the Dutch settlers used it to refer to the Anglos of New England.

    Maybe Raul can shed light on whether this is a real dutch term, maybe Old Dutch, like Old English had colorful slang we have lost track of the meaning.

    .

    #108623
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Things Are Disintegrating (The Red Tide Is Coming)

    #108624
    willem
    Participant

    @Red: Thanks greatly for the Consciousness of Sheep article on The Complexity Trap. I have long believed that the world is running out of cheap energy, and that this scenario is really what drives many of the narratives and large-scale actions (climate, “going green”, food supply, etc.) we have been seeing in recent years.

    I realize now that I had only followed that line of thought just so far. This article takes that line of thought to the next level, and although it reinforces my belief that dramatic changes to our lifestyles are indeed coming, it has extended my thinking on the subject. I don’t think I had recognized the paradox inherent in the energy situation.

    I’ll have to start following that website.

    #108625
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Rules and policies are fine I suppose, so long as a person recognizes that these things are merely mechanically generated (and only possibly helpful) advices which are utterly devoid of judgment or actual sense of sensibility. In practice it is imperative to apply one’s own personal, real-time judgment every time that rules, policies, computer AI models, etc. are applied to making decisions or directing actions.

    The only thing actually wrong with “artificial intelligences” (decision making “devices” of every kind) is in the temptation (through laziness, greed or shame) to treat their output, their “decisions”, as if the decisions were coming from an awareness which knew the difference between “good” and “bad”, between right and wrong. But the fact is that it does NOT know the difference. It’s just a device, a system, a “machine”, and its answers will never never never, ever ever ever, contain actual conscious awareness of the difference between right and wrong. It has no empathy. It is . . . in short . . . the classically defined psychopath.

    The answers and solutions derived from such systems and devices may or may not be properly accurate based on the programming and data entry. But even if all the calculations are done perfectly that doesn’t mean that they are RIGHT. I would remind us all of the most fundamental principle underlying ALL computation : GIGO (Garbage In = Garbage Out). That goes for ALL “computation” , regardless of how it’s done.

    There you have it in a nutshell. Whenever we depend on rules to make choices, rather than confronting the choice consciously and deciding which one is sensible and which one is nonsense (which one is good and which one is bad) . . . we are in dire trouble. I say DIRE trouble because the solution proposed by the rule, policy, or computer algorithm could easily be 100% batshit crazy suicidal nonsense (men are women, censorship is fair, counterfeiting is a good business model, killing prenatal babies makes life easier, bankers should run the world, 95% of the human population should be killed immediately, etc. etc. ad infinitum).

    To not even bother to look, but instead simply TRUSTING the mechanically generated answer and accepting it without question . . . is just beyond beyond. If someone simply accepts proposed crazy-wrong solutions without first imposing their own, real, consciously AWARE value judgment to them, then there will be hell to pay. As in, literally, Hell, to pay.

    #108626
    Oroboros
    Participant

    This is the best visual illustration of the Consciousness of Sheep article on The Complexity Trap.

    Says it all about our energy dilemma.

    Dilemmas have no solutions.

    #108627
    Susmarie108
    Participant

    The worship of violence is discussed in detail in this piece by John Whitehead. It’s about time we own the impact that glorifying violence has had on all of us (with emphasis on children). It has been 50+ years long grind for US consumers as the war “games” have been an all-consuming aspect of our culture. Violence expressed/experienced through toys, videos, movies, video games, in clothes and in sports is directed at young men, so it makes sense that the shooters are males.

    https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/mass_shootings_the_vicious_cycle_fueled_by_americas_toxic_cult_of_violence

    Jim Kunstler shoots at the wrong target. His well-written piece puts the blame on The Party of Chaos, which makes me go full Gustave Courbet crazy. US Inc. – The Party of Hate and Lies should be your focus! Please use your to leverage make a case against the root source of evil. The D/R parties both = chaos and are only the enablers.

    Self-portraits are markers of moments in time. These expressions are personal, very revealing. Today’s Gustave Courbet The Desperate Man (self-portrait) 1852 is dramatic, the Artist chose to capture a “moment” of significance through extreme “in your face” facial expressions, contrast of light/dark, and through the use of a cold white color. Perhaps this is how V. Arnold is feeling today?

    Two earlier Courbet self-portraits are even more beautiful. The 1844 version with a black dog and the 1848/9 with pipe, take you deeper into his world. See for yourself.

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gustave_Courbet_-_Self-Portrait_with_Black_Dog_-_WGA05480.jpg

    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Courbet_Autoportrait.jpg

    LOVE to All.

    #108628
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    I realized years ago that no background check law can ever prevent all people from mental illness from possessing fire arms. During the marriage, my ex owned a small handgun and a rifle, family heirlooms given to him by his father. He was depressed and would go on alcoholic binges. One day, I noticed that he was unsuccessfully trying to get into the safe. I guessed that he was after the handgun. The next morning I turned both over to the police for “safe keeping” without his knowledge. Four days later he looked for the handgun, realized it was missing, confronted me about its absence, and then proceeded to cut his wrists. I have always wondered…if he’d had the gun, would he have only shot himself? Or would I and the children also have been on his list? I’ll never know. Regardless…mentally ill people are not routinely diagnosed as such. Even if they are diagnosed as “mentally ill” this epithet doesn’t mean that they are likely to use a firearm — most mentally ill are harmless. The only type of bureaucracy that could prophylactically diagnose all mentally ill and prevent all those so labeled from possessing firearms is one that would be totalitarian, invasive, and oppressive. And, pretty soon, political dissidents would, by default, be labeled as “mentally ill.” (Wait. Labeling political dissidents as “mentally ill” is already happening.) The only person close enough to my ex to determine that he should have no access to firearms was me. Gun control is not the way to reduce mass shootings…we have to heal our sick society.

    #108629
    willem
    Participant

    @DBS: I would piggyback on your AI comments with my own opinion regarding one big reason that AI just won’t work for many things.

    Admiral Hyman Rickover (father of the US nuclear navy) once commented that someone always has to be responsible. When something doesn’t go right, there always needs to be someone that can be held accountable. With AI we just don’t have that. It is pretty obvious when you look at things like a bad suspension decision on FB, where the “appeal” also seems to be handled by the same faulty AI engine–no human accountability.

    #108630

    The painting: He looks like Johnny Depp.
    DBSmith’s comment from yesterday late was very good. If you want to groom snitching children, we’re right on track. “Unwanted” is a rotten feeling- it leads to severe resentment.

    That graph about doctors/admin probably works well with teachers/admin, as well.

    #108631
    Dr. D
    Participant

    I have heard Yankee is Iroquois for “Johanne Keys”, or “Jan Keys”. The Dutch “John Doe” if you will. This seems as likely as any. In any case, its origin is very early. Also why it applies to Northerners, and not quite correctly to all Americans.

    #108632
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Yes there is a lot of blame to go around. Both parties are up to their necks in it, and have been for lifetimes. We see the UniParty more every day now, and that’s a good thing. It pops the bubble. I don’t worry about “Them” since if you ignore them and do your knitting, they almost never come around anyway. When everyone is fascinated, directed by, supporting, encouraging and obeying “Them” is when I can’t just improve my own life, which is hard enough.

    Withdraw all support and they’ll go away. Support your own people instead, like we used to.

    #108633
    John Day
    Participant

    D Benton Smith said: “Why anyone would want to be served by robotized human is a concept that escapes me, but the fact that it is being done . . . as evidenced by the events in Uvalde and elsewhere. . . is patently obvious. It is being done by the step-by-step incremental removal of sovereignty and self ownership OF humans AS humans.

    That’s a good description of what happened with the local police.
    The lone Border Security Agent arrived and acted as an army of one.
    Different chain of command.
    He was IT.

    #108634
    John Day
    Participant

    Right-On, Sister!

    Phoenixvoice said: “The only person close enough to my ex to determine that he should have no access to firearms was me. Gun control is not the way to reduce mass shootings…we have to heal our sick society.”

    #108635
    John Day
    Participant

    @Boscohorowitz: i like the name of the human liver cell line theu sed in the study that shows Pfizer mRNA vaccine is reverse-transcribed into DNA.
    “In this study, we investigated the effect of BNT162b2 on the human liver cell line Huh7 in vitro.”
    It looks like “Huh?”

    #108636
    John Day
    Participant

    “liver cell line they used”
    (marginal keyboard. lack of proofreading)

    #108637
    John Day
    Participant

    Frank Zappa had this to say about “Eskimos” (Inuit) and snow.

    #108638
    John Day
    Participant

    @Chooch; the horse that Putin is riding looks very calm.
    I think she is a mare.
    I like the picture of Putin riding a bear, but I think it’s not real.

    @V.Arnold: What do you mean by “survive”? i see Russia “surviving” this historical epoch without being parasitized by the rotting-zombie-global-financial-capitalist-system.
    Maybe I’m wrong, but I feel like I’m reading history right.

    I think “the west” might rise again. Hell, the south might rise again, for that matter.
    Russia rose again, after not quite being choked to death.
    China might go down again, too, before this is all over. China is harder for me to comprehend, because I can’t see what is really going on under the surface.
    “Lotsa’ rot”, some say..

    Russia has the most resources per capita (USA #2), the most recently revived and vigorous national government, and a military capable of protecting the nation from anybody, and maybe even from everybody.

    #108639
    John Day
    Participant

    @Dr. D: Good stuff again. You’ve been playing a good game; playing had lately.
    Soros & Clinton team losing (Bush family in disarray, but Cheney lives, still…)
    Rockefeller team ascendant.
    NYT has the headlines.
    See 99 y/o Henry K. for details.

    #108640
    John Day
    Participant

    “playing hard lately” (same keyboard, same proofreading)

    #108641
    Red
    Participant

    @dbentonsmith: A.I. I’m with ya!


    @willem
    : The site is UK centred but has lots of articles that can be applied further out. “no human accountability” agreed and I would add that the “no accountability” issue doesn’t start or stop at AI. I’ve seen lots of things go wrong solely on human error and no one will shoulder the fault. Lots of finger pointing but never owning the issue. It’s always someone else’s fault. Integrity is the difference between doing what’s convenient and doing what’s right. Look around critically ….. see much that’s right?
    Integrity seems to stem somewhat from morals, don’t see much of that anymore either. Cultural differences play a roll as well. What’s moral here can be sacrilege 5000 kms away.
    Here in the west it’s become one big FUBAR. The mindset of our esteemed leaders seems to be one of “kill ’em all and let their god sort ’em out!”.

    #108642
    Henry
    Participant

    Gustave Courbet’s self-portrait looks like Johnny Depp…

    #108643
    Red
    Participant

    The following are todays entries and one on the Greek tankers seized by Iran where it would appear it might have been Trumps fault. There’s that finger pointing again!

    Dry Bulk Orderbook Numbers Bode Well for the Future

    “The low numbers of bulker new buildings bode well for the future, as supply is expected to be kept tight, with owners’ focus being container and LNG ships.”

    Russia tanker business is alive and well. Oil exports ‘remain strong’
    in International Shipping News 28/05/2022

    Supply chains set for “substantial” restructure
    in International Shipping News 28/05/2022

    Russia’s Seaborne Oil Flows Changing Patterns
    in International Shipping News 28/05/2022

    Iran says it has seized two Greek tankers in Persian Gulf
    in International Shipping News 28/05/2022

    “There have been numerous attacks in the Persian Gulf since former US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew in 2018 from the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). However, there has not been a significant incident in months.”

    #108644
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The TOS-1A Heavy Flamethrower System thermo-barbic weapon is now being launched at Ukrainian formations.

    It was extensively tested and tuned up in Syria on ISIS and it devastated them.

    The Ukrainian Defense Ministry published a hysterical post on its official Twitter account recently saying that the Russian Armed Forces were using “the world’s most powerful non-nuclear weapons” on Ukrainian territory and posted a video of the TOS-1A Heavy Flamethrower System in action in Donbass. They hope to generate ‘outrage in world opinion. NOT going to happen, sorry.

    This system simply breaks the psyche of Ukrainian servicemen.

    I now read the Russians are bringing in an even more powerful version TOS 2.

    These themobarbic weapons kill with a spreading shock wave that overlaps with neighboring detonations and forms a giant area wide shock zone as well as sucking all the oxygen out of the air even several stories below ground level so you’re not even safe in a deep bunker.

    The Empire of Lies and Hate is sacrificing Ukrainian soldiers for no reason using there’s manwhore puppet Elensky. (There’s no Z anymore in his name because he’s the head NOT-Z)

    TOS-1A Heavy flamethrower destroying Ukrainian positions

    #108645
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    The worship of violence is an outgrowth of the toxic EGO CULTure that has religiously venerated the unblinking eye 4 hours a day, kneeling prostrate in obedience.

    White hat wearing good guys killin’ the black hats. RUSSIA! RUSSIA! RUSSIA! ~ USA! USA! USA! (The order was recently flipped)…

    Of course righteous violence has often been worshiped, usually accompanied with pomp & circumstance, titillating the senses beyond moral/ethical boundaries, becoming a horrific form of entertainment.

    To that end, military spectacles infect underlying social norms, starting with ceremonious admiration of warriors (heroes), holy-days, parades et al, constantly evolving WAR ethos to manic levels ~ Shock & Awe anyone?

    Following WWII + the advent of nuclear weapons humanity should have been sobered by the hellish carnage, death & suffering, but the opposite became true…

    The entire toxic EGO CULTure became enamored with WAR on a pathological level, with Bernays-esque levels of propaganda + marketing, from cradle-to-grave, to the point now that MIC temples of worship usurp humanity & require ritualistic human sacrifices regularly to expand, empower & enrich MIC’s high priests et al.

    PEACE is the state of harmonious existence of communities living within the grace of Natural Law ~ WAR the domain of toxic EGO that rapaciously seeks gratification & empowerment like a ravenous beast…

    The entire planet is more-or-less addicted/hypnotized by non-stop WAR, starting with the innocent brainwashed by the the unblinking eye from birth, but in America the anti-spirit rejection of PEACE has become a terminal carcinoma of the mind that is now an existential threat to the species.

    This is why the American CULTure supports “The Owners” expansion of fascism to rape, pillage, plunder, maim & murder for commercial gain; Why the American CULTure endures Uni-Party lies, malfeasance, corruption & NOW mental deficiency; Why the American CULTure follows INSANE ideology & nonsensical dictates from “The Annointed”; Why the American CULTure has become homicidal/suicidal to the very core.

    It is why the RECKONING is inevitable.

    A pathological CULTure will not follow enlightened, honorably judicious leadership ~ They will only follow those that appeal to their depraved state…

    We even have TAE members glorifying blood-lust Shock & Awe, which is not surprising at all given most of us were born into the same violent, predatory CULTure, but one would assume that TAE’s efforts would have sobered them up a bit more 😕

    Of course the male condition has a physiology that primes the pump, so to speak…

    So, either humanity evolves -or- perishes ~ That is the question 😕

    Peace to all,

    Gary

    #108646
    upstateNYer
    Participant

    @Veracious: “So, either humanity evolves -or- perishes ~ That is the question”

    It is the ego that thinks it is one or the other.

    #108647
    aspnaz
    Participant

    We have forgotten how to be grateful for coming into this world at all, leaving us unworthy of being here.

    My father always taught me that the best things in life are free: he was, of course, referring to nature, its amazing gifts and the amazing wonders that we still do not understand.

    Nature took a big hit before the time I was born, the world having been converted mostly into farmland, but with some original spaces still preserved to enable us to see how nature would be if we didn’t have to grow food. At that time we were encouraged to get out there and enjoy the great outdoors.

    We must preserve those areas as one day people will again realise that the internet is not the be all and end all of life, there are more interesting and enjoyable – though less safe – things in the world and your life is better spent enjoying those things than working for the next iphone.

    Discovering that will take time. The Chinese like to go on western-style holidays – it is the high class thing to do – where they like to do the activities that westerners would do on holiday, but it is in name only. For example, they will go snorkeling on their holiday, but because they cannot swim, they will wear a life jacket and be in waist deep water looking at sand. They can say they did it, even though they have no idea what real snorkeling over a reef is like, and probably didn’t even see a fish. At least they are trying, but it would be more encouraging if China insisted that all children be taught to swim and spend some time every week exercising in the great outdoors.

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