Jun 202022
 
 June 20, 2022  Posted by at 8:45 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,


Henri Matisse Notre-Dame, une fin d’après-midi 1902

 

Boris Urges World Leaders To Hold Their Nerve For A Long War In Ukraine (DM)
Prepare To Fight Russia In A Third World War – Britain’s Top General (DM)
Lithuania Bans Transit Of Sanctioned Russian Goods To Kaliningrad (RFE)
Russia’s New Rules (Luongo)
St. Petersburg Sets The Stage For The War of Economic Corridors (Escobar)
OSCE: Ukraine Started Shelling Donbas Nine Days Before Russian Attack (KK)
Ukraine’s EU Accession Plan Is a Suicide Pill for Desperate EU (Jay)
Pfizer’s mRNA Jabs “Temporarily” Impair Semen Concentration’ (Wiley)
Pfizer Vaccine Effects On Total Motile Count In Sperm Donors (El Gato)
FDA Unanimously Approve Covid Vaccine For 0-4 Years (HART)
Experts Question CDC’s Approval Of Covid Vaccines For Under-5s (DM)
Germany Turns To Coal For Electricity Amid Gas Shortage Concerns (JTN)
Macron Faces 5 Years Of Gridlock After Stunning Parliamentary Defeat (Pol.eu)
Australia Government Lobbying Behind The Scenes For Assange’s Freedom (SMH)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Russell Brand: “The problem with ‘following the science’ is that the science follows the money”

 

 

Maersheimer

 

 

 

 

He’ll do anything to divert attention from his troubles.

Boris Urges World Leaders To Hold Their Nerve For A Long War In Ukraine (DM)

Boris Johnson has urged world leaders to hold their nerve for a long war in Ukraine, or risk the ‘greatest victory for aggression in Europe since the Second World War’. In a thinly-veiled barb at Emmanuel Macron’s pleas to ‘make nice’ with warmonger Putin, the Prime Minister has said a Russian victory in Ukraine would be ‘catastrophic’ and urged the international community to use its power to expel Moscow’s invading armies. ‘We’ve got to make it clear that we are supporting the Ukrainians in their ambitions… to expel the Russians, expel Putin’s armies, from everything that he has obtained since February 24, and make sure the Ukrainians are not encouraged to go for a bad peace, something that simply wouldn’t endure.’

Writing in The Sunday Times, Mr Johnson said: ‘Time is now the vital factor. Everything will depend on whether Ukraine can strengthen its ability to defend its soil faster than Russia can renew its capacity to attack. Our task is to enlist time on Ukraine’s side.’ The Tory leader, himself battling inflation spiralling domestic fuel prices, told allies that economic concerns should not lead to a rushed settlement in war-torn Ukraine. Allowing Russia to keep territory in Ukraine ‘would be the greatest victory for aggression in Europe since the Second World War’, Mr Johnson added. [..] Speaking after his second visit to Kyiv, Mr Johnson said: ‘It would a catastrophe if Putin won. He’d love nothing more than to say ”Let’s freeze this conflict, let’s have a ceasefire like we had back in 2014”. For him, that would be a tremendous victory. You’d have a situation in which Putin was able to consolidate his gains and then to launch another attack.

‘We’ve got to make it clear that we are supporting the Ukrainians in their ambitions… to expel the Russians, expel Putin’s armies, from everything that he has obtained since February 24, and make sure the Ukrainians are not encouraged to go for a bad peace, something that simply wouldn’t endure.’ [..] Mr Johnson told Mr Zelensky yesterday that the UK is prepared to launch a major operation to train Ukrainian armed forces, training up to 120,000 troops every 120 days to prepare them for combat against Putin’s soldiers. Mr Johnson said that it was important to prevent the Russians ‘freezing’ the conflict so they could consolidate their gains before mounting another attack.

He said the Ukrainians should be supported in their ambition to regain territory occupied by the Russian forces since they invaded in February. However, he stopped short of calling for the recovery of all the lands Ukraine had lost since 2014 – including Crimea – something Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has previously called for.

Read more …

No.

Prepare To Fight Russia In A Third World War – Britain’s Top General (DM)

Britain’s top army general has told his troops to prepare to fight and beat Putin’s armies in a European land war, it has emerged tonight. General Sir Patrick Sanders, who assumed overall command of the British Army this week, warned soldiers ‘we are the generation that must prepare the Army to fight in Europe once again’ as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine rocks global stability. In a tub-thumping message to British troops, he wrote: ‘I am the first Chief of the General Staff since 1941 to take command of the Army in the shadow of a land war in Europe involving a continental power… The scale of the enduring threat from Russia shows we’ve entered a new era of insecurity. ‘It is my singular duty to make our Army as lethal and effective as it can be. The time is now and the opportunity is ours to seize.’

It comes as Putin menaces NATO countries and this week taunted former Soviet states in Europe by declaring: ‘They are part of historic Russia’. Putin made the comments in response to a dramatic statement by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who sensationally declared he did not recognise the self-proclaimed people’s republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine. Tokayev, sat metres away from the brooding Russian despot at the St Petersburg Economic Forum (SPIEF) yesterday, described the DPR and LPR as ‘quasi-state territories’. ‘We don’t recognise Taiwan, Kosovo, South Ossetia or Abkhazia… we apply this principle to the quasi-state territories, which in our view, are the Luhansk and Donetsk people’s republics’, the Kazakh President said in a daring defiance of Putin’s war in eastern Ukraine.

The Russian President sat quietly, considering Tokayev’s comments, before appearing to deliver a calm but quietly menacing warning. ‘What is the Soviet Union?’ Putin asked rhetorically. ‘This is historic Russia.’ He went on to paint Kazakhstan as a nation friendly to Russia, but quickly added: ‘The same thing could have happened with Ukraine, but they wouldn’t be our allies.’

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Provocation, trying to make a bigger war.

Lithuania Bans Transit Of Sanctioned Russian Goods To Kaliningrad (RFE)

Lithuania has begun a ban on the rail transit of goods subject to European Union sanctions to the Russian far-western exclave of Kaliningrad, transport authorities in the Baltic nation said on June 18. The EU sanctions list includes coal, metals, construction materials, and advanced technology. Anton Alikhanov, the governor of the Russian oblast, said the ban would cover around 50 percent of the items that Kaliningrad imports. Alikhanov said the region, which has an ice-free port on the Baltic Sea, will call on Russian federal authorities to take tit-for-tat measures against the EU country for imposing the ban. He said he would also seek to have more goods sent by ship to the oblast.


The cargo unit of Lithuania’s state railways service set out details of the ban in a letter to clients following “clarification” from the European Commission on the mechanism for applying the sanctions. Previously, Lithuanian Deputy Foreign Minister Mantas Adomenas said the ministry was waiting for “clarification from the European Commission on applying European sanctions to Kaliningrad cargo transit.” The commission stated that sanctioned goods and cargo should still be prohibited even if they travel from one part of Russia to another but through EU territory. [..] Russia’s Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad, sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland, became part of the Soviet Union after World War II. It has a population of about 430,000 people and hosts the headquarters of Russia’s Baltic sea fleet.

 

 

Gonzalo Lira – A message for Americans

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“..perpetuate old colonialist behavior well past its use-by date..”

Russia’s New Rules (Luongo)

Russia is done with the West. The divorce is nearly complete. In the past few days we’ve heard from all major Russian leaders the same thing, “The West will play by our rules now.” You can decide for yourselves whether Russia is writing checks they can’t cash, but in the words of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov telling the BBC bluntly, “We do not care about the eyes of the West.” Lavrov has always been the soul of politeness and discretion when dealing with European media. His open hostility towards his BBC interviewer was not only palpable, it was hard to argue with. He followed that up with: “I don’t think there’s even room for maneuver left anymore,” Lavrov replied. “Because both [Prime Minister Boris] Johnson and [Foreign Secretary Liz] Truss say publicly: ’We must defeat Russia, we must bring Russia to its knees. Go on, then, do it.”

Russia’s leadership never talks in such openly blunt terms. It’s almost like Lavrov was channeling comedian Dennis Miller who used to say, “Feeling froggy, take that leap.” See where it gets you. Russia knows it has the West on the ropes. We need what they produce and now they are determined to set the rules on who gets them and for what price. It knows that European leaders are puppets with Klaus Schwab’s hand up their asses. And it knows Davos has zero leverage over Russia’s actions from here on out. Which brings me to the statements linked above by Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller, speaking at a panel at the St. Petersburg Economic Investment Forum (SPEIF) who just put the situation in the starkest terms there is.

“The game of nominal value of money is over, as this system does not allow to control the supply of resources. …Our product, our rules. We don’t play by the rules we didn’t create.” Miller’s statement should be thought of as a statement of principle across all theatres of operation for Russia. This doesn’t just apply to natural gas or oil. This is everything, all of Russia’s dealings with the West from here on out will be on its terms not the West’s. This is clearly the biggest geopolitical middle finger in the post WWII period. Miller is clearly laying out the rules for a new, commodity-centric monetary system, one based on what Credit Suisse’s Zoltan Poszar called ‘outside money’ — commodities, gold, even bitcoin — rather than the West’s egregious use of ‘inside money’ — debt-based fiat and credit — to perpetuate old colonialist behavior well past its use-by date.

Read more …

Much more here from Pepe. Do read.

St. Petersburg Sets The Stage For The War of Economic Corridors (Escobar)

The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum has been configured for years now as absolutely essential to understand the evolving dynamics and the trials and tribulations of Eurasia integration. St. Petersburg in 2022 is even more crucial as it directly connects to three simultaneous developments I had previously outlined, in no particular order: First, the coming of the “new G8” – four BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China), plus Iran, Indonesia, Turkey and Mexico, whose GDP per purchasing parity power (PPP) already dwarfs the old, western-dominated G8. Second, the Chinese “Three Rings” strategy of developing geoeconomic relations with its neighbors and partners. Third, the development of BRICS+, or extended BRICS, including some members of the “new G8,” to be discussed at the upcoming summit in China.

There was hardly any doubt President Putin would be the star of St. Petersburg 2022, delivering a sharp, detailed speech to the plenary session. Among the highlights, Putin smashed the illusions of the so-called ‘golden billion’ who live in the industrialized west (only 12 percent of the global population) and the “irresponsible macroeconomic policies of the G7 countries.” The Russian president noted how “EU losses due to sanctions against Russia” could exceed $400 billion per year, and that Europe’s high energy prices – something that actually started “in the third quarter of last year” – are due to “blindly believing in renewable sources.” He also duly dismissed the west’s ‘Putin price hike’ propaganda, saying the food and energy crisis is linked to misguided western economic policies, i.e., “Russian grain and fertilizers are being sanctioned” to the detriment of the west.

In a nutshell: the west misjudged Russia’s sovereignty when sanctioning it, and now is paying a very heavy price. Chinese President Xi Jinping, addressing the forum by video, sent a message to the whole Global South. He evoked “true multilateralism,” insisting that emerging markets must have “a say in global economic management,” and called for “improved North-South and South-South dialogue.” It was up to Kazakh President Tokayev, the ruler of a deeply strategic partner of both Russia and China, to deliver the punch line in person: Eurasia integration should progress hand in hand with China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).


The International North South Transportation Corridor (INSTC)

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More intensified than started.

OSCE: Ukraine Started Shelling Donbas Nine Days Before Russian Attack (KK)

It is important to remember that the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine started in 2014 after the Obama administration and U.S. Congress members installed a new government in Ukraine, in what the head of the “private CIA” firm Stratfor called “the most blatant coup in history.” In response to the U.S.-backed coup, the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in the Donbas held a referendum on seceding from Ukraine, in which 96% of Luhansk and 89% of Donetsk voted for the creation of two new self-described independent republics in eastern Ukraine. Moscow said the vote reflected the “will of the people,” but the EU called the elections “illegal and illegitimate”, which quickly turned violent and descended into an all-out conflict between the Ukrainian military and Russian-backed separatist forces of Luhansk and Donetsk.

Between 2014 and 2022 the War in Donbas killed an estimated 14,000 people, forcing millions of people to flee the region, and turning the conflict zone into one of the world’s most mine-contaminated areas. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has had observers on-the-ground monitoring the situation in Donbas since the outbreak of open conflict began in 2014. The OSCE has been the only international civilian observer mission allowed to collect information from both sides of the contact line, and its data, while incomplete, remains the best available. The OSCE observer mission provides maps in daily reports documenting the location of ceasefire violations and explosions along the contact line between the Ukrainian military and the Donbas republics.

These maps clearly show that Ukraine began artillery strikes against the Donbas republics on February 16th, 2022. In other words, Ukraine began shelling the independent republics of Donetsk and Luhansk nine days before Russia announced its ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine. While the western corporate media remained completely silent, explosions documented by the OSCE increased from 76 on February 15th, to 316 on February 16th, to 654 on February 17th, and to 1,413 on February 18th. When you look carefully at the daily maps of these explosions, it is clear that the vast majority of explosions occurred on the Russian separatist side of the ceasefire line.

Feb 14: 174 ceasefire violations, 41 explosions
Feb 15: 153 ceasefire violations, 76 explosions
Feb 16: 509 ceasefire violations, 316 explosions
Feb 17: 870 ceasefire violations, 654 explosions
Feb 18: 1,566 ceasefire violations, 1,413 explosions
Feb 19-20: 3,231 ceasefire violations, 2,026 explosions
Feb 21: 1,927 ceasefire violations, 1,481 explosions
Feb 21: Russia recognizes independence of Donetsk and Luhansk
Feb 22: 1,710 ceasefire violations, 1,420 explosions
Feb 24: Russia launches ‘special military operation’

Read more …

All 27 countries will agree? Can’t see it.

Ukraine’s EU Accession Plan Is a Suicide Pill for Desperate EU (Jay)

It might take a decade for Ukraine to even join the EU club, but Macron and others are upbeat about Ukraine becoming an EU member state, ahead of a key vote by all 27-member states in Brussels. In reality, the grandiose, if not desperate move pushed by the French president, won’t go through as at least three member states have said already that they won’t back it. But what’s the real story behind this somewhat banal plan to make Ukraine a member of the European Union? Is there a hidden agenda? Well of course there is. It is simply that in 2028 Macron is hotly tipped to be running the EU. In this year, two top jobs will become vacant in Brussels – European Commission President and European Council of Ministers chief – and he is an obvious choice to take one of them.

Macron’s dream is that before then, France takes a leading role – if not the leading role – within the EU and that the bloc’s so-called ‘foreign policy’ is more or less run by him and his team. So what’s the link? In a nutshell, federalists like Macron dream of an EU which punches above its weight and despite the Maastricht treaty in 1992 and the Lisbon Treaty in 2007, the EU’s efforts to garner more power away from member states towards Brussels haven’t amounted to much in practical terms. On paper, the EU has a considerable amount of clout on the international circuit in terms of peacekeeping and humanitarian stuff. You know the sort of thing.

But in real terms whenever the EU wants to actually soldier ahead with something big, right at the last moment member states themselves hold back from pressing the button and block the move. This explains why only a couple of weeks into the Ukraine war, Macron himself went in person to visit Putin while the EU’s top diplo wonk, Josep incredibly-boring Borrell went to Washington to give a joint press conference with his left-wing US president. That tells you all you need to know about the EU’s real powers when it comes to the international stage. The EU’s top foreign policy chief didn’t go to Moscow as probably Putin wouldn’t have received him as, to be fair, Borrell hasn’t really much to say and no real power to do anything.

Read more …

mRNA affects both men and women’s reproductive systems.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/andr.13209

Pfizer’s mRNA Jabs “Temporarily” Impair Semen Concentration’ (Wiley)

37 semen donors from three sperm banks that provided 220 samples, were included in that retrospective longitudinal multicenter cohort study. BNT162b2 vaccination included two doses, and vaccination completion was scheduled 7 days after the second dose. The study included four phases: T0 – pre-vaccination baseline control, which encompassed 1–2 initial samples per SD; T1, T2 and T3 – short, intermediate, and long terms evaluations, respectively. Each included 1–3 semen samples per donor provided 15–45, 75-120, and over 150 days after vaccination completion, respectively. The primary endpoints were semen parameters. Three statistical analyses were conducted: 1) generalized estimated equation model; 2) first sample and 3) samples’ mean of each donor per period were compared to T0.


Repetitive measurements revealed -15.4% sperm concentration decrease on T2 (CI -25.5%–3.9%, p = 0.01) leading to total motile count 22.1% reduction (CI -35% – -6.6%, p = 0.007) compared to T0. Similarly, analysis of first semen sample only and samples’ mean per donor resulted in concentration and TMC reductions on T2 compared to T0 – median decline of 12 million/ml and 31 million motile spermatozoa, respectively (p = 0.02 and 0.002 respectively) on first sample evaluation and median decline of 9.5◊106 and 27.3 million motile spermatozoa (p = 0.004 and 0.003, respectively) on samples’ mean examination. T3 evaluation demonstrated overall recovery. Semen volume and sperm motility were not impaired.

Read more …

El Gato’s take on the study above.

Pfizer Vaccine Effects On Total Motile Count In Sperm Donors (El Gato)

these mRNA drugs are broadly systemic and concentrate in (amongst others) reproductive organs and effects on menstrual cycles are widely documented. In light of this quite worrying fact (especially with a compound carrying high CG enrichment relative to high virus and the attendant risks thereof) it has been surprising to me that there have no been more studies on this topic. But a few are starting to emerge. this israeli study was published 2 days ago: and the results are, well, nuts. (sorry). There was strong a priori reason to suspect effects, especially in light of the higher and more persistent prevalence of vaccine induced S proteins vs natural infection and the CG enrichment issued mentioned above.


“Over the first pandemic months, there was insufficient data regarding the possible impact of Covid-19 on human reproduction. Yet, it was clear it employs the Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor for cellular entry. Various testicular cells including Leydig, Sertoli, spermatogonia and spermatozoa express ACE2 and related proteases resulting with viral fusion. Cytokine storm-induced dysfunction, autophagy regulation and damaged blood-testis barrier were also suggested as possible pathogenic mechanism for testicular damage. Clinical reports of orchitis, supported by histological findings, further emphasized testicular involvement. Therefore, detrimental impact on both spermatogenesis and testosterone production 10 seem an obvious outcome they evaluated donors from 3 sperm banks over a longitudinal period commencing before pfizer vaccine and following up after.”

“Conclusions: Systemic immune response after BNT162b2 vaccine is a reasonable cause for transient semen concentration and TMC decline. Long-term prognosis remains good”. But i am left wondering about these claims and fear they may provide an example of the sort of “nerf or refute your own findings in the abstract so that we can publish this without massive controversy” behavior that has become all too common in medical and scientific journals who withhold peer review from those whose findings look too worrying if stated plainly. (but that will often let such data out if buried deep in supplements and appendixes).

I’m struggling to see how one could call this “recovery.” Post day 150, sperm concentration was -15.9% vs baseline, lower even than in the 75-120 day period. Average time post vaxx for T3 collection was 174 +/- 26.8 days so we’re talking about 6 months post vaxx with NO recovery in sperm concentration. Total motile count was slightly recovered from T2, but was still down 19.4% vs baseline, seeming to make up somewhat in volume what is lost in concentration.

Read more …

Cabal.

FDA Unanimously Approve Covid Vaccine For 0-4 Years (HART)

The FDA met on 15th June and despite all the evidence of non-efficacy from the infant Pfizer vaccine and the still total lack of data on long-term harms, they voted to go ahead. If the last eighteen months are anything to go by, the MHRA will follow soon, followed after a respectable few weeks by the JCVI. Indeed, vaccination for this age-group is already listed for JCVI discussion. Before the UK regulators make any decision, they would do well to read a detailed letter to the FDA from Senator Robert F Kennedy.

It was depressing that in the FDA open meeting, none of the members pointed out that 2 months follow-up is totally inadequate for assessing safety, nor questioned the use of an antibody level as a measure of success. No specific level of antibody exists which provides protection against covid so how can this be used as a useful measure? For young children, much of their reduced risk from covid arises from their superior innate immunity. In the presentation to the FDA, Pfizer presented evidence that the only antibodies produced in the children were to the Wuhan spike with no detectable antibodies to the Omicron spike. Moderna was also authorised for children at the same meeting, despite several countries having dropped it for all under 30s. Their lengthy document (189 pages of single-spaced typing) was only sent to members two working days ahead of the meeting.

But what of the Pfizer data on which the decision was apparently based? The Pfizer submission must be the most extreme case of data manipulation and bad science ever presented to the FDA. The study was approved on the basis of 4,500 participants but 3,000 of them did not make it to the end of the trial. That alone is enough to make the findings null and void. There are three other measures that were used to assess efficacy: total covid, ‘severe’ covid and hospitalisations. The researchers found that there were 30% more covid cases in the vaccine arm in the three weeks after first dose, so they ignored that data. They also ignored the data after the second dose where there was no benefit. They then ignored a full week after the third dose too.

In total 97% of the covid cases in the trial were ignored. Finally, they focused on 7 cases in the placebo arm more than a week after vaccination and 3 in the vaccine arm and on the basis of those tiny numbers over that very short period, they claimed efficacy. Pfizer described this issue thus: “Vaccine efficacy post Dose 3 cannot be precisely estimated due to the limited number of cases accrued during blinded follow-up, as reflected in the wide confidence intervals associated with the estimates.”

Read more …

“Pfizer study used just THREE children to prove it works..”

Experts Question CDC’s Approval Of Covid Vaccines For Under-5s (DM)

In the wake of the CDC’s approval of Pfizer and Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine for babies as young as six months, at least one expert has questioned the move. Dr. Sarah Long, an infectious diseases expert at the Drexel University College of Medicine, told the New York Times: ‘We should just assume that we don’t have efficacy data.’ That comes off the back of Pfizer’s own reporting that said their statements of 80% effectiveness in children under five was based on the responses of just three children. Those children were part of a group of ten but seven were given a placebo. And there are also concerns about the Moderna shot, which is only between 37 per cent and 51 per cent effective, depending on the age of the child receiving it.


According to the Times report, the CDC noted in their meeting this past Friday on whether or not to approve the vaccines that Pfizer’s metric was unreliable. Dr. Long said that despite this she was ‘comfortable enough’ in approving the vaccines based on other data. Both Moderna and Pfizer’s vaccines were shown to have a success rate of around 95% in adults. However in Moderna’s case, that number is just 37% in children aged two through five. The shot is effective in 51 per cent of children aged between six months and 23 months. Earlier in June 2022, FDA advisors met to discuss new vaccines to deal with new mutations of Covid-19. Public health authorities have expressed a worry that a new mutation in the latter part of the year, could undermine vaccines, reports CNBC.

Read more …

Coming full circle.

Germany Turns To Coal For Electricity Amid Gas Shortage Concerns (JTN)

Germany plans on limiting the use of natural gas and increasing the use of coal to generate electricity over concerns about a possible gas shortage as Russia cuts supplies, according to German Economy Minister Robert Habeck. “That’s bitter, but it’s simply necessary in this situation to lower gas usage,” Habeck, an environmentalist Green party member, said, the Associated Press reported. Russia’s majority state-owned Gazprom announced plans last week to sharply reduce gas to the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. Although the company cited technical reasons, Haebeck said the move appeared political. Germany has been scaling back gas imports because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.


The nation was attempting to phase out coal-generated power. Germany is set to shut down its last coal-fired power plant no later than 2038, The German government is asking citizens to reduce their energy use due to the supply situation. The European country is hoping to fill its gas storage facilities to 90% capacity by this fall in order to ensure heat throughout the winter. The facilities are currently at less than 60% capacity.

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“Macron’s Ensemble coalition is on track to win 245 seats, down from 345 in the outgoing chamber..”

Macron Faces 5 Years Of Gridlock After Stunning Parliamentary Defeat (Pol.eu)

French President Emmanuel Macron is set to face a potentially tumultuous five years of deadlock after his centrist alliance fell short of an absolute majority in a parliamentary runoff on Sunday, just weeks after he was reelected to the Elysée. Voters massively came out in support of the far-right National Rally and the left-wing coalition NUPES, depriving Macron of a ruling majority. With almost all votes counted, Macron’s Ensemble coalition is on track to win 245 seats, down from 345 in the outgoing chamber. NUPES, led by the far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon is set to win 141 seats, while Marine Le Pen’s National Rally will likely walk away with 89 seats. The runoff vote determines the composition of the National Assembly, the parliament’s lower chamber.


In the first round of voting last Sunday, Macron’s coalition of parties was neck and neck with the NUPES alliance, sparking concern among some in Macron’s camp that the French president’s popularity was sharply in decline. On Sunday, Macron’s supporters were left reeling after several party big guns, including the speaker of the National Assembly Richard Ferrand and Christophe Castaner, Macron’s party whip in the outgoing chamber, lost their seats. Health Minister Brigitte Bourguignon and Environment Minister Amélie de Montchalin also lost their seats — which will likely force their resignations, as has been convention since the Sarkozy era. The newly appointed Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, who won her seat in Normandy with a slim majority, said Ensemble would work to broaden its support in parliament and build a “majority of action.”

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“in the end the Americans can’t say no [to his release], given that President Obama commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning for exposing the very war crime that Assange went on to publicise worldwide”

Australia Government Lobbying Behind The Scenes For Assange’s Freedom (SMH)

The federal government is lobbying US counterparts behind the scenes to secure the freedom of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, after the United Kingdom’s decision to approve his extradition to the United States. The Trump administration brought charges against Assange under the Espionage Act relating to the leaking and publication of the WikiLeaks cables a decade ago. The UK Home Office announced late on Friday (AEST) that “after consideration by both the Magistrates Court and High Court, the extradition of Julian Assange to the US was ordered”. “In this case, the UK courts have not found that it would be oppressive, unjust or an abuse of process to extradite Mr Assange. “Nor have they found that extradition would be incompatible with his human rights, including his right to a fair trial and to freedom of expression, and that whilst in the US he will be treated appropriately, including in relation to his health.”

Assange’s legal team has 14 days to appeal the decision to the High Court and will do so while he remains in Belmarsh prison. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, while still opposition leader in December, said “enough is enough” and that it was time for Assange to be returned to Australia. Asked about Assange’s extradition on Saturday, he told The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age that he stood by the comments he made in December. At the time, Albanese said “he [Assange] has paid a big price for the publication of that information already. And I do not see what purpose is served by the ongoing pursuit of Mr Assange”. Albanese met US President Joe Biden at the Quad meeting in Tokyo in late May, days after the federal election, but there has been no indication that he raised the Assange matter with him during their meeting.

A source in the federal government, who asked not to be named so they could discuss the matter, has confirmed to The Sun-Herald and The Sunday Age that Assange’s case has been raised with senior US officials. Former foreign minister Bob Carr said the discussions over Assange’s release would be “governed by sensitive, nuanced alliance diplomacy appropriate between partners”. “I trust the judgment of Prime Minister Albanese on this, given his recent statement cautioning against megaphone diplomacy and his comments last December,” he said. But Carr predicted that “in the end the Americans can’t say no [to his release], given that President Obama commuted the sentence of Chelsea Manning for exposing the very war crime that Assange went on to publicise worldwide”. “The Yank has had her sentence commuted; the Aussie faces an extradition and a cruel sentencing.

Read more …

 

 

 

Hinton Oliver

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sound On

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle June 20 2022

Viewing 38 posts - 1 through 38 (of 38 total)
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  • #110047

    Henri Matisse Notre-Dame, une fin d’après-midi 1902   • Boris Urges World Leaders To Hold Their Nerve For A Long War In Ukraine (DM) • Prepare To
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle June 20 2022]

    #110048
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Gonzalo Lira – A message for Americans

    Very painful to watch; and spot on; remember to duck and cover…hahahahahahahahahahah………

    #110049
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Someone should let Putin know “Davos genetic poison” is in Sputnik V, a Davos Trojan horse horse attack on Russia.


    After several weeks of passive-aggressive bickering, Russia and the WHO are unfortunately still “an item” and they may even take their calamitous relationship to the next level: clot-shot certification. Gross.

    https://edwardslavsquat.substack.com/p/russia-and-the-who-friends-with-benefits

    #110050
    anticlimactic
    Participant

    EU for Ukraine?

    – Western media are generally agreed that Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries on the planet
    – It is largely controlled by oligarchs and Nazis [and more recently the US]
    – I read that it has the nastiest criminals on the planet, which seems plausible
    – Zelensky has banned all opposition parties and arrested the leader of the main opposition party
    – Zelensky shut down any TV/Radio/Newspaper who were critical
    – Ukraine has spent the past 8 years murdering its own citizens

    Is this REALLY the kind of country the EU wants?

    Not sure what Turkey will think if the Ukraine is accepted!

    #110051
    chooch
    Participant

    Big guns are being positioned on both sides. The timing of Ukraine’s talked about” counter offensive has been moving out to September. Discussing such things is either open denial of how bad it is or misdirection.

    A train carrying MLRS and 152mm howitzers arrived in Belgorod (not far from Kharkiv) arrived a couple days ago. That train left Irkutsk on the 9th. Things have been picking up in this region. Kharkiv to likely to become the next Mariupol.

    Also, The Russian army seems to be preparing a large-scale offensive kitchen sink style (T-62s and middle aged conscripts) to capture Luhansk region. Occupants have thrown all their reserves into the Severodonetsk and Bakhmut directions, trying to establish full control over the regional center and to “cut off” the Lysychansk-Bakhmut highway once and for all.

    https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/status/1535682460817793024?s=20&t=YBn3201ikBBMe9SBDZ7f-Q

    #110052
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    “Pfizer study used just THREE children to prove it works..”

    The children…THE FUCKING CHILDREN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    WE’RE DEFINITELY BACK AT NUREMBERG; ONLY WORSE!!!!!!
    WE SHOULD’VE KNOWN BETTER…………………BUT WE DON’T; ALL THESE DECADES LATER…
    iS THIS OUR FUTURE?

    #110053

    This caught my eye inn a Dutch outlet that I can’t link to just now, from Ukraine Defense minister Reznikov, who keep vowing Ukraine will reconquer all lost territory, including Crimea:

    Ukraine plans to display destroyed Russian tanks in Europe. The idea behind the tour of European countries is to keep the public’s attention on the war in Ukraine

    “We will help Russian tanks to visit Europe, but as wrecks,” Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told the Polish channel Polsat. The minister states that Moscow is looking for area expansion and Russian generals want to go all the way to Portugal.

    Cuckoo!

    #110055
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Gonzalo Lira strikes again: “Baltic EU/NATO member Lithuania has implemented a ban on all rail transit goods going to Russia’s far-western exclave of Kaliningrad,”

    And also all air traffic, as shown in the whole air corridor to Serbia.

    Yup, NATO starting WWIII in the Baltics. Because that’s been going so well for them. …And now we’ll read that Russia “didn’t expect” this. I’m guessing that like Ukraine, there was a VERY SPECIFIC treaty that prevents this and has just been recklessly violated. Like this:

    “the EU enforcement measure being implemented from Vilnius marks a complete break in a three decade long treaty”

    The EU/West breaks every treaty. Every time. To them, they’re not even suggestions. They are “Not Agreement Capable”, what they write down doesn’t exist. Now you see why Russia still holds almost all soldiers in reserve.

    Shootin’ for WWIII: “Russia Attacks US-Backed Fighters in Syria at American Outpost”

    That would be completely illegal, war-crimes occupation of the 1/3 oil-rich side of a brown country. Stunning and brave. Vote DNC, do not pull out of foreign wars like that sissy Donald wants.

    How are they gonna pay for the war? “Russia meanwhile earned a record €93 billion (US$97 billion) from energy exports during the first 100 days of the war, a Finnish study concluded.”

    Unlike the U.S. in Iraq (and the other 20 wars we’re in) the Ukraine war is self-funding.

    Boris Urges World Leaders to Hold Their Nerve for a Long War in Ukraine (DM)”

    Whose war, Boris? Yours? Europe and NATO attacking Russia until one of them no longer stands?

    “Everything will depend on whether Ukraine can strengthen its ability to defend its soil faster than Russia can renew its capacity to attack.”

    It cannot because there are no men. That’s it. But these maniacs give men a Zero value, and material stuff like money an Infinity value. It’s not their “nerve” that is failing.

    “make sure the Ukrainians are not encouraged to go for a bad peace,”

    BoJo is maskness orgies, eating 5-stars, and demanding more war as there are a few Ukrainian women still alive. Must have more war. So Britain runs this sovereign nation now? Or is it vice-versa? Is this “our” war or isn’t it?

    “calm but quietly menacing warning.” “Putin menaces” “The Russian President sat quietly, considering”

    You’re fired. Reporters are to write “He said.” With the facts who what where when why. Be a novelist on your own time. P.S. also don’t care about your personal life or experiences, or what the weather was that day. Time is money, get to the point and don’t waste our readers’ time, and don’t insult them: they can draw their own conclusions and make up their own minds.

    “Russia’s New Rules (Luongo)”

    Conclusion from this: RUSSIA WILL NOT NEGOTIATE. What would be the point? They are going to do whatever they like, for as long as they like.

    “Russia and the WHO are unfortunately still “an item”

    You just do the opposite of here: Write on paper that the vaccine is X for the WHO, but then “Oopsie!” poor Russian production standards has most of the vials non-working. I suspect they did the opposite here, saying “We’re producing X” which was bad enough, but also made batches that were Y, Z, A, B, and C, tossing in anything they ever wanted to do Ukrainian mental-patient medical experiments on. I can probably prove it, but it would take a bit. For them it’s good: the more muddied the symptoms, the better. Doctors start with the totally unfounded, unprovable premise that they got the “Pfizer” or the “J&J” shot. Really? Which one of 300 flavors? Only Pfizer would know, as we saw with the 10x fatalities of the “##A” list the other month?

    Only if you’re untrusting and can add the possibility that death is the goal does the puzzle become instantly clear.

    19” Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oho9KaoxI-4
    Back when people had the sense to be antiwar and fear nuclear war. They were already forgetting when this song came out.

    “.most airlines are simply not going to be able to realize their capacity plans because there simply aren’t enough pilots,” the airline said.

    Really? Why? The U.S. has the exact number of pilots they had two years ago, and produces more pilots every year. Or do they? If we have the same number of pilots in good condition, where are they? If they’re not around, what happened? Nobody asks.

    Powell: “We see job growth slowing, but it’s still at quite robust levels. We see the economy slowing a bit, but there are still healthy levels of growth… There’s no sign of a broader slowdown”

    “Subprime is contained.” There is no Recession…he says as all his own regional Fed Banks record a Recession. …And we’re 1/3rd(?) the level of previous employment, etc.

    Either they will put you down in NeoFeudal technocratic Dictatorship, or they will lose and be annihilated. They refuse to add more choices. So be it. The market is tanking now, and with it, their power.

    #110056
    EoinW
    Participant

    Excellent Gonzalo Lira piece. It will be like a return to Kingston, Jamaica 1973 – Frazier v Foreman. I can hear Howard Cosell: “NATO IS DOWN! NATO IS DOWN! NATO IS DOWN!”

    I don’t agree with the end result being nuclear war. Working with the Democratic party, the WEF is doing everything it can do to destroy the USA. The one world government plan has failed(thanks to Russia & China) however Davos ruling the entire western world is still in play.

    Starting a war with Russia makes sense if the goal to get NATO shredded and destroy DC credibility. Which, they hope, leads to America becoming a failed state.

    #110057
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Well the world changed for me today TAE had a swizz beats and lil’ wayne track in the feed!

    I’m happy. The Indian dancing was cute too.

    #110058
    Oroboros
    Participant

    The British lost their Empire then they lost their shit.

    Someone described England as an American aircraft carrier in dry dock for repairs.

    I think it’s an run aground rust bucket waiting for the scrap heap.

    They have no alternative to Boris Bat-them-off

    The depth of British ‘leadership’ to replace him wouldn’t fill a tea cup.

    “Russia is done with the West”

    Eurotardistan will become a third world butt plug without Russian commodities and energy.

    Germany cannot compete on the world stage paying inflated energy prices.

    China will eat it’s lunch and spit out the bones.

    China gets to buy discounted Russian energy, Germany will have to pay a premium.

    Energy is still the Master Resource.

    .

    #110059
    Oroboros
    Participant

    • Ukraine’s EU Accession Plan Is a Suicide Pill for Desperate EU

    Eurotardistan phucked over Turkey for 30 thirty years over EU membership

    Turkey is going to get it’s pound of flesh through it’s NATO VETO.

    Just watch and pass the popcorn.

    Russia loves it too

    .

    #110060
    zerosum
    Participant

    Old news
    The enemy is Peace.
    The enemy is independence
    The enemy is freewill.
    Freedom depends on your gated community. (see wall of China)
    Its my ball, its my rules, or I’m going home with my ball
    ———–

    #110061
    zerosum
    Participant

    Old news

    ‘Nothing Will Be As Before’


    ‘Nothing Will Be As Before’
    8838 Views June 20, 2022 27 Comments
    By Batiushka for the Saker Blog

    #110063
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    The Controlled Demolition of the Economy

    “In case you haven’t noticed, the wheels are falling off the global economy right now.”

    https://corbettreport.substack.com/p/the-controlled-demolition-of-the

    #110064
    John Day
    Participant

    Making efforts to avoid re-posting items already posted on TAE.
    Pictue of “cold-tolerant” avocado seedlings faring differently. the biggest 2 handled winter the best.
    https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/non-wef-alliances

    Michael Hudson’s recent interview is largely on the history of western economics as a study, updated to current trends.
    Economic Rent and Exploitation:
    ..Patten cited public roads and canals to lower the cost of doing business. He also noted that every time you build a road or railroad, you’re going to raise the land value along these routes – and lower land prices for areas replaced by the now-more-accessible producers. You can simply self-finance the cost of these by taxing the rent.
    You also need public education, and that should be free so that you don’t have like today, to earn enough money to pay an enormous student debt – and receive a high salary to afford to pay that…

    ..So the movement towards public infrastructure towards government spending was led by the industrialists. It was they themselves who wanted strong government. The common denominator of politics from Adam Smith through all of the 19th century was to free economies from the unnecessary economic rent, to free them from unearned income, from the free lunch. To do that, you have to have a government strong enough to take on the vested interests – first the landlord class in the House of Lords, and then the financial class behind it…

    ..Government infrastructure is a fourth means of production. But what makes it different from profits and wages is that if you’re a wage earner, you want to make as high a wage as possible. If you’re a capitalist, you want to make as high a profit as possible. But the job of public investment is not to make an income, not to do what was done under Thatcher and Tony Blair, not to treat public utilities, education and health as profit making opportunities. Instead, Patten said, you should measure their productivity by how much they lower the cost of doing business and the cost of living for the economy at large…

    ..Protectionists in America said the way to minimise costs – and it may seem an oxymoron to you – the way you minimise costs is to have high-wage labour. You raise the wages of labour, or more specifically, you want to raise the living standards, because highly paid labour, highly educated labour, well fed labour, well rested labour is more productive than pauper labour. So they said explicitly, America’s going to be a high wage economy. We’re not like Europe. Our higher wages are going to provide high enough living standards to provide high labour productivity. And our higher labour productivity, shorter working day, better working conditions, healthy working conditions, public health, well educated labor will undersell that of countries that don’t have an active public sector…

    ..Needless to say, the fight for the kind of democracy that will free economies from economic rent was not easy. By the late 1880s, and especially the 1890s, you had the rentiers fighting back. In America the fight was led by John Bates Clark. There was a movement, which today is called neoliberalism, to deny the entire thrust of classical economics. Clarke said that there is no such thing is unearned income. That meant that economic rent does not exist. Whatever a businessman makes, he is said to earn. Whatever a landlord makes, he earns – so there was no unearned income…

    On difficulties with big government and small government:
    ..In the 19th century, in order to tax the land rent, you had to take on the most powerful vested interests of all: the real estate interests and the financial interests. But Henry George was a libertarian. He was for small government. He broke with the socialists, because he warned that socialism had a potential for authoritarianism. Well, we know that he was right in that warning, because we saw what happened in Stalinist Russia. But obviously, what you want is a government that is strong and democratic, and with enough authority to tax and regulate the vested interests. (That term is Veblen’s, by the way.) That was the ideal in America, but it needed a strong enough government so that Teddy Roosevelt could come in and be able to bust the trusts.​..​

    ​..​The government was strong enough in 1913-14 to impose an American income tax that fell just on 1% of the population, almost entirely on economic rent, on land rent, mineral rent on monopoly rent of the big corporations. If you’re a libertarian, your government is too small to take on these vested interests. And you’ll never win…

    ..I find little interest in today’s socialist movement or the socialist movement 50 years ago about land rent. They are more concerned about international issues, about war, about almost everything except land rent. And today I find the greatest interest in rent theory as a guide to a tax system in the context of an overall economic system to be in China. So that’s really where the debate over how to keep the price of housing down by keeping the financial sector from trying to capitalise the land rent into a bank loan…

    ..Russia could have been a low-cost economy. It could have kept the oil and gas, Yukos, GazProm, nickel and platinum resources all in the public domain to finance investment in re-industrialization, to become independent of the West. But as we all know, Ted and the people that Fred Harrison bought were completely overwhelmed by the billions of dollars that U.S. diplomats spent on promoting kleptocracy and shock therapy in Russia. Its officials andinsiders worked for themselves, not Russia…

    ..The National Income and Product Accounts treat rent as a product, not a subtrahend
    A byproduct of this value-free doctrine is how countries calculate their national income and product accounts. And if you look at the GDP accounts for the United States (and I’ve published a number of articles on my website and in major economic journals), rent is counted as part of GDP.​..
    ​..A classical economic accounting format would show how much of the prices for what our society produces is actually necessary, and how much is a subtrahend. Classical economists treat the land rent that you pay, interest charges and monopoly prices as a rake-off. So not all of your income is income equals “product,” because only a portion of that income represents a real product.
    ​ ​In America, the head of Goldman Sachs a few years ago said Goldman Sachs partners – a financial management firm – make more money than almost anyone else in America, because they’re the most productive. If you make a lot of money, by definition, you make it by being productive. That’s the false identity…

    ..A precondition for what you call an economist, especially a Nobel Prize winning economist, is not to understand how the economy works. Because if you understand that, you’re going to threaten the vested interests that are getting the free lunch. You have to say there’s no such thing as a free lunch, everybody earns whatever they can get. Robbers and criminals like that idea. “Yeah, we stole it fair and square!”..

    …So the way that the economy works today is no longer industrial capitalism; it is finance capitalism. Instead of Industrial Engineering, making society produce more with all of the environmental protection cost included, you have financial engineering, making wealth by increasing stock-market prices. Wealth is not achieved by earning it. You don’t save up your earnings and get wealthy. I think half of Americans are unable to raise $400 In an emergency. They have no savings at all..

    .​..​Under Reagan’s 1981 tax “reform” you could pretend that if you buy a big commercial building, you can write off 1/7 of the entire costs every single year as tax deductible income. At the end of seven years, you change your ownership from one name to another name, and you start all over again. The same building can be re depreciated again and again and again… But nowhere in the national income statistics is a report of how much income real estate owners actually claim as depreciation. They haven’t done that because if they showed this, people would think, ‘Wait a minute, this is a giveaway. This is utterly unrealistic.”​…​

    ..The purpose of industrial capitalism was to free economies from the legacy of feudalism. And the legacy of feudalism was the landlord-warrior class collecting hereditary rent and the predatory banks that were not making loans for industry. None of the industrialists got their money to invest from banks. The inventors of the steam engine couldn’t get loans except by mortgaging their houses. Banks don’t lend money to create capital, only for the right to foreclose on it…

    ..Until 1971, countries running a balance of payments deficit would have to settle it either in gold or by selling off their industry to investors in the payments-surplus countries. Well, beginning with the war in Korea in 1950-1951, the U.S. balance of payments moved into deficit. The entire U.S. balance of payments deficit from the Korean War to the 1970s was a result of its foreign military spending.
    ​ By ​the time the Vietnam war was ending, the Americans had to sell its gold every month. Vietnam had been a French colony, so the banks there were French. As America spent more dollars in Southeast Asia, these dollars were sent from local French bank branches to their head offices in Paris. The Paris bank would turn over these dollars to the central bank for francs, and the central bank, under General de Gaulle, would cash in these dollars for gold.
    ​ ​Germany was doing the same thing, using its export proceeds that were paid in dollars to buy gold…

    ..My job at Chase was to analyse basically the balance of payments of Third World countries and then of the oil industry. I had to develop an accounting format to find how much does the oil industry actually makes in the rest of the world. I had to calculate natural-resource rent, and how large it was. I did that from 1964 till October 1967. Then I had to quit to finish my dissertation to get the PhD. And then I developed the system of balance-of-payments analysis that actually was the way it had been calculated before GDP analysis.
    ​ ​I went to work for Arthur Andersen and spent a year calculating the whole U.S. balance of payments. That’s where I found that it was all military in character, and I began to write in popular magazines like Ramparts, warning that America’s foreign wars were forcing it to run out of gold. That was the price that America was paying for its military spending abroad.
    ​ ​I realised as soon as it went off gold in 1971 that America now had a cost-free means of military spending. Suppose you were to go to the grocery store and just pay in IOUs. You could just keep spending If you could convince the owner, the grocer to use the IOU to pay the farmers and the dairy people for their products. What if everybody else used these IOUs as money? You would continue to get your groceries for free.
    ​ ​That’s how the United States economy works under the dollar standard, at least until the present…

    ..Just about everybody thought that it would take many years for China, Russia, Iran, India, Indonesia and other countries to get their act together and create an alternative. But this year the Biden administration itself destroyed America’s free ride for the dollar. First the United States grabbed Venezuela’s foreign exchange, then Biden grabbed all of the foreign exchange of Afghanistan, just confiscated it. And then a month ago he confiscated $300 billion of Russia’s foreign exchange reserves. He said, in effect, that we are the leading democracy in the world, and global democracy means that America’s military gets to appoint foreign presidents…

    ..Europe has committed economic suicide, United States offered its leaders a lot of money in their offshore accounts, and made sure that their kids got free education in the United States. But in return, they would have to represent the United States, not Germany, France or other countries. The Americans have been meddling in European politics for years. European politicians do not represent their own countries. They represent the American State Department and American diplomacy. And they were told to lock their countries into the U.S. economy…
    ..America said that you Europeans are bothering them by trying to stop global warming. That’s a direct attack on a major arm of U.S. diplomacy, the oil industry. American companies control almost all the world’s oil trade. It’s the highest rent-yielding sector in the world. And it’s income-tax free. It’s politically powerful, and as long as America can control the oil trade, it can talk to Latin American countries or African countries and say if they elect a leader that U.S. officials don’t like, it can impose sanctions and stop exporting oil to them to freeze them out. They won’t get fertilizer, so the U.S. can starve you out. It can put a sanction on their food trade.

Agriculture is Americans biggest trade surplus…

    Regarding the developing alternate world trade block:
    They’re going to hold each other’s currencies. Especially now that Russia is denominating its exports, in roubles instead of dollars. The American banks have lost the trade financing of the world oil trade, certainly Russian oil and agricultural trade. Instead of holding dollars, countries will hold rouble reserves to stabilise their currencies via the rouble, China is holding rouble reserves, and Russia is holding Chinese yuan reserves.
    The balance will be held more in gold and some kind of assets without a liability attached to them. I think the logical direction in which this is moving is that the non-dollar countries will create their own version of the International Monetary Fund, their own World Bank, their own trade organization…

    ..If American Europe is left with its current foreign policy, biowarfare and atomic bombs, NATO will be shunned by the civilised world. As Rosa Luxemburg said a century ago, the choice is between socialism or barbarism. NATO, Europe and America represent the new barbarism. The alternative is socialism. That is how the world seemed to be developing in Europe and America until World War I untracked everything. The rest of the world now has a chance to get back on track. I don’t know what’s going to happen in the West. https://thesaker.is/economic-rent-and-exploitation-michael-hudson-shepheard-walwyn/

    Russian warships have destroyed a Ukrainian command center with Kalibr cruise missiles, killing dozens officers, Moscow’s Defense Ministry reported on Sunday. “More than 50 generals and officers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were killed,” the statement outline. The strike took place near the village of Shirokaya Dacha in Dnepropetrovsk Region. It hit a compound where commanders of several Ukrainian units had gathered for a meeting, according to Moscow. The ministry added that Kalibr missiles were also used to destroy 10 M777 howitzers and up to 20 armored vehicles that were recently delivered from the West, and had been stored inside a factory building in the southern city of Nikolayev. https://www.rt.com/russia/557428-50-ukrainian-generals-officers-killed-russia/

    #110065
    John Day
    Participant

    Moscow will throw its full support toward helping the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics revive their war-torn economies, Russia’s trade and industry minister, Denis Manturov, told RT on Friday.
    “We have met with the heads of both republics for detailed talks over plans for economic reconstruction,” …​
    ​The Construction Ministry said it would also help rebuild and manage critical infrastructure and prepare for the winter.
    Schools, hospitals and daycare centers, as well as housing, will be the priorities.
    ​ ​The Donbass republics have already signed cooperation agreements with several Russian regions. Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin has recently announced that 300 specialists from the city are already working to restore the water supply in Donetsk.
    ​ ​Meanwhile, DPR leader Denis Pushilin said on Friday that a deal had been signed to buy food and building materials from Iran. He added that Donetsk plans to sell metal, cast iron, mining equipment, fertilizer, and other goods to the Islamic Republic.
    https://www.rt.com/business/557387-russia-rebuild-donbass-trade-minister/

    KURDISH, PRO-GOVERNMENT & IRANIAN-BACKED FORCES SET UP JOINT OPERATION ROOM IN SYRIA’S ALEPPO​ (This is an allied joint command.)
    ​ Kurdish, pro-government and Iranian-backed formations had established a joint operations room called the “North Thunderbolt” in Syria’s Aleppo to coordinate against Turkey, the Al-Monitor reported on June 19.
    ​ ​The operatio​​ns room, which was established on May 25, is headquartered at a Russian base in the village of Hardatnin in the northern countryside of Aleppo.​..
    ..Two Russian officers, three officers from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, three Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leaders and two leaders from the pro-government forces are reportedly present at the operations room, which commands some 600 fighters.

    Kurdish, Pro-Government & Iranian-Backed Forces Set Up Joint Operation Room In Syria’s Aleppo

    ​ Medical Vitamin-D expert, David Grimes MD has been sorting through Canadian government health statistics, which are cumulative.
    He substacted the totals from the week of 4/10/22 from the week of 4/17/22 and found this information about COVID deaths for that week.​
    ​ ​Covid-19 deaths among the unvaccinated increased from 9511 to 9512, an increase during the week of just one.
    Only 1 of the 227 Covid-19 deaths was a person who had not been vaccinated. Let this true but unpublicised fact sink in.
    http://www.drdavidgrimes.com/

    #110066
    Kassandra
    Participant

    Dr D, just want to follow up briefly on your response to me yesterday. I moved in 2020 from a somewhat undesirable area of the inner SF Bay Area (“bad schools” you see) but was a family friendly and safe area 20 years ago. We were a couple miles from one of the worst neighborhoods in the Bay Area. By 2020 there were shootings and all our neighbors were being robbed regularly. Home invasions where sometimes elderly people were beaten. I worked in Berkeley and in the SF Financial District. Over the 20 years things in “nice” neighborhoods and on BART became more and more dangerous. Random attacks. Shootings on freeways. A student murdered walking down the street in Berkeley. I lived what you are talking about, as a young person in Los Angeles growing up, and an adult in SF. There’s no escape anymore in those areas, no matter how much money you have. I’m now not in a city, because of all the things you brought up. I’m 2 hours from the closest interstate, surrounded by farmland. And there’s not a single neighborhood or area I would be scared to walk through anywhere near me, besides some areas of woods during hunting season I suppose.

    I’m of the opinion that in the coming times if you don’t own a plane of your own and a supply of fuel, you don’t want to be in a place you may need to escape in any sort of hurry.

    #110068
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    to borrow from the work of Quora contributor, Spencer McDaniel (avid reader of John Milton’s Paradise Lost)
    “The famous saying “Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven” comes from a monologue delivered by the character of Satan in Book I, lines 242 through 270 of the epic poem Paradise Lost, written in blank verse by the English poet John Milton (lived 1608 – 1674) and originally published in 1667. This saying in particular comes from line 263.

    When the epic begins, Satan and his legions of fallen angels have already been defeated by the angelic hosts and they have been cast into the depths of Tartarus, which is described as horrible, dark, fiery place full of pain and suffering. It is not the sort of place anyone in their right mind would want to rule.”

    The variously described Great Reset New World Order cabal which is currently screwing up the Great Western Empire of Lies would be well advised to read up on their Milton, especially that line about preferring to rule over Hell. Seems like they’re getting what they wished for. No one in their right might would want to rule ( or live in ! ) the transhumanist starving slaves of the world that these WEF guys (and their Masters !) wish to create and rule.

    Looks like an extremely serious case of needing to be careful about what ya wish for.

    #110069
    Noirette
    Participant
    #110070
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @Noirette

    Does anyone still conscious enough to read or observe see that trend turning around and going the other direction any time soon?

    #110071
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    [this quotation was clipped from a California newspaper report about the truly terrible conditions in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, circa June 10, 2022. San Francisco’s Tenderloin district is a barely survivable hell of crime and bad conditions , ruled with a bloody hand by the Cartels and their enablers.]
    (quote) “Everyone knows what’s going on. The cops, mayor, and D.A.,” said Tom Wolf, a recovering addict. “Everyone knows it’s organized and cartel-backed. They just don’t think it’s worth it to stop it, because nothing’s going to change anyway. They’ve surrendered.” (end quote)

    Hiding within that quoted factoid lurks the second biggest secret in the world. The secret is that the people who we willingly select and accept and trust as “official” authorities mostly think that the awful shit that we suffer as a consequence of their management is just fine with them, as long as they keep on getting more of what THEY want.

    Because those “official” authorities (pretty much all of them) are the ones who are DOING the shit to us that we don’t like. it makes no sense at all to ask those same brigands for their help in setting any of it right. They are the gatekeepers who decide who gets locked outside the gates.

    Right now the folks in charge see benefit in things being as they are, and so they proactively WANT things to be as the are (i.e the gates closing and soon to be sealed shut). This eviction and closure is not by accident or by mistake. It is, transparently, very very much on purpose.

    So don’t expect any gatekeepers to allow you to get more of what YOU want if that would in any way result in the Officially Authorized Gatekeepers not getting more of what THEY want ( or even . . . . perish the thought . . . . maybe LESS than what they want.) That’s the whole idea. Each “layer” authorizes and pays the layer beneath it to do what will be good for the superior layer at the expense of the inferior layer. Shit flows downhill.

    The view from below is interesting, too. It seems that every subservient layer in the inferior positions then BRIBES the layer above them by means of BUYING (with cash, services and protection) the “authority” to enable doing what the subservient layer wants to do. Two-Way-Pay-To-Play. As they say in the Life, “sweet!” It’s all so tidy and efficient.

    That might seem like an extremely dark and pessimistic view to take on how things work around here, but before you hang me as the world’s most depressing Doomer please allow me to remind you of one more thing, one that strikes me as a potentially much better deal : We do, in fact, ALSO have the option of simply wanting things that actually ARE better. I mean “better” in the sense of more “good”.

    You can have either one (aspire either to good or to bad ). Whichever the choice, it will take some time to advance by stages to more effective levels of ability. But getting started is easy. All that’s required is to start wanting it. Simple as that.

    But before you decide that . . . . . before deciding to want good because it is better . . . . you better remind yourself that the PRICE of believing something to be true and good is that you SHALL believe it. In other words, you will believe it so implicitly that there will be roughly zero chance of you changing your mind about it. If your choice was to want ‘good’ (which I sure do hope it was) then that’s just the way this whole thing is gonna roll. Say no more. Let’s get to work and see if we can do some good.

    Those who made the wrong choice (i.e. the choice to want “bad”) create thereby a bit of a problem. I believe that these miscreants should be rescued when it is judged to be good and acceptably safe to do so. But beware of throwing away something good in that effort. It is usually very tricky and difficult to accomplish.

    Those who are not rescued will reduce themselves, by steps and stages, to eventually reach zero awareness (of self or of anything else, either) and will thereby remove themselves from the playing field completely. They will literally and by their own choice simply be no more. Thus the end point (regardless of how gruesome it initially sounds) contains no awareness whatsoever , and thus no suffering. On the way down, however, these fools cause one hell of a lot of wreckage and suffering indeed.

    If there is a better way to run things rather than this “guided trial and error” method of existence then I would sure like to know what it is. I would use it and encourage others to do the same. Otherwise what’s going to continue transpiring in the very real events of our day-to-day lives (such as those detailed and discussed routinely in this forum) is that the human race is going to either gain sufficient wisdom to manage the enormous lethal power it has organized, or it will fail to adequately manage that unprecedented level of power and be damaged (as an entire species) down to stage of operational capacity where it no longer possesses the power to eliminate itself. In other words, to survive as a species we must and therefor we shall either gain wisdom or lose power. And it’s being played out right now.

    I’m willing to negotiate my surrender. Sure hope that the boss still is.

    #110072
    John Day
    Participant

    D Benton Smith said:
    “In other words, to survive as a species we must and therefor we shall either gain wisdom or lose power. And it’s being played out right now.
    I’m willing to negotiate my surrender. Sure hope that the boss still is.”

    That’s my assessment, too, and it may be jittery, in fits and starts, so I’m trying to go on ahead, do my best, and not be roadkill.

    #110073
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @JohnDay

    Yessir. Me, too.

    #110074
    slimyalligator
    Participant

    Dr. Day thanks for the link to Dr. Grimes. I always forget about him until you bring him up. I assiduously email his work to my government representatives plus health bureaus and my state University medical research department. A little research money thrown Dr. Grimes way would do a world of good on the cheap. You did your part on advocating D3 as have a few others. I’m surrounded with educated people with 2-4 vaxes and infected with Covid multiple times. I’m viewed as a heretic by suggesting D3. You’re living my dream. In my heaven I would be surrounded by an avocado orchard with olive oil, a salt shaker, black pepper, lemon juice and garlic in hand.
    Regards

    #110075
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    A lighter, historical “catch-up” video to share with those newly awakening to the blossoming U$ Empire LLP nightmare, offered by no other than Ray Dalio:

    #110076
    VietnamVet
    Participant

    Both Russia and the West are ruled by oligarchs — plutocracies. It is just the degree of their control over what is left of government. Democratic republics are long gone. The militaries have been privatized. This is why the proxy world war is starting out just the same as WWI. Though a century has passed, the ruling aristocracy hasn’t changed a bit. There is no public health, public education or public safety left for one basic reason — they are profitless. The USA is #1 and Russia #4 with total COVID deaths.

    It is not a coincidence that the ultra right is similar in the USA or Russia. Humans revert to old beliefs when under stress. Actually, the rational political left and right are approach similar positions; everyone else is crazy. This is just like WWI, incompetent leadership on all sides; artillery trench warfare. If the proxy world war escalates and last four years, the Western and Russian Empires will collapse. If China isn’t destroyed by nuclear weapons, it will be the last human civilization left on a polluted depleted earth.

    #110077
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    Anecdotal:

    I’m a long time musician & founding member (2002) of The Gear Page

    One of the reasons is it’s flourished into the premier guitar gear site (the others are all dead & gone) is the heavily moderated control that keeps the focus on music + gear, -0- politics was allowed, with almost 300k members & millions of anon views looking for legit info.

    Last year during the roll-out of the vexes, it seemed the overwhelming consensus was pro-vax, but since the end of last year the discussion (in the non-public pub section) totally dried up & blew away…

    Last Friday someone started a thread Things are never going to get better… in the pub (where most of us rarely visit) & it’s gotten almost 20k unique views + 455 responses so far, weirdly trending towards top thread ~ I only clicked into it today & the content I read on page one would have gotten several banned + the thread locked just a couple of years ago.

    Things are definitely heating up out there in sheeple flyover country, here’s a sample of the conscientiousness emerging/thread vibe:

    Hey there, faceless pawn.

    The 24 hour news cycle sucking you dry? Desperately seeking something to fill the crushing void in your soul?

    Look no further than Arbys Value Menu.

    Eat Arbys!

    #110078
    chooch
    Participant

    VietnamVet,

    Unfortunately, that scenario seems likely in the moment. This caught my eye the other day in a Batiuska article linked at TAE

    China may soon launch an Operation in Taiwan to free the ethnic Chinese there from the Nazism of its US-appointed elite.

    Whether this will be the angle or the pent up hate the Japanese and Chinese have for each other will be leveraged to precipitate the invasion of Taiwan remains a question.

    One thing that puzzles me, and is certainly debatable, is the slow progress that Russia is making despite their local advantages. This provides a window for modern Western equipment to be deployed and prolong the fight.

    Hopefully, the combined exhaustion of Ukraine’s forces, the impatience of its supporters, and the spreading impact of this war on the global economy and food supplies, will lead to a deal that turns these conquests into a permanent part of Russia.

    Or as Andrew Anglin (total nazi) put it,

    I’m Glad They’re Ignoring Kissinger, Because I Want to See This Entire Fake Civilization Wiped Out with Chinese Nukes.

    #110079
    chooch
    Participant

    Arbys has an off menu item that you can order called the meat mountain. Costs about $10 bucks in the Midwest.

    #110080
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    Michael, before the Meat Mountain, Moore getting his argument capsized & not learning a thing (like a true proglodyte):

    #110081
    aspnaz
    Participant

    @chooch said

    One thing that puzzles me, and is certainly debatable, is the slow progress that Russia is making despite their local advantages.

    Install more memory. I have seen a variety of people explain this to you on this comment board, you must have discarded that data and are now caught in a loop, chasing your tail.

    #110082
    ₿oogaloo
    Participant

    Another great article from Alastair Crooke. I think we should make him an honorary member of TAE because he thinks just like we do:

    https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/06/20/zugzwang/

    #110086
    citizenx
    Participant

    @viet “I was just following orders” vet

    If the proxy world war escalates and last four years, the Western and Russian Empires will collapse.

    BS again, America is the only Empire, not RF. Can you count military bases between the two?

    The only Empire that needs to be destroyed is the murdering West- whether it is destroyed by force or collapses under its own sickness, the sooner the better. Did you learn anything following orders in Vietnam from your masters? You can think freely now after all these years or still indoctrinated? How many more genocidal Vietnams led by your own murdering govt do you want to see?

    @ Choo Choo

    you’ve been beating your meat here for months playing “putins bad” retard- is this the type of “ass kickin” wars you beat your meat over?

    Civilians being shelled by ukr nazis via Lancaster reporting-

    Hopefully you will be cowering in a basement soon being shelled and shot at by your very own govt. It’s all fun and games for you fuckface.

    #110087
    citizenx
    Participant
    #110107
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    citizenx
    @ Choo Choo

    you’ve been beating your meat here for months playing “putins bad” retard- is this the type of “ass kickin” wars you beat your meat over?

    Boy oh boy; tou are one nasty son-of-a-bitch!!!!
    Go away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    #110116
    Noirette
    Participant

    Benton (DBS) posted:

    Does anyone still conscious enough to read or observe see that trend turning around and going the other direction any time soon?

    re link. https://ritholtz.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/rawmaterials.jpeg

    No. Though we may see some swingy moves within the upward trend 😉

    As we are talking economics, what is also happening is that *inflation* is being used as a fany blanket term, for ‘higher prices’ (for all kinds of stuff, from pancakes to gas, to lithium..) without distinguishing, a) afaik in English what is called cost-push inflation?, e.g., the pancake maker needs to buy basic foodstuffs, energy for cooking, fancy fruit, etc., he has to pay his staff, etc. and passes those ++ costs onto the consumer – who may then not be able to pay for the pancakes and eat stale crackers instead. (So Pancake Man goes under.)

    And, b) de-regulation of the money control apparatus, over-printing, and throwing money (credit) at various entities hoping that their use of more power for exchange will solve some problems / help along a limping sector / be good for the community ultimately / mask some scams / etc.

    #110117
    John Day
    Participant

    testing…

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