Jun 172022
 
 June 17, 2022  Posted by at 8:05 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,


Albrecht Dürer Praying hands 1508

 

Lavrov to Boris Johnson: Just Try to Bring Russia to Its Knees (Celente)
Fauci Admits ‘Not Enough Data’ On Boosters For 5-Year-olds (Fox)
Gazprom Defends Gas Cuts As Prices In Europe Soar (AFP)
German Official Warns Of Gas Shortages, Bankruptcies, Massive Price Hikes (RMX) s
Tesco Sales Fall Amid ‘Unprecedented Increases In Cost Of Living’ (G.)
US Energy Chief To Discuss Record Pump Prices With Refiners Next Week (R.)
MBS and Putin: Why Talk to One and Not the Other? (Warner)
Elon Musk To Make Twitter Inclusive, User-Friendly & Profitable (TMS)
New CNN Boss: Stop Calling Trump’s Election Fraud Claims ‘The Big Lie’ (DM)
Trump Demands Equal Time On TV Networks To Counter Jan. 6 Hearings (JTN)
COVID Dr. Simone Gold Sentenced To Prison For Jan. 6 Riot (JTN)

 

 

 

 

 

 

“When Pack meets with Pack in the Jungle, and neither will go from the trail,
Lie down till the leaders have spoken — it may be fair words shall prevail.”

– Rudyard Kipling, “The Jungle Book”

 

 

 

 

Lavrov did a BBC interview yesterday.

Lavrov to Boris Johnson: Just Try to Bring Russia to Its Knees (Celente)

Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s top diplomat, said in an interview Thursday that the Kremlin was forced to carry out a “special military operation” in Ukraine because there was “no other way of explaining to the West that dragging Ukraine into NATO was a criminal act.” Lavrov spoke with the BBC about the fallout from the war, and how Russia has been largely ostracized from the West. He pointed the the UK in particular. “I don’t think there’s even room for manoeuvre any more,” Lavrov said. He said both Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss have both said openly that “we should defeat Russia, we should force Russia to its knees.” “Go on, then, do it!” Lavrov said.


Truss and Johnson have been two of the most outspoken critics of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Lavrov may have been referencing Truss’ comment in February when she said she wanted to “degrade” the Russian economy. “We’ve now imposed the most severe sanctions that Russia has ever seen, stopping access to vast swathes of the Russian economy, and stopping them build up their armed forces, cutting the Russian economy off at the knees,” she said. Johnson in May called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “crocodile” chewing on Ukraine’s leg. “How can you deal with a crocodile when it’s in the middle of eating your left leg?,” Johnson said. “The guy’s completely not to be trusted.”

Read more …

“That’s not science. That’s conjecture. And we should not be making public policy on it..”

Fauci Admits ‘Not Enough Data’ On Boosters For 5-Year-olds (Fox)

Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted Thursday that even though the Biden administration recommends that everyone over the age of 5 gets a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, there is currently insufficient evidence to prove that the boosters actually lower rates of hospitalization or death in children. During a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., asked Fauci if he was aware of any studies that showed a reduction in deaths or hospitalizations for children who had received boosters. “Right now, there’s not enough data that has been accumulated, Senator Paul, to indicate that that’s the case,” Fauci stated.

The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases began to explain that he thinks the basis for the recommendation had to do with looking at morbidity and mortality of children in different age groups, when the senator cut him off. “So there are no studies. And Americans should all know this. There are no studies on children showing a reduction in hospitalization or death with taking a booster,” Paul said. Paul, who is also a doctor, noted that the only studies that had been done were antibody studies, which he argued were not enough to prove a vaccine’s efficacy. He claimed that just because a vaccine produces antibodies, that does not mean it is necessary. To illustrate his point, he argued that a person could get 10 boosters and get antibodies from all of them, but that does not mean a person needs to get 10 booster shots.

Fauci, who testified virtually because he currently has COVID-19, called Paul’s hypothetical “somewhat of an absurd exaggeration,” but Paul claimed that this is basically what the government is doing. “That’s not science. That’s conjecture. And we should not be making public policy on it,” he said.

Rand Paul Fauci

Read more …

The “pumping turbines” in Nordstream I need repair. German company Siemens sent them all the way to Montreal to be fixed. Because of Canada and German sanctions, they cannot be brought back to the pipeline. Unless both countries circumvent their own sanctions. They will.

Gazprom Defends Gas Cuts As Prices In Europe Soar (AFP)

Russian energy giant Gazprom on Thursday defended gas cuts to Europe as prices soared and tensions raged between Russia and the West over Ukraine. Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said that Moscow will play by its own rules after cutting daily gas supplies to Germany and Italy. “Our product, our rules. We don’t play by rules we didn’t create,” Miller said during a panel discussion at the Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum in Russia’s second city. Earlier this week, Gazprom slashed its natural gas deliveries via the Nord Stream pipeline, after saying Germany’s Siemens had delayed the repair work of compressor units at the Portovaya compression station. “For now, there is no way to solve the problem that arose with the compressor station,” Miller said.

“Siemens is still silent, trying to find a solution.” Italian energy giant Eni also reported problems, saying it will receive only 65 percent of the gas requested Thursday from Gazprom. Gazprom has said exports to countries that did not belong to the former Soviet Union were down 28.9 percent between January 1 and June 15 compared to the same period last year. “Of course, Gazprom is reducing the volume of gas supplies to Europe,” Miller said, pointing out that the prices have increased several-fold. [..] Moscow has lost several European gas clients after it demanded that all “unfriendly” countries pay for Russian natural gas in rubles in response to a barrage of Western sanctions over Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine.

Poland, Bulgaria, Finland and the Netherlands have had their natural gas deliveries suspended over refusing to pay in rubles. The Nord Stream pipeline was commissioned in 2012 and delivers gas from northwestern Russia to Germany via the Baltic Sea. The launch of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline that was set to double Russian gas deliveries to Germany was halted in response to Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine. “Nord Stream 2 is under pressure and gas could be supplied to Germany even today via it. But it has not been put in operation because it is not certified,” Miller said.

Read more …

Your governments volunteer to do this to you.

German Official Warns Of Gas Shortages, Bankruptcies, Massive Price Hikes (RMX)

A gas shortage and high prices will send “shockwaves through the country,” leading to landlords cutting the heat for tenants and widespread company bankruptcies, warned Klaus Müller, the head of Germany’s Federal Network Agency, which is the regulatory office for electricity, gas, telecommunications, postal services, and railway markets. Müller paints a bleak picture about the crisis in an interview with German newspaper Rheinische Post, saying it will “send shockwaves throughout the country. Banks will ramp up their business with installment loans, and ailing companies will fall into insolvency.”

Müller’s office, which is a federal agency within the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, has a bird’s eye view of the economic situation in Germany and also special insight into how economic conditions will develop into the future. Müller says he expects gas prices to continue to climb, resulting in increased inflation that goes far beyond energy. He also warns that there will be a dramatic lack of gas in the winter, which could lead to landlords turning down the heat to save on energy. In turn, Germans may have to grapple with colder apartments. [..] The government has already pushed businesses and citizens to reduce their energy consumption, but that pressure may come in the form of new laws and regulations in the future, with Müller calling for more pressure to be applied to save gas.

Although Germany has pushed for a general ban on Russian oil imports, the country is highly reliant on natural gas from Russia. If Russia were to cut gas in the critical winter months or even restrict supplies, it could lead to critical damage to the German economy, a scenario energy experts have already warned about. Germans will not only be colder in their apartments, but companies will also face mass bankruptcies, said Müller. However, he said government policies could help mitigate financial losses and preserve critical gas supplies. He said he wants to encourage companies to save gas with a bonus scheme.

Read more …

Bigger market share, less income.

Tesco Sales Fall Amid ‘Unprecedented Increases In Cost Of Living’ (G.)

Tesco said sales have fallen at its UK stores in recent weeks as its customers face “unprecedented increases in the cost of living”. The UK’s largest supermarket said it had gained market share but sales in the three months to 28 May fell 1.5% on the same period last year when the UK was in lockdown. Ken Murphy, the chief executive of Tesco, said: “The market environment remains incredibly challenging.” He said it was difficult to separate the significant impact of last year’s coronavirus lockdowns from other influences on shoppers but said Tesco was seeing “some early indications of changing customer behaviour as a result of the inflationary environment”.


He said: “Customers are facing unprecedented increases in the cost of living and it is therefore even more important that we work with our supplier partners to mitigate as much inflation as possible.” Tesco said sales of clothing and general merchandise, such as homewares and toys, were most affected, while online sales were also affected as shoppers returned to supermarkets. It said the decline in the volume of goods sold was partly offset by inflation. Sales in the Republic of Ireland were down 2.4% but were up 2% overall because of strong growth in central Europe and at its Booker wholesale chain. The retailer’s comments come after more than one in five (22%) of those who took part in a recent survey said they skipped a meal or reduced the size of meals because they could not afford to buy food.

Read more …

Looking for a scapegoat.

US Energy Chief To Discuss Record Pump Prices With Refiners Next Week (R.)

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is expected to meet with refining executives on June 23 as tensions between the White House and the oil industry mount over soaring gasoline prices, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The planned talks come as President Joe Biden, under pressure over high gasoline prices, has demanded that oil refining companies explain why they are not putting more fuel on the market as they reap windfall profits. read more The Energy Department had no comment, but referred to a letter Biden sent on Wednesday to executives from companies, including Marathon Petroleum , Valero Energy and Exxon Mobil, that said he had directed Granholm to hold an emergency meeting and engage the National Petroleum Council in coming days.


The NPC is a privately-funded panel that makes recommendations to the energy secretary and executive branch. The U.S. oil industry’s main trade groups pushed back on the Biden administration on Wednesday in a letter to Biden, pointing out that the nation’s oil refineries are already running at close to full capacity. “Any suggestion that U.S. refiners are not doing our part to bring stability to the market is false,” said Chet Thompson, the head of the American Fuel and Petrochemicals Manufacturers. Energy companies are enjoying bumper profits since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as punitive U.S. sanctions against Moscow add to a global supply squeeze driving crude prices above $100 a barrel and U.S. gasoline prices to records over $5 a gallon. U.S. refiners, meanwhile, are running at near-peak levels to process fuel – currently at 94% of capacity, according to government data.

Read more …

OPEC+ has brought Putin and MBS closer than you may think.

MBS and Putin: Why Talk to One and Not the Other? (Warner)

The administration’s argument for a Biden-MBS meeting is that it is in the greatest interest for Middle East peace and peace “around the world” that the two should talk. Overall peace as well as increased oil production override the horrendous human rights record of the Saudi leader, according to the Biden team. If “pariah” was the term Biden used to describe MBS during his campaign and then changed his mind, what about the president’s views on Vladimir Putin? If the Biden team sees meeting MBS face-to-face as a positive step to increase oil production and reduce tensions in the Middle East, surely there is a more pressing need to have another Biden-Putin summit to stop the carnage in Ukraine and increase grain delivery.

But the last and only summit between the two, in Geneva on June 16, 2022, led to no concrete results. On the contrary; eight months later Russian troops invaded Ukraine. Putin was obviously not impressed enough with Biden to alter his plans for attacking Ukraine. For the moment, no mention is being made of a follow-up meeting. If Biden can’t talk to Putin, who can? The most promising candidate is French President Emmanuel Macron. According to reports, Macron has had a hundred hours of telephone conversations with the Russian president since December. To what avail? While the conversations may have solidified Macron’s self-image as a big league international leader, the war continues to rage in Ukraine. So President Biden is planning to meet MBS in the interest of Middle East peace and peace “around the world,” but no mention is being made of a follow-up to the Geneva summit in the interest of peace in Ukraine.

Biden is also to meet MBS for increased oil supplies but he is not willing to meet Putin for increased grain. The problems of peace and oil override (I avoid the use of trump even with a small t) human rights violations while a direct discussion with Putin for peace and grain has no possibility. The fundamental question is the value of talking. Any proposal to have Biden meet again with Putin brings back memories of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain 1938 talks with Hitler. The appeasement agreed upon in Munich had no positive effect in stopping World War II. Macron is being criticized along these lines. Biden would certainly be rebuked for even proposing a second summit.

Read more …

“it’s essential to have free speech and for people to be able to communicate freely.”

Elon Musk To Make Twitter Inclusive, User-Friendly & Profitable (TMS)

Elon Musk is aiming to significantly transform Twitter, according to him during a meeting with the platform’s employees on Thursday. He plans to purge it of bot/fake accounts, increase the number of real users, and allow free speech to flourish while boosting profitability. Employees who do their job responsibly will not be fired. Elon Musk met with Twitter employees on Thursday to answer their questions, clarifying the future of the platform that will become his if the purchase will be completed. He spoke about some plans, and also explained his views on remote work and layoffs, which employees are afraid of.

Musk Veritas

During the meeting, Musk made it clear that freedom of speech is a priority for him. Speaking about his stance on content moderation, he said, “We should allow people to say what they want.” Musk emphasized that “it’s essential to have free speech and for people to be able to communicate freely.” To be very clear, he said that Twitter should work to prevent the spread of potentially harmful or offensive content in order for users to feel comfortable using the platform. “There’s freedom of speech and freedom of reach,” Musk said. He explained that anyone can go to Times Square and say whatever they want, but this does not mean that it needs to be advertised to millions of people.

Therefore, Musk believes that people should be allowed to say whatever they want that is within the law, but they should not be amplified and widely spread. “Anyone could just go into the middle of Times Square right now and say anything they want. They can just walk into the middle of Times Square and deny the Holocaust … but that doesn’t mean that needs to be promoted to millions of people. So I think people should be allowed to say pretty outrageous things that are in the bounds of the law but that don’t get amplified and don’t get a ton of reach.” In addition, Musk said that he has a plan to attract hundreds of thousands of new users to the platform, bringing their total to a billion or more. To date, the platform has just over 200 million accounts, although it is difficult to say for sure how many of them are bots/fake.

Employees

Read more …

CNN is losing too much money.

New CNN Boss: Stop Calling Trump’s Election Fraud Claims ‘The Big Lie’ (DM)

CNN’s new boss Chris Licht has ordered staff to stop using the phrase ‘the big lie’ to describe Donald Trump’s 2020 election fraud claims, as it’s a Democrat slogan. The wording is a popular one for the network. According to Mediaite, the phrase has been said 168 times in the first half of June alone. Hosts like Reliable Sources’ Brian Stelter are often fond of the phrase to the point where they use it prominently in graphic packages and chyrons. But Licht has ordered Stelter and other journalists to stop, and has suggested ‘Trump’s election lie’ or ‘election lie’ as possible replacements. He issued the edict days after warning staff over their incessant use of ‘BREAKING NEWS’ graphics on stories, which he said was melodramatic, and ultimately diluted the power of big stories when they did break.

Licht was asked to opine on the term during a conference call Tuesday with the network’s management and the producers of various shows. He allegedly said that he preferred staff avoid it, though was clear in saying that this was not mandatory. A source said that Licht believes the specific phrasing of ‘the big lie’ – a reference to Hitler’s Nazi propaganda efforts during the Third Reich – is a Democratic Party talking point. CNN has come under fire for moving away from its well-respected news coverage towards dreary opinion programming, where hosts on seven and eight-figure salaries parrot woke talking points. Licht is also said to be keen to move the well-resourced network back towards neutral news coverage, with CNN hailed over its coverage of the Ukraine war and other big international news stories.

[..] Licht, as part of his efforts to revamp the outlet, has been evaluating news personalities and programs that became polarizing during Donald Trump’s presidency. Those who fail to get on board with the network’s new priority to become ‘less partisan’ could be terminated, CNN insiders told Axios. Licht isn’t reportedly looking to get rid of primetime personality programming, but he does want CNN’s news staff to present information in a way that upholds the network’s apparent values of unbiased reporting. Analysts allege this could prove problematic for network correspondents Jim Acosta and Brian Stelter, among others, who have ‘become the face of the network’s liberal shift.’

Read more …

“Trump’s statement appeared to appeal to the Federal Communications Commission’s equal time provision that mandates that U.S. radio and television broadcast stations must provide an equivalent opportunity to any opposing political candidates..”

Trump Demands Equal Time On TV Networks To Counter Jan. 6 Hearings (JTN)

Kept by congressional Democrats from putting on a defense, former President Donald Trump demanded Thursday that television networks airing the Jan. committee hearings provide him equal time to provide his side of the case. “I DEMAND EQUAL TIME!!!” Trump said in a midday statement posted on his Truth Social media site just hours before the Democrat-led panel began a new hearing on the Capitol riots. “The Fake News Networks are perpetuating lies, falsehoods, and Russia, Russia, Russia-type disinformation (same sick people, here we go again!) by allowing the low rated but nevertheless one sided and slanderous Unselect Committee hearings to go endlessly and aimlessly on (and on and on!),” the 45th president added.


Democrats holding the Jan. 6 hearings have refused to let House Republicans to put their own members on the committee and have openly talked about the hearings being a vehicle to keep Trump from running again. “The point is that the constitutional purpose is clear, to keep people exactly like Donald Trump and other traitors to the union from holding public office,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., told ABC News earlier this year. Trump’s statement appeared to appeal to the Federal Communications Commission’s equal time provision that mandates that U.S. radio and television broadcast stations must provide an equivalent opportunity to any opposing political candidates who request it if their opponents has gotten it. Trump called the Jan. 6 hearings “a one-sided, highly partisan Witch Hunt, the likes of which has never been seen in Congress before and that he deserved time on national TV to present his side of the case, including election irregularities and Democrat failures to secure Capitol.

Read more …

Simone Gold was at the Capitol not to riot, but to talk about and protest the vaccine rollout. And she did.

COVID Dr. Simone Gold Sentenced To Prison For Jan. 6 Riot (JTN)

Founder of America’s Frontline Doctors, Dr. Simone Gold, was sentenced to 60 days in prison for her role in the Jan. 6 riot. Gold, who rose to fame during the COVID pandemic for pointing out the vaccine’s unknown factors, will have one year of supervised release following the prison sentence, Department of Justice records show. She must also pay $500 in restitution and the maximum fine of $9,500. Gold pleaded guilty in December to entering and remaining in the Capitol building. On the afternoon of Jan. 6, Gold spoke in Statuary Hall about her opposition to vaccine mandates and government lockdowns, the DOJ’s Statement of Offense claims. She was arrested by FBI agents 12 days later. She made headlines in 2021 for telling the “Mad Truth with Dr. Gina” podcast that it is illegal “to mandate an experimental medication or treatment for anything” and advocating for those who are less vulnerable to abstain from vaccination.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

Gonzalo Lira: “Oh boy. So one of the Americans captured in Ukraine, Robert Drueke, is not a trained combat soldier—he’s a chemical weapons specialist.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle June 17 2022

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 66 total)
  • Author
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  • #109844

    Albrecht Dürer Praying hands 1508   • Lavrov to Boris Johnson: Just Try to Bring Russia to Its Knees (Celente) • Fauci Admits ‘Not Enough Data’ O
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle June 17 2022]

    #109845
    Red
    Participant

    Growth for growths sake is done and dusted. The economy based perpetuated on growth can’t grow without feed stock. The ultimate feed stock is fuel. Without excess energy there is no new growth. With a bit less than yesterday there is only contraction. It really is that simple. The growth comes from the excess.If you’re sitting a home at a screen to earn a living you may get by nicely on 1200-1600 calories a day. However if you’re digging ditches by hand 10 hours a day you may want to up that intake a bit after a day or so. The peak return oil is well past peak so for every barrel less of say 80:1 oil you’ll have to get one and a half at 60:1 or two at 40:1. Actually it would be incrementally more to cover the extra energy to recover the 1/2 or whole extra barrel. It doesn’t seem like much but we’re talking millions per day. Bankers get rich on pennies per day and it has worked well for them. The difference is they work and live in a fantasy land and the fuel to create those pennies come from a 3-D world complete with finite amounts of primary fuel,(feed), stock. Oh the horror! Reality!

    “Not only did OPEC not lift its production as agreed for the month of May, its production actually decreased, according to OPEC’s latest Monthly Oil Market Report released on Tuesday.”

    https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Oil-Prices-Spike-As-OPEC-Reveals-Production-Loss-For-May.html

    #109846
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Albrecht Dürer Praying hands 1508

    Looking closely at this painting, one can clearly see why it’s considered so remarkable…
    …comparing my old hands; they aren’t much different…

    #109847

    Assange extradition approved

    #109848
    Formerly T-Bear
    Participant

    The british home minister has just approved Julian Assange’s extradition to the Evil Empire.

    https://www.rt.com/news/557309-uk-assange-secretary-approves-extradition/

    May she out live her children, and theirs as well.

    #109849
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Formerly T-Bear

    The british home minister has just approved Julian Assange’s extradition to the Evil Empire.

    Holy shit…they did it…
    May the banshee’s of hell haunt them to their end………….

    #109850

    It’s not over. The lawyers can now go back to challenge many of the original points, which this process did not allow them. But just the idea that you can do this to a human being…

    #109851
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    May she out live her children, and theirs as well.

    Ooooooooooo…that’s quite the curse…

    One I would not want in my life….
    Cheers and good tidings………. 😉

    #109852
    Formerly T-Bear
    Participant

    At V.A.

    Ooooooooooo…that’s quite the curse…

    What? Wishing someone a long life is a curse?

    I thought Ariel Sharon died way too young.

    #109853
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Oh the irony; used to be if you were going to trial; and it was in a U.S. court; one would be relieved; the land of freedom and democracy and innocent until proved guilty…
    We’ve flipped 100%; GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT!!!!!!
    Scary times indeed……..
    …not a good time to be alive in the good old U.S.A……………

    #109854
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    What? Wishing someone a long life is a curse?

    I thought Ariel Sharon died way too young.

    LoL, I shouldn’t be surprised …and am not… 😉

    #109855
    Formerly T-Bear
    Participant

    V.A.
    In Ireland where I first heard there was a form of humour the Yanks didn’t understand. I’ve forgotten the form but irony might have been it.

    Myths like “innocent until proved guilty” erode slowly, but they erode long after their original form becomes unrecognisable. And yes, not a good time for justice in a lot more places than the U.S. Time now to withdraw consent where ever one is from what ever that has become misprision of governance. The ‘honest’ way to avoid income tax is to avoid income – use as little as possible and avoid the tax on the balance.

    #109856
    Red
    Participant

    @formerly-t-bear “The ‘honest’ way to avoid income tax is to avoid income – use as little as possible and avoid the tax on the balance.” Here, here or is it hear, hear matters not. This is what I’ve been preaching to any and all who’ll listen. Not many by the way:( I’ve living by that bit of say wisdom for two decades now and it has been serving us well so far.

    #109857
    Red
    Participant

    “The Economy Is Going To Collapse” – Here Are 18 Signs That The Economic Meltdown We Have Been Waiting For Has Already Begun

    “Our leaders thought that they could defy the laws of economics, and for a while their “economic voodoo” seemed to be working.”

    Laws? There are no laws in economics, just bad math. They start with the answer they want and change inputs till the desired outcome is reached. Some of the equations used are so complex that real mathematicians can’t make sense of them, on purpose I expect. You can’t use logic to argue illogic if the ones presenting the illogic are pay check depended on it surviving the argument. After all that and it still fails it was because of some unforeseen thing. Ya sure. As far as the meltdown is concerned it only took the better part of two decades of failures for them to start, repeat ‘start” to notice.

    #109858
    Red
    Participant

    Just a thought…. what if this whole episode of war and supply chain issues as well as real shortages is about balkanizing the states instead of Russia? I can easily see four new republics? The east coast, the west coast, the gulf coast and the flyover heartland. Which one would you like to live in?

    #109859
    Formerly T-Bear
    Participant

    Red at 109857

    Laws? There are no laws in economics, just bad math.

    First ‘Law’ of Economics: Bad math (math skills – logic) results (=) in bad answers. Take it from there.

    Do not confound ‘Ideologic economics’ with ‘philosophical study economics’ and neither of those with ‘business economics’ or ‘political economics’. Is your head spinning yet?

    An old adage advises that if you want to do well for yourself, never work for another(‘s benefit). You are selling your time for another’s profit. Treasure your time, it is the gold that feeds your life. Be in command of how your time is spent and how it produces the goods that fill needs, wants and the occasional desire. All else tends toward illusion or delusion; amusing to watch, life consuming to be involved. YMMV

    at 109856
    Withdrawing consent involves withdrawing those connections that support the edifice one has objections. Since almost everything depends on revenue flow, reducing that will have some effect, maybe cumulative but still an effect – the Boycott Principle. If using credit, make sure it is either paid in full or is serviced in a timely manner BEFORE you eat anything yourself. Again YMMV

    #109860
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Dow under 30,000 and still picking up speed. Nasdaq approaching 50% loss.

    50 + 1 is exactly why you can’t have a Democracy, and why we don’t have one. We have a Constitutional Republic. That means whatever the 50 + 1 say, your Human Rights are guaranteed and they cannot infringe on them. Or else 2A.

    In other words, Democracy exists to trample the minorities…and individuals. Our system exists to protect minorities…and individuals. We vote to have a representative voice in a bad, but necessary government.

    Hitler wines. Wow. So that’s where we are now. I mean I guess in one way we probably have Dracula wines, Stalin wines, General Sherman and Jackson wines, every nation is a mixed bag, but count me out. Too soon by at least 100 years.

    Well that’s ominous:
    WinterIsComing
    https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/teaser_desktop_2x/public/2022-06/putin%20winter%20is%20coming.jpg?itok=GeLHT4th

    Look at Putin breaking Europe, NATO, and the Fed attacking Davos and the WEF as well. We are Putin’s allies.

    We raise rates? Who is going to crack in that situation? And he’s raising them until something breaks: Europe. Who was on the skids last time? Euro-dollar. It took $23 Trillion and bailing several Euro-banks directly to save them last time.

    Speaking of losing: “Chinese Attack on Taiwan Would See Response Similar to Ukraine Invasion: Pentagon”

    So Taiwan would totally lose in 100 days? Such a strong sales pitch.

    RaboBank, stupid every day: “Rabo: 75, 75, 50, 50, 50, and then a Recession”

    THEN a recession? We’re ALREADY in a recession. Last month. Fed projects the second month next release. …And of course we’ve been in a recession basically since 1999. “That Giant Sucking Sound”. Everything to fake this was speculation and money printing.

    The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation of the currency; the second is war. Both bring a temporary prosperity; both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists.” –Ernest Hemingway

    They did point out that DM=EM. That is, Developed Markets now act the same as Emerging Markets. Okay, great…what’s the consequence? Then the “Developed Markets” are no better, no safer, no smarter, and therefore do not deserve a nickel of extra pricing or “safer” interest rates. That is: End of Reserve Currency. For Euro, Pound, and Dollar. Power goes to people who work and make things. “Commodity” reserve currency.

    Which at $40 trillion in debt and no production is far more than true. Our rates should be 40% and will be…but maybe 30 years from now. We’re probably entering a cycle where centralization has peaked, therefore faith in governments will turn and recede for decades until the next cycle. That means companies will rise, governments will fall. For better or worse. But that means national currencies will fall, national bond markets will fall. Don’t worry so much about Corporatism and MNCs since they all exist using force of government. If they had to compete they’d fall apart.

    Why? BoJo the Clown and Liz Truss. Mouthing off about starting a permanent world war with a nuclear superpower. And Liz doesn’t even know where Russia is, or the Black and Baltic Seas. …Not confidence building.

    ““We’ve now imposed the most severe sanctions that Russia has ever seen,” he said.

    Yes, sanctions on YOURSELF. And Russia is just sitting there, watching in awe as you shoot first one foot, then the other. “Winter is Coming” Boris.

    “Listen to what the UN ‘high commissioner’ for Human Rights said in May” “It’s okay when the U.S. does it.” And that’s all he had to say.

    Invades Iraq? Nope, runs an illegal coup and installs a puppet government of Nazis and ethnic cleansing in Ukraine too. UN approved! Nothing could be better than illegal coups, so long as the U.S. does it and thousands die!

    ” Fauci Admits ‘Not Enough Data’ on Boosters for 5-Year-olds (Fox)”

    Because words now have no meaning, nobody acts on it, nobody cares. They have been trained to obey the POWERFUL, not the right. Never, ever the man who is right.

    the only studies that had been done were antibody studies,”

    JHC. It’s not the antibodies we’re worried about. It’s that the spike protein IS the poison.

    “Fauci, who testified virtually because he currently has COVID-19”

    Because, safe…and effective. I always get the disease I was vaccinated against. Four times. And Justin Moosilini: four shots, got Covid three times, brought it back into Canada.

    German Official Warns of Gas Shortages, Bankruptcies, Massive Price Hikes (RMX)”

    This is Davos/WEF crowd. The once the Fed is breaking right now. Had enough of them yet? “Winter is Coming”

    “Although Germany has pushed for a general ban on Russian oil imports, the country is highly reliant on natural gas from Russia. If Russia were to cut gas in the critical winter months”

    Whiskey Tango? IT’S NOT RUSSIA CUTTING OFF THE GAS, YOU FOOLS. Russia is SELLING you the gas. Which you must pay for. It’s GERMANY that refuses to BUY it.

    Shades of Rachael Maddow’s “Idiocracy”: “What if Russia shut off all the power to Fargo in the winter?” They didn’t then, never have before, probably never will, but we still blame them for something they’ve never done and never thought of doing. “How often do you beat your wife?” “I just want to make him deny it.” –Nixon in election season.

    But that’s the news: we merely report all the things that DIDN’T ever happen. Like MonkeyPox and Cholera in Mariupol. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MbPHntqbrE BBC reports Cholera killing Mariupol. …Except not, there is regular testing and there have been no outbreaks at all. They just made it up. “We’re the BBC!”

    US Energy Chief To Discuss Record Pump Prices With Refiners Next Week (R.)”

    Because: facts and logic, gas prices are 75% taxes…and oil costs. That means 25% is all they have to work with. So if gas is $5, then $3.75 can’t change. $1.25 can change. Probably most of that is fixed cost and they make 10-20% of $1.25, but let’s say they can cut it in half. Gas would then drop 75c to $4.25.

    But this is math and logic, so Congress is incapable of comprehending it. “It’s all about where you put the blame.” Illogically. Boy I sure am glad gas is $10, have no health care, and I lost my house but we blamed someone else instead of fixing it!

    “Elon Musk to Make Twitter Inclusive, User-Friendly & Profitable (TMS)”

    Note Elon saying Twitter should be a speech platform is offensive and revolutionary. This is the only thing they don’t want. In #Oppositeland.

    “Trump Demands Equal Time on TV Networks to Counter Jan. 6 Hearings (JTN)”

    That’s a law and we don’t follow that.

    “COVID Dr. Simone Gold Sentenced to Prison For Jan. 6 Riot (JTN)”

    Yup, we arrest our enemies and release our friends. What else is power for? How’d burning down the church across the street going? Did they find the DC bomber yet?

    Some of the equations used are so complex that real mathematicians can’t make sense of them, on purpose I expect. You can’t use logic to argue illogic”

    This is why you’d want to pop it in an AI, so everyone accepts glaringly illogical answers and executes them.

    #109861
    John Day
    Participant

    VP Gary posted this last night, fromthe land of “we don’t serve your kind here”:(“Woke” county sic?)

    “Wake County Chapter of Moms for Liberty, told Carolina Journal in a phone interview that Julie Page, chair of the local chapter, made the reservation at Wye Hill Kitchen & Brewing as a happy hour for moms she knew to celebrate the end of the school year.”

    #109862
    zerosum
    Participant

    I’m amazed at the skill needed to do that reflection of reality.
    Albrecht Dürer Praying hands 1508
    ———–
    I am not impress with all/any governments that forget that they have been, and are tasked with the function of managing public assets for the people in their jurisdiction.
    ———–
    Companies must raise prices to stay ahead of costs and keep profits at record levels.
    “some early indications of changing customer behaviour as a result of the inflationary environment”.

    ———-
    It’s essential to have free speech for the majority/my supporters.

    Remember the 50 +1 rule and the 50 – 1 rule
    If you can’t stand the heat …. shut up and get out of the kitchen.
    ————
    Fact Check/correction:
    Gonzalo Lira: “Oh boy. So one of the Americans captured in Ukraine, Robert Drueke, is not a trained combat soldier—he’s a chemical weapons specialist.”

    Who is it: Robert Drueke, or Alex Drueke,
    ———–
    Assange extradition approved
    Is the USA so bad that the extradition must be feared?
    Is justice so tainted/so skewed to the 50 + 1?
    ———

    #109863
    zerosum
    Participant

    We, TAE, saw it coming.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/amid-surging-inflation-inventory-swamped-retailers-push-big-discounts
    Amid Surging Inflation, Inventory-Swamped Retailers Push Big Discounts

    That last factor may thwart retailers’ plans for a mass summer inventory clearance. Not only is consumer cashflow under pressure, but Americans’ credit card balances have mushroomed back to a record-high $867 billion. Stir in morale-sapping stock market losses and record-low consumer sentiment, and retailers may be facing a daunting task.

    #109864
    zerosum
    Participant

    In other words.
    If I fail, It’s because you didn’t give me what I needed to succeed.
    Its your fault

    https://www.rt.com/news/557265-ukraine-crimea-us-weapons/
    Ukraine vows to reclaim Crimea with US weapons
    Kiev aims to recapture all lost territory from Russia, including the Crimean Peninsula, Ukraine’s defense minister says

    #109865
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Religion Warning. If it will burn your eyes.

    17 family support centers firebombed by the left so far. They are “anti Abortion” but what does that mean? That means they both argue you shouldn’t have an abortion (but won’t at all stop you), AND give away free food, clothes, friendship, other support to new mothers.

    Sounds like exactly the sort of people and goals you should firebomb and murder. Right? They want families and support poor children and the vulnerable, generally black.

    Of course the reason FOR firebombing them is to insure mothers CAN kill their children and so families DON’T exist. It could be argued. So: murdering in defense of more murdering. Got it. From one point of view. Privacy, so long as we’re not asking questions about murder. Choice, so long as we’re allowed to choose murder whenever convenient. Speech, so long as it’s in service to kill Supreme Court Justices. It’s very odd.

    Can we get people out in the streets to attack recruitment centers and march for peace? https://trendsresearch.com/author/occupypeace/ Not on your life. No one shows up. We only rendition and jail people who tell the truth. We only arrest, attack, audit, and firebomb people who feed the poor on beaches and help poor mothers with children.

    What were the true crimes of Sodom? “Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.” –Ezek 16:49

    “36 You poured out your wealth and exposed your nakedness in your promiscuity with your lovers and with all your detestable idols, and because of the blood of your children which you gave to them, 37 therefore I will surely gather all the lovers with whom you found pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and expose you before them, and they will see you completely naked.”

    That is, they were selfish, depraved, lewd, and this cause them to be violent to guests, promote youth sex, rape and mob violence, and of course not help the poor, the weak, the widowed, the traveler, but think only of themselves and their riches, their appetites, their popularity and ego. Does this go with other things in Sodom? It seems so, but the actual listed crime by the prophets was Pride, Gluttony, Avarice, Lust, and indifference, with a side of idolatry in hating God.

    So I’d be a lot more worried about bombing those who feed the poor than any of the other things. Let’s not do that, and let’s not find out.

    Like I said, if things go up right now, at least you can be certain of who wins. But let’s not let things go up.

    Anything else? A lot but let’s shorten to this:

    “Because you have uttered vain words and seen false visions, I am against you, declares the Lord GOD. My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and speak lying divinations. …Because they have led My people astray, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace, and whitewashing any flimsy wall that is built, 11 tell those whitewashing the wall that it will fall. Rain will come in torrents, I will send hailstones plunging down, and a windstorm will burst forth. Surely when the wall has fallen, you will not be asked, ‘Where is the whitewash with which you covered it?’”

    “set your face against the daughters of your people who prophesy out of their own imagination. … [Do you think you can] ensnare the souls of My people but preserve your own? You have profaned Me … for handfuls of barley and scraps of bread. By lying to … who would listen, you have killed those who should not have died and spared those who should not have lived.”

    “you have disheartened the righteous with your lies, even though I have caused them no grief, and … have encouraged the wicked not to turn from their evil ways to save their lives,”

    “You even took the sons and daughters you bore to Me and sacrificed them as food to idols. Was your prostitution not enough? You slaughtered My children and delivered them up through the fire”

    At the head of every street you built your lofty [buildings] and degraded your beauty. With increasing promiscuity, you spread your legs to all who passed by. You prostituted yourself with your lustful neighbors, … you extended your promiscuity to … the land of merchants —but even with this you were not satisfied!

    “16 Then He told me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight, and in despair they will drink water by measure. So they will lack food and water; they will be appalled at the sight of one another wasting away in their iniquity.”

    “you say, ‘The way of the Lord is not just.’ … Is it My way that is unjust? Is it not your ways that are unjust?

    What is the solution then?

    Now suppose a man is righteous and does what is just and right:

    7 He does not oppress another,
    but restores the pledge to the debtor.
    He does not commit robbery,
    but gives his bread to the hungry
    and covers the naked with clothing.

    8 He does not engage in usury
    or take excess interest,
    but he withholds his hand from iniquity
    and executes true justice between men.

    9 He follows My statutes
    and faithfully keeps My ordinances.
    That man is righteous;
    surely he will live”

    Is that REALLY that bad? Just that unbearable to give honest work and honest trade? To keep your word and remember charity? Gosh from the way people act you would think so sometimes.

    “Was Wisconsin REALLY that bad?” – Metatron, Dogma.

    #109866
    Oroboros
    Participant

    • Lavrov to Boris Johnson:

    Lavrov speaks perfect English

    Boris speaks perfect clown.

    Lavrov should have just unzipped his pants and pissed on the BBC media manwhore’s shoes.

    It would have been done with an understated style and very diplomatically.

    Worth the price of admission.

    .

    #109868

    Something I noticed is that apart from the Romanian PM, who doesn’t count, all these “leaders”, Micron, Draghi, Scholz, Ze, are midgets. 5’7″ or so.

    midgets

    #109869
    John Day
    Participant

    @Dr. D: “What were the sins of Sodom?”
    The blood of the children refers to sacrifice, blood sacrifice, of the first-borne son to the “god”.
    Abraham, prepared to cut out Isaac’s heart for “God”, was just going through the usual drill as a test of faith.
    “Eid” marks that Holy Day.

    #109870
    John Day
    Participant

    Picture of Jenny-in-the-jungle https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/rational-liars

    Joe Kennedy said, and FDR is purported to have said, and it had been said many times long before that “there are no accidents in politics”.
    There are clearly competitions, often rigged or multiply rigged, and there may be surprises. We can assume lies.
    Rational-actor theory in global politics applies in other political venues.
    Politicians are not stupid if they do not accomplish what they say they intend, merely lying opportunists.

    The job of politicians is to deliver the actions of the people, preferably willingly, to the desired plans of the owners/masters.
    This job is easiest in times of plenty and a booming economy, like in the US after WW-2. The masters wanted to continue war-economy, and the benefits of war for global control of commerce and profits. They got the Korean War. they got Vietnam ramped up over JFK’s dead body. JFK worked against critical interests in the military, CIA and banking. He was determined to turn America back over to the Americans, including the money, and including their desire for peace.

    Now the talk is about “reducing carbon footprints”. Politicians have long tried to get people to embrace this concept, and it is a really good concept, like stopping pollution and becoming stewards of living ecosystems. The problem is that everything we know runs on oil, coal, natural gas, some nuclear, and that wind and solar electricity generation completely depends on this vast existing industrial economy, which cannot be transitioned off these buried treasures.

    We have seen evidence that the COVID lockdown was to hide the effects of the biggest bank bailout ever, which was required to keep the system operational.
    We know now that there will be a “recession” and the asset super-bubble will be popped to support the $US as global reserve currency. After centuries of globalization of trade, we are seeing a balkanization, compartmentalization which is restricting trade. A western financial bloc is cutting itself off from the rest of the world, as the new “G-8” (see below) steps up to manage most other global trade. All of the things being given as reasons for actions like refusing cheap, good Russian oil are preposterous at first analysis, “suicidal”. Still, we must assume “rationality”, so what are the interests being served? Who benefits? How?

    The ultimate contraction of global industrial economy has been predicted, based upon resource fundamentals and patterns of economic growth and usage, since the early 1950s. Admiral Hyman Rickover and Oil Geologist M. King Hubbard predicted, and their predictions held very closely. US oil production did peak in 1971-1972.
    Jimmy Carter, the last US president to present this honestly, was a nuclear sub commander, and was a protege of Rickover. Carter’s honesty, wearing a cardigan on TV and urging Americans to conserve fuel, isan object of derision to this day. That approach was abandoned, but the interests of the elites in maintaining control of the economic systems, even as they eventually shrank, and total wealth contracted, never changed.

    As Reagan/Bush derided The Limits To Growth, and said “there are no limits on America”, and things like that, Deng Xiaopeng was studying The Limits To Growth and taking it very seriously, in a 50 year plan and 100 year plan kind of way. Why would Ruling classes of the rest of the world do less? The book was commissioned by The Club Of Rome, which is often derided for conflicting interests, but it seems like they really just wanted to know back around 1970 (published 1972). They got experts in systems analysis, computer modeling, and MIT’s big computer, and ran models with no economic assumptions at all, just resource information and use trends over previous centuries. The extrapolations seem to be holding well, as far as I can tell. Global industrial economic output appears to have peaked in the second half of 2018.

    Last June Gail Tverberg had this analysis: Where Energy Modeling Goes Wrong
    Summary: The economy is approaching near-term collapse, not peak oil. The result is quite different.
    The modeling that comes closest to being correct is that which underlies the 1972 book, The Limits to Growth by Donella Meadows and others. This modeling was based on physical quantities of resources, with no financial system whatsoever. The base model, shown here, indicates that limits would be reached a few years later than we actually seem to be reaching them. The dotted black line in Figure 1 indicates where I saw the world economy to be in January 2019, based on the limits we already seemed to be reaching at that time.
    [Image won’t load. See link.] https://i0.wp.com/ourfiniteworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1972-base-limits-to-growth-forecast-with-2019-dotted-line.png?ssl=1
    I think that line is drawn at 2010, myself.​ Extrapolate between 2000 and 2050. See what I mean?​

    Where Energy Modeling Goes Wrong

    #109871
    John Day
    Participant

    ​ Are you a “useless eater”? I am these days, as would be judged by the business interests of the owners, which is all that matters for this analysis, since they are determining actual policies and seeking certain physical-world progressions and outcomes, about which they must lie, since Jimmy Carter failed them.​

    Industrial Output Per capita is a pooled measure, but Catherine Austin Fitts has long spoken and written about elite plans for a “breakaway society” which would be more formalized, but there would be strict separation of “haves” from “have-nots” Another mitigating factor is clearly getting rid ofa lot of people throung accelerating the trend of rising deaths, and drastically cutting down on births.

    Resource conservation on the global scale has only ever been seen with massive economic collapse. The collapse of the USSR cut CO2 emissions a lot for several years. No voluntary actions have done anything globally, though the nation of Japan, working together, regrew her forests over 300 years. Coupling the dramatic use of natural resources by most people, while cutting total human population, lines up well with policies used in recent decades to keep-the-oil-in-the-ground in countries like Iraq, Libya and Iran, by destroying their oil-fueled economies by wars and embargos. This is a model which Dick Cheney supported. Cheney had a “total energy policy”. “Get everything and keep it and control it.”

    Just as all errors fall in the favor of the bank, any glitches in Great-Reset actualization will be made to fall in favor of reducing wealth/resource-consumption, lifespan and fertility for the vast majority of humans, like me, and probably like you. This is not explicable, so everything we hear lately sounds completely foolish on the face of it. We only have to comply and go into that chute.

    COVID “vaccines” seem to be causing immunocompromise, which progresses over time and the number of doses.
    Cancers and infections associated with AIDS are on the rise in the multiply “vaccinated”.

    U.S. Gov. reports prove COVID Vaccination can cause Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome & this is why we’re seeing “Sudden Deaths” & “Monkeypox”…


    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9062939/?fs=e&s=cl

    Twice per year “boosting” seems “optimal”. This cuts lifespan in a myriad of ways, only a few directly recognizable, but it’s making that anomaly that the life-insurance companies have to pay out on. Thes products just got FDA approved for kids starting at 6 months of age, who have truly immature immune systems. They’ll never have a chance. It was a unanimous decision. Public comment was pre-censored at the shortened hearing. Absolutely minimal short term data from just a very few kids was used. Nobody who was allowed in objected.
    https://popularrationalism.substack.com/p/what-vrbpac-got-wrong-who-will-hold?s=r https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/fda-eua-covid-shots-infants-young-kids/

    National policies to reduce drilling, pumping and distillation of oil, and to reduce mining of col, are purported to “force” a transition to wind and solar energy, but the main issue is that people will use far less total energy and only sometimes, when it is available, with the constraints being put in place. Energy austerity being imposed upon European people is like that, too. These policies make some sense to people with fervor and group loyalty, who are not very good at physics and math word-problems, which is most people. You just have to fool most of the people most of the time, enough to get a commitment from them, then lock them in.

    The locking-people-in to being robbed, enslaved and killed is always the hard part. Wars work, but wars destroy the wealth-producing assets the owners need to keep intact for their future needs. “Vaccination” has a lot of good features, especially if the rise in deaths is gradual, delayed, not apparent until later, then “nobody could have known”. Compartmentalizing economies allows for a lot of constraints upon resource use. No chips, no cars? Who could have foreseen that?

    There are bound to be limitless war-gamed contingency-plans to grind down the resource use of most humans, while preserving the wealth for the important humans who need their wits about them to guide our species and our planet through these unprecedented trying times.

    #109873
    John Day
    Participant

    As for me, I will merely assume that the owners will have moderate and ongoing success in reducing our carbon-footprints, birth rates, lifespans and access to the many luxuries we now take for granted, like electricity and the internet, grocery stores tap water and warmth in winter.

    My reading of history is also that they will only be able to protect their own wealth and position sometimes and incompletely. They read history too. they are doing everything they can to get rid of my demographic, which is a pretty threatening demographic to them. I’m just going to blog and grow vegetables, try to “collapse early and avoid the rush”, and help family and friends survive. I intend to never be the immediate threat that they need to expend valuable resources (like a predator drone and hellfire missile) on.

    I have long said that the upper middle class and middling wealthy will have to take the first round of big losses. I suspect the Fed will “defend the dollar” at the expense of the “risk assets” held by these demographics, wave after wave, perhaps. Tom Luongo sees the big $US banks scoring a win over “the Davos crowd”.

    Media: Why the Fed Raised 75 bps and How to Break the Davos Crowd

    China has her own plans to leap out in front of the crisis, Great Leap Forward 2.0. Russian nationalists like V. Putin, Sergey Glazyev and Sergey Lavrov do, clearly have their own 50 year plan, which looks like the global populist option to me.
    China is currently in harmony with that, but the Chinese way is historically one of absolute domination. The current story of health-passport RED codes being used to keep Chinese depositors from visiting their stressed banks, for their funds, or even an explanation, bears repeating and much consideration.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/chinese-banks-freeze-billions-deposits-officials-use-health-qr-code-bar-protestors

    #109875
    John Day
    Participant

    Hmmm, trouble posting links again. likely Russia-alert to the AI.
    I’ll put a space between (dot) and (com)

    Dr. Mercola has this well fleshed out and researched piece, though our outlooks are not identical.
    Preparing for the Reality of Financial Collapse
    https://www.globalresearch. ca/preparing-reality-financial-collapse/5783308

    ​Pepe Escobar has this progress report on China’s belt-and-road ​initiative and ‘G-8″, a term likely to catch on.
    The ‘New G8’ Meets China’s ‘Three Rings’
    ..This non Russia-sanctioning G8, he added, is 24.4% ahead of the old one, which is in fact the G7, in terms of GDP in purchasing power parity (PPP), as G7 economies are on the verge of collapsing and the U.S. registers record inflation.
    ​ ​The power of the acronym was confirmed by one of the researchers on Europe at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Sergei Fedorov: three BRICS members (Brazil, China and India) alongside Russia, plus Indonesia, Iran, Turkey and Mexico, all non adherents to the all-out Western economic war against Russia, will soon dominate global markets.
    ​ ​Fedorov stressed the power of the new G8 in population as well as economically: “If the West, which restricted all international organizations, follows its own policies, and pressures everyone, then why are these organizations necessary? Russia does not follow these rules.”
    T​he new G8, instead, “does not impose anything on anyone, but tries to find common solutions.”
    https://thesaker. is/the-new-g8-meets-chinas-three-rings/

    ​Germany (Siemens) did not return the pumps/turbines for the Nordstream-1 pipeline after sending them to Canada for repair, as contracted with Gazprom, so the Nordstream-1 gas pipeline output​ falls with fewer pumps. Blame Putin.
    European NatGas Soars 70% In Week Amid Freeport Delays A
    nd Russian Cuts
    https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/european-natgas-soars-70-week-amid-freeport-explosion-and-russian-cuts

    #109876
    John Day
    Participant

    That worked.

    #109877

    Nonono- this is where the homeless are gonna live in the good ol’ USA.
    (And while originally meant for the homeless, I expect these units will be on the market for a million each in about a year….)

    #109878
    zerosum
    Participant

    They read history too
    Why?
    They put out a re-run of the documentary “Black Death” to remind us that 50% of the population of Europe died.

    #109879
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    Family support centers firebombed….

    In my view, both the abortion clinics and the family support centers should exist. Too often it seems that people get upset thinking that the evil abortion clinic is convincing pregnant women to abort while the family support centers are bullying the women into keeping an unwanted pregnancy.

    Hogwash. Let the women choose. If we all know the views of both places, a woman’s feet can take her to the location of her choice.

    When pregnant with twins I ended up needing prenatal care…but my self-pay, high-deductible medical insurance didn’t cover pregnancy. (This was pre-Obamacare days.) In order to show the government that I was pregnant, making me eligible for Medicaid during the pregnancy, I went to a family support center, which gave me certification of a positive pregnancy test.

    Firebombing either type of clinic is really not appropriate. People get so worked up over trying to control women and human reproduction.

    #109880
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    @ John Day
    Banana trees look very happy! (And Jenny does, too!)

    #109881
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    “The Grand Chessboard”

    “The Grand Chessboard”

    #109882
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    Lecture by Professor John J. Mearsheimer

    F.S.

    #109883
    Oroboros
    Participant

    “..Something I noticed is that apart from the Romanian PM, who doesn’t count, all these “leaders”, Micron, Draghi, Scholz, Ze, are midgets. 5’7″ or so…”

    Napoleon Complex

    The “Napoleon complex”, known informally as small man syndrome, is a syndrome normally attributed to people of short stature. It is characterized by overly-aggressive or domineering social behavior, such as lying about earnings, and carries the implication that such behavior is compensatory for the subject’s physical or social shortcomings

    British propaganda of the time promoted the idea that Napoleon was short.

    .

    #109884
    Oroboros
    Participant

    .

    #109885
    John Day
    Participant

    Thanks Phoenixvoice.
    We are hopeful to get some bananas this second year.

    #109886
    willem
    Participant

    @John_Day: Your posts today are especially cogent–thanks for that. To comment on a few excerpts:

    “The ultimate contraction of global industrial economy has been predicted, based upon resource fundamentals and patterns of economic growth and usage, since the early 1950s. Admiral Hyman Rickover and Oil Geologist M. King Hubbard predicted, and their predictions held very closely. US oil production did peak in 1971-1972.”

    I, too, am a former nuclear submariner. In the nuclear program, Rickover was a legend even while he was still alive. I am familiar with some of his speeches making these predictions.

    “Jimmy Carter, the last US president to present this honestly, was a nuclear sub commander, and was a protege of Rickover. Carter’s honesty, wearing a cardigan on TV and urging Americans to conserve fuel, isan object of derision to this day. That approach was abandoned, but the interests of the elites in maintaining control of the economic systems, even as they eventually shrank, and total wealth contracted, never changed.”

    Anyone who seeks to know why we are being constantly propagandized and lied to need look no further. As one of our commenters recently suggested, perhaps at least in part, this is the only straw global leaders have left to grasp at in the attempt to “extend the shelf life of our species.” We shouldn’t blame poor Carter for failing at this impossible job. Convincing members of the electorate to make dramatic changes to their energy-intensive lifestyles by telling them the naked truth in such a stand-alone manner was destined to fail because it appealed primarily to reason. And attempting to “spin” this situation to somehow put a happy face on it flies in the face of the truth-telling ethos itself. All that can remain if a leader wants to take the “honest” approach to such an issue is to bring people around to the idea about the things of lasting value in life, and that raw accumulation of wealth and “stuff” doesn’t have to be part of a life well-lived. It would take a talented rhetorician indeed to achieve this, and many sittings in which to do it. It would have to be the focus of his entire term.

    “National policies to reduce drilling, pumping and distillation of oil, and to reduce mining of col, are purported to “force” a transition to wind and solar energy, but the main issue is that people will use far less total energy and only sometimes, when it is available, with the constraints being put in place.”

    This, IMHO, is one of the biggest parts of the Big Lie—the implied promise that renewables can totally replace combustible fuels WITH NO DRAMATIC REDUCTIONS IN OUR CURRENT LIFESTYLES. Most people think the worst that can happen is that we’ll be whizzing around in more expensive EVs, but with lifestyles more or less within shouting distance of today’s. This is blatantly false to anyone who bothers to run a few numbers. I’d estimate that such a system would probably support only around 10-15% of current energy consumption. And that 10-15% won’t be distributed evenly across the board—a lot of what we need can’t be made too much less energy intensive. That means a few things people just won’t easily accept, like WAY less travel, maybe WAY fewer people, even.

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