Aug 132022
 
 August 13, 2022  Posted by at 9:04 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,


Edward Hopper The “Martha McKeen” of Wellfleet 1944

 

Trump Describes Process Of How He Declassified Documents (JTN)
Ratcliffe On Classified Documents: ‘Virtually Impossible To Prosecute’ (WE)
Trump Prosecution Unleashes More Than Our Political System Can Handle (Mises)
Gestapo the Steal (Jim Kunstler)
Marjorie Taylor Greene Files For Impeachment Of Merrick Garland (JTN)
FBI, RIP? (Victor Davis Hanson)
Berlin Names Candidate To Negotiate With Moscow (RT)
German ex-Chancellor Sues Parliament (RT)
Why Germany Won’t Get Tough On Beijing – Even If It Invades Taiwan (Pol.eu)
Germany At Risk Of Mass Unrest – Security Official (RT)
EU In For Another Winter Shock – Reuters (RT)
Most German Howitzers In Ukraine Out Of Order – Official (RT)
Wall Street Is Mostly to Blame for Rising Commodity Prices (Jacobin)
Biden’s Paxlovid Nightmare Exposes the Need to Make Doctors Great Again (Cap.)

 

 

 

 

Spanish Farmers
https://twitter.com/i/status/1558165134706622464

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dutch farmer
https://twitter.com/i/status/1557990961329983488

 

 


@HunterDeRensis: “The thing I love about this 1972 George McGovern pin is that fifty years later no modern Democrat would dare replicate it.”

 

 

Interesting opinions DeSantis

 

 

 

 

“He had a standing order that documents removed from the Oval Office and taken into the residence were deemed to be declassified..”

Trump Describes Process Of How He Declassified Documents (JTN)

Donald Trump’s office told Just the News on Friday that the classified materials the FBI seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate were declassified under a “standing order” while he was president that allowed him to take sensitive materials to the White House residence at night to keep working. The official statement is likely to become the focus of the president’s legal defense as the FBI and Biden Justice Department investigate whether he stole records covered under the Presidential Records Act or mishandled classified materials under the Espionage Act, allegations included in a search warrant released by a federal court in Florida on Friday.

The president’s defense is rooted in the legal principal that the president and vice president are the ultimate declassifying authority of the U.S. government and through executive orders most recently issued in 2003 by George W. Bush and Barack Obama in 2009 that specifically exempt the president and vice president from having to follow the stringent declassification procedures every other federal agency and official must follow. Trump has maintained for weeks that any documents still containing classified markings in his possession after he left office were previously declassified. On Friday night, the statement issued to Just the News explained exactly how that declassification occurred in his mind.

The very fact that these documents were present at Mar-a-Lago means they couldn’t have been classified,” the former president’s office stated. “As we can all relate to, everyone ends up having to bring home their work from time to time. American presidents are no different. President Trump, in order to prepare for work the next day, often took documents including classified documents from the Oval Office to the residence. “He had a standing order that documents removed from the Oval Office and taken into the residence were deemed to be declassified,” the statement added. “The power to classify and declassify documents rests solely with the President of the United States. The idea that some paper-pushing bureaucrat, with classification authority delegated BY THE PRESIDENT, needs to approve of declassification is absurd.”

Kash Patel: Documents were already declassified

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There will be 100 cases vs Trump. Just to make sure he’s occupied.

Ratcliffe On Classified Documents: ‘Virtually Impossible To Prosecute’ (WE)

Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe argued that it is “virtually impossible” to prosecute his onetime boss, former President Donald Trump, for alleged mishandling of classified material. While chiding the FBI for “acting as the muscle” of the Democrats, the Trump-era spy chief hearkened back to Hillary Clinton’s email situation and surmised that Trump possessed the “ultimate declassification authority,” shielding him from liability. “I thought, surely this is not about classified documents and the president being in possession of those. It has to be more than that because the Department of Justice and the FBI have already set a standard that makes it virtually impossible to prosecute a case like that,” Ratcliffe told Fox Business’s Larry Kudlow, who is another former Trump administration official.

Although no president has ever been prosecuted for mishandling classified material, some experts dispute the notion that one could suddenly deem something declassified and argue that the president must instead follow a formal process. “I’ve seen thousands of declassified documents. They’re all marked ‘declassified’ with the date they were declassified,” Richard Immerman, assistant deputy director of national intelligence in the Obama administration, told NBC News. During a Monday raid, FBI agents carried out a search warrant of Trump’s lavish Mar-a-Lago resort and reportedly retrieved some 20 boxes of material while seeking documents with details about nuclear weapons.

A warrant released to the public Friday revealed that authorities were looking for material retained in violation of three federal laws, including the Espionage Act. “As people talk about Espionage Act and classified documents and all of that, the standard was set in 2016. Remember the Department of Justice and the FBI took the official position that Hillary Clinton, who was in possession of classified documents … that in possession of that — that wasn’t enough and that being grossly negligent … that’s not enough under the Espionage Act,” Ratcliffe continued. “The Department of Justice and FBI said six years ago, you gotta be able to prove intent. He’s already denied that he had the intent to do it,” he added.

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“..if they file criminal charges against Trump, they know they will be unleashing a mix of anger and political forces that they cannot control.”

Trump Prosecution Unleashes More Than Our Political System Can Handle (Mises)

With the recent FBI raid on Donald Trump’s Florida home, the Democrats and the Biden administration have raised the political stakes to a level from which this country as we have known it may never return. All one can say to those that are demanding a criminal prosecution of the former president is: Be careful what you wish for; you just might get it. Although the raid ostensibly was to see if Trump took classified documents from the White House when he left in a chaotic move in January 2021, former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy believes the Biden administration was again attempting to find that proverbial “smoking gun” tying Trump to the January 6 Capitol riot. Whether or not Attorney General Merrick Garland is able to grab the brass ring and prosecute Trump after yet one more fishing expedition is another story, although I doubt that any president has seen as many resources used to investigate him as has Donald Trump, but the Department of Justice has not filed charges yet.

Understand that anyone reading this article has committed a federal crime at some point, perhaps more than once. I adopted four children from overseas, and while I was not involved in the details (done through legitimate and registered adoption agencies), I can be held criminally responsible if anyone paid bribes in the countries where the adoptions took place. Even if investigators could not prove someone paid bribes, they could still charge me with a crime on a mere pretext. And the charges would stick, and most likely a federal jury would vote to convict. Remember that Democrats wanted Amy Coney Barrett’s adoption of two children from Haiti investigated. While the demands were overtly political, it was clear that the Democrats believed in using criminal law to achieve political purposes in her case, but using the law that way hardly is limited to operatives of the Democratic Party.

Anyone who has Democrat friends on social media knows that they are obsessed with having Trump charged, convicted, and thrown in prison. Because I spent many years researching and writing about federal criminal law, I can say that if federal authorities wish to charge someone with a crime, nothing, not even the law itself, stands in their way. So, if the Biden administration really wants to charge Trump with something, the FBI will have no trouble cooking up something to order. Furthermore, if the DOJ were to charge Trump with something, he would be tried in Washington, DC, facing a jury made up entirely of DC Democrats that almost surely will have decided guilt even before the trial begins. While the feds already know this, they also know something else: if they file criminal charges against Trump, they know they will be unleashing a mix of anger and political forces that they cannot control.

RE-classified
https://twitter.com/i/status/1557837508741832704

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“..the intel-and-surveillance agencies are fighting for their lives — and the actual humans in charge must be keenly aware of their criminal liabilities.”

Gestapo the Steal (Jim Kunstler)

To America’s political Left, serving its masters in the runaway deep state, reality itself must be portrayed as “baseless,” as in nothing to see here, folks. Is it any wonder, then, that half the country has gone mental. The reality they don’t want you to see is that the intel-and-surveillance agencies of our Republic have taken on a rogue life of their own as a dominant “fourth branch of government,” and that some time ago they embarked on a crime spree against anyone threatening their operations. That would include especially target number one: Donald Trump. For a masterful explication of how this amazing clusterfuck developed, I commend you to The Conservative Treehouse website where the writer who styles himself as “Sundance” put together a four-part report on how the original sin of RussiaGate metastasized into the stage-four cancer of institutional necrosis that culminated in this week’s raid on Mar-a-Lago.

The gist is: it turns out that the president does not have sole authority, in practice, to declassify and release government documents. With the rise of the security state, many new procedures have been erected within that massive labyrinth to prevent it or slow-walk it. The most effective has been to make the president himself a target of, or a material witness in, drawn-out investigations. That was the exact purpose of the Mueller exercise. Any exculpatory documents released by Mr. Trump — for instance, the complete unredacted text exchanges of FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page — could have been used to hang an obstruction of justice charge on the president.

Mr. Trump adroitly avoided that trap, and many other legal pitfalls the deep state laid for him, and might have won reelection but for the well-organized ballot fraud of 2020. But the epic blunders of “Joe Biden” are giving Mr. Trump, and the movement behind him, a pretty good shot at routing the incumbent regime. Doing so, first in the 2022 midterms and then in the 2024 presidential election, portends a now quite visible effort coming to dismantle that reckless, unelected “fourth branch” of government. So, the intel-and-surveillance agencies are fighting for their lives — and the actual humans in charge must be keenly aware of their criminal liabilities.

Despite all attempts to disable him in office, Mr. Trump, as president, got to see an awful lot of classified material, including all the evidence of Hillary Clinton’s Russia Collusion hoax, abetted by the FBI, the DOJ, CIA, and DOD, plus all the lawless shenanigans that took place in the FISA court. A lot of it was assembled when, late in the game, Mr. Trump was finally able to appoint Directors of National Intelligence he could trust — Ric Grenell and then John Ratcliffe — who wrested many documents out of the foot-dragging agencies. Further maneuvers by artful Attorney General William Barr — the appointment of John Durham as Special Counsel and his drawn-out investigations — kept Mr. Trump from releasing any declassified RussiaGate material ever since. The catch was: he still had bales of that evidence in his possession among the personal papers he took with him from the White House.

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Someone has to.

Marjorie Taylor Greene Files For Impeachment Of Merrick Garland (JTN)

Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Friday announced that she had filed articles of impeachment against Attorney General Merrick Garland following the FBI’s Monday raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Greene posted the articles on Twitter, saying that Garland’s “personal approval to seek a search warrant for the raid on the home of the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, constitutes a blatant attempt to persecute a political opponent.” FBI agents from the Washington Field Office on Monday raided Trump’s Florida estate in search of classified documents the former president may have removed from the White House. After Republicans near-unanimously denounced the FBI’s actions as political persecution, Garland issued a statement confirming that he had personally approved the raid.


Greene claims that the attorney general’s unsealing of “the search warrant for the home of former President Donald J. Trump constitutes an attempt to intimidate, harass, and potentially disqualify a political challenger to President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.” Trump, however, announced early Friday morning that he would support the release of the warrant to the public. “Release the documents now!” he posted on his social media platform, Truth Social. Former President Barack Obama nominated Garland to fill the Supreme Court vacancy left by the late Associate Justice Antonin Scalia, though then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked his confirmation, instead waiting until Trump took office to confirm his nominee, now-Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch.

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“On 245 occasions, Comey claimed under oath before the House Intelligence Committee that he had no memory or knowledge of key questions concerning his tenure.”

FBI, RIP? (Victor Davis Hanson)

Wray took over from disgraced interim FBI Director Andrew McCabe. The latter admitted lying repeatedly to federal investigators and signed off on a fraudulent FBI FISA application. He faced zero legal consequences. McCabe, remember, was also the point man in the softball Hillary Clinton email investigation — while his wife was a political candidate and recipient of thousands of dollars from a political action committee with close ties to the Clinton family. McCabe took over from disgraced FBI Director James Comey. On 245 occasions, Comey claimed under oath before the House Intelligence Committee that he had no memory or knowledge of key questions concerning his tenure. With impunity, he leaked confidential FBI memos to the media.

Comey took over from Director Robert Mueller. Implausibly, Mueller swore under oath that he had no knowledge, either of the Steele dossier or of Fusion GPS, the firm that commissioned Christopher Steele to compile the dossier. But those were the very twin catalysts that had prompted his entire special investigation into the Russian collusion hoax. FBI legal counsel Kevin Clinesmith was convicted of a felony for altering an FBI warrant request to spy on an innocent Carter Page. The FBI, by Comey’s own public boasts, bragged how it caught National Security Advisor-designate General Michael Flynn in its Crossfire Hurricane Russian collusion hoax. As special counsel, Mueller then fired two of his top investigators — Lisa Page and Peter Strzok — for improper personal and professional behavior. He then staggered their releases to mask their collaborative wrongdoing. Mueller’s team deleted critical cell phone evidence under subpoena that might well have revealed systemic FBI-related bias.


The FBI interferes with and warps national elections. It hires complete frauds as informants who are far worse than its targets. It humiliates or exempts government and elected officials based on their politics. It violates the civil liberties of individual American citizens. The FBI’s highest officials now routinely mislead Congress. They have erased or altered court and subpoenaed evidence. They illegally leak confidential material to the media. And they have lied under oath to federal investigators. The agency has become dangerous to Americans and an existential threat to their democracy and rule of law. The FBI should be dispersing its investigatory responsibilities to other government investigative agencies that have not yet lost the public’s trust.

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That’s what I said recently: Schroeder is the ideal guy to make peace. “..last month the former chancellor made it clear that he would still use every opportunity to talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin as the “diplomatic solution,” in his opinion, is the only way to end the Ukrainian conflict…”

Berlin Names Candidate To Negotiate With Moscow (RT)

Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroder could be a possible intermediary in the current dispute with Russia over reduced gas deliveries, incumbent chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Thursday. It would be “commendable” if Schroder were to talk to Moscow about the turbine that is currently in Germany, Scholz said, speaking at his first summer press conference since entering office last year. According to Scholz, the return of the equipment vital for the functioning of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline would prompt Russia to restart gas supplies via this route as soon as possible. The turbine has been embroiled in a major dispute between Russia and Germany, after having undergone maintenance in Canada. The equipment was meant to be shipped to the compressor station at the pipeline in Russia back in May, so that the gas flow to the EU could be maintained at full capacity.


However, its return was first delayed by Canada due to the country’s sanctions on Moscow. Now it is stuck in Germany because it lacks proper documentation, according to Russia’s Gazprom. The Russian state-run energy giant has been insisting that Western sanctions are hindering the return of the turbine from Germany and threaten future equipment repair at the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. The firm said that the paperwork for the turbine’s return is not in order as it was issued by Siemens Energy and not the firm that is contracted by Gazprom. Schroder, who was Germany’s chancellor between 1998 and 2005, has been repeatedly criticized for his business ties to Russian state-owned energy companies. In May, the former chancellor was forced to leave the supervisory board of the Russian energy giant Rosneft and turn down a nomination for a supervisory-board position at Gazprom. In late July, Schroder met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has also urged the German government to reconsider its position on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

Stop
https://twitter.com/i/status/1558229618389303298

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He was German Chancellor for years, like Merkel, and now they want to deny him an office in Berlin. It’s not just the US that’s gone berserk.

He lives in both worlds. Invaluable. “Amid pressure over his ties with Russia, Schroeder stepped down from his position on the board of Russian oil giant Rosneft and declined a nomination for a position on Gazprom’s board.”

German ex-Chancellor Sues Parliament (RT)

Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has launched a legal bid to get back funding for his office and staff. The privileges were withdrawn in May by the Bundestag’s budget committee, his lawyers told broadcaster NDR on Friday. Since the launch of Moscow’s military offensive in Ukraine, Schroeder has been fiercely criticized for his work with Russia. His perceived close relationship to Moscow, however, was not mentioned by the budget committee when it passed the motion to strip him of some privileges. Officially, the new rule, which can be applied to other former chancellors, states that funding will be based “on the ongoing obligations from the office” rather than on the status of the recipient. Schroeder’s lawyers filed a lawsuit on Thursday with the Berlin Administrative Court arguing that “the decision to deprive former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder of his staffing is contrary to the rule of law.”

In an interview with NDR, one of the legal team stressed that Schroeder was not even given a chance to present his arguments to the committee or to talk to its chairman Helge Braun. This represents “a clear violation of human dignity,” the lawyer said. In a statement, sent to the DPA news agency, the legal team further explained that the Bundestag committee had claimed that Schroeder no longer takes care of the so-called “after-effects of official duties.” “However, it is not specified what ‘after-effects of official duties’ actually are, how their perception or non-perception is to be determined and what procedure is to be followed,” the statement read. Such decisions are reminiscent of an “absolutist princely state” and should not take place in a democratic country, the lawyers emphasized.

Last year, Schroeder’s office and travel expenses amounted to more than €400,000 ($412,000). The 78-year-old continues to receive a pension of €8,300 as well as personal security protection. Earlier this week, Schroeder, who was chancellor from 1998 to 2005, scored an important victory: The Hanover arbitration commission of the Social Democratic party ruled that his work with Russian state-owned companies had not violated its charter, and he avoided expulsion from the party. However, Lower Saxony’s SPD leader Stephan Weil told media that while the commission’s decision should be respected, it does not change the party’s stance. “For us it is clear: Gerhard Schroder is politically isolated with his positions in the SPD,” Weil claimed. [..] last month the former chancellor made it clear that he would still use every opportunity to talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin as the “diplomatic solution,” in his opinion, is the only way to end the Ukrainian conflict.

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“..China has overtaken the U.S. to become Germany’s biggest trading partner..”

Why Germany Won’t Get Tough On Beijing – Even If It Invades Taiwan (Pol.eu)

Germany’s Wagnerian foreign policy spectacle is moving east. Spoiler alert: It’s even worse than the original. For months, Berlin has frustrated (read enraged) many allies with its one step forward, two steps back approach to confronting Russia over Ukraine. Yet that tortured episode is looking like little more than an overture to what’s brewing in Asia, as tensions over Taiwan force Berlin to weigh how it would respond if Beijing tries to seize the island nation, which China considers a breakaway region. If that happens, the U.S. and other Western allies would push for tough sanctions against China. Germany is unlikely to be among them, a course that could protect its export-driven economy, but damage both its own and Europe’s international credibility.

Asked Thursday whether Germany could afford to support sanctions in the event of a Chinese invasion, Chancellor Olaf Scholz dodged the question, while reprimanding German industry for ignoring the maxim “to not put all your eggs in one basket.” “The question of our country’s dependence in crucial areas concerning supply chains, raw materials and other things is a necessary element of our national security strategy, which we’re working on at the moment,” he added, without mentioning China by name. Others have been more direct. German industry’s reliance on exports has “created a dependency that leaves us helpless,” Norbert Röttgen, a prominent center-right MP, told German television earlier this week. Could Germany back sanctions against China?

“At the moment, not really,” said Röttgen, a former minister and longtime chairman of the German parliament’s foreign policy committee. While the debate is in many respects a redux of Germany’s manic handwringing over whether and how to confront Russia over Ukraine, this time even more is at stake. Germany’s big concern over antagonizing Moscow was losing access to cheap energy. With Beijing, it’s about losing the foundation of its economic prosperity. In recent years, China has overtaken the U.S. to become Germany’s biggest trading partner, accounting for nearly 10 percent of the country’s €2.6 trillion in foreign trade last year. What’s more, China, which has propelled the German economy for decades, remains a key growth driver. That’s why reducing German industry’s reliance on the country is easier said than done.

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“gas shortages, energy problems, supply difficulties, possible recession, unemployment, but also the growing poverty right up to the middle class.”

Germany At Risk Of Mass Unrest – Security Official (RT)

Germany could be facing mass unrest this autumn and protests over the energy crisis could be hijacked by extremists, a regional head of the country’s domestic security agency has said. Stephan Kramer, who heads the BfV in the state of Thuringia, said Germany must be prepared for the possibility that “legitimate” protests over energy and economic crises could be “infiltrated by extremists.” He told ZDF broadcaster on Wednesday that demonstrations could be expected over “gas shortages, energy problems, supply difficulties, possible recession, unemployment, but also the growing poverty right up to the middle class.”

“Extremists” who could hijack the protests include the so-called “lateral thinkers” who rallied against coronavirus restrictions during the pandemic, and right-wing activists who have already been stirring the mood on social media in recent months, Kramer said. If such scenarios materialize, “we’re likely to be confronted with mass protests and riots,” the official warned. Due to Covid-19 and the economic fallout from EU sanctions on Russia over the conflict in Ukraine, “we’re dealing with a highly emotionalized, aggressive, future-pessimistic mood in society, whose trust in the state, its institutions and political actors is fraught with massive doubts,” he explained.

“This highly emotional and explosive mood could easily escalate,” the security chief said, adding that if this happens the clashes seen by Germany during the pandemic will “probably feel more like a children’s birthday party” by comparison. According to the official, effective crisis management and cooperation between political forces on all sides of the spectrum would be required to avoid what he called a “hot autumn.” But the most important factor in avoiding unrest and maintaining social peace should be restoring the confidence of Germans in the authorities, he added. Kramer also advised the people to “think carefully about which protests and demonstrations you join, or better stay away from them altogether, so as not to support the enemies of democracy.”

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“..60% of the region’s seaborne diesel imports originated from Russia last month…”

EU In For Another Winter Shock – Reuters (RT)

The European Union is heading into winter with seasonally low levels of diesel in storage tanks, Reuters reported on Friday, warning of major implications for the continent’s industries and drivers amid looming sanctions on Russian crude oil and refined product supplies. The latest data from Wood Mackenzie shows the region’s stockpiles of road diesel, heating oil and other diesel-type fuel are set to dwindle this November to the lowest levels on record in data that goes back to the start of 2011. According to a Reuters report, current prices trade at a premium to prices for future deliveries, which makes it uneconomical for traders to put diesel into storage and book a profit. “No one in their right mind would put diesel into tanks at those levels,” an unnamed European trader told the outlet.

The situation is deteriorating as the market is already tight due to refinery outages in Austria, which along with Germany and Switzerland is looking to build heating oil stocks ahead of winter. Meanwhile, surging natural gas prices, which are encouraging a switch to oil products for power generation could also tighten the market further, FGE Energy warns. The International Energy Agency on Thursday raised its forecast for oil demand growth for this year by 380,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 2.1 million bpd citing the gas-to-oil switch. Reuters pointed out, citing data from energy analytics firm Vortexa, that Europe continues to rely heavily on Russia to satisfy its diesel demand. Statistics show that 60% of the region’s seaborne diesel imports originated from Russia last month.

And with no evidence that companies are stockpiling ahead of sanctions, “traders expect Europe to be in for a winter shock,” the media outlet wrote. It quoted another European trader as saying “Who knows what is going to happen [at the] back end of this year, early next – looks like it will be carnage for a bit.” The European Union plans to stop buying all seaborne Russian crude oil from early December and will ban all refined products from the country two months later.

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Black Hole.

Most German Howitzers In Ukraine Out Of Order – Official (RT)

Most German PzH 2000 howitzers that have been supplied to Ukraine by the West have already broken down and are in need of repair, according to German Bundestag member Marcus Faber, who recently visited Ukraine. In a Wednesday interview with the German news outlet NTV, the politician claimed he was surprised to learn from Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense that only five of the 15 German-made PzH 2000 howitzers supplied to Ukraine by Berlin and Amsterdam were still operational. He added that the cause of the failures was not Russian fire, but the fact that the guns were “massively used” by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. While Kiev has yet to officially confirm Faber’s statements, it was reported last month by Der Spiegel that Ukraine had informed Germany that a number of PzH 2000 howitzers were malfunctioning after extensive use.

According to the outlet, the German Ministry of Defense believed the issues may have resulted from high intensity firing, which may have impacted the artillery round loading mechanism. Der Spiegel said 100 shots a day was considered a “high level of shooting intensity” for the howitzer. Faber also stated that Kiev had requested more spare parts for the weapons and was “optimistic” that it could bring the howitzers back into working order. He noted that while Germany had already supplied Ukraine with spare parts packages, not all of them were “the right ones.” He pointed out that spare parts were not always enough and that larger repairs required special workshops, meaning the Ukrainians could only carry out minor repairs themselves.

According to Faber, Kiev has already requested help in building their own repair facilities in order to avoid having to send the howitzers out of the country for maintenance. Germany has so far supplied Kiev with ten PzH 2000 howitzers while another five were provided by the Netherlands, who have promised another three. Meanwhile, German arms manufacturer Krauss-Maffei Wegmann struck a deal with the Ukrainian government in late July that would see the firm produce and supply Kiev with some 100 PzH 2000 howitzers, according to a Der Spiegel report. A company spokesperson was quoted as stating that the arms deal was worth $1.72 billion – almost triple the cost of all military aid Berlin has sent to Kiev’s forces since Russia launched its military operation in late February.

However, Faber has pointed out that these 100 howitzers will not be delivered to Ukraine before the end of next year and has called on Berlin to send Kiev weapons out of its own reserves, which could then be replenished by Ukrainian order. Germany has previously supplied Ukrainian forces with thousands of portable anti-tank and anti-air missiles, tens of thousands of anti-tank mines, as well as millions of rounds of ammunition. However, Kiev and even the former Ukrainian ambassador to Germany have still criticized Berlin for what they called reluctance to send military aid to Ukraine and the slow pace of deliveries. Moscow has repeatedly warned the West against sending weapons to Kiev, saying it only prolongs the conflict and increases the number of casualties.

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“..their Black Sea exports make up just 0.9 percent of global wheat production..”

Wall Street Is Mostly to Blame for Rising Commodity Prices (Jacobin)

On July 5, the markets admitted they made a mistake. Despite betting for months that the war in Ukraine would produce a global shortage of wheat, speculators now believe that the hostilities will have had no meaningful impact on supply. That’s why the news that Russia will allow Ukraine’s Black Sea wheat exports to resume has barely registered. By the time that the belligerents came to this agreement on July 21, prices had already been “corrected” sharply downward to prewar levels. Then on August 4, oil prices also sank below their prewar price, marking a second admission by the market. Right now, just as much oil flows into the veins of the global economy as it did before the war began. The Kremlin’s war did not create a Malthusian nightmare of too little food and fuel for too many people.

But financial speculators in Wall Street and the City of London bet that it would, causing global prices to boom — and now bust. This speculation led to months of eye-watering prices based not on economic fundamentals but perception. Soaring food and fuel prices pushed 71 million of the world’s most vulnerable people into extreme poverty. The high prices triggered protests in Argentina, Chile, Cyprus, Greece, Guinea, Ghana, Ecuador, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Lebanon, Palestine, Peru, Sudan, and Tunisia. In Sri Lanka, the prices sparked protests, toppled the prime minister, created a debt crisis, and last week deposed the president. Commodity driven inflation also hit the United States, hammered Joe Biden’s approval ratings, and despite now falling gas prices may have already condemned the Democrats to humiliating defeats in the coming midterms.

Why did the markets get it so wrong? As the Nobel laureate Robert Shiller has shown, behind every price move there is a narrative. In the weeks following the war’s outbreak, headlines issued dire warnings of crippling sanctions, embargoed oil, stranded wheat rotting in silos, blocked Russian ports, and Black Sea blockades. All of these stories were, in a literal sense, true. But the question is whether these “facts” justified the skyrocketing prices that followed. The verdict, based on the most recent market correction, is a firm no. This is not just a function of hindsight. For one, even oil embargos with broad international support fail to stop barrels crossing borders, let alone the lopsided and loophole-ridden effort from the United States and Europe to limit Russian exports.

Warnings of a coming global food crisis assumed that Russia and Ukraine’s wheat exports — 25 percent of the global total — would be stranded forever. But physical commodity traders are remarkably resilient at overcoming barriers — be they war zones, tariffs, the Drug Enforcement Administration, or pirates. Russians and Ukrainians alike stood to profit greatly from getting siloed grain to global markets since prices at the start of the year were already elevated. It’s no surprise that they did indeed find ways to do so: by reviving river routes, using Romanian ports, and smuggling stolen grain. Even if none of their combined grain left, their Black Sea exports make up just 0.9 percent of global wheat production, and grain stockpiles were already rising across the world in March as farmers had expanded production in 2021.

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“..today, while giving a speech on the White House South Lawn, he couldn’t stop coughing for minutes at a time..”

Biden’s Paxlovid Nightmare Exposes the Need to Make Doctors Great Again (Cap.)

President Biden, said by his doctor to be a “healthy, vigorous” seventy-nine-year-old man, finally left White House quarantine yesterday for Delaware, declared free of the covid-19 virus and re-joining his wife after a nightmarish 19-day covid ordeal. But today, while giving a speech on the White House South Lawn, he couldn’t stop coughing for minutes at a time, though his doctors declared him this morning free of the virus. Don’t say I didn’t warn you: You are about to enter Clown World. Coughing, fatigue, a sore throat, runny nose, and body aches dogged the president after his July 21 positive covid test. He was given Paxlovid, the absurdly flawed but highly profitable Pfizer drug approved by his administration for treatment of mild covid cases.


Biden was reported cleared of the virus, then suffered a rebound infection July 30 known, along with many perilous drug interactions, to be associated with Paxlovid. Dr. Robert Malone and other scientists speculated that in fact the virus never left the president’s body but kept dangerously mutating, “truly the worst case scenario for a single mechanism of action drug used as a therapy against COVID-19.” Dangerous for us all. Meanwhile, one of my good friends, an eighty-four-year-old man with heart disease and diabetes, came down with covid last week. He took a .4 mg/kg dose of ivermectin according to the world-renowned FLCCC.net covid treatment protocol, and was completely free of symptoms in two hours. His wife took the recommended prevention dose of .2 mg/kg and never got sick. To protect others, my friend stayed home for a few symptom-free days (still enjoying the company of his wife, unlike Joe), then happily walked four miles in the heat with friends yesterday. Yes, Clown World means in all likelihood you and your friends are better covid doctors than the president’s doctor.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perfecto
https://twitter.com/i/status/1558229770059632642

 

 

 

 

London 1924

 

 

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle August 13 2022

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 56 total)
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  • #113358

    Edward Hopper The “Martha McKeen” of Wellfleet 1944   • Trump Describes Process Of How He Declassified Documents (JTN) • Ratcliffe On Classified
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle August 13 2022]

    #113359
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    Perfecto!

    Indeed!

    #113360
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    As to Hoppers paintings of sailing; he catches the spirit if not the reality…
    As a sailor; I love his work…

    #113361
    teri
    Participant

    I’ll do you one better on the guitar video.

    This kid (he’s 21, so a kid to me), was born in Poland, plays acoustic guitar.  Started learning the guitar at age 10 and was re-arranging music and writing his own compositions by age 15.  Amazing musician.  He goes by his first name, Marcin (mar-cene). What it takes 4 musicians to do in the “perfecto” video, he does by himself. And then some. Very gifted musician.

    Marcin – Kashmir on One Guitar (Official Video)

    #113362
    Polder Dweller
    Participant

    Look at the excellent state of the streets of London (cue Ralph McTell) back in 1924 – they’re nothing like as good these days, but that’s progress for you.

    Meanwhile, here’s The Biden Family:

    https://twitter.com/creasonjana/status/1557905840866295814?s=21&t=vANnuZhWOPPmqAZYbda-Ag

    #113363
    V. Arnold
    Participant

    I’ll do you one better on the guitar video.

    It’s lost on me why one has to compare such great guitar playing…
    Both so excellent in their different styles…love it all………….

    #113364
    those darned kids
    Participant

    flamenco master!

    #113365
    Dr. D
    Participant

    This week’s quote:

    “Everyone can also see that the neoliberal Keynesian synthesis (i.e., QE, deregulation, and globalisation) we have relied on for decades is an utter failure in this key regard. They just don’t know what will work, having read so little of any other schools of economic thought, and are scrambling from windfall taxes, which disincentivise productive investment, to threats of nationalisation, which disincentivises productive investment, to artificially lowering commodity prices, which disincentivises productive investment, to, until now, artificially lowering rates, which, yes, disincentivises productive investment.

    Global blocs using Hamiltonian industrial policy/mercantilism arguably would work – but we are clearly going to try and fail every other way first, “because markets/economic advisors”. – Rabobank

    “President Declassified”

    So they very carefully constructed the warrant and case ignoring the issue of classification or not.

    Instead of a saucy, entertaining article this week, Kunstler’s article should be read. It outlines Epstein’s lawyer was placed to preside over Trump v Hillary lawsuit, but only to drop it a week before presiding over the FBI search warrant almost certainly related to the Trump v Hillary lawsuit. And all the Seditious FBI agents.

    “Ratcliffe on Classified Documents: ‘Virtually Impossible to Prosecute’ (WE)”

    They don’t seem to have any trouble: doesn’t seem to stop them at all. The lawsuit IS the punishment. You can be held in solitary for a year, or 10 years, before we hear the case. Perfect. Maybe you didn’t realize why they put that in the Constitution, our Federal Law, to prevent Kings from throwing people in the dungeon and forgetting about them. But now we have the FBI to do that.

    “some experts dispute the notion that one could suddenly deem something declassified and argue that the president must instead follow a formal process.”

    Hmm, yes, and the process is the President said they’re declassified. “’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.” That is, the standing, unelected, unaccountable bureaucracy, or the people and their elected representatives? We’ve fought this battle multiple times now. Remember: Obama could issue Executive orders to create a thing, but Trump could not issue the same Executive order to un-create a thing. Why? The bureaucratic executive state said so. This was true of Trump pulling us out of foreign wars and so on – the Generals just said no, Trump said he would fire them for insubordination and refusing orders, rebelling against the policies the People of the United States put him into office for, and nothing happened: the Bureaucratic state did whatever they liked, with no response or accountability to the Public. In fact, they universally attack and oppress the public, with “Disinformation Boards”, Investigations, Lerner’s IRS audits, arrests for whistleblowers, wiretapping of AP journalists’ corps, and anything else they can think of, not a single one prosecuted or removed. This is why the new Supreme Court Justice was seated: she protected the unaccountable executive state from any removal or prosecution, even if they disobey every order and never do their jobs for 40 years.

    “which is to be master — that’s all.” The People? Or the Crown? That’s the difference the United States rests on.

    “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.” Armed officers. Required to be willing to personally murder the people, and send them to solitary for a year pending charges.

    ““..if they file criminal charges against Trump, they know they will be unleashing a mix of anger and political forces that they cannot control.”

    Yes, but they WANT a Civil War. I don’t know why this is so hard for people to understand. What’s the quote with Gandhi or someone? They WANT you to be violent because they know how to deal with violence. What they can’t understand is non-violence. That is, SELF-sacrifice. For a moral cause. Which is illogical. They WANT you to rebel in a Civil War so much that they just fabricated a rebellion out of whole cloth, where zero guns were found, and no intent, and no plans. Proven on Congressional J6 Committee. Can you gather the magnitude of that? That’s how much they’re aching, reaching, pining, laying awake at night longing for a Civil War. That they would create one themselves if necessary.

    What’s the outcome of this longing? They must antagonize the people hourly, everywhere, trample, run roughshod, bully, annoy, harass, and railroad the people always, everywhere, with every one, in order to invoke this rebellious response from them. …But neither I, nor the rest of the people LIKE being harassed, annoyed, bullied, and railroaded every day. I would prefer not to.

    So rephrasing the quote above: “Is the government run by the PEOPLE? Or is it run by the Bureaucracy?” Them? Or US?

    I remember hearing this is History class in school, years ago. Like Marbury v Madison this was a famous pivot point with the slogan “To the victor belong the spoils.” That is, what’s the point of having elections in 1828 if the President isn’t allowed to change anything and direct policy? Golly gee Batman, who and what was the 1828 election? Andrew Jackson destroying the money powers and the Central Bank that had captured the entire Federal government in a mere 20 years, stole the entire frontier to sell it back them again, financially rigged prices and bankruptcies willy-nilly to profit from chaos, promised to bankrupt the nation to bring them to heel then did, and was running all work for the benefit of some family oligarchs in Boston and NY, headed by Clay and Quincy, who in fact colluded in a uniparty to keep Jackson, and the common man of the U.S., out of the White House. What happened then? They DID prevent his election, and almost certainly using early Tammany Hall election rigging as well as the UniParty, forcing Jackson to circle back and defeat them 4 years later, once the people were better informed and discovered the magnitude of the depravity. “You are a den of vipers, and by GOD I will rout you out!”

    Sound familiar? Now I ask again: WHO runs the government? The government itself, or the People? Because seems to be if we elect people, but there is no legal avenue to influence the Federal Agencies, it’s not really a Democracy, is it? It’s just a “Mockracy.” A Soviet Style system where unelected bureaucrats are positioned and align interests with unknown and unaccountable powers, which must be very much desired worldwide because that’s the EU system as well. A Mockracy where neither the people nor the nations have any influence. No matter who is “elected” the same policies continue uninterrupted for 40 years.

    “Wray took over from disgraced interim FBI Director Andrew McCabe. The latter admitted lying repeatedly to federal investigators and signed off on a fraudulent FBI FISA application.”

    And nothing happened, because he is in Class A, and wants us Class B people to know that the laws don’t apply to him. And in fact they will prosecute laws that don’t exist against us. Or just jail us and forget to prosecute anything at all.

    “The agency has become dangerous to Americans and an existential threat to their democracy and rule of law.”

    All Secret Police through all recorded time. They always undermine the State. And thereby destroy the nation, that is, We the People. We can’t function with universal corruption and nothing gets done. Why? Why would I work if you’re just going to steal my property? I can be broke and stolen from staring at the vast horizon of cars-on-blocks from my front porch. I can be broke and stolen from while living on Malibu Beach in a tent. …And so it is. No markets, no pricing, no property rights, no rule of law…no prosperity. Which is okay I guess if you like that sort of thing and want to be 50 living in a tent while getting medieval diseases.

    “Why Germany Won’t Get Tough on Beijing – Even If It Invades Taiwan (Pol.eu)”

    Um, not for that reason. Because they have no army, no food, no tanks, therefore no leverage except “If you, China, are bad, we will line up and murder our own people, see if we won’t.” Like the Uighurs, no? I mean, really, what’s the difference? Dead is dead, so shot or stabbed is the big difference? “Well at least when we kill our citizens, we don’t STAB them like those Barbarians: we let them slowly freeze and perish from crippled immune systems like Civilized people.”

    Germany doesn’t have any influence over China. Nor the U.S., clearly. Nor Europe it seems. Nor even their own borders, with Holland. Nor perhaps internally, as they are in perpetual protest. …So…what are we talking about in the article? How everyone ignores Germany and Davos lost? The U.S. Fed and Commercial Banks are landing on Normandy and the Russians are smashing them from the other side, killing the Nazis in a direct repeat of WWII, not even a rhyme.

    “…60% of the region’s seaborne diesel imports originated from Russia last month…”
    “EU in for Another Winter Shock – Reuters (RT)”

    Like last time, locked in a bunker in Berlin, giving Ze-like orders to fight to the last man. And Europe cooperatively says, “Okie-dokie, how high?” Why do you do this? Stop. Because as an American, I WILL level you unless you stop dicking with us over here. And laugh, shoot some guns, and sleep soundly at night about it.

    “However, Faber has pointed out that these 100 howitzers will not be delivered to Ukraine before the end of next year”

    Actually, we were thinking of a 2099 delivery year for this war. What’s the difference?

    “Why did the markets get it so wrong?”

    Hahahaahaha! He thinks we have markets. He’s so cute I could hug him. There are no markets, no price discovery, and no “market prices.” So that explains your whole article.

    Winter is Coming. Prepare. Your fathers placed the Hunger Stones to warn you to survive. Try to do so for their sake.

    #113366
    Red
    Participant

    Dr D you moonlighting a bit?

    It is pointless expecting the system to punish the system – I can tell you it will never ever happen now.

    People are not thinking this scenario through to its natural end, I believe it will end and can only ever end in “street justice” as things descend into chaos.

    Because you cannot reason with genocidal maniacs, there is no “law system” that will work, they run the law system and they already totally ignore it – it doesn’t apply to them.

    How many times do you need to present undeniable evidence only to be totally ignored to see it?

    Time spent going through the legal process is for me time wasted.

    If we fast forward 6 months or 12 months (and this was put to Sir Graham Brady last September), the following will begin to happen.

    I can tell you having looked into Sir Graham Brady’s eyes, he is a man sitting on the fence and waiting to see which side to fall on depending on the actions of the masses.

    When the masses slowly come to realise what has been done (as they are doing right now) there will eventually be a murderous backlash and probably civil war raging across Europe and America – this is by design and it was made clear this was expected.

    https://www.globalresearch.ca/justice-wont-come-from-our-legal-system-will-come-from-collective-masses/5789891

    #113367

    I’m getting claustrophobia from the future.
    There won’t be any place that I can be.
    I’ll need a pass or permit for existence.
    I’m seeing that the future won’t be free.

    #113368
    greco
    Participant

    Germany must be prepared for the possibility that “legitimate” protests over energy and economic crises could be “infiltrated by extremists.”

    As Dr D keeps pointing out, our leaders openly publish their plans in advance

    Government planning mostly peaceful riots. Limited amounts of arson.

    #113369
    greco
    Participant

    “we’re dealing with a highly emotionalized, aggressive, future-pessimistic mood in society, whose trust in the state, its institutions and political actors is fraught with massive doubts,” he explained.”
    “Future-pessimistic?” Can we be pessimistic about the past.
    Overall, it seems like German thought leaders have been infected stylisticly by Babylon Bee.

    #113370
    Noirette
    Participant

    On: China calls US main instigator of Ukr crisis. (prev. thread)

    Certainly the US played a large part, well before the ‘Maidan,’ then instigated that ‘revolt’, etc.

    (Where did the funding to the UkroNaz come from? I don’t know.)

    Germany was a main player (Merkel), following along the US-D alliance (a symbiotic relationship, hard to say who is the top dog, because that can change, switch, re. the issues at hand), attempting to conquer more Lebensraum for German biz/corps, as has been done for ex. in Poland, integrating it into the EU.

    EU expansion was designed to enhance neo-liberal ideology, to spread the tentacles of powerful entities (Corps, shareholders, banksters..), to control the local Pols or those at nodes of power (Parliament, top commerce, media, etc.) while blasting the ppl with pro-EU prop.

    ! No more War ! Yugoslavia? Though arguably, this wasn’t even an internal European war, it was a powerplay by outsiders…

    Ex., see the bringing down of Greece and its debt servitude, because German and French banks needed to be bailed out..

    France went along with all this, subservient to a ‘globalist’ agenda, but *de facto* because its power-sharing scheme with Germany (and the US behind the scenes) puts it in second place, a subservient position.

    #113371
    zerosum
    Participant

    I want my grankids to be able to think, read and write. ( Watching video clips, pictures and cartoons are not enough)
    —————
    In our society, the ability to R&W is/should not be restricted to lawyers and politicians.

    ————
    Thinking and expressing your opinion should not result in jail time/retribution from those having opposing point of views.

    ———-
    https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/all-things-trump/breaking-trump-describes-process-how-he-declassified-documents
    New twist in FBI raid: Trump had ‘standing order’ to declassify documents taken to residence
    ———-
    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trump-spy-chief-john-ratcliffe-classified-documents-impossible-prosecute
    Trump spy chief on classified documents: ‘Virtually impossible to prosecute’
    ———-

    Gestapo the Steal

    Gestapo the Steal
    Despite all attempts to disable him in office, Mr. Trump, as president, got to see an awful lot of classified material, including all the evidence of Hillary Clinton’s Russia Collusion hoax, abetted by the FBI, the DOJ, CIA, and DOD, plus all the lawless shenanigans that took place in the FISA court…

    ———-
    For a masterful explication of how this amazing clusterfuck developed, I commend you to The Conservative Treehouse website where the writer who styles himself as “Sundance” put together a four-part report on how the original sin of RussiaGate metastasized into the stage-four cancer of institutional necrosis that culminated in this week’s raid on Mar-a-Lago.

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/author/admin/

    ————–
    How capitalist get paid
    • Most German Howitzers In Ukraine Out Of Order – Official (RT)
    However, Faber has pointed out that these 100 howitzers will not be delivered to Ukraine before the end of next year and has called on Berlin to send Kiev weapons out of its own reserves, which could then be replenished by Ukrainian order. Germany has previously supplied Ukrainian forces with thousands of portable anti-tank and anti-air missiles, tens of thousands of anti-tank mines, as well as millions of rounds of ammunition.
    ——–

    #113372
    zerosum
    Participant

    The system is crashing without the use of violence by the workers

    Old tools not working
    https://voila.app/en/blog/top-10-work-motivators-for-employees-in-2022/
    Top 10 Work Motivators for Employees in 2022

    Work Ethics are not surviving
    https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/work-ethic-skills

    #113373
    zerosum
    Participant

    Look out the window ….
    the US gov. is already bankrupt with low interest rates
    Raising interest rates high enough to dent inflation would bankrupt the US government…

    It’s Game Over for the Fed—Expect a Monetary “Rug Pull” Soon…


    It’s Game Over for the Fed—Expect a Monetary “Rug Pull” Soon…
    by Nick Giambruno
    The best you can and should do is to stay informed so that you can protect yourself in the best way possible, and even profit from the situation.
    Its up to you to read it …..

    #113374
    zerosum
    Participant

    Look out the window ….
    the US gov. is already bankrupt with low interest rates
    Raising interest rates high enough to dent inflation would bankrupt the US government…

    It’s Game Over for the Fed—Expect a Monetary “Rug Pull” Soon…


    It’s Game Over for the Fed—Expect a Monetary “Rug Pull” Soon…
    by Nick Giambruno
    The best you can and should do is to stay informed so that you can protect yourself in the best way possible, and even profit from the situation.
    Its up to you to read it …..

    #113375
    zerosum
    Participant

    Torrential rains flood Vegas for the second time …. yet Lake Mead water levels keep going down
    https://www.nps.gov/lake/learn/news/lakeconditions.htm

    #113376
    Bill7
    Participant

    From Alaistair Crooke- ‘The Masque of Pandora’:

    “..Yes, the western sphere has become so prone to a ‘head-spinning’ disorientation (as was intended), through the constant rain of disinformation labels, stuck haphazardly across anything critical of the ‘uniform messaging’, and by outrageousYes, the western sphere has become so prone to a ‘head-spinning’ disorientation (as was intended), through the constant rain of disinformation labels, stuck haphazardly across anything critical of the ‘uniform messaging’, and by outrageous, obvious lying, that a majority in the western world has begun to question their own and surrounding levels of sanity., obvious lying, that a majority in the western world has begun to question their own and surrounding levels of sanity..”

    The Masque of Pandora

    Patrick Lawrence: ‘So Far as I Can Make Out’: https://scheerpost.com/2022/08/11/patrick-lawrence-so-far-as-i-can-make-out/

    #113377
    HerrWerner
    Participant

    @afewknowthetruth I read years ago that SA’s Ghawar oilfield has a 50% “water cut” that is, half of what gets pumped out of the ground is the seawater pumped in from the other side of the field to drive it toward the producing wells. That was 2002 ish.

    Ghawar has been producing oil for 70 years. Early in its life it was self-pressurized. Drill a hole in the reservoir and light, sweet crude comes up. Later it had to be pumped out as the reservoir was drained, and still later seawater was pumped in (on the east side I think) wells were re-purposed as injection wells, to sweep the remaining oil toward the production wells.

    What do you think it is now 20 years later, a 60%, 75% water-cut? maybe more? The oilfield engineer slipped up by mentioning it. Oil field data and the facts like the “water cut” are strategic knowledge, state secrets in SA.

    Each one of these reduces the ROI, drives up the cost (both ecological cost and fiat money cost) It is a losing game where at some point it is too much of an economic/ecological disaster to continue. When it’s un-economical it will shut down (elites don’t care about ecology, only economy, to greatly oversimplify) Landowners in western PA are selling their souls – fracking will poison the aquifers (permanently, as in for as long as there are humans around) THat formerly good farmland under the well pad/retention pond will never be reclaimed. But If you don’t do it, your neighbor will.

    Ghawar is a microcosm of peak oil. Sure there’s plenty of oil still there, but the easy-to-get stuff is long gone. EROEI was 100:1 (energy out: energy in) at the wellhead 100 years ago. Energy too cheap to meter. Lots of oil regions started out that way (Western PA, Spindletop TX, LA) Now most wells are probably 20:1 energy out:energy in.


    @john-day
    points out that there’s probably “secret” oil fields out there, and I don’t doubt that. But they are not the easy, cheap stuff. Deepwater Horizon was in 5000 feet of water on a reservoir 13000 feet deep. There was much technology in that oil rig as there is in a Mars lander mission. Meaning just as much fragility.

    In a way I don’t think Dr. D is wrong either. German elites are slitting Germany’s industrial throat by refusing to buy Russian gas and oil “on principle.” We could stretch that fossil fuel 40 years easy if it were used sensibly. We could stretch the whole finite resource (oil, gas, coal) out over centuries if we were sensible about it. But we aren’t serious about it.

    #113378
    willem
    Participant

    @Dr.D: “YES, BUT THEY WANT A CIVIL WAR.”

    Perhaps the quote you’re looking for is John Lennon:

    When it gets down to having to use violence, then you are playing the system’s game. The establishment will irritate you – pull your beard, flick your face – to make you fight. Because once they’ve got you violent, then they know how to handle you. The only thing they don’t know how to handle is non-violence and humor.

    #113379
    HerrWerner
    Participant

    further on “we aren’t serious about it” – about conservation

    I’ve been to places that were serious about it. Here in the first-world-soon-to-be-banana-republic we do not mention the word “conservation” Can’t bring ourselves to say it aloud, even think it, the forbidden c-word. It’s been tarred and associated with President Carter and stagflation and austerity- and that’s been quite deliberate. From womb to grave we are told to be consumers, that buying “things” will give you happiness.

    Imagine the damage that does to the psyche, if your only role in life is to buy shit and pay taxes? Do not seek a rich and purposeful life that requires “less” – no participation as citizens, no spirituality, no support for like minds or kin. That is (or WAS) a lifestyle driving many people stark raving mad. I know office and PMC type people and all they talk about is stuff they bought/are buying/are binge-watching. It appears to be all they know. To me living brittle and fragile lives. Makes my eyes glaze over. I’d sooner weed the garden on a blistering summer day than hang out with them.

    Now our betters are setting up a classic Batesonian double-bind. Whether it’s intentional or not, it’s going to drive ppl stark raving mad, but even MOAR. We’re being told yes consume consume consume, but do less of it, YOUR carbon footprint is too big, you’ll own nothing and be happy, eat ze bugs, turn down your AC but buy an electric car because climate, because science. The unmentionable c-word “conservation” – using less in the first place – that solves many problems before they are problems – is the un-speakable, cannot be mentioned.

    In Japan they take it seriously. On a tiny, resource-poor island with a high population density you can do little else. When I was in Japan ppl turned off lights in a room they weren’t using. My hotel rooms I had to put my room key into a socket to turn on the room lights/AC/heat. (More importantly – you can’t leave the room on when you leave, stupid gaijin.) My engineer colleagues would save discarded paper and feed the blank side back into the printer. It was hot in the office because it’s spring in Tokyo and the windows were open and it was 75° and humid so suck it up buttercup (fine by me)

    There were seven different recycle bins for waste streams of plastic, glass, foil packs etc and ppl did it because they are Japanese. Tiny, sensible cars. Literally thousands of bikes at the train/subway station entrance (NONE of them with locks, again because Japan) waiting for their commuting owner to get back from their downtown job. Cities and suburbs crammed with people cheek-by-jowl because it makes sense to run cities that way, not spread over the land. Because we need that land to grow food, silly gaijin. Rich volcanic soil is for growing rice not Costco with a 5-acre parking lot, we’ll make the Costco five floors tall and put it next the train station where it belongs.

    #113380
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    @ oldandtired – in response to yesterday’s comment

    I believe that you are referring to the quarterly form 941 forms that the corporation is required to file on w-2 wages. All of those and other employment related returns were filed on time (by the end of January for 4th quarter) and that employment data WAS included on my personal income taxes when I eFiled on Feb 15. However, S corporate INCOME is not taxed at the corporate level. The corporation’s income and losses “flow through” to the shareholder’s (me) personal income tax return, and are reported to the IRS (and the shareholder) on form K-1, which (along with the corporate tax return) is due March 15, but can always be delayed 6 months, by request of the corporation, to September 15. (Hence, it is not at all unusual for an individual to file personal income taxes before this document is received and then amend them later after it is received.) The data not included on my the Feb 15 eFile was the data from the K-1, which had not yet been generated. I was familiar enough with the figures that I knew the corporate profit/loss would not be large enough to affect my personal tax liability. I filed on Feb 15 because I needed the refund money.

    #113381
    John Day
    Participant

    @AFewKnowTheTruth:
    Good description of the physical problems with getting oil, and the environmental and technological costs and difficulties involved, here at the point where humans have pulled out half of the oil we estimate to exist. Venezuelan heavy (tar) oil has an eROI of about 3:1 last I looked, and I keep seeing reports that Canadian tar sands may be so bad as to argue against extracting them, just on economics, not environmental concerns.
    Fracking, in most places is akin to a Ponzi scheme,more than a sound investment. It’s a good investment if you get out before it implodes. The Permian Shale might be a little better than that.
    You gave a good explanation of the biotic theory of the origins of oil, what we were all taught, but many believe, especially in Russia, but also some in engineering, that oil has abiotic origins. I’m interested, but not in any position to argue or decide. Even abiotic oil does not matter in our lifetimes. It would be an issue on geologic time-scales.
    What matters now is having necessities of life during the global economic reset, which is not merely a financial reset, and seems likely to last the rest of our natural or abbreviated lives.

    #113382

    “Video of DeSantis Arguing with Hannity About FBI Raid is Fake, Footage from 2020”

    #113383
    John Day
    Participant

    @HerrWerner: I went to high school in Yokohama, living in Kamakura, so 2 hr commutes on train and foot combined. We owned no car. It was fine. I liked Japan and Japanese people. There is a certain style to being a foreigner (“gaijin” = person from outside), with more benefits than costs, as I experienced it.
    Those years were 1973-1976, tumultuous years of change for an American, at home or abroad.

    #113384
    willem
    Participant

    On the “Facts About mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines” on its website, the CDC has removed the claim that the mRNA and the spike protein do not last long in the body.

    Also, a couple of months ago, the CDC stopped reporting on cancers (malignant neoplasms) and a variety of heart disorders. It is off-line for “system upgrades.”

    Good article overall:

    https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/cdc-quietly-removes-a-massive-claim

    #113385
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    John Day

    ‘What matters now is having necessities of life during the global economic reset, which is not merely a financial reset, and seems likely to last the rest of our natural or abbreviated lives.’

    I totally agree.

    For me that means having a productive garden that is easy to maintain and which is not dependent on external inputs. I have no illusions about self-sufficiency. But one can reduce one’s dependence on failing systems that are going to completely cease to function in the not-too-distant future.

    We know that countries like New Zealand or Spain (or dare I say it? Sri Lanka) are one week away from the mayhem that would ensue if the oil fuel tankers stopped arriving.

    In the meantime, we know that pack sizes for things we might consider essential will continue to fall or the prices for such items will continue to increase.

    Having relocated fairly recently (30 months ago), I have been on a crash programme to get things sorted -especially the soil. I have made a lot of compost. But not enough. There is the dilemma: do I buy compost and get the soil into condition, or wait for my own composting materials to become available?

    A couple days ago I decided to get a few bags. Shock. What cost $4.50 two years ago cost $6.60 last week! An increase of $2.10 on an item previously costing $4.50 = nearly 50% devaluation of my fiat currency.

    But I can cope.

    I don’t know how people who bought on the peak of the housing market will cope, though.

    Interest.co tells us:

    ‘The average value of New Zealand homes is down $73,975 since the beginning of the year, according to the QV House Price Index (HPI).

    The average value of Auckland homes has declined by $131,005 over the same period.

    According to the HPI the average value of NZ homes peaked at $1,063,765 in January, and has fallen in every month since to hit $989,790 in July. That’s a drop of $73,975, or 7%.

    It’s the first time the average value of New Zealand homes has been below $1 million since September last year, and means all of the capital gains the occurred last summer have now been wiped out.’

    That is one of many bubbles that are bursting. And who is going to buy a house on a falling market?

    It’s so easy to ‘make money’ on a rising market. Not that anyone actually makes money, other than insurance companies and real estate agents. But on a falling market no one does. Not that money is real. But we do need it to survive in this insane system.

    I see building activity slowing, and then grinding to a halt soon. And lots of trades people losing employment, along with all the hangers on.

    The really big unknown is the longer term effects of the cell biology modifiers that have been injected into a large portion of the populace. Will their immune systems cope? Or have they been terminally sabotaged?

    And just what shenanigans will the maniacs who pretend to be leaders attempt next? Ukraine, Taiwan and all that.

    Much to follow on a daily basis!

    #113386
    John Day
    Participant

    @Red: The global Research article projecting the English people to rise up and stone and hang medical professionals when they discover the murderous legacy of the COVID vaccines has one logical flaw. I think it won’t happen largely because it is harder to convince a man that he has been fooled, than it is to fool him. The more horrific the consequences of having been a dupe, like your child died because of your decision, the more steadfastly the human mind will resist admitting having been so easily tricked.
    One must first admit one’s own failing before attacking the perpetrators in this game of psy-war.

    #113387
    John Day
    Participant

    @AfewknowTheTruth: Where do you live in NewZealand? We bike toured (Mom, Dad, 4 teens) the circumference of the South Island (cut a few corners) in January/February 2006.
    We were sort of famous in a small way at a few hostels (“You’re the American family; we heard about you”).
    i interviewed for a job there. Moving to New Zealand was a serious consideration with Bush in the White House and the global war on brown people with oil or opium underway We determined that we could not afford it. Housing was unbelievably expensive already, and pay for physicians was surprisingly low. We would be stuck as renters, without even enough money to visit family.

    #113388
    HerrWerner
    Participant

    @john-day I too liked Japan and Japanese immensely, I soaked up the experiences and I’m glad for it – I would have loved to see it in the 70s. My visits were business trips so I did not live there but on the plus side, I got a less-touristy take on ordinary Japanese life, hanging out with my coworkers and commuting/dining/beers with them. Most of the time I was in Saitama, on the north side but part of greater Tokyo like Kamakura.

    For a westerner, Japan is a study on what homogeneity and “getting along” can be for a society, adherence to shared set of social norms. The politeness and courtesy, afforded even to strangers and foreigners (most of the time), the low crime, the safety in the streets, society stability. Japan is not without its problems and drawbacks of course. And it can be personal – those social norms are strict and rather narrow, and you violate them with no small personal cost.

    If I understand correctly “gaijin” translates to “barbarian” – but it’s not a pejorative term, it’s just that Japanese are in the club together and you gaijin were not born here and are not in the club. I had a good friend that lived there and in China for a number of years, married to a Japanese guy, she felt the same way – ever an outsider, never to be let in, sometimes a veiled insult from someone who didn’t realize she spoke fluently.

    #113389
    John Day
    Participant

    Broad, vague, obviously emergent
    Update (1537ET): Politico reports that based on the search warrant, the FBI is investigating former President Trump for “removal or destruction of records, obstruction of an investigation, and violating the Espionage Act,”

    Fishing expedition warrant wording: “Any physical documents with classification markings, along with any containers/boxes (including any other contents) in which such documents are locations, as well as any other containers/boxes that are collectively stored or found together with the aforementioned documents and containers/boxes:”

    This looks hopeless for any kind of conviction, so it looks like it will be dragged out toprevent a Trump 2024 candidacy.

    #113390
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    For the first time ever I find myself disagreeing, (and in public no less), with our own @DrD, who has up until now been insightfully right about pretty near everything he writes about. In this instance, however, he wrote , “They WANT you to be violent because they know how to deal with violence. What they can’t understand is non-violence.”

    Sorry, Doc, but not so. Quite the opposite, in fact. Very very much the opposite.

    [By the way, I trust that everybody is okay with my using the ubiquitous “They” as the pronoun of choice in reference to the Cabal/bad guys/NWO/WEF Elites, etc. It saves a lot of time, effort and ink.]

    The truth of the matter is that “They” understand non-violence exquisitely well. One might even say it’s their specialty. Getting other people to opt for non-violence is “what they do,” and they are the world’s experts at it. What they do not understand in the least (and thus fear more than anything else . . . which is why they work so hard to avoid it!) is violence itself. It’s because they have no ability to do violence or anything else for themselves. That inability requires them to farm out the dirty work (ALL work, actually) to the goons, slaves, minions and chumps who still know how.

    “They” insist that everybody else (i.e. us!) must be nonviolent, because every time we get violent we kick their wimpy asses in a short heartbeat (which often turns out to be their LAST heartbeat.)

    So, the tactic that “They” became expert at, and obsessed with, consists of numerous ploys for persuading the majority of decent folk to avoid that oh-so-awful-and-abhorrent bad bad bad “violence” thing . . . . which peaceful goal “They” promise will be achieved by us eating just one more tiny piece of their UNACCEPTABLY indecent shit instead of fighting back against their suicidally crazy directives. That persuasion gets hard and harder and harder to accomplish (eventually impossible) as the shit they pull becomes more and more unacceptable. Eventually it becomes so unacceptable that we literally have no other choice. Eventually (when dying is the only alternative) we simply have to say “No.” That can easily develop into kinetic forcefulness, because “They” delusionally believe that we don’t really mean it when we say “No. That thing you command is unacceptable, and it shall NOT happen.”

    The most effective way to persuade folks not to fight back is by convincing them that they simply cannot win against such stupendous power, and the second most effective tactic is by making people think that use of violent force makes them a bad person. Well first of all it doesn’t. Effective use of force in a legitimate act of self defense does not make you a “bad” person. It can, however, make you an ALIVE person when the only alternative is becoming a DEAD one. Of course from “Their” perspective anyone who opposes “Their” genocidal rapacious criminality is by definition automatically a bad person.

    Examples? Ask :

    Why did NATO stop encroaching farther and farther into Russia’s sovereign space?
    Why did The U.S. armed forces stop encroaching upon the Vietnamese in Vietnam, Koreans in Korea, or Afghanis in Afghanistan?
    Why did England withdraw British troops from its North American Colonies?
    Why did Lee surrender at Appomattox ?

    Or, for examples closer to the present insanity, why did Kyle Rittenhouse’s armed assailants stop assailing him? Why didn’t Donald Trump’s Mar a Lago security team pick the FBI agents up by the scruffs of their scrawny necks and throw the bastards out on their butts?

    Or, and here’s a fresh one so hot off the press that it’s still steaming like a moose turd pie, why did Ron DeSantis stop pretending to be a sincere pro MAGA anti Cabal populist and bend the knee to the rabble hating anti-MAGA powers that be of the Democrat Party (et al) and its totally captured utra-corrupt DoJ?

    I will answer all of the above questions with a single word : FORCE. It was due to the the existing or imminent application of effective FORCE. Force and violence are the same thing, actually. Using the word “violence” is merely to use the pejorative word-form of the identical concept. Force is violence and violence is force. It’s just that we take it sort of personally when the “concept” is applied physically to our organic person in contrast to being applied objectively to a sticky door that needs a harder push or a rusty bolt that requires an extension bar on the wrench handle to jar it loose.

    There is no critter on the planet completely lacking the capacity for application of force. The ability is known as the capacity for self defense. A life form incapable of the “violence” known as self defense becomes food for all, and thus quickly ceases to be at all, and exits the equation.

    The hinge of that tipping point is when the life form in question (bug, mushroom or human being) says, “No”, and applies FORCE accordingly. . . . (one way or another) . . . . in self defense against an assailant.

    Those who “oppress” us only do so when they are secure in the knowledge we will LET them oppress us. But they also knowing at the same time (or at least they should know) that we will continue to let them encroach upon our personally sovereign turf only up to the point where we say “No” , and not one bit further. “No” means no, and every living creature has a line-in-the-sand or tipping-point at which they just say “No” to further encroachment . . . . . for whatever reason that makes sense to them . . . and then proceeds (if still necessary) to physically/forcefully/“violently” demonstrate that they really did meant it when they said it.

    So long as we can be persuaded to NOT say “No!”, then the cowardly weasels who “oppress” us can just go on doing what they do best : lying cheating and stealing (with the occasional homicide thrown in for kicks).

    Such cowardly weasels are quite adept at bribing, lying, and threatening us so as to move that tipping point further and further towards their advantage . . . . . but even as they do so and brag about their superiority, power and prowess they are agonizingly aware that those despicable crimes are pretty much the only useful things that they are good at. Those craven vermin know that when it comes down to the ACTUAL application of REAL forces in a PHYSICAL universe . . . . . that the oldest frailest seamstress in some blue collar slum has more ability to actually DO something with true utility as its end result, to literally apply force to material in such a manner that the desired consequence is a product or service with tangible value in the REAL world.

    It doesn’t even matter all that much in the long run who wins or loses the clown show or freak show in the side show that has become the USA and it’s pathetic imperial sycophants. The REALISTS of the world, elsewhere on the planet, finally had enough of the deadly perverted criminally insane bullshit, and said “No” to it. All that remains now is the presently ongoing demonstration that they mean it.

    And yes, it’s going to be violent.

    #113391
    HerrWerner
    Participant

    Not to belabor the point 😀 but my friend who lived in Japan heartily recommended Dave Barry’s book “Dave Barry Does Japan” which is a very satirical travelogue of his family visit there in the 80s

    She said he pretty much “nailed it” on the first try, both the good and the bad of Japan. Pretty good for a humorist 😀

    #113392
    kultsommer
    Participant

    Wasn’t the slime ball and shill for Israel, De Santis, endorsed by the Trump recently?
    What a colossal thank you.

    That Dutch farmer is also an English Major to me:)

    #113393
    John Day
    Participant

    Japanese, contraction of gaikoku-jin, from gaikoku ‘foreign country’ + jin ‘person’.

    I always referred to myself as “henna gaijin” , “unusual or funny foreigner, which got a polite-you-said-something-we-don’t-say Japanese laugh, covering mouth and glancing down. It broke what ice might be there.
    There are certain things excusable to a foreigner, a lot of them, especially if the foreigner seems to be trying. As a teenager who was assumed to be an adult (except when in school uniform my first year) there was a lot of play. Too much slack. I went too far and made trouble for myself, and did, eventually learn something from it. Boy, did I get away with a few things, though.
    I’ve long since reformed myself. That’s why I lived to surprise my family by having a 20th birthday, now so long ago…

    #113394
    John Day
    Participant

    @HerrWerner: I think I thumbed through that Dave Barry book about Japan some decades ago. It’s 29 years old now. Whatever happened to Dave Barry? I used to see his work often. Did he fall out of fashion?

    #113395
    zerosum
    Participant

    @ D Benton Smith
    You cannot use violence against an unseen enemy.
    The workers are not following orders. Sabotage is done in the dark.

    The system is crashing without the use of violence by the workers

    #113396
    John Day
    Participant

    @D Benton Smith:
    I think “they” are good at dealing with violence and non-violence when they hold most of the cards, and most of the variables are fixed, and they are isolating the “problem” enough to deal with a few people or smallish groups and can do things like “hire half to kill the other half”.
    They have pretty good control of mass media, and bureaucratic power structures, banking/finance, and even rent collection on global commerce. They have the whole global economic system fine tuned to play their game, but it has developed a bad cough that is getting worse.
    It’s sick. It’s got the “consumption”. The sickness is worse some places than others, but is pervasive, and it is ruining their game, previously nown as “the only game in town”. Real growth is long negative, since end of 2018, I think.
    I’m not saying there is no place for violence, but successful revolutions (rare) secure their supplies well before they commence hostilities. The American Revolution still had problems with that, and the homefield advantage was incomplete and spotty-in-placement.
    One should hold off on violence as a personal action, until it suddenly becomes the obvious thing, like somebody pulls and aims a gun at your family.
    That’s my take, and it doesn’t account for all contingencies. I think preparing for so many contingencies of food, water, fuel and family makes the most sense. There are some big things that will take us out , no matter how we responf, armed or unarmed.
    if we prepare some for the financial collapse, which proceeds the collapse-of-necessities for “them”, but maybe not for us, then we are doing what we can right now. Being the second-slowest-zebra, or the threat to their power that’s too small to expend resources upon today might be the right zone…
    i got in so many fights on military bases as a kid, then took some Judo and Tae-kwon-do when I got my growth, that I would respond reflexively, but the biggest part of the training in martial arts was to wait, to not respond, weird as that seems…

    #113397
    WES
    Participant

    In my first trip to Africa, I worked in Morroco. I remember having a conversation with a Morrocan about why they didn’t work harder. The reply was “Little money, little work”. By that he meant if they worked harder they would make the rich richer and themelves hungrier.

    From then on I respected their slow work pace by parking myself into 1st gear and never going any faster than that. That reduced my frustration levels considerably going forward. I spent almost 2 years working in Africa.

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