Aug 192022
 


Edward Hopper Seven A.M. 1948

 

Ukraine Planning Nuclear Provocation On Friday – Moscow (RT)
Russia Warns Of Another Chernobyl Over Ukraine’s Attacks (RT)
Playing With Fire in Ukraine (Mearsheimer)
Ukraine Conflict Could End Western Hegemony – Hungary (RT)
Xi and Putin Confirmed For November’s G20 Summit In Bali (AlJ)
Russia Deploys MiG Jets Armed With Hypersonic Missiles To Kaliningrad (ZH)
US Must Arm Ukraine Now, Before It’s Too Late (Hill)
Dozens Of Foreign Fighters Eliminated In Strike On Ukrainian Base – Russia (RT)
Russia Explains Terms For Nuclear Arms Use (RT)
Sabotage, Terroristm, Diversionary Attacks Are A Real Risk For Russia (Saker)
Sleepy Greek Port Becomes US Arms Hub (NYT)
Winter Is Coming For Europe (Bill Blain)
EU Gas Prices Seven Times Higher Than In US – CNN
FBI Unit Leading Mar-a-Lago Probe Earlier Ran Russiagate Hoax (Sperry)
Big Pharma Spent $205 Million In 2 Years Lobbying vs Lower Drug Prices (CHD)
1,200 Scientists and Professionals Say “There is No Climate Emergency” (DS)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stelter Biden
https://twitter.com/i/status/1560354199954653185

 

 

 

 

 

 

Malhotra

 

 

 

 

Not just Moscow.

Ukraine Planning Nuclear Provocation On Friday – Moscow (RT)

Ukraine plans to carry out artillery strikes on the Russia-controlled Zaporozhye nuclear power plant on Friday, and then accuse Russia of causing a disaster at the site, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday. The predicted attack will be timed to coincide with the ongoing visit to Ukraine by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the ministry claimed. The Russian ministry said it has detected movements of Ukrainian troops, indicating a looming “provocation.” Kiev has deployed units trained in responding to the use of weapons of mass destruction, pre-positioning them to report a radiation leak and demonstrate a purported action to mitigate it, Russian military spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.

The ministry said it expects a Ukrainian artillery unit to attack the plant on Friday from the city of Nikopol. “The blame for the consequences [of the strike] will be attributed to the Russian armed forces,” the statement said. In a separate statement on Thursday, Igor Kirillov, who heads Russia’s Nuclear Biological and Chemical Defense Troops, said his directorate has modeled possible scenarios for a disaster at the Zaporozhye plant. A plume of radioactive materials from the site may reach Poland, Slovakia and Germany, he warned. Russia has accused Ukraine of conducting frequent drone and artillery strikes against the nuclear power plant in the city of Energodar over the past few weeks.

Kiev has denied responsibility and said Russian forces were attacking the plant to discredit Ukraine. Ukrainian officials have also claimed that Russia is using the Zaporozhye facility as a military base. During the briefing, Konashenkov denied Ukrainian claims that Russia has deployed heavy weapons at the Zaporozhye plant and is attacking Ukrainian troops from the site. The only Russian troops at the facility are lightly armed guards providing physical security, the official said. The ministry pledged to do its best to prevent damage to the nuclear facility.

Gonzalo

Read more …

So does Erdogan.

Russia Warns Of Another Chernobyl Over Ukraine’s Attacks (RT)

Ukraine’s ongoing attacks on the Russia-controlled Zaporozhye nuclear power plant may cause a far worse disaster for Europe than the current energy crisis, a Russian Defense Ministry official has warned. Igor Kirillov, who heads Russia’s Nuclear Biological and Chemical Defense Troops, illustrated the likely worst-case scenario of a direct hit on Europe’s largest nuclear plant, during a briefing on Thursday. He showed journalists a map, with plumes of radioactive material from the site reaching Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Moldova, Belarus and even Germany. He blamed Ukraine’s Western backers for trying to downplay the danger of targeting the atomic plant, and forgetting the lessons of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and the 2011 Fukushima nuclear incident.

According to Kirillov, both disasters involved “the failure of support systems, the disruption of power supply and partial and complete shutdown of the cooling systems, which led to overheating of nuclear fuel and the destruction of the reactor”. The fallout of the Chernobyl disaster affected some 20 countries, while causing 4,000 deaths, a major spike in cancer cases, and the permanent relocation of around 100,000 people. The effects of the Fukushima nuclear incident might seem “insignificant” at first glance, but up to 500,000 people have abandoned their homes because of it, he noted. “Our experts believe that the actions of the Ukrainian armed forces may cause a similar situation at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant,” Kirillov said.

Strikes by the Kiev forces could render the plant’s cooling systems and other support infrastructure inoperable, which would lead “to overheating of the core and, as a result, the destruction of reactor units at the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, with the release of radioactive substances into the atmosphere and their spreading for hundreds of kilometers,” he warned. “Such an emergency will cause mass migration of the population and will have more catastrophic consequences than the looming energy crisis in Europe,” the military official added. Moscow has accused Kiev of carrying out 12 attacks on the nuclear facilitity, which provides energy to both Russian- and Ukrainian-controlled areas, since mid-July.

Read more …

“..given that the consequences of escalation could include a major war in Europe and possibly even nuclear annihilation, there is good reason for extra concern..”

Playing With Fire in Ukraine (Mearsheimer)

Western policymakers appear to have reached a consensus about the war in Ukraine: the conflict will settle into a prolonged stalemate, and eventually a weakened Russia will accept a peace agreement that favors the United States and its NATO allies, as well as Ukraine. Although officials recognize that both Washington and Moscow may escalate to gain an advantage or to prevent defeat, they assume that catastrophic escalation can be avoided. Few imagine that U.S. forces will become directly involved in the fighting or that Russia will dare use nuclear weapons. Washington and its allies are being much too cavalier. Although disastrous escalation may be avoided, the warring parties’ ability to manage that danger is far from certain.

The risk of it is substantially greater than the conventional wisdom holds. And given that the consequences of escalation could include a major war in Europe and possibly even nuclear annihilation, there is good reason for extra concern. To understand the dynamics of escalation in Ukraine, start with each side’s goals. Since the war began, both Moscow and Washington have raised their ambitions significantly, and both are now deeply committed to winning the war and achieving formidable political aims. As a result, each side has powerful incentives to find ways to prevail and, more important, to avoid losing. In practice, this means that the United States might join the fighting either if it is desperate to win or to prevent Ukraine from losing, while Russia might use nuclear weapons if it is desperate to win or faces imminent defeat, which would be likely if U.S. forces were drawn into the fighting.

Furthermore, given each side’s determination to achieve its goals, there is little chance of a meaningful compromise. The maximalist thinking that now prevails in both Washington and Moscow gives each side even more reason to win on the battlefield so that it can dictate the terms of the eventual peace. In effect, the absence of a possible diplomatic solution provides an added incentive for both sides to climb up the escalation ladder. What lies further up the rungs could be something truly catastrophic: a level of death and destruction exceeding that of World War II.

Putin premeditated

Read more …

“He pointed to “the Chinese, Indians, Brazilians, South Africa, the Arab world, Africa” as regions not supporting the Western line on the conflict.”

Ukraine Conflict Could End Western Hegemony – Hungary (RT)

The deadly conflict in Ukraine has the potential to “demonstratively” put an end to Western hegemony globally, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has claimed. In an interview with German online magazine Tichys Einblick, published on Thursday, Orban said he expects the European Union to emerge weaker in the global arena once the fighting in Ukraine is over. The Hungarian leader argued that the West is incapable of winning the conflict militarily, and that the sanctions it has imposed on Moscow have failed to destabilize Russia. To make matters worse, the punitive measures have spectacularly backfired on Europe, he said. Orban also noted that a “large part of the world” is clearly not getting behind the US when it comes to Ukraine.

He pointed to “the Chinese, Indians, Brazilians, South Africa, the Arab world, Africa” as regions not supporting the Western line on the conflict. “It is quite possible that it will be this war that will demonstratively put an end to Western supremacy,” Orban said. On the other hand, non-EU powers are already benefiting from the situation, he said, pointing toward Russia, which “has its own energy sources.” The premier noted that while EU energy imports from Russia have plummeted, Russia’s majority state-owned gas giant Gazprom has seen its revenues skyrocket.

Beijing, too, is now better off than before the start of the conflict, Orban claimed. He explained that China had previously been “at the mercy of the Arabs,” but is not anymore, apparently referring to the oil market. The other beneficiaries, in the Hungarian prime minister’s view, are “big American corporations.” To prove his point, Orban pointed to profits doubling for Exxon, quadrupling for Chevron and increasing six-fold for ConocoPhillips. While going along with EU sanctions against Russia, Hungary has maintained a neutral stance since the outbreak of the conflict, by not providing either side with weapons or making any harsh statements against Moscow or Kiev. Budapest has insisted that it cannot not risk the security of Hungarians, and will not be dragged into the conflict.

Read more …

Last chance for the west to talk peace and prevent their ecoomies from freezing.

Xi and Putin Confirmed For November’s G20 Summit In Bali (AlJ)

Chinese and Russian presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin have both confirmed they will attend the G20 summit on the resort island of Bali this November, according to President Joko Widodo. “Xi Jinping will come. President Putin has also told me he will come,” Widodo told Bloomberg News in an interview, confirming their attendance for the first time. The November summit will mark the first time that Putin, Xi and United States President Joe Biden will have met in person since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, triggering sanctions from Western countries as well as G20 members Japan and South Korea. China has avoided condemning the attack or joining the sanctions, which took place days after Beijing and Moscow announced a “no limits” partnership. A longtime adviser to the Indonesian president also confirmed Putin and Xi would attend the summit.

“Jokowi told me that Xi and Putin are both planning to attend in Bali,” Andi Widjajanto, who heads the National Resilience Institute, told the Reuters news agency. The Kremlin said in a statement that Putin and Widodo had discussed preparations for the G20 summit in a phone call on Thursday without confirming that the Russian leader would attend. Another official familiar with the situation told Bloomberg that Putin plans to attend the meeting in person. A trip to Bali would be significant given it would be Xi’s first time outside China since the start of the pandemic in early 2020. China has maintained a strict zero-COVID policy that has all but sealed its borders, and Xi is preparing to secure an unprecedented third term as president during the congress of the ruling Communist Party, which is expected to take place in late October or early November.

Chinese officials are also thought to be making plans for a meeting in Southeast Asia between Xi and US President Joe Biden, who will also be in Bali, according to the Wall Street Journal, amid rising tension between the two countries. As head of the G20 this year, Indonesia has faced pressure from Western countries to withdraw its invitation to Putin because of the invasion of Ukraine, which he has called a “special military operation”. Indonesia has also invited Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the Bali summit. Widodo has sought to position himself as a mediator, and at the end of June travelled first to Moscow and then to Kyiv to meet both presidents and urge an end to the war. This week, he said both countries have accepted Indonesia as a “bridge of peace”.

Read more …

Supersonic jets with hypersonic missiles.

Russia Deploys MiG Jets Armed With Hypersonic Missiles To Kaliningrad (ZH)

Russia’s defense ministry announced Thursday that it has deployed fighter planes equipped with cutting edge hypersonic missiles to its Baltic region exclave of Kaliningrad, which a statement said will provide “additional measures of strategic deterrence.” The statement detailed that three MiG-31 fighters armed with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles have landed at the Chkalovsk air base in Kaliningrad Oblast. The defense ministry emphasized that the warplanes will be put on “round-the-clock alert” – at a moment tensions with Ukraine’s powerful Western backers like the United States continue to soar. On a few alleged occasions over the last six months of war in Ukraine, Russia has been accused of launching hypersonic missiles on Ukrainian targets; however, the Pentagon has downplayed that it’s not a gamechanger.

But such an intentionally publicized move as placing hypersonic missile armed MiG fighters on “alert” at Russia’s Baltic outpost is an escalatory move aimed at NATO and Ukraine’s Western backers which have been ramping up longer-range missile and weapons shipments to Kiev. Kaliningrad borders NATO members Poland and Lithuania, both of which will see this move as a severe threat to their national security. The Associated Press is reporting that Finland is alarmed its airspace may have been violated by the MiGs as they were en route to the Kaliningrad base: A video released by the Defense Ministry showed the fighters arriving at the base but not carrying the missiles, which were apparently delivered separately.

Finland’s Defense Ministry said Thursday that two Russian MIG-31 fighter jets were suspected of having violating Finnish airspace in the Gulf of Finland off the southern town of Porvoo, west of Helsinki. The Nordic country’s Border Guard started a preliminary investigation into the incident. sThe Russian MoD and state media released video of the MiG fighters arriving in Kaliningrad. Ukraine government-linked officials have also highlighted the transfer with alarm…

Read more …

View from the dark ages:

“..a campaign of genocide aimed at erasing the Ukrainian nation from the map..”

US Must Arm Ukraine Now, Before It’s Too Late (Hill)

Nearly 20 of our fellow experts and national security professionals — whose digital signatures appear at the end of this op-ed — agree: The war in Ukraine has reached a decisive moment and that vital U.S. interests are at stake. Long before the Kremlin first invaded Ukraine in 2014, we have — from senior positions in the U.S. government and military — followed Moscow’s foreign policy and the grave dangers it presents to the United States and our allies. We have carefully watched Moscow’s major offensive since February and the response of the Biden administration and its allies and partners. We have maintained close touch with Ukrainian, U.S. and European officials. Two of us just returned from meetings with Ukraine’s defense and military leaders.

Although the Biden administration has successfully rallied U.S. allies and provided substantial military assistance, including this month, to Ukraine’s valiant armed forces, it has failed to produce a satisfactory strategic narrative which enables governments to maintain public support for the NATO engagement over the long term. By providing aid sufficient to produce a stalemate, but not enough to roll back Russian territorial gains, the Biden administration may be unintentionally seizing defeat from the jaws of victory. Out of an over-abundance of caution about provoking Russian escalation (conventional as well as nuclear), we are in effect ceding the initiative to Russian President Vladimir Putin and reducing the pressure on Moscow to halt its aggression and get serious about negotiations.

Moscow’s imperialist war against the people of Ukraine is not just a moral outrage — a campaign of genocide aimed at erasing the Ukrainian nation from the map — but a clear danger to U.S. security and prosperity. American principles and interests demand the strongest possible response, one sufficient to force the Russians as much as possible back to pre-February lines and to impose costs heavy enough to deter Russia from invading a third time. With Russian forces struggling to regroup in the east and stave off Ukrainian efforts to retake Kherson in the south, now is the time for Ukraine’s allies to pull out all the stops by providing Ukraine the means it needs to prevail. Dragging out the conflict through so-called strategic pauses will do nothing but allow Putin to regroup, recover and inflict more damage in Ukraine and beyond.

But so far, neither the administration nor European allies have succeeded in making clear why this is important to the United States and the West. It is important because Putin is pursuing a revisionist foreign policy designed to upend the rules-based security system that has ensured American and global stability and enabled prosperity since the end of World War II. Putin’s aggressive designs do not end in Ukraine. As Russian officials have repeatedly made clear, if Russia wins in Ukraine, our Baltic NATO allies are at risk, as are other allies residing in the neighborhood. Prudent policy today identifies tomorrow’s risk and seeks the right place and time to deal with that risk. For the U.S. and NATO, that time is now — and the place is Ukraine, a large country whose population understands that its choice is either defeating Putin or losing their independence and even their existence as a distinct, Western-oriented nation. With the necessary weapons and economic aid, Ukraine can defeat Russia.

Read more …

“Thousands of fighters from Poland, Canada, the US, the UK and other countries..”

Dozens Of Foreign Fighters Eliminated In Strike On Ukrainian Base – Russia (RT)

Dozens of foreign mercenaries, fighting for Kiev against Moscow, have been killed in an attack on a compound in the city of Kharkov in northeastern Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Thursday. “A temporary base of foreign mercenaries in the city of Kharkov was hit with a ground-based high-precision weapon. More than 90 militants were killed,” ministry’s spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov announced during his daily briefing. The Russian Air Force also struck Ukrainian manpower and military hardware in Kherson and Nikolaev Regions, eliminating 80 combatants and injuring 50 others, he added. Compounds, hosting foreign mercenaries in Ukraine, have already been targeted by Russia several times this month, leading to multiple casualties.


Thousands of fighters from Poland, Canada, the US, the UK and other countries responded to a call by President Vladimir Zelensky and flocked to Ukraine. In April, the Russian military estimated their numbers at nearly 7,000. However, last month it said that only 2,741 foreign fighters remained in Ukraine. Many of them were killed, while others fled to their home countries and later complained about chaos in the ranks of the Kiev forces, and a lack of arms and other equipment. Konashenkov had earlier warned that mercenaries aren’t viewed as combatants under international law and “the best thing that awaits them if they are captured alive is a trial and maximum prison terms.”

Read more …

“the use of the nuclear arsenal is possible only in response to an attack as a self-defense measure and in extreme circumstances..”

Russia Explains Terms For Nuclear Arms Use (RT)

Russia is a responsible nuclear power and will only use its nuclear arms if attacked with weapons of mass destruction or if its existence is under threat, a spokesman for the country’s foreign ministry has said. Meanwhile, some Western officials argue that nukes can play a role on the battlefield, Ivan Nechaev added. According to Russia’s official nuclear posture,“the use of the nuclear arsenal is possible only in response to an attack as a self-defense measure and in extreme circumstances,” the deputy press secretary of the ministry said during a daily briefing on Thursday. The diplomat was responding to a question about the risk of nuclear escalation in the conflict with Ukraine. Russia is not in the habit of “saber-rattling, especially with nuclear weapons,” he said.


Moscow is determined to keep the situation in Ukraine conventional and has no need to use a nuclear option in Ukraine, Nechaev asserted. He lamented that the leaders of Western powers have become far less responsible than their Cold War-era predecessors when it comes to deterrence issues. “The liberal-globalist circles think it possible to discuss lowering the benchmark for the use of nuclear weapons,” he said, citing NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg as one example. The Russian Defense Ministry has repeatedly reassured that its goals in Ukraine can be achieved without the use of nuclear arms. Deploying them would not make any military sense, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said this week.

Read more …

” The entire Russian military is trained, and well trained, to operate in a hostile nuclear, chemical or bacteriological environment.”

Sabotage, Terroristm, Diversionary Attacks Are A Real Risk For Russia (Saker)

The only thing Russians can do is to 1) prepare for a very long counter-intelligence and counter-diversionary operations lasting many years and 2) accept the reality of war for what it is and not freak out the next time the Ukronazis blow up something, be it a ship, a train, an aircraft, a bridge or any other target in the LDNR or Russia. The one good news the Russians also need to keep in mind is that most of such diversionary/terrorist attacks are still fundamentally part of PSYOPs and are mostly designed for PR effect. In terms of their actual impact on Russian military capabilities, it is close to zero, just like the Israeli strikes in Syria have made exactly *zero* difference on the ground in Syria.

To really affect military operations you need to have a large, viable and sophisticated partisan/”stay behind” force, which the Ukrainians do not have, not by a long margin. Also, to really affect military operations, such diversionary tactics need to be carefully coordinated with “regular” friendly military forces (like the Soviet partisans during WWII who closely worked with the Soviet armed forces). So yes, this is a problem, a very unpleasant one, one which will be hard to deal with, but not one which will affect Russian military operations. Even if the Ukronazis blow up both the Chernobyl AND Zaporozhiie NPs, this will not significantly affect the SMO or even the war between Russia and the united West. The entire Russian military is trained, and well trained, to operate in a hostile nuclear, chemical or bacteriological environment.

As for Russian logistics, they are extremely sophisticated and highly redundant, so even if the Ukronazis blow up one node of the resupply network, it will be quickly fixed and/or easily replaced or bypassed. That being said, I would personally recommend that we all mentally prepare for what is almost certainly about to happen in the not too distant future. If we understand what such operation can and cannot achieve we will see them in a sober, pragmatic way, and not cave in to the hysterics (by many sides, including the Russian 6th column) which will inevitable follow any such attack.

Read more …

“..Erdogan – always willing to chart a different course – has positioned Turkey as a mediator…”

Sleepy Greek Port Becomes US Arms Hub (NYT)

It is an unlikely geopolitical flashpoint: a concrete pier in a little coastal city, barely used a few years ago and still occupied only by sea gulls most of the time. But the sleepy port of Alexandroupoli in northeastern Greece has taken on a central role in increasing the US military presence in Eastern Europe, with the Pentagon transporting enormous arsenals through here in what it describes as the effort to contain Russian aggression. That flow has angered not only Russia but also neighboring Turkey, underlining how war in Ukraine is reshaping Europe’s economic and diplomatic relationships. Turkey and Greece are both NATO members, but there is long-standing animosity between them, including conflict over Cyprus and territorial disputes in the Mediterranean, and Turkey sees a deeper relationship between Greece and Washington as a potential threat.

The spike in military activity has been welcomed by the government of Greece, most of its Balkan neighbors and local residents, who hope that Americans will stimulate the regional economy and provide security amid rising regional tensions. “We’re a small country,” said Yiannis Kapelas, 53, an Alexandroupoli cafe owner. “It’s a good thing to have a big country to protect us.” Raising the strategic stakes is the impending sale of the Alexandroupoli port. Four groups of companies are competing to buy a controlling stake – two include American firms, backed by Washington, and two have ties to Russia. US military operations in Greece have expanded greatly since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, and top officials from Russia and Turkey have called that a national security threat.

“Against whom were they established?” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey said in June, referring to the US military outposts in Greece. “The answer they give is ‘against Russia.’ We don’t buy it.” While most of NATO has sided emphatically with Ukraine, Erdogan – always willing to chart a different course – has positioned Turkey as a mediator. In May, the Greek Foreign Ministry said Turkish fighter jets violated the country’s air space over Alexandroupoli, 11 miles from the Turkish border. The incident unnerved local residents concerned with Turkey’s claims to parts of Greece. The complex interplay of interests at Alexandroupoli highlights how the war is shifting the strategic focus of Europe to the Black Sea region.

“The Black Sea is back on the global agenda in an unprecedented way,” said Ilian Vassilev, a former Bulgarian ambassador to Moscow who now works as a strategic consultant. “Security in the Black Sea is central to the issue of how you contain and deal with Russia.” Greece and Russia share deep historical, economic and cultural ties centered on the common Orthodox Christian religion. Greeks are among the few Europeans who largely want to maintain economic ties to Russia, polls show. But the war in Ukraine has badly strained those bonds.

Read more …

‘For’, not ‘In’.

Winter Is Coming For Europe (Bill Blain)

Vladimir Putin could not have planned or executed his crippling energy strike on Europe better. While we promise ourselves Western Sanctions must be impacting Russia, the reality is Europe’s problems are about to get much, much worse through the run up to Winter. What possible incentives does Russia have to increase Nord Stream 1 supplies from their current 20% of capacity? They can feed Europe 1/6 of the Energy they delivered in January this year, and still make as much – selling the rest to the very many nations that have failed to condemn to assault on Ukraine. They may decide to cut supplies completely even as planned maintenance in Norway’s gas infrastructure cuts supplies. A dismal European winter is coming, and European politicians will do anything to avert it.

That will include appeasement – putting pressure on Ukraine to come to a deal with Russia that allows Putin to end the war looking like he achieved something. It would be a major long-term blow to Europe – knowing we’d had to cut a deal with the Devil, and would not immediately solve the West’s reliance on Russian power. (It could take 3 years before Europe can eliminate its reliance of Russian gas with new gas distribution infrastructure – but it can be done!) Power cuts, factory closures, business crisis already appear nailed on. It’s difficult to contemplate German workers welcoming job losses and stagflation, plus the expectation they pay the costs of Southern Europe to cope with the Energy war – but that’s effectively the ECB strategy: to balance European debt market credibility with German money to support Italy’s debt weakness.

While there may be many good reasons and indications to accept the US economy has already passed the nadir of economic woe for this year, the instability engendered by rising European energy prices, the threat of autumnal and winter power outages, combined with rising industrial strife across Europe as inflation and power trigger rising wage demands… means the whole Western Economy is going to struggle. It’s difficult to envisage the US market thriving when Europe is suffering a potentially crippling winter of stagflation and economic strife.

Read more …

“Every spare molecule we can find, we are shipping to the Eurozone..”

EU Gas Prices Seven Times Higher Than In US – CNN

European natural gas prices are trading at levels equivalent to about $70 per million British Thermal Unit (BTUs), which is roughly seven times higher than prices in the United States, CNN reported on Wednesday, citing Lipow Oil Associates. Analysts told the outlet that Europe’s natural gas crisis is contributing to higher prices in America, noting however that it’s not the main driver. US natural gas prices have surged to levels unseen since 2008, closing at $9.33 per million BTU on Tuesday. “Higher global prices are trickling down to the US. Natural gas has become a global commodity with the emergence of LNG,” said Rob Thummel, senior portfolio manager at Tortoise Capital Advisors.


The United States has stepped up its exports of LNG to Europe in an effort to mitigate the impact of declining flows from the continent’s major natural gas supplier, Russia. “Every spare molecule we can find, we are shipping to the Eurozone,” Robert Yawger, vice president of energy futures at Mizuho Securities, said. European gas prices have quadrupled since the start of the year on thinning Russian flows. This week, the cost of gas futures on the TTF hub in the Netherlands exceeded $2,600 per thousand cubic meters for the first time since March. Prices are forecast to spike 60% this winter, exceeding $4,000 per thousand cubic meters.

Read more …

Same people. It’s a big club, and Trump’s not in it.

FBI Unit Leading Mar-a-Lago Probe Earlier Ran Russiagate Hoax (Sperry)

The FBI division overseeing the investigation of former President Trump’s handling of classified material at his Mar-a-Lago residence is also a focus of Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation of the bureau’s alleged abuses of power and political bias during its years-long Russiagate probe of Trump. The FBI’s nine-hour, 30-agent raid of the former president’s Florida estate is part of a counterintelligence case run out of Washington – not Miami, as has been widely reported – according to FBI case documents and sources with knowledge of the matter. The bureau’s counterintelligence division led the 2016-2017 Russia “collusion” investigation of Trump, codenamed “Crossfire Hurricane.”

Although the former head of Crossfire Hurricane, Peter Strzok, was fired after the disclosure of his vitriolic anti-Trump tweets, several members of his team remain working in the counterintelligence unit, the sources say, even though they are under active investigation by both Durham and the bureau’s disciplinary arm, the Office of Professional Responsibility. The FBI declined to respond to questions about any role they may be taking in the Mar-a-Lago case. In addition, a key member of the Crossfire team – Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten – has continued to be involved in politically sensitive investigations, including the ongoing federal probe of potentially incriminating content found on the abandoned laptop of President Biden’s son Hunter Biden, according to recent correspondence between the Senate Judiciary Committee and FBI Director Christopher Wray.

FBI whistleblowers have alleged that Auten tried to falsely discredit derogatory evidence against Hunter Biden during the 2020 campaign by labeling it Russian “disinformation,” an assessment that caused investigative activity to cease. Auten has been allowed to work on sensitive cases even though he has been under internal investigation since 2019, when Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz referred him for disciplinary review for his role in vetting a Hillary Clinton campaign-funded dossier used by the FBI to obtain a series of wiretap warrants to spy on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Horowitz singled out Auten for cutting a number of corners in the verification process and even allowing information he knew to be incorrect slip into warrant affidavits and mislead the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court.

Read more …

In praise of the Inflation Reduction Act?!

Big Pharma Spent $205 Million In 2 Years Lobbying vs Lower Drug Prices (CHD)

As the Inflation Reduction Act heads to President Biden’s desk that includes long overdue authority for Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices with big drug companies, an analysis from Accountable.US found the pharmaceutical industry has spent at least $205 million in recent years lobbying and resisting lower drug prices for seniors and families. This includes over $57 million in paid ads PhRMA (the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a lobbying group) and its allies ran against Medicare drug negotiations over the last year. According to Liz Zelnick, Accountable.US Spokesperson:

“Big Pharma spent massive sums to maintain the broken status quo where drug companies could charge whatever they please while millions of seniors are left to choose between food and medicine. Medicare finally being allowed to harness its bulk purchasing power will save lives. “The same big drug companies that claim they can’t afford to offer fairer prices have continued to break profit records and enrich a small group of wealthy investors on the backs of patients in need for years — all while paying virtually nothing in taxes. Industry opposition to lower drug prices has always been about squeezing maximum profits out of vulnerable consumers. Luckily their efforts failed, and the American people won. “The Inflation Reduction Act is a case study in how change demanded by Americans for years didn’t come easily in the face of powerful and greedy special interests with plenty of lawmakers in their pockets — but it’s possible.”


The analysis follows Accountable.US’ recent findings that major drug company CEOs have raked in over $292.6 million in compensation while their companies saw skyrocketing profits — at a time Americans spend an average of $1,200 per person on prescription drugs and as many as 18 million Americans simply cannot afford their prescribed medications. The government watchdog also previously found Republican lawmakers on the House Energy & Commerce Committee who voted against allowing Medicare to negotiate the prices of prescription drugs with drug companies (H.R. 3) have taken nearly $1.7 million in career contributions from industry groups and the five largest pharmaceutical companies opposed to Medicare drug negotiations.

Aus vaccines
https://twitter.com/i/status/1560018943737303041

Read more …

Discuss!!

1,200 Scientists and Professionals Say “There is No Climate Emergency” (DS)

The political fiction that humans cause most or all climate change and the claim that the science behind this notion is ‘settled’, has been dealt a savage blow by the publication of a ‘World Climate Declaration (WCD)’ signed by over 1,100 scientists and professionals. There is no climate emergency, say the authors, who are drawn from across the world and led by the Norwegian physics Nobel Prize laureate Professor Ivar Giaever. Climate science is said to have degenerated into a discussion based on beliefs, not on sound self-critical science. The scale of the opposition to modern day ‘settled’ climate science is remarkable, given how difficult it is in academia to raise grants for any climate research that departs from the political orthodoxy.

Another lead author of the declaration, Professor Richard Lindzen, has called the current climate narrative “absurd”, but acknowledged that trillions of dollars and the relentless propaganda from grant-dependent academics and agenda-driven journalists currently says it is not absurd. Particular ire in the WCD is reserved for climate models. To believe in the outcome of a climate model is to believe what the model makers have put in. Climate models are now central to today’s climate discussion and the scientists see this as a problem. “We should free ourselves from the naïve belief in immature climate models,” says the WCD. “In future, climate research must give significantly more emphasis to empirical science.” Since emerging from the ‘Little Ice Age’ in around 1850, the world has warmed significantly less than predicted by the IPCC on the basis of modelled human influences.

“The gap between the real world and the modelled world tells us that we are far from understanding climate change,” the WCD notes. The Declaration is an event of enormous important, although it will be ignored by the mainstream media. But it is not the first time distinguished scientists have petitioned for more realism in climate science. In Italy, the discoverer of nuclear anti-matter Emeritus Professor Antonino Zichichi recently led 48 local science professors in stating that human responsibility for climate change is “unjustifiably exaggerated and catastrophic predictions are not realistic”. In their scientific view, “natural variation explains a substantial part of global warming observed since 1850”. Professor Zichichi has signed the WCD.

Read more …

 

 

 

 

 

B,S&T
https://twitter.com/i/status/1560120044402921473

 

 

 

 

 

Recursion
https://twitter.com/i/status/1559866660638654464

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Support the Automatic Earth in virustime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.

 

 

 

Home Forums Debt Rattle August 19 2022

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 54 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #113751

    Edward Hopper Seven A.M. 1948   • Ukraine Planning Nuclear Provocation On Friday – Moscow (RT) • Russia Warns Of Another Chernobyl Over Ukraine’s
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle August 19 2022]

    #113752
    Red
    Participant

    “The credibility of Canadian journalism is unquestionable” That is correct, it hasn’t any to question.

    #113753
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    “Science alone of all the subjects contains within itself the lesson of the danger of belief in the infallibility of the greatest teachers in the preceding generation (…) When someone says, “Science teaches such and such,” he is using the word incorrectly. Science doesn’t teach anything; experience teaches it. If they say to you, “Science has shown such and such,” you might ask, “How does science show it? How did the scientists find out? How? What? Where?” It should not be “science has shown” but “this experiment, this effect, has shown.” And you have as much right as anyone else, upon hearing about the experiments–but be patient and listen to all the evidence–to judge whether a sensible conclusion has been arrived at. (…) The experts who are leading you may be wrong. (…) I think we live in an unscientific age in which almost all the buffeting of communications and television-words, books, and so on-are unscientific. As a result, there is a considerable amount of intellectual tyranny in the name of science.” R. Feynman

    “We’ve arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.” C. Sagan

    1,200 scientists on this side, 1,200 scientists on that side… comme ci, comme ca… neither camp is especially good at perceiving or telling the truth, from my perspective, and they are as bad or worse at lying.

    You can play games like this with something aa vague as a water-laden planetary atmosphere, but as we see in other, less ambiguously perceptible areas, our ability to majorly alter global environments and ecologies is well demonstrated, as this image from TAE a few days ago shows:

    vf

    Yeah, carbon tax credits and green energy solutions are hokum. That doesn’t mean the weather isn’t currently kicking our asses. Man-made vs nature-made is a majorly false dichotomy: we are part of nature. The problem is that we no longer perceive ourselves living in a real natural world but rather, in a media-sphere of illusions and their derivative delusions.

    #113754
    Red
    Participant

    On March 7, 2021, voters in Switzerland have thrown out a law governing a proposed electronic identity system. The result is a blow for plans by parliament and the government amid fears about data protection.

    What made it even worse is that Bern intended to literally privatize the digital control. Suggestions for possible administrators were the Swiss banking and/or insurance systems.

    It is likely that the proposal of privatization via the already mistrusted financial system enhanced the negative vote.

    Final result showed 64.4% of voters – almost two-thirds – came out against the planned law of a so-called digital ID, also known as ID2020.

    In a downplaying propaganda stunt, the government, mainly the Justice Department of the Federal Council, was pushing the need for a single access point for simplifying the use of online services offered by commercial businesses, as well as contact with public institutions via e-government channels.

    If so, why then outsourcing and privatizing the highly sensitive task of people’s identity management?

    In today’s world, we know what identity means. It includes every possible point of data and information about every citizen, such as health records, criminal records, financial/banking information, shopping and travel habits, with whom and when you meet – and much, much more.

    The gfs.bern market and research institute pointedly commented after the vote: “Mistrust in private companies was dominant and helped to tip the vote.”

    In a press conference following the vote, Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter acknowledged “a certain unease” among voters. She called on parliament and critics of the failed plan to now cooperate to avoid a standstill.

    “We have no choice and must work towards a new solution, even if it takes several attempts,” she told a news conference. “It is key for Switzerland to catch up with other countries when it comes to digitalization.”

    This means in clear text – “We will push the digital ID through in one way or another, even if it counters the peoples democratically expressed will.”

    Read on:
    https://www.globalresearch.ca/open-letter-swiss-federal-council-digital-identity-absolute-total-control-via-qr-code/5790149

    #113755
    Red
    Participant

    I find the difference between what’s actually happening and what the business think tanks think is going to come out of it amusing to say the least. Look at the difference in projection in the following two articles:

    “This year’s drought conditions are taking a harder toll than last year’s, as 37% of farmers said they are plowing through and killing existing crops that won’t reach maturity because of dry conditions.”

    “Farmers in Texas are being forced to sell off their cattle herds earlier than normal due to extreme drought — as water sources dry out and grass burns up. Farmers in the Lone Star state reported the largest reduction in herd size, down 50%, followed by New Mexico and Oregon at 43% and 41% respectively.”

    “France’s fruit and vegetable crops have fallen by nearly 35% due to the extreme drought this summer, Jacques Rouchausse, president of the French national association of vegetable producers, Legumes de France, said on Tuesday.

    “We have losses on the yields. For the moment, we estimate that these losses are between 25% and 35 percent. We have to stress that if we want food sovereignty, if we want food security, we really have to find ways to continue producing on our territory,” Rouchausse said on air of Radio Franceinfo.”

    Here Is Why 37 Percent Of U.S. Farmers In The Western Half Of The Country Are Killing Their Own Crops

    Compared with forecasting increases based on what exactly? Past performance? Well no, because past performance would start to point downward at some point, can’t have that. Any cuts in harvest are always glossed over with rosy predictions of the next harvest:

    Partly linked to greater EU maize import needs, global trade of total grains is pegged at 409 million tonnes, 3 million tonnes higher than the previous month’s projection but 15 million tonnes lower than in 2021-22.
    Including drawdowns for corn, wheat, barley and sorghum, cumulative global closing stocks are projected to drop by 4%, to an eight-year low of 577 million tonnes.
    Chiefly tied to expectations for a rebound in South American output, 2022-23 world soybean production is projected to expand by 11% year-on-year to a record of 389 million tonnes.
    “Prospects for growth in uptake of soy products in feed, food and industrial sectors should support gains in total use, to a record of 379 million tonnes, while solid inventory accumulation is anticipated,” the IGC said.
    Global soybean import demand is tentatively seen rebounding by 8% year-on-year, with Southern Hemisphere exporters expected to account for an increased share of trade, the IGC noted.

    https://www.world-grain.com/articles/17347-igc-revises-total-grains-output-consumption-downward

    #113756
    anticlimactic
    Participant

    ‘Man made climate change’ was invented when activists realised global temperatures were likely to go sideways until 2030. This is due to an interaction between the solar cycle and ocean oscillations. This gives 30 years of warming and then 30 years of cooling. The cooling phase started in 1998 offsetting the global warming caused as the Earth recovers from the horrific ‘Little Ice Age’.

    [An ‘oscillation’ is when large areas of warm surface water sinks below the colder waters beneath! This can be for extended periods, for example for the Pacific Decadal Oscillation these layers swap places every ten years! Real climate science is weird!]

    There is no science supporting the idea that CO2 levels influence global temperatures. The only science shows the reverse. Current CO2 levels reflect global temperatures from 600 years ago! The data comes from ice and sediment cores.

    Increased CO2 levels are a good thing. CO2 is essential for plants and they grow far better with more CO2. These huge Dutch style greenhouses often add CO2 to improve the plant growth.

    Climate change is unusual weather that has happened before. There was a kerfuffle when part of Siberia reached 100 Fahrenheit. This also happened in Gnome Alaska in 1915. We just don’t appreciate the effects of 24 hours/day of sunlight for weeks.

    These beliefs are likened to a religion and often means that followers stop using their intelligence. We are in the ‘New Dark Age’.

    For example there is concern that rising sea levels will swamp coral islands, BUT sea levels have risen hundreds of feet in the past 10,000 years so why do these places exist? And why do they all happen to be at sea level? The answer is that they are piles of sand which rise and fall with sea levels. Some parts may sink and other areas will appear above the sea. A survey some years ago found that land area had increased by 50%. They are not going to disappear!

    To add insult : the ‘greenhouse effect’ in actual greenhouses was disproved in the 1950s. Two identical enclosures were built with one covered in glass and the other with rock crystal. The glass covered area was 0.1C warmer, so an almost non-existant ‘greenhouse effect’. Greenhouses work by creating a barrier to the outside environment.

    I feel sorry for those who have been brainwashed into thinking they must sacrifice everything to ‘fight’ climate change. They will achieve nothing apart from making a few people very rich and wasting huge amounts of fossil fuel!

    ‘Green’ policies are a bit like Jenga. They don’t seem to cause problems, but then things fall apart!

    [Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”]

    #113757
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    There is so much money to be made out of looting and selling the fossil fuels [that nature sequestered millions of years ago] that a lot of people will sell their souls to the highest bidder. And the fossil fuel corporations, along with the bankers and other corporations, have enough money (albeit it fictional) to ram any agenda they like down the throats of the scientifically illiterate, aided and abetted by governments that could not care less about the future or the welfare of their own citizens, because governments are businesses. The only things governments are interested in are:

    1. keeping the masses uninformed, deluded and compliant

    2. promoting scams that shunt fiat currencies around whilst exacerbating every aspect of every predicament we are faced with.

    3. filling their own bank accounts with pilfered money

    Meanwhile, the effects of Planetary Meltdown get worse by the year, if not worse by the month.

    Overheating due to excess atmospheric CO2 was worked out over 100 years by the Swedish chemist Arrhenius. And Keeling characterised the annual increase in CO2 by 1960, three years after commencing study of it.

    The presidential task force set up to study and advise in 1965 came up with the ‘wrong answer’: we have a problem. Their report was redacted, and then buried, on the basis of “What’s good for General Motors is good for America.” Money, and its companion business, has decided practically everything since.

    Dr James Hansen (head of the Goddard Institute) decided it was more important to focus on the CO2 in the atmosphere of the Earth than of Venus, and gave his warning to Congress in 1988. By 2010 he was describing anyone who promoted the burning of fossil fuels as a criminal.

    None of it makes any difference, of course. Governments will not abandon fossil fuels. Corporations will not abandon fossil fuels. Most people will not abandon fossil fuels. They would rather die of heat exhaustion, and condemn their progeny to an ever more hostile environment than change their lifestles.

    Whether the Earth will be rendered uninhabitable for most extant life forms (certainly all mammals) by 2030 -due to the methane clathrates being destabilised by general overheating- is yet to be seen. There is plenty of evidence they will.

    In the meantime, it may pay to ponder this:

    https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/

    #113758
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    I gave the correct information that last time you dumped a whole pile of misinformation in the comments thread.

    Please explain this

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_heat_content#/media/File:Ocean_Heat_Content_(2012).png

    continually increasing ocean heat content since 1968

    #113759
    Dr. D
    Participant

    “A certain unease” Translation for “Getting your -ss kicked.”

    Yesterday:
    “if population declines as fast as energy declines, there will be some sort of balance.”

    Yes, but no need. We’re wasting almost all the energy we have on useless tasks and items. It would be way easier to go back to 1970 or 1950 using tech and customs we already have nostalgia for. Not that matching the two isn’t a plan, but clearly there’s an overriding factor besides “Energy peaked” and “We need to reduce.” Both those are highly laudable.

    Energy USE may have declined, but we have energy resources as ever in Russia, Iran, Syria, Libya, Sudan, and probably Cuba and elsewhere, the disputed Arctic comes to mind.

    Although I’m sure from behavior that the mRNA deaths are accurate, I don’t see a ripple of it here, nor a realization of…well, anything. Makes me wonder if the doses were geographical for some reason. It’s easy to lose an extra death or two a week, especially if it’s cancer a year after. Still, pointing out that from the sidewalk, there’s “nothing to cover”. No additional deaths or illnesses visible. And if there is no dissonance, nothing will be looked into or change.

    Dark stuff, but although I believe true malice from actions and behavior, nevertheless I do wonder if the White Hats just let them (thinking: “Upcoming Ice Age”, but add your own real reason here). IF you had to reduce the ship – definitely – and IF that had to be done somehow, how better than an intelligence and resistance test? Whoever fought back, took a relatively mild harm by declining, they deserved to live. They’re the people we need. Those who just go along? They’re just not hardy stuff and maybe it’s better if they bow out now when it’s easy. And again, this is the Good Guys saying this. I think if you suppose malintent, and you suppose there are any White Hats at all, this conclusion is a given. And how white are they really, then? Maybe depends on how sure they are of their “Real Reason” for a rapid population decline.

    We’re probably seen it already: crops worldwide failing, all for different reasons, but generally related to climate. That’s true of all such periods and the reason governments fall. Apparently from my reading, that’s what they believe. Very serious and long. Enough to let a dozen cities perish in the first go. But you don’t fight wars without trading pieces. Even 5GW. We may not be the cause of that climate, it’s been going on since BC whenever the magnetosphere weakens, but that hardly matters, does it?

    If you have to write “Our bank is sound”, you’ve already lost the bank. If you have to write, “Canadian Journalism is Unquestionable” you’re a comedian. RussiaRussiaRussia, WMDs and Ties to Al Qaeda. America won’t take advantage of us on NATFA. Rob Ford. You know: jokes like that.

    Income” now has a bunch of parts, thanks to government and central bank Helping. “Income” for corporations has no doubt shot through the roof. …With a 90% drop in “profit” because the additional “Income” is all inflation. Number get bigger. Taxes get higher. So great an “Income” we stop production and shut the company down, as happens in inflations. Here, and in Argentina, Venezuela, Zimbabwe…All money, no stuff. Only cure is less money, MORE stuff. That is, “Production.” Rewarding hard work instead of punishing it.

    I like the GBN Twitter warning. “Here’s why you should trust the people whose crooked, murderous data we are examining right now…”<

    “Ukraine Planning Nuclear Provocation on Friday – Moscow (RT)”/em>

    Amazing it took them this long. They were pre-positioned for “Chemical Attack! OPCW says so!!!” every day for the first three months. What did they trade? Not to demonstrate Ukraine does deadly medical experiments on their people in return for Ukraine to not have such a Chemical weapons theater? Where they washed them down with hoses and smelled the backpack? Where every policeman touched the doorknob and the perfume bottle and were fine?

    Nukes as a bunker buster: so Europe arranges for Europe to be nuked, with Chernobyl-radiation out to the Irish Sea? I’m not sure that would stop Europe from trading with Russia, more like Europeans to stop with their own leaders.

    Of course it has been rumored Europe paid to have the first Chernobyl melt down, but that was very clever and very subtle and still can’t be proven. The major argument is that the only way that construction could melt down is to have an incredibly freakish series of events, all in specific order. And they followed it like a checklist, while being aware of it themselves. I’m indifferent. My instinct says no: they’re capable of it, but are not that forward-thinking.

    “nuclear incident might seem “insignificant” at first glance, but up to 500,000 people have abandoned their homes because of it,”

    Now you know why Germany, front line for the pre-planned war on Russia, shut off all their nuclear plants. And they needed some plausible excuse, and the Greens were sitting around looking stupid, so…

    All the Green stuff was hyper-pushed and pre-positioned for this pre-planned war, decades in the making. Find the date they started this un-economical, anti-engineering garbage, and you’ll know the date of the CFR Atlantic Council Meeting that decided we were going to invade Russia via Ukraine. It was back near 2000, but obviously especially since 2008. “We own a printing press” The Bernank said, and they installed it in Tesla’s basement to Git-R-Dun.

    “the conflict will settle into a prolonged stalemate, and eventually a weakened Russia will accept a peace agreement that favors the United States and its NATO allies,”

    I think this is Redneck’s position, and I can see why this would be so. I don’t think it will, though. Russia can take all of Ukraine with no resistance. If the US$ system and the Euro weren’t collapsing right now, that probably would be possible and happen, but Europe was a smoldering wreck even before Ukraine and the U.S. was supposed to have fallen in HRC’s Civil Race War back in 2018. We prefer not to. Since most of us are mixed “race” already, duh.

    Also — and by definition this is impossible to predict — this isn’t 1954. The systems and methods of war have altered sharply. Generals always fight the last war, even the Russian ones. However, contact with the field makes them evolve and every war ends up places nobody imagined.

    For example, what does it mean to “Nuke” someone now? We careless speakers and thinkers colloquially mean to “Bomb the heck out of and essentially flatten the whole nation” using a particular munition. But we have battlefield or pocket nukes, and they’ve probably already been used, in Syria and Ukraine, probably elsewhere. They don’t have (much) persisting radiation so there is no threshold there either. So it’s the easiest thing in the world to “Nuke”, that is, to drop a large bomb, on a location, a secured bunker, same as every other bomb. Or for NATO to do the same thing, either admitting, or denying. Once the “Nuke” is used, however, like an Iranian bunker buster, the threshold for using nukes quite generally is opened up. Especially when the public discovers the radiation isn’t that “bad” and life goes on even so, just as it does around Fukushima and Chernobyl today. It’s the Psychological fear that gives them their power. It’s a scam, propaganda, an op.

    However, once you use a pocket nuke and deny it, then a pocket nuke and admit it, then a battlefield nuke, then a regular nuke locally, where’s the resistance to using a Satan II ICBM on Savannah? There is none. So here we are, at the flat beginning of the slippery slope. Any takers? I’ve got an idea: let’s stop invading countries that are none of our business.

    “He pointed to “the Chinese, Indians, Brazilians, South Africa, the Arab world, Africa” as regions not supporting the Western line on the conflict.”

    Yes but also on that “Ukraine support” map, the center of Canada, America, and Australia. And probably 45% of the other yellow nations like France. As we know, the entire world minus a few demented leaders in airtight towers.

    “[Russia] has deployed fighter planes equipped with cutting edge hypersonic missiles to its Baltic region exclave of Kaliningrad”

    Meanwhile, PM Finland is out partying on TikTok like a college sorority girl. They are no longer a serious people and will die. This is troubling since their national mythos is that they stood up to Russia in time of challenge, and rose to the occasion, expelling an army. And this is true. But you need a nation of gritty, determined, hard-living rednecks to do that. Finland now eats caviar in bistro restaurants and clicks cellphone ads online. There aren’t enough rednecks and they are entirely opposed by all the virtue-signalers in government and capital. That is their present ethos. Their myth will cause them to cosplay Hero, and Mr. dress-up as WWII, to their widespread destruction, thinking they as simps and posers are equal to actual men.

    Sideline, since I can’t entirely understand why they wanted to demonstrate this headline in Kaliningrad unless it’s a specific communication to someone.

    America has a similar ethos, and most of our people are 10-ply compared to anyone from the 1930’s, but there are still an awful lot of hard-living, gun-shooting, fireworks-making, car-repairing whiskey drunks around, and America is a very, very large country. You’d find people of this type even in Connecticut and New Jersey, to say nothing of South Carolina. We’re pretty soft right now, but a lot harder than you’d see on TV and our ethos would bring us through after enormous hardship and grinding loss of everything, to be re-created after. Hopefully we can avoid that. Who would invade us? Who would we fight we’re not fighting already? Liz Cheney and Twitter?

    Maybe we should thank our leaders for beating us non-stop since the 90s since it’s made us tough and uncaring enough to defeat them.

    Nearly 20 of our fellow experts and national security professionals — whose digital signatures appear at the end of this op-ed — agree:” We of the national security state believe we should sell more weapons for more profit, as our employers suggest. No conflict of interest here!

    See Jimmy Dore’s mashup of “WeaponsWeaponsWeapons” by every top weapons manufacturer, presented as objective geopolitical “analysts” on CNN. Must. Spend. More. Money. Must not. Fix. Water. In Flint. Must not. Save. Whole. Colorado Valley. Of five states. Death Cult. Biophobes. #AntiLife.

    “which enables governments to maintain public support”

    It’s so darling that they think they need public support. They haven’t listened to or obeyed us for 50 years. Last time somebody did, they shot him.

    “a campaign of genocide” …where Russia specifically and painfully tries to have as few casualties as possible. Hmmm, strange genocide. There is a lot of word salad in that article, and many more lies I won’t list numerically. That’s what happens when you lie. “neither the administration nor European allies have succeeded in making clear why this [war] is important to the United States and the West.” and neither has this article, because there IS no reason. The only reason is a war of aggression to take over the world, and that’s not something even blood-flecked PMCs support.

    They’ve got nothing. They’re broke and no one cares.

    “Not freak out the next time the Ukronazis blow up something, be it a ship, a train, an aircraft, a bridge or any other target in the LDNR or Russia.”

    Russia is pretty used to this. Stuff never worked there and NATO has been attacking them for decades. Just that the previous attacks were embargoes, sanctions, reversals, and constant internet sabotage. Actually Americans are the same. We’re under attack and nothing works here for decades either. Car-eating holes in the roads, bridges shut down for years, no car parts, and of course anything run by computer both won’t work and will lose your data to the internet. Including medical and prescriptions. That’s just a Thursday.

    This might not be true in the 12 blessed cities, but I doubt it. It’s a s—tshow all the way down. Pics of Williamsburg – hottest ‘hood in NYC – look like the Bronx in the ‘80s, with spray paint and security grates dusk to dawn everywhere. If you’re not a billionaire, you’re not a person.

    “Security in the Black Sea” They need to remember what the Black Sea is called now: the “Russian Lake”. There IS no securing or attacking it. They will sink you from the Caspian, 400 miles away. Get a grip. This isn’t 1893.

    “allows Putin to end the war looking like he achieved something.”

    Huh? They still haven’t come up to speed and got the message. YOU LOST. There is no peace. You will take whatever Russia says, and you will like it. Russia is not going to talk to you, they are not going to refer to you. They are not going to sign with you, because: what’s the point? “Allow” Putin to end the war? This presupposes if the West and NATO wanted to stop the war, they could. That they are in any sort of control of things.

    They aren’t.

    Europe is a passive speed bump of history now. What they say or want has no more meaning than a pet-store parrot.

    If people like Blain can’t tell, it’s no wonder the market hasn’t cracked yet.

    “Every spare molecule we can find, we are shipping to the Eurozone..”

    There are no “spare molecules”, we pump 100% of the gas in order to use it. The problem isn’t as Blain says, a “different pipeline”, but the gas fields, which are in Russia, not Denmark or Tallahassee.

    Seven times higher? It’s not yet winter? And he says the worst is behind us? I got nothing. Does he think lies feed and warm people? With his endless latte-fueled billows of hot air? Now would be a good time to shut your pie-hole before the people remember your name as a mouthy little b—h who told them “Learn to Code.” They are not serious leaders, their nations are not serious nations. They will die.

    “ FBI Unit Leading Mar-a-Lago Probe Earlier Ran Russiagate Hoax (Sperry)”

    This goes with a theory that the records people who put on the locks are an entirely different group. That’s why the Epstein-Russiagate crew didn’t have the keys and why the “FBI” “Reversed itself”. In actuality the “FBI” like all organizations isn’t one thing. It’s a bunch of people in factions that fight with each other. The Epstein faction jumped the line and searched the house without the knowledge or involvement of the Federal records people. …Guessing here. They did it as the usual opener to find out what was in the Clinton lawsuit and as a fishing expedition for dirt on the case and the election. …And of course the government generally supports that sort of thing. Daily, yes, but especially for Trump, which is why they were sure they’d get support for it. Look at the GOP, they’re doing nothing about it, how much more the visible Democrats, and 10x more the secret Derp State really running the country who are actually at risk. That’s why Judge Brown was appointed: she halted a case that allowed Federal employees to be fired. Ever. At all. Obviously it’s illegal and unconstitutional to fire anybody! Especially if they’re Federal and Derp State. The Federal Bureaucracy tells CONGRESS what to do, what don’t you understand? THEY are the government, not us. They’ll arrest and torture you at will and whim and have daily for years now.

    “Big Pharma Spent $205 Million in 2 Years Lobbying vs Lower Drug Prices (CHD)”

    True to form, Biden and the Democrats re-raised Insulin prices to da Lambo moon!!!! Wouldn’t want American citizens to survive Type II diabetes or nothin’. Shouldn’t say that: 90% of Republicans were on board as well. Caring and helping! Helping raise life-saving drug prices every day. Highest prices in the world. Nationalize health care so it can be higher! Under Congress that every session votes to make it cost you more.

    “1,200 Scientists and Professionals Say “There Is No Climate Emergency” (DS)”

    Everything I’ve said for 20 years so I won’t rehash it. They’re not scientists, they’re frauds. Because scientists use “data” which they openly share, discuss, and repeat.

    Speaking of models, Scientists think they know the exact weight and number of every animal on the planet? Also the number of hairs on your head, and when every sparrow falls. Yeah, these are the guys that “rediscover” species believed extinct about twice a year and never left London except to club in Ibiza.

    Here’s an idea: bike across Montana. In fact, bike from the shores of Lake Michigan at Milwaukee to the Columbia gap at Dalles, across Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Eastern Oregon. I’ll even let you use a Model T. Tell me what you see when you get back, chav. I’ll be waiting.

    #113760
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Someone mentioned yesterday the wisdom of growing potatoes. I agree:

    Home grown

    bg

    #113762
    Armenio Pereira
    Participant

    Each and every doctor now speaking against the “vaccines”, after the majority of western(ized) population has been inoculated with an experimental agent, should be urged to meet their two most distinct colleagues, Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether.

    #113763
    anticlimactic
    Participant

    Electric Cars – Another Disaster In The Making

    There are simply not enough of the metals needed to make the batteries in the amount needed. Hundreds of new mines will need to be developed.

    This is just the first batteries – they only last 10-20 years. Replacing the batteries is a massive cost, assuming they are available.

    Lithium batteries are difficult to recycle. They may end up in landfill!

    The elephant in the room is the electricity supply. Many power grids are on the edge when it comes to supply and demand – they can not cope with the energy needs of tens or hundreds of millions of electric cars.

    Trillions would need to be spent globally upgrading power grids – new power stations, upgrading transmission lines, upgrading transformers – all to cope with the massive increase in demand.

    This will not be done. The same people who demand electric cars will also fight tooth and nail against new power stations! The costs would be overwhelming as well, and most of the costs would be spent on fossil fuels.

    The end result will be that EVs will end up having the mobility of a brick. Many countries will end up like Cuba trying to keep ancient fossil fuelled vehicles running.

    #113764
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Re: who has felt the excess deaths effects of covidiotic vakzination, and who hasn’t: this is as prone to chaos as everything else. Clusters here, voids there. A woman who lives in Ukraine wrote this yesterday:

    “The other day a friend asked me what I’d choose if I could, living in a country at war or living under covid lockdown. I hate to admit it but I chose war… maybe because I’m not in an actual war zone now, but still.”

    Germany liked WWII until it came to their front door. Death from covidiotic vakzination and complications therefrom is invisible until it comes to someone near you. The illusion of prosperity that is modern life is being replaced by reality, the procession led by Herr Death, as is usually how reality reintroduces itself to our deluded noggins.

    #113765
    John Day
    Participant

    Peter Koenig, at SouthFront (and Global Research) has this.

    Confronting One World Order (OWO) Globalism. The Rise and Fall of the Beast

    It is utterly important that we are aware that all the tentacles are connected. There are no coincidences; and there is no single frontline in this war. The entire humanity, no matter where we are on this globe, is the frontline. That also means, there is no escape.

    Unless, and this is crucial, we wake up. This is our escape. We, the People, see the light, and ascend to another level where the darkness of the Beast cannot reach us anymore. We need a critical mass for our People’s Power to be strong enough, to pull us, humanity, through and collectively onto a different, higher and enlightened plane.

    To do that, for those who are awake, who see the Beast, who see the tentacles and their machinations as killing machines, it is utmost important that we always see the overall objective of the Great Reset, the UN Agenda 2030, and the 4th Industrial Revolution, hence, the Big Picture.

    #113766
    John Day
    Participant

    “No Climate Emergency”, “discuss” : Depends on themeaning of “emergency”.

    Resource depltetion is the more immediate crisis, and what the “owners” are resonding to now.

    Cull us…

    #113767
    zerosum
    Participant

    TRUTH
    Kiev has denied responsibility (Its not us doing it, its the USA doing it)

    ————
    Who will speak for USA
    • Xi and Putin Confirmed For November’s G20 Summit In Bali (AlJ)
    ————-
    Let’s increase our profits. Sell our gas to EU.
    • EU Gas Prices Seven Times Higher Than In US – CNN
    ————–

    #113768
    Armenio Pereira
    Participant

    Things proceed according to plan: molecules being rearranged, bodies and minds turning into something else – chaos & order are not enemies, more like symbiotic parasites.

    #113769
    John Day
    Participant

    Well said, Boscohorowitz!
    “Man-made vs nature-made is a majorly false dichotomy: we are part of nature. The problem is that we no longer perceive ourselves living in a real natural world but rather, in a media-sphere of illusions and their derivative delusions.”

    As we discover more and more about the extreme swings of climate in geological time, what we see now is a fluctuation above the recent baseline in an unusually cool epoch.
    We are life. We must deal with it.

    #113770
    boscohorowitz
    Participant

    Culling must happen; one way or another, whole bunches of us gonna die. Nonetheless, I can sympathize with Don’t Cull Us; We’ll Cull You. It’s functionally meaningless/useless at best and the stuff of which reigns of terror are made at worst (politics being a fool’s diversion), but attitudinally, it’s my favorite sweet spot on the existential plane. Even after all these too often tiresome and worrisome years, I’d still rather eat than be eaten.

    Honk Your Scooter Horn If You Love Paul Weller!

    #113771
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Nearly 20 of our fellow experts and national security professionals — whose digital signatures appear at the end of this op-ed — agree …

    Here we go again, the experts are onto it, experts like the Imperial College predictors, experts like the people who trained the Ukrainians to lose, experts like the people advising Zelensky, experts like the WEF cabal, experts like the CDC, experts like the Pfizer scientists …. experts are full of shit, we know it, they know it, so why spend so much money churning out this nonsense? With all due respect to our host, once I read that line I decided not to read further, there is only so much crap you can allow to flow over you before some of it starts to stick. I stopped reading and took a shower.

    #113773

    What’s the difference between those ww2 inflatable “tanks” and an imported piece of war machinery that doesn’t work? It’s a clever way of covering up decades of fraud producing materiel at exorbitant prices.

    #113774
    John Day
    Participant

    “Humans In Nature” is up. No picture. Lots of redundancy redundancy https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/humans-in-nature

    China’s heat and drought are cutting hydroelectric power, solar and wind, as air conditioning draws on the grid force many factories to close for lack of power.​
    China’s Power Crisis Worsens As More Factories Suspend Operations
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/chinas-power-crisis-worsens-more-factories-suspend-operations

    ​In the EU restarting of coal powered electric plants is reducing the need for (clean-burning) natural gas from Russia, as American liquified natural gas is being injected into storage reservoirs. German coal mines, closed for years, are again being mined, and Polish mines are producing more.​ (This is a geopolitical move to keep Germany from relying on Russian gas, to the detriment of American power/influence. Recall that NATO’s purpose is to “Keep the Russians out, the Americans in and Germany down”.) So much for greenhouse-gasses…
    https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Gas-To-Oil-Switch-May-Not-Be-A-Huge-Catalyst-For-EU-Crude-Demand.html

    ​Across the World, Coal Power is Back (because dirty coal is what there is still lots of to burn, and there is no real economic alternative, when oil and gas run low.)​
    https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/across-world-coal-power-back

    ​Venezuela stops oil shipments to Europe. It was not really “selling” oil to Europe, but shipping oil for “debt relief”, not even refined petroleum products, which Venezuela needs, as its refineries are choked by sanctions on essential feeds, and lack of repair parts. The Bank of England still has “Juan Guaido’s gold”.​
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/venezuela-stops-oil-shipments-europe-alternatives-russian-energy-dry

    #113777
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    As Jim Kunstler just observed, there are a lot of serious people seriously asking themselves serious questions about what, if anything, we can (and therefore must) do to fix the uni-mess before it kills most of us and seriously damages the rest.

    I think most people know the answer to that one. It’s a simple (but truly awful) perpetual choice between only two options, and most people know what they are.

    So what’s it going to be?

    Will it be our voluntary acquiescence to the first slow, then fast, but always agonizing, crimes and degradations which are leading us at breathtaking speed into literally lawless chaos . . . . . by passively leaving authority in the hands of those who occupy every meaningful position of authority across our land, and who are openly using that authority to cause that chaotic collapse as quickly as they can?

    Or will it be the proactive . . . . meaning: real, actual, and physically immediate . . . . eviction of miscreants from their positions of authority from top to bottom in virtually all of our heretofore vital institutions before it really is too late, in a last ditch effort to pull the chestnut of our civilization out of the roaring conflagration of vices of every description that is consuming it?

    It’s a war alright (has been for quite a while) and it is not asking for our permission to further escalate into the increased violence that IS coming to everyone who is not exquisitely adroit at avoiding the entrapping situation of having to say “No” to someone with a gun.

    Helping ourselves, each other (and anyone else who cares to listen) learn how to navigate these mortally dangerous waters is what our job is. It is not going to be easy, but that’s what you’re good at.

    #113778
    zerosum
    Participant

    piece of war machinery that doesn’t work
    That is why its from inventory and from museums.

    #113779
    John Day
    Participant

    It looks like Russian links won’t load today. I’ll tweak them so they’re not quite links:

    ​ ​Vladimir Putin is about to re-emerge on the G20 scene again, this time courtesy of Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who today said that both Putin and China’s president Xi both plan to attend the G20 summit in the resort island of Bali later this year.​..
    ​..The presence of Xi and Putin at the meeting will set up a showdown with the deep state handlers who control Joe Biden’s teleprompter and other, less senile “western” leaders, all of whom are set to meet in person for the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The attack has left the G-20 divided over whether to place sanctions on Russia, because while a handful of G-20 countries are relatively self reliant, most are desperate for Russia’s commodity exports.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/putin-will-attend-g20-summit-indonesia-despite-us-demands-exclude-russian-leader

    ​Hungarian President, Viktor Orban speaks the unspeakable. He will not back down to EU pressure after this. He has chosen the other side. Attention NATO!
    ​ ​Orban said he expects the European Union to emerge weaker in the global arena once the fighting in Ukraine is over.
    ​ ​The Hungarian leader argued that the West is incapable of winning the conflict militarily, and that the sanctions it has imposed on Moscow have failed to destabilize Russia. To make matters worse, the punitive measures have spectacularly backfired on the EU, he said.
    ​ ​Orban also noted that a “large part of the world” is clearly not getting behind the US when it comes to Ukraine. He pointed to “the Chinese, Indians, Brazilians, South Africa, the Arab world, Africa” as regions not supporting the Western line on the conflict.
    ​ ​“It is quite possible that it will be this war that will demonstratively put an end to Western supremacy,”
    https://www.rt. com/news/561108-orban-ukraine-conflict-end-western-hegemony/

    Ukrainian Roulette:
    The Ukrainian military has fired multiple rockets directly at coolant systems and nuclear waste storage site inside the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in Energodar, local government administration member Vladimir Rogov told Russian media on Tuesday. He warned that a successful strike may result in a radiation release equivalent to a “dirty bomb.”
    “One of the guided missiles hit just ten meters” from the barrels with spent nuclear fuel,” Rogov told Soloviev Live. “Others hit a bit farther away, 50 to 200 meters.”
    Since the storage site is out in the open, any hit will result in the release of nuclear waste ranging from dozens to hundreds of kilograms and contamination of the area, the official explained. “In plain language, that would be like a dirty bomb,” said Rogov.
    https://www.rt. com/russia/560971-ukraine-bombs-waste-containers-zaporozhye/

    NATO’s 2030 Strategic Concept Threatens to Destabilise the World
    Atlantic Alliance will continue targeting Russia and China until at least 2030.
    https://www.globalresearch.ca/nato-2030-strategic-concept-threatens-destabilise-world/5790390

    Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) says that the greatest threat to democracy isn’t Trump voters, or parents protesting at school board meetings – “but the permanent Washington elite which has weaponized the govt and teamed up with corporate media to intimidate and silence those who dare to disagree with them.”
    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/tulsi-gabbard-washington-elite-pose-greatest-threat-democracy

    #113780
    John Day
    Participant

    That worked. Take out the space between “RT.” and “com”

    Cardiovascular Effects of the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine in Adolescents (301 patients 12-18 years of age, Pfizer vaccine)
    Cardiovascular effects were found in 29.24% of patients, ranging from tachycardia, palpitation, and myopericarditis. Myopericarditis was confirmed in one patient after vaccination. Two patients had suspected pericarditis and four patients had suspected subclinical myocarditis. Conclusion: Cardiovascular effects in adolescents after BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccination included tachycardia, palpitation, and myocarditis. The clinical presentation of myopericarditis after vaccination was usually mild, with all cases fully recovering within 14 days.
    https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202208.0151/v1

    Steve Kirsh reflects and comments on the Thai study above. Thanks Luc.
    Interestingly, this is consistent with the number of myocarditis rates at Monte Vista Christian School in Watsonville, CA which was in excess of 1% but they wouldn’t reveal any of the details beyond that publicly; gotta keep the school safe from lawsuits.
    https://stevekirsch.substack.com/p/thailand-study-of-young-adults-post

    German insurance claims hint at millions of unreported vaccine injuries
    As the Daily Skeptic notes, given that TK [Techniker Krankenkasse] insures 11 million people, that means 1 in 23, or 4.3%, had a medical treatment billed for vaccine injury. And that assumes all 11 million were vaccinated.
    The background vaccination rate in Germany is 78%, although most of the unvaccinated are children, so the rate of injury per vaccinated person is likely even higher (5.1%).
    https://merylnass.substack.com/p/horowitz-german-insurance-claims

    CONFRONTING ONE WORLD ORDER (OWO) GLOBALISM. THE RISE AND FALL OF THE BEAST​ , Peter Koenig​
    It is utterly important that we are aware that all the tentacles are connected. There are no coincidences; and there is no single frontline in this war. The entire humanity, no matter where we are on this globe, is the frontline. That also means, there is no escape.
    Unless, and this is crucial, we wake up. This is our escape. We, the People, see the light, and ascend to another level where the darkness of the Beast cannot reach us anymore. We need a critical mass for our People’s Power to be strong enough, to pull us, humanity, through and collectively onto a different, higher and enlightened plane.
    To do that, for those who are awake, who see the Beast, who see the tentacles and their machinations as killing machines, it is utmost important that we always see the overall objective of the Great Reset, the UN Agenda 2030, and the 4th Industrial Revolution, hence, the Big Picture. https://southfront.org/confronting-one-world-order-owo-globalism-the-rise-and-fall-of-the-beast/

    #113781
    John Day
    Participant

    D Benton Smith asked:
    “Or will it be the proactive . . . . meaning: real, actual, and physically immediate . . . . eviction of miscreants from their positions of authority from top to bottom in virtually all of our heretofore vital institutions before it really is too late, in a last ditch effort to pull the chestnut of our civilization out of the roaring conflagration of vices of every description that is consuming it?”

    I think they have set the institutions on the downhill road to failure at most of the higher levels, and higher is where the money comes from, so the lower levels fail without it.
    That’s what the miscreants made, and it is a cancer, and it will die and we will die.

    What we need is a parallel system. That’s what TROTW (the rest of the world) is trying to throw together on the fly. There will be a delay between the collapse of our life-support-and-exsanguination system and the lateral access to some new system for TROTW.
    TROTW may have some fuming resentments.

    #113782
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    @JohnDay

    “TROTW may have some fuming resentments”.

    Yup, reckon so. And considering how badly the West has behaved, then if we we live through it we’ll be getting off light.

    #113783
    John Day
    Participant

    The people pay the debts of “the government”.
    “We’ll be getting off light.”
    The lightest we can get offis to die of post-vaccine cancer this year, isn’t it?
    Diabolically worked out, this is…

    #113784
    phoenixvoice
    Participant

    Climate crisis
    I decided several years back that it was useless to argue over whether or not there is a climate emergency when the climate concerns are merely part of a larger problem. Namely, current human practices on the planet are at odds with the natural systems and cycles of the planet. We are pouring CO2 into the atmosphere, acidifying the oceans, and we do not know exactly what long-term effect that may have. We have unleashed a toxic plastic tsunami on the planet. We poison pure aquifers and deplete other aquifers without consideration of the short- and long-term consequences. We raze forests, pollute waterways causing algae blooms and oceanic zones nearly devoid of oxygen. We play with nuclear forces, sometimes having accidents with them, and lack the tools and technology to properly clean up our nuclear messes. We fiddle around with viral DNA and then either release or leak our Frankenstein creations. We are behaving like toddlers on this planet.

    I believe that humanity needs to “grow up” a bit, in order to avoid destroying ourselves. However, this is not going to be effectively accomplished by totalitarian means, not for the benefit of a small, wealthy coterie while the rest of humanity is enslaved. The change needs to come about through an “awakening” or “enlightenment” that is driven by new myths (or by rediscovery of appropriate old myths.). Mythologies can create organic movements that sweep through societies, changing minds and hearts without coercion, without threat of force, simply because “it is the right thing to do.”

    Examples (taken from my life, of course, because that is how I roll, lol.):

    More than 15 years ago I never would have imagined having a flock of chickens. It would have seen bizarre. Now, many people have chickens. Roosters are banned by the city in my neighborhood, yet there are 2 on neighboring streets that
    I hear. My neighbor to the north has talked about getting hens for years, I’ve had hens more than 8 years, and my neighbor to the south had a couple chickens for a few months. Nobody told us to get chickens. No one threatened us. And yet…the stories that people tell about themselves have shifted so that chickens in cities has, once again, become a normal “thing.”

    About 15 years ago I began taking reusable bags when shopping. When I asked checkers not to use store provided bags I was given funny looks, and when they forget and put my groceries in plastic anyways and I reminded them not to, the request was met with near hostility. Now…although Phoenix has no laws in place about disposable bags, it has become a part of the normal fabric of society that a sizable subset of the population uses reusable bags.

    Yesterday I called a client’s software vendor because they needed access to some log files in the client’s server. I had to wait with a reception type person until a tech was ready. I happened to mention something about vegetable gardening. The receptionist expressed how she wanted to garden, but had “a black thumb.” I pointed out that plants tend to grow more easily in
    Maryland than Phoenix. She agreed, but moaned about deer and insects eating holes in her vegetable plants when she tried. I suggested a fence to keep away the deer and inter-planting garlic and marigolds with the vegetables in her next attempt, as many insects dislike both garlic and marigolds, and it may help with the insect problem. I have been fascinated with gardening since I was a small child…however, it seems that more and more people that I encounter are beginning to desire to garden as well.

    Matthias Desmet pointed out that “mass formations” are not always detrimental to a society. They can also be pro-social and beneficial. The Covid madness, vaccine insanity, WEFfer war on food, censorship, etc., are attempts by the elite to harness the natural process of “mass formation” for nefarious purposes. The Renaissance, Enlightenment, and Reformation were mass formations. We need something similar that will restructure humanity’s relationship to be in more in harmony with the planet’s systems and that returns us to many of the ideals of the Enlightenment, when humanity enshrined rights and freedoms.

    #113786
    John Day
    Participant

    Thanks Phoenixvoice: I have “Raising Chickens For Dummies”, but I have 2 places and chickens need protecting every day and night.

    #113787
    zerosum
    Participant

    Quiet Quitting
    Gas will be shut off for 3 days for another maintenance.
    Nobody will notice because of the heat wave in EU

    #113788
    willem
    Participant

    “1,200 Scientists and Professionals Say “There is No Climate Emergency”

    If you want to read just one book on this subject, I can highly recommend “Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What it Doesn’t, and Why it Matters” by Steven E. Koonin. It is an excellent and balanced book that rests its arguments on actual science (vs. “The Science”), and also saves some space to discuss at length the adverse influences of politics, media, and “The Science” on public discourse.

    #113789
    ezlxa1949
    Participant

    It’s fine wishing for a second Enlightenment, one that removes the present set of rulers from office and replaces them with a kinder, gentler, more human lot. I wish for that too. One way to do this is via the ballot box, another by the direct overthrow and demolition of the power structures.

    But the lesson of history seems to be that some time afterwards, another set of psychopaths grows up and gradually takes over, and we’re back to where we started.

    What we need is a permanent change in the human psyche, one that will not atrophy over the years.

    #113790
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    What we are witnessing now is the natural consequence of one of our distant ancestors -maybe 200,000 years ago- working out how to tie a knot.

    Many animal species have the ability to use tools, and some manufacture tools -usually probes to extract food from crevices. But no other species has the manual dexterity necessary to tie knots.

    Knot = sharp stone firmly fixed to a long stick = access to the meat of large animals

    Knot + bone needle = fur clothing enabling humans to proliferate in cold climates

    Knot + animal skin = boat to carry spear to marine environments and kill large marine animals

    Knot + straw = weatherproof roof

    Complicated knot = knitted clothing

    Knot = means of controlling large animals = domestication.

    Complicated knot = woven basket to carry and store food

    Fire = means to cook food and extract energy from the environment more quickly

    Fire + suitable stone = metal

    Metal + stick = better weapon

    Better weapon = capacity to kill competitors more effectively and take resources….

    We are still stuck in the Iron Age.

    But it will soon be over, because ‘clever’ humans created a world in which abstracts -such as money created out of thin air- control everything else. And without energy nothing happens.

    Also, the major consequence of massive population overshoot (of the order of 7.5 billion, facilitated by fossil fuels) is to mess up the geochemical systems that made this planet suitable for life-as-we-know-it.

    If you examine the ocean heat graph (linked above) you will see that the last opportunity to turn this monster round was in the 1970s, which is when the banks, the corporations and their political lackeys -the politicians and economists- refused to countenance anything other than perpetual growth on a finite planet.

    #113791
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    “..a month-and-half worth of rain [in a couple of days].”

    More land slips, more houses wrecked, more businesses ruined, bigger insurance claims.

    https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/more-evacuations-as-heavy-rain-slams-nelson-residents-urged-to-conserve-water-warnings-still-in-place/ar-AA10QPzj?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=0c5924b456d848548e3ed578d9e34365

    Yep. That’s what you get when you elevate the atmospheric CO2 level to 190 ppm above the long-term average or 140 ppm above the pre-industrial level (current 420 ppm versus 230 ppm 800,000-year average and 280 ppm pre-industrial). Superheated oceans = greater evaporation and supercharged storm systems.

    But the mainstream media are NEVER going to mention any of that because we live in a consumption-based system….until we don’t.

    #113792
    aspnaz
    Participant

    Taiwan’s election campaigning has revealed a point of interest: the sitting government has declared that the price it paid for the Pfizer jab is a national security secret and will remain a secret for the next 30 years. KMT will use this to great effect – or should do – because as we all here know, Pfizer and Moderna are Gangsta Inc: paid such high kickbacks that the price paid to Pfizer would have to be investigated.

    Taiwan spends something like 50% of its GDP on US weapons and it seems that the long-standing kickbacks associated with those sales have leeched into the Gangsta Inc sales. I am sure that Pelosi was only here to get her cut. Taiwan showing all the signs of “Democracy” that we see in the west: the thieves have risen to the top.

    Does not make me want to support KMT and reunification: the CCP are just as corrupt but at least they do not try to pretend otherwise.

    #113793
    Afewknowthetruth
    Participant

    Record warm as well as record rain. I metre of rain on Mount Taranaki and 100 mm in New Plymouth, both new record highs in one episode.

    Expect it to get worse, cos it will.

    Actually, the government and local councils will make it worse.

    #113794
    aspnaz
    Participant

    The political fiction that humans cause most or all climate change and the claim that the science behind this notion is ‘settled’, has been dealt a savage blow by the publication of a ‘World Climate Declaration (WCD)’ signed by over 1,100 scientists and professionals.

    A “savage blow”? Give us a break. Everybody with any ability to comprehend a CO2 graph and a temperature graph already knows this, that includes most of the people working for the elites who are pushing for green energy. This is a scam, it is not about a misinformed public, it is about a deliberately conned public, it is a scam. The media know it is a scam, they don’t care, they are controlled by the elites and their whole business is to con you into believing that they care about you knowing the truth: no they don’t, their job is to make you believe their lies.

    None of the dumb fucks who believe that humans are causing global warming will ever have looked at the science and they do not care either. They are just happy to believe what they have been told to believe by their government. They are on the side of the government, they support the people who are putting them in chains and stealing their lives, these people are the enemy.

    #113795
    John Day
    Participant

    @aspnaz: I think it’s accurate, the greenhouse gas modeling, and anthropogenic global warming, but it needsto be taken in the context of lots of things changing Earth’s climate, and unpredictably, especially big volcanoes, but also solar output, which is not just absorbed by the atmosphere and planetary surface, but by the planetary core, which heat is slower to surface. There are “electrical universe” weather events, also. A big destabilization may soon arrive, or our solar system may pass into it.

    It’s like Donald Rumsfeld’s “unknown unknowns” and “known unknowns”.
    I think the scenarios being put forth by the global warming folks are not far off, if things go as they have been doing, but i think there are a lot of things that can be very destabilizing in a heating, cooling, and also “shields are down” against cosmic radiation kind of way.

    Burning carbon is our economic life support system. We see that now, right? It has already decreased, and I argue that it cannot increase again, for multiple reasons. That implies long term economic contraction. We have owners who thin the human herds when economies contract. It’s apparently their function as the apex-predators of us.
    This much is business-as-usual. Make your adaptations. This is where broad human talents are useful.

    It’s really hard to prepare for the Van Allen Belts going down and cosmic rays shooting our cells and DNA full of holes. This has probably happened before, but nobody knew what was up. Caves helped.

    I think we’re not done with history or with evolution. There are times when populations grow a lot, then something happens and some small fraction survive. It’s easy to think that was all in the past if it never happened to you.
    I think it is coming around again.
    This decade will be full of selection-events, and so may be the rest of this century, or even more.
    I’m trying to survive this decade and help family and friends have full lives afterwards, but even seeing the near future is a big guess.
    One round of culling at a time,,, and then there’s “luck”.

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 54 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.