Jul 202022
 


Gustave Moreau Helen on the Walls of Troy 1885

 

In The Multipolar World Iran Will No Longer Fear U.S. Sanctions (MoA)
On Liberating Europe (Batiushka)
Kiev Names Condition For Peace Talks With Moscow (RT)
Kiev Threatens To Destroy Russia’s Black Sea Fleet (RT)
Zelensky Widens Purge Of Security Services (BBC)
Timetable For Return Of Nord Stream Turbine Revealed (RT)
Costs Of Ukraine War A Test For European Leaders – And It May Get Worse (G.)
US Army Cuts Force Size Amid Unprecedented Battle For Recruits (AP)
Ex-Trump Official In Demand After Twitter Backs Down On Covid Censorship (JTN)
Paul Pelosi $1M Chip Stock Purchase: A Long History Of ‘Timely’ Buys (JTN)
Prediction For Unvaccinated And Never Previously Infected (Geert)
Don’t Let ‘Voodoo Science’ Keep Djokovic From Competing in US Open (Thakur)

 

 

About eating bugs…

 

 

Attali

 

 

 

 

Biden Poroshenko

 

 

 

 

Tucker Ray Epps
https://twitter.com/i/status/1549054198855122947

 

 

The Chinese Foreign Ministry called for an international investigation of war crimes by the UK and the US
https://twitter.com/i/status/1549152060276441092

 

 

Soros Ukraine
https://twitter.com/i/status/1549374225290596352

 

 

 

 

“With such a large deal will also come protection. Iran will be able to call on Russia should someone start hostilities against it…”

In The Multipolar World Iran Will No Longer Fear U.S. Sanctions (MoA)

But the greatest news for Iran is a new deal with Russia’s Gazprom that was signed today: “The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and Russian gas producer Gazprom signed on Tuesday a memorandum of understanding worth around $40 billion, Iran’s oil ministry’s news agency SHANA reported. The deal was signed during an online ceremony by the CEOs of both companies on the day Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Tehran for a summit with his Iranian and Turkish counterparts. Gazprom will help NIOC in the development of the Kish and North Pars gas fields and also six oil fields, according to SHANA. Gazprom will also be involved in the completion of liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects and construction of gas export pipelines. Iran sits on the world’s second-largest gas reserves after Russia, but US sanctions have hindered access to technology and slowed development of gas exports.”

Gazprom is a strong partner and can not be hindered by U.S. sanctions. Iran will finally be able export more of its plentiful gas. Russia will also have a chance to work with Iran to keep the prices at a certain level. With such a large deal will also come protection. Iran will be able to call on Russia should someone start hostilities against it. When Iran produces enough gas it can also revive the old project of a pipeline to India. This could either go through Pakistan or, as India would probably prefer, through an undersea pipeline: “A 1,300-km undersea pipeline from Iran, avoiding Pakistani waters, can bring natural gas from the Persian Gulf to India at rates less than the price of Liquefied Natural Gas available in the spot market, proponents of the pipeline said on Tuesday. Releasing a study on the Iran-India gas pipeline, former oil secretary T.N.R. Rao said natural gas imported through the over $4 billion line would cost $5-5.50 per million British thermal unit at the Indian coast, cheaper than the rate at which some of the domestic fields supply gas”

Despite U.S. sanctions Iran is again becoming fully integrated into its region. It is a great success and the gas and transit deals will help its economy to make some gains even as the U.S. adds new sanctions. Russia, India and China are partners who can and will ignore those. Iran now also has the capability to produce sufficient nuclear material for a number of bombs. It will not use this capability as its religious ideology prohibits the making and use of such weapons. But it is a latent threat that can be used to deter Israel and the U.S. from any attack. That Trump left the nuclear deal was dumb. That Biden did not revive it immediately after taking office was even dumber. To now stay out of it, only to keep some stupid sanctions against Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corp, is the dumbest step I can think of.

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“..the bankruptcy of the West that should have happened over thirty years ago is happening now..”

On Liberating Europe (Batiushka)

Just over thirty years ago the Communist USSR went bankrupt – it could not raise enough money to pay off its debts on capital markets. The West should have gone bankrupt at the same time because it too had colossal debts, however through the financial manipulations of its Capitalism it was able to raise the capital. So it went morally bankrupt instead. Firstly, there was the fascism of political correctness. Like so many destructive movements the initial intentions were good, but as we know that the road to hell is paved with them. It was precisely after 1991 that the use of the phrase ‘political correctness’ as a pejorative phrase became widespread in the USA.

Secondly, at the same time there began the Western attack on Islam, or rather the Western grab of Arab oil and gas, by telling Saddam Hussein that he could recover Kuwait, which had been illegitimately cut off from oil-rich Iraq by British imperialism, but then withdrawing that support once he had done it and so pretexting a reason to attack him. The first Gulf War followed, with a second one to follow after the invasion and failed occupation of Afghanistan, and then chaos in the ‘Arab Spring’. Thirdly, at the same time, in 1992 there began the attempt to depopulate, dismantle and destroy the Russian Lands, culminating 22 years later in the US coup d’etat in Kiev in 2014, which cost US taxpayers $5 billion and has cost them many times more since. Inbetween there have been all manner of Western manipulations, from 9/11 to covid.

Such is hubris. ‘We are the only Superpower’. ‘The end of history has come’. And so today the Western world finds itself isolated. The ‘international community’, ‘the free world’, has only 13% of the world population and depends on the rest of the world, on the 87%. Outmatched by the population of the rest of the world and its GDP, it produces only a smallish amount of oil, gas, food, fertiliser and manufactured goods. Russia, China, India, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, indeed nearly all of Asia, Africa and Latin America, stand together against the neocolonial manipulations and neocon lies of the Western world, whose unity is now crumbling. Moreover, the Western world is bankrupt. The USA alone owes an unpayable £30 trillion. Thus, the bankruptcy of the West that should have happened over thirty years ago is happening now.

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“..after Russia’s defeat on the battlefield..”

Kiev Names Condition For Peace Talks With Moscow (RT)

Peace negotiations with Moscow will make sense only after Russia’s defeat on the battlefield, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has declared. In an interview with Forbes Ukraine published on Monday, Kuleba named Russia’s “aggressive behavior” as a reason for the absence of peace talks, arguing that any negotiations “are directly linked to the situation at the front.” “I tell all partners a simple thing: ‘Russia should sit down at the negotiating table after defeat on the battlefield. Otherwise, it will be the language of ultimatums again,’” Kuleba explained. He stressed that President Zelensky does not rule out “the possibility of negotiations” but believes that “there is no reason” for talks now. “He communicated this very clearly to the leaders of the countries who had hinted at negotiations.

These leaders have also stopped talking about it,” Kuleba said. In June, Ukraine’s top negotiator David Arakhamia suggested that Kiev believes it could achieve “favorable position” by late August after it conducts “counteroffensive operations in certain areas.” On Sunday, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev who is now a deputy chairman of the country’s Security Council, said that there shouldn’t be any doubts that all the goals of his country’s military operation in Ukraine would be achieved. At the same time, he noted that “such actions are not of an immediate nature,” referring to some of Vladimir Putin’s previous statements. “The President has repeatedly spoken about this, there are certain scenarios of how such operations are unfolding,” Medvedev explained.

Moscow and Kiev started peace talks four days after the start of the Russian military offensive in Ukraine in late February. The sides have held several rounds in person in Belarus and then continued the talks via video link. In late March, the delegations from Russia and Ukraine met once again, in Istanbul. Since then, however, the talks have completely stalled. The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia had provided Ukraine with a draft agreement but Kiev has ignored it. Peskov has previously accused the US and its allies of “actively betting on the continued war” and of not allowing Kiev “neither to think nor talk about or discuss peace.” Moscow has also warned the West against supplying Ukraine with weapons, saying that this would only lead to prolongation of the conflict and unnecessary casualties but would not change the outcome.

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With US weapons. What could go wrong?

Kiev Threatens To Destroy Russia’s Black Sea Fleet (RT)

Russian ships and Crimea could be attacked with Western-supplied weapons, Ukrainian deputy defense minister says Ukraine will crush Russia’s Black Sea fleet and regain control of Crimea with Western weapons, the country’s Deputy Defense Minister, Vladimir Gavrilov has vowed during a visit to the UK. Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, which is based in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, is “a permanent threat” to Ukraine, and Kiev has to address this issue, Gavrilov said in an interview with the Times on Tuesday. Kiev was waiting to get longer-range weapons from foreign nations before launching an assault, he added. “We are receiving anti-ship capabilities and sooner or later we will target the fleet. It is inevitable because we have to guarantee the security of our people,” the deputy defense minister explained.

Gavrilov claimed that Ukraine is also planning to take back Crimea – which overwhelmingly voted to reunite with Russia in a 2014 referendum after a coup in Kiev. According to the official, the Ukrainian government was holding discussions with their Western backers on whether it could use foreign-supplied arms to target Russian forces on the peninsula. American officials earlier assured that Kiev had promised that US-made arms, including 142 HIMARS and M270 MLRS multiple launch rocket systems, would not be used to attack Russian territory. However, Kiev says it doesn t view Crimea as part of Russia, considering it to be a Ukrainian area occupied by Moscow. Sooner or later we will have enough resources to target Russia in the Black Sea and Crimea.

Crimea is Ukrainian territory, that s why any target there is legitimate for us, the deputy defense minister stated. Gavrilov also didn’t rule out the use of diplomatic means in order to reclaim Crimea, saying that we have to think very carefully how to do it in the right way. Russia will have to leave Crimea if they wish to exist as a country, Gavrilov insisted. His statements didn’t go unnoticed in Moscow, with Kremlin press secretary, Dmitry Peskov saying that they were “yet another proof that [Russia’s] special military operation was a correct and absolutely justified move because it was the only way to save Ukraine from such leaders” as Gavrilov.

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I don’t think we’re getting the real story here.

Zelensky Widens Purge Of Security Services (BBC)

President Volodymyr Zelensky has continued his purge of Ukraine’s security service (SBU) by dismissing the organisation’s deputy director. Volodymyr Horbenko is the latest official to lose his job after Mr Zelensky said bosses failed to root out pro-Russian elements in the agency. Regional chiefs in several other cities were also dismissed, Mr Zelensky said. It comes as MPs voted to dismiss SBU chief Ivan Bakanov and Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova. On Monday, an adviser to Mr Zelensky suggested that the pair had merely been suspended pending an investigation, after the president initially appeared to sack them in a late-night address. But on Tuesday the Ukrainian leader laid down a motion of no-confidence in the pair before parliament, which was approved by an overwhelming majority of MPs.


There have been reports for several weeks that Mr Zelensky wanted to replace Mr Bakanov after coming to blame him for failures in stopping the Russian advance in February. Neither of the top officials, both of whom Mr Zelensky personally appointed, are accused of betraying their country. But they ran agencies where Russian interference appears to have impacted Ukraine’s ability to hold territory in the opening days of the war. Speaking after the vote, the leader of Mr Zelensky’s Servant of the People party, David Arakhamia, said new information had recently come to light, and the purge of the SBU would continue in the coming days. “There will be many ‘cleanses’, because over the years many residents of the Russian special services have secretly entrenched themselves within the walls of the SBU, unfortunately,” Mr Arakhamia said, adding: “They got access to materials that they didn’t have before.” On Sunday, Mr Zelensky said over 60 former SBU and prosecutor’s office employees were now working against Ukraine in Russian-occupied areas.

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Early August.

Timetable For Return Of Nord Stream Turbine Revealed (RT)

A crucial turbine from the Nord Stream 1 natural gas pipeline was airlifted from Canada to Germany on Sunday, Kommersant newspaper has reported, citing its sources. The part will then travel for another five to seven days by ferry to its destination in Russia, the paper revealed on Monday. If everything goes smoothly and there’s no delay at customs, the turbine will be fitted and ready to pump gas in early August, Kommersant noted. The Siemens turbine was stuck in Canada after undergoing repairs there due to Ottawa’s Ukraine-related sanctions on Russia. Canada initially refused to return the part, as it regarded the equipment as a dual-use product subject to sanctions.


After negotiations with Berlin, however, Ottawa decided to use an indirect delivery route to avoid violating its own sanctions against Moscow. The delay forced Russian gas exporter Gazprom to slash exports of natural gas to Germany by as much as 60% last month, as the pumping station was technically unable to pump at normal levels without the turbine. The Nord Stream pipeline is an important route for gas exports from Russia to the EU because it offers direct deliveries to Germany, bypassing Ukraine. Deliveries via the pipeline were temporarily stopped on July 11 for 10 days of scheduled maintenance.

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Whack-a-mole.

Costs Of Ukraine War A Test For European Leaders – And It May Get Worse (G.)

Desperate efforts in Italy to prevent the fall of Mario Draghi’s government are only the latest political firestorm in Europe tied to Vladimir Putin’s tests of the west’s powers of endurance. Draghi’s foreign minister, Luigi di Maio, suggested it will be Putin who celebrated the fall of another western government if Draghi does not survive a confidence vote in parliament on Wednesday. “A boat without a rudder goes adrift,” said Ferruccio Resta, the president of the Conference of Italian University Rectors – a metaphor that could apply, to Putin’s satisfaction, to much of Europe as governments come under growing pressure over the perceived domestic cost of the war in Ukraine.

The narrative of a brewing popular revolt against western sanctions on Russia certainly fits well with Putin’s central narrative that time and economics are on his side since the sanctions are damaging European consumers more than Russia’s. He feels soaring fuel prices are the most lethal of macroeconomic shocks for politicians as they drive inflation while slowing economic growth. As yet it is premature to take a definitive view about the scale of the potential electoral backlash in Europe, and Josep Borrell, the EU foreign affairs spokesperson, for instance, angrily complained that rising prices were being attributed to EU sanctions without any evidence. Borrell said of the critics of EU sanctions: “Don’t they have eyes? Do they not look at the graphs? Do they not consider figures or facts?”

In France, Emmanuel Macron has been weakened if not muted by the loss of his parliamentary majority to parties more naturally sympathetic to Putin. In Spain, the Socialists, facing elections next year, have just lost their power base in Andalusia, the most populous region. The centre-right People’s party achieved a new record high of 36.3 % in the latest GAD3 poll, its best result since April 2017. If repeated in an election it would be its best result since 2011. In Estonia, the fiercely anti-Putin prime minister, Kaja Kallas, survived last week after her previous coalition government fell in a dispute linked to the country’s inflation rate of 19%, the highest in the 19-nation eurozone. Electricity prices in Estonia are at a record high, averaging €300 per megawatt-hour last week.

Kallas skilfully reconstructed her government, but at some cost to the Estonian budget and her credibility. If the economy has not improved by the time of legislative elections next March, she could be in trouble. In Warsaw, the PiS frets about electoral defeat next autumn, even if the opposition would remain supportive of Ukraine. In Bulgaria, a pro-western government has fallen. And, of course, Volodymyr Zelenskiy has just been let down spectacularly by the self-inflicted demise of Boris Johnson in Britain. The politician who has fared best at the ballot box most recently is probably Viktor Orbán, Putin’s greatest ally in Europe. Orbán is glorying in it. He said at first he believed European politicians had only “shot themselves in the foot”, but now it is clear that it was a shot to the lungs of the European economy, which is struggling for air everywhere.

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Jesse Kelly’s comment is spot on.

US Army Cuts Force Size Amid Unprecedented Battle For Recruits (AP)

The Army is significantly cutting the total number of soldiers it expects to have in the force over the next two years, as the U.S. military faces what a top general called “unprecedented challenges” in bringing in recruits. Army officials on Tuesday said the service will fall about 10,000 soldiers short of its planned end strength for this fiscal year, and prospects for next year are grimmer. Army Gen. Joseph Martin, vice chief of staff for the Army, said it is projecting it will have a total force of 466,400 this year, down from the expected 476,000. And the service could end 2023 with between 445,000 and 452,000 soldiers, depending on how well recruiting and retention go. With just two and a half months to go in the fiscal year, the Army has achieved just 50% of its recruiting goal of 60,000 soldiers, according to Lt. Col. Randee Farrell, spokeswoman for Army Secretary Christine Wormuth.

Based on those numbers and trends, it is likely the Army will miss the goal by nearly 25% as of Oct. 1. If the shortfalls continue, Martin said, they could have an impact on readiness. “We’ve got unprecedented challenges with both a post-COVID-19 environment and labor market, but also competition with private companies that have changed their incentives over time,” Martin told a House Armed Services subcommittee on Tuesday. Asked if the Army will have to adjust its force structure to meet national security and warfighting missions around the world, Martin said: “We don’t need to do that immediately. But if we don’t arrest the decline that we’re seeing right now in end strength, that could be a possibility in the future.”

Cutting the size of the Army is the best option, said Wormuth. “The Army is facing our most challenging recruiting environment since the inception of the all-volunteer force. This is not a one-year challenge. We will not solve this overnight,” she said, adding that the service is looking at a wide range of steps to recruit more soldiers without lowering standards or sacrificing quality. “We are facing a very fundamental question,” she added. “Do we lower standards to meet end strength, or do we lower end strength to maintain a quality, professional force? We believe the answer is obvious — quality is more important than quantity.”

The Army’s recruiting problems are the most severe across the military, but the other services are also having a tough time finding young people who want to join and can meet the physical, mental and moral requirements. Senior Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps leaders have said they are hopeful they will meet or just slightly miss their recruiting goals for this year. But they said they will have to dip into their pool of delayed entry applicants, which will put them behind as they begin the next recruiting year.

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“I won’t lose,” he said, tagging Twitter support. “I have your receipts and it’s clear you have amateurs in charge of your censorship operation.”

Ex-Trump Official In Demand After Twitter Backs Down On Covid Censorship (JTN)

A Trump administration lawyer secured journalist Alex Berenson’s reinstatement to Twitter in a legal settlement and got quick results when he warned the social media platform on behalf of Ivy League epidemiologist Andrew Bostom last week. James Lawrence III, former Department of Health and Human Services deputy general counsel and chief counsel at the FDA, is now being sought by other users also sanctioned for sharing “misleading and potentially harmful” information related to COVID-19. Kevin McKernan, a veteran genomics researcher on the verge of permanent suspension, said he’s “in contact” with Lawrence but declined to specify further to Just the News.

Daniel Kotzin, an outspoken critic of COVID-19 vaccines with a large Twitter following, suggested he’d hire Lawrence after losing his first lawsuit, which alleged Twitter colluded with federal officials to sanction him. (A similar lawsuit by Republican attorneys general is moving into discovery.) Bostom told Just the News that Twitter reinstated his account, suspended for sharing a peer-reviewed study on COVID vaccines and male fertility, within “a few hours” of Lawrence’s legal threat letter, which gave Twitter a July 21 deadline. Lawrence noted Bostom’s voluminous research and publishing when he was on the faculty at Brown University’s medical school. He’s now a research physician at a Brown-affiliated hospital.

Bostom was not saying “the COVID-19 vaccines cause infertility” but rather “citing research and asking questions,” Lawrence told Twitter head of legal Vijaya Gadde. Twitter’s misinformation ban explicitly exempts “debate about research” that does not “intentionally misrepresent research findings.” Using the same breach-of-contract argument that convinced a federal judge to let Berenson’s lawsuit continue, Lawrence said Twitter ignored “its own progressive discipline policy” and instead “retrofit” Bostom’s single flagged tweet into its repeated-violation policy. Kevin McKernan managed MIT’s research and development for the Human Genome Project. “You can restore this account to zero strikes, or prepare for some legal expense,” he wrote in a Saturday tweet thread after his latest lockup in “TwitMo.” “I won’t lose,” he said, tagging Twitter support. “I have your receipts and it’s clear you have amateurs in charge of your censorship operation.”

Read more …

Shameless.

Paul Pelosi $1M Chip Stock Purchase: A Long History Of ‘Timely’ Buys (JTN)

Paul Pelosi, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, purchased between $1 million and $5 million of stock in a semiconductor company ahead of an upcoming vote on legislation containing $52 billion for chipmakers — the latest in a long history of similar purchases. A Data for Progress poll found that 70% of respondents support a ban on lawmakers trading individual stocks and 68% agree with extending the ban to their spouses. Pelosi’s husband made headlines when he purchased a substantial amount of tech stock last year under his wife’s speakership. Pelosi made millions on “timely” bets with Big Tech stock buys in advance of an antitrust bill that was moving through the House, according to a Fortune report from July 2021. The antitrust legislation ultimately stalled, but Pelosi tech stock buys have continued throughout this year.

In March, the speaker disclosed that her husband bought Apple as well as Disney and PayPal shares. Retail traders track Pelosi’s trades to “find winners,” Yahoo reported. Pelosi was involved in controversy regarding Visa stock purchases he made in 2008 while credit card companies were reportedly lobbying his wife to stop legislation that would curb credit card swipe fees to vendors, CBS News reported at the time. “The Pelosis purchased 5,000 shares of Visa at the initial price of $44 dollars,” the CBS report read. “Two days later it was trading at $64.” CBS noted that the swipe fee legislation, the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights, eventually did pass the House. “I will hold my record in terms of fighting the credit card companies as speaker of the House or as a member of Congress up against anyone,” Speaker Pelosi told “60 Minutes.”

[..] Peter Schweizer, author of the 2011 book “Throw Them All Out,” was instrumental in educating the public about the lack of stock trading laws applicable to members of Congress. After his book was published, Congress passed the STOCK Act, and former President Obama signed it into law. The bill is designed to prevent insider trading, but it doesn’t ban members of Congress or their spouses from buying individual stocks. Under the bill, lawmakers are required to file financial disclosure reports that show the purchases made. Schweizer has long called on Congress to prohibit lawmakers and their spruces from trading individual stocks.

“They still sort of continue to blatantly trade in stocks,” Schweizer told Just the News in October 2021. “So in the case of the Pelosis, for example, she’s the Speaker of the House, legislation that’s going to affect Big Tech in a positive way or big contracts going to Big Tech, her husband’s not only buying and selling stock in Big Tech, he’s actually buying options, which are sort of leveraged bets that the stock is going to go one way or the other. And, of course, Paul Pelosi Sr. just happens to be really good at making those predictions.”

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“Unvaccinated can now largely forget about contracting severe C-19 disease as the next big mutation will most likely make the unvaccinated resistant to the virus..”

Prediction For Unvaccinated And Never Previously Infected (Geert)

What would be your prediction for those who are both unvaccinated against COVID-19 and never previously infected? Let’s say those of working age(20 – 55) in fairly good health. Should they be worried about Avian Flu and Monkeypox, since they have not experienced an infection by SARS-CoV-2? Are they at risk for serious illness from these more infectious (and future more virulent) SARS-CoV-2 mutants?

Answer: It would be quite unbelievable that they didn’t get exposed to SC-2 given the high infectiousness of previously and currently circulating variants. Ideally, they should have their Abs tested (anti-S would be sufficient since they’re not vaccinated). They can also have their Abs tested against Flu. If all this is negative (which would point to poor activation of natural immunity), they can just take one shot of a live attenuated measles or mumps or rubella or varicella vaccine (or all together in one shot) to boost their innate immune response. (However, they should only do so if they got MMR(V)-vaccinated in the past. The better their innate immune status, the lower the likelihood they are going to catch severe disease from these viruses. But anyhow, for a person in good health, it is highly unlikely to develop severe disease from Monkeypox (as it is – for now(!) – not highly infectious) or from Avian Flu as they must at least have had contact with Flu viruses in the past and hence, have some ‘Flu-trained’ innate immunity.)

Unvaccinated can now largely forget about contracting severe C-19 disease as the next big mutation will most likely make the unvaccinated resistant to the virus. However, if they have not yet been infected at all by any of these highly infectious variants, they could still contract C-19 disease (before that new variant emerges) and become seriously ill (but not ‘severely ill’ as long as they are in good health with no comorbidities and predisposing factors). To avoid this, they should either prevent risky contacts (difficult) till the next variant appears (in my opinion, just a matter of weeks) or take Ivermectin orHCQ as soon as symptoms manifest (but not prophylactically).

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“Djokovic had to be kept out of Australia not because he could infect others but because he is a visible reminder of vaccine failure.”

Don’t Let ‘Voodoo Science’ Keep Djokovic From Competing in US Open (Thakur)

So Novak Djokovic has won Wimbledon, the second tennis major this year to be plagued by self-inflicted wounds following the Australian Open whose crown Djokovic was unceremoniously prevented from defending. I concluded then that God must be a Djoker. How else to explain that banks that once feared masked robbers insisted on masked customers in 2020-21, Big Pharma blamed the failure of a product on those who refused to take it and sporting bodies that banned drug-injecting competitors mandated a drug with no long-term safety data? According to one site that tracks the adverse events associated with sportspeople, by mid-July 1,174 athletes — by definition one of the fittest cohorts in society — had suffered cardiac arrests and other serious side effects, of whom 779 had died.

The claim that “No-vax” Djokovic poses a threat to others’ health is risible. Among the best tennis players of all time, one of the greatest contemporary athletes across all sporting codes and also possibly the healthiest human being on the planet who is obsessive-compulsive about his fitness, Djokovic was unable to play in the Australian Open because he refused to take a COVID vaccine. Now he faces the repeat prospect of the Biden administration barring him from entering to compete in the US Open, even though unvaccinated Americans can compete. That would be unfortunate. The vaccination mandate for international arrivals made little sense back in January and is now demonstrably reliant on voodoo science.

[..] It’s indisputable that vaccination does not provide protection against getting infected or infecting others. If health authorities were honest, then to be consistent with their 2021 messaging, they would now be using the language of the pandemic of the vaccinated. The scale of the problem is such that suspicions arise that rapidly waning efficacy, especially after repeated boosters, might not be the only issue. In addition to the studiously ignored problem of adverse events, many serious and some fatal, could the vaccines themselves be sustaining and driving the pandemic? Against this hard data that is now available, the decision in January to stop Djokovic from coming into Australia seems even more perverse. As a BBC analysis made clear, that decision was neither medical nor legal but political.

A court overturned the entry ban on procedural and substantive grounds. The government then made an end run around the legal system by relying on ministerial discretion that had deliberately been made nonjusticiable. Accepting that Djokovic posed “a negligible individual risk of transmitting COVID-19” to others, the minister nonetheless concluded that because Djokovic had a “well-known stance on vaccination,” his very presence could fuel anti-vaccination sentiment in Australia. Consequently, his participation was not in the public interest. Thus Djokovic had to be kept out of Australia not because he could infect others but because he is a visible reminder of vaccine failure.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

Simpsons 2006

 

 

Tucker Harrowing

 

 

 

 


Mount Fuji

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle July 20 2022

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 44 total)
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  • #111786

    Gustave Moreau Helen on the Walls of Troy 1885   • In The Multipolar World Iran Will No Longer Fear U.S. Sanctions (MoA) • On Liberating Europe (
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle July 20 2022]

    #111787
    Red
    Participant

    The video ends with former French Prez Sarkozy warning, “we will proceed together toward a New World Order & nobody & I mean nobody will be able to oppose it”

    But we can ignore it.

    #111788
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Not covered in today’s TAE report but crucial to the future:

    In addition to the disappearance of Lake Mead

    http://graphs.water-data.com/lakemead/

    I see that the Great Salt Lake is also disappearing

    No surprise, really.

    In the case of the former lake, the impact is on water supplies to agriculture, urban communities of about 45 million people and hydro generation. In the case of the latter, the impact is less on water supplies as such but there is some impact on agriculture; the biggest catastrophe may well be the release of toxic dust (containing arsenic) from the lake bed..

    Hmm… seems to me America is now very close to kaput on practically every front -financially, economically, socially, environmentally, health-wise, militarily etc…..though Europe does look set to go under a few months before America.

    #111789
    Red
    Participant

    From the limited perspective of our short human lifespans, this institutional bedrock (and the principles underpinning it) seems unshakable, permanent, everlasting. We therefore assume (wrongly) that because we have been able to rely on our institutions to safeguard the democratic, legal, and scientific processes that lead to fairness, justice, and truth, we will also continue to be able to rely on them in the future. In other words, once we build a “system”, we delude ourselves into thinking that the system will be self-sustaining. We deceive ourselves into thinking that the government will do the housekeeping required to keep the system running smoothly. It’s an illusion that disguises the fragility of what we’ve built.

    It all works reasonably well… until it doesn’t. The institutional checks and balances of liberal democracy are tolerably able to resist society’s short-term impulses and follies. But the system is incapable of holding back the tide if large swathes of society buy into a new way of thinking about fairness, justice, and truth.

    Every few generations, seemingly out of the blue, everything comes unglued as the system abruptly dismantles what we thought was everlasting in order to realign itself with society’s “new and improved” view of the world. The clear words of our constitutions tell us this isn’t supposed to happen, yet here we are in the midst of precisely that kind of systematic deconstruction of everything Western civilization supposedly once stood for. Society seems hell-bent on pulling apart all the philosophical threads that were meant to bind us together.

    https://www.juliusruechel.com/2022/05/words-from-dead-how-to-lift-society.html#more

    #111790
    Red
    Participant

    Who knew that cigarettes may cause fires? Back in the days of dinosaurs when I smoked a lit ciggy would burn to the filter all by itself in the ash tray. Question: What the hell is added to make them go out?

    Health Canada is recalling more than 10 million packages of cigarettes over “increased fire hazard” concerns.

    On Monday, Canada’s health agency issued the recall for Player’s, Player’s Smooth and Player’s Original regular size smokes sold in packs of 20 and 25.

    Health Canada advises smokers to “immediately stop using the recalled products” and to contact Imperial Tobacco Canada Limited.

    The health agency said the recalled darts “do not meet the performance standards” because they must burn their full length “no more than 25% of the time.”
    https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/health-canada-recalls-more-than-10m-packs-of-cigarettes-for-fire-hazard-concerns-1.5993258

    #111791
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Yes, but if you repeat what President Sarkozy said on national TV, it’s sudeenly false and you’re a conspiracy theorist.

    “once we build a “system”, we delude ourselves into thinking that the system will be self-sustaining.”

    True, however WE are the system, not the Chamber of Commerce, not the aquaducts. Nothing works unless WE do work. Everyone is trying to suck off this one system or other whose energy was put in 40 years ago. But you can’t protect people from themselves. If they are violent, selfish, self-serving, lazy, shiftless drug addicts, the only thing the systems or governments do is make the collapse harder and more sudden. Like the NHS right now. If no one expected help from anywhere, they’d have already made 1,000 different plans. Everyone expects a free check for eating cheetos and playing WoW and are fatally unprepared. YOU are the answer you seek.

    Apparently Donald Trump is still the most important person in the world. Every headline on MSNBC is about him. Thanks, MSNBC, I’ll keep that in mind when we talk about who’s relevant and running the country. Brandon who?

    “AOC and Ilhan Omar Pretend to Be Handcuffed During Supreme Court Arrest”

    Boy, she sure hates power and doing her job. The Supreme Court gave that responsibility to YOU, the Legislature. But, I’m sure she has time for this since she’s not passing a Roe law, nor proposing one once in three years. Sadly, we have learned she, and Omar, are pathological liars, incapable of the simplest action. And also certified morons. But they are Congressmen after all.

    Attali. Same as Bignew Brzezinski: planned for Ukraine since geez, probably 1938.

    Years ago Klaus said “We must prepare for an angrier world” Why is that, Klaus? What will they be angry about in this future you propose? Who is “we”? You mean like the Yellow Vests are angry since you’ve taxed their livelihood into penury? The Dutch farmers since you’re having your organization steal their farms and put beach condos on them? Because although there are states the size of Belgium that can grow little besides cattle, you want us to eat bugs with parasites on them, while you eat imported salmon in the Swiss Alps?

    And again, eat the bugs? These guys ACT like bugs. Everything must be orderly. Centrally controlled. Hive Mind. They ruthlessly cull the sick and the drones for the good of the collective. They grow in a straight line and destroy all other ant peoples they meet with ruthless efficiency. You are just worker bees that live and die for the Queen. If there’s a winter, we just chuck you out of the hive to die. That’s just logic and common sense. There is no resistance. Insects in a hive do not have such mental variation for anything but the will of the collective. They have no ‘self’ and cannot make trouble.

    However, that’s not the way humans act. That’s the way insects act. Now they have been discussing how different mental states that humans normally have can be removed, drugged away to make humans more compliant and near-identical the way insects are. Religion was a key one, them thinking it’s a brain deformity with a specific location that can be removed, but there are others. Suspicion is one, and doubt. This was prototyped in the USSR with lifelong psych arrests for dissidents.

    Now: why? Humans don’t act like that. They act in a different way. That is quite messy and has a lot of innate variation. However, it has a lot of creativity and is able to change plans and try a thousand things at once until something works. Therefore, although hive-mind may be fine for insects, it is fundamentally against natural law to impose it on humans, just as if we tried to force human variation on a beehive.

    “Iran will be able to call on Russia should someone start hostilities against it…”

    Yes, but that will begin to stretch Russia too thin.

    “It was precisely after 1991 that the use of the phrase ‘political correctness’ as a pejorative phrase became widespread in the USA.”

    They’ve learned they can always keep it going by adding more violence and fascism. Have a problem? Clamp it down and roll a few heads til they shut up and get in line. Arrest a few reporters, whose cars suddenly zoom up to 100mph and crash into a tree. Works ‘til it doesn’t which is probably why there are unavoidable arcs of history. And we’ve gone over the top of the wheel, which Russia rises up from the bottom.

    But don’t worry: like Rome we’re going to hold Senate hearings on what gender angels are as they dance on the head of a pin. That’s the proven road to success and prosperity.

    “the rest of the world and its GDP, it produces only a smallish amount of oil, gas, food, fertilizer and manufactured goods.”

    This is true, however you have to respect that we CAN produce a tremendous amount of all five in a very short time, like 5-10 years. We used YOURS, and our shallow mines are untouched. Some 1/3 of our land is fallow.

    “Peace negotiations with Moscow will make sense only after Russia’s defeat on the battlefield,”

    In other words: never. Now watch not anybody’s talk but their actions. What has the Pentagon done? Well, nothing at all, BUT: started the war in Ukraine, a violent, corrupt, congressional-laundering, human-trafficking country. I mean, if you have to have a war somewhere, let’s not make it Hawaii or Wakanda. Second, they promised Ze, but also Joe, they were right behind him. No problem, all in! Let’s Roll! And so THEY ALSO TOLD ALL EUROPE. Which WEF/Davos – which is Europe – “We will fight Russia for you.” And why wouldn’t Europe believe us? U.S. soldiers have been cannon fodder for Davos and London every other time, every tiny thing they wanted for 50+ years. That’s why they don’t HAVE an army (and do have health care): they exclusively use ours.

    So Europe got neck deep, then over their eyeballs in just a few days. But what has the Pentagon not said, not promised, but DONE? The Pentagon has arranged for Europe to collapse. Russia hasn’t even touched them. It’s still generally following all contracts even. Yet Germany is fallen, France isn’t far behind, and the entire Euro/EU project – 30 years’ work – is at risk in an afternoon. Zero U.S. soldiers are in Ukraine. Essentially zero U.S. soldiers are in Poland for that matter. Zero reinforcements are in Germany. Zero people have been activated. Zero tanks and anti-tanks have been manufactured; they just let everything run out. Just promises, which are delivered one HIMAR at a time, to be blown up on the launchpad, fully exposed.

    Who is running it? Well the CIA is running the Ukie army. The CIA is booking the mercenaries. The CIA is accessing and delivering the satellite photos. The CIA is targeting and radio coordinating. These are CIA functions, which the Pentagon – over time becoming their arch enemy as seen in many books and movies – they cannot stop the CIA from doing without opening a domestic civil war between branches of government. Already the CIA and U.S. Army were openly shooting each other in Syria and no doubt elsewhere, as the CIA is self-funding with drugs and human trafficking, as per F-stan.

    So the U.S. Army doesn’t need to call Putin on the phone. They just posture and Rus gets the message. They tell Joe, “we’ve got your back. They’re weak, we’ll get away with ethnic cleansing in Donbas” then when Russia sends but one missile, they change their tune after everyone’s committed and the music’s started. Europe is fully committed, they cannot reverse money, gas storage, or their anti-Russian posturing without whole governments and paradigms collapsing forever. Just like Jerome Powell, the Pentagon has gone “America First”. Why are we the world’s army, fighting for Ukraine which we have no stake in? And the people are behind this idea as well, Joe and da Boyz are exposed, it just needs to play out.

    But the WEF/Davos HAS NO ARMY. Without ours, they’re sending the local constables in a white Peugeot to fight the Russian Army. All we had to do was stop, and we have. All we had to do was force Davos to commit at last, then stay home.

    Now this is why Ukraine, top news forever, no other news possible, has suddenly gone “We were never at war with Eurasia” and there are zero Ukraine stories overnight. Jan 6. Cases of monkeypox = 5. Never Amber Heard of it.

    “Costs of Ukraine War a Test for European Leaders – and It May Get Worse (G.)”

    It will definitely get worse, and the leaders are all completely exposed before the cold and hungry public. Exposed as trying to run a war without an army, and without food or fuel. Exposed trying to kill everyone in Europe with their bad ideas and offensive behavior. The people could have stopped them before, but they didn’t, so it takes whatever it takes.

    “US Army Cuts Force Size Amid Unprecedented Battle for Recruits (AP)”

    Obviously when you have no recruits, you should purge and fire all your soldiers and national guardsmen for not taking an illegal, Nuremberg-denied experimental vaccine. When “We’re in a war” as Joe tells us. What war is that, Joe?

    “Do we lower standards to meet end strength,”

    Trick question: they’ve already RADICALLY lowered end strength to accommodate women, risking every soldier in the platoon. However, in the 50s – or really since WWI – they used to have a general U.S. health initiative to get enough healthy men that they could murder them at the Somme. That’s what all the doctor checks, food pyramids, school food, eat healthy things were for. Like nuclear fallout shelters, we very specifically gutted and removed them all, leading to complete military unreadiness, and complete exposure of our national security. Why? Why do we not own our ports, bridges, and utilities? I thought we wuz fighting Osama bin Laden, takin’ off our shoes at the airport or something.

    I’m in favor. The U.S. needs a militia army of citizen volunteers. “A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State,” They own and pick up their own rifles, which needless will happen only if WE are invaded, not when a sparrow falls in Kazakhstan and Bolton gets a mustache hair.

    Ex-Trump Official in Demand after Twitter Backs Down on Covid Censorship (JTN)”

    Burden of proof. They ban anyone they feel like then make you prove you are innocent. Not just innocent, but SO innocent, SO ideologically purity-test, that they can’t find even a minor infraction to pin you on. GFY. Nothing stops until you are “Innocent until proven guilty”, not “Star Chamber’d running day and night” like Chile under Pinochet.

    “ Paul Pelosi $1M Chip Stock Purchase: A Long History of ‘Timely’ Buys (JTN)

    Yes, there’s a fund and service that just lets you follow Pelosi’s and Congresses’ insider buys. Highly profitable. …But there’s no corruption. That’s a conspiracy theory. Vote for Burr!

    “You’ll be getting vaccines every year because that’s how vaccines work (but only since 2019)” – Time.com

    Uh-huh. Now you see why you can’t let them change the definition of “vaccine”? Follow the Science that follows the money. Newsflash: basic premise of “vaccine” is that it gives you life-long immunity.

    Simpsons: yes, we’ve been saying this since before 2006. For the 30 years as Saker said, that they added control, Party-affiliation, and ideological purity as a means of installing fascism.

    Assange: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ

    My thought exactly: who’s also setting fires in London in the heat? It’s not to keep warm. Save your firewood and burning barrels for winter.

    They put straight poisons into honest tobacco to make them go out. There is quite a book of regulations about it. Now you wouldn’t think putting a dry fire extinguisher powder into your ciggie might cause cancer or something would ya? Too early to tell: pharma/tobacco will withhold their science for 30-40 years.

    #111792
    citizenx
    Participant

    Will you stand above me
    Look my way, never love me
    Rain keeps falling, rain keeps falling
    Down, down, down
    Will you recognize me
    Call my name or walk on by

    Don’t you try to pretend
    It’s my feeling we’ll win in the end
    Don’t you forget about me
    I’ll be alone, dancing you know it baby
    Going to take you apart
    I’ll put us back together at heart, baby

    When you walk on by
    And you call my name…

    Celebrate Truth, Honor Justice. May your Spirit shine, Intellect brighten, hands be steady.
    Let Courage, Discernment and Sword avenge the tortured.

    Revere the Freedom Fighters. Dance on the Empires sun bleached bones. Ancient footprints are everywhere. The Covid Cult will be destroyed- never forgive, never forget. Truth, balance and harmony will be restored.

    May the four Winds blow you safely home Julian.

    #111793
    zerosum
    Participant

    There is always a train operator blowing his horn to wake up the community that is still sleeping..

    The ship has sailed
    • In The Multipolar World Iran Will No Longer Fear U.S. Sanctions (MoA)

    Iran, Russia, India and China are partners …. will deter Israel and the U.S. from any attack
    ————
    a brewing popular revolt

    You can’t fool all of the people all of the time.
    There are thousands of bloggers
    There are 10X that who are commentators
    There are 100X that who are readers of those blogs and those comments

    Peace/Food/energy/life are stronger motivator than propaganda.

    As a result, millions of people are on the move, immigrating like the tide, like the swarms of bees, of ants, of locust , like wild fire, like the heat wave, like the wind, like a pandemic, like natural immunity, like inflation.
    ———–
    The Army’s recruiting problems are being solved by hiring mercenaries, (example – Ukraine war)
    ———-
    A straight, white racist will not join a military full of transsexuals and anti-white racism.
    ———–

    • Prediction For Unvaccinated And Never Previously Infected (Geert)

    THEY ALREADY HAVE NATURAL IMMUNITY
    ————

    #111794
    zerosum
    Participant

    Bloggers present and share different points of view about our social/economic systems.
    Read more …

    Finance Capitalism’s Self-Destructive Nature


    Finance Capitalism’s Self-Destructive Nature
    1566 Views July 20, 2022

    MICHAEL HUDSON: All of my articles are on my website michael-hudson.com and I’m also on patreon and they can join on patreon and I have an ongoing discussion there so the website, patreon are my favorite sites where I publish, and Naked Capitalism, the Saker, Counterpunch, my articles are usually on a lot of these different websites and you’re showing it now so yeah and the books are available on Amazon or Xlibris and you can all buy them and they’re well printed and priced not very expensively.

    #111795
    boscohorowitz
    Participant
    #111796
    John Day
    Participant

    Hokusai never depicted THAT view of Mt. Fuji (which I climbed with a friend after graduating high school in Yokohama) https://www.artelino.com/articles/hokusai-36-views-fuji.asp

    As to below, please excuse some reposting of items already included in the blog or comments for continuity of the narrative which the sequence presents.
    Thank You.

    #111797
    John Day
    Participant

    Forsaking Fictions blog post is up with another image of slowly progressing new-kitchen
    https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/foresaking-fictions

    Charles Hugh Smith looks at debt default (“the final frontier”) and where the defaults might be imposed within society. Things like this don’t just happen, losses are “imposed” upon classes of debt holders by the power structure. The western power structure has long been divided, and has borrowed more and more to avoid imposing losses. The phantom “wealth” is huge. What classes of investors can take the losses without destroying the society? Is this possible?
    The destruction of phantom wealth via default has always been the only way to clear the financial system of unpayable debt burdens and extremes of rentier / wealth dominance. Let’s guess that a bare minimum of $100 trillion of the $300 trillion mountain of global debt will default far sooner than most expect. The only question is who will absorb the $100 trillion in losses. Choose wisely, as defaults of debt that are transferred to the public end up bringing down the entire system via political overthrow or currency collapse…
    ..The favored solutions of the state–printing money or transferring the losses to the public–are no longer viable. Now that inflation has emerged from its slumber, printing trillions to bail out the wealthy is no longer an option. The public, so easily conned into accepting the bailout of the wealthy in 2008, has wised up and so that particular con won’t work again. (“Bail out the super-wealthy now or your ATM machine will stop working!” Uh, right.)
    The state is the protector of the wealthy, and so defaults that actually impact the wealthy are anathema. The wealthy will demand the state absorb their losses (recall that profits are private, losses are socialized) The only equitable solution is to force the losses on those who bought the debt as a rentier income stream…
    ..Very few ordinary households own other people’s debts as assets. It’s the wealthy few who own most of the student loans, vehicle loans, mortgages, government and corporation bonds, etc.
    Yes, ordinary households may own other people’s debts through pension plans or ownership of mutual funds, but by and large debt is a favored asset of the rentier class, i.e. the wealthiest few.
    We’re constantly told that mass defaults would destroy the economy, but this is flim-flam: mass defaults would destroy much of the wealth of the rentier class which has been greatly enriched by the global expansion of debt, while freeing the debtors of their obligations.
    ​https://www.oftwominds.com/blogjuly22/default7-22.html

    More from Charles: The Real Policy Error Is Expanding Debt and Calling It “Growth”
    ..The financial punditry is whipping itself into a frenzy about a Federal Reserve “policy error,” which is code for “if the music finally stops, we’re doomed!” In other words, any policy which reduces the flow of juice sluicing through the sewage pipes of the financial system (credit, leverage and liquidity–the essential mechanisms of financialization and globalization) endangers the entire rickety, rotten structure of phantom wealth that’s enriched the few at the expense of the many…
    The history of central banking is actually quite simple:
    1. Central banks act to protect the wealth and power of those who own / control most of the wealth. This is their core unstated reason to exist.
    2. To justify this absurdly transparent protection of the elite in the eyes of the public, central banks go through the motions of trying to extinguish the business / credit cycle, that is, trying to eliminate defaults and credit crunches which are the frequent but low-intensity fires that burn up the financial deadwood…
    ​..​When $100 trillion in global deadwood-debt burns to the ground, that merely returns global debt to the levels of 2012. Central bank policies guarantee the forest will be consumed by an uncontrolled conflagration. That’s the cost of claiming waste and debt are “growth” and protecting the phantom wealth of the few at the expense of the many.
    https://www.oftwominds.com/blogjuly22/policy-error7-22.html

    ​ Again, the extreme actions taken during the pandemic were for maintenance of the parasitic financial structure, not public health.
    ​ ​The IMF and World Bank have for decades pushed a policy agenda based on cuts to public services, increases in taxes paid by the poorest and moves to undermine labour rights and protections.
    ​ ​IMF ‘structural adjustment’ policies have resulted in 52% of Africans lacking access to healthcare and 83% having no safety nets to fall back on if they lose their job or become sick. Even the IMF has shown that neoliberal policies fuel poverty and inequality.
    ​ ​In 2021, an Oxfam review of IMF COVID-19 loans showed that 33 African countries were encouraged to pursue austerity policies. The world’s poorest countries are due to pay $43 billion in debt repayments in 2022, which could otherwise cover the costs of their food imports…
    ..COVID was a crisis of capitalism masquerading as a public health emergency…
    ​..​By late 2019, many companies could not generate sufficient profit. Falling turnover, limited cashflows and highly leveraged balance sheets were prevalent.
    ​ ​Economic growth was weakening in the run up to the massive stock market crash in February 2020, which saw trillions more pumped into the system in the guise of ‘COVID relief’.​..​
    ..Come 2019, former governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King warned that the world was sleepwalking towards a fresh economic and financial crisis that would have devastating consequences. He argued that the global economy was stuck in a low growth trap and recovery from the crisis of 2008 was weaker than that after the Great Depression.
    King concluded that it was time for the Federal Reserve and other central banks to begin talks behind closed doors with politicians. That is precisely what happened as key players, including BlackRock, the world’s most powerful investment fund, got together to work out a strategy going forward. This took place in the lead up to COVID.
    ​ ​ Aside from deepening the dependency of poorer countries on Western capital, Fabio Vighi says lockdowns and the global suspension of economic transactions allowed the US Fed to flood the ailing financial markets (under the guise of COVID) with freshly printed money while shutting down the real economy to avoid hyperinflation. Lockdowns suspended business transactions, which drained the demand for credit and stopped the contagion.
    COVID provided cover for a multi-trillion-dollar bailout for the capitalist economy that was in meltdown prior to COVID. Despite a decade or more of ‘quantitative easing’, this new bailout came in the form of trillions of dollars pumped into financial markets by the US Fed (in the months prior to March 2020) and subsequent ‘COVID relief’.
    The IMF, World bank and global leaders knew full well what the impact on the world’s poor would be of closing down the world economy through COVID-related lockdowns.
    Yet they sanctioned it and there is now the prospect that in excess of a quarter of a billion more people worldwide will fall into extreme levels of poverty in 2022 alone.
    https://www.globalresearch.ca/covid-capitalism-friedrich-boris/5785964

    #111798
    John Day
    Participant

    ​Single excerpt of Michael Hudson from an interview with him and Steve Keene:​
    ​ ​A central element of the World Bank from the beginning is to convince countries not to grow their own food, but to create plantation agriculture, to prevent family-owned farming of food, to grow plantation export crops, and to become dependent on the United States for their grain. Well, if imports are a benefit and imports mean that the United States can put a sanction on you and starve your people like the United States tried to do in China in the 1950s, do you really want to become import dependent on food?
    ​ ​Let’s compare the World Bank to the Chinese Belt and Road and the BRICS bank that’s proposed. The World Bank would only make foreign exchange loans. That meant it would only make loans to countries who would invest in infrastructure that would help its exports. Well, imagine how this works for agriculture.
    ​ ​If you were going to develop your agriculture in the global South countries, you’d do pretty much what the United States did in the 1930s that had the most rapid increase in productivity of any industry in the last few centuries. And that was because the government took the lead in agricultural extension services, seed testing, educating farmers as to seed variety, setting up local farm management organizations.
    ​ ​Before the time that Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland became the great intermediaries in promotion of domestic self-sufficiency for farms, the World Bank wouldn’t make any loans at all for this, even though the World Bank local commissions and reports all said that this is what they need. The World Bank was almost always headed by someone very close to the US Military, starting with John J. McCloy at the beginning and going through McNamara and all of the subsequent Pentagon people who were put in charge of the World Bank.
    ​ ​And above all, they wanted to continue to base America’s export boom in agriculture and to make other countries food dependent. And that is one of the things that has led them into debt. So if you have a country like Chile that has the richest land in the world because it has the richest supply of guano deposits in the world. It also has the most unequal land distribution in Latin America – latifundia and microfundia – not any kind of balanced food production.
    ​ ​So that all of Chile’s exports and copper, by specializing, have been overwhelmed by the costs of importing food that it could have grown all by itself. So the idea of free trade is shaped by what will the international organizations controlled by the US give credit for, ends up to create underdevelopment and dependency instead of development. And that developmental aspect is a different story from MMT money creation. And we’re talking about something else that is part of a much bigger system.

    Michael Hudson: Podcast with Michael Hudson, Steve Keen, Steve Grumbine

    ​Canadian crops are looking good, also.
    ​ ​Infrared satellite imagery designed to measure moisture levels and the health of farmlands suggests that staple crops such as wheat are in poor condition and in sharp decline among major exporters including the Ukraine, the US and India. Two countries do have bumper crops so far though; namely Russia and China.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/satellite-imagery-shows-global-crop-declines-except-russia-and-china

    ​The US, Israel and Saudi Arabia are (still) plotting war with Iran
    A​ ​war with Iran would be a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions. It would spread swiftly throughout the region. The Shiites across the Middle East would see an attack on Iran as a religious war against Shiism. The two million Shiites in Saudi Arabia, concentrated in the oil-rich Eastern province; the Shiite majority in Iraq; and the Shiite communities in Bahrain, Pakistan and Turkey would join the fight against the U.S. and Israel.
    ​ ​Iran would use its Chinese-supplied anti-ship missiles, rocket and bomb-equipped speedboats and submarines, mines, drones and coastal artillery to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, the corridor for 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquified gas supply. Oil production facilities in the Persian Gulf would be sabotaged.
    ​ ​Iranian oil, which makes up 13 percent of the world’s energy supply, would be taken off the market. Oil would jump to over $500 a barrel…
    ..In 2002, the U.S. military conducted its “most elaborate war game” ever, costing over $250 million. Known as the Millennium Challenge, the exercise was between a Blue Force (the U.S.) and the Red Force (widely considered as a stand-in for Iran). It was meant to validate America’s “modern, joint-service war-fighting concepts.” It did the opposite. The Red Force, led by retired Marine lieutenant general Paul Van Riper, conducted a swarm of kamikaze suicide boat attacks and destroyed 16 U.S. warships in under 20 minutes.

    Chris Hedges: War With Iran

    #111799
    John Day
    Participant

    Stocks Soar On Report Russia Will Restart Nord Stream 1 Gas Flow On Thursday
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/euroipean-stocks-soar-report-russia-will-restart-nord-stream-1-thursday

    ​ ​A crucial turbine from the Nord Stream 1 natural gas pipeline was airlifted from Canada to Germany on Sunday, Kommersant newspaper has reported, citing its sources. The part will then travel for another five to seven days by ferry to its destination in Russia, the paper revealed on Monday. If everything goes smoothly and there’s no delay at customs, the turbine will be fitted and ready to pump gas in early August, Kommersant noted. The Siemens turbine was stuck in Canada after undergoing repairs there due to Ottawa’s Ukraine-related sanctions on Russia. Canada initially refused to return the part, as it regarded the equipment as a dual-use product subject to sanctions​.​
    https://www.rt.com/business/559156-russian-turbine-return-canada/

    Russian state energy giant Gazprom has signed a major deal with Iran worth billions at a moment President Putin is in Tehran to meet with President Ebrahim Raisi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/gazprom-iran-sign-tentative-40bn-energy-deal-russia-threatens-europe-gas-supply

    ​Moon of Alabama (German)
    ​ ​Gazprom is a strong partner and can not be hindered by U.S. sanctions. Iran will finally be able export more of its plentiful gas. Russia will also have a chance to work with Iran to keep the prices at a certain level. With such a large deal will also come protection. Iran will be able to call on Russia should someone start hostilities against it.
    ​ ​When Iran produces enough gas it can also revive the old project of a pipeline to India. This could either go through Pakistan or, as India would probably prefer, through an undersea pipeline:
    ​ ​A 1,300-km undersea pipeline from Iran, avoiding Pakistani waters, can bring natural gas from the Persian Gulf to India at rates less than the price of Liquefied Natural Gas available in the spot market, proponents of the pipeline said on Tuesday.
    ​ ​Releasing a study on the Iran-India gas pipeline, former oil secretary T.N.R. Rao said natural gas imported through the over $4 billion line would cost $5-5.50 per million British thermal unit at the Indian coast, cheaper than the rate at which some of the domestic fields supply gas.
    ​ ​Despite U.S. sanctions Iran is again becoming fully integrated into its region. It is a great success and the gas and transit deals will help its economy to make some gains even as the U.S. adds new sanctions. Russia, India and China are partners who can and will ignore those.
    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/07/in-the-multipolar-world-iran-will-no-longer-fear-us-sanctions.html#more

    #111800
    John Day
    Participant

    NATO has not been able to deploy the 40,000 man force, which supposedly exists, so NATO will declare this “virtual” force to be 7.5 times larger.
    Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Jens Stoltenberg, recently announced the US-led military bloc’s goal of expanding its so-called ‘Response Force’ from its current strength of 40,000 to a force of more than 300,000 troops. “We will enhance our battlegroups in the eastern part of the Alliance up to brigade-levels,” Stoltenberg declared. “We will transform the NATO Response Force and increase the number of our high readiness forces to well over 300,000.”
    ​ ​The announcement, made at the end of NATO’s annual summit, held in Madrid, Spain, apparently took several defense officials from the NATO membership by surprise, with one such official calling Stoltenberg’s figures “number magic.” Stoltenberg appeared to be working from a concept that had been developed within NATO headquarters based upon assumptions made by his staffers, as opposed to anything resembling coordinated policy among the defense organizations of the 30 nations that make up the bloc.
    https://www.rt.com/russia/558555-nato-uk-response-force/

    ​ ​The State Department on Sunday implied that Ukrainian forces are allowed to use US-provided High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) against Russian targets in Crimea, which Russia has controlled since 2014.
    ​ ​When the US first announced it was sending HIMARS to Ukraine, Biden administration officials said they received “assurances” from Ukrainian officials that the rockets won’t be used to target Russian territory.
    ​ ​When asked if the ban on Ukraine using the HIMARS to target Russian territory applies to Crimea, a State Department spokesperson told Antiwar.com, “Crimea is Ukraine.”
    ​ ​“The United States does not and will never recognize Russia’s purported annexation of Crimea. We will continue to stand up against Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified war against the people of Ukraine,” the spokesperson said.
    ​ ​On Saturday, a Ukrainian intelligence official said that Ukrainian forces should start attacking Russian facilities in Crimea and suggested US-provided HIMARS could be used for such strikes.
    ​ ​Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who currently serves as the deputy chair of Russia’s security council, warned Sunday that if Ukraine launched attacks on Crimea, it would mean “doomsday” for Ukrainian leadership.
    ​ ​“Should anything of the kind happen, they will be faced with a doomsday, very quick and tough, immediately. There will be no avoiding it. But they keep on provoking the general situation by such statements,” Medvedev said, according to Russia’s Tass news agency.
    ​ ​Medvedev also said that the fact that Ukraine and Western nations don’t recognize Crimea as Russian territory poses a “systemic threat” to Russia.

    US Implies Ukraine Can Use HIMARS Against Russian Targets in Crimea

    Crimea is of particular strategic importance to Russia as it includes the headquarters of its Black Sea fleet at Sevastopol.
    https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-attack-on-crimea-will-ignite-judgement-day-response-says-russias/?cmpid=rss

    ​ ​Ukraine will crush Russia’s Black Sea fleet and regain control of Crimea with Western weapons, the country’s Deputy Defense Minister, Vladimir Gavrilov has vowed during a visit to the UK.
    ​ ​Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, which is based in the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, is “a permanent threat” to Ukraine, and Kiev has to address this issue, Gavrilov said in an interview with the Times on Tuesday.
    https://www.rt.com/russia/559240-ukraine-crimea-fleet-peskov/

    Moscow orders troops to prioritize destroying Ukraine’s Western-supplied long-range missiles
    ​ ​On Monday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered his generals to prioritize destroying Ukraine’s long-range missile and artillery weapons. His order came after the Western-supplied weapons were employed to hit Russian supply lines.
    ​ ​According to a statement by the defense ministry, after inspecting the Vostok group which is fighting in Ukraine, Shoigu “instructed the commander to give priority to the enemy’s long-range missile and artillery weapons.”
    ​ ​The statement also claimed that the weapons were being used to strike residential areas of Russian-held Donbas and to intentionally set fire to wheat fields and grain storage silos.
    https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/07/18/685843/Russia-Ukraine-West-weapons-Shoigu-Donbas-EU-grain

    #111802
    John Day
    Participant

    The Ukrainian website Mirotvorets, meaning peacemaker, publishes the names and addresses of those it deems to be “enemies of Ukraine.”
    The opening page shows pictures of dead Russian soldiers.On the list are domestic and foreign journalists, politicians and citizens that are believed to have aided or worked with pro-Russia forces in the country in some way. Now, surprisingly enough, children are being added to the list. Faina Savenkova is 13 years old. And she has been writing about her experiences here in Donbas. After her name appeared on the list, she started to receive threats of physical violence online. Numerous journalists and public figures have been murdered after being put on the list. Like Oleg Buzina who was shot near his home in Kiev. And Andrea Rocchelli, an Italian journalist. After he was killed on the front line, the website posted the word “Liquidated” over his photo.
    https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/07/15/685642/Ukrainian-nationalists-putting-children-on-kill-list

    ​ ​On Monday, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he delivered a letter to President Biden last week where he pleaded for the US not to prosecute Julian Assange and renewed an offer to grant asylum to the WikiLeaks founder.
    ​ ​Lopez Obrador said he explained in the letter that Assange “did not cause anyone’s death, did not violate any human rights and that he exercised his freedom, and that arresting him would mean a permanent affront to freedom of expression.”

    Mexican President Renews Offer to Grant Asylum to Julian Assange in Letter to Biden

    #111803
    John Day
    Participant

    ​Steve Kirsch: ​The UK government now has a huge problem. A triply vaxxed child is 45 times more likely to die than an unvaccinated child. That makes the vaccine the biggest child killer ever deployed by any government and makes COVID deaths look like rounding error (45X vs. 0.05X).
    https://www.globalresearch.ca/uk-government-official-data-shows-they-killing-their-children/5787045

    Pfizer Crimes against our Children: Cardiac Arrest of Two Month Old Baby an Hour after Experimental Vaccine
    58 Babies Who Received mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines Suffered Life-threatening Adverse Events
    An analysis of VAERS reports shows that contrary to the FDA’s briefing document claiming that the majority of adverse events in Pfizers’ clinical trial were non-serious – at least 58 cases of life-threatening side effects in infants under 3 years old who received mRNA vaccines were reported. For some, it is unclear if they survived. It is also unclear why the infants were vaccinated, and whether they were part of the clinical trials.
    https://rtmag.co.il/english/breaking-58-babies-who-received-mrna-covid-19-vaccines-suffered-life-threatening-adverse-events

    ​Geert Vanden Bossche​ Ph.D. in Virology, is a vaccine expert with a good track record during COVID, much quoted in alternative media. His view is that COVID-vaccinations are making the vaccinated more susceptible to the newer strains, even as they had apparently started doing by June 2021, in those vaccinated over 6 months in UK data series. All of that continued to progress, with more heavily vaccinated populations now having more COVID infections and hospitalizations per capita. He sees unvaccinated as being at lower risk as viral mutation proceeds to further target those vaccinated against January 2020 spike-protein.
    ​ ​Unvaccinated can now largely forget about contracting severe C-19 disease as the next big mutation will most likely make the unvaccinated resistant to the virus. However, if they have not yet been infected at all by any of these highly infectious variants, they could still contract C-19 disease (before that new variant emerges) and become seriously ill (but not ‘severely ill’ as longas they are in good health with no comorbidities and predisposing factors). To avoid this, they should either prevent risky contacts (difficult) till the next variant appears (in my opinion, just a matter of weeks) or take Ivermectin orHCQ as soon as symptoms manifest (but not prophylactically).
    https://www.voiceforscienceandsolidarity.org/scientific-blog/q-a-18-what-would-be-your-prediction-for-those-who-are-both-unvaccinated-against-covid-19-and-never-previously-infected

    Dr. Vanden Bossche advocates, as do I, treatment with repurposed antivirals, like HCQ and Ivermectiin for illness. Not prophylaxis at this point.
    (I’ll add that most people who don’t surf daily in Hawaii, or do landscaping work, should take 5000 units per day or more of vitamin-D, to optimize blood level in the normal range of 30-100, to allow normal immune system function.)
    This late December 2021 post regarding OTC Rxs for Omicron remains practical and useful.
    https://www.johndayblog.com/2021/12/otc-covid-rxs-for-omicron.html

    #111804
    Oroboros
    Participant

    • Zelensky Widens Purge Of Security Services

    The Night of the Long Knives

    .

    #111805
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Empire of Lies snowflakes

    .

    Russian Spetsnaz

    .


    Your call

    #111806
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    Here’s a puzzle for you.

    Pretty much everybody has heard about the infamous Catch 22, regarding it as a humorously wise joke, but I bet you a zillion bucks that dangerously close to nobody actually gets what it is about Catch 22 that makes it so catchy.

    Well, the answer is fairly catchy, too.

    The answer is that Catch 22, when read with precise adherence to the rules of logic and language, is simply true. It only seems to be flakey, evasive or false, when in fact, in cold and inflexible reality, Catch 22 is a simple literally accurate statement of fact. Clever. Here’s how it’s done:

    Catch 22 is an irony joke, essentially, that basically says, “The solution to a problem is absolutely possible, except when the problem exists, in which case the solution is impossible.”

    Sounds false, doesn’t it?

    Well, let’s take it apart and see if we can pinpoint the exact illogic that makes it so humorous.

    The way that the joke pulls off it’s “logical crime caper” is linguistically based trickery. It uses the conventions of the accepted practices of common speech to get you to assume (without further questioning) that a statement is phoney, when indeed (and instead), it is actually legitimate.

    If you unwittingly jump to the intended false conclusion, you are lost.

    The joke is that you jump to the conclusion that the speaker is trying to lie to you by blowing you off with a ridiculous evasion , a “Catch”, when in fact the speaker is literally telling you the literal truth that you don’t particularly want to hear.

    Here are the dreaded details: The phrase “the solution to the problem is possible ‘except’ ” literally means that the sub-phrase, “is possible”, would not apply in certain cases which are excepted. Oh, so then which cases are excepted? Well ALL cases are excepted, whenever a problem exists.

    A more complicated way of saying that would be, “ When the problem exists then that condition causes an exception to the statement that “a solution is possible”. Therefore, whenever a problem exists the statement “is possible” does not apply. In all such cases, then, a solution is not possible. Since all cases are such cases, the literal meaning of the statement that “The solution to a problem is possible, except when the problem exists, in which case the solution is impossible,” becomes a statement of the the alternative, the “in which case” alternate statement. It becomes the statement “The solution to the problem is impossible.”

    So the speaker is neither lying nor evasive. They are merely snarky.

    There is not actually a “Catch” at all, there is just a very tricksie way of directly and unequivocally informing you that, “There is no solution to your problem.”

    I bring it up at this time because there seem to be quite a few Catch 22 situations currently at large in the world.

    #111807
    Michael Reid
    Participant
    #111808
    Armenio Pereira
    Participant

    Civilization is a faux remedy – a placebo, if you prefer – to a God that, seemingly, does not provide.
    A question then arises: will we ever have enough?

    #111809
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Speaking of hooror shows

    Stephen King appears to praise Holocaust architect as ‘great man’ in prank call

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/stephen-king-praises-nazi-collaborator-prank-phone-call

    The merry pranksters got Stephan King to say Bandera, of Ukronazi fame, was a ‘great man’ and compared him to the Empire of Lies founding fathers.

    hahahha

    Aces to the Capo of Kitch Horror!

    Awesome

    .

    #111810
    Oroboros
    Participant

    A new historic site in the Empire of Lies

    Brandon Falls, Delware

    hahaha

    And you thought a senile mummy muppet couldn’t ‘lead’ the ‘Free World’ and the New Unfair World Disorder.

    #111811

    “That’s the way insects act.” You are what you eat?
    “Brandon Falls”, Delaware.
    I think it’s charming that Americans can still have a sense of humor after all these dreary months. And if others don’t think it’s charming, they may just have to admit that keeping this insanely corrupt, inappropriate child-sniffing, doddering old man in office is a form of elder abuse.
    And nation abuse.

    Arte Johnson. Niagara. While the icon disappeared yesterday, I just looked and it’s still there.

    #111812
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    Gas reductions in Europe will come from

    “consumers not being able to afford gas. This involuntary reduction is the second-largest source of savings listed by Breton.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin stated on Tuesday that Russian energy firm Gazprom is “ready to pump as much as necessary, but [the EU] closed everything themselves.” Asked about the current gas shortage in Germany, Putin pointed out that Berlin voluntarily shuttered the Nord Stream II pipeline from Russia and EU sanctions have impeded critical repairs along the existing Nord Stream line.

    Putin has previously accused European leaders of committing economic “suicide” via “insane and thoughtless” sanctions on Russia.”

    https://www.rt.com/business/559312-eu–gas-conservation-plan/

    #111813
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Zelensky gets ‘game changing’ Western advanced tank

    .

    #111814
    citizenx
    Participant

    Fauci – purportedly from March 2020

    There’s another element to safety if you vaccinate someone and they make an antibody response, then they get exposed and infected- Does the response that you induce actually enhance the infection and make it worse?

    This would not be the first time that a vaccine that looked good in initially safety, actually made people worse.

    There was the history of the respiratory virus vaccine in children which paradoxically made the children worse. One of the HIV vaccines we tested several years ago actually made individuals more likely to get infected.

    Hang this fucking scum.

    #111815
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Paul Pelosi, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, purchased between $1 million and $5 million of stock in a semiconductor company ahead of an upcoming vote on legislation containing $52 billion for chipmakers

    Wow, 52 billion for chipmakers just shows that even the USA’s last successful industry is not what it used to be. Fabrication has moved to Taiwan, their niche being that the Netherlands is permitted to export their chip fabricating machines to Taiwan but not to China. Companies like AMD just design chips, fabrication happens in Taiwan, the nano scale stuff being done by machines from the Netherlands.

    Why does this industry, which used to fabricate all chips in the USA in the days when the USA was worth something, why does it need enough money to finance a war big enough to try and defend one of the largest nations in Europe?

    Just shows that the USA’s critical industries are basically all failing. I just hope that SnapOn can continue to make their tools, one of the few companies that would rather increase prices than implement the costs of inflation by reducing quality.

    Insider trading by a politician paid by Soros: who cares, at least she could find something worth stealing.

    #111816
    WES
    Participant

    A few months ago I noted that a major MSM reporter penned an article explaining why Trudeau needed a new jet. Well, lo and behold, Justin has a brand new big foreign made jet! I guess a Canadian made Challenger jet just wasn’t good enough for Justin to fly in. So being the climate change hypocrite that he is, he has greatly increased his carbon footprint!

    As a hypocrite, Justin also doesn’t believe he needs to obey his own mask rules requiring all Canadians to wear a mask, while riding in a train.

    I am still waiting for the US army to kick out their unvaccinated soldiers. They have already taken such steps against all unvaccinated National Guard soldiers. The reason the US army will do so is because the unvaccinated army soldiers are considered politically unreliable by the deep state. These army soldiers need to be purged. This all goes back to what Obama started, in 2008, purging the US army’s officier Corp of politically unreliable officers and only promoting politically correct officers.

    That the US army is having trouble recruiting new cannon folder will be viewed as signs of success by the deep state. They don’t want to recruit loyal patriots. Thus the extensive background checks.

    Failure to retain (purging) existing soldiers again is viewed as further sign of success. Afterall the army is viewed by the deep state as a serious competitor to their future designs. I think it isn’t an accident that all of the western countries have been deliberately reducing the sizes of their militaries, even as most of their populations have increased.

    #111817
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    Paul Pelosi $1M Chip Stock Purchase: A Long History of ‘Timely’ Buys (JTN)

    never attribute to stupidity that which is adequately explained by pathological mental illness and/or malicious greed





    #111818
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    Celebrate Truth, Honor Justice. May your Spirit shine, Intellect brighten, hands be steady.
    Let Courage, Discernment and Sword avenge the tortured.

    Revere the Freedom Fighters. Dance on the Empires sun bleached bones. Ancient footprints are everywhere. The Covid Cult will be destroyed- never forgive, never forget. Truth, balance and harmony will be restored.

    May the four Winds blow you safely home Julian.

    Charles Hugh Smith looks at debt default (“the final frontier”) and where the defaults might be imposed within society.

    #111819
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    #111820
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    Police reveal new details showing just how quickly armed citizen neutralized mall killer: ‘Nothing short of heroic’…

    Greenwood police Chief James Ison issued a correction Tuesday afternoon explaining the 22-year-old armed citizen, Elisjsha Dicken, neutralized the killer in just 15 seconds.

    Previously, Ison said it took 2 minutes, an error that resulted from a misreading of notes at a press conference.

    Surveillance footage shows the killer entered the mall shortly before 5 p.m. Sunday evening. He was armed with multiple firearms and spent approximately one hour in a bathroom before he opened fire at patrons in the Greenwood Park mall food court. Police said he exited the bathroom at 5:56:48 and was neutralized by 5:57:03.

    Even more impressive is the fact that Dicken fired 10 shots from his handgun from a distance of 40 yards. Police said the killer was shot 8 times and none of them were self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

    https://www.theblaze.com/news/elisjsha-dicken-15-seconds

    Merriam-Webster has broadened its definition of “female.”

    The dictionary, often treated as the authoritative source when it comes to modern definitions, added to its online definition of female that the word can mean “having a gender identity that is opposite of male.”

    For the 1a, or primary, definition, female means “of, relating to, or being the sex that typically has the capacity to bear young or produce eggs.”

    The National Review noted that, in the dictionary’s 10th edition, the words “typically have the capacity to” are not found, nor have they been added to the dictionary’s kids version online.

    Popular Twitter account Libs of TikTok also pointed out that the online dictionary also changed the definition of the word “girl” by adding a secondary meaning that says “a person whose gender identity is female.”

    https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/jul/20/merriam-webster-includes-gender-identity-updated-d/

    Mortgage Demand Falls to Lowest Level Since 2000

    https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2022/07/20/mortgage-demand-falls-to-lowest-level-since-2000/

    75% of Middle Class Americans Say Their Income Is Falling Behind Cost of Living

    https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2022/07/20/75-of-middle-class-americans-say-their-income-is-falling-behind-cost-of-living/

    #111821
    Veracious Poet
    Participant

    #111822
    Michael Reid
    Participant

    “we’re embarked on the Greater Depression”

    Here’s What the Government Should Really Do in the Greater Depression

    #111823
    Bill7
    Participant

    Whew! So many [thought-stopping] images
    in the comments section these days, along with the standard, well-compensated
    blizzards of text.

    I wonder what perceptive commenter House
    thinks of it all.. wishing him well.

    Oxymororon’s comment yesterday was on the mark, I think, and much can be derived from it.

    #111824
    Bill7
    Participant

    Belaboring the point, maybe: why do presently powerful and well-connected entities *so* want us to focus on images images images images images?

    #111825
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    TRADE DEFICIT BALLOONS
    The June trade deficit was large. That took the annual trade deficit to June was -$10.5 bln and more than twice the annual deficit for any other June year. In the year ended June 2021 there was a deficit of just -$277 mln. In June itself, there was a -$701 mln deficit in a month where normally we have surpluses. Trade and current account deficits don’t seem to matter much – until they do. And we might actually be getting towards that tipping point.

    https://www.interest.co.nz/business/116850/review-things-you-need-know-you-sign-thursday-sbs-bank-raises-rates-trade-deficit

    #111826
    TAE Summary
    Participant

    * America is broken on all levels
    – Civilization is a placebo
    – The Great Salt Lake drying up
    – Our institutions seem like bedrock but are really sand; The foolish man…
    – Systems are not self sustaining, to survive they require the three things that make up the universe: matter, energy and information
    – The US can’t make cars or chips, grow food or pump oil
    – US Army; May the reduced force be with them
    – Homo = Same, Phobia = Fear, Homophobia = Fear of the Same
    – A snowflake in uniform doesn’t generate fear but rather disgust
    – Stocks soar. “What will other people think that I think that they think that I think this news will mean for stocks?”
    – An experienced beekeeper told me to watch out for a raid by other hives on my new hive. He said once it happens there’s no stopping it
    – I will give up my gas when you pry it from my cold, dead hand

    * Health
    – Cigarettes don’t cause fires, people cause fires
    – Vaccines are like breath mints: Bad breath will return no matter how many you take
    – The vaxx makes people into worse people
    – The triply vaxxed are more likely to die

    * Politicians
    – Donald Trump made everyone’s life better: The Deplorables because he kept gas prices low and liberals because he gave them something to complain about
    – AOC fakes handcuffs to deescalate the situation, except the fist pump which could have been mistaken for drawing a weapon and got her shot
    – Paul Pelosi – Intel Insider
    – Brandon Rapids, Brandon Falls, Brandon Pines
    – Bandera is a great man
    – Biden scoffed at the monkey’s who live in their dark tents, Down by the waterhole, drunk every Friday, Eating their nuts, saving their raisins for Sunday
    – Question to ponder: If you had to be born the son of Joe Biden or Donald Trump, which would you choose?

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