Jun 052022
 
 June 5, 2022  Posted by at 8:42 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,


James Ensor The intrigue 1890

 

Russia Is Winning The Economic War – And No Closer To Withdrawing Troops (G.)
US Officials Admit They Lied About Ukraine Success and Russian Failures (GP)
NATO Chief: Ukraine Shouldn’t Drop Goal to Drive Russia Out of Crimea (Antiwar)
Bilderberg does China (Escobar)
Subpoena Wars (Turley)
COVID Vaccines Linked To 25% Increase In Cardiac Arrest (INN)
Judge Rules In Favor Of St. Paul Unions Over Covid Vaccination Mandate (TC)
Italy and Germany End Travel Restrictions (CS)
Turkey Accuses Greece Of Harboring Terrorist Organizations (AMNA)
Laptop From Hell May Produce Data With Disaster For Joe Biden (Times)

 

 

 

 

I’m going in there

 

 

 

 

From The Guardian, no less.

Russia Is Winning The Economic War – And No Closer To Withdrawing Troops (G.)

It is now three months since the west launched its economic war against Russia, and it is not going according to plan. On the contrary, things are going very badly indeed. Sanctions were imposed on Vladimir Putin not because they were considered the best option, but because they were better than the other two available courses of action: doing nothing or getting involved militarily. The first set of economic measures were introduced immediately after the invasion, when it was assumed Ukraine would capitulate within days. That didn’t happen, with the result that sanctions – while still incomplete – have gradually been intensified.

There is, though, no immediate sign of Russia pulling out of Ukraine and that’s hardly surprising, because the sanctions have had the perverse effect of driving up the cost of Russia’s oil and gas exports, massively boosting its trade balance and financing its war effort. In the first four months of 2022, Putin could boast a current account surplus of $96bn (£76bn) – more than treble the figure for the same period of 2021. When the EU announced its partial ban on Russian oil exports earlier this week, the cost of crude oil on the global markets rose, providing the Kremlin with another financial windfall. Russia is finding no difficulty finding alternative markets for its energy, with exports of oil and gas to China in April up more than 50% year on year.

That’s not to say the sanctions are pain-free for Russia. The International Monetary Fund estimates the economy will shrink by 8.5% this year as imports from the west collapse. Russia has stockpiles of goods essential to keep its economy going, but over time they will be used up. But Europe is only gradually weaning itself off its dependency on Russian energy, and so an immediate financial crisis for Putin has been averted. The rouble – courtesy of capital controls and a healthy trade surplus – is strong. The Kremlin has time to find alternative sources of spare parts and components from countries willing to circumvent western sanctions.

When the global movers and shakers met in Davos last week, the public message was condemnation of Russian aggression and renewed commitment to stand solidly behind Ukraine. But privately, there was concern about the economic costs of a prolonged war.

Read more …

“Russia is the only superpower with a self-sufficient economy..”

US Officials Admit They Lied About Ukraine Success and Russian Failures (GP)

If you think the West has learned its lesson and opted to focus on truth, think again. Germany’s Economy Minister, Robert Habeck, was peddling these whoppers to his own government this week: Western sanctions in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine are still taking a heavy toll on the Russian war machine. . . .The Russian economy is collapsing,” . . . adding that Germany had played its part here by reducing exports to Russia in March by 60%, with an even sharper fall expected in April. The obvious question for any reporter with the brain power of a cretin would be, “what is the evidence that Russia’s economy is collapsing?” The truth is that all sectors are firing on all cylinders.

Just because Germany has decided to commit economic hari kari by declining to purchase cheap Russian oil, does not mean that Russia is bleeding out financially. The Economist reported two weeks ago that Russia is running a record trade surplus. Yes, Russia is importing fewer Mercedes and BMWs via the open market. First, Russia is not dependent on having western luxury items filling western owned stores. Second, the Russian mafia is more than willing to fill the gap and obtain such goods via the black market. Seems like the West never learns. Habeck also forgets the first rule of crisis management–when you are in a hole, stop digging. He made this even more outlandish claim:

“Moscow had lost access to parts crucial to its ability to fight the war, . . . such as “security updates for airplanes, with the result that the planes will soon be grounded”. He apparently did not get the briefing, widely available in the public domain, that Russia builds it own planes, rockets, space ships and tanks. Putin did not outsource critical industry to China or Mexico. Reality will remind the United States and its crazy European allies that Russia is the only superpower with a self-sufficient economy. The economy of Russia is not dependent on having a Russian version of Rodeo Drive filled with overpriced baubles.

Read more …

“..many US officials privately doubt Ukraine could expel Russia from the region..”

NATO Chief: Ukraine Shouldn’t Drop Goal to Drive Russia Out of Crimea (Antiwar)

In an interview with The Washington Post, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Ukraine shouldn’t avoid declaring ambitious war aims of driving Russia out of the eastern Donbas region and the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia has controlled since 2014. “They have the right to say that they are fighting for the whole of Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said. The Post report said that many US officials privately doubt Ukraine could expel Russia from the region and that such goals would “doom Kyiv to an endless war.” Stoltenberg has warned that NATO should be prepared to provide Ukraine with long-term support for its fight against Russia. “We need to be prepared that this may actually drag on for a long time,” he said.

Ukrainian President Voldymr Zelensky recently rejected a suggestion from former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who said Ukraine should cede territory to Russia to achieve peace. Earlier in the war, Russia made clear that its demands for a ceasefire include Ukraine dropping its claim to Crimea and recognizing the independence of the breakaway Donbas republics. As the war grinds on, Russia is making slow, but steady gains in the eastern Donbas region. Russian forces have also controlled most of the Kherson oblast, which is north of Crimea, for months now, and there are signs that Moscow is considering annexing the region. Retaking territories now controlled by Russia would take a massive offensive by Ukraine, but Ukrainian forces are taking heavy losses. Zelensky said this week that between 60 and 100 Ukrainian soldiers are being killed every day.

While the US and its allies have shipped billions in weapons to Ukraine since Russia invaded, Ukrainian officials say it isn’t enough to mount a counterattack. Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said Friday that Kyiv “needs more” to mount a “sufficient counterattack and kick them outside of our country to liberate all occupied territory.”


Future Ukraine

Read more …

“They are all paying close attention to the Russia gas-for-rubles experiment…”

Bilderberg does China (Escobar)

A serious debate is raging across virtually all sectors of Chinese society on the American weaponization of the world financial casino. The conclusions are inevitable: get rid of US Treasuries, fast, by any means necessary; more imports of commodities and strategic materials (thus the importance of the Russia-China strategic partnership); and firmly secure overseas assets, especially those foreign currency reserves. Meanwhile Bilderberg’s “diverse group”, on the other side of the pond, is discussing, among other things, what will really happen in case they force the IMF racket to blow up (a key plan to implement The Great Reset, or “Great Narrative”).

They are starting to literally freak out with the slowly but surely emergence of an alternative, resource-based monetary/financial system: exactly what the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU) is currently discussing and designing, with Chinese input. Imagine a counter-Bilderberg system where a basket of Global South actors, resource-rich but economically poor, are able to issue their own currencies backed by commodities, and finally get rid of their status of IMF hostages. They are all paying close attention to the Russia gas-for-rubles experiment. And in China’s particular case, what will always matter is loads of productive capital underpinning a massive, extremely deep industrial and civil infrastructure.

No wonder Davos and Bilderberg messenger boys, when they look at The Grand Chessboard, are filled with dread: their era of perpetual free lunch is over. What would delight cynics, skeptics, neoplatonists and Taoists galore is that it was Davos-Bilderberg Men (and Women) who actually boxed themselves into zugzwang. All dressed up – with nowhere to go. Even JP Morgan’s Jamie Dimon – who didn’t even bother to go to Bilderberg – is scared, saying an economic “hurricane” is coming. And overturning the chessboard is no remedy: at best that may invite a ceremonious tuxedo visit by Mr. Sarmat and Mr. Zircon carrying some hypersonic bubbly.

Read more …

“..the greatest costs will be borne by the public, if our legal proceedings become as performative and shallow as our politics.”

Subpoena Wars (Turley)

The problem is not that the committee will move forward with hearings or a report. Despite its partisan composition and agenda, there is always a value to greater transparency about what occurred on that tragic day. The problem is the effort to ratchet up interest through conflict. The committee has taken the rare step of subpoenaing GOP colleagues, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and threatening to hold them in contempt like Navarro and other former Trump officials. Despite years of bitter political divisions, the two parties have long avoided using subpoenas against each other. It was viewed as a step toward mutually assured destruction if House members unleashed inherent investigatory powers on each other.

House Democratic leaders, however, shattered that long tradition of restraint despite the fact that they may gain little from the effort. What they will lose is a long-standing detente on the use of subpoenas against colleagues — and they are creating a new precedent for such internal subpoenas just months before they could find themselves in the minority. Today’s hunters then could become the hunted, if Republicans claim the same license after November’s elections. The House already is a dysfunctional body that allows for little compromise or dialogue between parties. The targeting of fellow members now will remove one of the few remaining restraints on unbridled partisan rage. Judge Faruqui encouraged Navarro to consider the basis of his self-defense when Navarro seemed intent on self-immolation.

In addition to announcing that he would represent himself, Navarro made an extended statement on the steps of the courthouse in his defense. He then incongruously said he could not discuss “legal matters” before plunging again into his legal defense points. Navarro is known as someone who tends toward the path of greatest resistance. In a city known for highly managed criminal defendants with legions of lawyers and PR advisers, Navarro was a captivating figure as he held forth outside the courthouse. Yet for all that he has in terms of personal guts, he lacks legal authority. The problem is that even as he claimed executive privilege to avoid answering any of the House committee’s questions, he was publishing a book and giving interviews on the very subject matter of the subpoenas.

It was an ill-considered course that may make him an icon on the right but could also make him a convicted defendant. As he repeatedly pitched his book outside the court, it seemed clear that his priority was not acquittal. Navarro at one point asked, “Who are these people?” I have found myself asking the same question about all of the players in this subpoena war. Institutions and individuals alike seem to be in a crazed fit with little concern for how their actions may play out beyond the next election. But the greatest costs will be borne by the public, if our legal proceedings become as performative and shallow as our politics.

Read more …

Rare side effects.

COVID Vaccines Linked To 25% Increase In Cardiac Arrest (INN)

A new study by Israeli researchers and published in Nature has revealed an increase of over 25 percent in cardiovascular-related emergency calls in the young-adult population, following the rollout of COVID vaccines, among both males and females. No similar increase was found due to COVID infection alone. Israel health authorities and the U.S. Centers of Disease Control (CDC) have acknowledged a link between COVID vaccines and specific cardiovascular complications. The risk of myocarditis after receiving a second vaccine dose is now estimated to be between 1 in 3000 to 1 in 6000 in men aged 16 to 24. Recent articles in scientific journals, however, have sought to suggest that cardiovascular complications following COVID infection are more common than those following vaccination.

This assertion is contradicted by the findings from a recent study conducted by Israeli researchers, using data from Israel National Emergency Medical Services (EMS) related to “cardiac arrest and acute coronary syndrome EMS calls in the 16–39-year-old population” between 2019 and 2021. This enabled them to compare baseline (pre-COVID epidemic) to COVID epidemic without vaccines, to COVID epidemic following widespread vaccine takeup. An increase of over 25% was detected in both call types during January–May 2021, compared with the years 2019–2020. That is to say, “increased rates of vaccination … are associated with increased number of CA [cardiac arrest] and ACS [acute coronary syndrome].” By contrast, the trial “did not detect a statistically significant association between the COVID-19 infection rates and the CA and ACS weekly call counts.”

While the dangers of myocarditis for young males have gained widespread attention, this study found a larger increase in CA and ACS events among females that was linked to COVID vaccination. Myocarditis is known to be a “major cause of sudden, unexpected deaths in adults less than 40 years of age and is assessed to be responsible for 12–20% of these deaths,” the study’s authors note. They add that their findings have been mirrored by researchers in Germany and Scotland. They caution that given these findings, “It is essential to raise awareness among patients and clinicians with respect to related symptoms (e.g., chest discomfort and shortness of breath) following vaccination or COVID-19 infection to ensure that potential harm is minimized.”

Athlete deaths
https://twitter.com/i/status/1533320290499018753

Read more …

This seems the only valid way to look at it:

“It is difficult for this Court to imagine what could be more intrusive and more destructive to the employer-employee relationship than requiring employees to forfeit their bodily autonomy in the name of maintaining their livelihood”

Judge Rules In Favor Of St. Paul Unions Over Covid Vaccination Mandate (TC)

A judge ruled Thursday that the city of St. Paul’s COVID vaccination policy for police, firefighters and legions of other unionized city workers should have been part of the bargaining process, and he barred the city from enforcing it until it is approved as part of a negotiated agreement. The employee unions filed lawsuits last year over the coronavirus vaccine mandate for employees, calling it an unfair labor practice — and the judge agreed. The firefighters’ lawsuit noted that the city didn’t negotiate with the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 21 before making “a unilateral change to the terms and conditions” of employment for Local 21 members.

In his ruling, Ramsey County Judge Leonardo Castro noted that the city didn’t engage in bad faith by implementing the vaccination policy, but nevertheless enacted an unfair labor policy. “The City was faced with the height of a pandemic and based its actions upon what it believed to be in the best interest of the health and safety of its employees and the public,” Castro wrote in the ruling. “There was no malice, conspiracy or employee targeting involved.” The city did engage in discussions of the policy with union representatives, Castro wrote, though not in formal bargaining. For an issue such as injecting your own body with a foreign substance versus losing your job, he reasoned, that’s not enough.

“It is difficult for this Court to imagine what could be more intrusive and more destructive to the employer-employee relationship than requiring employees to forfeit their bodily autonomy in the name of maintaining their livelihood,” he wrote.

Read more …

What will they all do in September?

Italy and Germany End Travel Restrictions (CS)

Following the lead of other nations across Europe and the world, both Italy and Germany announced they were ending all COVID-related travel restrictions and requirements for travellers looking to enter their countries. “As of June 1, 2022, a Green Pass or equivalent certificate is no longer needed to enter Italy. All Covid-19 related entry restrictions have been lifted.” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation announced on its website. Before the announcement, those wishing to enter Italy had to provide proof of vaccination, proof that they had recovered from COVID-19, or provide a negative COVID-19 test. These requirements are now gone. The decision comes roughly one month after Italy scrapped its vaccine passport within the country.

Similarly, while not as absolute as Italy’s decision, Germany has decided to end nearly all travel restrictions until the end of August. According to an update on the German Federal Foreign Office’s website, “As of June 1, the requirements to register before entry, provide a negative test result and to quarantine only applies to travellers who have stayed in an area of variant of concern. Extension of the Ordinance on Coronavirus Entry Regulations until August 31, 2022.” Italy and Germany now join the growing list of sensible countries that have ended the vaccine passport and travel restrictions in the wake of the incredibly mild Omicron variant.

This list of countries includes the following: the UK, Denmark, Greece, Iceland, Norway, Austria, Romania, and many others. Canada, of course, remains one of the most thoroughly backwards countries on the planet and has extended its federal vaccine mandate until the end of June. This includes the federal travel ban on unvaccinated Canadians, who, being unable to board a plane, train, ferry, or cross over into the US, remain de facto prisoners in their own country.

Read more …

Erdogan’s standard threat.

Turkey Accuses Greece Of Harboring Terrorist Organizations (AMNA)

Turkey’s recent accusations that Greece is supposedly harboring terrorist organizations are “false and unfounded,” and are therefore “rejected in their entirety,” said Greek diplomatic sources on Saturday. Greece, sources clarified, “fully implements European Union decisions in the fight against terrorism.” Anadolu news agency had earlier reported that the Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned the Greek ambassador to Ankara to protest that allegedly Athens provides terrorist organizations with opportunities to engage in various activities. According to Anadolu, Greek Ambassador to Ankara Christodoulos Lazaris was called in because Greek authorities allowed a protest gathering be held by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) near the Turkish embassy in Athens, an organization that has been classified as a terrorist one by the EU and by Turkish authorities, it was added.

Read more …

The Times of London publishes Russian disinformation.

Laptop From Hell May Produce Data With Disaster For Joe Biden (Times)

Mac Isaac is an albino with restricted sight who was vague in interviews in 2020 about whether he got a good look at his customer. In his book, American Injustice, he says he made repeated attempts to return the laptop and then hand it over to the authorities. He said he was angered that, after he gave all the material to the FBI, it did not feature in the first impeachment of President Trump over his pressure on President Zelensky of Ukraine to investigate the Bidens. Mac Isaac says that spurred him to hand a copy of the data to Robert Costello, a lawyer for Rudy Giuliani, who in turn was acting as Trump’s lawyer. Mac Isaac says that the customer who came in with three liquid-damaged laptops appeared “intoxicated” with speech that was “a little slurred”.

Speaking to a Fox News podcast, he added: “When I actually left the shop probably about 45 minutes after he left the shop, I noticed his vehicle was still there. I just assumed that he was sleeping one off.” One of the laptops was a write-off and one just needed an external keyboard. “The third computer, there was a glimmer of life, but it required me to check it in so I could take it apart, disconnect some components to get the machine up and running,” Mac Isaac said. “I explained that process with him, I printed up an authorisation allowing me to take custody of the machine. And I had him sign that document, review the document with him.” It contained his usual proviso that, if unclaimed after 90 days, the computer was considered abandoned and became Mac Isaac’s property.

He says that the manual nature of dragging files and then comparing some to see if the data was intact led him to see what was on the computer. “That’s when I realised that the person . . . that’s storing in a lot of this homemade porn is actually the guy that dropped off the laptop,” he said. Mac Isaac denies he breached Hunter Biden’s privacy. “He wanted me to recover his data. When a customer requires a data recovery it’s usually for two things, movies and pictures. It’s for the things that you can’t replace,” he said. He says he opened a long video to check for digital corruption and found issues of another sort. “That just happened to be a homemade video of Hunter [doing] amazingly multiple illegal acts at the same time . . . smoking crack, while engaged in sex trade — I don’t know — I’m pretty sure, I’m not a lawman.”

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle June 5 2022

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 56 total)
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  • #109079

    James Ensor The intrigue 1890   • Russia Is Winning The Economic War – And No Closer To Withdrawing Troops (G.) • US Officials Admit They Lied Ab
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle June 5 2022]

    #109080
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Jacinda leaving the blackrock offices….

    #109081
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    James Ensor The intrigue 1890

    Clicked the image and there is quite an interesting narritive about the painting…

    “Russia is the only superpower with a self-sufficient economy..”

    That about sums it up don’t cha’ think????

    #109082
    Red
    Participant

    A bit more from Tim Morgan on the energy cost of energy. A lot to unpack at his site, I’ve been following him for seven or eight years now. Having some understanding of the energy cost of energy before discovering his site it intrigued me. The simple concept that lead me there was the idea put forth by others is that industrial civilization needed a return of some where between 1:10 and 1:15 at the well head to maintain our complexity . That’s for every barrel of oil equivalent there had to be somewhere between 10 and 15 barrels returned, surplus energy. Put simply below these numbers things like higher education and health care would start to suffer. Starving things like the military industrial complex first would save a lot but won’t happen. The stuff of tar sands is somewhere around 1:3 or less depending on whose calculations you read. Deep sea isn’t much better. So going after these sources is technically wasting high return fuels on low return fuel. It’s a spiralling decent into a nasty hole.
    ___________________________________________________________________________________
    Understood in this way, any given quantity of energy divides into parts. One of these is the cost element, known here as ECoE. The other – whatever remains – is surplus energy. This surplus drives all economic activity other than the supply of energy itself. This makes surplus energy coterminous with prosperity.

    We can, of course, use this surplus wisely or foolishly, and we can share it out fairly or inequitably. But what we can not do is to “de-couple” economic output from energy or, to be more specific about it, from surplus energy.
    ______________________________________________________________________________
    2.1. The short version

    If you want a succinct answer to this question, it is that ECoE (the Energy Cost of Energy) is rising, relentlessly and exponentially. The exponential rate of increase in ECoE means that this cannot be cancelled out by linear increases in the aggregate amount of total or gross (pre-ECoE) energy that we can access. The resultant squeeze on surplus energy has been compounded by increasing numbers of people seeking to share the prosperity that this surplus provides.

    As a result, prior growth in prosperity per person has gone into reverse. People have been getting poorer in most Western advanced economies (AEs) since the early 2000s. With the same fate now starting to overtake emerging market (EM) countries too, global prosperity has turned down. One way of describing this process is “de-growth”.

    #175. The Surplus Energy Economy

    #109083
    Mister Roboto
    Participant

    So this video was making the rounds on conservative Twitter yesterday. You really have to draw a line somewhere, and the problem with the whole wokester gender-ideology is this kind of resolute refusal to draw that line.

    #109084
    Red
    Participant

    Speaking of return on energy and complexity:

    “This morning I am reminded of the words of the British foreign secretary Edward Grey on the eve of the First World War: “The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.” Not, in this instance for reasons of war, but for the more mundane – though ultimately catastrophic – observation that my local council has begun to randomly turn off residential street lighting in an attempt to save on its massive electricity bill.”

    In Brief: The lamps are going out…  Dear Keith, leave this well alone

    #109085
    Formerly T-Bear
    Participant

    “Russia is the only superpower with a self-sufficient economy..”

    I suppose China is chopped liver.

    #109086
    Red
    Participant

    Dr. Morgans reply to the above post at his site.
    “drtimmorgan
    on June 5, 2022 at 7:07 am said:
    Thanks. This is certainly an interesting article, and is persuasive on the ways in which ‘the powers that be’ are trying to hold back the tide.

    Whilst individual politicians may be advocates of change – imagine if Britain had elected Mr Corbyn, or America Mr Sanders – systems themselves are always defenders of the status quo.

    It seems pretty clear that ‘things are starting to fall apart’, and that excuses are being sought (covid, Ukraine) to explain away this process as no more than ‘a little local difficulty’.

    It isn’t clear to me – at a first read – whether the article says that the collapse being held at bay is caused by capitalism itself, or by other factors (the kind of energy, resource and environmental constraints that I see as the issues).

    My view is that we have reached the point at which prior growth in economic prosperity has gone into reverse. This itself is physics (thermodynamics) rather than politics. But our political and financial systems are based on the assumption of ‘growth in perpetuity’.

    Extremism is seldom optimal, and our political norm is ‘extreme liberalism’, which yet – ironically – no longer holds to the tenets of market capitalism. But the same indictment might have been made against extreme collectivism in the USSR.

    My hope – and I stress it’s more hope than expectation – is that what emerges is a mixed economy, balancing the best of the public and private sectors.

    #109087
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    I suppose China is chopped liver.

    Oops; forgot about China…
    Thanks for that wake-up call T-Bear…

    #109088
    Dr. D
    Participant

    There’s a reason. If you’re a “Rentier Class” and own the toll roads, what you need is for everybody to be dependent on toll roads whether that makes economic, geopolitical, even national security sense or not. “That giant sucking sound”. Then if any nation gets uppity, you cut off their oil, microchips, whatever, using BlackRock and the Banking sector. Oopsie! I guess Ecuador is just going to have to keep giving half their profit to Exxon and BP and Rio TInto after all.

    Thanks to Biden however, Russia is now completely independent and interally strong. Thanks Joe! Couldn’t have done it without you.

    “Policymaker Push Against Fossil Fuels Means “Will Never Be Another Refinery Built In US”; Chevron CEO Says.
    “You’re looking at committing capital 10 years out… in a policy environment where governments around the world are saying: we don’t want these products…”

    Much as we’re not fans of moar and moar billionaires, moar oil, he’s right. Biden is accusing oil and saying it’s greedy capitalists’ fault when we were (mostly) energy independent 3 years ago. Why? 1st act was to shut the Keystone pipeline…so we could waste diesel to move that same product on derailing trains, very ecological. He then shut off the gas pipe in MI to stop fertilizer creation. He followed with some other attacks. Therefore, the market, and the oil companies responded by correctly deducing that they were in a hostile environment where this administration and party in power would attempt to shut them down, prevent their sales, and steal their money. Which they have. To cope, they need to bank huge cash for lawsuits and problems, and since if you drilled wells they would attack them and prevent the oil from being piped and delivered, simply harbor cash, hunker down and do nothing.

    I mean, if you didn’t want oil, you should really go about it a quite different way. Like with mass transit and to stop subsidizing roads so much. Solve the peoples’ problems; don’t cause more and brag about it. Joe is elated that gas is $10, it’s that exciting energy transition. …Back to feudalism, where he can sniff all the peasant girls’ hair he wants.

    But unlike us deciding whether to buy a taco or new tires, a refinery is going to take 10 years and live as long as 100. So you need STABILITY. TRUST. Government by changing the rules every 2 years, and especially the tax rules, prevent everything from happening because we’re all now playing a game one side can change at any moment. It’s Calvinball against a greedy, bratty, psycho. So we stop doing, stop working, and that means stop taxing. Anyone with both money and brains then invests in stocks and not products, machinery, things, inventions. I have. There’s a lot of businesses I could start, but I can’t. There are almost no gaps in the number of ways they will extract, befuddle, and harass me should I dare attempt to work; or worse, attempt to employ and train someone else. Many people. Young people, putting down the Xbox controller and learning a trade then buying a house. So. I don’t. “I Did That!” — Joe Biden

    Like Rome, I can stop this for a thousand years. If the effort vs output doesn’t work, It will make sense to live on the beach in a trailer like Jim Rockford for 10 generations. As soon as my effort vs return does make sense, I go to work again. Mostly government is the sole swing factor, the sole cause right now for the full-on stop of the real economy, the transition to exclusively bubble speculation, and keeping it wasting and dysfunctional through my whole lifetime.

    And to the point of the article, certainly the STABILITY of starting something. All these things take 2-10 years to pay off. There is no visibility for even to October right now.

    Maybe that’s not true: Stocks are -20%. Housing has stopped and begun to drop. Sounds like a “Bad Feeling” or a “Financial Hurricane” depending who you ask.

    “Russia Is Winning the Economic War – And No Closer to Withdrawing Troops (G.) “

    Withdrawing troops? They are taking the whole east. And the country will cease to exist. That map doesn’t show Poland “Policing” the West for “stability”. Like us, a “Policing” they will never, ever stop, like in Iraq and Syria, Japan and Germany. That leaves what? Kiev as a city-state the size of D.C.?

    “The International Monetary Fund estimates the economy will shrink by 8.5%”

    The IMF with Economists like Yellen that have never been right about anything in my whole lifetime? Okay, maybe, but I’m guessing the West will shrink by +20%. Europe will cease to exist. On this trajectory, their future is similar to African Warlords.

    “Europe is only gradually weaning itself off its dependency on Russian energy”

    Gradually? Like in 40-50 years when we invent zero-point energy and cut the population in half? With endless crime and poverty run by warlords?

    NATO Chief: Ukraine Shouldn’t Drop Goal to Drive Russia out of Crimea (Antiwar)”

    Or at least not before we kill that last Ukrainian child. Or there are still a few taxpayer dollars left that Raytheon Fix-it-up-Chappie can suck out of our empty pockets. Profits are high this quarter. In a system where there is no voluntary purchase.

    the greatest costs will be borne by the public, if our legal proceedings become as performative and shallow as our politics.”

    IF? I haven’t seen justice in decades. Everyone still acts like they have credibility and there are rules.

    “COVID Vaccines Linked to 25% Increase in Cardiac Arrest (INN)“

    Safe and Effective. At killing people. Everyone is still on board. Totally support this, aren’t mad or suspicious at all. Doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. They’re all just going to mysteriously die, for no reason, and no one will ask or look. ‘Cause, reasons.

    “Judge Rules in Favor of St. Paul Unions over Covid Vaccination Mandate (TC)”

    Only two years too late. So let me get this: they can trample your human rights even to death. You can sue if you have ten million dollars and 2-10 years to waste. They can then trample your human rights even to death again with no penalty. No damages are served or reclaimed, no restraining orders are served. No one is arrested. Oh wait: YOU are arrested for having rights, the criminals are NOT arrested for serially breaking the law and human rights leading to well-measured mass murder.

    There’s a solution to this however, and you control it: do not comply. Illegal orders are not to be followed, in the government, military, or private sector.

    BTW, this is why they want the guns. …Or just the guns of all people who didn’t vote blue. We still terrify them and they can’t trample all human rights so long as they retain some fear of the people. I regret to say I suspect Australia proves this theory.

    Erdogan: Good point. He’s so incredibly bad at war, I wasn’t keeping track, but we can’t have this. It’s always a marvel how the Turks can be so strong and so weak at the same time, and have been for centuries.

    Jacinda. I guess we know who’s really in charge. And here it’s not Biden. Would that be the private sector? 20 interlocking boards of directors most of whom are members and supporters of the WEF? So therefore we have a merger of corporation and state? Under a police state, with universal levels of social control and propaganda? With a penchant for expansive wars? Gosh, there’s a name for a political system like that…slips my mind. F-word, something.

    #109089
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Red: he’s not wrong, but also not paying attention. The wells are having a low EROEI, sure. However THERE ARE UNTOUCHED WELLS WORLDWIDE. If Iran has wells, Russia has wells, Israel and Cuba and Yemen probably have wells, East Africa has wells, Iraq and Libya can’t fully recover, and the U.S. hasn’t drilled three coasts, then what you have is a geopolitical shortage and not a physical shortage.

    That would mean that, rather than sending engineers to Exxon, we are going to see armies move to conquer those 50 years of untapped wells like in Iran and Russia and Ethiopia. This is exactly what we’re seeing. So there is a lot of oil left. Enough for all our remaining lifetimes. But they’re not going to work and DRILL it, no! Work is for honest men. They are going to MURDER people and STEAL the other guys’ instead.

    This is critical to to the understanding of the actual oil market, his energy-return argument aside, which is no doubt true in some places and will be true someday.

    Saudi pumped for 50 years nearly from a single field and kept much of the world afloat while they locked in Iran so the oil wouldn’t/couldn’t be used. Perhaps even to save the planet as that oil would just turn into more humans and more demand in the petri dish. But Iran has as much oil as Arabia still, that is, a generation’s worth. So how far out are you looking? What if the crunch isn’t until 2100? Do you understand the primacy of war now? That it’s not an accident, it’s their whole game plan for the next 40 years if necessary. McCain promised we would be there for 100 years and we’re 25 years in already. Anyone notice?

    #109090
    Oroboros
    Participant

    James Ensor The intrigue 1890

    The EU ‘Leadership’ being guided by their Oligarchs on foreign policy.

    Ukraine was never of a defined entity.

    Sewn together over the centuries with bits and bobs.

    When you gaze at a map of it’s parts,

    It looks more like the Bride of Frankenstein

    .

    #109091
    Oroboros
    Participant

    From Dr D:

    “I mean, if you didn’t want oil, you should really go about it a quite different way. Like with mass transit and to stop subsidizing roads so much…”

    Back in the day when I worked in engineering, I was in a meeting in DC, in the Senate cafeteria oddly enough having their famous bean soup. It was in the 70’s and the Arab oil embargo was in full swing. The meeting concerned the then almost completed DC Mass Transit Metro Subway System.

    The Democrats had spearheaded the funding for the mass transit in DC and the Republicans of the day were lukewarm to it. So the chiefs of staff from a couple leading Demo senators were at the table. I was thinking of getting into mass transit as a career and taking more engineering courses in that direction.

    So being the youngest at the table, I waited until the end of the meeting, and I asked one of the head senate staffers about future plans in Congress for funding high speed rail and mass transit systems.

    He exploded that mass transit was for Socialists and Communists and that Real Americans would never buy into the concept because they would be driving there new cars to work on new highways!

    This was from the side that backed the mass transit project to begin with.

    He said the only reason Congress voted to build the DC Metro was because the Soviet capital, Moscow, had a first class subway at the time that they showcased to world visitors and that DC only had buses and taxis so the optics were bad that DC looked third world, which it did, and that the US couldn’t build a decent mass transit systems.

    So the Congressional backing at the time was for propaganda purposes, not common sense or energy policy or anything.

    This adamant outright hostility to mass transit and high speed rail, in the middle of the Arab Oil Embargo, convinced me to never pursue the field as a career and eventually contributed to me abandoning engineering in the US all together.

    That was 50 some years ago and the Empire of Lies priorities are as phucked up as ever.

    Mass transit might be for Socialists and Communists but Western democracies, especially Eurotardistan, are going to end up traveling by donkey cart and skateboard from their freezing apartments to wait in long lines for rationed bread.

    Get Woke, go way more than broke.

    Empire of Lies Mass Transit Plan

    #109092
    John Day
    Participant

    @Red: hanks for the Thermoeconomics input this morning. Good stuff.

    @Formerly T-bear and V.Arnold, regarding:
    “Russia is the only superpower with a self-sufficient economy..”
    That is currently an accurate statement. “Autocratic” is the word, “autocracy”.
    The USA is in a fairly distant second place, and China, requiring massive inputs of raw materials, energy and food commodities is completely dependent upon outside sources, like Russia.
    That makes for a very strong alliance against the US/”west”, since Russia has more resources and China has more people and more industry.

    #109093
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Russia ironically is where the Empire of Lies coulda, shoulda, woulda been had it’s blood drinking satanic oligarch class not nonstop gaslight it’s brain dead, self indulgent, inbred, Idiocracy slave to fashion and new shiny objects Proletariat Sheeple.

    The Empire of Lies has painted itself into a corner on the edge of a cliff.

    Not a lot of options left at this point.

    The Sheeple and the Owners deserve each other.

    It’s Kismet, not Karma.

    Necessity is the Mother of Invention.

    Funny, I thought it was Frank Zappa.

    .

    #109094
    John Day
    Participant

    @Oroboros: Thanks for the historical beltway political insight.

    @Dr.D: Good analysis, as usual, and the phantom of hidden oil deposits for the future…
    SOMEBODY might actually have 50 year plans, but they are not public, right?
    The rumor is that this was figured out during the Carter administration, that those test-wells in Alaska were big winners, but there is no way for anybody who does not already know to find out. It’s a tight secret, and always ahs been, for geo-strategic reasons.
    Anybody who knows and says is a traitor and anybody who says might be disseminating, so uncertainty is maintained.
    Therefore, I don’t know, even though I was never told and never knew. I don’t trust people who “know”.
    I’d trust Jimmy Carter, but he was a nuclear-submariner. He keeps secrets to the grave and stuff.

    Individually, i have as much chance of getting dealt in on a huge oil-stash for the next millennium as I do for zero-point-energy and cold-fusion, so I can safely presume that I need to grow vegetables, and ride a bike. I’m quite pleased at the good job I did of insulating the addition, and managing all of the flow-through ventilation options. I have pretty good passive AC in the downstairs if I close it off and keep the upstairs windows open; 10-15 degrees F of cooler-downstairs when it is 100F outside.
    It might save a life. Got a sleeping porch with screens around it, like in the old days.
    I still need natural gas. Even though the Eagleford shale is 5 miles away, gas can be cut off.
    Still need water. The original farmers caught rain water in cisterns. I have not set up the 900 gallon fiberglass tank to catch from the roofs.
    It needs 2 cracks repaired and it needs painting, and I haven’t yet…
    I’m puttering along, blogging, cutting 0.8 acre of grass with a nice little Honda mower every 1-2 weeks.
    How would I live without gasoline?
    I’m all paradoxed up after all these years of trying.
    I’m in the R&D department for our species.
    I’ll die whenever, and I’ll have “tried”.

    #109095
    Positive Dennis
    Participant

    Guys, China is not self sufficient in energy or food.

    #109096
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “I’m puttering along, blogging, cutting 0.8 acre of grass with a nice little Honda mower every 1-2 weeks.
    How would I live without gasoline?”

    Put that gas in a rototiller and turn it all into a garden based on permaculture methods?

    Or, put goats/sheep/cattle and let them munch it down for you and turn it into meat/milk? Not everyone is a vegetarian, and anything is better than starvation<>cannibalism.

    #109097
    zerosum
    Participant

    What!!! Officials tell the truth

    • US Officials Admit They Lied About Ukraine Success and Russian Failures (GP)
    By Larry Johnson
    Published June 4, 2022 1003 Comments

    U.S. Officials Admit They Have Lied About Ukraine Success and Russian Failures

    • Russia Is Winning The Economic War – And No Closer To Withdrawing Troops (G.)
    ———–
    The pie is shrinking, therefore, the number of people must shrink so that the remaining enablers do not suffer a diminished luxurious lifestyle.

    Zelensky said this week that between 60 and 100 Ukrainian soldiers are being killed every day.
    ————-

    #109098
    Noirette
    Participant

    willem wrote prev. thread:

    I follow Edward Slavsquat (pseudonym for Riley Waggerman), who lives near Moscow. Among other commentary from the Russian side of things, he makes a strong case for Putin playing along with the WEF agenda, despite appearances to the contrary.

    Thanks willem, the piece I posted by him which I found interesting had a flavor along those lines, I now understand it better. The name R. Waggerman rang a bell, here a talk on geopol & empire which I watched – I didn’t mentally link the two.

    Riley Waggaman: Why is Russia Going Full COVID1984?

    Imho, there are some ‘events’, ‘happenings’, with their attendant interpretations and ‘spins’ — these may be deliberately manipulative or ‘natural’ in the sense of lacking a strong guiding hand — that at least a good part of the population, but particularly those in charge (oligarchs, Corps, gvmts, etc.) accept as ‘real’ or ‘significant’ and ‘react’ to them.

    Naturally the reactions are stronger from those in power, as they have much to lose / gain.

    Ivan + Natasha, mmh.. not so much.

    Plus of course Russia also has vax producers and a bunch of ppl real keen on digital passes and all that stuff. (The Mayor of Moscow was very gung ho.. Putin went against him somewhat, no details right now.) Understandably, Moscow promoted Russian vax, etc. This isn’t, in itself, going along with the WEF agenda, imho.

    Putin himself has been shown to be very afraid of the /sars../ virus. Macron went to talk to him and refused to take a PCR test, reportedly because he was afraid of the Russkies getting his DNA!, so he had to sit miles away … see the pic.

    https://www.rferl.org/a/putin-macron-long-table/31699111.html

    Maybe Putin was just pretending, relishing making Macron look small and foolish. ? Idk.

    The pandemic / ‘plandemic’ was a world-wide phenomenon, in a way the first after the 80’s AIDS. (Compare with Ebola, Zika..) Recall, Putin was one of the early world leaders to call Bush J. to support fighting ‘terrorism’ (see Chechnya at the time) while he certainly knew that no 19 Arab dopes with box cutters brought down … etc. The motives for adhering or not to these scripts can get very complicated.

    #109099
    zerosum
    Participant

    KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia took aim at Western military supplies for Ukraine’s government with early Sunday airstrikes in Kyiv that it said destroyed tanks donated from abroad, a claim denied by a Ukrainian official. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that any Western deliveries of long-range rocket systems to Ukraine would prompt Moscow to hit “objects that we haven’t yet struck.”

    The cryptic threat of a military escalation from the Russian leader didn’t specify what the new targets might be, but it comes days after the United States announced plans to deliver $700 million of security assistance for Ukraine. Those weapons include four precision-guided, medium-range rocket systems, helicopters, Javelin anti-tank weapon systems, radars, tactical vehicles and more.

    Military analysts say Russia is hoping to overrun Ukraine’s embattled eastern industrial Donbas region, where Russia-backed separatists have fought the Ukrainian government since 2014, before any U.S. weapons that might turn the tide arrive. The Pentagon said last week it will take at least three weeks to get the precision U.S. weapons onto the battlefield.

    #109100
    John Day
    Participant

    Boscohorowitz quoth:
    ” ‘How would I live without gasoline?’
    Put that gas in a rototiller and turn it all into a garden based on permaculture methods?”

    Uh, with all due respect, Amigo, I do/did that, and it requires gasoline.
    I use gasoline in the 1997 4 cylinder Ford Ranger to haul “composted municipal waste” and other soil amendments. I use “PLASTICS” in my gardening weed-exclusion barriers and drip irrigation (city water) systems, not yo mention batteries in the drip timers…

    This is complicated in practice!

    #109101
    John Day
    Participant

    Animal husbandry requires steel fencing, too, even chickens. I’m not opposed, but I have not got the current stage mastered yet, and I’m not here every night to protect the chickens in the pen from coons and coyotes. Daytime is hawks.
    Gotta’ be there for the chickens without fail, or they’ll get eaten, even if the humans aren’t hungry…

    #109102
    John Day
    Participant

    @Zerosum: The west is testing western weapons systems against Russia with Ukrainian deaths.
    Russia is testing Russian weapons systems against western weapons systems with Russian lives/deaths.

    What is being learned?

    #109103
    Figmund Sreud
    Participant

    Dept: ‘Energy Experts Say The Darndest Things!’

    “Russia’s days as an energy superpower are over.” — Daniel Yergin

    Seriously!

    The End of Energy Free Trade

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-end-of-energy-free-trade-oil-and-gas-sanctions-russia-war-ukraine-putin-11654262659

    F.S.

    #109104
    BoomerDoomer2
    Participant

    @John Day We planted clover in the front yard of our .27 acre suburban home (homes built between 1910 and 1994, so not your standard burb) in NW Spokane. (The back yard is all garden.) I rented a Toro Dingo for a 24-hour period and scrapped all the sod off and then created rolling hills (mimicking the nearby Palouse) with the sod and covered them with the soil that was available. It took 8-10 hours and the Dingo burned through .8 gallons of diesel. I thought the fuel gauge was broken until I topped the tank off before returning the Dingo. I get mixed reviews on the clover — people either love it or hate it — but the bees love it.

    #109105
    Formerly T-Bear
    Participant

    John Day at no. 109092

    @Formerly T-bear and V.Arnold, regarding:
    “Russia is the only superpower with a self-sufficient economy..”
    That is currently an accurate statement. “Autocratic” is the word, “autocracy”.
    The USA is in a fairly distant second place, and China, requiring massive inputs of raw materials, energy and food commodities is completely dependent upon outside sources, like Russia.
    That makes for a very strong alliance against the US/”west”, since Russia has more resources and China has more people and more industry.

    I think the word you are looking for is AUTARKY = self sufficiency which is being confounded, conflated with AUTARCHY = absolute power, despotism by an AUTOCRAT = a ruler having absolute power that forms an AUTOCRACY – an absolute government by one person (dictator, despot, monarch, etc.). AUTOCRATIC = the adjective denoting something having autocrat like characteristics. A problem arising when poorly educated are allowed to make fungible the meaning of words without correction. This fungibility of word use is also rampant in most discussion of economics, sadly to the point such discussion ends as being a useless waste of time. What is observed today is the culmination of 70+ years of cold war political propaganda. That needs undoing before any true discussion can take place with those so exposed. It pays to watch your p’s and q’s when politics, economics and law are involved. YMMV

    #109106
    BoomerDoomer2
    Participant

    Should be scraped, not scrapped… It should be mentioned that the clover means no mowing… If things really get tight, I will simply till in the clover and plant with edibles.

    #109107
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    @ Red
    Nice article on surplus energy. This explains why the Davos crowd want the rest of us to wean ourselves off of fossil fuels, drive electric vehicles, depend upon transient wind and solar energy sources, and lock ourselves down, while they own and/or control the remaining fossil fuel resources.
    I remember Chernobyl as a child; I tend to be very wary of nuclear power. However, a good portion of the electricity that I use daily comes from the only nuclear power plant not located near a body of water. It appears that the only sources of electricity that provide enough constant power to parallel electricity generated from fossil fuel are nuclear and dam power. (Geothermal might work where the geography is there for it.) Of course, both of those have their own challenges.
    Four full-size solar panels do not produce enough steady electricity at 1 pm in June (750 watts, actual) to run the fan motor (let alone start it) of my whole house evaporative cooler. My domestic partner has been experimenting with an off-grid solar system to provide us some power should there be blackouts. The system has batteries — so it can start the evaporative cooler and keep it running for quite a while…but the power generated each hour by the sun is less than the power required each hour to run the evaporative cooler. The whole-house air conditioner cannot be run, let alone started, with this system.
    Solutions…none are easy. Nuclear…IS dangerous, and requires huge resource inputs. Dams…always there is someone upset about the area flooded, waterways are changed, and dam power is still dependent on rainfall upstream. Energy conservation IS logical. But the Davos crowd would have our energy use monitored as if we were rats in a cage, rewarding certain behaviors, punishing others. Building our own off grid solar system and figuring out what it can and cannot do, on the other hand, causes us to be more aware of the electricity we use, causes us to conserve without coercion, without carrots and sticks, without resentment.
    Our public utility systems charge us for electricity in a way that doesn’t reward sipping energy vastly over gulping it. I’ll explain:
    I also have solar on my roof, a grid-tie system that goes down with the grid. Last month I paid $141 for grid electricity. Without the solar, I’d have paid about $200. The savings isn’t that great — my solar lease is about $25/month, and the down payment I made on that lease means that my true monthly cost for solar is about $50. For the electricity that I used from the grid last month I paid about $70 — the other $70 on my bill were delivery charges, meter reading charge, billing charge, etc. No matter how little electricity I use every month, I will still pay about $70/month for the privilege of being connected to the grid. The solar credits that I get for sending electricity to the grid can only reduce the charges for electricity used, cannot defray the $70 charge for the privilege of grid connection.
    Supposedly, Davos wants us plebes to cut down on our use of energy…but the local power company is going to ensure first that it gets its cut.
    (I’m not necessarily suggesting that this system should be altered…there are many variables at play, and my grid-tie solar system has no batteries so I need the grid power. Notedly, a couple of weeks ago the electrical pole that my home gets its electricity from was replaced — obviously, it is appropriate that I contribute towards the upkeep of the grid. I notice the structure of the system and what it protects and prioritizes.)

    #109108
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    @ mr roboto
    Children at adult dancer club.
    Well…the dancer was much more clothed than usual…perhaps that was for the sake of the children? Making the event “family-friendly?”
    Children’s minds are immature. It is the responsibility of adults to care for, guide, teach, and mold the children so that they become mature, satisfied, productive adults in the community. Children will be influenced by whatever they are exposed to. Adults are also influenced by their own exposure, but adults (generally) have the capacity (mental, physical, emotional,) to maintain their values, remove their person, self-soothe (or seek out calming methods), etc., while children’s capacity in these areas are limited.
    I wouldn’t take my own children to such an event. If they want to check out the adult dancing scene, they will need to wait until they are adults. My ex thought strip clubs were great, and got me to go a handful of times. I approached it with an open mind, but the experience, to me, didn’t entertain. I’d rather read a book. It isn’t something I seek out.

    #109109
    Oroboros
    Participant

    So Lira has a way of summarizing topics that’s saves me a lot of extra reading around.

    This is on a subject that’s been in the back of my mind

    For my money he nails it.


    What Happens To Europe When Russia Wins

    #109110
    chooch
    Participant

    Field Able,

    I probably should elaborate. When I am scrolling thru social media and I come across a memoriam of a killed Russian soldier, Ukrainian soldier or Ukrainian citizen I am saddened. Not as deeply as say Jeremiah the Prophet but it sets me back emotionally. How does one make sense of all this death and destruction? Placing bets, loading up on “Bombs R Us” stocks. So I am trying to look at it from different perspectives. It is difficult not to identify with the side that was invaded and does not want to be subjugated. So I am good with Putin getting his ass kicked. But the West is culpable too, so I have no problem with the West getting its ass kicked either. Even better would be Kissinger’s suggestion.

    You are right regarding the Z-tard label. If I were on Eric Topol’s C19 twitter group trying to argue the importance of preserving informed consent it would probably be in my best interest not to use the “Vaccinator” label in my commentary. Therefore, I will refrain from using it in the TAE commentary.

    #109111
    John Day
    Participant

    This article is a really good explanation of the geopolitics of Black Sea, Azov Sea, Kerch Strait and Russian waterway strategic and historical considerations.
    Black Sea Geopolitics and Russia’s Control of Strategic Waterways: The Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov
    https://www.globalresearch.ca/black-sea-geopolitics-and-russias-control-of-strategic-waterways-the-kerch-strait-and-the-sea-of-azov/5661045

    This explanation of the 50 years of mutation in 4 years of the new global-monkeypox has the conspiracy-theory that people in biolabs did it.
    https://www.globalresearch.ca/study-finds-latest-monkeypox-outbreak-result-biolab-manipulated-virus-possibly-released-intentionally/5782369

    #109112
    hexadec
    Participant

    @John Day, Scything.

    #109113
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Scything is great but you have to practice to get a smooth groove going with one.

    They also make a much shorter scythe for small spaces and small lawns, same technique but less swing.

    #109114
    chooch
    Participant

    Barnum and VP (the prolific poster of clown images),

    Sorry not that guy (deflationista), though I like that person and wish them the best. One of Defs M.O. was precious ego hunter. It was a painful entertainment to watch someone take it hook, line and sinker. Hard telling if it was effective or made a dent in someone’s conscience.

    #109115
    John Day
    Participant

    @Oroboros: I agree with Gonzolo Lira that Europe will have to side with Russia over the US, due to basic needs for fuel and food.
    I’ve said so, too.
    How is that going to go down?
    I think “cheating” is a start, then defaulting on $US debts for the grand-finale.
    There is a whole lot of cheating development going on, facilitated by Russia selling oil cheap enough for middle-men to get rich, with Russia still making a good profit.
    “Win friends and influence people…”

    #109116
    John Day
    Participant

    @Hexadec: World class scything. by that female athlete.
    It can only be done in wide open spaces. I have so many fruiting trees, over 50, with boundaries.
    I can take the little Honda mower around them back and forth, jumping it a bit, the whole body motion, but not as graceful as hers.
    How would a novice do 0.8 acres of open field like that, which is possible?
    I think you’d have to grow up doing it, and have your food-production system developed around scything, like in the old days.

    #109117
    cloudhidden
    Participant

    Scything…..Oh, mind the rocks…..we live in a rocky place, scything not an option. (after many years of picking them, we have piles of stones, but they do grow out of the ground. I never thought that rocks were a renewable resource! Sheep would work, but for wolves. High fencing against deer (not many, but sufficient that they will destroy garden and fruit trees.)
    Getting a couple of pigs they can stay inside a high fence.
    Always something, but if it’s perfect, we can’t afford it.

    #109118
    Oroboros
    Participant

    @ John D

    I think you and Lira are also on the same page in regards to back channel deals and palace intrigues. There’s gotta be a few sane players in the EU staring at the Continental Seppuku®.

    The EU cannot exist at it’s current lifestyle without Russia. Period.

    Hungary is not considered a ‘heavy hitter’ in the EU pecking order but they are the template for Let’s Make a Deal. They know which side their bread is buttered on unlike the French for instance.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPhdsqZlpEw

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