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.

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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 12 posts - 41 through 52 (of 52 total)
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  • #108648
    John Day
    Participant

    Think Much Smaller post is up. For all my work with the Mexican (cold-hardy-ish) avocado trees, you will see that one is doing much better after last winter than any of the others.
    https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/think-much-smaller?s=w

    Red sent this article, The Complexity Trap, from The Consciousness Of Sheep blog. It explains the fundamentals of energy economy, which were well described in the early 1930s. It explains the depletion of high quality coal, which was part of the cause of the Great Depression and WW-2, and its replacement with oil, an even denser and more versatile fuel. There is no such replacement this time, as we have used up most of the easy-oil, and what’s left is expensive to extract, so take-it-at-that-price or walk away on foot.
    We don’t have an economic model for a contracting economy, as all inputs become more scarce and expensive. (Hold my beer. Watch this!)
    ​ ​Several decades ago, sociologist Joseph Tainter observed that collapsing civilisations have a habit of unconsciously entering into complexity traps, adding energy-intensive complexity in a desperate attempt to sustain themselves. Our turn to energy-intensive automation in an attempt to overcome our growing woes and to maintain economic growth is likely repeating the same folly. The difference – at least for those who see the economy as primarily an energy rather than a monetary system – is that we have the necessary knowledge to avoid our complexity trap if only we are prepared to actively simplify away from an economy based on mass consumption in favour of one based around material simplicity

    The complexity trap

    ​ Robert Malone MD, one of the developers of mRNA gene-therapy technology, and a major critic of the “vaccines” which employ that technology, has been attacked repeatedly for that. He sees where those attacks originate, the interests of those who attack him, and says here that the higher levels of government are fully corrupted. We need to make our stands at the state and local levels or become slaves without rights.​
    Defending Sovereignty: The Fight of our Lifetime
    Continuous vigilance and vigorous support of States’ Constitutional rights is critical
    ​ ​A gradual and silent encroachment of our freedom and Federal, States’ and individual sovereignty by a globalist financial corporate cartel continues to proceed. One key aspect of our current political reality in the US is that many of our laws at the Federal level have been placed there by corporate stakeholders.​..
    ​ ​In parallel, within the many branches of the US Federal bureaucracy, regulatory capture has become the norm. Furthermore, it has become increasingly clear that it is grossly naive to expect solutions to these corrupting influences to come from either Congress or the entrenched and captured bureaucracy.
    https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/defending-sovereignty-the-fight-of?s=r

    ​ ​Dr. Peter McCullough on Friday sketched what he believes is the true purpose of an induced COVID “medical crisis”: global world government.​
    ​“What we’re seeing now is the utilization of vaccines as an inroad to global human compliance. Subjugation of the entire world’s population at the same time, via the same method. Having our rights linked to the end of a hypodermic needle,”
    https://www.globalresearch.ca/dr-mccullough-medical-crisis-being-exploited-push-global-government/5781106

    #108649
    John Day
    Participant

    ​Your cellphone data can measure your carbon footprint based on travels you make and purchases you make, tax you accordingly, or exclude you from economic activity and travel if you don’t do your fair share… It’s a “green” business model.
    ​ ​It is important to remember the ultimate goal of the ‘climate change’ promot​e​rs (World Economic Forum) is not an energy system that changes the global climate. The goal of the ‘climate change’ group is to create a carbon trading system; a new financial mechanism (a global tax program) to control human activity on a world-wide basis. This system also needs a digital identity in order to work.
    ​ ​You cannot tax or trade things you cannot track. As a result, there was always going to be a need for an individual tracking and monitoring system that would connect to the global digital identity and determine the carbon footprint.
    ​https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/05/24/canadian-multinational-executive-outlines-tech-initiative-to-create-consumer-carbon-footprint-tracker/

    UN Warns of “Total Societal Collapse” Due to Breaching of Planetary Boundaries, Nafeez Ahmed
    (OK, I’ll get an iPhone and you can carbon-tax me to save us.) Thanks Again, Red.
    When the United Nations published its 2022 ‘Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction’ (GAR2022) in May, the world’s attention was on its grim verdict that the world was experiencing an accelerating trend of natural disasters and economic crises. But not a single media outlet picked up the biggest issue: the increasing probability of civilisational collapse.
    Buried in the report, which was endorsed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, is the finding that escalating synergies between disasters, economic vulnerabilities and ecosystem failures are escalating the risk of a “global collapse” scenario…
    ​ ​The planetary boundaries framework was developed by the Stockholm Resilience Centre in 2009 to provide what it calls a “science-based analysis of the risk that human perturbations will destabilise the Earth system at the planetary scale”. This framework identifies a range of nine key ecosystems which, if pushed passed a certain threshold, will dramatically reduce the “safe operating space” for human habitation.
    ​ ​The report notes that at least four of the nine planetary boundaries now seem to be operating outside the safe operating space.​..
    ..​biochemical flows and ‘novel entities’ (“new engineered chemicals, materials or organisms and natural elements mobilised by human activity such as heavy metals”) have “far exceeded” that space.​.. according to Professor Will Steffen of the Stockholm Resilience Centre, two more planetary boundaries – ocean acidification and freshwater use – would probably by then also be “transgressed”, meaning that we are breaching six out of nine planetary boundaries.​.. “From the scenario analysis… it is evident that in the absence of ambitious policy and near global adoption and successful implementation, the world continually tends towards the global collapse scenario,” it says.​..
    ​ Global Catastrophic Risk (GCR) events are defined as those leading to more than 10 million fatalities or greater than $10 trillion in damages.
    The paper’s worst-case global collapse scenario is described as the result of multiple planetary boundaries being breached, increasing the likelihood of GCR events that set in motion a sequence of economic and political breakdowns, which further drive ecological collapse processes.
    ​In this scenario, “total societal collapse is a possibility”, the paper warns.​
    [And when your only tool is a hierarchical global bureaucracy…]
    ​ ​Although “reactive” policies are necessary to mitigate existing risks, the paper calls for a focus on “preventive” policies to build greater system resilience and to avoid further crossing planetary boundaries.
    ​ ​In particular, it calls for “the creation of a planetary boundaries goal” in the next version of the SDGs adopted after 2030, along with “the incorporation of GCR into the targets”.​..
    ​..​A senior advisor to the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and contributor to the Global Assessment Report who spoke to Byline Times on condition of anonymity, claims that the GAR2022 was watered-down before public release.
    ​ ​The source said that the world had “passed a point of no return” and “I don’t feel that this is being properly represented in UN or media as of now”.
    ​ ​“The GAR2022 is an eviscerated skeleton of what was included in earlier drafts,” they claimed.​ ​ [I’m homesteading. Best I can​ do…]​ https://bylinetimes.com/2022/05/26/un-warns-of-total-societal-collapse-due-to-breaching-of-planetary-boundaries/

    #108650
    John Day
    Participant

    The Russian ministry of Defense has a lot to say about US bioweapons programs/labs in Ukraine, and the complete falsification of reporting documents every year, even changing reports from year to year; sloppiness. I’m picking out this bit about Smallpox, related to “monkeypox”, as you will recall…​​

    ​ ​As part of the special military operation, materials of US instructors training Ukrainian specialists in emergency response to smallpox outbreaks were discovered in biolaboratories in Ukraine.

    ​ ​The Pentagon’s interest in this infection is far from accidental: the return of the smallpox pathogen would be a global catastrophe for all mankind.
    ​ ​Thus, compared to COVID-19, this pathogen is just as contagious (infectious), but its lethality is 10 times higher.
    ​ ​As early as 2003, the US Department of Defense established the Smallpox Vaccination Programme, which requires all US military personnel to be vaccinated. Vaccination in the United States is compulsory for diplomatic and medical personnel. This demonstrates that the US considers smallpox as a priority pathogenic biological agent for combat use, and that vaccine prophylaxis activities are aimed at protecting its own military contingents.
    ​ ​Lack of proper controls and biosecurity breaches in the US could lead to the use of this pathogen for terrorist purposes. Between 2014 and 2021, unaccounted-for vials of the virus were repeatedly found in laboratories at the Federal Drug Administration and the US Army Infectious Disease Research Institute (Maryland) and the Vaccine Research Centre (Pennsylvania).
    ​ ​Work at these organisations was in violation of World Health Assembly Resolution 49.10 of 1996, which stipulated that only one US laboratory, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, could store smallpox pathogen.​ https://thesaker.is/russian-mod-briefing-on-the-results-of-the-analysis-of-documents-related-to-the-military-biological-activities-of-the-united-states-on-the-territory-of-ukraine/

    Meryl Nass MD: Here’s what you should know about the latest Money Pox … The smallpox vaccine causes a huge number of myocarditis cases and other known cardiac problems, making it almost certainly more dangerous than the risk of getting monkeypox. One in 220 recipients developed an obvious case of myocarditis in a US military study published in 2015, and one in 30 got a subclinical case.

    Why would ANYONE take such a high risk of cardiac damage to avoid a miniscule risk of money pox? Only because they were misinformed. https://merylnass.substack.com/p/heres-what-you-should-know-about?s=r

    #108651
    John Day
    Participant

    ​Ukraine War update explains that ancient Russian T-62 tanks are now in Ukraine, not as main battle tanks, but at mobile bunkers to man roadblocks, fire with cannon and heavy machine-guns if necessary (against commando raids) and to give Russian troops a secure place to avoid Ukrainian commando attacks, especially at night. Russian forces now have a work-week pattern, with big, rapid territorial advances every Monday, followed by securing the area for the week, and preparing for next Monday… https://thesaker.is/sitrep-operation-z-were-going-down/

    ​ ​The process of ‘disowning’ the Ukraine has started.
    ​ ​Gen. Milley notes that the US has reopened military-to-military level talks with the Russians. His call to his Russian counterpart last week was “important” and it was “purposeful”
    ​ ​Of course, the talk of another peace plan is not born of care for people or human rights or democracy or deep held care for the Ukrainian people. It is driven by desperation and is a desperate grasp at avoiding a psychological defeat bigger than Afghanistan.
    ​ ​TASS/ Russia’s State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin took to his Telegram channel to highlight that the US and its partners do not plan to provide real assistance to Ukraine.
    ​ ​Ukraine will only get 15% of the $40 billion promised by the US, he said.
    ​ ​“Washington and Brussels do not really intend to help Ukraine, or solve its economic and social issues. They only need Ukraine to fight Russia till the last Ukrainian,” Volodin said.
    ​ ​According to the recent aid to Ukraine legislation signed by President Joe Biden, 35% of the $40 billion is going to finance the US Armed Forces, he explained. Meanwhile, 45.2% of that amount is set to be spent on other countries, not Ukraine, while another 4.8% will be earmarked to support refugees, and restore the US diplomatic mission in Ukraine. “Ukraine will only receive 15% of the allotted sum,” the speaker revealed.
    ​ ​But Ukrainians will have to pay off the whole sum, he said. The US is aware that Kiev will not be able to service the debt in the future. “That is why they are seizing Ukraine’s last reserves, including grain, which is what we are seeing right now”.
    ​ ​A list of those that want a piece of the pie is shaping up. Of course, Poland is not suddenly in love with the Ukraine without a reason. They want their piece of the land pie.​ ​https://thesaker.is/sitrep-operation-z-consequences-petty-tabaquis-howling/

    ​”Russia is stealing Ukraine’s Grain”​ (but only if you count Crimea as “Ukraine”, not if Crimea is part of Russia. Donetsk and Luhansk are no longer “Ukraine”, either.)
    “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will cause global starvation” … As Reuters reported this week, Ukraine still managed to export crops: “The ministry data showed that Ukraine has exported 46.51 mmt so far in the 2021/22 July-June season, versus 40.85 mmt a season earlier.” (Reuters 19 May 2022)
    Frankly speaking, 22 mmt of grain will make little difference to the global shortage as it stands. Paradoxically Ukraine is paying for weapons provided by the West through grain exports.” Is it any surprise that Ukraine wants to use Odessa to ship its 70% expected export of grain crops and other products, as to be able to continue to pay for weapon deliveries? Ukrainian exports have largely transferred to Romanian, judging by the ship congestion seen on AIS.
    ​ ​Importantly, none of the Western experts or corporate MSM outlets have been able to mention the fact that Russia is the world’s largest exporter of grain, about 4 times the amount of wheat that Ukraine does, about 18% of global exports and this year is expected record crops harvest.​..
    Sea mines
    ​ ​This narrative has been crafted for several months now, it first started by denying that Ukraine has laid sea mines to stop potential Russian amphibious assault on its shore, principally in the Odessa region. Practically all the Western media and experts rehashed the Ukrainian position that there were Russian sea mines. As stated in Russian MoD and maritime press releases, Ukrainian mines have drifted all over the Black Sea.
    ​ ​An estimated 200 – 400 anchor mines were laid around Odessa and the northwest Black Sea. Back in February some of them have parted from their chains in storms and subsequently drifted with the current southwards. A couple of mines had temporarily closed the Bosphorous to shipping transit several times,
    ​ ​One that was neutralised by the Romanian Navy just happened to be an old sea mine that have distinct Ukrainian markings​…
    ​ Now we have the grain crop blockade by the Russian Navy narrative, tied in with the alarms of a global famine, opportunely provoked by Russia, (as previously outlined above in Part 1). There are calls to have NATO ships to escort the bulkers in the Black Sea. Slight snag with that is who gets to demine the Ukrainian ports? Ukraine or NATO?​ …
    ​ ​(UK Minister of Defense) Liz Truss stated that “the UK would want British naval ships to join the escort if the practicalities could be sorted, including demining the harbour and providing Ukraine with longer-range weapons to defend the harbour from Russian attack.” See how a “humanitarian mission” is tightly dovetailed into a case for “sending more weapons”.​..
    ..Not a single Western MSM outlet has bothered to mention what the Russian MoD and Navy are doing with regards to the blocked shipping. As with the now famous land corridors, Russia has implemented a maritime version for civilian shipping. This hardly a blockade. This humanitarian corridor is part of the IMO’s “establishment and support the implementation of a blue safe maritime corridor in the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov”.

    Grains of deceit (updated with visual of maritime corridor set up by the Russian Navy)

    ​ ​After being accused of using the food supply as blackmail and a bargaining chip, Russia said Wednesday its military will open up protected sea corridors for international shipping to pass through from seven Ukrainian ports that have thus far been blockaded.
    ​ ​According to a defense ministry statement reported by Bloomberg late in the day, “Humanitarian maritime corridors from ports on the Black Sea and Azov Sea, including Odesa, will operate from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.”…Russia has stressed that its military is engaged in extensive and complex demining operations due thousands of mines dotting Ukraine’s coast placed by Ukrainian forces, making international shipping dangerous and impossible. As reported in the independent Moscow Times:
    ​ ​The port of Mariupol has resumed normal operations, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced Wednesday.
    ​ ​The Defense Ministry said Black Sea Fleet specialists cleared more than 12,000 mines from the seaport and its surrounding areas. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russia-open-sea-corridors-ukraine-ports-amid-wheat-crisis-warns-ukrainian-mines

    #108652
    John Day
    Participant

    Moon of Alabama (German) ​ [I think “Biden” maybe taken to mean whoever is making decisions on US foreign policy these days. Rockefeller interests?]
    ..The U.S. did not know of a ‘Russian invasion’. What it knew was that Zelensky, pushed by the U.S., would make another attempt to invade the Donbas republics with overwhelming force and that Russia’s leadership would have to react to such an assault on its compatriots.
    The Ukrainian assault began on February 16 when over several days Ukrainian artillery increased its bombardment of Donbas by a factor of 40. Russia reacted to that and on February 24 preempted the planned ground assault.
    The above part of Biden’s plan to provoke Russia into a war as a means to strengthen the U.S. position in Europe has worked well.
    But how long will the coalition of the ‘west’ hold when inflation, energy scarcity and hunger set in? European unity is already falling apart with each country scrambling to fulfill its own energy needs.
    Everyone can now see that the Ukraine, and with it the U.S., is losing the war. Meanwhile Russia is doing much better than anyone had expected.
    What is Biden’s plan now as things fall apart? Escalating towards a wider war is an option but the risk of it is much higher than potential gains.
    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/05/as-things-fall-apart-biden-may-want-to-escalate.html#more

    ​ ​Russia Pays Eurobond Coupons In FX As US Dashes To Close Loophole​ (​I​t’s illegal to fail to pay, and​ it’s​ illegal to pay.)
    ​ ​As Russia’s sovereign debt default showdown with the West continues to ratchet as Washington has been seeking to push Moscow into an involuntary bankruptcy by closing all loopholes for debt payments, all eyes were on a Friday deadline for Moscow to settle on two Eurobond coupons. Late in the day, 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.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/russia-successfully-pays-eurobond-coupons-fx-us-dashes-close-loophole

    ​ Pepe Escobar looks at the Eurasian Economic Union ​meeting last week in Kyrgyzstan (not controlled by Rockefeller interests.)
    Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov keeps stressing that, “the West has declared total war against us, against the entire Russian world. Nobody even hides this now.” …
    ​..​The EAEU comprises five full members – Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus and Armenia – yet 14 nations sent delegations to the forum, including China, Vietnam and Latin American nations.​..
    ​..The crucial point is that by 2025 they have to harmonize their legislation concerning financial markets. And that’s directly connected to what the executive body of the EAEU, led by Sergey Glazyev, is working on, extensively: designing the lineaments of an alternative financial/economic system to what the West would rather coin as Bretton Woods 3.​..
    ..​President Putin’s speech to the plenary session was quite revealing. To really appreciate the scope of what’s implied, it’s important to remember that the Greater Eurasian Partnership concept was presented by Putin in 2016 at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, focused on a “more extensive Eurasian partnership involving the Eurasian Economic Union” and including China, Pakistan, Iran and India.
    ​ ​Putin stressed how the drive for developing ties “within the framework of the Greater Eurasian Partnership” (…) “was not the political situation but global economic trends, because the centre of economic development is gradually – we are aware of this, and our businesspeople are aware of this – is gradually moving, continues to move into the Asia-Pacific Region.”
    ​ ​He added, “in the current international conditions when, unfortunately, traditional trade and economic links and supply chains are being disrupted”, the Greater Eurasian Partnership “is gaining a special meaning.”
    ​ ​Putin established a direct connection not only between the Greater Eurasian Partnership and EAEU members but also “BRICS members such as China and India”, “the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, ASEAN and other organizations.”​ …
    ​..​Lavrov this week said that Argentina and Saudi Arabia want to join BRICS, whose next summer in China is being meticulously prepared. Not only that: Lavrov mentioned how quite a few Arab nations want to join the SCO. He was careful to describe this process of converging alliances as “not antagonistic”.
    ​ ​Putin for his part was careful to define the Greater Eurasian Partnership as “a big civilizational project. The main idea is to create a common space for equitable cooperation for regional organizations”, changing “the political and economic architecture on the entire continent.”​ …
    ​..The Eurasian Economic Forum has shown once again that this high-speed – economic integration – train has already left the station. It’s quite enlightening to notice the sharp contrast with the endless doom and gloom afflicting a collective West prone to inflation, energy shortages, food shortages, fictional “narratives” and the defense of neo-Nazis under the banner of liberal “democracy”.​ (It’s ​Globo-Cap what’s making “the west​”​ so deathly ​ill​, sez I.)

    The Eurasian Economic Union Steps Up

    #108653
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ I have been wondering about Sri Lanka. There is an obvious opportunity for a new economic order to act in goodwill towards these people in crisis.​
    Bankrupt Sri Lanka Takes Russian Crude As Fuel Crisis Depletes Stocks, Mulls Loan From China
    ​ ​Ceylon Petroleum Corp., the country’s only refinery, is set to take shipment of Russian grade Siberian Light on May 28. It will be the first time the refinery has processed crude to produce high-value products such as gasoline and diesel in two months.
    ​ ​Fuel supplies on the island nation are so low that the government has told citizens to stop waiting in long lines at filling stations. The government has run out of foreign reserves to pay for essential imports.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/bankrupt-sri-lanka-takes-russian-crude-fuel-crisis-depletes-stocks

    ​ ​No Progress In Turkey’s Talks With Sweden, Finland On NATO As Delegations Return Home
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/no-progress-turkeys-talks-sweden-finland-nato-delegations-return-home

    ​What are my national-security choices again?
    Russia Conducts Hypersonic Missile Test Near Finland & Sweden
    ​ ​On Saturday Russia announced it conducted another successful test of the Zircon hypersonic missile, which reportedly flew over a distance of 1,000km (or 621 miles) after it was launched at a target in the White Sea.
    ​ ​The missile was fired from the Russian navy’s Admiral Grigorovich-class frigate the waters of the Barents Sea. The identified area for the test, given the hypersonic was launched from the Barents, is very close to waters off Finland and Sweden.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/military/russia-conducts-hypersonic-missile-test-near-finland-sweden

    ​”international Rules Based Order”, Attn: “Exceptional Nation”​ (I don’t think “piracy” or even “privateering” is the correct term. It’s “war”.)
    US Seizes Tanker Full of Iranian Oil Near Greece
    Oil will be sent to the US, Iran faults ‘clear example of piracy’

    US Seizes Tanker Full of Iranian Oil Near Greece

    #108654
    John Day
    Participant

    This looks like a completely planned and orchestrated political assassination of this popular Christian Al Jazeera journalist and US citizen Shireen Abu Akleh.
    Israeli Forces Murdered Star Al Jazeera Journalist: CNN
    ​..​In an anonymous interview with CNN, a senior Israeli security official denied that Abu Akleh was deliberately killed: “In no way would the IDF ever target a civilian, especially a member of the press.”
    ​ ​While CNN didn’t note it, according to Reporters Without Borders, Israel has killed at least 30 journalists since 2000, including two Palestinians shot by IDF snipers while reporting on protests near the Gaza-Israel border in 2018.​..
    ..CNN geolocated the images in the tweeted video to a spot 300 meters from Abu Akleh, and, based on various factors, firmly concluded “the shooting in the videos couldn’t be the same volley of gunfire that hit Abu Akleh and her producer.”
    ​ ​Indeed, CNN concluded “there was no active combat, nor any Palestinian militants, near Abu Akleh in the moments leading up to her death.”
    ​ ​Weapons expert and British Army veteran Chris Cobb-Smith studied images of bullet impacts on the tree where Abu Akleh stood before she was killed. They form a relatively tight shot group.
    ​ ​”The number of strike marks on the tree where Shireen was standing proves this wasn’t a random shot, she was targeted,” Cobb told CNN.
    ​ ​CNN’s study of acoustic evidence is even more damning:
    ​ ​According to the Israeli army’s initial inquiry, at the time of Abu Akleh’s death, an Israeli sniper was 200 meters away from her. CNN asked Robert Maher, professor of electrical and computer engineering at Montana State University, who specializes in forensic audio analysis, to assess the footage of Abu Akleh’s shooting and estimate the distance between the gunman and the cameraman, taking into account the rifle being used by the Israeli forces.
    ​ ​The video that Maher analyzed captures two volleys of gunfire; eyewitnesses say Abu Akleh was hit in the second barrage, a series of seven sharp “cracks.” The first “crack” sound, the ballistic shockwave of the bullet, is followed approximately 309 milliseconds later by the relatively quiet “bang” of the muzzle blast, according to Maher. “That would correspond to a distance of something between 177 and 197 meters,” or 580 and 646 feet, he said in an email to CNN, which corresponds almost exactly with the Israeli sniper’s position.
    ​ ​Video shows a relaxed scene moments before gunfire erupted. Jenin residents smile, make small talk and smoke cigarettes as they watch the al Jazeera crew led by Abu Akleh.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/israeli-forces-murdered-star-al-jazeera-journalist-cnn

    ​A season of frayed nerves?​ One woman kept her wits. (I’ve seen what a righteous woman with a handgun can do to some bad guys, one night in an ER.)
    ​ ​Instead of waiting for the police to arrive, a woman with a concealed carry license in West Virginia acted fast to stop a crazed man with an AR-15-style rifle who was about to kill dozens of people at a graduation party.
    ​ ​”Instead of running from the threat, she engaged with the threat and saved several lives last night,” Charleston Police Department Chief of Detectives Tony Hazelett told local news WCHSTV.
    ​ ​The incident occurred Wednesday when Dennis Butler,37, was angered by a group of people hosting a graduation party who told him to slow down through an apartment complex in Charleston. He returned 30 minutes later, parked his vehicle, jumped in the backseat, and discharged his weapon toward the group of 30-40 people.
    ​ ​Unbeknownst to the shooter, a law-abiding citizen with a CCW was within the group and quickly drew her weapon and engaged Bu​tl ​er with direct fire, fatally wounding him.​
    ​https://www.zerohedge.com/political/law-abiding-west-virginia-woman-concealed-firearm-stops-mass-shooting

    ​Will this affect manufacturing?
    Summer Heat Could Wreak Havoc on Texas Electrical Grid
    https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Summer-Heat-Could-Wreak-Havoc-On-Texas-Grid.html

    ​ ​Texas has been the top exporting state in the U.S. for an incredible 20 years in a row.
    ​ ​Last year, Texas exported $375 billion worth of goods, which is more than California ($175 billion), New York ($85 billion), and Louisiana ($77 billion) combined. The state’s largest manufacturing export category is petroleum and coal products, but it’s also important to mention that Texas led the nation in tech exports for the ninth straight year.
    ​ ​California was the second highest exporter of goods in 2021 with a total value of $175 billion​.
    ​https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/made-america-goods-exports-state

    #108655
    aspnaz
    Participant

    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.

    The key word is “could” because mRNA – yet more genetic magic – probably “could” be used in a vaccine against Covid, the only reason it wasn’t is because the scientists “have a little bit of knowledge”, enough to do a lot of damage but not enough to produce a product that is better than the old technology that had been proven to work.

    Either they don’t know what they are doing or the Covid vaccines were a deliberate assault on the population. Take your pick.

    I have no confidence that geneticists at the seed companies know what they are doing. In fact I am less confident, mainly because they are less regulated, not that regulation stops anybody from hurting the population these days.

    I know what they will be doing, it will be the old trial and error system: change a gene then see what difference it makes, change another and do the same, ad infinitum until they decide that they are using too much budget testing and instead release some useless seed with a ton of marketing to recoup some of the cash spent on their efforts. They do it this way because they have no idea of how the genetic system really works …. a little knowledge is a dangerous things, but who cares when there is money to be made though the heavily enforced IP regulations.

    #108656
    aspnaz
    Participant

    D Benton Smith said

    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.

    The tell for AI is that, as a form of multi-variate statistical analysis, it can only at best provide a “correct” answer for scenarios that it has encountered during training. Should a scenario arise in production that has not been seen before, the response of the system is unknown and unpredictable. In addition, many of the technologies that boast AI are actually just using traditional algorithms, many of which are now possible due to the ever increasing power of processors. I know of a company that boasts AI in one of its products, but actually that was done for marketing and investment reasons, there is no AI involved and I am sure they are not the only ones: at one time, putting AI in a company name would guarantee investment.

    Humans have real intelligence and deal with unique situations on a regular basis. AI has a very long way to go before it can compete, always trust your gut feel, it is mostly correct.

    #108657
    Doc Robinson
    Participant

    About the “Consciousness of Sheep”:

    “As for the sheep – many years ago I sat in a dining room on the border between England and Wales watching a farmer distributing hay to a flock of sheep on the side of a snow-covered hill. It struck me that those creatures might have looked on the farmer as a servant of some kind; not having the breadth of consciousness to understand that one day – like the sheep, a part of whose leg was on a plate in front of me – they were going to be killed and eaten in order for the farmer to make a profit. Later, I came across the same idea articulated by Robert Pirsig in Lila (although he talked about hens and pigs). The obvious question that follow is, are we like those sheep? Are we being fattened up by some entity beyond our conscious event horizon that has some ulterior motive that is not to our benefit? Insofar as we are a part of this “death cult” global economy with its insane drive for infinite growth on a finite planet, then yes, we probably are. So long as we keep quiet and play our allotted part as consumers and workers (and occasionally cannon fodder) we keep the system running… until it can’t run any more. Then, like sheep to the slaughter, we – or at least most of us – are done.”

    https://consciousnessofsheep.co.uk/about/

    #108658
    Bishko
    Participant

    “Make Orwell Fiction again.” Saw this on a T-Shirt.

    #108659
    SeaBirds
    Participant

    Dr D yesterday #108553

    “Lockdowns Had ‘Little to No Effect’ on Covid Death Rate (DM)

    Known all along since it was airborne. But the Meta-meta study from the WHO came out, what, 3 months ago? Billy then publishes a book saying “to stop the next pandemic we must do all the things that didn’t stop the last pandemic, but harder.” And this comes out as the ordinary, average number of Monkey cases is suddenly puffed in the news for no medical reason, same day as the WHO treaty is being voted on. So why is this anti-WHO push allowed to be published in the Daily Mail? They haven’t told the truth in decades. Why the change?”

    Along the same lines, has anyone noticed the rather negative reporting about the latest Davos schmooze-fest?
    Sounds like Davos 2022 was quite a fizzer.
    No A-listers were there, hardly any heads of State.

    Even the Guardian is dismissive of the event:

    “Davos has always been dedicated to globalisation and has long been keen on using the forum to tackle common problems such as global heating and inequality. But how will it cope with a fragmented world where globalisation is in retreat?”

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/may/22/can-davos-with-no-a-listers-still-play-a-part-on-the-global-stage

    Is it a sign that the UK is waking up to the gradual usurping of its sovereignty?

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