Aug 062022
 
 August 6, 2022  Posted by at 12:28 pm Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , ,


Vincent van Gogh Beach at Scheveningen in Stormy Weather 1882

 

 

It is very simple: if you’d ask most citizens of whichever EU country if they are willing to risk being unable to feed and heat their children in order to support Ukraine and Zelensky, they would say NO. Hell no! But that is what they’re all being pushed towards. Food prices look to at least double from here, after they’ve doubled once already, while energy prices are set to triple or worse. And there’s no logical reason for it.

This is not due to some inevitable market mechanism, it’s because the west decided to halt all Russian imports after the latter’s Special Military Operation in Ukraine. All western leaders found that reason enough to cut all, or nearly all, imports from Russia. Gas, oil, fertilizer, food. Essentials. They could have been sitting around a negotiating table, but chose not to. Which only works as long as things remain sort of affordable. And then, it does not.

Problem is, they had and have no alternative to the Russian supplies of these goods (and there’s many more). See, this is how we know they don’t make their own decisions. Those are made in Brussels and Davos, and then the “leaders” have to carry out the preconceived programs, and they will.

No elected official on his/her own would risk to destroy their own country’s energy or food safety, with elections coming up every few years. But their WEF/Davos connections have changed that “logic”. The WEF makes sure no western leader gets elected who is not a member of their club. There’s only one path to power these days.

 

But these people grossly underestimate the effect that hunger and cold -will- have on their citizens. The first signs of that are visible in the protests of truckers and farmers, but that’s just a start. You just wait till the cold sets in, and the running blackouts, and the hunger. Wait till people have to feed their kids scraps from a bare table in a cold dark home.

That’s when you will see who people really are. People in the west are overfed, and lazy, and not too sharp, but wait till their kids, and their families, are truly suffering. They’ve seen the example of the farmers and truckers. Wait for people to see the link between their own lives, and the farmers; then you will see who they really are.

“Leaders” like Trudeau and Rutte think they have this under control, that they can make the farmers do what their governments say they must, if need be with assistance from police or even the army. But you cannot send cops and soldiers against your farmers, because 1) they make your food, 2) the people support them, 3) they have a centuries-old democratic right to be farmers, and 4) they don’t take no sh*t for an answer.

This goes back 100s of years, much longer than the right of any politician to tell them what to do. The Dutch farmers on Friday told Rutte to prepare for the hardest actions yet, and they’re still not joking. My guess would be this time they will paralyze the country. Not because they are crazy; 10,000 of them would need to close shop if Rutte gets what he wants, and they won’t let that happen. Farmers will not idly stand by while their neighbor is forced out of business.

No, they are not crazy. They refuse to talk to Rutte, in a sign a of how much they trust him. He assigned a mediator, from his own political club, and all farmer org’s but one refused to talk to him too. The one that did, found the talk useless. Rutte wants the 10,000 scalps no matter what, but it’s just not going to happen. He is shown the limits of his power. Having been PM for 12 years, that’s a bit of a shock.

 

Obviously, this is all strongly connected to the past 2,5 years of measures and mandates and all. The political class got a taste of power that they did not have before, and got carried away. Well, they went too far this time. One telling number was that of US parents letting their youngest kids be vaxxed: what was it, 0.45%?! And 220 million adult Americans have either never been vaxxed or never boosted. No connection to the farmers? You wait and see.

The game is over. People’s patience with their politicians is ending. But the politicians themselves don’t see that; how could they when they censor all discontent and reports from doctors and scientists who don’t follow the “official” line? They’ve lost touch with the very world they’re supposed to represent. All they get to see is the info that is left after their own “norms” have censored the rest. They see only what they like to see.

 

In Europe, the Germans and Dutch will manage to be sort of OK, but only at the expense of poorer EU countries. And that won’t even be their main problem; that problem will be at home; their own farmers will come for them. And their poorest. Countries will leave the EU (and the euro). Hungary first to go?! In Greece, there’s already talk of rolling blackouts this winter, and they get most of their electricity from hydro. Italy is a shambles. How many present “leaders” will still be in place January 1 2023? How about June? After a winter of great discontent?

And they’re all telling you that “we” have to win in Ukraine first, and everything will be alright. But “we” have already lost in Ukraine, we did on February 24, and “we” should be talking to, and making peace with, Russia. Why are we not? Because we don’t want food and energy? The folks in Brussels and Davos will not be hungry and cold. But in other EU places they will be. And they will come to balance this thing out.

As for the US, I’m scared there too. Energy prices may not get as bad as in Europe, but food will be real bad (and how about housing?!). And there’s this fight between two factions going on, that starts to feel like what went on before the Civil War. I hope I’m wrong, but I feel it everywhere: Overreach.

 

 

 

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Home Forums A Winter of Anger

Viewing 32 posts - 1 through 32 (of 32 total)
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  • #112915

    Vincent van Gogh Beach at Scheveningen in Stormy Weather 1882     It is very simple: if you’d ask most citizens of whichever EU country if t
    [See the full post at: A Winter of Anger]

    #112917
    oxymoron
    Participant

    Timely piece Raul. I feel it to and reminds me very much of your confirmed contention that the media who thought Trump was a joke have their heads so far up their arse they repeatedly reported ‘ no one could have predicted this’ when he won.
    It’s literally baked in the cake now. Unrest. Political upheaval. War. Famine.
    I think also Russia has taken note of credit earned by ‘friendly countries’.
    Winter was/is bloody cold and wet here this year in southern Australia but I have unlimited hardwood for my fire and not cold enough for snow.
    Cities are traps for humans

    #112918
    Armenio Pereira
    Participant

    Underestimating the mental prowess of the real elites – aka TPTB, not the dummies like Trudeau, Scholz, Rutte or Biden – is an exercise in both uselessness and foolishness.

    Who dies in wars? The elites? Of course not: the hoi polloi are meant not only to be the salt of the earth, but also the cannon fodder of choice.

    When the civil war comes, TPTB will be left mostly unscathed and another step towards the ( necessary? Malignant?) world depopulation will be achieved.

    #112924
    Noirette
    Participant

    “Leaders” like Trudeau and Rutte think they have this under control, that they can make the farmers do what their governments say they must, if need be with assistance from police or even the army. But you cannot send cops and soldiers against your farmers …

    IIlargi posted.

    *Many* ppl in Gvmt today (W world) are what I call Mad-Middle-Management, MMM.

    In a big Corp, or a large State Org, the ‘middle managers’ are parasitic lackeys hoisted to sit on some ‘control’ posts or nodes, to enforce some regulations, principles, ways-of-doing, attitudes, other, such as ways of reporting, calculating, for ex..

    These ppl are used as front, control men and women, and paid not too badly, even handsomely, they get super perks, because they need the status of high pay to control others. (In the invisible hierachy, they are at level 3 or 4, 1 being the top, on a scale of 6.)

    They are also what I call Flat-Earthers, in the sense that they have been indoctrinated to believe that human interaction with the world, nature, geology, ecology, animals, plants, etc. takes place in a kind of static space which is regulated by their very own fiat wand-waving and decrees, or some might say, narrative spin, or deathly propaganda (for profit purposes to those who pay their salaries..)

    Everything is manageable, everything is ‘fixable’ … wielding an excel spreadsheet and ‘expert opinion’ plus ‘best pratices’ and ‘novel technology’…will see us (the parasitic class) rich and happy for the foreseeable future 🙂 (not)

    #112925
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Stormy Weather:

    #112927
    Susan C
    Participant

    My own favorite Redon: Bouddha
    redon

    #112932
    TAE Summary
    Participant

    Attitudes toward Energy
    * Life in General: Use as much energy as you can get to perpetuate your species.
    * Humans in general: Use as much energy as you can get to perpetuate your tribe.
    * Corporations: Use as much energy as you can get to profit this quarter.
    * America: Cheap energy is our birthright. Anyone who says otherwise is a communist. We just need to drill more and increase our military budget. We deserve and will have endless, cheap energy forever.
    * Europe: We want to go green and use less energy and will do so right after we finish our beef bourguignon and take one last hot shower.
    * Russia: We have lots of energy and this will put us in the driver’s seat. The West has squandered most of theirs and we will wait patiently while they self-destruct and move to the back of the bus.
    * China: We need lots of energy and will arrange things so that we get it.
    * OPEC: The game’s afoot. Very interesting.
    * Third world: We sure would like more energy so we can have the American dream too.
    * Davos tribe: The Club of Rome was right. We need to reduce energy consumption and will use any and all crises, real or manufactured towards that end. This will result in the deaths of many people but there is no other way. We will paint a rosy picture and by the time the masses figure it out it will be too late, for them.

    #112938
    Bill7
    Participant

    “..Food prices look to at least double from here, after they’ve doubled once already, while energy prices are set to triple or worse. And there’s no logical reason for it..”

    Sure there is- for the ruling class, who are planning (for?) a massive reduction in population- have been for years.

    Christ on a crutch, people..

    #112939
    Bill7
    Participant

    “Underestimating the mental prowess of the real elites – aka TPTB, not the dummies like Trudeau, Scholz, Rutte or Biden – is an exercise in both uselessness and foolishness.”

    Agreed.

    #112940
    Maxwell Quest
    Participant

    “People in the west are overfed, and lazy, and not too sharp, but wait till their kids, and their families, are truly suffering.”

    Ilargi make a key point here. Western culture has been very successful at isolating people from one another, and making them dependent on authoritative sources for their world view. Everything they learn about the world ‘out there’ comes via the MSM filtered, pre-digested, and in most cases fictionalized. After looking at what I’ve just wrote, maybe this has always been the case. Certainly, modern corporatism has placed most individuals into a form of work slavery in which obedience to authority means a roof over your head and food on the table. What makes farmers so brave? Well, they are their own boss for one. Just how do you fire a farmer, ruin his career, or strip him of his stock options? But I digress…

    The point I really wanted to make is how our concerns rarely extend past our own front door. When I visit my sister in NY, she doesn’t even know her neighbors after almost 40 years in the same place. If an ambulance carts away someone two doors down it’s at item of interest; however, the cat getting sick is a heart wrenching tragedy, with a flurry of phone calls to the vet. God help him if he doesn’t pick up on the 2nd ring. What happens to others is of little concern, what happens to us personally is the only thing that will focus our attention.

    So, we’ve not quite hit that “let them eat cake” moment, where the wrath of the commoners is kindled and they all rise up together, but it seems closer now. Those orchestrating this NWO, one-world government push sure are determined to reach their goal. At least it’s out in the open now, with even Sergey Lavrov stating it plainly. This may explain why we are seeing such frantic, ham-fisted attempts to bully non-compliant nations into submission. Now that their plans are out in the open, there is no possibility of retreating into the shadows to wait out the next opportunity. They must push forward at all costs. There is only the hangman’s noose waiting if their current attempt fails.

    Or maybe as Luongo suspects, being psychos, when they finally exhaust all hope of winning, they will try to take everyone with them by overturning the global game board.

    #112943
    Polder Dweller
    Participant

    There’s a very strange mood here in Holland, kind of a “calm before the storm” feeling. People are waking up, excess mortality over the last so many weeks is at 20%, upside down flags are still everywhere despite the province promising to remove them. I live near a major motorway and I’m used to hearing a couple of ambulances a week, these days I hear two or three every day. There were big black clouds of smoke rising close to my home, today, turns out they were from a pile of tyres burning next to the motorway. I fear things are going to get ugly soon.

    Rutte has surrounded himself with yes-men and so he thinks he’s invincible. I agree that he won’t win this one and it’s going to hit him like a 2×4 to the head – how terribly sad 😉. However, if Maajid Nawaz is right, this is how Ze Great Reset is supposed to work; everyone loses faith in the government and all other institutions and chaos ensues with violence and crime everywhere. At that point, like some kind of a phoenix, the NWO rises up to restore order, which everyone accepts but at the price of total loss of liberty. I don’t see it myself, once we have chaos, anything can happen as you can’t control chaos.

    #112946
    Formerly T-Bear
    Participant

    R.I.M., The Essay
    Even more than Energy and Food, the source of failure will be the failure of Complex Systems which enable Energy and Food to be produced and delivered. The Achilles Heel of present day crypt-archy (hidden governance) is for that to exist all other interests must be diminished, and by doing so the foundations of complexity are deteriorated and destroyed, bringing down the card house complexity exists in. The degeneration of the educational system begins a process of juvenilising the population, the evidence can be found in the maturity exhibited by their political leaders who are fully willing to sacrifice the most valuable economic and medical services, developed over millennium, to comport with some ideological fantasy they haven’t the knowledge or intelligence to understand and analyse. Good ‘Hair’ beats good ‘brains’ hands-down in today’s ‘democracy’. End result will be the capacity for complexity will be diminished to the point it collapses of its internal incapacity to function, those exercising political power will resort to greater and greater force to retain power; the soil where political cancers grow to destroy their host. Just do not allow the millennium old knowledge passed down for generations for any economic skilled matter; farming, fishing, medicine, etc. and hold any holding those things in contempt, in vile contempt. Do not accord those with respect but the reverse of respect, to their faces, in ad hominem if possible. Defenestrate the British Royal family and their aristocracy for Julian’s sake!

    #112950
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    I have wondered for a long time just what it was that made people in industrialised nations so stupid.

    Here is how one man was responsible for the loss of cognitive capacity of hundreds of millions of people in the developed world – especially in the US- and caused the illness and death of hundreds of millions of others.

    It’s just business, you know. 🙁

    And it continues to this day, with all kinds of toxic elements and synthetic substances (in addition to tetra-ethyl lead) being manufactured and dispersed across the globe, for short-term profit.

    And, of course, governments act as agents and promoters of toxicity, whilst [falsely] proclaiming to be ‘protesting the environment’.

    Orwellianism (1948) reigns supreme.

    It’s the money system, of course. And “until you change the way money works,”* everything that matters will continue to be made rapidly worse..

    *That phrase is attributed to Mike Ruppert, activist who committed suicide after becoming severely depressed from decades of doing battle with ‘Orcs’ and getting nowhere.

    I am reminded of Huxley’s ‘Brave New World’ (1931), in which ‘the Savage’ does battle with the mind-control systems of the synthetic society, and loses.

    So here we are, in 2022, still living in a meld of ‘1984’ and ‘Brave New World’.

    #112952
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    ‘Good ‘Hair’ beats good ‘brains’ hands-down in today’s ‘democracy’.’

    A splendid and astute summation of the state of affairs.

    Thus, the piranha with big ears

    https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Piranha+Teeth&form=RESTAB&first=1&tsc=ImageHoverTitle

    that is destroying NZ society (and the future) at the fastest pace in all of history has her straggly hair groomed into appealing curls.

    has the

    #112953
    Maxwell Quest
    Participant
    #112954
    Bill7
    Participant

    ” ‘Good ‘Hair’ beats good ‘brains’ hands-down in today’s ‘democracy’.’ ”

    Nah- it takes a tremendous amount of energy from the minions of the tiny, insular, corrupt, defective
    ruling class to make that *appear* so.

    It works until it suddenly doesn’t.

    #112956
    John Day
    Participant

    Testing

    #112958
    John Day
    Participant

    The AI was blocking my post, but i’m back now. Picture of raw kitchen countertop placed in increasingly finished kitchen. https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/disinformation-wins/comments

    A lot of the battle for global dominance is disinformation. The side that has been winning the disinformation war is not winning the physical reality war.
    What does that imply on a case by case basis?
    Alastair Crooke, The EU Has Begun its Retreat. “First Steps in Unraveling Energy and Food Sanctions on Russia”
    ​ ​What is going on? The oil market has been volatile recently, as the US has tried to manipulate the ‘paper market’ (which is way larger than the physical market), in order to contrive a dip in prices in the Bent and WTI index. Again, the object has been to hurt Russia – and to facilitate Yellen’s ‘oil cap’ by getting prices closer to the $60 a barrel on which Yellen has set her capping hopes.
    ​ ​It hasn’t worked, and it seems the White House just wants oil prices down – full stop. Even the hawk, Victoria Nuland, said Friday that the US and its allies need Russian oil supplies to enter world markets, otherwise the cost of this resource will start to rise again: “We need to see the presence of Russian oil on the world market, otherwise the shortage of oil will lead to a new rise in prices.”
    ​ ​Realism seeps in! Putin achieves all his key demands in respect to the food crisis – and today, is even selling a slightly increased volume of oil.
    ​ ​The price of oil will indeed fluctuate. It will respond however, more to the effects arising from depth reached in the coming recession, than on market manipulation, and Yellen’s price capping efforts. The western Establishment is still trying to get its head around the new reality that commodities are seen to have innate value, whereas fiat currencies such as the dollar don’t.
    https://www.globalresearch.ca/eu-begins-start-retreat-unraveling-energy-food-sanctions-russia/5788763

    This is the case that ‘somebody” is manipulating the oil data to make it look like nobody is driving this summer, and there is an excess, so prices drop by algorithms.
    I have seen a lot of driving all summer. What have you seen? Mega truckstops are full of cars in Texas. When will we discover that there is actually no oil in the tanks at Cushing?
    “Very Crooked Numbers”: Biden Admin Accused Of Fabricating Low Gas Demand Data To Hammer Price Of Oil
    As our friends at ForexLive point out, the trigger behind today’s plunge in oil prices is gasoline demand, which as we noted yesterday, showed that for July, gasoline demand (on a trailing 4 week basis) slumped below 2020 levels.
    Intuitively, ForexLive cautions, “that doesn’t make sense. Yes, gasoline prices are much higher than 2020 but the world was in the midst of a pandemic and far more people were working from home in the summer of 2020.”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/very-crooked-numbers-biden-admin-accused-fabricating-gas-demand-data-hammer-price-oil

    ​Germany would have to start the process “yesterday’. Time is of the essence.​
    German ex-chancellor offers solution to EU’s energy crisis
    Gerhard Schroeder called for the launch of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline
    https://www.rt.com/business/560125-gerhard-schroeder-nord-stream-gas/

    ​”S**t, let’s try China!”​
    Poll Finds Only 1 Per Cent of Americans See Russia as a Major Problem

    Poll Finds Only 1 Per Cent of Americans See Russia as a Major Problem

    #112959
    John Day
    Participant

    ​Moon of Alabama looks at China, Taiwan, US​
    Chinese military exercises will now be held around the island without regard for what Taipei claims as its borders. These missile launches, sea and air maneuvers will not be threatening enough to cause a dangerous military confrontation. But they will be repeated over the next years and will steadily move closer and closer to Taiwan’s coast.
    The median line between China and Taiwan, never officially recognized but adhered to, will now be ignored.
    China essentially decided to boil the proverbial frog of Taiwanese independence by slowly, slowly increasing the pressure:
    China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is closing off six areas around Taiwan from Thursday to Sunday and is expected to hold drills, including live-fire exercises, in some areas within 12 miles of the island.
    The drills are expected to be bigger than the missile tests China launched during the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis that was sparked in 1995 by the US granting a visa to former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui.
    Both Chinese and American analysts believe that the unprecedented military exercises could become routine, a consequence of Pelosi’s provocative visit.
    Taiwan depends on sea trade. The Chinese military maneuvers will essentially block it for the next few days. It is demonstration of what might come should China get really serious.
    This military posturing will be aided by selected economic sanctions designed to remove the support for Taiwan’s current pro-independence government:
    China also imposed sanctions on Taiwan because of Pelosi, including a ban on the export of natural sand, and a halt on imports of fish and fruit products from the island.
    A ban on the export of natural sand, 90% of which Taiwan imports from China, may sound harmless. But if you live on a rock in an area prone to earthquakes you may want to build your high rises with concrete. No sand no concrete. Building costs in Taiwan will rise and the government will be blamed…
    https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/08/how-pelosis-visit-hurts-taiwan.html#more

    China has the initiative now. They can do this for weeks on end, then pause when they feel like it.
    Can Taiwan/US/Japan regain the initiative? Voter referendum?
    ​ ​Taiwan says China’s military has upped the threat level against it as People’s Liberation Army (PLA) planes pressed ahead with their largest ever drills surrounding the island, following Thursday’s ultra-provocative launch of eleven ballistic missiles in area waters, some of which were reported to have flown over the island and population of some 23 million.
    ​ ​On Saturday Taiwan’s defense ministry said it observed Chinese planes and ships conducting attack simulation exercises while operating in the Taiwan Strait.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/taiwan-says-chinas-drills-are-simulating-full-attack-island

    China can now make this game of chicken costly for the US. A large, continuous (sitting-duck) naval presence will be called-for. Will the USN get Taiwanese ports?
    White House Orders US Carrier Strike Group To Stay Near Taiwan Longer Than Planned, Says China ‘Overreacting’
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ballistic-missiles-soar-over-taiwan-hundreds-pla-fighters-breach-airspace-5-day-drills

    Just when she was looking more presidential than “sleepy Joe”
    As Taiwan Warns Chinese “Maritime & Aerial Blockade” Ensuing, Pelosi Says Real Issue Is ‘I’m A Woman’
    ..all that she’s offered thus far as an “explanation” for soaring regional tensions, and with Taiwan now finding itself in the direct crosshairs of a nuclear-armed superpower is that people are angry that she went to Taiwan because she’s a woman.
    ​ ​Yes, she actually said on Wednesday morning while standing alongside Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen: “They didn’t say anything when the men came.”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/pelosi-departs-taiwan-after-president-tsai-bestowed-highest-medal-china-preps-largest

    ​Cynthia Chung looks at The Real Global Agenda Pushing for War with China, and ​I​ pick this out of the middle of the fine investigative essay.
    The City of London
    “Hell is a city much like London.”
    – Percy Bysshe Shelley

    “Over and over again we have seen that there is another power than that which has its seat at Westminster. The City of London, a convenient term for a collection of financial interests, is able to assert itself against the government of the country. Those who control money can pursue a policy at home and abroad contrary to that which is being decided by the people.”
    Clement Attlee, UK Prime Minister (1945-1951) and political opponent of Churchill.

    ​ ​The City of London is over 800 years old. It is arguably older than England herself, and for over 400 years it has been the financial center of the world.
    ​ ​During the medieval period, the City of London, otherwise known as the Square Mile or simply the City, was divided into 25 ancient wards headed each by an alderman. This continues today.
    ​ ​In addition, there existed the ominously titled City of London Corporation, or simply the Corporation, which is the municipal governing body of the City. This also still continues today.
    ​ ​Though the Corporation’s origins cannot be specifically dated, since there was never a “surviving” charter found establishing its “legal” basis, it has kept its functions to this day based on the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta is a charter of rights agreed to by King John in 1215, which states that “the City of London shall have/enjoy its ancient liberties”. In other words, the legal function of the Corporation has never been questioned, reviewed, re-evaluated EVER but rather it has been left to legally function as in accordance with their “ancient liberties”, which is a very grey description of function if you ask me. In other words, they are free to do as they deem fit.
    ​ ​Therefore, the question is, if the City of London has kept its “ancient liberties” and has upheld its global financial power, is the British Empire truly gone?

    The Real Global Agenda Pushing for War with China

    #112961
    John Day
    Participant

    Charles Hugh Smith looks at the internal corruption in the Chinese economy, and why wealthy Chinese keep trying to offshore their capital.​ (The formats of corruption in the west are somewhat different, not less, per se.)
    China At The Crossroads
    ​ ​As strategist Edward Luttwak observed, the funny thing about force is how limited it is in actual efficacy. Forcing capital and talent to stay put doesn’t make people productive. It simply forces a choice: find a way to flee or just give up and stop working hard. After all, what’s the point?
    ​ ​Every economy in which capital and talent can no longer count on predictability is an economy at the crossroads. As Luttwak explained, force is not the same as power, though many confuse the two. Power attracts capital and talent because they’re being offered stability and predictability. Force tries to shove instability and unpredictability down everyone’s throat and compels them to declare their undying loyalty for instability and unpredictability.
    ​ ​But capital and talent vote with their feet. If they can’t vote with their feet, they just give up. Any economy in which capital and talent either flee or give up has only one possible end-point: stagnation and collapse.
    ​ ​In other words, watch where capital is flowing. That’s pretty much all you need to know to predict the future.​ (But those flows are “opaque’ to us pawns.)
    https://www.oftwominds.com/blogaug22/china-crossroads8-22.html

    ​Taiwan was a territory of Japan for 50 years, until 1945. Japan remains very interested in Taiwan.​
    Tokyo Lodges Protest With Beijing After 5 Chinese Missiles Fell in Japan’s EEZ, Reports Say
    https://sputniknews.com/20220804/tokyo-lodges-protest-with-beijing-after-5-chinese-missiles-fell-in-japans-eez-reports-say-1098114192.html

    ​No golden eggs unless the goose gets treated just right. Don’t kill the goose.​ China will carefully apply pressure, not like US/EU vs Russia, we presume.
    ​ ​Pelosi Meets Chair of World’s Largest Chipmaker in Taiwan Amid Increasing US-Chinese Tensions​
    ​Earlier this week, TSMC Chairman Mark Liu warned in an interview that if China invades Taiwan, the most-advanced chip factory in the world would be rendered “not operable”, and that “war brings no winners, everybody’s losers.”
    https://sputniknews.com/20220803/pelosi-meets-chair-of-worlds-largest-chipmaker-in-taiwan-amid-increasing-us-chinese-tensions-1098075543.html

    ​The President and Foreign Minister of South Korea both flew-the-coop just before Nancy arrived from Taipei. (Voted: “not present”)
    ​https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/nancy-pelosi-arrives-seoul-south-koreas-president-wont-meet-her

    #112962
    John Day
    Participant

    Special operation drew world’s attention to activity of US biolabs
    ​ ​Kirillov reminded that on July 18, 2022, President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro publicly stated that the US was involved in the assassination of former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. According to the information Venezuela has, since 2002 US intelligence agencies had been working on ways to eliminate the Venezuelan leader, who was actively pursuing an anti-US policy. Numerous assassination attempts involving employees of the US Embassy in Caracas were exposed and thwarted.
    According to the general, in violation of international law, the US was carrying out the activity to develop drugs that cause chronic diseases and trigger various forms of cancer when administered.
    According to the Venezuelan side, such a drug was used to poison Chavez by Claudia Diaz, a member of the presidential entourage. With the help of US intelligence agencies, she left Venezuela and was subsequently taken to the US to avoid the possible disclosure of the details of her cooperation with the US intelligence agencies.
    “The cause-and-effect link between the death of the Venezuelan leader and biological weapons developments is confirmed by the forensic expertise and evidence of Cuban doctors who treated Chavez about the atypical course of the disease and its resistance to medicines,” Kirillov stressed.
    https://tass.com/politics/1489477

    ​This will put Irish Dairy Farmers out of business and I will not be able to get cheese and butter from grass fed cows, containing omega-3 fats.​
    ​ ​Irish farmers and organizations in the agriculture industry are outraged over the government’s plan to cut agriculture emissions by 25%, all while claiming it won’t lead to herd culling.​..​
    ​..​“The target that we’ve been working towards has been 18%, maybe 22% but not 25%,” said Cork farmer Alan Jagoe. “We’re producing food on our farms. We’re not taking fossil fuels off the ground; we are not mining; we are producing food that we all eat. That has been lost in this debate.”​ (Or it is exactly the point)

    Irish farmers outraged over 25% emissions reduction plan that will lead to herd culling

    They are clearly killing many more than that, but the later deaths are harder to prove, and nobody wants to look.
    Covid Vaccines Are Killing One in Every 800 Over-60s and Should Be Withdrawn Immediately, Says Leading Vaccine Scientist
    ​ ​Dr. Schetters, who is a recipient of the Medal of Honour of the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Montpellier in France, told Dr. Robert Malone, an inventor of mRNA vaccine technology, that medical doctors are currently seeing “all sorts of symptoms that they do not know what it is” and that “in the Netherlands now it’s very clear that there is a good correlation between the number of vaccinations that are given to people and the number of people that die within a week after that”.

    Covid Vaccines Are Killing One in Every 800 Over-60s and Should Be Withdrawn Immediately, Says Leading Vaccine Scientist

    ​Deep state supersedes the constitution and you are in no position to comment… Got it?​
    Rand Paul: Congress Is Not Allowed To Know About TOP SECRET Gain Of Function Research Committee
    “We don’t know the names. We don’t know that they ever meet, and we don’t have any records of their meetings. It’s top-secret. Congress is not allowed to know.”
    ..“the committee that is supposed to review these viruses is secret.”
    “We don’t know the names. We don’t know that they ever meet, and we don’t have any records of their meetings,” the Senator reiterated, adding “It’s top-secret. Congress is not allowed to know. So whether the committee actually exists, we’re uncertain.”
    “We do know that they’ve met three times and there are thousands of gain-of-function research proposals. They’ve only met three times, they’ve only reviewed three projects,” Paul continued.
    https://summit.news/2022/08/04/rand-paul-congress-is-not-allowed-to-know-about-top-secret-gain-of-function-research-committee/​

    #112964
    John Day
    Participant

    Midwestern Health System Settles for $10.3m with Healthcare Workers: Victory for Medical Choice​ (Careers already ruined for many…)
    https://www.trialsitenews.com/a/midwestern-health-system-settles-for-10.3m-with-healthcare-workers-victory-for-medical-choice-11f106cd

    ​I am under investigation by the Board of Family Medicine (my medical specialty) and the Texas board of Medical Examiners (my license)​ for prescribing antivirals like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine to keep patients alive and out of the hospital (before i was fired for vaccine-refusal).
    ‘They are attacking the doctors who are the leaders in helping American people,’ Dr. McCullough said.
    https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/medical-establishment-threatens-disciplinary-action-against-dr-peter-mccullough-over-covid-stance/

    #112971
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    A tried and tested method for making fiat currency (digits in computer systems) is to manipulate prices up and down, buying when low, selling when high, pushing the price down again, acquiring the asset (be it imaginary) at a low price, inflating the price, selling at a higher price, pushing it down again, ad infinitum.
    .
    Thus, markets are normally of sawtooth form.

    If it were not so, everyone would know what to buy and at what price.

    But no amount of market manipulation can create actual resources, the vast majority of which are in terminal decline.

    The only things of note that are increasing are human populations and pollution levels, and the amount of unsupported fiat currency required to remain alive in an industrialised society.

    #112973
    Dora
    Participant

    Glenn Greenwald interviews Alex Moyer and Alex Jones, talking about Moyer’s movie about Jones. This is the Jones segment of the longer interview.
    On Rumble.

    Glenn Greenwald Interviews Alex Jones On The Collapse Of Corporate Media

    https://rumble.com/v1dpsg7-glenn-greenwald-interviews-alex-jones-on-the-collapse-of-corporate-media.html

    #112975
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    T-Bear
    The degeneration of the educational system begins a process of juvenilising the population, the evidence can be found in the maturity exhibited by their political leaders who are fully willing to sacrifice the most valuable economic and medical services, developed over millennium, to comport with some ideological fantasy they haven’t the knowledge or intelligence to understand and analyse. Good ‘Hair’ beats good ‘brains’ hands-down in today’s ‘democracy’.

    I couldn’t agree more; what’s been done to the educational system (its destruction) is key to the failures in todays world…
    An infantilized population is ripe for exploitation…
    Your “good hair” comment is hilarious and ever sadly true…
    Thanks for your most excellent post…

    #112978

    When I was growing up my gang knew there were a number of truly awful situations where a neighbor or father or teacher or priest was doing something hideous to someone we knew. One really awful part was that the mothers of these kids knew- at least something- about what was going on, but they chose not to act because it was more important not to ruffle the community feathers than to defend their own child.
    Before you express contempt-
    Ruffled feathers: accusations are made, denied, family status is lost, accuser is ostracized, bullied, sides are taken, little civil wars erupt. Lives are ruined- many of them all at once and some slowly over time. The perpetrator gets lost in the ugliness, and slips away to somewhere new.
    Clueless Dad doesn’t do a thing ‘cause no one tells him and he’d rather not know (bad)- informed Dad kills the perpetrator (worse.). Dad is the perp. (Mom looks stupid; she is stained and now husbandless with the perp’s offspring…)
    Rocks and hard places abound in all families; in all communities.
    A mother will make the same cool decisions that she would if she thought she had to abort a pregnancy to save the family. If starving one child- or sending one or two off to find succor elsewhere- in order to save the other three is the only choice she thinks she can make, she will do it. And her mate will go along.
    And the three privileged children will think: what a wonderful mother!
    Do not trust that people will seek vengeance, retribution, justice. Many more won’t than will.

    #112979
    VietnamVet
    Participant

    This post is an accurate portrayal of the current crisis.

    In a sense, the ruling ideology, “individualism above all – there is no such thing as society” has come to an inflection point. The western corporate/state that controls the world through “free trade” and “war profiteering” is being challenged by Russia’s and China’s withdrawal from it. The West’s flailing about is due to the global oligarchs’ overseers refusing to admit that this is a multi-polar world once again. Being the Hegemon is their religion, their gravy train.

    But this is also about life; food, shelter, health, education and safety. Western government was dismantled to cut taxes and end regulation. Commoners are of no concern to the new aristocracy — an inconvenience like fire ants.

    There are a very few possible outcomes to the proxy world war now being fought in Ukraine and the skirmishes around Taiwan. One is a global nuclear war. If Russia’s armored army breaks through Ukraine’s defenses and approaches Poland, only tactical nuclear weapons can stop the invasion. This is why Finland and Sweden are joining NATO to get under its nuclear umbrella. Another scenario is that western civilization simply crashes under the stresses of the endless wars, pandemics, resource depletion, famines and becomes a no man’s land.

    Only peace can address climate change. The latest harbinger is the flood in Death Valley California.

    The smart thing to do is sign an armistice with Russia, let them have the Czar’s land back and the Crimea Canal, before they take Odessa that assures a forever war in the Balkans, if not a nuclear war. Build a DMZ on the line of contact and man it with Eastern Europeans. Restore democracy and government by and for the people in the West.

    If deadly chaos sweeps the world, the one sure thing is if any humans survive on the surface of earth, they will find a way to get into the billionaires’ bunkers underneath.

    #112980
    SeaBirds
    Participant

    @Armenio Pereira #112918

    “Underestimating the mental prowess of the real elites – aka TPTB, not the dummies like Trudeau, Scholz, Rutte or Biden – is an exercise in both uselessness and foolishness.”

    Agreed…

    But don’t forget that it’s the $billions/$trillions that they control that enables them to call the shots, and carry out any plan of their desiring, no matter how nutty it is. They can buy off/influence/eliminate anyone, whether media, pols, corporations, and especially their bully-boy enablers (aka the army, police), without whom they would be impotent. We are old enough to recall when the army turned on the Ceausescu leaders of Romania and shot them dead.

    #112981
    Bishko
    Participant

    Deep history has shown that during famines, the vast majority of people starve in their homes. This is because while they wait for help or for things to improve, they get too weak to do anything about it. It only takes a week or so.

    How the End sounds:
    Beep….Beep….Beep (busy signal)
    “We’re sorry, for the person you are trying to reach, the mail box is full.”
    “Out of Service”
    “Out of Stock”
    “Your call is very important to us, please stay on the line and the next available agent will speak with you.”

    #112984
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Just under eleven months ago I read this:

    “My name is Spartacus, and I’ve had enough.

    We have been forced to watch America and the Free World spin into inexorable decline due to a biowarfare attack. We, along with countless others, have been victimized and gaslit by propaganda and psychological warfare operations being conducted by an unelected, unaccountable Elite against the American people and our allies.

    Our mental and physical health have suffered immensely over the course of the past year and a half. We have felt the sting of isolation, lockdown, masking, quarantines, and other completely nonsensical acts of healthcare theater that have done absolutely nothing to protect the health or wellbeing of the public from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

    Now, we are watching the medical establishment inject literal poison into millions of our fellow Americans without so much as a fight.

    We have been told that we will be fired and denied our livelihoods if we refuse to vaccinate. This was the last straw.

    We have spent thousands of hours analyzing leaked footage from Wuhan, scientific papers from primary sources, as well as the paper trails left by the medical establishment.

    What we have discovered would shock anyone to their core.”

    The Automatic Earth.

    And now we are in the final phase of the Great Deceit perpetrated by the criminal gangs that call themselves ‘leaders of the free world’.

    If Gonzalo Lira was correct in his forecast, it all starts to seriously unravel in September of this year.

    #113011
    Doly
    Participant

    >See, this is how we know they don’t make their own decisions. Those are made in Brussels and Davos, and then the “leaders” have to carry out the preconceived programs, and they will.

    I only disagree with one point here: that Brussels and Davos have “preconceived programs”. Obviously not. An intelligent parasite, capable of preconceived programs, doesn’t kill its host, and clearly the ones in Brussels and Davos are killing the so-called world leaders.

    >Obviously, this is all strongly connected to the past 2,5 years of measures and mandates and all. The political class got a taste of power that they did not have before, and got carried away.

    The power of the political class hasn’t changed overnight. The ability of political campaigns to brainwash the public didn’t increase all of a sudden. On the other hand, it may well be true that when the political class saw that some people would not take care of their own health on the say-so of some in the political class, it opened all sorts of questions on where the real power is. Certainly not with the ordinary people, that’s for sure. If anybody is still thinking that the concept of “democracy” is still viable, I wonder what they’re on.

    We may, however, realistically enquire whether the power is with the political class, or with the masters of the political class (Brussels and Davos), or perhaps even somewhere else (mainstream media? alternative media, that is entirely unregulated?) For the moment, anyone and everyone that has been rallying against taking care of your own health is suspect in my books of being the enemy of the ordinary people. That includes the author of this article. The only reason I say “suspect” and I don’t call for immediate hanging from lamp-posts from all and every such person, is the strange case of Chris Martenson. If there is one person that looks like they’ve been forced against their will, with a gun to their head, to change their tune, it’s him. And if he’s been forced, there could be others. But to be perfectly honest, in case of doubt, I’d hang from lamp-posts the whole lot of anti-maskers and anti-vaxers but Chris Martenson, and maybe, on the outside, also Ugo Bardi, just because I personally met him and he seemed a rather decent guy and his blog looks like he’s under a lot of strain, and let God sort out any innocents among the rest later.

    #113012
    zerosum
    Participant

    Reading the comments is revealing/enhancing the truth.

    Risk reward calculation

    ….. don’t know how our social/economic system works.
    …. don’t want to be responsible for the proper operation of our social/economic system.
    …. don’t want to know how our social/economic system works
    …. a no win/unpopular decision/situation – not enough supplies/resources for the demands/needs
    …. Avoid any miscalculations/liability/blame
    ————
    Hummm!
    Taiwan depends on sea trade.
    Cuba depends on sea trade.
    USA is not China
    ———

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